Harry was sitting beneath a tree in one of the courtyards. The sun was shining down on a Sunday afternoon, and he was planning on spending as much time outside in the nice weather that he could. The past few days, he had been stuck inside, cramming for his exams and finishing off his last assignments. Snape had him running around doing all sorts of extra jobs, marking first year essays, grading potions, brewing potions, scrubbing down the brewing lab. He had been exhausted on Saturday, sleeping in till almost eleven, and then spent the day lazing about.
But waking up on Sunday, he had felt refreshed. So after having breakfast, which he indulged in and had an extra waffle, he grabbed some parchment, his ink and quill, and headed outside to write to Fleur. It had been a week since his last letter to her, and he had been excited when she had replied the very next day. Their letters were a mix of talking about school, their friends, and then Harry’s issues. Fleur had been his rock, always encouraging him no matter how much his thoughts made him doubt himself. And then there was the picture. She had sent it to him a few letters before, a photograph of herself, dressed in her Beauxbatons uniform, twirling around with a cheeky smile before blowing him a kiss. He had loved it. He kept in safe in her potions journal, nestled on whatever page he had last marked.
Harry had Fleur’s picture resting on the top half of his parchment as he wrote, leaning against his Charm’s textbook. Her cheeky smile made him wish that she was sitting beside him; he could just imagine her giggle.
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Fleur,
Things have been busy this past week, so I apologise for the delay in my response. I am thrilled that your classes have been going so well, and please do assure Blanche that we shall meet once we have the time. I have no doubt she shall give me a suitable ‘best friend’ integration.
I do hope that you are able to attend the final Quidditch match, but I understand if your studies keep you at school.
Harvey has asked to meet you. That is the most recent development he has become insistent on after finding me reading your letter the other day. He said, ‘I want to know who made you happy again.’ And I couldn’t agree more, you have defiantly made me happy again.
Things with my parents have been good; Dad still writes his weekly letter, and Mum has frequently been writing too. I did have to point out to her that Harvey seemed a little unnerved when he noticed how often she was writing to me. It seems that he too, now receives a weekly letter, something that he seems to enjoy. It gives me hope that if things continue to go the way they are, that maybe one day, I will be able to forgive my mum and have the relationship I always wanted.
I miss you, and I look at the photograph you sent me every day, waiting for the day I can see you smile in real life.
Take care and with all my love,
Harry.
Harry quickly dried the ink before folding the letter in half.
“Writing to your girlfriend?”
Harry looked up to see Carlisle walking towards him. “I am. What happened to spending the afternoon with your girlfriend?”
Carlisle frowned. “We were spending the afternoon together. Enjoy some quality time, getting the build-up of stress from all of the studying that we have been doing.”
Harry rolled his eyes. “Why can’t you just say you were having sex?”
Carlisle smirked. “What’s the fun in that?” He sat down beside Harry. “Anyway, we weren’t even too the main event when Draco interrupted us.”
Harry couldn’t hold in his laugh. “Seriously?”
Carlisle nodded, the smirk gone. “The stupid git walked straight in, didn’t bloody knock and then stood there. Didn’t turn around and leave, just stood there.”
“What did Amelia do?”
“Screamed bloody murder. I had my mouth in between her thighs, and the next thing I hear is her screaming, and she knocked me with her legs off the bed.”
Harry burst into a fit of laughter. “Wow.”
“I have never wanted to kill my brother so much.” Carlisle leant his hand on his palm. “And instead of just kicking Draco out, I got kicked out too.”
Harry patted Carlisle’s shoulder. “That’s suck.” The laughter bubbled out again.
Carlisle frowned at him. “You suck.”
Harry took a few breathes to stop his laughter before tucking his quill and Fleur’s letter into his bag. “What did you do to Draco? What did he even want?”
“I never asked what he wanted. I just smacked him over the back of the head and then went and had a cold shower,” grumbled Carlisle.
Harry felt a little bit of remorse for his friend, but it was still too funny. Amelia would probably have a hard time letting it go.
“How is Fleur? By the way,” asked Carlisle.
Harry smiled. “She’s great. She should be coming for the game, so I should hopefully see her soon.”
Carlisle reflected his smile. “That’s good. Have you thought about taking things to the next level?”
Harry paused. “You mean sex?”
Carlisle nodded.
“No.”
“Why not? I would have figured you’d be chomping at the bit.”
Harry hadn’t really thought about it. His relationship with Fleur was still new to him. They had technically been dating for almost four months, but they had been separated for most of that. When they had been together, their emotions had been so high and uncertain that they had been figuring that out. If he considered having sex, Harry knew that he wasn’t going to say no, not if Fleur wanted too. But he wasn’t sure that she would be ready for that.
“We aren’t in a rush,” said Harry.
Carlisle nodded slowly. “Okay.”
Harry frowned. “Does it matter that we haven’t had sex?”
