"Can you belive that git?" Ron asked, furious as he chewed on a drumstick with extra force. They were at the great Hall, enjoying their dinner after a hard won battle against the slytherin quiddich team.
While many had congratulated Harry, some were jealous of
his achievements. Especially Malfoy, who seemed to think that Griffindor should change their seeker into a wide mouthed toad the next year. But other than the joy killers, the banquet was filled with excitement.
Ron chewed for a few minutes before swallowing. "I say he's jealous."
"Don't say that Ron. For all we know, he could have had.." Hermione wasn't able to find any excuse on Richard's behalf. Though she had only talked with him a few times, she did not like to talk about other people behind their back. "Well, I'm sure that he must've had his own reasons"
"You heard him Hermione. He didn't even care to see if Harry's okay." Even Harry agreed with Ron.
However when they went back to their common room and opened the parcels named for them, they felt as if they had misjudged Richard's character. The gifts were perfect for them. Things that had clearly taken much time and consideration to choose making them feel a bit bad.
Especially Hermione who had fallen in love with the book Richard had left her. However when they looked around to thank him, Richard was nowhere to be found.
While the rest of the first years were safely within their dorms, waiting for the call of sleep, Richard was crawling within the depths of the dark forest.
Humans, like any other living being possess two innate instincts. The instinct to run at the face of danger and the instinct to fight. The most primal instincts of humans that only initiate when the body senses danger.
This was Richard's final plan. To face a situation where his life laid on the line. And so, to find something that could potentially end his life, Richard found himself exploring the dark forest.
The dark forest was exactly what the name implied. A dark forest. The trees were gnarly, twisted into knots as their leaf less branches clawed at the sky while their thick roots had taken over the ground, making the forest seem as if it was overrun with snakes. Thickets and brambles full of thorns that grabbed at Richard's clothes as he walked deeper while many trees, that had reached an exaggerated growth covered the heavens, not letting a peak of light to fall on the earth. While a thin blanket of mist hovered close to the ground.
Richard had already taken off his cloak. The darned thing kept getting caught up in thorns and branches. So he had to tie it in a tree. However that didn't seem to make things easier to him.
"Damn Dumbledor, damn Voldemort and his seven ancestors. Why can't someone find a deadly threat when they need to?" Richard couldn't help but grumble as he tripped over an exposed root for the umpteenth time. Hogwarts is destined to have its most dangerous time period, with trolls, possesed professor's, basilisks, werewolves, death eaters dressed as professor's and many others. But when Richadrd was in need of one of these dangers, they all seemed to dissappear. Except for Fluffy. But Richard did not have the heart to kill Hagrid's dog.
However, what caught his eyes the next moment made him stop complaining altogether.
A unicorn, mature and grown up to the size of a horse laid dead on the ground while silver like blood slowly flowed out of a wound in its neck.
Richard rushed over, hoping to do something as he checked the body for its temperature. It was warm, meaning that Voldemort had left only recently. That meant , Richard didn't need to worry about receiving a killing curse from the back. He felt some of the tension drain away from him. Then he quickly emptied his water canteen before placing it under the knife wound near its chest to collect some of its blood, while he worked on scraping some parts of its horn.
Unicorns were creatures of great innocence and purity, and Richard respected them like any other person. But that did not mean that, he wouldn't take what he could from the corpse of the one infront of him. He didn't kill it or instruct someone to kill it. And as for desecration of the corpse? Well it's bound to rot somewhere isn't it? So what's the difference if he took something.
He sawed off the tip of the horn before placing it in his chest pocket. Then closed the canteen before sealing it shut. Richard was about to move on to the tail hair and mane, but something managed to interrupt him.
'WOOOSH'
An arrow sailed towards him, barely missing his arm before piercing the ground. Startled, Richard's head whipped back only to feel dread. The moon light had pierced through the canopy of leaves allowing him to see the tall visiage of a centaur with a longbow in his hands .