One hour earlier...
"Gabrielle, we're not supposed to be here."
Fleur Delacour looked around cautiously as the two sisters slipped past the edge of the Forbidden Forest. The moonlight barely penetrated the dense canopy, leaving most of the forest shrouded in darkness.
Gabrielle, however, showed no sign of fear. "But Fleur," she whispered excitedly, "everyone says Hogwarts' Forbidden Forest is full of unicorns. I wanted to see one."
Fleur let out a helpless sigh. "I told you, unicorns do not simply walk out to greet visitors."
"I know..." Gabrielle lowered her head for a moment before looking back up with pleading eyes. "But we might get lucky."
Fleur knew that look. Ever since Gabrielle was little, she had never been able to refuse her younger sister whenever she made that face.
She had tried to stop her — explained how dangerous the Forbidden Forest was, reminded her that Madame Maxime would be furious if they were caught, even suggested asking Hagrid another day. None of it had worked.
And in the end, she had made the same foolish decision as Gabrielle.
The two sisters had quietly slipped out of the castle after curfew and entered the Forbidden Forest under the cover of darkness.
Fleur tightened her grip on her wand. "We look for five more minutes. If we don't see a unicorn, we turn around immediately."
Gabrielle's face lit up. "Oui!"
The two sisters continued deeper into the forest, completely unaware that several pairs of eyes were already watching them from the darkness above.
---
Meanwhile, elsewhere in the Forbidden Forest, Victor walked quietly beneath the trees with his hands in his pockets.
Sneaking in after curfew had become something of a habit — not for any particular reason. He was simply bored.
The forest offered plenty of moving targets for practicing magic, and unlike the Hogwarts grounds, nobody complained if a few Acromantulas disappeared.
Victor stopped as movement caught his eye. A large Acromantula crawled silently between the trees. He raised his wand.
"Diffindo."
The spell sliced cleanly through the spider's legs, sending it crashing onto the forest floor. Before it could recover, Victor flicked his wand again.
"Confringo."
The Acromantula exploded into pieces. Victor watched for a moment before nodding to himself. "The power's about right."
He made a small mental note of the spell's performance against a creature with a naturally tough exoskeleton.
Just as he was about to continue deeper into the forest, he heard voices. People? At this hour? Curious, he silently made his way toward the sound.
He reached a small clearing and immediately recognized who the voices belonged to. The corner of his eye twitched. "...What the hell are these two doing here?"
Standing in the middle of the clearing were Fleur Delacour and Gabrielle, completely unaware of their surroundings.
Victor slowly lifted his gaze. Several Acromantulas were silently descending from the branches above them, their long legs gripping the tree trunks as they surrounded the sisters from every direction.
Victor let out a long sigh. "...Wonderful."
Without another thought, he drew his wand.
***
That brought them to the present.
Victor walked through the forest path while Fleur and Gabrielle followed a few steps behind. After nearly a minute of listening to their footsteps, he finally stopped and turned around.
"Can you two stop following me?"
Fleur folded her arms. "You know the way out."
"So?"
"So we're following you."
Victor stared at her for several seconds before giving up. He turned around and continued walking.
After another minute of silence, Fleur studied his profile. "I think I know you."
"You've got the wrong person," Victor answered without slowing.
"No..." She searched her memory. "I've definitely seen you before."
"No, you haven't."
A few moments later, Fleur's eyes widened. "I remember." Victor had a bad feeling. She pointed at him. "You're Malfoy. I've seen you with Harry Potter several times."
Victor's expression stiffened. "...Damn."
He looked at Fleur for a long moment before letting out a sigh. "Well, we're all sneaking around after curfew, so why don't we make a deal? I didn't see you two, and you didn't see me. We all go back to our dormitories and nobody gets into trouble."
Fleur shook her head. "No."
Victor raised an eyebrow. "No?"
"If you want to drag all three of us to the professors, be my guest. It wouldn't even be my first detention." He said it so casually that Fleur blinked in surprise.
"You don't seem very concerned about being punished."
Victor shrugged. "If you're caught, you're caught. Worrying about it afterward doesn't change anything."
Fleur stared at him for a moment. "I'm not trying to get you into trouble."
"Then what do you want?"
Fleur gently rested a hand on Gabrielle's shoulder. "My sister wanted to see a unicorn."
Gabrielle nodded eagerly. "I've always wanted to see one."
"You seem to know the Forbidden Forest well," Fleur continued. "Since you're already here... could you show us where we might find one?"
Victor looked from Fleur to Gabrielle, then at the dark forest around them. Finally, he rubbed his forehead.
"...There is seriously something wrong with your dreams." Gabrielle puffed out her cheeks.
"Because you decided to look for one in the middle of the Forbidden Forest... at night." He pointed deeper into the trees.
"Do you know what usually comes out at night? Acromantulas. Werewolves, if it's a full moon. Other things that would happily eat the two of you." He looked back at Fleur.
"And somehow you thought this was a reasonable idea."
Fleur sighed helplessly. "I told her exactly that."
Gabrielle lowered her head. "...I just really wanted to see a unicorn."
Victor looked at the disappointed little girl, then at Fleur's resigned expression. He sighed once more.
"...Fine."
*****
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