THE FORBIDDEN FOREST

Harry was rubbing his ear, and looking more chagrined then they had yet seen him. "Err, yeah, we may have been really excited and ah, left it up there..." he said, trailing off when it looked like the three boys were going to faint. "So err, Sirius, want to tell me what your problem with dragons are?" he asked, trying to deflect the subject off of him.

Shaking his head like he was trying to get water out of his ears he said, "I'll tell you that if you tell me you got the cloak back."

"Of course I did," he said at once, then frowned, rubbing his temple again in agitation.

Sirius shrugged before saying, "that's good enough for me. Alright fine, remember how I said I went down into the lower vaults at Gringotts with my cousin Bellatrix."

When he paused and eyed both Harry and Lily, they both nodded, Lily saying, "yes, but you said you stayed in the carts."

"I lied," Sirius shrugged, "I felt like an idiot, so I didn't mention it, but the truth is I got left down there for a few hours before the Lestrange's came back for me. That bloody dragon hated me being there as much as I hated it, and-" he shuddered again in disgust as he cut off.

"How old were you?" Harry demanded, feeling sorrier for his sort of Uncle then he ever had for himself.

"Thirteen," he admitted, "my parents were off with my brother getting his Hogwarts stuff, but they wouldn't give me the key to the vault, so they got my other family to go down there with me. I don't know what they were thinking-"

"Probably that you would steal all of the gold in their vault and make a run for it," James offered.

"Very likely," Sirius agreed before going on, "but I meant I don't know what they were thinking leaving me with them. The Lestrange's are known supporters of Voldemort, and they knew I hated them. I always swore they left me down there on purpose, probably paid off that bloody Goblin to." He trailed off into evil mutterings.

James and Remus had heard this story already, Sirius had been a little off at the beginning of their third year and they had eventually wheedled this out of him.

Deciding he wanted to stop the sad eyed looks he was getting from everyone Sirius snapped, "Oh, give the book here Moony. I want to know how much trouble Harry's going to get in." He snatched the book away and began reading.

This was a bad way to end the night. They were taken to Professor McGonagall's office on the first floor, while Harry continued trying to come up with excuses for what they had been doing up there.

"Which is why you always have a cover story before going out," James said in what he clearly thought was a wise voice.

He couldn't see a way out of trouble this time.

"Neither can I," Lily agreed.

"And if you do, I really will think something's wrong with McGonagall," Remus added.

They were cornered. How could they have been so stupid as to forget the cloak? There was no reason on earth that Professor McGonagall would accept for their being out of bed and creeping around the school in the dead of night, let alone being up the tallest astronomy tower, which was out-of-bounds except for classes. Add Norbert and the invisibility cloak, and they might as well be packing their bags already.

"Still not enough to get expelled though," Sirius said quickly when he saw Harry was getting a little pale again.

"I don't know," Lily said, a bit fearfully all of a sudden. "If Filch or McGonagall really do know about the dragon, you know believed Malfoy, they could get into far worse trouble than detention. What they did was actually illegal."

"Lily, you're freaking him out," James snapped, as Harry continued to grow paler.

Lily winced and said sorry, which Harry accepted, though he still looked like he was going to be sick.

Remus finally said, "I really don't think so. Norbert's gone, and all they can prove is Harry was up on the astronomy tower. The cloak is a bit suspicious, but that's all they can prove. McGonagall's always been like that, punishing for what she knows you've done, instead of what she thinks."

"All I'm hoping is that no one brings up Hagrid," Sirius said, "he's the worst liar there is," and then read on quickly.

Harry was sure things couldn't have been worse, when Professor McGonagall made her appearance with Neville.

"Now that's surprising," Lily said, "Neville seemed like a good kid. What reason could he have for being out?"

Sirius read on loudly over Lily.

When Neville spots Harry, he begins trying to warn Harry that Malfoy was going to bust them for having a drag-

"Aw," all four of them said.

"Are you sure you don't become better friends with Neville?" James demanded, "because he seems to crop up as often as your other two friends."

Harry was smiling back at this memory, but had no answer for his Dad.

Harry shushed him, but not quickly enough. Professor McGonagall was livid as she glared down at the three of them, demanding to know what they were all doing out of bed at one in the morning.

"I would tread lightly on what you say next," Sirius said wisely.

When none of them spoke up, McGonagall filled in the blanks herself, thinking that Harry had spread a story around about a dragon to get Malfoy in trouble, and that Harry probably thought it was funny Neville had fallen for it to.

"Wow," James said in surprise, "I've never tried that tactic. Sitting about in silence and letting her come up with a story herself."

"I don't think it's making things any better," Remus said sadly, boy was she off the mark on that one.

