The silhouettes of centaurs appeared at the edge of his vision.
There was no time to think about Quirrell anymore. Whatever was happening behind him was behind him, and that was where it would stay.
Morris made his decision in the space between one heartbeat and the next.
Morris spurred the Undead unicorn forward, charging toward the centaurs at full gallop before leaping high into the air.
He was not trying to force his way through. He had chosen the most unexpected route available: over.
For one suspended moment, they were fully in midair. The Undead Unicorn's four hooves found nothing but cold air beneath them, treading that invisible ground. The centaurs' defensive line passed beneath them, he could see their upturned faces, the arrested motion of arms reaching for arrows that were now completely useless and then the far side of the clearing appeared below, and they descended.
A thrill of pure exhilaration swept through Morris's chest.
The leap lasted only a single instant, but to the centaurs, it was the most brazen provocation they could have suffered. Once the Undead unicorn landed, it erupted again into astonishing speed and charged forward without a backward glance.
Morris looked over his shoulder just in time to see that, after a brief pause, two of the centaurs had broken from the group and were now pursuing him.
Oh ho.
The corners of his mouth curled up.
'A game of cat and mouse, is it?'
He didn't mind at all. Besides, they all had four legs, that made it perfectly fair.
What followed was one of the most enjoyable ten minutes Morris had spent in the Forbidden Forest.
"Bane," said the elder centaur, turning to his companion as he pulled up short, his breath coming in heavy bursts, "stop chasing. The other one is toying with us."
Bane halted as well; his expression was dark.
He couldn't deny it. The way that Undead unicorn moved was deeply unsettling. One moment it would surge forward at a breathtaking sprint, flinging them far behind; the next it would inexplicably slow, as though deliberately waiting for them to close the distance only to dart away again
Like a cunning fox taunting two furious but slightly clumsy bears.
Right now, for instance: they had stopped completely, yet their quarry still lingered within sight, making no effort to vanish into the darkness.
"We must report this," Bane said, his voice was rough. "That unicorn has been forced and corrupted, stripped of all the purity it once held. It has become something twisted and wrong. We cannot stand idle."
The elder centaur nodded gravely; his eyes were filled with unease. "It is more than that, Bane. Whoever is behind this has a dark purpose—of that I have no doubt."
"They may be testing our strength, preparing to invade our forest."
"The stars have already warned us. Ill things are coming to the Forbidden Forest…"
In reality, Morris had only meant to tease them a little. There may also have been a small measure of revenge at play as he had recognized one of the centaurs as Bane, the very one he'd encountered during his first week at school.
When the centaurs finally turned and walked away into the trees, their hoofbeats fading steadily into the forest's ambient murmur, Morris watched them go with a pang of mild, genuine disappointment.
Already leaving?
He waited another moment.
How boring.
He gave a small pout at the empty clearing, then pulled out his pocket watch and flipped it open with his thumb. The hands read nearly half past one. He tilted the watch face toward the moonlight filtering through the canopy to confirm, then snapped it shut.
Time to head back.
As he neared the entrance to the Forbidden Forest, Morris swept his cloak aside and dismissed the Undead unicorn back into the Undead Creature Containment Array. He cast a Disillusionment Charm with ease and slipped silently back to the castle, making his way into the Ravenclaw common room without a sound.
He had just set foot on the first curve of the spiral staircase, when a voice reached him from the common room.
"Morris?"
He stopped.
It was the middle of the night. And he had not lifted his Disillusionment Charm.
"Morris, I know it's you. Don't worry—I haven't told anyone you were out."
Morris had little choice but to dissolve the charm. He stepped into the common room and offered a greeting. "Good evening, Prefect Robert."
And indeed, it was Robert Hilliard sitting in the room settled into an armchair, a book open in his lap. No lamp, no Lumos, no light at all save for the moon pouring through the windows.
Reading by moonlight was hardly a healthy habit. One could just barely make out the text, but the strain on the eyes was considerable.
That, however, was beside the point.
Before Morris could say anything, Robert spoke first. "Professor Flitwick asked me to take an extra headcount during the holiday. He wanted to make sure everyone was accounted for, given the smaller number of students remaining. I knocked on your dormitory door, but you didn't respond."
"I didn't account for that," Morris admitted with a sigh.
"Neither did I, honestly," Robert said, closing his book and rising to his feet with an amused smile. "In all my years here, I never thought I'd catch a Ravenclaw student sneaking out at night. You're quite the rare case, Morris."
Morris noticed something peculiar on Robert's face, a pair of unusual goggles, somewhat like diving masks, their lenses were catching the moonlight with a faint silver gleam.
"What are those?" Morris asked, pointing.
"Oh, these?" Robert removed them and held them out. "Try them on. They let you see clearly in complete darkness, even without any light at all."
Morris took them and settled them onto his face with both hands.
Morris took them and slipped them on. The common room sharpened immediately, as though it were an overcast afternoon rather than the dead of night.
"Impressive," Morris said, genuinely so. "Did you make these yourself? I'd wager you used some kind of compound charm, the material looks like purified crystal, possibly mixed with powdered firefly wings…"
Robert looked startled. "You really do know your craft, Morris. Actually, the material I originally planned to use was—"
And so the two of them stood there in the darkened common room, discussing the craftsmanship and theory behind the goggles for a solid quarter of an hour.
"Wait!" Robert said suddenly, pulling up short in the middle of a sentence about warmth-detection charms. He looked at Morris with the expression of someone who has just remembered something important. "Weren't we supposed to be talking about you sneaking out?"
"Never mind that," Morris said, waving a hand dismissively. "I've seen you slip out at night before, too… Are you planning to report me to Professor Flitwick?"
Robert shook his head. "I have no taste for unnecessary complications. As far as I'm concerned, I didn't see you tonight."
A curious look appeared across his face. "Though now I have to ask, if you weren't here specifically to catch me, why are you in the common room at this hour?"
Robert gave a sly smile. "Guess."
'Guess away,' Morris thought, studying his face for about three seconds. 'Fat chance of getting anything out of that face.'
"Get some sleep, Morris," Robert said, his tone turning serious. "It's very late."
"Goodnight," Morris replied.
They parted and headed off to their respective dormitories.
When Morris reached his room, Sparkles was already waiting for him on the windowsill.
He carefully wrapped the enormous bone he'd retrieved from the Forbidden Forest, enclosed a letter with it, and turned to the owl.
"Deliver this to Frick," he said. "If you need to rest, feel free to send it in the morning."
Sparkles seized the parcel and was gone in an instant, swallowed by the darkness outside the window.
Morris watched the owl disappear and shook his head with admiration.
Truly, undead creatures were something else.
Since evolving into a second-tier undead creature, Sparkles seemed to have shed any need for rest completely and was boundlessly energetic at every hour of every day, capable of working week after week without the faintest sign of fatigue.
The perfect worker, born for the job.