The Youngest Thornheart

ᦔꫀ𝓽ꫀꪀ𝓽𝓲ꪮꪀ

So, our detention was in the Dark Forest, which doesn't make any sense what so ever.
They told us from the beginning that we are strictly forbidden to entering said forest and now we're serving detention there?
They can't make up their minds, honestly.

Mr. Filch was escorting us to our destination.
"A pity they let the old punishments die.
There was a time detention would find you hanging by your thumbs in the dungeons.
God, I miss the screaming."
I looked at him with disgust.

𝑊ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑡ℎ𝑒 ℎ𝑒𝑙𝑙 𝑖𝑠 𝑤𝑟𝑜𝑛𝑔 𝑤𝑖𝑡ℎ ℎ𝑖𝑚 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑤ℎ𝑦 𝑖𝑠 ℎ𝑒 𝑎𝑙𝑙𝑜𝑤𝑒𝑑 𝑡𝑜 𝑤𝑜𝑟𝑘 ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑒 𝑠𝑡𝑖𝑙𝑙?

"You'll be serving detention with Hagrid tonight. He's got a little job to do.. in the Dark Forest."
Hagrid has sat on a stump near a fire outside with a sad face.
"Good God man, you're not still on that bloody dragon, are you?"
Hagrid sniffled, "Norbert's gone. Dumbledore sent him off to Romania. To live in a colony."

I personally never fully understood how people got attached to animals so quickly.
Yes, it's a bit outlandish for me to say.
Me being a Thornheart means having a connection with my raven.
Even then, I never understood why it was the way it was.
Despite my lack of understanding, I still recognized Hagrids's sorrow. 

"Well that's good, isn't it? He'll be with his own kind." I said.
"Yeah, but what if he don't like Romania? What if the other dragons are mean to him? He's just a baby after all."

𝐵𝑙𝑒𝑠𝑠 𝑦𝑜𝑢𝑟 𝑠𝑜𝑢𝑙 𝐻𝑎𝑔𝑟𝑖𝑑.

"Oh, for god's sake man, pull yourself together," Mr. Filch said with annoyance, "You're going into the forest, after all. Got to have your wits about you."
"The forest?" Said Draco, "I thought that was a joke. We can't go in there. Students aren't allowed! And there are-" A howl from the distance interrupted him, "Werewolves.." He said in fear.
Filch spoke, "There's more than werewolves in those woods, lad. You'd be sure of that. Nighty night."
As soon as he was far enough from us I spoke, "Next thing you'll know, he'll be reading us a children's story as we bleed to death."

I then felt Draco's elbow nudge my side almost harshly.
I then hit him a couple of times with my long sleeves and felt my feathers appeared. Thankfully, my hair was covering them so no one would see.
I was already a bit pissed at him with what happened yesterday, and by that act, I was nearly going to rage out.
"Stop it!" He said in annoyance.
"You stop it!" I hit him one last time before sticking my tongue out.
"Right.. let's go" Hagrid said as he held a crossbow and his dog, Fang, followed him while leading us into the eerie dark forest.

As soon as we entered, I couldn't shake off this bad omen I felt.
The other thing that I could feel were my feathers covering small parts of my skin.
I held Draco's hand, hoping to distract myself and needed to be reminded of something familiar before more feathers appeared.
"Scared?" He said with a teasing tone.
"More or so nervous," I admitted, "I can't help but feel like something bad is going to happen. There's something that shouldn't be here."
Before Draco could say anything, Hagrid suddenly stopped and looked down.
I followed his gaze to see a strange puddle of silver liquid.
Harry spoke, "Hagrid, what is that?"
"What we're here for," Hagrid answered, "See that?" He pointed at the silver puddle, "That's unicorn blood, that is. I found one dead a few weeks ago. Now, this one's been hurt bad by something."

Another howl was heard in the distance.
Krufier crowed loudly and flocked his wings to get my attention.
I hummed questionably as I looked at him.
He turns his head.
I looked up from him and caught a glimpse of a dark figure running behind the big trees.
The feathers were now on my arms.
"You should know what to do, yeah?" I whispered to Krufier.
"Gwah."

"So, it's our job to go and find the poor beast. Ron, Hermione, you'll come with me. And Harry, Alygton, you two will go with Malfoy."
"Okay, but I get Fang." Draco said.
"Fine. Just so you know, he's a bloody coward."
Fang whimpered and I pet him in a comforting manner.

                                ꧁꧂

"Wait until my father hears about this," Draco said as he tightened his grip on my hand,
"This is servant stuff!"
"If I didn't know better, Draco, I'd say you were scared." Harry said mockingly.
I let out a small laugh.
"Scared, Potter?" He scoffed. Yet another howl was heard from the distance-

𝑂𝑘𝑎𝑦, ℎ𝑜𝑤 𝑚𝑎𝑛𝑦 𝑤𝑜𝑙𝑣𝑒𝑠 𝑙𝑖𝑣𝑒 ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑒!?
𝑇ℎ𝑎𝑡'𝑠.. 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑟𝑑 ℎ𝑜𝑤𝑙 𝑤𝑒 ℎ𝑒𝑎𝑟𝑑 𝑠𝑖𝑛𝑐𝑒 𝑤𝑒 𝑔𝑜𝑡 ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑒.

