A water puddle, James conjured, sat in the middle of the headmaster's office, reflecting vague figures different from the room it was in. Slowly, the reflection gained clarity, showing the forbidden forest.
Hagrid briefed the students about their tasks, patting his dog.
"Are you sure this is a good idea, Albus?" Minerva asked, watching her wayward students follow Hagrid into the forest.
"The Hogwarts is alive with speculation, are you afraid that parents will drown you with letters, Minerva?" Sirius Black asked, wiggling his eyebrows. "An old howler or two from your old students will spruce up your office, I am sure. And, it was your idea, to not contain the rumors."
"I know my former students are clever enough to know the punishment is an act, they know Dumbledore after all. And with Malfoy in the mix, it's better for everyone if the parents find out from Hogwarts Vineyard rather than from the blondes." Minerva continued, ignoring the scoff from the Slytherin House head. "I am just afraid that we are tempting the fate a little too much, they are just first years."
"Fret not, Minerva. The students will be safe, all six of them." Dumbledore calmly assured both of the student's house heads- Slytherin and Gryffindor- along with the three parents.
"Six?" Sirius asked dubiously. But everyone ignored him, their eyes focused on the magical pond. "James, do you see the sixth child?"
The father of the Girl-Who-Lived didn't respond.
"Don't tell me our head of Aurors can't maintain a cool head in a stressful situation, you do see the child right, James?" Madam Longbottom questioned, with something bitter in her voice.
"I see him." James Potter nodded, somberly.
"Where? What child?" Sirius narrowed his eyes.
"Seriously, Black. Did playing house elf dull your senses?" Augustus Longbottom drawled.
"I am better than Kreacher, that dastardly elf. And I bet Snapy Boy also does not see the sneaky one." Sirius muttered, petulantly.
"Talk for yourself, you, uncouth git."
As the group watched on, the students got split.
Neville, Hermoine, and Weasley followed Hagrid. While Leon stalked Rose and Draco who has the dog from Scooby-Doo as their spearhead.
Everyone frowned as the group split up.
"What is that bumbling oaf doing?" Augusta muttered.
With a wave of James's wand, the pond was divided into two, each part showing a group as they made their way into the forest.
"If that is not fate, then I don't know what is," Dumbledore muttered, confusing everyone, and vanished from the room.
The confusion quickly turned into terror as they watched Rose and Draco stumble onto a masked figure who crouched over a Unicorn, drinking its blood.
...….
Malfoy followed Fang as the dog fled, leaving Rose behind.
The Gryffindor stood in front of Voldemort clutching her head.
'Any minute now.' Leon waited, a distance away from the girl, under stealth spells.
With an inhuman screech, Voldemort ran towards Rose.
'Any minute now!' Leon clutched his wand, ready to take action.
Just when he was about to cast a spell to save Rose, an arrow stopped Voldy in his tracks.
The arrow broke whatever inhuman fugue the dark wizard was in, making him flee.
"Come on, now, Ms Potter. The forest isn't safe." A Centaur appeared beside Rose. With a glance at Leon, the centaur disappeared with Rose on his back.
Leon waved his wand. As the world got filled with karmic links, he watched the aberrant, glitching, link- the Quirrelmort's karmic thread- move away from him.
'Ok! Ok!' Leon ran towards the Unicorn, ignoring the Centaur who once again saw through his stealth spell.
Uncocking the stasis potion, he splashed it on the unicorn.
'Safe!' He pumped his fist.
The potion sends any creature, even if it's on the brink of death, into a paused state, stopping any kind of injury from getting worse or from taking its life.
Leon waved his wand, and ropes unfurled from his back.
The ropes piled and swallowed the unicorn, wiggling like a group of snakes.
Nodding, the Hufflepuff looked in the direction the centaur vanished in, the forest dweller's hoofsteps were the only thing audible in the unnaturally silent forest.
'I need to study more about the Centaurs.'
Leon thought, unlike his last stealth combo which everyone and their mother were able to see through, this version would stump the centaurs and most magical beasts. But it seemed he could cross the centaurs out of the list.
And there was the incident of him being tactless in front of dozens of adult centaurs.
