A Prophecy of Two Boys

Chapter 58

Percy nodded, accessing my memories to get the full details. We chatted idly to each other, debating over who to ask for news.

'I called the unicorn herd. Hopefully at least one of them will answer.' I told him.

A moment or two later, a movement caught our eye. Slowly plodding out through the trees was a pearly white unicorn, a faint parting in the fur of its neck telling of a once terrible wound. We grinning at the sight of her, easily recognising the beautiful creature whose life we had saved last year.

'Young lords.' The mighty beast dipped her head in greeting. 'Is something the matter? You have never actively called us before, preferring to seek us out yourselves.'

"We apologise for disturbing you, but a young first year has gone missing. We don't suppose you've seen a young boy in Hogwarts robes in the woods have you?"

'Boy? Maybe. There was a young male in your robes attempting to approach us under the moon's gaze last night.' Our friend replied. 'But he unnerved us, so we stayed away.'

I nodded. "Do you know what happened to him?"

'The centaurs drove him away, near the spiders.' A shiver ran through her white coat. 'What happened after that, I don't know. The tree nymphs may, however.'

We thanked her again, pressing a small kiss to her nose, and bade her farewell.

It was odd, I thought, not having a name to call her friend by. But the names of unicorns were all but impossible for anyone to twist their tongues around, so we chose not to risk insulting our friends by trying.

"That seemed to be a rather one-sided conversation," Severus commented, raising an eyebrow at us. We laughed.

"By your standards maybe. We heard her loud and clear."

Hagrid beamed at us for that. "A horse-whisperer huh? You'll be taking Care of Magical Creatures next year no doubt?"

"It is definitely on our list to consider." I agreed. "Anyway, our friend suggested we ask the Nymphs. She lost track of Tyson after the centaurs apparently drove him away."

"Ask the Nymphs?" Hagrid looked sceptical. "They're nothing but gossip-lovers on the best of days."

We chuckled. "Ah, but gossip has a basis of truth, does it not?"

Our morning was spent following up various trails. Severus and Hagrid drifted off to search on their own, losing faith in our trails as more and more turned up empty. Severus did place a charm on us to let him know if we were safe, and ordered us to send up red sparks if we needed urgent help. Agreeing, we disappeared deeper into the Forest, where we knew the spiders dwelled.

Alyssa hissed, and made herself scarce, telling us she would go find our white-haired hatch-mate while we visited the spiders she hated so. Realising what a good idea this was, I thanked her, reminding her to hunt on the way back as well. A hungry basilisk was a potentially dangerous one, after all.

Aragog was a nice chap. He offered us the information he could, explaining how his children had attacked the boy. Strangely he kept referring to Tyson as "the one-eyed one", which made little sense, but considering how the spider had eight eyes, who were we to question how he saw things? Maybe he simply meant one pair of eyes, which was more of a mouthful to say.

Anyway, if I could give Aragog one small piece of parenting advice, it would be to pass on his good manners to his children. After all, attempting to eat your guests was hardly good hospitality. Riptide got a little work out, before the spiders all fled from the glowing bronze weapon.