Harry tried to give Neville a sorry look, trying to tell him that wasn't true, but Neville just looked confused and hurt.

"Poor dear," Lily sighed, it didn't seem fair Neville had been dragged into all of this, and now he might even think the worst of Harry.

"I'm kind of offended McGonagall thinks Harry would think its funny Neville would get caught," Sirius huffed.

"Well to be fair," Remus said, "we didn't segregate our house from our pranks either. She's

probably thinking along those lines."

McGonagall was outraged, giving them all detentions at once, claiming she'd never heard of four students out of bed in one night.

"Really?" all five of them balked.

"I do believe she's lost her mind," Sirius laughed.

"Perhaps she just said that so Harry wouldn't get any ideas about you," Lily offered to her

husband.

"But he doesn't know anything about me," James said, ignoring the wince of pain that caused.

Remus was shaking his head, as lost as them, so Sirius decided to keep going.

She then took fifty points away from Gryffindor house, and when Harry exclaimed his shock,

"Oh Harry don't," James groaned, "if you try to argue with her she'll double it!"

Sirius read out sadly.

that many points would make them lose the lead they had won from the last Quidditch game,

"And here I thought this night was going so well," Remus muttered.

McGonagall made it fifty points each.

"Ouch," all five of them winced.

Harry tried to protest, but McGonagall cut him off again saying they deserved it for how ashamed she was of Gryffindor.

"Again, I feel almost insulted she seems to have forgotten us," James wanted to laugh, but at Harry's utterly dejected look, he held himself back.

Harry felt stunned, wondering how on earth they could ever make up for this.

"Shouldn't be too hard," Remus said bracingly, "between Hermione getting enough questions right, and two more Quidditch games, you'll be back in the running in no time."

"What's the record for the most house points lost in one night?" Sirius asked.

"I think a Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher back in the 40's once made Ravenclaw house drop all the way to zero," James said, "the kid went out to the Forbidden Forest, got into some kind of fight with the centaurs out there, and almost started a war."

"See," Sirius laughed, "when you put it like that, what you did was minor," Harry smiled around at them all, honestly feeling much better now than he had then.

Harry didn't sleep at all that night, and by the muffled crying noises coming from Neville's bed, he wasn't the only one.

"To a couple of first years though," Lily said sadly, "this would seem like a pretty big deal."

He was sure they were thinking the same thing as him, what would the rest of their house think when they woke up in the morning to find themselves so many points missing.

"They'll be pissed," all three pranksters said at once.

"But like we said," James said quickly when it looked like Harry was about to get down again, "they'll get over it."

In the morning the rest of the house was very confused when they walked past the hourglasses that marked house points. Surely there had been some sort of mistake? But then the story began spreading around, how Harry Potter and a couple of other stupid first years got caught out of bed.

"That's all that got around?" Sirius asked, "I'd think at least some of them would have been

impressed by what you'd actually done. Sneaking into the astronomy tower could have some major fodder for rumours."

Harry shrugged, saying, "we didn't exactly help spread the rumours around. I've no idea what everyone thought we'd lost those points for."

Harry quickly went from being one of the most well liked students for all his Quidditch wins, to the most hated.

"That will tend to go back and forth a lot at school," Remus said.

"The more popular you are, the more it switches," Sirius agreed.

While Harry ducked through corridors, he also had to ignore the attention from the rest of the school as well, like the Slytherins applauding as he walked past, thanking him for losing all those points.

"This school's as over dramatic as ever," Lily sighed.

Only Ron stood by Harry, reminding him that Fred and George lose points all the time for their jokes, and people still liked them.

"Exactly," all three boys said at once.

Harry asked if they'd ever lost a hundred and fifty in a night?

"Maybe not all at once," Sirius said shrugging.

"But as a whole by the end of the year, most likely," James said.

Ron admitted no. Harry felt so down on himself now that he promised he'd no longer meddle around the school,

"Oh yeah?" Remus raised a disbelieving brow.

"I'll bet that lasts, oh about a week," Sirius agreed.

it just wasn't worth it anymore. He felt so awful that he even went to Wood and offered to resign from the team.

"Now that is being over dramatic," James yelped in shock.

"What good would that do you?" Sirius demanded, "Then you would just be sitting around, even more miserable."

Harry frowned, thinking back to how bad he'd felt, just trying to make amends somehow.

Wood refused the offer, pointing out they'd never make up for Harry's lose if they couldn't play!

"Glad Wood didn't accept," Remus agreed.

Sadly though, Harry wasn't enjoying Quidditch practice anymore either. The rest of the team was so annoyed with Harry, they now only referred to him as 'the Seeker.'

"This is getting ridiculous," Lily huffed, hating the way these kids were making her son feel.