Something made his tongue a little loose back then when he met them on the outskirts of their supposed home. Leon knew the answer was magic, but Centaur's weren't known for their mind magic.
When the Hufflepuff looked back at that incident later, he understood why he behaved that way.
He had felt warm and carefree like he was back with his friends drinking around a campfire.
Whatever magic that was, it was not all invasive, dissimilar to the wizards' mind magic.
It seemed his magical world was more extensive than he thought.
The ropes beside him stopped wiggling and presented him with a unicorn in a Zorb ball.
And unlike his previous world zorb balls, this one has magical flexibility, so he could ignore the treacherous terrain and easily bring the unicorn to the hospital wing.
'Let's go!' He patted the ball made of ropes and looked at the Unicorn.
Glassy eyes devoid of life met him.
'Wait!' He hurriedly checked its breath.
It wasn't breathing.
'It's supposed to breathe! The stasis potion does not stop natural functions.'
The Unicorn was dead, he stared at the unicorn, stunned.
A cold breeze disturbed the silent glade, snapping Leon out of his stupor.
The arrow, fired by the Centaur, glinted in the moonlight, catching his eye.
'Right! Right! I have to get out of here!' Suppressing his thoughts, Leon grabbed onto the broom he brought and flew- away from Voldemort, but mostly away from the glassy eyes of the Unicorn.
As he exited the Forbidden Forest, he slowed down and just glided in the air, letting his emotions flow through him and analyzing the day's events, the 'What went wrong and how?'
Death wasn't a new concept to him; Growing up on a farm meant he was surrounded by life and death in the first fifteen years of his life.
The death part wasn't the thing that made him pause. He was shaken because he thought he would save the Unicorn, just like many MCS of various fanfictions he read long back.
He was so sure that he was going to save the magical horse, that he didn't bother to try remembering the canon or using common sense.
Dark spells were generally life-ending, there was no way Voldemort was going to paralyze the Unicorn and drink its blood.
Unicorns, the gutsy creatures they are, can be tough to catch even with injuries.
'I was fooled by the wording used by Hagrid in the canon.' He vaguely remembered Hagrid saying something about the Unicorn being hurt and finding it.
And it was further cemented by Hagrid's words as Rose and co followed him into the forest.
'There's summat in this forest that's been hurtin' the unicorns. It's not easy ter catch, and it's hurt bad. Bin in the forest fer a while now. Poor thing's been savaged, and it's our job ter find it and put it out of its misery.'
In hindsight, finding it and putting it out of its misery was just an excuse Hagrid invented to get the students invested, first years can't catch a unicorn even if it is badly injured not to mention putting it out of its misery.
Leon was blinded by the magical world. On some level, he knew it wasn't a fairy tale, and he couldn't save everyone. But that thought didn't register until he saw the eyes of the dead Unicorn.
Leon laughed for a while. The deep irony of the incident and the stark realization it brought were cruelly funny, especially with the future events of Basilisk looming over.
'I failed in the most important and first stage of making a plan- intel gathering…. I will do better; I will be better.'
With so many changes to the world, students dying was a very real possibility.
'There will be no deaths.' He vowed under the moonlight, truly understanding the dangers the Wizarding world has for first the time.
The World wasn't a book for children; nor was he a protagonist with a plot armor that safes everything at the end of the day.
......…
"The kid has a heart and fine skills, who is he?" Augusta Longbottom asked the only other person in the room- Minerva.
James, Sirius, and Snape vanished the second they saw the cloaked dark wizard.
"A great Hufflepuff," Minerva muttered.
"I didn't need you to tell me what color his clothes are, Minerva." The Longbottom matriarch's head rolled her eyes.
"Fine! I will ask my grandson who is the most skilled student in Hufflepuff."
The Longbottom Matriarch vanished, without any pop just like gents did before her.
'Now, should I punish him and officially confirm that professors were watching?' Minerva sighed.
'I'll leave it to Albus and Pomona, his headmaster and house head.'
...…..
"Did you understand why nobody likes snitches, Malfoy? Or do you need another jaunt into the forbidden forest?" Rose taunted the boy. Her whole world was upended today, she craved some normalcy.
