Chapter - 40

**Thud!

Snape, who was busy adjusting potions in his office, was startled by the unexpected sound he heard. He put away the potions in his hand, and in small strides, walked towards the source of the sound.

Snape grabbed his wand and cautiously walked out of his potion cabinet. He walked around the dark classroom, and as he approached the source, he saw a silhouette lying on the floor near the door of his classroom. Though Snape walked slowly, the body in front of him, remained slumped on the floor, motionless. When Snape was standing beside the motionless body, he lightly kicked it. He could hear muffled groans all along. Snape waved his wand around, and all the candles in the classroom lit, and the body floated in the mid-air. As the body turned around in mid-air, Professor Snape was shocked to see who he was.

"Alex?" Snape asked with surprise and concern.

"Master!" Alex called out to Snape in a muffled voice.

"What happened to you?" Snape asked.

"Ahh! I don't know, master, I don't know".

"Calm down. Don't worry, let me have a look", When Snape saw how muddleheaded Alex looked, he tried to help him relax.

Snape waved his wand around, and all the things on his table were thrown aside. Snape cleared his table and made Alex lie there. He thoroughly looked at Alex's body which has started to rot, and soon the office was filled with a rotten smell. When Professor Snape touched Alex's chest to inspect, pus seeped out from his wounds.

"Ahhhh!!" Alex screamed in pain. It was getting very painful for Alex with each passing second. He tried to hold back his screams, but it was hard for him to do that for long.

Snape again waved his wand around, " Locus Silencio".

The corridor which echoed with the screams of Alex now fell into silence. The whole office turned into an isolated chamber. Snape tried his best to identify what was happening to Alex, and it took him a while to figure it out.

"Corporis Interitus," Snape mumbled to himself.

Thinking about this, even Snape turned pale in fright. Although not as powerful as the Unforgivable curses, it is a deadly curse. The pain one has to go through was beyond one could handle.

Corporis Interitus was one of the spells that have been banned for a long time because of its ruthless nature. The spell corroded the flesh and bones of its prey, and the most gruesome thing was that the spell was extremely slow in nature. It might take hours or sometimes days before the body of its victim corroded entirely. Which meant hours and days of endless torture.

Snape left the screaming Alex on the table and walked towards the shelves he kept his potions. Snape fumbled through the bottles, and in the process, dropped many of them. But this time, Professor Snape was the least bit concerned about them. Finally, he found the bottle he was looking for. Looking at the bottle, Professor Snape finally had a slight smile on his face. But when he looked at the content inside the bottle, his smile turned into a frown. The potion was not enough for him to completely cure Alex.

But now, since the time was of the essence. Snape walked towards Alex and had him drink whatever was left in the bottle. After Snape had Alex consume the potion, the burning sensation amplified, and his screams intensified. Snape grabbed a cloth from the sides and gagged Alex's mouth.

"Ugghhhh!! Agggghhh!!" Alex screamed while twisting his body around. Professor Snape could not do anything to help Alex soothe his pain. He waved his wand and tied Alex's hand and legs to the table.

Now Alex could no longer wiggle around and just laid there screaming with a cloth gagging his mouth.

* * * * *

Hagrid looked around but could not find anyone.

"You sure you ain't see who saved guys? Hagrid swept his gaze from Neville to Malfoy and finally rested at Potter.

"I told you, I don't know a thing. If it was not for him, I would have caught that Unicorn killer by now". Potter said with annoyance all over his face.

Everyone who heard this could not help but shake their head in disappointment. When they arrived here, Potter laid there on the ground in a cold sweat.

Hagrid turned towards Malfoy and asked again, "You ain't see nothin' ?".

Malfoy thought for a while before he shook his head in denial, "No, I didn't".

Hagrid didn't turn his attention to the Unicorn immediately. He continued to stare at Malfoy for a while, and Malfoy too looked back at him, but Malfoy soon averted his eyes.

Hagrid also shifted his attention to the Unicorn. He walked up to the Unicorn and felt his pulse.

"Finally som’ good news, it looks like yer- interrupted the man right after he started suckin’ this Unicorn's blood". Hagrid said with a big smile on his face

"Can we go back to school now?". Ron asked. He was the most vigilant out there right now. His neck was turning around in all directions, wary of any possible surprise attack.

Before Hagrid could answer Ron, he turned around and looked towards the dark and gloomy forest, "Who's there?" Hagrid called, "Show yerself — I'm armed!" Hagrid pointed his crossbow in that direction and waited.

And into the clearing came — was it a man, or a horse? To the waist, a man with red hair and beard, but below that was a horse's gleaming chestnut body with a long, reddish tail.

Everyone except for Malfoy was left with their mouth wide open in surprise.

"Oh, it's you, Ronan," said Hagrid in relief. "How are yeh?" He walked forward and shook the centaur's hand.

"Good evening to you, Hagrid," said Ronan. He had a deep, sorrowful voice. "Were you going to shoot me?"

"Can't be too careful, Ronan," said Hagrid, patting his crossbow.

"There's summat bad loose in this forest. This is Harry Potter an' Hermione Granger, this one here is Ron Weasely, this young lady is Nicole Ashbridge, this fat one is Neville, and the white hair guy here is a Malfoy. Students up at the school. An' this is Ronan. He's a centaur."

"We'd noticed," said Hermione faintly.

"Good evening," said Ronan. "Students, are you? And do you learn much, up at the school?"

"And what does that have got anything to do with you?" Malfoy was the one to reply. With all that was going around, he wanted nothing more than to run back to the school, but here they are leisurely chatting with each other.

Ronan, the centaur looked at Malfoy from head to toe and opened his mouth, "Malfoy, hmmm... snarky like a blonde I know, Lucius was his name, was it? You must be his breed".

"What did you say? You four-legged human. I dare you to say that again". Hearing the word breed, Malfoy finally lost it. He was ready to pounce at the centaur but was held back by Hagrid.

"You are his breed, no doubt". Ronan nodded softly.

"You... Let me go, I will tell him whose breed he is".

"Enough". Hagrid finally pulled back Malfoy and flung him behind himself.

Ronan sighed. He flung back his head and stared at the sky. "Mars is bright tonight."

"Yeah," said Hagrid, glancing up, too. "Listen, I'm glad we've run inter yeh, Ronan, 'cause there's a unicorn bin hurt — you seen anythin'?"

Ronan didn't answer immediately. He stared unblinkingly upward, then sighed again. "Always the innocent are the first victims," he said. "So it has been for ages past, so it is now."

"Yeah," said Hagrid, "but have yeh seen anythin', Ronan? Anythin' unusual?"

"Mars is bright tonight," Ronan repeated, while Hagrid watched him impatiently. "Unusually bright."

"Yeah, but I was meanin' anythin' unusual a bit nearer home," said Hagrid. "So yeh haven't noticed anythin' strange?"

Yet again, Ronan took a while to answer. At last, he said, "The forest hides many secrets."

A movement in the trees behind Ronan made Hagrid raise his bow again, but it was only a second centaur, black-haired and -bodied and wilder-looking than Ronan.

"Hullo, Bane," said Hagrid. "All right?"

"Good evening, Hagrid, I hope you are well?" The other centaur, named Bane, greeted Hagrid.

"Well enough. Look, I've jus' bin askin', Ronan, you seen anythin' odd in here lately? There's a unicorn bin injured — would yeh know anythin' about it?" Bane walked over to stand next to Ronan. He looked skyward.

"Mars is bright tonight," he said, staring at the sky.

"Ahhh! Not again" Hagrid almost smashed his head in one of the trees.

* * * * *