Some time has passed as Fang continued to leads us through the forest.
He eventually stopped and growled at something while Krufier was freaking out.
I spoke, "What is it you two?"
We all looked in front of us and saw the same dark figure feeding off an injured Unicorn.
I saw Harry gasped in pain as he put a hand on his head.
Draco screamed and ran along with Fang, calling for help as he dragged me with him and Krufier was now flying above us.
"Draco, we have to go back and get Harry!"
"I'm not letting you get into anymore danger, Alygton! And I'm not going back there!"
I groaned, "Krufier! Make sure Harry is safe!"
I saw him flew away from us.
We slowed down as we spotted the Hagrid, Ron, and Hermione.
"What happened?" Hagrid said concerned.
"Beast.. Unicorn.. being eaten.." Draco said as he pointed at the direction we came from.
"We have to go get Harry and make sure he's safe! Something was out there and ate the Unicorn." I said.
"Come on then!"

Hagrid led us back into the area.
After a while, we finally found him.
Krufier was on Harry's shoulder as Harry himself was talking to a centaur.
"Harry!" Hermione said in relief.
"Hello there, Firenze. See you've met our young Mr. Potter. You all right there, Harry?" Hagrid asked.
Harry nodded as a reply.
The centaur, Firenze, looked at me,
"The youngest Thornheart.." I heard him mumbled.
"Harry Potter," He looked back at Harry,
"This is where I leave you. You are safe, for now. Good luck." The centaur looked back at me and left.

                                ꧁꧂

We were finally done with detention and went back to our dormitories.
Draco and I walked together with our hands still intact.
"Draco?"
"Yes?"
"You don't have to hold my hand anymore. We're out of the forest." I say politely.
Though before he let go, I noticed the ring I got him as his Christmas present and lifted his hand near my face.
"You liked your gift I take it?" I say as I smiled and let go.
"Yeah..thanks by the way." He said shyly.
"I should be the one thanking you for gifting me a choker."
"Well, I was nothing special. Sorry it looked cheap. It was the only thing I thought you would've liked."
"You have nothing to apologize for. I still love it. It's pretty!"
Draco smiled before he realized something, "Wait, where's your bird?"
"Harry asked me if he can barrow him to send me a letter. Wait a minute, Draco, you were there, how did you miss that?"
He darted his eyes away from me,
"Distracted, I guess.."
that was when I realized..
"It's because of the monster we saw earlier, isn't it?"
He tried to deny it, but he soon knew from my smirk I could see through his crumbling 'big boy' facade and told me to shut up.
"I didn't say anything." I said with an amused tone.
"I could tell what you were saying, though!"

As we entered the dormitory and said our good nights, I noticed Krufier with a letter in his beak, waiting for me to open the window just down the hall. I did just that and entered my room to read the letter.

Tᴏ Aʟʏɢᴛᴏɴ,

Wᴇ ᴍᴀᴅᴇ sᴏᴍᴇ ᴘʀᴏɢʀᴇss ɪɴᴠᴏʟᴠɪɴɢ ᴛʜᴇ sᴛᴏɴᴇ. Aɴᴅ ᴀɴᴏᴛʜᴇʀ ɴᴇᴡs, ᴛʜᴇ ᴄʀᴇᴀᴛᴜʀᴇ ᴡᴇ sᴀᴡ ɪɴ ᴛʜᴇ ғᴏʀᴇsᴛ; ᴛʜᴀᴛ ᴡᴀs Vᴏʟᴅᴇᴍᴏʀᴛ. Hᴇ ᴡᴀs ᴡᴇᴀᴋ ᴀɴᴅ ᴅʀᴀɴᴋ ᴛʜᴇ ᴜɴɪᴄᴏʀɴ's ʙʟᴏᴏᴅ ᴛᴏ sᴛᴀʏ ᴀʟɪᴠᴇ. I ᴋɴᴏᴡ ᴡᴇ sᴜsᴘᴇᴄᴛ ᴏᴛʜᴇʀ ᴘᴇᴏᴘʟᴇ ᴡʜᴏ ᴀʀᴇ ᴛʀʏɪɴɢ ᴛᴏ ɢᴇᴛ ᴛʜᴇ sᴛᴏɴᴇ, ʙᴜᴛ ᴡᴇ ᴄᴀɴ ᴀɢʀᴇᴇ ᴛʜᴀᴛ sᴏᴍᴇᴏɴᴇ ɪs ᴛʀʏɪɴɢ ᴛᴏ ɢɪᴠᴇ ɪᴛ ᴛᴏ ʜɪᴍ.

- Fʀᴏᴍ Hᴀʀʀʏ

𝐻𝑚𝑚..
𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝑖𝑚𝑓𝑎𝑚𝑜𝑢𝑠 𝑚𝑢𝑔𝑔𝑙𝑒 𝑘𝑖𝑙𝑙𝑒𝑟 𝑖𝑠 𝑠𝑙𝑜𝑤𝑙𝑦 𝑐𝑜𝑚𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑏𝑎𝑐𝑘?