The kelpie started moving closer towards him and without hesitating much, Draco moved closer as well. Draco still held his wand tightly in case something went wrong. Moving closer to each other, Draco stretched his arms forward, which increased the vigilance of the Kelpie but Draco didn"t back off. Reaching his hands forwards he reached it towards the bridle opening it. The bridle loosened up and fell on the ground. The kelpie stared at Draco for a while and with what seemed like an understanding among the two, the kelpie nodded and swam back towards its egg.Draco sighed in relief as he started swimming up as well, removing the air-bubble mask, taking deep breaths. He swam to the edge and climbed up, laying on the ground. All this chasing around made him super tired but he knew that it was worth it. Not holding back, he let out a burst of small laughter in happiness as his plan was successful. He was cheering himself up until out of nowhere he heard a loud scream.
"Hermione!!" Draco stood up immediately and started running towards the voice.
-------------------------------------
Hermione landed inside the suitcase in a forest of some sort. She had some suspicions about Draco"s suitcase being a magical one with some extension charm added to it but now looking at it, she realized that it was far from being simple. The place had its own sky and from the looks of it, it was way bigger than she could imagine it to be. It was like the suitcase held a small world of its own.
"Draco!" She called out finally remembering her true purpose of being here. She started looking around the place as she suddenly heard something moving along with the trees. "Draco, is that you?"
She called out but there was no answer. She readied her wand as she kept following the sound, following it she reached the end of the forest but there wasn"t a single being in sight. She walked out of the place looking around when suddenly she saw something a bit far away. She quickly rushed over to find that it wasn"t Draco but a group of birds like creatures.
"Firedrakes." Hermione quickly recognized those creatures due to the spark coming out of their tail. Not knowing why it was here, she slowly backed off to avoid them, she kept walking until she saw a Golden Snidget. Those rare animals were hard not to recognize, as their golden color shined brightly even in the darkness. Being impressed she walked closer to the bird but the Snidget sensing her, flew away. Hermione was a bit disappointed but she suddenly turned towards the tree which was filled with moving creatures. Walking closer towards it, she saw some Bowtruckles, struggling to hide as she kept approaching them.
She was walking closer towards them when she suddenly felt something behind her back. She quickly turned to find it was a Dragon standing behind her. Hermione was so surprised by it that she couldn"t help but yell and run away from it. She blindly ran for some time breathing heavily, she stopped to look back and sighed in relief knowing that the Dragon was not chasing her.
"What is up with the place?" She complained as she couldn"t wait to meet Draco and ask for answers.
She walked around the place calling him out when suddenly she saw another creature that caught her interest. Unlike the other creatures who were running amok in this place, this one was in a magical cage of some sort.
The creature looked like a piece of cloth floating around in the place, calmly. She felt something in her heart as she couldn"t help but want to move closer to the creature. It felt like the creature was calling out to her. The creature moved towards her as well. The only thing that was separating both of them was the barrier, which the creature seemed to not be able to cross through, taking her chances Hermione moved her hand through the barrier and it pa.s.sed through. The barrier allowed any being to come and go, other than the creature locked in itself, so Hermione was easily able to pa.s.s through.
Hermione hypnotically reached out to the creature through the barrier when out of nowhere, the creature grabbed her hand and started pulling her in. Snapping out of her daze she struggled to pull back, but the creature in front of her was way stronger than she antic.i.p.ated it to be. She pulled harder but the creature was dragging her in slowly, Not knowing what to do, she shot a couple of spells towards the creature but nothing seemed to work.
When all hope seemed lost, suddenly she felt something pull behind her from the back. She looked back to see a unicorn. Hermione recognized the unicorn as the same one she had seen before in the forbidden forest before. With the help of the unicorn, Hermione had a much easier time holding back but it was still hard to completely take her hand back.
"Expecto Patronum." Hermione heard Draco"s voice, a mist of light came out of Draco"s wand.
Even though the spell seemed weak it was more than enough for the creature to let go Hermione"s hand in shock, as it flew further away. Starlight completely pulled Hermione behind from her robe, with Draco rushing towards her.
Draco quickly came over and hugged Hermione as he checked on her one by one, "Are you okay?"
Seeing Draco"s panicked face she felt a bit warm inside, which helped her calm down a lot. "What is that?" she asked.
"A Lethifold." Draco said looking at the creature, "Why did you cross the line? It"s inside a barrier for a reason, you know."
"I don"t know." Hermione said shaking her head, "It felt like it was calling out to me and before I knew it, it had already got a hold of me."
"Interesting! I never thought it was capable of doing so." Draco thought to himself, "Since it hasn"t fed on humans for some time, it may be tempted after seeing Hermione, but a Lethifold luring someone is unheard of. I guess more research is necessary on its behavior."
"Draco!" Hermione called out seeing Draco in a daze again, "Are you alright?"
"Yeah!" Draco said snapping out of his thoughts.
"What about the Kelpies?"
"Let"s just say that we are in peace now."
"That"s all good. So do you mind putting a shirt back on?" Hermione said looking away.
Draco quickly stood up and used a spell to dry his pants, as he s.n.a.t.c.hed his shirt from the ground, which Hermione was carrying and quickly wore it. Due to Hermione"s scream, he had panicked and forgotten the fact that he was still half naked.
"It"s okay, you can look now." Draco said.
Hermione nodded and looked back up, Draco helped her get up from the ground as he walked towards Starlight.
"Good job, buddy." Draco patted Starlight, as it neighed in comfort.
Hermione looked at both of them as she said, "Isn"t it the unicorn that we found if the forbidden forest? I thought Hagrid released it?"
"Well yeah, but we made a certain decision, so he"s here with me." Draco said, "You can come over. you"re already familiar with him, aren"t you? He"s Starlight by the way."
Hermione went towards Starlight and patted him, "Starlight, right? Thank you for saving me."
Unicorns are more susceptible towards female so Starlight had no problem interacting with Hermione.
Draco smiled looking at them, as he climbed on the back of Starlight. "Since you"re already here, let me show you around," Draco said reaching his hand forward.
Hermione thinking for a moment took his hand and sat behind Draco.
"So mind telling me what this place is?"
Draco signaled Starlight as he began to move around at a decent pace, "Well, where do I start..."