The Christmas holidays came to an end and school routine began again. Teachers slowly began preparing juniors for the first exams in their lives. Almost insignificant in their future - but exams!
However, Harry did not find it particularly stressful: studying became a real game with his ability to separate streams of mind and speed up thinking. Moreover, there was time for entertainment, and for practicing magic, and for physical training.
As for the latter, Ruffnut insisted on equipping one of the underground halls in the Hogwarts catacombs into something like a fitness club, as Harry imagined them. Of course, the primitive transfiguration that was still available to Potter could not help in equipping a full-fledged gym, but Harry managed to create a couple of pieces of equipment. At least, it was enough for general training of key muscles, and more was not needed for now. As both Sweet Tooth and Ruffnut said, becoming a pumped-up mountain of meat by the age of fifteen was not in their plans. But increasing flexibility, strength and endurance for the future Champion of Chaos were precisely the priority.
What this Champion was, Harry had already been enlightened. The chosen one of one of the four Gods - or all of them at once - who had managed to win their favor with his outstanding deeds and numerous sacrifices in honor of the Lords of Chaos. And the Gifts, numerous and magnificent! And considering the minor mutations, abilities and sensations that the boy had already experienced - he was very interested in getting even more.
It wasn't as if Harry took this information very seriously: after all, despite the influence of the four spirits and everything he had already done, he was still an eleven-year-old boy! A boy who put games, Quidditch, sweets and pranks first. And only second were training, serving the Gods and long-term plans.
But the four demons were patient. After all, they had already established themselves in this world, taken root in Harry Potter's mind and directed him in the direction they needed. All that was left was to wait for their time - and the spirits of the warp knew how to do that like no one else!
The visit to Hagrid turned out to be... informative. At least, that's what Smarty called it. The half-giant was very surprised that a Slytherin had sneaked into the company of the trio of Gryffindors, but he didn't refuse Malfoy a cup of fragrant tea and a stone cake.
Harry expected Draco to grimace and show his "fie" in every possible way to the modest dwelling of the gamekeeper - but he managed to surprise Potter*. Because, like all of them, he looked around the hut with curiosity, staring at the hunting trophies, a huge bow with a quiver of arrows, herbs and other ingredients for potions - it was clear that the gamekeeper was not idle at his post. At least it became clear who provides the school laboratory and Snape personally.
"Aren't these hairs from a unicorn's tail?" Malfoy asked suddenly, looking with burning eyes at the tufts hanging from the ceiling.
- Um... yeah. Yeah, that is, - Hagrid immediately frowned, looking suspiciously at the Slytherin. - But everything was obtained legally, without any poaching tricks! - he added for some reason. - So, I even have a ministry license, that's it.
The Gryffindors laughed, and Draco smiled and snorted derisively:
- Mr. Hagrid, I'm not asking you to show me your documents. I'm not an Auror on duty, am I?
- Er... yes, exactly. Yeah, - the half-giant was embarrassed, apparently realizing that he was trying to find a catch in the words of a small first-year, albeit a Slytherin. - Those horses, you see, have always welcomed me. Well, except for the very young foals - as we know, only... Er, - he suddenly blushed. - Well, it's too early for you to know that.
In Harry's head, Sweet Tooth snorted, but the boy did not understand the spirit-adviser's cheerfulness. And he was in no hurry to explain.
"And how much of this hair can you get?" Draco continued to ask excitedly.
- This... - Hagrid frowned thoughtfully. - If this is all we have to do, then two braids like this - a nod towards the tufts of silver wool braided into peculiar braids - in a day. But that's not enough to collect! - the half-giant got excited, as if he had just gotten on his favorite hobbyhorse. - We need to bring it and treat it with a special essence! This is wool that was shed during scratching and simply got caught in the bushes - it quickly loses its strength if you don't take care of it accordingly, - he said importantly. - So give Merlin half a braid in a day, and then - process, process ... That's it!
Harry didn't know why Draco needed this information, but from the narrowed eyes of the Slytherin, he understood that he was planning something.
