The scent of it hit him before the sight did, the same thick and unbearably heavy scent of silver blood that he had encountered 2 times too many tonight.
Then he saw the shuffling creature next to the mangled corpse of the unicorn, slurping and drinking where a large gash resided on the Unicorn's missing limb.
The creature was almost too busy to notice them, it seemed hurried to put as much of the unicorn's blood down it's throat as it could and was being unsuccessful given there was an increasing puddle of silver all around the cloaked creature.
It only noticed them when Anos tried to step forwards, back into the clearing with its known nightmares of dark wizards than whatever was in the forest behind them.
The cloaked figure turned, its face a dark mark reflected in the puddle of silver all around its body. The edges of the figure's dark cloak were heavy and sodden in the silvery blue blood of the unicorn, they trailed heavily behind him as it stood and walked towards them with an outstretched hand.
The cloaked hand didn't give any signs of magic until it almost lit up green and Anos on instinct summoned every bit of cursed energy left to him and dropped Harriet to point an open palm on the creature's feet, his own right hand lit up with a metallic sheen from his bracelet.
'Reverse Red'
Before falling to the ground over Harriet, covering her with his own body as he shook from fear same as her.
There was a heavy sound of something falling and Harriet screamed when that something crashed into them, knocking them over and pushing them forwards several feet so they scraped against the forest floor.
There were sounds of hooves and then screams that to Anos came from everywhere at once before disappearing entirely.
He didn't know what happened and he didn't wish to put up his head to see either, so he only heard the prayers from Harriet beneath him and the roaring beating in his chest.
He only saw what happened when firm hands picked him up and pulled him into standing, holding onto him when realizing his legs couldn't stand on their own.
Anos blinked, there were hooves, and torsos, and humans? No they all were one.
"Oh." He said dumbly as he realized he was with a herd of Centaurs.
One of them was holding onto him, with outstretched hands on a male torso, holding him up when his knees wobbled and wanted to collapse beneath him.
The centaur said nothing as he patted the dust off of Anos's heads, the brown of the soil mixed into his white hair alongside silver and red blood.
Another one came forward and tried to get Harriet to stand and Anos leaned down to help her up as well as she clinged confused to him and looked around at their surroundings.
"They're centaurs." Anos said with a bow to the herd when he realized that Harriet had lost her glasses.
"That, we are. I am Firenze." The centaur holding him up inclined his head and Anos nodded in turn.
The hooded figure was nowhere to be found and when Anos looked to see what had knocked and skidded them across the forest floor he got a full view of the thing that had hunted them.
The creature had its jaw up towards the sky as if giving a silent laugh to the moon, it's jaw of course was sealed shut from where Hagrid's bolt had pierced into it and the creature's head was a white skull shaped like a horse's but missing the animalistic parts.
Its skull dripped silver, the silver blood of the unicorn even went inside into the creature's empty eye sockets that were the size of an adult human's fist each with no eyes visible underneath and the forehead of the creature was crowned with antlers, with dripping pieces of flesh clinging to its crown, dried meat from its hunt skewered on its antlers.
The creature was larger than the centaurs, larger than anything Anos had seen except the dragon from his ritual, it would take two of the centaurs to make one of the creatures and its tree like visage of brown limbs and moss covered body.
Anos couldn't look away from it, he had stared at it for a moment that felt like a lifetime, his senses taking in every unnatural splinter of the creature until warm hands pulled his head away so he was looking into clear blue eyes.
"Breathe." The centaur ordered and Anos felt cool air rush into his chest, he coughed and dry vomited to the side a moment later, his throat felt like ice pricked at it and every sense in his body was screaming at him to either run or return to looking at the creature with neither one winning.
Firenze the centaur stood beside him, soothingly patting his back every once in a while before Anos finally got himself to breath without gagging.
"Can you walk?" Firenze asked and Anos wanted to say no before remembering the centaur probably couldn't have two people ride on its back at once.
"Take her. Please." Anos pointed at Harriet and Firenze laughed.
"Of course." He said, gently asking Harriet the same thing and kneeling for her to climb on his back before pulling Anos on there too, who to his surprise found the Centaur's back spacious still with both of them on it.
