The dark clouds at the horizon slowly broke apart, and the rain began to ease.
Kate stumbled forward to the hollow at the base of the great tree and crouched down, gently pressing her fingers against the unicorn's fur — matted and soaked through with blood.
Wet. Warm.
Those two sensations traveled from her fingertips to her brain, and not for a single moment did Kate feel any relief that the creature had survived by the skin of its teeth.
"It's lost too much blood," she said. "Even though I've temporarily sealed the wound, keeping it alive is going to be very difficult."
She turned her head. "Is there anything you can do to save it?"
Firenze and Bane exchanged a helpless glance, and neither of them spoke.
She'd already known as much. Centaurs who spent their lives deep in the forest weren't going to have an answer for this.
Kate let out a slow breath. A rupture of a major artery, combined with the loss of more than a quarter of its blood — she had no idea how to treat that with magic alone. What she did know was how modern medicine would handle it: blood transfusion, wound suturing, and then a careful course of post-operative care to prevent infection. Only then would there be any real chance of survival.
Whether unicorn blood had ABO types — whether a transfusion without knowing that might trigger other complications — that, she genuinely couldn't say.
"How long can it hold on?" Firenze asked.
Kate pressed her lips together. "A day or two at most. Even with a unicorn's Vitality being stronger than most magical creatures, that's the limit of what it can endure."
She rose to her feet. "If I go and find my Teacher now, there may be a way to save it."
"Your Teacher?" Firenze looked at her, puzzled.
"My Teacher is Newt Scamander. I don't know whether that name carries any weight among your kind."
Bane's brow creased with suspicion. "You are that Scamander's apprentice? How can you possibly be so young?"
Apparently, even living deep in the Forbidden Forest, they knew Newt's name well enough.
"Never mind whether I'm telling the truth," Kate said. "All I can do is bring my Teacher here to take a look. Whether he can actually save it — that, no one can promise."
She gave them the caveat in advance, to spare herself the trouble later.
She knew centaurs. They excelled in Astronomy, but they held little goodwill toward the vast majority of humans.
"Very well. I'll escort you out," Firenze said, already moving to bend his front legs so she could mount.
But Kate stepped back and shook her head. "I am my Teacher's apprentice. I also know what it means to your kind — the shame of carrying a human on your back."
She let her gaze drift, deliberately, toward Bane. That one was the sort of centaur who harbored open hostility toward humans. In truth, among all the centaurs she knew of, Firenze was the exception — the one who was relatively close to humankind.
He had shown her goodwill. She couldn't let that goodwill become a source of reproach within his own herd.
"I'll find my own way out. But please — make sure you tell the unicorn herd exactly what happened here, and look after it carefully for the next day or two."
With that, she turned to leave on her own — and then heard a rustling from the undergrowth not far away.
A herd of unicorns emerged from between the trees, glowing white in the dark, and surrounded her completely.
"Please — do not harm her," Firenze stepped forward at once, murmuring something to one of them — the one that appeared to be the eldest of the group.
Gradually, the unicorns encircling her parted and drew back.
Kate looked around, and before she could say a word, she saw the elder unicorn that had spoken with Firenze cross to the injured one's side and lower its horn to nudge gently at its belly.
What did that mean?
She was still puzzling it out when Firenze's voice came, heavy with quiet regret. "The patriarch of the unicorn herd says there is no need to fetch anyone."
"Why?" Kate's brow furrowed. "It still has a chance to live!"
"If not for the child in its womb, it might indeed survive," Firenze said softly. "In its final hours, it wishes to give birth."
Kate's eyes moved at last to the injured unicorn's abdomen. Her attention had been fixed entirely on the wound at its neck — she hadn't noticed until now that its belly was notably larger than that of an ordinary unicorn.
"You should go back now," Firenze said gently. "The unicorn clan will remember what you did for them."
Yes. Giving birth — that was something for its own kind to witness.
Kate smiled, a tired, bitter little curve of the lips, and turned to leave.
Then something sharp pressed into her side — and by the time she registered what was happening, she was already seated on the back of a unicorn.
"It will carry you to the edge of the Forbidden Forest," Firenze said.
The moment the words left his mouth, the unicorn beneath her reared up, stretched out its legs, and bolted forward, carrying her through the trees.
Some time later — she couldn't say exactly how long — it finally slowed to a stop at the clearing near the forest's edge.
Kate slid down from its back and gave it a small, friendly nod.
The unicorn, with a surprising intelligence, dipped its head back at her. Then it turned and cantered away, retracing its steps into the dark.
Kate instinctively rolled her shoulders and stretched, then let out a long, slow breath. She glanced back once at the impenetrable tangle of forest behind her, then turned and walked on.
After about ten minutes of walking, she finally spotted them in the distance — Hermione, Malfoy, and Fang, waiting at the door of Hagrid's gamekeeper's hut.
"Kate!"
The moment Hermione saw her, she lit up and immediately rushed forward. "Are you hurt?"
Her hands were already moving, patting and checking Kate all over before the question had even finished.
Kate glanced over at Malfoy and Fang and, somewhat awkward, redirected Hermione's hands. "I'm fine. You don't need to worry."
Hermione grabbed the hand that was stained with unicorn blood and frowned sharply. "This is fine? You're bleeding!"
"Ah — that's not my blood." Kate pulled her hand back quickly.
Unicorn blood carried magical properties. It was better if no one else came into contact with it.
"What about that black figure?" Malfoy, for once, had set aside all thought of antagonizing Kate — she was staring fixedly into the depths of the Forbidden Forest. "It's not going to follow us out, is it?"
Kate shook her head. "I burned it. I don't think it'll show itself again anytime soon."
Dragon Breath was considerably harder to shake off than a standard Incendio. And the current Voldemort didn't even have a physical body to speak of. By her rough estimate, the majority of the Dragon Breath's damage had been absorbed by Quirrell — which meant Quirrell would probably be bedridden for the next month or two.
"That's a relief," Hermione said, trusting Kate's word without question. "When Hagrid gets back, we need to tell him right away!"
True enough. The matter of the dead unicorn needed to be reported to Hagrid.
"They'll be a while yet. Let's wait."
The three of them led Fang into the hut. Dark Cloud, who had apparently been left alone inside for quite some time, immediately came fluttering straight into Kate's arms the moment she stepped through the door.
"This — this is actually a dragon!" Malfoy stared at it, eyes nearly bulging out of her head in astonishment.
The last time she'd peered through the window, all she'd seen was a dragon egg. And yet in just these few short days, it had actually hatched into a real, living dragon!
"Her name is Dark Cloud," Kate said amicably, holding up one of Dark Cloud's little claws and extending it toward her. "Would you like to shake?"
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