- Only, - Hagrid frowned, sniffing his huge nose. - Only recently I really had no time to do it. There was something in the forest... bad, yes. And it attacks unicorns! But they are not poachers, no, - the half-giant shook his head. - They sometimes cripple unicorns, so that, you know, they can shave the immobilized ones and throw them to the predators as prey. You see, there are no fools these days to kill these horses themselves... Although, look, there was one, - the forester frowned.
"Someone is killing unicorns?" the children looked at each other in surprise.
"But whoever kills a unicorn is doomed to a terrible curse!" Ron Weasley exclaimed, his eyes bulging. "Everyone knows that!"
"How interesting ," drawled Smarty. "It would be interesting to study some materials on this topic. What kind of amazing animals are unicorns that their murder is punished so severely? And by whom is it punished? Do the unicorns themselves send the death curse? A natural rollback? A warp reaction? Experiments are needed..."
"I shouldn't have told you that," Hagrid muttered in confusion, embarrassed by his revelations. "It's not for you to know such passions…"
After that, the conversation didn't go well: Hagrid tried to evade further discussion, despite the boys' best efforts. In the end, he muttered something unintelligible about the late hour - although it was barely past noon - and sent the restless foursome away.
As a result, as Harry knew, Draco began to send his owl to his father even more often - apparently, he was reporting on strange events in the Forbidden Forest. And of course, about the possibility of getting unicorn hair. Potter did not get involved in this - this was the Malfoys' business, not his.
But what interested him specifically were the unicorns themselves. Or more precisely, the topic of their murder.
"Unicorn blood heals any ailments, saves from imminent death," Hermione read in a low voice when he dragged her into the library to look for everything on the topic of unicorns. "It is used in many potions and elixirs - but only in those that are considered Dark," she swallowed. "But all the benefits of the blood of these creatures are offset by one single drawback - a curse that falls on anyone who dares to kill a unicorn. What exactly this curse is," she ran her eyes over the text of the chapter again, "is not mentioned here. And nowhere from what I found in the public domain," the girl frowned in disappointment.
"Open access, you say," Harry drawled, looking towards a separate part of the library, located at the far end and blocked by a glass wall. "Do you think there might be something like that in the Restricted Section?"
Hermione narrowed her eyes with an inscrutable expression, but Potter managed to see a barely noticeable gleam in her eyes - the same one that arose in the girl in moments of excitement. The same excitement that pushed her to inquire into various facts, explanations and the essence of things.
"Ron and Malfoy are disappearing into their chess club again," she answered thoughtfully.
"Then I'll look for some additional literature myself tonight," Harry chuckled.
"And me?" Hermione turned to the boy, puzzled.
"You want to come with me?" Harry asked, looking at his friend. "Oh... Well, I think we can fit under the cloak together. It's just, um..." the boy hesitated.
- Do you have any other secrets that you can't even trust your friends with? - the girl pouted, causing another wave of affection in Harry - at that moment she looked like a shaggy hamster. And at the same time, he admired his classmate's insight!
- Let's put it this way: I'm not ready to trust Ron or Draco with some... secrets yet, - he drawled. - But you, Hermione... I trust you much more! - add a little Love Stare - and voila! The girl blushed and frankly "flooded", unable to look into the green eyes of her interlocutor any longer. - But it's not about secrets, - Harry shook his head as convincingly as he could. - If they catch me alone tonight - the Boy Who Lived, most likely nothing will happen to me. Well, unless Snape catches me, - he snorted. - But if they catch you: the ideal student, the straight-A student, the teachers' favorite... What a scandal!
Harry was engaged in outright demagogy, shamelessly mixing facts, causes and effects - just as Smarty taught him. But Granger, who was inexperienced in such things, had enough. A mixture of some pride from the fact that Harry trusted her more than anyone else, with the fear of ruining her reputation as a good girl, did its job - Hermione backed off from the idea of going on a night "job" with Harry. For now, she backed off.