"May I ask where the thing went?" Anos asked and Firenze turned his head to look back at them as he replied.
"In the dark again, we've known of its existence for a while yet have not been able to capture it." He answered and Anos nodded to himself, by the large bows that all of the other centaurs were carrying they certainly wished to do more than capture Quirrell.
"And the other thing?" Anos asked, thinking back on the creature's corpse they had left behind in the clearing.
The others in the group seemed to tense before one of them answered in a whisper.
"A vile creature made of fell deeds, It was unnatural and now it returned to the spirits where it belonged."
Anos just nodded at the answer, Firenze sounded fascinated at what he had done to make the Quirrell's aim miss and hit the creature behind him and Anos answered truthfully.
"Magic." He said and Firenze laughed freely.
"Yes, magic. Strong and potent magic to cause a dark thing to miss its mark in its entirety. You saved your friend's life with that; I doubt she would have survived the killing curse a second time." Firenze said in approval as Anos sweated at the thought that he had survived the killing curse, the rush of the run still hadn't left him entirely.
Harriet muttered a low thank you to him before asking Firenze how he knew about her.
"We were told." He answered, walking over tree roots with ease.
"By Hagrid?" Harriet asked again and Firenze laughed freely.
"Oh, no. Your friend certainly talks about you but it was they that told us of you today." Firenze pointed at the sky, and the glittering stars that had come out of hiding from the clouds.
"We were told of evil, we can read the stars and the path they pave for fate, but some of us decide if we walk on it or alongside it for guidance." Firenze spoke increasingly confusingly while Anos tried to commit the words to memory so he could think them over later.
"What kind of evil?" Anos asked, and almost cursed himself as the herd stopped and there were some angry mutters from the members that had to be silenced by Firenze.
"Death." Firenze spoke with finality, bringing an end to that conversation even as some others muttered of 'ill thoughts', 'trodden paths' and most concerningly of 'destined death'.
It didn't take them long to find the rest of their group, all huddled around Hagrid searching for them.
Firenze lowered himself so Harriet could descend and Anos dismounted in one smooth motion even as someone muttered of allowing themselves to be ridden like a common foal.
Anos turned to face Firenze before bowing in respect, with the motion replicated by the centaur and more begrudgingly by the rest of the herd.
"I owe you for my safety and that of my friend, I know not how to repay but in kindness and friendship." Anos spoke in broken Tatter tongue before beside him Alucard spoke, much more swiftly so the herd understood and relaxed themselves before Firenze answered thankfully slowly so Anos understood.
"We dwell here beneath the trees, we welcome your aid should you give it."
Anos nodded and Firenze did so in turn, talking to Hagrid and explaining how they had come across them.
Harriet stuck by Hagrid's side throughout the talk, while Hagrid thanked the centaurs profusely for their help.
"We ask not but for you to not come into the woods for a moon turn, whatever resides here the stars tell that it'll find its path outwards by then." Firenze said and then another member of the herd spoke of it easier so Hagrid understood, nodded and then the herd trotted off again, the clattering of hooves riding deep into the Forest.
"Well, bout time to get yer back eh?" Hagrid said, nudging them onwards, back on the trail to follow out of the forest.
There were some more explanations, about how Maxwell had been the first one to run from seeing the creature, how Hagrid and Fang had found them all one by one except Anos and Harriet.
Anos had explained his side of what happened too, since Harriet was silent throughout the walk back to the castle, he spoke of the creature, hiding details of his bracelet gifted from his dad that had saved his life and how the creature had died at the hands of the cloaked figure.
"We're not getting any more punishments in the forest right? I would clean the castle's chimneys with a toothbrush before I walk back in there." Simon said, still trying to find humor to lighten the situation as he patted Anos and Harriet on the back.
It wasn't particularly effective, since when the castle came back in their sight all that anyone of them wanted to do was to collapse on their beds and sleep, not that those would be unmarked by what they saw in the forest, the darkness from the forest seemed to reach just a bit further from the treeline than before as Anos looked back, before cursing himself and walking into the castle.