"Just kids being kids," James said, not really liking this either, but he had enough familiarity with this type of thing that all three of them could brush it off.

"Even Fred and George?" Remus demanded, thinking that was just a bit hypocritical of them, since he was sure that they were right in saying they must have lost their own fair share of points for their house.

"I sometimes got the feeling they were doing it more jokingly then anything," Harry shrugged, "but yeah."

Hermione had lost her enthusiasm in class as well, she'd stopped raising her hand for every question and instead kept her head down and silently took notes.

"That's ridiculous," Remus said in disbelief, "I thought she'd want to earn those points back."

"She was just trying to keep out of sight," Harry defended.

"Yes, but it would have been better if she'd tried to earn points back for the house, and received a few annoyed looks along the way," Sirius argued back.

Harry's silent promise not to meddle anymore was put to the test one day.

"Well this can't be good," Lily sighed, bracing herself for the worst.

From a classroom ahead, he heard Quirrell's voice whimpering clear please for someone to not do something.

"What on earth?" James asked quietly.

It sounded as though he was being threatened. Harry moved curiously closer to the door.

"When you hear someone threatening a full grown wizard you don't move closer," Remus said, going as pale as the others in sudden fear.

Before Harry could peek inside though, Quirrell sobbed out that he'd do it before blasting out of the door and almost running out of sight, he didn't even seem to see Harry there.

"That's great," James muttered, "now get the bloody hell out of there before whoever was

threatening him comes out to see you."

Harry waited until the footsteps had faded before really looking into the classroom,

"Aw hell," they all whimpered, fearing the worst.

only to find it empty.

"Are you sure?" Lily demanded.

There was another door at the other end, and Harry was fixing to go to it when he

reminded himself of his self-imposed promise not to meddle anymore.

"Yes," they all said, James adding on, "please, listen to that for just this one time."

Harry stood there, torn. He was positive it was Snape who had just left the room, and from what Harry had heard, it seemed like Snape had finally convinced Quirrell to give in.

"Great, let them duke it out, and go away," Remus said at once.

Harry sprinted to the library to find Ron and Hermione and quickly told them what he'd heard. Hermione reminded that just because Snape had figured out Quirrell's thing, doesn't mean he knew how to get past Fluffy. Ron said they didn't know Snape didn't, and turned to Harry, asking what they should do.

"Why do you think you have to do anything?" Lily demanded of nothing.

Hermione answered first, saying they should go to Dumbledore.

"Yes," all four of them said at once.

Harry pursed his lips, declining to mention he doubted they did this.

Harry disagreed, stating all the reasons they had no proof, and that they shouldn't even know about the Stone or Fluffy in the first place.

"Dumbledore will still hear you out," Remus said, "and I know he'll try to calm you down enough you won't feel like you have to do anything."

Ron wasn't convinced, saying if they just did a little more poking around, but Harry cut him off saying he was done with that type of thing.

"Thank you," they all breathed, this punishment was the best thing that could have happened to Harry as far as they were concerned.

That evening when they went to dinner McGonagall reminded them of the detention that went along with the punishment, which would be at eleven o'clock that night, and to meet Filch in the entrance hall.

"Ugh, he's not going to have to clean the trophy room or something is he," Sirius groaned, that was a favourite punishment of Filches.

"Eleven o'clock?" Lily asked, "that's a bit late."

"Sometimes the teachers do it, especially if this is a Friday, to kind of ruin their weekend," James said, having this happened to him a number of times.

Neither Harry, nor Hermione protested, feeling they deserved any punishment.

"You kids are actually starting to depress me," Sirius said in disbelief.

When eleven came around and they went to where they were assigned to go, they found Neville and Malfoy there. Harry honestly forgot about Malfoy having been given a detention as well.

"Really?" James asked, "I thought that was the best part of all this."

Filch told all four of them to follow him outside.

"Outside?" They all said in surprise.

"We never got detention outside," Sirius added on at Harry's confused look.

"Probably because eight out of ten times, you were caught outside when you shouldn't be," Lily snorted, "so they thought giving you detention out there would be more like a reward."

While out on the grounds, Filch was reminiscing about how he'd love to be able to give students a proper detention like stringing kids up by their wrists and leaving them to dangle, that'd keep them out of trouble, he always keeps the chains well-oiled encase Dumbledore ever let him.

"He gives that speech every time," Remus laughed.

"But he's never actually been allowed to do it," Lily told Harry when he began eyeing them with worry.

Harry was starting to feel a little worried, Filch sounded really pleased about whatever punishment they were getting tonight.

"Filch is delighted every time a student's being punished," James said with an eye roll.

Filch led them down to Hagrid's hut, who was outside waiting.

"Bless irony," Sirius cackled.