And at night, the portrait of the Fat Lady silently opened, releasing from the Gryffindor common room... emptiness.
"Who's there?" the guardian of the entrance to the lion faculty was alarmed, but, not seeing anything in the darkness, she decided that someone had simply gotten scared to come out at the last moment. Snorting discontentedly, the portrait closed her eyes and snorted further.
Harry, hidden by the invisibility cloak, walked around the corner and darted into the secluded niche he had chosen earlier in the day behind the massive suit of armor. A place where the gaze of the omnipresent portraits did not penetrate.
"Quinky," he whispered barely audibly into the void. And a second later the house-elf silently moved to him. Silently - even the first time, when she came to his call, Quinky tried to call him "bad dark wizard, sir" in a ringing voice - and this in the immediate vicinity of the same portraits! After which Harry cast the Silence spell on her and activated the Mark. And then forbade her to make sounds when the elf came to his call. And to be silent until the owner orders otherwise.
In fact, various minor and minor charms, such as Incendio, Silencio, or Wingardium Leviosa in various variations, were described in great detail and accurately in the public domain books in the Hogwarts library. In theory, any underclassman could learn the program up to and including third or fourth year, simply by reading the textbooks in the library.
Of course, if everything were so simple, the School of Witchcraft and Wizardry would not be needed at all. But Mordred, as they liked to say here, is in the details! Where have you seen an eleven-year-old who is ready to spend all his free time cramming, delving into and working through a huge amount of information, without rest and prodding from teachers? Considering that the result of all this torment will appear not in five minutes or even an hour, but Merlin in a few months, if not in a year.
But Harry Potter was no longer an ordinary eleven-year-old. And he used his "unusualness" to the fullest extent, easily devouring library books like packs of sunflower seeds, filling his internal library with new knowledge and skills!
So Harry was already using his two wands quite confidently, even managing to sometimes cast different spells with both hands.
Returning to Quinky, she continued to stand, staring at the floor and trembling slightly: the new owner still scared her to the point of hiccups!
"Quinky," Harry said to the slave, "transport me to the school library, to that dead end to the left of the entrance to the Restricted Section."
He already knew that if the library itself was open for elven apparation, then the Forbidden Section, as it was easy to guess from the name, was the opposite - closed. Well, the school administration's logic could not be denied, that's for sure!
But if during the daytime the entrance to this section was under the constant supervision of Madame Pince, then at night there was no one to ensure the safety of the books lying here!
"Look," Harry said, pointing to the door to the Smarty-pants section. "Can you feel it?"
"Magic," Harry nodded in response. "Reliable enough. Can't be easily opened."
"Keywords are just that ," the Tzeentchian daemon chuckled in response. "But opening the door is only half the battle."
"Alarms!" Harry nodded, and, slightly sticking out the tip of his tongue, rolled up his sleeves and got to work.
No, of course, he clearly lacked the strength and knowledge in classical magic. And even more so to open the security spells on the Forbidden Section of the library, which were clearly imposed by someone of Dumbledore's or Snape's level.
But why reveal anything if you could use your new trump card, all the properties of which probably even the director didn't know!
Harry pulled his cloak tighter around himself, took out his dagger, and with a familiar motion, opened his palm. Feeling the warp around him shudder, as if "stretching" toward the source of warm sacrificial blood and forming a small funnel right where the boy pressed his palm to his chest, Potter muttered:
— Nar'Ur Brah'ar-Un!... There is no space... no directions... Nar'Ur Brah'ar-Un!... There is only me and my Goal!
The far end of the library was momentarily illuminated by an eerie crimson light from a small warp portal that swallowed the boy's invisible figure... only to spit it out on the other side of the glass barrier around the Forbidden Section.
"Ooh!..." was all Harry could squeeze out, somehow sliding down the shelf to the floor. Blood was flowing from the boy's nose, and he himself felt the alarm bell pounding madly in his head.
