Chapter 13

Harry's Point of View

The next morning the whole house woke early to get ready for the Quidditch match. Three-quarters of the stands were flooded with yellow and black colours, with the occasional splash of green and silver here and there. Across from where we were sitting there was some discord among the Gryffindors. Charles, Weasley and Granger had a ring of empty seats around them. Not many, of course, as the stands were practically stuffed full, but a noticeable amount. Percy frowned at that.

'What's up with the lions?'

'I don't know. Maybe there was an argument or something?'

'But wouldn't more people be siding with their Golden Boy if there was an argument?'

'Hum.'

Draco noticed our worried glances to the Lions and pocked us. "What's wrong?"

"The Lions are shunning some of their own. My brother, in particular. Something is wrong."

"Harry, Percy, Charles has been making your live miserable ever since Christmas. Why do you care?" Draco pointed out.

Percy bristled at that. "He's still our brother. And I care for him."

"Well then. Looks like we're visiting the local Golden Boy after the match." Draco flashed us a smile, his white teeth glinting in the morning light. I laughed, thanking him.

It was another hour before the match finished. By the time we had made our way out of the stands Charles was gone. Percy and I sighed.

"We'll go check the Gryffindor common room. See you at dinner?"

"See you."

We stood and watched for a minute and Blaise, Theo and Draco wandered off. A smile touched our lips as Percy pointed out how funny they looked from the back, each with their green and silver scarfs waving in the breeze behind them. Shaking ourself, I turned and headed up to the Gryffindor common room.

We weren't greeted very friendlily. For a start Slytherin had won the match, setting them even more at odds with us, but there was something else. A murmur of annoyance at our presence. Finally one of the first year boys, Seamus, snapped at us.

"Finally considering us worthy of your presence, Potter?"

"Excuse me?" Percy coughed. "Did you just say what I thought you said?"

"It's true, though, isn't it? You refused to come even near here for the first term." Dean backed up Seamus.

I sighed and Percy snapped back. "Well, it's not as if you went out of your way to make sure we knew we were welcome here, did you? Every other word out your mouth was some slander against Slytherins, or a comment on how we didn't fit in here. Maybe you should make up your minds, and decide whether or not you actually like us or not!"

"Like you?" A new voice spoke up from the corner. We turned to see Charles glaring daggers at us. "Who would like you? You just set people up to get into trouble when they're trying to help other people. You destroy other people's property under the pretence of a duel. Is there anything decent about you?"

Whispers and shocked gasps ran round the room at Charles' cruel words. Percy and I fought against the tears angrily. "We actually came to see if you were alright. You had been left alone at the match and wanted to know if everything was Ok. But clearly we aren't capable of such feelings are we, brother?"

With those winged words Percy turned us on our heel and fled the room. We ran and ran until we eventually reached a bathroom. We collapsed next to the sinks crying. The tears only fuelled my anger though. Why couldn't we ever just do things normally?

"You're a boy." A slightly whiny voice sounded from above our head. We looked up. A ghost of a girl who couldn't have been older than fourteen was hovering above our head.

"So?"

"This is a girl's bathroom. My bathroom."

"Sorry, we didn't mean to intrude. Um, I don't think we've met before." I said. "We are Percy and Harry Potter."

"Myrtle. Most call me Moaning Myrtle. Miserable, moaning, moping Myrtle."

I frowned. "That's not very nice. Do you cry a lot?"

The ghost girl nodded. "I was bullied when I attended here. Then I died in this bathroom. It was glorious. The last thing I remember was seeing a pair of yellow eyes, over by that sink."

She pointed to the sink behind me. Frowning, I turned to look at the sink. Before anything else could be said our brother came charging into the bathroom.

"You stupid brat!" Charles shouted at us. "What right do you have to embarrass me like that in front of my entire house? You think you're so much better than me, but newsflash! I was the one who killed Voldemort. I was the one who saved the Wizarding world as we know it. You're just a nobody. So keep you're stupid nose out of my business!"