"Their punishment for sneaking out at night and doing a favour for Hagrid, is going out at night and doing something with Hagrid," James asked, looking like he was torn between envy and pride at this fortune.

"Still," Remus said slowly, "what on earth would they be out there doing for Hagrid?"

Sirius read on quickly now.

Harry felt better at once, surely if they were to be with Hagrid it wouldn't be too bad, but then Filch caught sight of his face and told him he shouldn't be enjoying himself too much with the oaf Hagrid.

All five of them huffed at this, really was Filch just a jerk to everyone?

He then told them they were to be headed into the Forbidden Forest.

"What?" Lily yelped in shock.

"Relax Lily," James brushed her off, "the forest isn't even a punishment really."

"What on earth would they be doing in there though?" Remus asked curiously.

"Maybe helping Hagrid with some nocturnal creature," Sirius suggested, a few coming to his mind at once.

Malfoy stopped in his tracks, fear clearly lacing his tone as he snapped they couldn't go in there, there were supposed to be werewolves in there!

Now all four adults cracked up laughing at this, the three boys hardest of all.

Wiping a tear from his eye, Sirius told Harry, "we started that rumour ourselves."

"Best to keep students out of there during certain times of the month," James added on, messaging his ribs.

Even Remus was smiling slightly, they'd had some good memories out wandering that forest through the years.

This only seemed to amuse Filch more, saying he should have thought of that before he went and broke the rules.

"Why he's encouraging them to be scared is ridiculous," Lily muttered.

Hagrid caught sight of them then, and greeted Harry and Hermione warmly, while Filch told him he shouldn't be too kind because they were here to be punished.

"He probably feels a bit guilty, since he got them into this mess," Lily said, at least hoping that was the case.

Then Filch departed, but not before giving one last kindly mention that he'd be back in the morning for whatever was left of them.

"If only someone would eat him already," Sirius sighed.

The moment Filch was out of sight, Malfoy turned on Hagrid and declared he wouldn't go into the Forest.

"You don't have a choice," James snapped, he may have been angry with Hagrid for his actions regarding the dragon, but his opinion of the man hadn't lessened any. Hagrid was still the one who had been taking care of his son for most of this story, and they all hated hearing anyone be rude to him.

Hagrid said oh yes he was, because that's the punishment Hogwarts gave. Malfoy snapped back he wasn't doing service work, he'd been expecting them to do lines!

Harry's right fist clenched up automatically where the faint white scars were, but no one noticed but him.

Remus was chuckling, saying, "What kind of punishment is that? There's no lasting memory there."

He was going to go back up to the castle and tell his father about this, but Hagrid cut him off and said his father would agree this is how things are done around here. So if he wanted to be expelled, he could go right back up there.

"How I wish he would," Harry sighed.

Malfoy didn't move, so satisfied, Hagrid turned to the rest of them and told them what they'd be doing. They were looking for a hurt unicorn, whose blood was somehowall over the forest.

"Really now?" they all said in surprise.

"What on earth in that forest could catch a unicorn badly enough to make it bleed?" Lily asked.

"The spiders maybe," Sirius offered, "I know there's some pretty awful ones towards the depths. A unicorn might have gotten caught in a web and, I don't know, come towards the edge looking for help."

James and Remus nodded, this made perfect sense to them.

It was the second one in a week,

"That's an anomaly though," James said, quirking a brow, "hardly anything in the forest is dumb enough to go back towards the spider den twice."

"You don't think it could be two unrelated instances," Remus offered.

"Now what are the odds of that," Sirius disagreed, "I don't know. Maybe there's something new in the forest since we left."

Lily looked far from pleased the longer these boys talked, and said, "and you still think it's safe for the kids to go wandering around in there?"

The three boys exchanged looks before they all nodded, James saying, "sure, so long as they stick to the path. Everything in their knows not to mess with the path, cause that's how Hagrid gets around."

Still looking unconvinced, Lily let Sirius read on.

and that they were looking for it, maybe even to put it out of its misery. Malfoy asked what they were supposed to do when whatever attacked those unicorns found them.

Lily pursed her lips, hating to agree with him, but unable to stop herself.

Hagrid told them there wasn't anything in the forest that would hurt them if they stayed on the path, but if they did run into trouble to send up red sparks. Then he switched back to talking about the unicorn, saying it had clearly been staggering around for some time there was so much blood everywhere.

"The poor thing," they all said in real sympathy.

They would have to split into pairs, and Malfoy claimed Fang at once. Hagrid agreed, before pointing out Fang was a coward.

"Well that didn't make me feel better, at all," Lily said in a quavering voice.

Then Hagrid decided that he, Harry, and Hermione would go one way, and Malfoy, Neville, and Fang would go another way.

"Now that sucks," James said, "can't they all go one way, and Malfoy his own direction?"