Carlisle shrugged. “I don’t know. Mate, relax; it was just a question. Amelia made me wait eight months before we had sex. Except she was being mean and just giving me blue balls.”
Harry sighed. He remembered those months, Carlisle hadn’t stopped complaining.
“Carlisle Malfoy!”
Carlisle froze, and his eyes went wide. He turned slowly and smiled at Amelia, who was standing at the edge of the courtyard looking very angry. “Hey, babe.”
Amelia marched over and grabbed him by his shirt. “Don’t you ‘hey babe’ me!”
“What did I do? I can’t control my brother,” said Carlisle.
She huffed. “Maybe you should try. That little shit is telling everyone he saw my breasts.”
Carlisle said, “Well, he did. You were naked.”
Amelia smacked him on the arm. “That isn’t the point. And if you want to get that cock of yours anywhere near me again, you will make Draco shut his mouth.”
Carlisle pouted as Amelia turned and stalked away.
Harry patted Carlisle's arm. “Don’t worry, mate. You got this.” Harry stood and slung his bag over his shoulder.
“What do you mean me? Aren’t you going to help?” Carlisle asked.
Harry smirked and shook his head. “Nope. I have a letter to send and a brother of my own to deal with.”
Carlisle huffed and slumped against the tree.
Harry chuckled to himself as he headed towards his dorm. Hedwig had been sleeping on her perch on his desk when he left this morning; he assumed she would still be there. It felt good for things to be so normal at school; watching Carlisle chase around after his girlfriend had always been a weekly thing, and it made Harry feel like this were back to normal. No one was fussing over him, worried that he was going to explode again; at least no one made it obvious.
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The whole last week had sucked. Harvey was beyond angry with Ron; because of him, they had ended up with a week's worth of detention. They had been busted by Professor McGonagall as they made their way back to the Gryffindor Common Room; it was after curfew, and Draco had been standing behind their head of house with a stupid smirk on his face.
To get back at Ron for punching him in the nose, Draco had waited and followed the two of them, only to go running to Professor McGonagall when he knew they were breaking curfew. The only silver lining was that Draco got slapped with detention too; after all, he was breaking curfew as well. That stupid smirk of his had disappeared quick smart.
The detention had consisted of multiple things over the week. Monday, they had scrubbed every cauldron in the potions lab; it took them three hours. Tuesday, Professor Sprout had them gardening. Wednesday, Filch had them clean the trophy room. Thursday, Professor McGonagall had them write lines. And Friday, Professor Quirrell had them cleaning up the defence classroom after a few pixies escaped in his class and made a mess.
Harvey thought it would be over, but Professor McGonagall gave them one last task. They had detention with Hagrid Sunday night. It seemed odd, but apparently, they would be accompanying Hagrid somewhere. The details had been vague. Harvey could only hope that because they were with Hagrid, it wouldn’t be too bad.
Sunday itself had gone pretty quickly. Even though Harvey was still angry at Ron, they had spent most of the afternoon playing chess. Harvey wanted to get better so that he could play with Harry, not that Ron knew that detail. Ron had been more than thrilled to help him practice and seemed to enjoy smashing his pieces over and over again. The set he had was one of Harry’s old sets; his brother had given them to him after he had received the set that Harvey had given to him on Christmas day. The chess set had been left at the Potter home after all the excitement. The pieces tried to be helpful; after all, they had played and won many times with Harry, and they seemed to know their stuff. Unfortunately, Harvey was still learning and didn’t always make the best choices.
When dinner came around, both Harvey and Ron weren’t looking forward to their last night of detention. They were grateful that it would finally be over, but it was still another night they had to deal with Draco.
Filch met Harvey, Ron and Draco just outside the Great Hall once they had finished their meals and led them out to Hagrid’s hut. The half-giant was sitting on the steps of his hut, a crossbow in hand and Fang sitting beside him.
“Here you go, Hagrid,” said Filch. “Make sure they don’t get eaten.” The caretaker snickered as he walked away.
Harvey frowned.
Ron asked, “Why would we get eaten?”
Hagrid sighed. “We are going into the forbidden forest.”
Ron turned white. “But—but—but there are spiders in there.”
Draco sneered at Ron. “I’m not going in there,” he claimed. “My father wouldn’t hear of it.”
Hagrid rolled his eyes. “Listen. We have a job to do. Now shut up, stay close and keep an eye out.”
Standing up, Hagrid picked up two lamps. He handed one to Ron and kept one for himself, and he headed towards the thick woods that sat behind his hut.
Harvey is careful to watch his step as he follows Hagrid. The forest is just as he thought it would be, dark, scary and full of weird noises. He had heard stories of creatures that lived in the forest, mostly from his father. Harvey believed that they were just meant to be scary stories, but the further they walked, the more concerned Harvey became that his father hadn’t exaggerated.
