Daphne plunged on. "Look, we'll have the cloak. We can message Harry. It's not far. We can go out, heal it, and get back to the fidelius charm if we run into him. Nothing can see through the cloak — not even him."
Hermione's started pacing frantically.
In the mirror, the unicorn gave a silent cry of pain and collapsed in a lush green clearing, in a slowly expanding pool of silver blood.
Hermione stopped pacing, took a deep breath, and clutched her fists together. She closed her eyes. "How far is it?"
"Five minutes, maybe." Hermione groaned, her eyes snapping open. "Okay, fine! Get under this thing and let's go. And be sure to message, Harry."
Albus Dumbledore was getting more and more agitated the more he considered the boy in front of him. It wasn't any one thing, it was all the little things that added together to create a disturbing whole. Like the way he flicked his wand his at the end of a transfiguration and then gave it a little jab downwards. The jab down wasn't necessary, it was a mannerism. One he'd seen before. That and a few other tells had alarm bells ringing in his head.
If only he could get Harry and John performing together in an equal test of magic… that would give him the needed results to know just how much of what was going on was a result of Harry being a Potter twin, and how much of it was that fragment of soul in his forehead.
Of course, tournament.
there was the
duelling
Harry Potter was currently working on the transfiguration essay that Minerva had assigned earlier that week.
Albus stroked his beard. Maybe…
Suddenly Albus twitched in his seat. Something was happening. Almost impossible to feel for someone not as sensitive to magic as himself, but something was happening. A tiny amount of magic was flowing into and out of young Harry.
Albus stared. Harry's expression slowly changed — almost beyond his ability to detect, but the change was there. A tiny hint of concern, of worry. And a tiny leak in the boy's mind.
Albus continued to watch and the magic continued to flow into the boy. Then, the magic started flowing out of the boy, in the same minute amounts.
What was going on?
Daphne and Hermione crept through the undergrowth of the forbidden forest, careful to always stay under the cloak as they made their way to their target.
They rounded the next tree trunk and Daphne's heart broke.
The unicorn lay there on its side, silver blood everywhere, its chest rising and falling in time with its sad little whines.
"Gogogo," Hermione whispered.
They quickly made their way over to the animal, wading their way through the long greenery of the clearing, still hidden under the cloak.
When they arrived, Hermione groaned. "It's so deep — and unicorns are highly magical creatures already. I don't know if I have enough magic to make this work."
"Please, just try."
Hermione pointed her ash and dragon heartstring wand at the animal from under the cloak. "Concrescat sanguinem!"
Slowly, the silvery blood started to dry around the wound, but the longer Hermione held the spell on the animal, the quicker the blood flowed out. Suddenly, the clot gave way, and the wound opened up again. Hermione eyes watered. "It's too much. I can't do it."
The unicorn gave a loud whinny.
Daphne looked around frantically for anything that might help them, and then stopped and saw what they were sitting knee deep in. She shook Hermione's arm. "Hermione. Look around you!"
Hermione tore her tear-filled eyes from the dying unicorn and gasped. Daphne grabbed one of the nearest plants and started to shred it with her wand. They were sitting in a Merlin damned field of huntsman's sorrow the size of one of the Hogwart's greenhouses. Hermione quickly joined her and moments later they were packing the shredded herb into the wound on the animal's side. Hermione pointed her wand at the wound again. "Sano caro!"
Slowly, painfully slowly, the wound started to knit itself together, the wound closed, and the blood flow slowed, slowed, and stopped.
Hermione let out a deep breath, and flicked a diagnostic charm over the animal.
"All good?" Daphne asked.
Hermione turned to her, tears leaking out the sides of her eyes. "No, Daphne. It wasn't enough. She's still dying. She lost too much blood and I don't know what else to do. We don't have any blood replenishers."
"I…" Daphne felt a lump form in her throat. "There must be something we can do!"
Hermione let out a small sob. "I don't know!"
Daphne frantically looked around again. There had to be something, but there was only the huntsman's sorrow, the unicorn, them, the cloak, and the pools of silvery blood still soaking the ground, and trailing away into the forest.
She looked down where the unicorn blood had already started to soak in the silk of her robes where she had knelt down on the ground.
That… that couldn't work… could it?
"Hermione!"
Hermione looked up at her. "The unicorn blood! Give it to her!"
Hermione looked confused for a moment before her eyes widened. "Will that work?"
"I don't know, but what else is there to lose?"
Hermione wiped her nose on her sleeve, and nodded.
Daphne transfigured a small trough from surrounding dirt and soil.
"Accio unicorn blood!"
Unicorn blood soared through the air at them, and they managed to catch, at least some of it in the trough, while being very careful not to accidentally drink any themselves.
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