"If only," Remus agreed.

They wandered out into the forest then, and split off into two separate paths. Harry asked if a werewolf really could be doing this,

"What's with this sudden werewolf fascination?" Remus asked curiously.

Harry bit his lip, not wanting to admit what he'd been thinking then, but at Remus' wide, curious look Harry finally blurted, "I didn't know they were, um like you. Quirrell made them seem like this really awful thing and..." he trailed off miserably, but James gave him a nudge saying "lots of wizards say stuff like that."

Remus was smiling at Harry without any kind of anger and said gently, "I had to listen to it in class as well. Can't do anything but make the best of it."

Harry smiled over at him, happier than anything that he knew Remus now. He also forced himself to keep ignoring this odd feeling that he had some other memory of Remus, or perhaps just another werewolf and he was getting them confused? He really had no idea.

"To answer your question," Sirius said lightly, "no, a werewolf isn't fast enough to catch a

unicorn."

"Know that from personal experience," James laughed, now that had been a memorable night.

Hagrid told him no, they weren't fast enough. In fact it was a rarity for unicorns to be hurt at all. They walked for a while longer before Hagrid shouted that they had to get behind a tree!

"Don't scream like that Sirius," Lily snapped, rubbing over her heart, "you bloody gave me a heart attack."

"Sorry," Sirius said, without sounding very sorry at all.

Harry and Hermione crouched behind an oak, while Hagrid fitted an arrow into his

crossbow, listening intently. They heard a slithering noise in the distance,

"Slithering?" the boys asked, puzzled.

"Are snakes known to be in the forest?" Lily asked.

"Not really," James shook his head, "any normal animals that wander in there get killed pretty easily, or don't last long enough to be a problem."

it sounded like a cloak on the ground threw leaves.

"What are the odds a teacher's in there as well?" Harry asked hopefully.

The silence that greeted this was more than an answer, as well as all of their scared faces.

Hagrid stayed silent until the noise had faded before muttering that there was something in the forest that shouldn't be. Harry once again suggested werewolf.

"Is it even a full moon out?" Remus asked, really laughing this time.

Harry frowned, thinking back, "um, I don't think so. The clouds were really thick that night, and I never got a proper look."

"Then just let it go pup," Sirius chuckled.

Hagrid said no, that he didn't know what that noise was, then he heard a new noise closer and demanded that whatever it was should show itself. Out stepped half a man, half a chestnut body of a horse. Harry and Hermione felt themselves go slack jawed,

"I don't blame you," James agreed, "seeing a centaur for the first time can be a bit shocking."

"Anyone you know?" Lily asked, genuinely curious.

"We never got on a first name basis with the centaurs," Sirius said, "they never liked us creeping around them much to get acquainted."

as they came face to face with a centaur. Hagrid greeted him with familiarity, calling him Ronan. The centaur said hello to Hagrid back, turning his attention curiously to Harry and Hermione, asking if they were students at the school, and how much they learned. Hermione just said a bit.

"A bit?" They all snickered.

"Nice to see how much faith she has in the school" Harry laughed, it was much easier to be relaxed and thinking back on this night in this brightly lit living room surrounded by these people, though he couldn't quite fight back another wave of pain that was clouding him. Something really awful happened in the forest, something that he really was afraid of. Yet these three had wandered around the forest for years and nothing to bad seemed to happen to them.

Ronan didn't seem impressed, then randomly looked up into the sky and said that mars was bright this night. Hagrid hardly glanced up before asking the centaur if he'd seen a hurt unicorn, or anything weird. Ronan took his time answering before saying that it was always the innocent who were the first victims.

"That, wasn't an answer," Lily said.

"Yeah, the very few times we did talk to them, they were annoying enough we didn't try very hard," James said, grimacing.

Hagrid repeated his question, and this time Ronan merely repeated that mars is bright tonight. Hagrid repeated if he saw anything unusual, closer to home,

All five of them laughed at this small humorous exchange, so far this hadn't been nearly as

stressful as they would have feared.

and Ronan merely said that the forest hides secrets.

"Now that's beyond true," Sirius agreed, smiling to himself.

Then there was more movement, and yet another centaur stepped forward, this one black in colour. Hagrid said a hello to him as well, calling him Bane.

"Does Hagrid know all of the centaurs?" Harry asked in surprise.

"Most of them yeah," Remus said, "he spends as much time in the forest as we did, but he takes more time to get to know the creatures in there."

"Yeah, we just kind of liked roaming around for the hell of it," Sirius laughed.

Hagrid asks Bane this time if he's seen anything, and Bane mimics Ronan at looking up into the sky and merely saying that mars is bright tonight.