"You did it, student ," Smarty said contentedly. "It was a subtle, incredibly complex spell, inaccessible to most even very experienced sorcerers! But you did it ," he praised the boy.
"A truly wonderful thing ," Dobryak joined the discussion. "Few can simply go through the warp without any rituals, sacrifices, or even an entire ship with a Geller field."
"A filigree thing ," agreed Sweet Tooth, who was not sure why he was happy. "A huge Imperial cruiser with a Geller field, tricked out and tightly sealed, and even that can be felt in the Immaterium like a crude axe, which you have to be very clever not to notice! And here... it's like a sword thrust!"
"Ugh!" - Zabiyaka also decided to keep up. "Just the small fry that inhabits the local warp flows are pissing themselves to come close to us - that's all! So don't relax, boy - without us, as well as without the Lighthouse, you're still a zero without a wand!"
"Zero, he's the one with the stick ," Sweet Tooth chuckled. "Or rather, with two sticks!"
"That's enough already," Harry frowned resentfully, looking around warily. Fortunately, the ongoing minor mutations allowed him to see relatively well in the dark. "We need to find a lot of things..."
"Let's start with what we've wanted to understand for a long time ," Ruffnut interrupted. "The Bloodthirster's rebellion! We must understand how he is connected to the Blood God!"
"That can wait a bit ," Smarty said irritably. "We came here for information on unicorns and their curse."
"Idle curiosity!" - the Khornite's voice vibrated in Harry's head. "We have a whole powerful warp entity right under our noses! Which can give unheard of strength and power!"
"If this entity is equal in strength to even the Demon Prince, then it would rather devour all five of us than give us any power!" snorted Sweet Tooth instead of Smarty. "We seem to be all our own here ," Smarty's ironic chuckle, Kindy's quiet laughter. "And this Blargolag probably won't be so... negotiable. Especially with a human - he himself seems to be something like a goblin deity."
"So – unicorns!" the trinity of spirits firmly concluded in chorus, pushing Zabiyaka aside.
The forbidden section was, of course, much smaller than the main hall. But still quite large. At least a couple dozen shelves were present in it - and each represented a certain section of knowledge not intended for general use.
- DADA... Natural Maleficentism... Curses of Magical Creatures, - Harry finally found the right shelf. Just in case, he ran his hand over the cover of the chosen book, analyzing the protection and other surprises. - Clean, - he nodded to himself with satisfaction and opened the book to the table of contents.
It took at least half an hour to find the right chapter and study it — it was just past midnight. The article wasn't that long, but it was written in an archaic style, typical of the 19th century, or even earlier. There was something similar in the historical work in which they had read about Blargolag. With the exception that, apart from simply uncensored historical facts, there was nothing special in it. Whereas in this little book…
"If we discard all the near-religious nonsense and the talk about 'Mother Magic' ," Smart Guy even said with disgust, summing up what he had read, "then the bottom line is that it all looks like this . "
He paused for a moment, as if choosing his words.
"Unicorns are most likely also analogous to Beacons ," the Tzeentchite began to explain slowly. "They are closely tied to maintaining the magical field of this world, although more… diffusely than even your robe, Harry. And when killing such a creature, the killer receives a powerful burst of raw magic, very close in consistency to pure warp! Which for the inhabitants of this world, not adapted to the direct influence of the Immaterium, is most often fatal. Whatever advantages the one who committed this received - he is doomed! The soul of such a fool is exposed to the Ether and its inhabitants, losing the protection of your closed world. Do you understand what this means?"
"Final destruction," Harry whispered dryly. "The soul of an unprepared psyker, foolishly opening himself to the warp, will simply be torn into many pieces and devoured, leaving nothing behind."
"Exactly ," confirmed Smarty. "But you, for example," he chuckled, "can easily do something similar without fear of consequences."
"A robe?" the boy nodded understandingly.
"You've already opened up to the warp more than once or twice without the mantle, under our guidance ," Sweet Tooth chuckled, interfering in the conversation. "But our Smarty is right - the mantle simplifies a lot. And at the same time, it complicates it."