Percy had long since gotten bored of the way Charles was constantly changing his mind about whether or not he actually liked us. "Shut up! We've had enough of you've selfish mood swings. One minute you treat us like you're supposed to, like a brother, then the next you are treating us like we're Voldemort incarnate. Make up your mind whether or not you want us in your life, then come and find us when you do because I can't deal with you anymore. Bye Myrtle. We'll come back again soon."

For the second time that day, we pushed past our brother and left the room. We felt much calmer this time, however, not worried anymore about what Charles thought of us. That was his decision, not ours, and we could face that now.

Draco took one look at our face when we entered the common room and sighed. He didn't say anything, just indicated the chair opposite him by the fire. Our on-going chess match was placed in front of us, and we played a few moves.

It was almost dinner when a scream split the content atmosphere in the common room. Percy snapped our head up, immediately flicking to the girl next to the window. She was staring out the window in horror, as was everybody else. The Giant Squid had attached its tentacles to the side of the building and was peering into the common room. Our shaky laugh cut into the silence of the room. Immediately all the silent staring eyes all turned to us as we stood and walked over to the window, gently moving the girl out the way.

'Lords! I found you!' The Squid exclaimed.

'Are you Ok? What's wrong? You've never done this before. I think you scared the life out of my housemates.' Percy giggled.

'I come on behalf of the Men-Horses. They asked me to give you a message.'

We frowned. 'Are they alright? The centaurs I mean.'

'Oh, the Men-Horses are fine. They asked me to inform you however that the unicorns are in trouble again. One of their number is dying. They didn't know who else to turn to. Normal medicines aren't working. They need your magic.'

"Merlin's Staff." I whispered. "This is bad."

We skipped dinner then and there, sprinting out of the common room like there was a pack of hell hounds at our heels. Draco shouted at us, asking where we were going, but we didn't acknowledge him, too busy running for the Forbidden Forest. Luckily no teacher's caught us running in the corridors. We almost ran into Dumbledore outside the main doors, but didn't pause for longer than to mumble a few apologies before sprinting off again.

A centaur was waiting for us at the edge of the forest.

"You came, Little Lords, thank you. We must be quick though, she fades quickly." The centaur said as he grabbed our fore arm and hefted us onto his back. Percy clung on tightly to the centaur's torso as we rode. I hovered behind Percy, trying to remember all the healing spells we had learned last summer. Understanding I was distracted, Percy was firmly in control, quickly slipping off the centaur's back as we reached a clearing.

The entire herd of Unicorns stood around a white form on the ground. Troubled, Percy quickly wove his way through the majestic beasts and fell to the ground in front of the wounded unicorn.

'Harry! What do we do?'

'Ok, just concentrate.' I recited the incantation I thought we would need to him. Percy nodded.

'I remember it.'

We said the incantation together, constantly repeating the words in a continuous chant until our hand light up with a silvery light. Then we pressed our hand to the deep wound in the unicorn's flank. The beast's weak heart-beat fluttered beneath our healing touch as we poured as much power into the spell as we could.

When we finally ended the spell a wave of exhaustion ran over us. We watched as the now healed unicorn raised its head and met its gentle black eyes.

"Please don't… please don't die." Percy slurred, then the darkness that had been slowly claiming our vision consumed us, and we blacked out.

As it turned out, Charles, Weasley and Granger had detention in the Forbidden Forest again that night. They were with Hagrid, searching for the Unicorn Herd to check up on them, after the sudden drop in numbers last term. Apparently the strange figure had heeded our warning, as no more unicorns had been attacked. The one we had healed had been wounded by a falling tree branch that had fallen after a vicious storm had cracked it two day's previously.