"That gag's not funny anymore," James said, rolling his eyes. This was usually the point in the conversation he and his friends walked away.

Hagrid lost his patience with the pair and said that if they did see anything, to let him know, before escorting Harry and Hermione away. Then he grumbled that you should never try and get a straight answer out of a centaur.

"I would have never guessed that," Sirius huffed.

Harry asks if that was a centaur they heard the first time, and Hagrid pointed out that was not the sound of hooves, that it wasn't anything he'd ever heard before.

They all tensed up at this, none of them appreciating Hagrid's confirmation of what they all had been thinking.

A cloak, that could mean a wizard, which meant whoever was at school this year trying to steal the Stone, and kill Harry it seemed, was most likely the one out there with him right now. Either that or it was still some new creature capable of hurting a unicorn, which wasn't any more kind to think about near Harry.

'Please let me just be paranoid and not right,' they hoped dearly to both options.

Hermione then notices red sparks in the distance.

"Crap," James muttered at once, any number of scenarios blowing through his mind.

"I don't care about the Malfoy twat, but don't let Neville get hurt," Sirius muttered.

"They're fine, I'm sure," Remus said, unable to keep the edge out of his own voice, "one of them probably panicked or..." he trailed off, and Sirius hurried on.

Hagrid ran off at once, telling them to stay put. Hermione and Harry worried the whole time he was gone, saying they would blame themselves if anything happened to Neville, but thankfully Hagrid came back with both boys and Fang.

"Thank Merlin," they all breathed in relief.

Hagrid was furious, as apparently Malfoy had snuck up on Neville and grabbed him as a prank.

"Like I said," Sirius spat in disgust, "no pity what so ever for that little twat."

Neville had panicked and sent up the sparks, and Hagrid was now convinced that with all the noise they were making they wouldn't find a thing now. Then he reassigned partners, telling Harry to go with Malfoy and Fang while Neville could stay with him.

"Hagrid no," all four adults groaned.

"He could get hurt," Lily fretted, her panic at once going up about five more levels without Hagrid there to protect him.

"He'll just insult him the whole time," James disagreed. He still stood by what he said, that forest wasn't so dangerous so long as you knew what you were doing. The problem though, was that Harry didn't know what he was doing, since it was his first time in. Plus, with Malfoy there, he really didn't expect reliable backup if something did happen. Okay, yeah now his panic was beginning to rise again.

Hagrid whispered an apology to Harry as they departed, but insisted they had to get this job done.

"That did not make me feel better, at all," Remus huffed.

Harry set off with Malfoy now, wandering deeper into the forest and finally coming across a blood trail.

"Please tell me you found it, Hagrid fixed it up, and you went back to bed," Lily prayed.

They inched forward following it, until they finally came across the dead unicorn.

All five of them were frowning sadly at this, it was a true loss when something so purely good and magical was killed for any reason.

Harry continued edging towards it when he heard the same slithering noise from before.

Muscles were tensing up all along Sirius' jaw as he read this. He suddenly decided he'd take the magical creature run in's more than any dark wizard creeping around.

They were all wound tighter than ever before, and no one had the heart to interrupt Sirius with pointless speculation now.

At the opposite end of the clearing something came crawling out of a bush.

"Crawling," James breathed, so perhaps not an actual dark wizard, though none of them had any idea what it was, so the point still stood they wanted him out of there.

They stood there, petrified as the figure prowled closer and began drinking the unicorn's blood.

"That is wrong on so many levels," Remus said in disgust.

"If anything drinks a unicorn's blood, it's cursed," James whispered to Harry, pleased to hear whatever this was seemed more interested in the creature then his son.

Malfoy screamed, loudly.

"And that just drew its attention to you," Lily moaned, nearly biting her lip to blood in worry,

again.

Then he and Fang bolted, turning the creature's attention on Harry,

"Why didn't you run to!" Remus practically screamed, they all looked torn between passing out or screaming at him.

"I froze up," Harry admitted, rubbing his scar and wondering why he remembered it paining him dearly.

and Harry couldn't move a muscle he was so terrified. The creature got to two feet and began stalking towards Harry, whose scar suddenly felt like it was lit on fire.

"Wha-" James whispered.

"What kind of thing can do that?" Remus demanded.

Lily had Harry's hand clutched so tightly in her own, Harry was beginning to lose feeling in it again.

Half blind with pain, Harry tried staggering away, when he heard hooves approaching.

"Another unicorn?" James wondered, pressing his shoulder into Harry's and resisting the urge to pull him into a hug for his own comfort. That would drag him away from Lily though, so he'd settle for squishing his son. He dearly hoped the thing will be distracted and Harry will find his legs again.

Whatever it was jumped clean over Harry and continued galloping towards the thing. The pain in Harry's head hadn't lessened any as he fell to his knees, the pain taking a minute to pass away.