"If you decide to perform the ritual with a sacrifice in the robe, the effect will be many times weaker than without it. Although safer, of course ," the Tzeentch demon "shrugged. " But we learned the main thing. Unicorns are almost ideal sacrifices! Powerful souls, tied to the very essence of this world - what could be better?"
"And if someone is already killing unicorns in the forest, then we can disguise our foray as the actions of this psycho!" Sweet Tooth chuckled joyfully.
"The question remains, how to get out into the forest ," Dobryak carefully interjected.
"Quinky is quite capable of transporting me to the forest from Hagrid's hut," Harry suggested.
"And how will you get there at night?" Smart Guy chuckled.
Harry had no answer, at least not yet. But the warp currents, the fuzzy whispers and images within it, hinted that this problem would soon be solved. So Potter chose to trust the Ocean of Souls on this matter.
Already on the way to the exit of the Restricted Section, Harry's gaze fell on one of the shelves.
"Wow!" all four advisers were amazed, as was the boy himself. "Now this is much more interesting!"
The section "Rune Magic" was full of book spines, many of which were clearly not made of paper, and some were even bound in metal, bone or stone!
In this section, unlike the "malefiction," the warp background was clearly trembling from the spells contained within the pages of the local tomes. But that wasn't what caught Harry's attention.
Runes. Runes of Chaos, inscribed on a book forgotten by someone on a corner table by the wall. Distorted, incorrectly inscribed and therefore considerably weakened in power, but quite recognizable.
"Pre-ancient artifacts of non-human races," Harry read the title. "But where from?..."
"Look!" interrupted Ruffnut, growling predatorily. "A bookmark!"
The bookmarked page had a large engraving in the middle of the text. The engraving depicted a tall mirror in a carved frame, framed by Chaos runes. Above, there was an inscription in what looked like English letters, but at first glance, it did not form a meaningful word.
"The Mirror of Erised," Harry read the title of the chapter. "An ancient goblin artifact that contains dangerous magic that clouds the mind and deceives the senses. Any secret desire of a person, which he himself does not know about, will appear before him in all its glory. And it depends only on the person himself - whether he will be able to embody it, or will become a slave to the mirror ...
"Does everyone understand what this means?" asked Smart Guy after thinking about what he had read for a second.
"Demon ," Dobryak responded. "A powerful spirit imprisoned in a mirror, who plays on secret desires and fears, sucking out strength and the soul itself."
"What should we do with it?" Harry asked in a businesslike tone, using his multi-layered mind to begin calculating different scenarios of what might happen when he encountered this artifact.
What's interesting is that talk about the fact that he risks encountering a creature that can easily destroy his mind and devour his soul did not frighten him at all. Although, he also did not think about the essence of the word "demon". As well as the fact that the four spirits in his head, in character and origin, are the same demons as the inhabitant of the strange mirror.
"Do we already have this mirror?" Smart Guy snorted sarcastically.
"Better! We have a drawing of a mirror!" Sweet Tooth chuckled in response, hinting at the engraving in the book.
"Okay, okay!" Harry, feeling his irritation growing, quickly cut short any further Tzeentch jokes. "The question isn't that we don't have this mirror yet. The question is, who left this little book here? It's unlikely to be a student - Madam Pince keeps a hawk's eye on even seventh-year students, so they couldn't have left the book on the table like that."
"But in front of a nice young teacher she could have let her guard down ," drawled Sweet Tooth.
"Quirrel!" Harry punched his palm.
"Most likely ," nodded Smart Guy. "I think this mirror is one of its targets . "
"One of them?" Harry asked, committing the page with the image of the mirror to memory one last time and putting the book back. "That's not the only goal?"
"I don't think so ," replied Smarty. "The local wizards don't know about the existence of demons, and therefore most likely consider Erised to be an ordinary mental artefact, created either as a joke or with some dark purpose. If Quirrell is interested in the mirror, it is only with the goal of getting to something else. More valuable."
