If you want to support me check out my patréon at https://www.patréon.com/athassprkr
I tend to upload drafts of early chapters on there to get people's opinions of them so you can read up to 20 chapters ahead as a bonus.
I would like to thank my beta, Akisu, for his help in this chapter.
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12 March 1992, Hogwarts
Harry knew in his heart that the unicorns were now safe, and for the first time in weeks, Harry went to sleep and didn't wake up until the next morning. He stopped thinking about his magical crests and worrying about Voldemort and Dumbledore's machinations. There was no screaming that night. Just silence.
The following morning, Harry woke up feeling much better. The burning from his stressed magical channels was fading and his body stopped aching. Madam Pomfrey had told him that she was going to dismiss him later that night, meaning that he will be sleeping in his dormitory today.
Unfortunately, he didn't have any of his books on him and was probably going to be bored out of his mind all day. Even the matron wasn't there for some reason, leaving the young Slytherin all alone in an empty room.
She did say that people were allowed to visit him now, so perhaps his friends would be coming to alleviate his boredom. With that said Harry decided to think back on the fight with the cloaked wraith, more specifically, on the unicorns themselves.
They were different from what he expected. They were different from any other magical beast, and Harry didn't need his Arcane Hearing to see it. Since the school year started, Harry was surrounded by magical creatures. He has seen a few magical creatures lessons when he was walking around the lake. He has seen mermen and mermaids from his common room, a Hippogryph herd, and a Niffler, he even saw a Kelpie once, and they were very rare to see in the lake. But they looked like beings of flesh and blood. The unicorns were simply not. It was like they were made of light. Even their blood was odd. It was silver and looked more like a potion than, well, something organic.
The only thing that even came close to it was the Cerberus in the forbidden corridor, oddly enough. There was just something otherworldly about them that he could feel. That they were in a class of their own, different from most of the other magical beasts in the world.
Other than the ministry classification, Harry hadn't seen some kind of recognized grouping of magical creatures. For some reason, people just didn't really care about them until Newt Scamander's book was published. Apparently, the Hogwarts dropout had been recognized as someone who was able to apprehend Grindelwald in America, and his popularity, especially in Europe, made people take a look at his book, and ended up getting hooked on his insights on magical creatures.
It's funny how a single book ended up changing the world a lot, and it was a book that no one would even look at if it wasn't for his involvement in Grindelwald's capture. He practically crippled the 'poacher movement' that was getting traction a few decades back. It involved hunting down and selling any magical creature they could get their hands on. Scamander's book practically spearheaded protection laws for endangered magical creatures and started an industry of magical reserves that care for and harvest the creatures without harming them.
It was why wand cores stopped being too varied. Most of the creatures that were used to make wands were hunted down for materials, making a lot of them endangered and sometimes even extinct. Now, Dragon reserves were very profitable since they have an endless demand for dragon heartstrings and dragon blood, which they collect from deceased dragons.
Alas, back to the subject at hand, research on magical creatures, other than how to use their ingredients in potions, enchantments, and rituals, wasn't really explored. Their very nature, their habits, were not explored. Instead, they simply have a threat rating. Harry shook his head in disappointment; he would find no answers on what made unicorns so different in the library. He would take a look, of course, but he wasn't really optimistic.
Any future thoughts were immediately interrupted by a yelling voice, "Harry!"
The Potter scion was immediately hugged by a blonde girl, which he recognized as his friend Daphne. Before he could say anything, Tracy ran and enveloped him in a hug, too, and so did Blaise.
Daphne while hugging him, murmured, "I'm so glad you're alright. No one would say anything other than you had gotten hurt in your detention. They wouldn't even tell us what happened."
"Don't worry, I'm fine. I just exhausted my magic a bit," Harry responded while breaking the hug.
"But why would you do that?" Blaise questioned.
"Well, it wasn't my idea to have my first detention in the forbidden forest of all things, looking for something that was hunting down unicorns, with no one else but other first years, a cowardly dog, and a gatekeeper that didn't even have a wand on him," Harry responded with a sarcastic tone.
Yeah, it was his right to be bitter about it. Who sends first-years to the fucking forbidden forest for detention. A forest that the headmaster himself told the entire school was too dangerous to wander, especially at night. And Harry did say he didn't want to get involved when something was killing unicorns of all things, but the damn half-giant just didn't care and threatened to expel him. But most of all, Harry was angry with himself. The unicorn hunt had happened in the stories as well, but there was no date, or at least, Harry didn't remember one. What were the chances that his only detention happened to be one that was a disaster?
As expected, his friends gasped in shock, "Your detention was going to the Forbidden Forest?"