Harry was pale as the others, his hand that wasn't being pinned by this mother's massaging his scar in real pain. It wasn't hurting now, thankfully, but he did remember that fiery pain all too well.

When he did look up, it was to find a centaur coming back towards him,

"I take back every foul thing I said about centaurs," Sirius breathed, looking euphoric from the sudden relief he felt.

"I don't care who this centaur is, next chance I get, I'm going out to the forest to shake his hand," Remus agreed.

James and Lily were still a bit too in shock at yet another death moment their eleven year old had experienced.

and it was one he hadn't yet met, with a palomino body. Younger in the face, it kindly asked if Harry was okay, who agreed he was as he got shakily to his feet and asked what that was. The centaur didn't answer, but instead asked if he was Harry Potter.

That shook Lily out of her shock, saying, "Jeez, how famous is Harry for the centaurs to know him by sight?"

"As famous as Dumbledore," James said, the true scope of his son's fame being put into

perspective for the first time.

The centaur then told Harry the forest wasn't safe for him and they had to get out of there, and offered Harry a ride.

"Bloody hell," Sirius looked more jealous than anything now, "you road a centaur? No one in wizard history has ever done that, with consent anyways."

"Don't tell me," Lily began, eyeing Sirius warily.

"Don't be daft Lily," Sirius said at once, "I would never do something like that."

Lily nodded, admitting she was sorry.

He introduced himself as Firenze as Harry climbed on.

All four adults nodded in remembrance at this, while Harry sighed in relief, the name of this

centaur had felt really important to him for some reason, was it possible Harry would run into him again?

When Firenze was fixing to leave, Ronan and Bane made a fierce appearance, yelling that Firenze was disgracing them by acting like a mule and letting Harry ride him.

"That's exactly why no person's ever been on them," James said, "they think it's insulting."

"Good thing Firenze is friendlier," Lily sighed.

Firenze tried to protest, saying this was Harry Potter and he had to get out of the forest as fast as possible. Bane was still not pleased, growling that it was none of their business, that they were sworn not to by the heavens.

"Sworn by who?" Lily asked.

"I've no idea," Remus said curiously, "no one really knows anything about centaur kind. They're far too secretive, and hardly allow anyone around their land. Hagrid is probably one of the few people they've made an actual friend of."

Ronan tried to back Firenze up, saying he was sure he was just doing what he thought was best. Bane was even less pleased, rearing up in anger and shouting that it was their job to watch and foretell the future, not go running around after humans.

"That's ridiculous," James snorted, "why would you only care about the future? What's the point in living if you don't enjoy the moments you're in now?"

"Well spoken," Lily agreed.

Firenze argued back that the unicorn dying was setting something bad in motion, and he was willing to work alongside humans if that meant fixing it. Then he spun around and galloped away from the other two.

Harry frowned, rubbing his temple again. He felt bad for Firenze, he had clearly been set apart by his own kind, and he had a sinking feeling it was only going to get worse.

Harry tried to ask what Bane was so angry about, and again asked what he had been saved from.

"I don't care why Bane's angry," Remus snorted, "but I would very much like to know the other question."

Firenze slowed to a walk but kept walking for some time, not seeming intent on answering Harry.

Both Sirius and Remus gave a little huff of annoyance.

When he did stop in a particularly dense part of the forest, he instead asked a question of his own, which was if Harry knew what unicorn blood was used for. Harry said no, that they only used the horn and tail hairs in Potions.

"And you only ever will," Lily agreed.

Firenze explained that this was because unicorns are so purely good and magical that it was a terrible crime to slay one. The blood of a unicorn will keep you alive, even if you are a breath from death. Because you have slain something and drank the blood of something so pure and defenseless,

"Defenseless is going a bit far," Sirius snorted, "you ever seen a unicorn charge you with one of those horns. Not pleasant."

"Well I did warn you not to go around that foal," Remus laughed, "so that was your own fault."

for your own gain, you will be cursed the rest of your life. Harry wondered who would be that desperate, if you were to be cursed the rest of your life wouldn't it be better just to die? Firenze agreed, but pointed out that if you had something else to drink, something else that would give you strength and power...

The book slipped out of Sirius' grip and hit the floor with a dull thunk. All four of them had gone suddenly rigid as a new thought hit them. They hadn't been thinking this at all, but it did make sense in the most dark and twisted way.

"Mum, Dad?" Harry asked in concern, "What did he say?"

James swallowed hard, meeting Harry's eyes fleetingly before whispering, "the Philosopher's Stone is being hidden at the school. It has the Elixir of Life in it, and a powerful dark wizard is trying to steal it..." his voice trailed off as he looked desperately at his son, waiting for Harry to catch on, and he saw instantly when he did.