"And the unicorns are his work too?" Harry frowned, switching to mental speech as he glided under his cloak through the main hall of the library. "But why? Why such a risk? Is he sick? Dying? Or is he so afraid of the vampire that he began to grab at every opportunity out of fear?"
"Well, that's what we'll have to test ," Smart Guy chuckled.
"And how?" Harry suddenly stopped in the middle of the corridor, simultaneously listening into the darkness.
"Very simple ," the Smart Guy chuckled. "Do you remember the conflict between Malfoy and Weasley and that senior?"
"McLaggen? Yeah," Harry nodded in agreement. "His little brother lost three Galleons to them, and then that stupid big guy came along and ruined it all!"
The McLaggen brothers were, in fact, both very unpleasant characters. The younger, second-year Cormac McLaggen, thought very much of himself, considering himself simultaneously a great chess player, a genius Quidditch player, and generally an underrated genius! And he was very offended when the Weasleys refused to play him "by the rules" - that is, in such a way that McLaggen won.
His older brother, Hufflepuff Derek, was about the same, only in a different direction: he sincerely believed that he was absolutely irresistible in the eyes of girls. And even if a girl firmly said "no" to him, he perceived it as a veiled "yes". It simply did not fit into his head that such a "cool sexy shmexy boy"** could be refused! If it were not for other older Hufflepuff boys who periodically "reminded" this half-baked Romeo of the rules of decency, he would probably get into some nasty story. But, fortunately for the idiot, so far everything was fine.
So the logic of the "game by the rules", in which everyone is simply obliged to lose to the "brilliant" younger McLaggen, was quite close and understandable to the elder. If someone won against Cormac, it means he is cheating one hundred percent!
Anyway, Derek once dropped by a gathering of this semi-legal chess club and simply broke the board of the younger Weasley, calling him and Draco "underage swindlers" who belonged in Knockturn Alley. And in response to Malfoy's angry cries, he grabbed the Slytherin by the scruff of the neck and yelled about "Eater spawn" and threatened to write to his uncle, who worked in the Auror Office, about their slippery schemes.
Draco, by the way, surprised Harry once again. If earlier he would have definitely rushed to write to his father, then this time, it seemed, he swallowed the insult. Potter decided to take this fact into account as well - it certainly meant something.
But Ron was barely pulled away from the huge seventh-year student - the redhead was literally out of his mind! Of course: wizard chess meant a lot to Ron! And it cost a fair amount of money, and considering the Weasley family's wealth... There's no need to continue.
In general, Draco and Ron got even closer, but this time on the topic of revenge on fucking McLaggen. And this could have been used!
Although, the very fact of revenge on such a freak suited Harry quite well.
"Quinky," the boy called quietly from a dark alcove somewhere on the first floor of Hogwarts Main Building, not far from the entrance to the Hufflepuff dungeons. "Begin."
The elf, closing her eyes for a moment, was nevertheless forced to raise her hands and use her strength, obeying the order of her terrifying master. And then the steel gauntlet of one of the suits of armor in the corridor a couple of floors above, in whose grip was a heavy halberd, separated from its "body", after which a kind of guillotine began to fall! It must be said, under the somewhat stunned gaze from under the empty visor - the ghost that lived in this armor, in his entire unlife, had somewhat become unaccustomed to such unceremoniousness.
To his dismay, Harry realized that his telekinesis, which he used without problems in the Dursleys' house, could not move even the most simple enchanted objects. For example, the armor in the corridors of Hogwarts. Although they moved just fine with their hands. Moreover: they fell to the floor with a terrible crash, you just have to push them.
But it was impossible to expose oneself and show oneself, and therefore everything was arranged as an awkward spell of a young house-elf. Which, however, was quite enough.
Derek McLaggen, who had been running down the dark night corridor, holding his face swollen from the Stinging Spell and cursing mercilessly, noticed the threat out of the corner of his eye at the last moment and, in an incredible jump, avoided the blow of the halberd!...
