Chapter 59: The Magical Runes, the Unicorn

Hagrid didn't know why Silven suddenly started running toward the center of the Forbidden Forest, but seeing how anxious he looked, he chose to follow behind.

Time passed very slowly, second by second, and the deeper they went the quieter the surroundings became. Their ears seemed far sharper than usual, as if they could catch every wisp of wind that blew past and every sound of a branch snapping.

After an unknown length of time, the trees gradually grew thicker, and the once-wide path was nearly impassable, but none of the three stopped.

Because the bloodstains around them were growing more and more numerous.

By this point, Silven didn't need to lead the way anymore.

Hagrid ran to the very front, pushing aside all the vines and branches blocking the path to make it easier for Harry and Silven to pass.

After parting yet another large thicket, a pure-white thing finally burst into the three of them's line of sight.

It was a unicorn on its last breath, lying on the roots of an ancient oak tree, struggling in agony. That silver-blue blood, like sparkling jewels, was scattered across its body, its mane, and the ground.

And beside the unicorn, a black shadow was crawling slowly along the ground. Outwardly it looked like a person wearing a black hood, but its movements were more like those of a wild beast.

Harry was completely stunned. He had never seen a scene so beautiful, so wretched, and yet so eerie. He felt he ought to do something.

But someone was faster than him.

"What are you!" Hagrid crashed through the low shrubs, "Stay away from the unicorn, or I won't be polite to you!"

The black shadow clearly hadn't expected anyone to come either. Facing the furious Hagrid, it only hesitated for an instant before leaning down and pouncing on the wounded unicorn, greedily sucking at the fresh blood welling from its wound.

As it did so, the unicorn's struggles grew weaker and weaker, its mouth opening and closing as if it couldn't even manage a wail.

"Stop!" Hagrid's eyes had gone red.

But just as he finally reached close enough to raise his fist and give that unicorn-killing monster a good thrashing, the other party slithered like a snake around the trunk behind it, then twisted its body and burrowed into the pitch-black thicket, vanishing without a trace.

Hagrid, whose mind had been clouded by rage, didn't think twice and immediately gave chase, leaving only Silven and Harry standing there. Gradually, Hagrid's heavy footsteps faded too, and all they could hear was the rustling of leaves around them in the wind.

"Do you think that monster will come back..." Harry asked in a small voice.

"I don't know." Silven shook his head, but his eyes stared unblinkingly at the unicorn as he slowly walked over.

Seeing this, Harry immediately followed.

"Is it dead?"

Silven said nothing, simply watching the unicorn's ever-dimming eyes.

He saw many things in those eyes—reluctance, anger, longing, pain, pleading...

"It's about to die..."

"Who's there!" Harry was startled by the sudden voice behind him. He spun around in a panic, nearly throwing the wand from his hand.

By the faint moonlight, Harry finally made out the newcomer—or rather, the centaur.

Not Ronan and Bane from earlier, but a younger one with platinum-blond hair.

"It's very dangerous here, especially for you," the centaur said. "I can escort you out. Can you ride a horse?"

"I..." Harry didn't answer, but pointed at Silven instead. "What about him?"

From the moment before, Silven had been standing facing the unicorn, and he hadn't turned around even while they were talking.

"I'm sorry, I can only carry one person." The centaur shook his head.

"Then I'm not leaving either." Harry said without hesitation.

Harry might be reckless and impulsive, but he really was loyal too. If Silven knew, he might well have been deeply moved.

Unfortunately, he hadn't heard.

Because at this moment, Silven was in a very strange place.

Where he stood was still the Forbidden Forest, but before him it had become a boundless white world, with faintly visible flowers, grass, lakes, and trees in the distance.

Silven looked down. The boundary between the two spaces churned and collided like waves, pushing against each other yet remaining utterly distinct.

Looking up again, Silven saw that unicorn standing in the middle of the white space—but this time, there wasn't a single wound or drop of blood on its body.

How could that be?

Silven tried to walk closer to get a clearer look, but he couldn't. It looked as though they were separated by less than five feet, yet also as if it were five hundred feet—no matter what, he couldn't reach it.

At this point, Silven seemed to guess something, and glanced down at the Whomping Willow wand body in his hand.

At some unknown moment, the blue-silver light from before had gone out, and the runes themselves had become blurry and indistinct.

It seemed the unicorn should have died just now, but by a twist of fate had been mistaken by the runes on the empty wand body for a wand core on the verge of fading, and they had taken effect.

But these runes were only meant to protect a wand core—a single tail hair's worth. Their effect on an adult unicorn was negligible, only barely buying a little time, letting it linger a while longer on the boundary between life and death.

But only a little while. Once the runes on the wand body completely vanished, he should be able to go back too.

Only now another problem had cropped up.

Silven looked at the wand, then at the unicorn before him, and let out a soft sigh.

With things as they were, the wand core for the Whomping Willow wand could only be this unicorn. Silven could only hope that Hagrid and Dumbledore, out of consideration for his having just helped guide the way, would give him that horn.

Silven couldn't help glancing at the top of the unicorn's head.

Such a fine wand body would be a real waste if he could only use a tail hair.

Perhaps his gaze was a bit too rude, because the unicorn across from him immediately looked over and struck a wary pose.

"Save it—are you really going to butt me?" Silven muttered to himself. "I won't just take your horn for nothing. How about this—when the time comes, I can lend the finished wand to Harry.

"That way, when he kills Quirrell, you can count it as taking your own revenge."

The unicorn kept staring at him from across the way.

"What, you don't believe me?"

Silven sat down cross-legged, and regardless of whether the unicorn could understand, just started chatting with it like that.

"I'm a... well, a wandmaker with some rather special abilities. Do you know what a wand is? It's this." He picked up the Whomping Willow wand body and gave it a shake. "Of course you don't know, but it doesn't matter..."

While Silven was speaking, the white space on the other side was also being eroded bit by bit by the "waves" from his side, and soon only a patch the size of a window remained.

At the same time, Silven could already hear Harry's voice. At first it was very faint, but it grew clearer and clearer. He seemed to be talking to someone—was it Hagrid?

Once this last patch disappeared too, the unicorn would be truly dead.

Silven stood up from the ground.

"In short, I'll put part of your body inside this wand, and then have someone carry it to kill the monster that killed you—that thing is terrifying, so this deal isn't a bad one for you."

The space opposite had shrunk to the size of a palm, and from a distance it looked like a lantern in the Forbidden Forest.

"What a wonderful experience," Silven thought. "Does my grandfather know the empty wand body has such an amazing ability? He probably does—tomorrow I can write back and ask."

The voice in his ear grew louder and louder. Behind him, the figure Harry had just vanished had reappeared, but standing beside him was not Hagrid, but a centaur.

No wonder he could always hear hoofbeats…

Wait—the centaur clearly hadn't moved, so why could he hear hoofbeats!

Silven instinctively turned around again, looking in the direction from before. The original white space had completely vanished, but the unicorn hadn't.

A unicorn, its entire body radiating a blue glow like a ghost, was charging at an unbelievable speed, gathering all its strength, and slamming head-on into… the Whomping Willow wand body in Silven's hand.

(End of chapter)