meant to be (1)

47

"Hullo, Bane." said Hagrid. "All right?"

"Good evening, Hagrid, I hope you are well?" the centaur asked.

"Well enough. Look, l've jus' bin askin' Ronan, you seen anythin' odd in here lately? Only there's a unicorn bin injured - would yeh know anythin' about it?" Hagrid answered.

Bane walked over to stand next to Ronan. He looked skywards.

"Mars is bright tonight." he said simply.

"We've heard." said Hagrid grumpily. "Well, if either of you do see anythin', let me know, won't yeh? We'll be off, then!"

Hary and I followed Hagrid out of the clearing, staring over our shoulders at Ronan and Bane until the trees blocked their view.

"Never," said Hagrid irritably "try an' get a straight answer out of a centaur. Ruddy star-gazers. Not interested in anythin' closer'n the moon."

"Are there many of them in here?" I asked

"Oh, a fair few ... Keep themselves to themselves mostly, but they're good enough about turnin' up if ever I want a word. They're deep, mind, centaurs ... they know things ... jus' don' let on much."

"D'you think that was a centaur we heard earlier?" Harry asked, who still hadn't let go of my hand.

"Did that sound like hooves to you? Nah, if yeh ask me, that was what's bin killin' the unicorns — never heard anythin' like it before!"

We walked on through the dense, dark trees. I kept looking nervously over my shoulder. I had the nasty feeling we were being watched. I was very glad we had Hagrid and his crossbow with us. Harry and I holding hands also made me feel safer and honestly I was kind of glad that he was by my side.

We had just passed a bend in the path when
I noticed something in the air. I let go of Harry's hand and grabbed Hagrid's arm instead. Harry looked confused and sad at the same time, but I couldn't worry about that right now.

"Hagrid! Look! Red sparks, the others are in trouble!" I said, panicking.

"You two wait here!" Hagrid shouted. "Stay on the path, I'll come back for yeh!"

We heard him crashing away through the undergrowth and stood looking at each other, very scared, until we couldn't hear anything but the rustling of leaves around us.

"You don't think they've been hurt, do you?" I whispered.

"I don't care if Malfoy has, but if something's got Neville... It's our fault he's here in the first place!"

"I'm scared." I said, telling the truth. "I feel so guilty that Neville got this detention, I feel bad for losing all those points and.."

I couldn't even finish talking, before Harry pulled me into a tight and long hug. I felt safe and comfortable in his arms.

"Don't worry about it. Let's go." he said as he let me go.

The minutes dragged by. Our ears seemed to be sharper than usual. I was picking up every sigh of the wind, every cracking twig. What was going on? Where were the others? At last, a great crunching noise announced Hagrids return.

Malfoy, Neville and Fang were with him. Hagrid was fuming. Malfoy, it seemed, had sneaked up behind Neville and grabbed him for a joke. Neville had panicked and sent up the sparks.

"We'll be lucky ter catch anythin' now, with the racket you two were makin'. Right, we're changin' groups - Neville, you stay with me an' that idiot, Harry, you go with Julie an' Fang." Hagrid said, still sounding very angry.

So Harry and I set off into the heart of the Forest with Fang. We walked for nearly half an hour, deeper and deeper into the Forest, until the path became almost impossible to follow because the trees were so thick.

Even though we had a detention and we were in the Forbidden Forest in the middle of the night, I was enjoying myself. For the first time since I've been at Hogwarts, Harry and I had normal conversations.

I thought the blood seemed to be getting thicker. There were splashes on the roots of a tree, as though the poor creature had been thrashing around in pain close by. We could see a dearing ahead, through the tangled branches of an ancient oak.

"Look" Harry murmured, holding out his arm to stop me.

Something bright white was gleaming on the ground. We inched closer. It was the unicorn and it was dead.

I had never seen anything so beautiful and sad. Its long slender legs were stuck out at odd angles where it had fallen and its mane was spread pearly white on the dark leaves.

We had taken one step towards it when a slithering sound made us freeze where we stood.

A bush on the edge of the clearing quivered ...
Then, out of the shadows, a hooded figure came crawling across the ground like some stalking beast.

Harry, Fang and I stood transfixed.

The cloaked figure reached the unicorn, it lowered its head over the wound in the animals side, and began to drink its blood.