Percy Jackson and the Mirror of Erised [Book 1]

43) Venom

Hagrid lead the five of us to the edge of the forest. I kept my hand in Draco's the entire time. I was nervous. I knew I had every right to be. Our scent would be amplified due to being together. And most of the monsters wouldn't carry out their attacks. But there would be some.

"Look there," Hagrid said, "see that stuff shinin on the ground? Silvery stuff? That's unicorn blood." I felt my eyes widen and I gripped Draco's hand tighter. He squeezed comfortingly back, knowing about my connection with horses. You see, I've been able to talk to horses for a very long time. It's because my dad created them. He's their ruler. Which means I am too. And unicorns fit into the horse category. Which means that a creature I'm supposed to rule and protect has been injured right beneath my nose. Hagrid continued, "There's a unicorn in there bin hurt badly by summat. This is the second time in a week. I found one dead last Wednesday. We're gonna try an find the poor thing. We might have ter put it out of its misery."

Oh gods.

At that moment, I forced myself to go completely blank. If I let myself have emotions in that moment, I would cry. I could cry alone later, but I really didn't feel like it right now. So instead I stared blankly ahead, the only thing connecting me to myself being Draco's hand.

"And what if whatever hurt the unicorn finds us first?" Draco asked, glancing worriedly down at me. He rubbed his thumb on the back of my hand.

"There's nothin that lives in the forest that'll hurt yeh if yer with me or Fang," Hagrid said, completely oblivious to everything. "An keep ter the path. Right, now, we're gonna split inter two parties an follow the trail in diff'rent directions. There's blood all over the place, it must've bin staggerin around since last night at least."

Oh gods.

"I want Fang," Draco said quickly. He looked at the dog's teeth, but that wasn't what he wanted him for. He just wanted to be rid of Hagrid. He was really oblivious. Draco probably would prefer that him and I end up alone.

"All right, but I warn yeh, he's a coward," Hagrid said. "So me, Harry, an Hermione'll go one way an Draco, Neville, Percy (Hagrid saw me and Draco holding hands), an Fang'll go the other. Now, if any of us finds the unicorn, we'll send up green sparks, right? Get yer wands out an practice now — that's it — an if anyone gets in trouble, send up red sparks, an we'll come an find yeh — so be careful — let's go."

Draco, Neville, Fang, and I all turned down the right fork in the path.

The forest was dark and quiet. I held my sword in front of me while Draco held his dagger. Neville held a shaking dagger in his hands, walking just behind us.

We often had to kill snakes or bugs that came at us. They were the weaker monsters. Venomous, yes, but not enough to kill us. Hopefully.

There was a sound to our left and we all whipped our heads in that direction. We listened for a moment. There was another rustle. A little rabbit hopped out of a bush, calming us all immediately.

Then a snake struck.

I stumbled in surprise, gasping at the sudden pain in my arm. Draco shouted, chopping the snake's head off. It had already done the damage, sinking it's teeth into my flesh.

Draco sat me on a log and I glanced up. I saw a panicked Neville holding his wand up. I looked higher and saw that he had shot red sparks.

Draco mumbled something and examined the bleeding holes in my arm. He frowned, "I've never seen that snake before. I don't know if it's venomous or not. Worse is, some Greek snake venom doesn't start showing the worse symptoms until much later. We should get you to Pomfrey soon, just to be sure."