The git is stupid and hateful as purists come, but he pales in front of Voldemort running around Hogwarts and she doesn't want to think about the dark lord.
The Centaur all but said that the dark wizard she faced was the dark lord.
And she wasn't stupid, the ugly scar she always covered up throbbed like crazy when she saw the cloaked wizard. Everyone knew where she got the scar from.
'Maybe I should inform, Dad and Dumbledore first,' she thought ignoring the stuttering blonde.
"Are you fine, Rose?" She heard her dad's voice.
The Potter turned around in surprise to see him standing with Uncle Sirius and Dumbledore.
"Dad! What are you doing here?"
Snape herded away Malfoy as Rose grasped the meaning of her dad being here.
"You were watching us," She accused the adults.
"Yes, Dumbledore had the parents watch. That is the least he could do when he sends kids into the Forbidden Forest." James hugged her as Sirius patted her head.
"Argh! You won't believe what happened!" The Potter explained the properties of Unicorns' blood, how the Centaur hinted at dark things and how her scar burned.
"I think the cloaked wizard is Voldemort." She whispered, digging her head into her father's chest.
"Don't worry, sweetheart. You are safe now. And it's most likely some death eater from the inner circle and even if Voldemort comes, he won't be able to do anything with Dumbledore present."
"But my scar heated up, why would it do that for someone else." She muttered, not convinced.
"The inner circle was involved in some darkest of magics known, your mother's magic is just reacting to something vile. Voldemort is dead, he won't be coming back." He hugged her tighter.
"And even if he comes back, I will just drown him with all the wealth and artifacts present in the Black vaults. Then you will have to call me White Lord Sirius Black, vanquisher of dark lords." He grinned and struck a pose. "I bet my mother would just love that."
Rose smiled at her goofy uncle.
"Maybe we can sic Kreacher on him."
"Haha, true. Now, come on, Rose, why don't you show me the way to Gryffindor Tower? I forgot the way, is the fat lady still guarding the entrance?" Sirius led her away and started talking about his school days.
'But I felt his presence,' she thought but dutifully followed her godfather.
"Is it him, Dumbledore?" James asked, the confidence in his eyes evaporating at the thought of the dark lord coming back.
"It can't be him, can it?"
"James, it is time we believe that the dark lord isn't dead. And biding his time to rise again, but don't worry no one can escape death without paying a heavy price, not even the vaunted dark lord," Dumbledore assured him, calmly.
"Did you know? Did you know, he didn't die?"
"I had my doubts." Dumbledore nodded.
"And that he was running around Hogwarts?" James pressed.
"That I didn't know, I thought he was pulling strings from afar and I was waiting for the right time."
"The cloaked wizard was very quick; I couldn't even find the direction he vanished into. Merlin, it is him, isn't it? It is really, him."
"What are you going to do now?" James doesn't want to lose his daughter after the love of his life, he can't.. he just can't.
"There aren't many ways to defy death, James. And every method comes with a price. The plan won't change, I will catch him at the right moment, the moment with the highest chance of defeating him forever."
The two men started walking towards the Gryffindor tower, silently.
'Oh! James, you don't know Tom as I do. He won't be here if he thinks there is even a 1% chance that he can be captured, he fears me and values his life too much for that.' Dumbledore thought somberly as he finalized the list of acquittances and friends who were well-versed in dark arts.
....
"And that was how your dad ended up in a closet with firebees. He cried for days about the stings." Sirius sniggered at her father before silence enveloped them.
The goddaughter and godfather stopped at the entrance, letting the silence hang for a moment.
"Sirius Black, here I was wondering where the nasty mutt smell was coming from."
"Love you too, fat lady," Sirius gave the portrait a thumbs up and kneeled before Rose.
"Don't worry, Rose. Dumbledore is the strongest wizard there is and even if he is back, Dumbledore will take care of him. And it's not like both of your fathers are weak, so enjoy Hogwarts don't worry about Death eaters."
Rose nodded at him and with one last goodbye, she entered the Gryffindor dorms.
Ron and Hermoine were waiting for her, with Ron dozing off on the common room couch.
"You guys won't believe what happened."
......….
A/N: Thoughts? Reviews?