...And with all his might, he slams into the door opposite the niche with the armor. The door to the Forbidden Corridor on the third floor!
The fact that there was a huge three-headed dog sitting behind the door on the third floor, guarding the hatch to the hiding place where the school administration kept that mysterious artifact, Harry found out almost immediately after Christmas: curiosity finally got the better of him. And wandering around at night with a pet elf and an invisibility cloak became much easier. So he smelled the funny little animal back in early January.
But here's the problem: it was almost impossible to get to her unnoticed. The signaling charms in the Forbidden Corridor were like those in a bank vault - one step to the left, one step to the right, and either Filch the caretaker with his cat, or Snape, or someone else from the school's duty staff would appear right next to you.
But now that the technology of the microportal through the warp had been tested by Harry in the library, it was not difficult to penetrate the concealment and signaling charms. Especially since someone - and Potter even assumed who exactly - had left a weak spot in this protection, a loophole, which, if necessary, would allow a saboteur to penetrate the hatch without disturbing the security perimeter.
And then it's a matter of technique! Move to the door behind which Fluffy was sitting (Hagrid is a pervert after all - that's how to call such a creature), open the door, then arrange for McLaggen's retreat to follow exactly this route...
Ah, yes. Derek McLaggen's Retreat.
Ron and Draco gathered a group of younger students from different houses, as well as Ron's twin brothers and their friend Lee Jordan, to catch and teach a lesson to the bratty Hufflepuff! The plan was simple: as soon as McLaggen got out at night on a date or somewhere else, attack, immobilize and beat him up. But if it weren't for Harry's intervention, this plan would have failed at the "leave the common room unnoticed" stage.
Potter leaned tiredly against the wall, breathing heavily and wiping away the blood that was flowing from his nose and wouldn't stop. Today he had literally stepped over himself, managing to squeeze into his head a complicated Forecast, partially going off into the warp with its lines. It was dangerous, difficult and extremely labor-intensive - but thanks to his four assistants and the invisibility cloak, he still managed it.
But he had no time to be upset. McLaggen's scream and Fluffy's roar were already coming from behind the door. This meant that very soon, albeit belatedly, the place would be packed with teachers. Filch, Snape, the rest - they couldn't ignore such a gross breach of security!
A student who fell into the clutches of a Cerberus, guys from the "avengers" company who got caught in the corridors - by the time everything settles down and everyone figures everything out, the night will have come to an end.
As Harry was running towards the castle exit, an unbidden thought flashed through his mind that Mordred's McLaggen might not survive an encounter with the hellhound. But Harry, frowning slightly, waved it off. Derek was as much of a scumbag as that drug addict who dared to point a gun at Potter in a dark alley! So let the big Hufflepuff be grateful that Harry hadn't decided to sacrifice him to Chaos. Otherwise, he'd get off with a few bites. Maybe he'd become a little smarter.
Quinky was already waiting for Potter outside the Hogwarts gates, blowing on her palms and awkwardly jumping from foot to foot: after all, standing barefoot in the February snow was clearly not very comfortable even for a magical creature. With a slight movement of his wand, Harry cast a warming spell on the elf - just enough for the time they spent in the forest.
A jerk of Apparation… and the smell of the night forest fell upon Potter's heightened sense of smell from all sides!
But there was no time to enjoy the local aromas and beauty: only one single line remained from the Forecast, which was melting literally before our eyes - after all, this time we had to calculate a much larger number of probabilities and variables. And therefore we had to hurry.
In principle, even without foresight, it was possible to understand where Harry's target was: bushes, tree trunks, and even the path that wound between the snowdrifts - everything was covered with stains of silver unicorn blood.
Harry frowned; if Quirrell had already managed to kill the unicorn, then all this effort had been for nothing! His efforts to compile the rune matrix, the forced disclosure of his knowledge of the subject to Hermione so that she could help with the calculations, and the risk of the rest of the boys being expelled from school - all this could go down the drain at any moment. And so Potter, adjusting the invisibility cloak on his shoulders, broke into a run along the path.