Anyway, rumours had it that Charles and Hagrid found us unconscious in the middle of the herd, leaning over one of them. Our hands had been sticky with silvery unicorn blood, and our shirt wet with it also, from where we had soaked up the blood from the unicorn's pelt. Normally this would have an extremely suspicious situation to be in, but since the herd didn't seem to mind us we weren't accused of anything drastic such as hurting a unicorn.

It was four days before we woke up again. The first thing that we became aware of was the harsh bright light of midday reflected off the white walls straight into our eyes. We moaned and turned over, hiding under our pillow to escape the painful sunlight.

Footsteps echoed as Madam Pomphrey left her office, and a small chuckle left her lips. "So, you have finally woken. Care to explain what left the two of you with practically empty cores?"

"Healing a unicorn." I mumbled, as Percy refused to acknowledge he was awake.

"Pardon?" Disbelief sharpened the Medi-witch's voice.

"Well, the unicorn herd asked the centaurs to fetch help because one of their own was dying. The centaur messenger in turn asked the Giant Squid to find us. You can ask any of our housemates. It was quite the shock having the Giant Squid peering into the common room. Anyway, we were asked to heal a unicorn. She was close to death when we arrived however, so it took a lot to bring her back. We just didn't realise how much."

Yawning, I moved out from under the pillow and rubbed our eyes with our hands. I froze when I pulled our hands away however. I blinked then stared again. "Madam, why are our hands stained silver?"

Madam Pomphrey frowned at us. "You had unicorn blood all over your hands when you arrived here. It had dried and no matter how many times I washed your hands the colour wouldn't come off."

"Oh."

I frowned. I felt an overbearing sense of doziness coming from Percy's side of the bond and yawned again, struggling to keep our eyes open. Noticing this, Madam Pomphrey smiled. "Go back to sleep. You need more time for your magical core to refill completely."

Slowly sleep claimed us, but it was far from peaceful. Our dreams were full of terrible monsters such as Cerberuses, Basilisks, Furies, Minotaurs, weird snake-ladies, vampire-people, hellhounds… We were trapped in an endless battle, fighting to get out. And all the while a cold voice was laughing in the background, calling us to him…

I had a sudden nostalgia for the dreams of that summer camp, or even the giants. They were strange dreams, true, but they didn't leave us this shaken when we woke. They didn't leave us sticky with cold-sweat or jumpy about the tiniest noise…

The infirmary doors slammed open. We jumped, our gaze drawn to the source of the sound like a moth to a flame. Charles stood in the doorway, his eyes blood-shot and underlined by dark shadows, as if he hadn't slept well in days. His pale face lit us at the sight of us awake and staring at him.

"Harry! Percy! Oh thank Merlin you're alright! For a moment I thought you weren't going to survive." Charles ran over to our bed and collapsed on the floor, tears trailing down his cheeks. "Forgive me for the mean words I said? I didn't mean them, I swear! I was just jealous again."

"Hey," Percy smiled at our older brother, "we never said we didn't want you. We thought you didn't want us."

"What? No! By Merlin, no!" Charles gasped. "We're brothers. We may have our arguments, but I'm never going to turn my back on you. If I ever do then I expect you to hit some sense back into me, understand? Family is blood, and blood is life, yes?"

"Yes." I smiled at our brother.

A flicker of movement behind our brother alerted us to somebody else's presence in the room. Professor Dumbledore stood in the doorway, smiling at the scene before him. I nodded in his direction.

"Professor."

"Ah, Mr Potter. You are well, I trust?"

Charles turned to look at the Headmaster, the squeezed our hand in farewell. We sent a smile in return then turned back to the Headmaster.

"Just a little tired from being on bed rest." I assured him. "Percy isn't in a very talkative mood. It's rare if he ever is after waking up."

The Headmaster nodded, walking over to sit down on our bed as Charles shut the infirmary doors behind him. "Now, Mr Potter, as I'm sure you must understand, this is a very serious matter that needs to be handled very carefully. You went into the Forbidden Forest, which, unless you missed the end of year feast, you know is against school rules. Madam Pomphrey informed me that you told her you were summoned into the forest to heal a unicorn. This is a very unlikely story, you must understand. Why would the creatures of the forest come running to you for help? I understand that you are a twin-soul of incredible power, but still…"

"I can show you my memories if you require proof." I offered, tiring of Dumbledore beating round the bush.

