The Fifth Marauder - r.a.b

CHAPTER 19

Regulus didn't know what to expect when Astrid sent him a note via Winnie to meet her by the entrance of the forbidden forest that night.

But what he certainly didn't expect was to find her freezing only in a nightdress when he got there.

"Bloody hell, Astrid it's 1 degrees out here." Regulus said as he walked up to her "Why aren't you wearing a coat or something."

"No time to explain, I spotted the unicorn about 5 minutes northwest of here," Astrid said grabbing Regulus' hand and pulling him through the forest "We need to be quick or it will leave."

The pair walked through the forest as quickly as they could; tall trees only letting cracks of moonlight illuminate their path as they walked.

Astrid pulled him behind a tree before motioning for him to be quiet, the unicorn grazing on the clear patch ahead.

Astrid turned around before slipping out of her nightdress, "Don't look I'm changing."

"Changing?" Regulus muttered to himself, but none the less he kept his eyes focused on the sight ahead of him.

The unicorn from the shape of its horn was male, and quite young due to the slight cream colour of its fur. For quite a majestic creature its history of violence was quite shocking.

He could remember all the tales Professor Kettleburn had told them over the years; the most terrifying one being the time a unicorn had kicked his great uncle Wilbur five acres, ending up with Wilbur landing face first in cow dung.

It seemed like it may have been a trick of the light, but a black feather appeared before his eyes, he found strange since the grey dragon migration of '02 meant the most birds had travelled up north until summer.

Meaning they definitely didn't set up nests in Hogwarts during this time of year.

To further add to Regulus shock, the raven landed on the floor just by the unicorns tail, and flew up a couple centimetres pulling out a couple of unicorn hairs.

The bird then flew back and landed turning back into- Astrid?

He immediately covered her eyes when he noticed she was naked, "You can open your eyes I'm covered."

He opened and there she was, back in human form clutching a couple unicorn hairs in her fist.

"How the fuck did you do that?" Regulus asked as they made their way back out of the woods.

"I'm an animgus."

"But your underage." Regulus argued as Hogwarts became closer in their sight line "How are you even registered?"

"We're not"

"We?" Regulus asked picking up on the words she used "Who's we?"

"James, Sirius Peter and me" Astrid answered as they exited the woods and began walking through the courtyard "We use it to help Remus during full moons."

Prefects never patrolled the courtyard at night, especially when it was this close, so it meant that they were in the clear for now.

Astrid's head snapped back the sound of a branch breaking alerting her of someone's presence.

"You heard that right?" Regulus asked as they pulled out their wands searching for a possible ambush.

"Miss Winston and Mr Black," Professor McGonagall snapped walking quickly towards them "Put you wands away and come with me."

They put their wand back in their pockets and followed McGonagall in silence to her office, where none other than Severus Snape sat proudly.

"Of course it's you Severus." Regulus snapped, ever since Casper and Violetta had taken Snape under their wings, he had become a spy for them, reporting Regulus' actions back to them.