The silhouettes of centaurs emerged in the distance.
With no time left to worry about Quirrell, Maurise urged his skeletal unicorn forward. He charged directly toward the centaurs and leaped high into the air. He wasn't trying to force his way through; he simply chose the most unpredictable route.
Under the moonlight, the skeletal unicorn's outline was starkly clear. Its four hooves pushed off the invisible air, effortlessly soaring right over the centaurs' defensive line.
A wave of pure exhilaration washed over Maurise. The jump lasted only a split second, but to the proud centaurs, it was a blatant provocation.
Upon landing, the skeletal unicorn erupted with terrifying speed again, dashing forward without a single glance back. Maurise peeked over his shoulder and saw two centaurs breaking off from their group after a brief pause, galloping furiously in pursuit.
Oh, joy! The corners of Maurise's mouth curled up. A game of cat and mouse? He certainly didn't mind. Besides, everyone involved had four legs. That made it perfectly fair.
Ten minutes later.
"Bane," an older centaur said, looking at his companion. He stopped, panting slightly. "Stop chasing him. He is making fools of us."
Bane skidded to a halt, his face dark with fury.
It was true. The skeletal unicorn's movement pattern was infuriatingly bizarre. One second it would unleash a burst of jaw-dropping speed, leaving them eating dust, and the next it would suddenly slow down to a leisurely trot, as if deliberately waiting for them to catch up. It was like a cunning fox toying with two angry but lumbering bears.
Even now, the centaurs had stopped moving, yet their target was still lingering just at the edge of their vision, refusing to disappear completely.
"We must report this," Bane rasped. "That unicorn is being controlled by foul magic. It has been stripped of its natural purity and twisted into an abomination. We cannot just sit by and watch."
The elder centaur nodded grimly, his eyes filled with worry and vigilance. "It is more than just that, Bane. Whoever is doing this must have dark intentions. They might be testing our defenses, preparing to invade our woods."
"The stars have already warned us. Dark times are coming to the forest..."
In reality, Maurise was just messing with them. Maybe there was a tiny bit of petty revenge involved, as he recognized Bane as the very same centaur who had given him a hard time at the start of the term.
When the centaurs finally turned around and gave up, Maurise actually felt a little disappointed. Leaving already? How boring.
Maurise pouted slightly, pulling a pocket watch from his robes to check the time. It was getting quite late. Time to head back.
Nearing the edge of the Forbidden Forest, Maurise flicked his robes and recalled the skeletal unicorn back into his necromantic storage array. He expertly cast the Disillusionment Charm over himself and slipped silently all the way back into the castle, making a beeline for the Ravenclaw common room.
Just as he stepped off the spiral staircase and into the common room...
"Maurise?"
A voice echoed through the quiet room. Maurise froze in his tracks.
It was the middle of the night, and more importantly, his Disillusionment Charm was still fully active.
"Maurise, I know it is you. Don't worry, I haven't told a soul about your little nighttime excursions."
Sighing, Maurise canceled the charm, stepped further into the room, and offered a casual greeting. "Good evening, Prefect Robert."
Sure enough, the person sitting in the common room was Robert Hilliard.
Robert was lounging on a sofa with a book in his hands. He hadn't turned on any lamps, nor was he using a Lumos charm. The only light source was the pale moonlight filtering through the windows. Reading by moonlight was a terrible habit. You could barely make out the words, and it was awful for your eyes. But right now, that was beside the point.
Before Maurise could formulate an excuse, Robert spoke up. "Professor Flitwick asked me to do an extra headcount for the holidays. I knocked on your dormitory door, but nobody answered."
Maurise sighed again. "I honestly didn't see that coming."
"Frankly, neither did I," Robert said, snapping his book shut. He stood up with an amused smile. "I never thought I would live to see the day I actually caught a Ravenclaw sneaking out at night. You are pretty lucky, Maurise."
Maurise suddenly noticed something bizarre on Robert's face. The prefect was wearing a very strange pair of spectacles that looked suspiciously like scuba diving goggles. The lenses glinted with a silver hue in the moonlight.
"What on earth are those?" Maurise pointed, his curiosity getting the better of him.
"Oh, these?" Robert pulled the goggles off and handed them over. "Give them a try. They let you see perfectly in the dark, even if there is absolutely no light."
Maurise took the goggles and slipped them on. Instantly, the pitch-black common room came into sharp focus, looking exactly as it would on a cloudy afternoon.
"Brilliant," Maurise praised genuinely. He couldn't help himself. "Did you make these? I am guessing you used some sort of composite spellwork. The lenses feel like purified crystal, probably infused with firefly wing powder..."
Robert looked utterly astonished. "You really know your stuff, Maurise! Actually, the material I originally wanted to use was..."
And just like that, the rule-breaking student and the prefect stood in the middle of the dark common room, enthusiastically nerding out over the craftsmanship and magical theory of night-vision goggles for a solid ten minutes.
"Wait a minute!" Robert suddenly snapped back to reality. "Weren't we talking about you sneaking out of the castle?"
"Don't worry about it," Maurise waved a hand dismissively. "I have seen you sneaking out at night before too. So, are you going to report me to Professor Flitwick?"
Robert shook his head. "I hate dealing with extra paperwork and drama. I am just going to pretend I never saw you tonight."
"See?" Maurise shrugged reasonably. "I hate drama too. We are exactly the same."
Then, Maurise threw him a suspicious look. "But wait, if you weren't specifically waiting to catch me, why are you sitting alone in the common room at this ungodly hour?"
Robert gave a sly, mysterious smile. "Guess."
Yeah, right. Like I am going to play guessing games at 2 AM, Maurise thought. As long as the prefect kept his mouth shut about the midnight stroll, that was all that mattered.
"Just go to bed, Maurise," Robert said, returning to his prefect persona. "It is getting late."
Maurise nodded. "Goodnight."
The two of them parted ways, heading back to their respective dormitories.
When Maurise finally reached his room, his undead owl, Cinder, was already waiting for him by the window.
Maurise carefully wrapped up the massive bone he had smuggled out of the Forbidden Forest and attached a sealed letter.
"Take this to Frick," Maurise instructed the undead bird. "If you want to rest first, you can deliver it tomorrow morning."
Cinder simply grabbed the package and took off immediately, vanishing into the pitch-black night outside the window.
Maurise watched the owl go, thoroughly impressed. Undead creatures really were something else. Ever since Cinder evolved into a Tier 2 undead, the bird seemed completely immune to fatigue, brimming with energy every single second of the day. It could probably work for weeks straight without a single complaint.
It was, quite simply, the perfect employee.