"Yeah, with the golden trio of all people. Well, Hagrid and his dog were there, but they were practically useless. Apparently, the creatures in the forest know him, or something. So, he thought it was safe for us to come. He even divided us into two groups, so I ended up with Longbottom and a dog that ran the moment we were in trouble. So, yeah, we found the thing hunting down unicorns, it was drinking their blood, apparently. Really foolish, all things considered. Of course, our dear boy who lived started screaming and alerted it, and it hunted us down. I tried to duel it, but I lost pretty badly. It was able to cast magic, so maybe it was a wizard? I don't really know. I used a couple of dangerous spells in desperation, so that's maybe why I overstressed my magical channels, well according to Madam Pomfrey that is. I blacked out in the fight, but apparently, a centaur saved us or something. I'm not really sure."
Harry's friends froze in shock at the story. After what felt like a minute of silence, Tracy spoke, "You're joking, right?"
"I'm afraid not. I have to say that I had my fill with Gryffindor adventures. There's a reason I have been sorted in Slytherin and not this place."
The young Slytherins chuckled, before Daphne interjected, "Sure, but the school almost killed you in detention. You should have been writing lines, not this."
Harry simply shrugged, "There's nothing much I could do about it."
"I can tell my family if you want," Daphne responded, "they could help you or something."
The Potter scion shook his head, "No, Dumbledore has too much pull to do anything. I'm technically a ward of the ministry since I don't have any family left, and the headmaster has a lot of sway over there. All it would take is a letter and anything I do will be dismissed before I could say anything. It would be like you making a fuss and Dumbledore convincing your parents to punish you. There's very little I can do about it."
Harry chuckled at their shock and continued, "It's not as bad as it sounds. I'm pretty much left alone to do what I want. The ministry doesn't really care about orphaned half-bloods, as long as I don't make a nuisance to myself. So, yeah, while I would like to see the school pay for what happened to me, there's nothing I can do when Dumbledore could just dismiss everything in a letter, and get a lot of attention from the ministry."
The three Slytherins looked down in shame, but Harry decided to brighten up the mood, "Oh, so what did I miss this week?"
They brightened up and Tracy was the one that started speaking, "Well, Malfoy has been making a nuisance of himself for the last few days. I miss the days you scared the crap out of him whenever you so much as looked at him. Although, oddly enough, whenever he insulted you near Longbottom, he kept defending you."
Harry suppressed a groan, and answered, "I might have saved his life during the whole unicorn hunter thing. I'm guessing it left an impression or something."
"Yeah, well, whatever you did is making waves in our house. People don't like the idea of you two being friends," Blaise commented.
"Believe me, he's not my friend. He's too much of a hot head for me to spend too much time with him without snapping," Harry answered with his hands palming his face, "anything else?"
Daphne answered this time, "Well, not really. The professors have been slightly tense because of what happened under their watch, but there's nothing really obvious about it. Snape was a little more of an ass than usual, and McGonagall was very strict. Hagrid hasn't been seen for a while, but he's not fired, that's for sure. And the divination professor, I don't really remember her name, kept predicting your death all week."
"Oh, so a normal week at Hogwarts, then?" Harry commented.
They all giggled at the joke before Daphne exclaimed, "Oh, yeah, here are my notes of what we've been doing all week. There's a bundle of parchment for every class. I hope you didn't mind but I used your dictation quill during history. We always used your notes anyway, and I didn't feel like staying awake during class."
Harry waved his hand and chuckled. It was easy to forget how rigorous Daphne really was when it came to their schooling. She would have been probably dueling with Hermione for the second position in class if it wasn't for the fact that Daphne had a life outside her studies. Well, Hermione had Weasley and Longbottom, but they mostly just talked about their classes as well.
Still, Daphne was very talented in magic, and somewhat rigorous in her studies. Although Harry's help whenever she's stuck on something did have a hand in her learning quickly, he could still see how talented she truly was. She will make a splendid witch one day.
The four young Slytherins stayed in the infirmary for hours, until Harry's friends go kicked out of the infirmary by Madam Pomfrey. Still, Harry spent the rest of the day just catching up on the material he had missed. It wasn't a lot. Harry sometimes forgot how slow class was moving while he was busy with his self-study. By the time Madam Pomfrey had allowed him to leave the infirmary, he had read all the class notes for the week he missed and was almost done with most of the assignments.
Unfortunately, Harry was only allowed to leave just before curfew and thus arrived at his common room late at night. His friends were probably in their dormitories, which Harry confirmed when he got up and saw a sleeping Blaise snoring away during the night.
Shrugging, Harry simply put on his pyjamas and went to bed.
The following day, Harry woke up early and left a note for Blaise to tell him that he was going to the Great Hall for breakfast. After performing his daily Occlumency practice in the Room of Requirements, he made his way to the Great Hall to grab a bite to eat, he was immediately accosted in a corridor by Neville Longbottom of all people.
Harry suppressed sighing in exasperation at the sight of the boy who lived. The Longbottom scion called out to him, "Hey, Potter, we need to talk."
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If you want to support me check out my patréon at https://www.patréon.com/athassprkr
I tend to upload drafts of early chapters on there to get people's opinions of them so you can read up to 20 chapters ahead as a bonus.
Thank you guys for your support in these hard times.