Invisible String | TVD x WIZARDING WORLD

THINGS I'D RATHER BE DOING THAN DYING IN A FOREST WITH A BLOND STRANGER

He runs a hand through his hair. "Look, I didn't ask for this either. I couldn't do anything about it, nothing at all. Trust me when I say I've wanted to know you all these years, take my word for it if you could."

"Take your word? Puft, You're not Elijah..."I stop walking. "Plus, you're saying this like I'm supposed to feel sorry for you."

"No," he says quickly. "No, I'm not."

We keep moving. The air grows heavier. The silence isn't empty; it hums with something living.

And then we see it.

A trail of silver blood. It glistens like mercury in the moonlight.

Draco kneels beside it, his face pale. "This is from the unicorn?"

"Unless we've got molten silver rain now, yeah."

We follow the trail in silence. The forest seems to close in around us.

Then something shifts.

Not wind. Not branches.

Something alive.

We see the creature—no, the thing. Draped in black, hunched over a fallen unicorn, its mouth pressed to the wound. Drinking.

Time stops.

Draco screams. I don't blame him.

We run. Trees slap at my arms, my lungs burn, Fang howls and bolts past us. Draco's behind me one second, gone the next.

I trip, of course. Because fate has a sick sense of humor.

My hand lands in moss and silver blood. Cold. Too cold.

And then—

A thundering step.

A centaur appears. Tall. Golden-skinned. Bow drawn. A star of a creature. He looms over me, otherworldly.

"You should not be here," he says, voice deep like thunder muffled in velvet.

"Believe me," I cough, wincing as I pull myself up from the moss. "I'm painfully aware. Not exactly a forest girl, me."

The centaur lowers his bow, though his grip doesn't soften. "You crossed into the part of the forest even the shadows avoid. That thing—" he pauses, eyes darkening, "feeds on innocence."

"Well, bad news for it," I mutter. "I lost mine the moment I had to sit through History of Magic."

He doesn't smile, but something flickers in his eyes. "You speak boldly for a human."

"Yeah, it's a problem," I say, brushing dirt from my robes. "Got me here in the first place."

He steps closer, his hooves silent on the forest floor. He looks young, but timeless. The stars seem caught in his eyes.

"You are the Malfoy girl."

I stiffen. "I'm the Salvatore girl, actually. Malfoy's more of a biological inconvenience."

A pause. His gaze grows gentler. "Yet you bleed like one who wrestles with two selves."

Okay. That hits a little too close to home.

"Yeah, well. You ever find out you've got a family you never asked for and a brother who thinks you're a project to fix? It's a vibe killer."

He tilts his head. "And yet you ran not for yourself, but toward the scream."

I blink. "What?"

"When your brother called out, you turned back."

I don't answer right away. Because I did. I didn't even think. I heard him and my legs moved. Stupid, reckless legs.

"Maybe I didn't want his ghost haunting me for the rest of the year," I mutter.

He smiles then. Just slightly. "You are young. But there is steel in you. And more heart than you let on."

I feel heat rise in my cheeks. "Thanks, I think. Do you give out affirmations to all near-death humans, or am I special?"

His eyes glint. "Only the ones who survive."

He turns toward the trees. "Come. I will take you back. Your path does not end here."

I stare at him, then at the forest, then back at him. "Do you guys always talk like you're in a prophecy? Or is this just a Tuesday thing?"

The centaur raises an eyebrow. "We do not speak for amusement."

"Clearly," I mutter. "Just checking. So... do you, like, live out here? Or is this a weekend job?"

He begins to walk, and I stumble after him, brushing leaves from my sleeves. "What's your name, anyway? Or do I just call you Horse Guy?"

"I am called Ravion."

"Ravion," I repeat. "Cool. Sounds like a shampoo brand."

He doesn't respond. I take that as an invitation to continue being annoying.

"Do you guys get bored? Like, do centaurs play board games or something? Forest chess? Maybe 'Pin the Tail on the Werewolf'?"

He exhales through his nose. "We study the stars. We seek knowledge."

"So... no Uno?"

Ravion gives me a sidelong glance. "You ask many questions."

"I contain multitudes," I say. "Also, trauma. Which apparently makes me chatty."

We walk in silence for a beat. I look up through the trees. "Do unicorns go to a sparkly afterlife? I feel like they should. Maybe with glitter clouds and ambient harp music."

"They return to the magic from which they were born," Ravion says. "Their essence becomes part of the world again."

I hum. "Okay, that's nice. Better than most people get, honestly."

He pauses before adding, "It is why their loss wounds the forest."

I go quiet after that.

He looks at me. "Despite your foolishness, you have spirit. And a strangely persistent curiosity."

"Yeah, I'm like a cat that talks too much."

He leads me back through the trees. I glance over my shoulder. The thing is gone. The unicorn's body remains, and I feel sick.

When we reach the clearing, Draco is there. Pale. Shaking. But when he sees me, something lights in his face.

"You're okay," he breathes.

"No thanks to you," I huff.

He takes a step closer. Stops. "I thought you were dead."

"Sorry to disappoint."

Silence stretches between us like a bridge neither of us wants to cross.

Finally, he says, "I don't care if you hate me. I'm not going anywhere."

And for the first time, I don't know what to say.

So I say nothing.