Harry Potter: Instant Kill

Before my joy, over not being a dragon translator any longer, could set in we heard a loud cat meow from the stairs behind us, "Students out of bed." When the the girls turned to see which cat spoke they found that Mrs Norris was standing there looking at us as if to memorise us.

The cat stared for barely a few seconds before speeding off down the stairs to alert Filch to us being out after curfew. I quickly cast another disillusionment charm so that we could hopefully make it back to the common room without being spotted. 

We quickly tried to retrace our steps only to be cut off at the 5th floor when we heard the laboured breaths of Filch along with the shuffling of Mrs Norris, "Lead the way my sweet, when we catch those out of bed we will get to use the thumb screws again." Came Filch's excited tone which was quickly echoed by the cat's reply, "They will squirm like the small rats they are."

To escape from Filch and his little terror, we ducked down a staircase which led down to the 4th floor. "That cat is as much a menace as Filch," I whispered to the girls while walking towards the next shortcut we would need to take, this one was a staircase which went upwards but led from the 4th floor to the 2nd. 

When we reached the 2nd floor we were lucky enough to miss McGonagall who had moved to patrol the other side of the floor from where we needed to go. The 1st floor was mercifully free of anyone and the trip from it to the Slytherin common room was easy and uninterrupted. However, when we entered the Slytherin common room and I removed the disillusionment charm that covered the three of us, all the candles flared startling us and revealing the glowering figure of Professor Snape.

"I was told by Filch that his cat had spotted a group of Slytherin students out of bed while skulking around the Astronomy tower. Of course, I have enough faith in most Slytherin's to predict that he would be unable to find you." Snape said before pausing for dramatic effect, "That was an excellent application of the disillusionment charm sadly you have been caught. If you tell me why you were out so late I may let you off the hook with more homework than usual."

When none of us moved to speak he smirked before speaking again, "I award Erik Bodewig 50 points for his excellent spell work while awarding 10 points each for your integrity and ability to not give information away for free." The stunned look on our faces made his smirk grow before he dashed our slight happiness by continuing, "I will however have to award the three of you with detention. Now off to bed."

The next morning we woke to a normal day until Emily the Slytherin prefect came over to us, "I was asked to deliver this note to the three of you." This was all she said before she handed the note and left to where her friends were sitting.

The note was from Professor Snape who had suddenly become busy and was unable to fulfil the detention. The note continued to tell us how the detention was rescheduled to tomorrow evening and we would find out what we would be doing when we got to the entrance hall at 7 pm. When I read through the note before passing it to Daphne, the only thought passing through my head was that this meddling smelt like lemon drops.

The time until our detentions flew by until it was time to head to the entrance hall where we were greeted by Filch and the monster he called a cat, said cat was playing with a mouse while verbally torturing the small thing.

The caretaker prattled on about thumb screws and other torture implements he wish he could still use on children as we apparently waited for the other misbehaving students to arrive. After 5 minutes of Filch's waffling 2 more students joined us in the entrance hall, saviour boy and the kid with the emotional range of a teaspoon.

Before Grace could question her brother on what trouble he was getting into Filch spoke over her, "Right off we go then. Don't want to be even more late for your dates. I wonder if there will be anything left when the creatures in the forbidden forest have at you." His need for attention seemed to be astronomically high as he talked incessantly along the way to the meeting point where a familiar Half-giant waited for us.

After a short exchange with Hagrid once we arrived Filch left with a final word, "Good luck and try to come back alive." Hagrid checked over his large crossbow before saying "Hello, you lot. Something has been attacking unicorns recently, I have found pools of unicorn blood around my usual patrol routes. Our job tonight will be to find out what it is and if possible stop it."

He paused slightly before starting to walk along the trail, "We will be staying on the paths mostly until the last place I found unicorn blood. From there we will split up and search the area for any more clues." He continued to ask if we had learned the signalling spell which sent out a bright jet of light when he got confirmation that we could he proceeded to ask if there were any preferance for groups.

"I want to go with Ron and My sister," Harry said immediately while Daphne clung to my arm to answer the question without speaking. Hagrid nodded before speaking again, "Then we will have Harry, Grace and Ron search with Fang while I go with the other two."