"What? I'm sure that won't be necessary…"

I rolled our eyes, reaching for our wand, which should have been on our night stand, but it wasn't there. Nor was Percy's. I frowned, then turned to Dumbledore. "Might I borrow your wand?"

"What-ever for, my boy?" Dumbledore looked confused, passing his wand over. I flashed him a small grin, then concentrated and pulled out my memories using his wand. I then grasped them with my hands, shaping them into a screen and mentally playing the play button. All of our thoughts were included in the memory, making it a bit too personal for my tastes, but I didn't really have many other options.

'Harry!' Percy poked him hard. Memories are personal.'

'Would you prefer a detention?' I retorted. Percy pouted, but didn't reply.

When the memory had finished Dumbledore gave a bemused look. "My, my, Mr Potter, what are we to do with you?"

Percy tilted our head in confusion. "What do you mean?"

"You healed a unicorn. You brought it back from the edge of death, nearly emptying your core to do so. However, you broke school rules. Under any other circumstances I would scold you for not talking to me first, but I see that that could have cost your unicorn friend its life. So, what do we do with you; praise you or punish you?"

We shrugged. "We don't require praise. We just helped out where we were needed."

Dumbledore's frown deepened. "That's not a very Slytherin view."

"No, but we aren't both Slytherin. I am, but Percy is Gryffindor. Therefore, we display as mix views."

"Indeed. Well, Madam Pomphrey said she would release you today. You aren't expected back in lessons until tomorrow, so I suggest you spend some time catching up. I'll confer with the other teachers and get back to you tomorrow morning."

"Yes sir." I nodded.

The Slytherin common room was full of questions when we finally escaped Madam Pomphrey later that evening. Everyone wanted to know what had happened to us. What was with the Squid? Could we actually talk to it? Why did we run off? Where did we go? Was it true our brother found us with the unicorns? Why were our hands silver? The rumour mill had been running wild the past five days, it would appear.

We did finally manage to escape the questions and get up to our dorm where Blaise and Theo were waiting for us.

"You're back!"

"Harry, Percy!"

We were tackled on to our bed by the two boys and encased in two warm embraces.

"Don't ever do that again!" Theo scolded suddenly, hitting us hard on the head.

"Ever!" Blaise agreed, hitting us on the head again. "Draco was beside himself with worry when you didn't return."

Draco… We blanched. We hadn't thought about our blond friend. We had come to see each other as brothers, so Merlin only knew what he was feeling…

Speaking of the devil, Draco flew the door open and practically jumped on top of us, abandoning all dignity. His arms clasped me in a hard hug. Then the hits began, as Draco tried to slap every body part he could reach.

"You stupid, stupid idiot!"

We took it all, fully believing we deserved every single slap. Eventually Draco hugged us again, a few rogue tears dampening our shirt.

Once everyone had calmed down we quickly explained what had happened, and apologised for our reckless behaviour. It took a while, and all three of them had questions, but we did eventually make it down to dinner.

'Will we even get a normal term this year?" Percy asked late last night, as we lay awake thinking about the unicorn herd.

I smiled. 'The majority says no. I guess it's good that we're good at adapting.'

'Sometimes I wonder if that will be enough.' Percy confessed. 'If one day we will face a challenge we can't adapt to, and we fall.'

'Well,' I thought about it, 'if that does happen then we'll just have to fall in a way that makes us memorable.'

'Huh, as if anyone could forget us.' Percy said cheekily, 'I mean, I make up half of us!'

We laughed quietly, so not to disturb our dorm-mates. 'I don't doubt that, Percy, but will they remember us for your good ideas or your bad ones?'

'Hey!'