A Younger Generation of Keepers

Chapter 4: Connected by blood (part 7)

George's pov

The following day passed by quickly, most classes were easy and did not require much attention. I watched the beautiful sunset while making my way to the castle grounds, where I saw Poppy waiting for me, her long brown hair tied in ponytail. We walked for a couple of minutes until we reached the Forbidden Forest. It had a weird mist around it, making visibility rather poor.

"So how did your meeting with Andrew go?" I asked bitterly.

"Quite alright" she replied.

"When is it due again?"

"Next week" Poppy sighed "I'm not even sure if we're going to complete it".

"Why not? You seem to be spending a lot of time with him to work on this, it should be pretty much done by now" I raised an eyebrow.

"Are you jealous George?" she boldly questioned.

"Ha-ha that's funny! Why would I be jealous of Andrew Larson?" I scoffed. Poppy giggled as if she was enjoying it, which only made my anger rise.

We reached the centaurs and asked to see Dorran. After waiting for a couple of minutes, we saw him coming towards us.

"It is great to see you my friends, to what do I owe the pleasure?" he kindly said.

"We wanted to pay a visit to the Snidgets" Poppy expressed smilingly.

Poppy could not contain her excitement, when it came to magical creatures and once she saw the Snidgets, she started talking to them. I seized this opportunity to approach Dorran alone.

"So how are things with the Poachers lately?" I asked him.

"We're doing the best we can to fight them off, we're hoping for a Poacher-free forest in the future" Dorran smiled.

"These are good news! If you ever need our help, please let us know"

"So are the Snidgets really the only reason you visited us?" Dorran gave me a sceptical look. He could really read someone like a book!

"Rumours are going around about a scarred wolf or maybe a hound, wandering around Hogsmeade valley, spying on people" I explained.

"Some centaurs have reported seeing a scarred wolf nearby Brocburrow"

"Do you think it's an actual wolf or an animagous?" I expressed my concerns.

"I wouldn't know! I haven't encountered it myself, yet" Dorran replied while staring at the moonlight, barely lighting up the forest pathways through the thick pine trees.

"If you happen to learn any information about the wolf, please inform me or Poppy" I said as Poppy returned and stood next to me.

"Farewell my friends, take care of yourselves" Dorran smirked.

We left the centaurs and started heading towards Hogwarts. A refreshing cold wind was blowing, making weird sounds echoing from afar. Poppy and I walked quietly without talking to each other, was she upset?

"Did you hear that?" her voice pulled me out of my thoughts.

"No" I replied hesitantly while looking around.

"It's coming from this way!" she whispered and started moving towards the sound.

"Poppy wait!" I attempted to stop her, but she was not listening, thus I followed her. We walked for a few minutes until we saw a light coming from a campfire.

"Poachers!" Poppy said angrily.

"There's only a few of them, we've got this!" I confidently expressed, but before we could decide on which approach we were going to use, one of the Poachers noticed us hiding behind a tree.

"Who do we have here?" he ironically asked.

Without thinking twice, I jumped into the fight and casted several spells towards the Poacher, who deflected them. I used my Ancient Power to break the Poacher's shield by lifting up my wand and creating a thunder above him, striking him right on the head. Poppy also joined the fight, casting Bombarda on two poachers, blowing them up. 

Suddenly, the scarred hound appeared behind Poppy and tried to bite her, but she managed to block its attack with her shield, pushing it backwards. She quickly casted the Transfiguration spell on it, transforming it back to its human form. It was indeed an animagous male wizard in his thirties with the same scar that Grayson and Jess had described. His gaze looked like it could kill you in mere seconds and his sharp features could only be described with one word: Danger!

The dark wizard drew out his wand and casted Reducto towards Poppy's shield breaking it almost immediately, causing her to fall onto the ground. He had the chance to attack her, however he seemed too focused on invading me. As I was freezing a Poacher I saw him with my peripheral vision casting a red spell towards me. I felt a sharp spike of pain in my bones as my whole body was launched and smashed into a tree, hitting my arm. 

I scanned the ground around me, searching for my wand, until I spotted it a few inches away from me. I quickly grabbed it as I saw a green light coming my way. In the blink of an eye, I casted a red spell clashing with his. I was putting all my strength to continue casting my spell, but I could feel my arm getting sorer with time and the clash moving closer and closer towards me. 

The dark wizard's facial expression clearly betrayed his intentions, I could tell it was the killing curse he was attempting to use on me. I put both hands on my wand, using all my force to stop him, but at that point, it was probably inevitable. He had a more stable posture, standing with both feet on the ground, whereas I was seated and my left arm was suffering possibly from the previous injury, when I fell into the tree.

"No!" Poppy shouted with tears running down her eyes. She raised her wand and casted a spell that I never thought I would see her cast.

"Crucio!" she let out as she grit her teeth. Red sparks left her wand, targeting the dark wizard, successfully hitting him. He immediately fell on the ground, screaming in pain and gasping for air, preventing him from carrying on casting the killing curse. I was looking at her with my eyes wide open; Poppy Sweeting, the sweetest girl in Hogwarts had casted the Cruciatus curse on a dark wizard.

Poppy ran towards me "Are you alright?" she asked while helping me stand up.

"Yes, I – I...thank you Poppy" I could not find the right words to say. We turned around and the dark wizard was not there anymore.

"He must have disapparated" I sighed.

"How is that possible? I – I casted the..." she was experiencing emotional shock. I was surprised myself that Poppy had casted the Cruciatus curse, but it was self-defence, she saved my life.

We returned to Hogwarts in complete silence, I thought it was for the best, since she needed some time and space to comprehend that her actions were reasonable.

"Maybe you should visit the Hospital wing" Poppy suggested once we entered the castle grounds.

"I'm fine, I just need to rest" I reassured her. We parted ways as I made my way to the Slytherin Common Room. A hot bath helped me relax and after that, I went straight to bed, I was exhausted by all these events that happened tonight, both physically and emotionally.