Hagrid came to a stop and knelt down. He rested his lamp on the ground and ran his fingers through a pool of silver liquid.
Hagrid sighed. “Look here. This is not good. Unicorn blood, and from the amount of blood, its been hurt badly.” He stood up, lifting the lamp. “That’s why we are out here. I found one dead last week, and now we are gonna need to find this one.”
Harvey cringed. He didn’t like the idea that something was going about murdering unicorns.
“Alright. We are going to spilt up,” said Hagrid.
“What?” cried Draco.
Hagrid sighed. “As long as you either with Fang or me, you will be fine. Now, if we find the unicorn, send up green sparks—and if there’s trouble, send up red. Got it?”
They all nodded.
“Draco and Ron, you can go down that path. Stay on the path,” said Hagrid.
“Fine, but I want Fang,” snapped Draco.
“Yeah, of course. Just know, he’s a bloody coward.” Hagrid turned and lifted his lantern. “Come on, Harvey.”
Harvey gave Ron a quick look before following the half-giant. He was glad he wasn’t stuck with Draco but could only imagine what Ron would do being left alone with him.
As they walked, Harvey tried to look for the Unicorn, but the lantern wasn’t really helping. He just followed Hagrid instead.
“What do you think is killing the unicorns?” asked Harvey.
Hagrid sighed. “Not sure.”
“Werewolf?” offered Harvey.
“Nah,” said Hagrid. “Unicorns are way too powerful for that. Werewolves not fast enough. I’m surprised that anything was able to catch one at all.”
Harvey frowned. He didn’t like the sound of that.
Red sparks shot up, and Hagrid froze. “Crap,” he said. “Quick, follow me.”
Hagrid left the path and rushed towards the red sparks. Harvey tried to keep up, but it was hard, they climbed over roots and pushed through bushes, and there wasn’t much light. Hagrid moved too quickly, and Harvey sighed when he noticed that he was quickly falling behind.
“Hagrid, wait.”
The half-giant didn’t slow.
Harvey tripped over a root and fell down. He let out a groan, but by the time he sat up, Hagrid had disappeared. The trees around Harvey were suddenly a lot scarier. Looking around, he noticed that he had fallen into a small ditch that was surrounded by large trees. He pushed himself to stand and dusted off the dirt from his pants before looking for a way out.
On one side, there was a large root protruding from the ground that he could grab onto. Harvey walked over and grabbed onto it; with one big pull, he managed to heave himself up. Looking around, he spotted the flicker of a lamp; Hagrid was probably coming to find him.
Harvey pulled his wand from his pocket and went to set off some sparks when he heard a strange sucking noise. He turned his head and listened. Across the ditch that he had just climbed out of was more unicorn blood; it was dripping down the roots of the tree. Just above the trail was the head of the unicorn. It was dead. The eyes were wide open, and the look sent a chill through Harvey. The sucking noise continued, and Harvey noticed that a cloaked figure had its face pressed against the unicorn’s neck. It was drinking its blood.
Stumbling back, Harvey tripped over the roots and fell onto his back. The cloaked figure snapped up its head and looked right at him, the unicorn's blood dribbling down its front. The figured began to move towards Harvey. Panic set in, but Harvey was smart enough to shoot off the red sparks. The figure seemed to pause at the action, but only for a second.
Harvey scrambled to stand up, stumbling as he did. As he managed to stand, a searing pain flared on his head, in the same place as his scar, the one that he had always had. Harvey pressed his palm against his head but kept stumbling away from the figure.
“Harvey!” Hagrid called out to him.
Harvey turned and saw Hagrid’s lantern. “Hagrid! Help!” He ignored the pain and ran to the swing light. He kept running until he ran smack into the half-giant himself.
Hagrid caught him, not letting him fall again. Draco, Ron and Fang were right behind him.
Hagrid asked, “What’s wrong? What happened?”
“I found the unicorn,” said Harvey. “Something was drinking its blood.”
“What?” Hagrid asked.
“I don’t know; it was cloaked.”
Hagrid frowned. “Show me.”
“No,” said Harvey. “It came after me.”
Hagrid grasped his shoulder. “I’ll keep you safe, lad. I promise.”
Harvey nodded.
“Now show me?”
They found the unicorn with no sign of the creature that had killed it. Hagrid did a quick check on the area but decided there wasn’t anything more they could do. They walked back to the castle, Filch meeting them at Hagrid’s hut, and then he walked them back to their Common Rooms.
Once they were back in the safety of their dorm, Ron asked, “What did you see?”
Harvey sighed. “I told you. It was a big cloaked figure. That was it.”
“And it drank its blood?”
Harvey nodded.
“Maybe it was some kind of vampire.”
Harvey had no idea. He just wanted to forget the whole thing. Whatever that thing was, it could kill a unicorn which Hagrid seemed to think was impossible, and then dranks its blood. Harvey wanted nothing to do with it.
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