(Word Count: 1,493)
The forest was silent as they all looked at each other. The only sound Harry could hear was his own painful breathing, and the rattling breath of Quirrell. As soon as they showed up, Harry knew that they were the complications that his Imbolc divination had warned him of. Why were they here now?
Fred and George both gave Harry a mischievous wink before turning to Quirrell and letting out a loud groan of disgust. "Professor Quirrell, you really don't look too good," one of them said.
"Absolutely dreadful, really," The other said helpfully.
"Kind of hideous, to be honest."
"Did you know you have a face growing out of the back of your head?"
"You should get that checked out, it doesn't seem healthy."
"Definitely not a sign that you're actually some kind of dark wizard or anything."
Before they could continue, Quirrell had enough and yelled, "Avada kedavra!"
They both paled in fright and were frozen momentarily. Luckily, Harry was quick enough to levitate a rock into the spell's path. The rock exploded as it was hit by the curse, sending shrapnel everywhere. Unfortunately, unlike the last rock that exploded, this time the shrapnel hit the two people that were closest to the blast. Both Fred and George fell to the ground with a painful cry.
Fred seemed to have been hit the worst, with multiple injuries, while George was clutching his left shoulder.
"Fred! George!" Harry shouted and ran over, casting several diffindos at Quirrell as suppressing fire to prevent him from firing off any more spells. Quirrell was too exhausted to move out of the way, so he blocked them with some effort with his own protego.
He got between them as a shield and, using his Emotional Empowerment perk, infused all of his positive emotions into his spell. "Protego!" Unlike other protegos, which had an invisible barrier, this one shone with an ethereal white and silver. The barrier appeared just in time to block some sort of curse Quirrell casted back. It seemed to stick to the barrier and began eating away at it momentarily before it faded away.
"You guys alright? I'm sorry. I should have transfigured a wall or something besides just a rock," Harry said worriedly. He gave them a quick once over before focusing back on Quirrell.
George shakily got back up to his feet, still clutching his bleeding shoulder. "It's fine Harry. Our fault, really. We expected him to cast something at us, just… wasn't expecting the Killing Curse. We just sort of froze. You saved us."
George looked down at Fred, who was bleeding out and unconscious. "Bloody h***," he cursed under his breath.
"You try and stop the bleeding. I've got Quirrell," Harry said. He really couldn't spare any more of his attention right now. As they were talking, his shield was hit three more times by that same corrosive spell. Whatever curse that was, it was very powerful, because his shield couldn't really take anymore.
He dumped more of his power into the shield, reinforcing the thinned out portions, then switched the spell to his offhand to free up his wand so he could cast other things. Despite this, he wasn't using any more of his magic power than anyone else would have been using for a regular protego. The extra defense of his spell came from his emotions. That was the true cost. The spell was rapidly draining his mental fatigue. But now that he couldn't dodge anymore, otherwise the twins would get hit, so he had to keep it up.
He tapped his shrunken trunk necklace and accio'ed a small case of potions. When it came out, he awkwardly caught it with his wand hand and tossed it to the ground behind him. The potion vials inside were all charmed to be protected, so he didn't have to worry about being gentle. And who really cared about that in this situation anyway?
George recognized it as a potion's case and leapt at it, shakily going through the vials with his one working hand for some wiggenweld, or essence of dittany.
Meanwhile, Harry was back to firing spells at Quirrell.
Quirrell seemed to realize that he was about to lose, so he dropped his shield and turned into black mist to fly away.
"Oh no you don't!" Harry yelled. He dropped his own shield around them and dumped in all of the power he could muster, as well as his anger, hatred, and desire to kill into one final "Confringo!"
The spell was deep red and it roiled in angry hisses as it shrieked after Quirrell. He didn't make it very far before the spell caught up to him, just above the treetops. It exploded into a huge fireball that hissed and spat angrily at everything. The nearby treetops caught on fire, and he could feel the searing heat from here.
A few seconds of burning, the fireball disappeared and a blackened charred corpse fell down to the ground. It broke apart into several chunks of charcoal and a pile of ash.
"Merlin's beard, Harry. What was that! That was no bloody Confringo, I'll tell you that!" George cursed.
Harry didn't answer and watched the ashy remains of Quirrell. Sure enough, a black wraith began rising up out of it, Voldemort's face contorting angrily. It locked eyes with Harry and charged at him. "AAAAGGGHHH!"
He simply raised his wand and casted the Skurge charm, a handy second year spell useful for repelling spirits and similar creatures. Voldemort's wraith shrieked and wailed in pain, and it quickly fled the scene, heading deeper into the forest away from Hogwarts.
Harry watched until the wraith was out of sight, then turned to the twins. "George, how's Fred?" He asked tiredly.
"Not good. The dittany closed the wounds, but he's still lost a lot of blood and the rock bits are still inside. We need to get to Madam Pompfrey's. I think all of us need to," George said sadly.
So he was at least stable. That was good. He couldn't really apparate directly back to Hogwarts, so time was of the essence. He really didn't want to reveal his giant bird form if he didn't have to, so he asked:
"Did you and Fred bring your brooms with you?" Harry asked.
George nodded, and ran off to the bushes they first appeared from. He pulled out two Clean Sweeps. Harry took one, got on, and levitated Fred behind him. "Come on. Let's go quick."
"Right. Though you owe us an explanation for all that after we get healed up!"
Harry just nodded tiredly.
They flew up above the trees and back to the castle, Fred trailing through the air after them. The fire that had been started from his last fireball had already started to die down, so they weren't worried about it. It was a magical forest, after all, and it didn't like being on fire.
When they showed up at Pompfrey's door in the middle of the night, she gasped at their disheveled state, then at Fred's unconscious body. "Good heavens! Bring him in! Quickly!"
She led them to an empty bed, and Harry gently placed Fred into it. She then eyed both him and George up and down before pointing to two other empty beds. "Lay down. I'll get to you two later."
Harry laid down in relief, while George stayed close to Fred. "He'll be okay, won't he? He's still got some stone shards inside!" He pointed out where the wounds were.
"Yes, yes. Nothing I can't handle, Weasley. Go lay down!" Madam Pompfrey waved him off. She pulled out her wand, and began her work. "How did you three manage to get yourselves so torn up at this time of night?"
Harry and George shared a look, realizing that they couldn't exactly tell her that they were fighting against Quirrell. "Erm… we were out exploring the… forbidden forest," Harry said, wincing at the guaranteed detention that would be on its way, "And we ran into some sort of dark creature. We managed to fend it off, but… yeah," he finished lamely.
"The forbidden forest! Of all the places you go, you had to explore that cursed forest!" Madam Pompfrey chided them. "You're lucky you're still in one piece!"
Once she was finished extracting all of the shrapnel, and had Fred dosed up on several potions, she turned her attention to the two of them. Pretty soon, they were all bandaged up resting. Madam Pompfrey had returned to her own room to rest, though it was attached to the medical wing.
When they were sure that she wouldn't return, George turned to him. "So… why'd you go and off Quirrell? And why'd he have a second face?"
Harry sighed. "Can this wait for the morning? That way I can tell Fred as well."
George frowned, but relented. "Alright, fine. But I want answers first thing in the morning!"