The calculation turned out to be correct: the unicorn really was lying in the middle of the clearing, its sides trembling wet with blood. Quirrel was not nearby - it was not for nothing that a few moments ago several runes in the Prediction matrix had trembled and gone out. This meant that the dishonest teacher had problems with the local inhabitants and he would come to the wounded victim a little later. Which was right up Harry's alley!
Having already approached the dying unicorn, the boy stumbled in surprise, hearing a thin, plaintive neigh slightly to the side. Approaching the source of the sound, Harry froze in admiration: there, entangled in a thorny bush, lay a mortally frightened golden-haired foal!
"What luck!" Harry Sweet Tooth exclaimed in his head. "All things being equal, a baby unicorn would hardly have come near us. But look here..."
"A dying adult unicorn is no match for an innocent foal!" Smarty interrupted him in an unusually excited voice. "In the Forecast, the probability of such luck was... extremely small. And that means only one thing!"
"What?" Harry asked distantly, smiling slightly as he watched the funny, clumsy creature helplessly thrashing about in the clutches of thorns and branches.
"The gods do indeed favor you, young sorcerer ," the Tzeentchite proclaimed solemnly. "Offer this creature as a gift to one of them, and you will receive a greater reward than you previously expected!"
Harry swallowed, hesitating for a moment. Of course, he had no qualms about killing cats and kneazles, but he didn't like them much, any more than he liked bulldogs. He'd killed the junkie because he was a vile, worthless little man, and he'd been the first one to do it. McLaggen had been a scumbag, too, and he didn't feel sorry for him, and besides, he'd gotten a chance to survive.
The small, weak, innocent creature that was now prostrated before the boy , screaming in fear, calling for its mother - what had it done wrong to him?
"His mother is lying with her belly ripped open in the middle of the clearing!" Ruffnut's voice rang out. "That bastard Quirrell is about to return and drink her blood, thereby gaining even more power! Which he will gladly use if - or rather when - you encounter him!" he growled.
"This little one won't survive alone in the forest anyway ," Sweet Tooth's voice rang out ingratiatingly. "And so, he will serve as an excellent source of strength for us."
Finally, under the admonishing whispers of inner voices, Harry took a step towards the golden-haired foal, simultaneously stretching his mouth wide in his most charming smile. From which the little unicorn thrashed in its bonds even more: the creature that instinctively senses the innocence or taint of any person, tried to crawl away in horror from the Darkness that was now approaching him with a gentle smile!
Having secured his victim with the now familiar warp-bonds so that the dying mother could see everything that was happening to her cub, Harry raised the dagger, glowing with otherworldly fire, and made the first cut on the foal's body, hooking the soft skin. Very delicate work lay ahead!
And half an hour later, Professor Quirrell, having just flown out into the clearing where he had left the dying unicorn, almost immediately rushed back into the bushes - to puke! No, not from the corpse of the mother unicorn. But from the rest of the picture that appeared before him!
The mare he had wounded had silvery tear streaks and an expression of torment frozen on her face. In the last moments of her life, she had clearly tried to crawl forward. Towards where a jagged figure cut out by something sharp could be seen on the black ground, and in the middle of it was located what had made the professor, who had seen a lot, vomit up his own dinner!
A unicorn foal skinned alive. The professor, possessed by a powerful spirit, somehow knew that an unknown monster had kept the unfortunate creature alive until the very end, trying to cause as much suffering as possible to both him and his mother - from witnessing the terrible end of her own child! After all, the fabulous one-horned horses were almost as intelligent as people.
However, having somehow overcome his weakness - and urged on by the commanding voice of his Lord on the back of his head - Quirrell was forced to approach the unicorn's corpse and strengthen his body with a new portion of blood.
But they will find out what happened here! Because both the Lord and Quirinus himself realized a very bad fact: they had a competitor in the forest. And so it suddenly became much more dangerous here than it was before.
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