Harry's wide green eyes went wider as he slowly whispered, "Voldemort."

For the first time in a very long time, all four adults in the room shivered at the name.

"But who-" Lily began, then her voice broke off in a choke, she looked like she was about to start screaming any second.

"It makes sense though," Sirius whispered, color beginning to return to his face, but it wasn't his normal tone, it was bright red. He continued on, still in a deadly whisper, "Who wants Voldemort to come back more than his loyal Death Eaters."

"Don't," Lily moaned, pressing her hands to her ears. It was too much. She couldn't get the

thought out of her head. The first friend she'd ever had in her life. The young boy who had

comforted her for years about how awful her sister was to her. The gangling teen who always sat around and listened to her, no matter how trivial. Then that last image. The last time she had spoken to her best friend, and he had insulted her in the worst way possible.

It was because she had never forgiven him he'd been drawn into that dark circle of friends. If she had just forgiven him, given him another chance...she hadn't realized she was crying until Harry wrapped his arms around her in a comforting hug.

While he and James were almost identical in height and build, she could still sense the difference. Looking up at him, she saw the sadness in his eyes mirroring hers, and the conviction when he said, "It wasn't him."

Then his face crumpled in pain, and he looked like he was about to fall off the couch.

James caught him before he could, and their temporary fear was gone in an instance at this real and sudden fear. Harry was clutching his skull as if it were about to burst in two, he was sweating and panting like he'd run a mile, and tears were leaking out of his own eyes now.

Sirius got to his feet and made towards the kitchen again, but Remus called him back saying, "He's already coming out of it."

He spoke the truth, Harry's eyes were already beginning to flutter open again, he was looking around at all of them with sorrow deep in his eyes as he whispered, "Sorry."

James helped him to sit up straight, while saying quietly, "I, it's alright. You got your mother to stop crying so that's something."

Lily swatted him good naturedly, but then pressed her lips together into a thin line to stop herself from asking any of the questions that were burning inside of her. She knew Harry was right, that was a memory that had returned to him with such force, but then what the bloody hell was going on at that school. If it wasn't Severus Snape who was helping Voldemort to return, she suddenly gave a vindictive smile, then waltzed over and smacked Sirius Black on the back of the head.

"Ouch, what the bloody hell was that for?" He demanded, rubbing at the spot.

They had been sitting around talking to Harry, making sure he was alright and no worse for wear from that sudden outburst. Lily looked down at him with a stern look and said, "You were wrong, and you need to apologize."

Sirius opened his mouth to argue, then shut it quickly as he seemed to realize what she meant.

"I was wrong too Lily," Remus said, grinning slightly at the pair, "you going to whack me to?"

"I'm considering it," she said honestly.

The pair exchanged exasperated looks, then looked to their friend like 'help' but James just shook his head and said, "can't do nothing for you boys. I promised Lily I wouldn't do anything to him until these books were over."

"And now I want the same promise from you two," Lily added on.

They exchanged grudging looks again before both saying together, "Sorry."

Nodding happily, she walked back over and took her spot beside Harry, brushing the hair back from his face and asking in her own way if he was alright.

The boys made their way back to their own seats as well, the panic they had felt at the flooding realization Voldemort may not truly be gone dimmed slightly now. Harry was fully grown in front of them right now. It felt stupid they had to keep reminding themselves of this, but it really didn't help when moments like this just kept occurring back to back.

If, and they all very much hoped they were wrong, but if Voldemort did make a comeback in Harry's time, they sincerely hoped he had better things to do then come after Harry.

Perhaps he didn't even remember Harry, who knew what happened to a mind when, well what ever happened to Voldemort to make him disappear.

Sirius scooped up the book from where he dropped it, and finally read on in calmer tones.

Harry recognized that Firenze was talking about the Philosopher's Stone, but then

wondered who- Firenze cut him off and asked Harry if he could think of someone who had been waiting for their chance to come back to power. Harry realized he was talking about Voldemort.

Sirius still shuddered slightly, privately taking back every time he'd mocked someone for

shivering. He could finally see why they did, and he didn't like it.

Their conversation was cut off by Hermione running towards them, Hagrid not far behind.

"Hoping that means Malfoy and Fang made it back to Hagrid alright," Lily said, looking about for something more friendly to think on.

Harry tells Hagrid that they found the unicorn, dead. Firenze lets Harry off, telling him it was safe now.

"Is he really?" Remus breathed, not believing that himself until his little cub was back safe in the castle with Dumbledore at his post.

Ron had fallen asleep in a chair waiting for them to come back.

They all breathed a silent sigh of relief, even the three boys promising right then they did not want Harry going back into that forest.

Harry was quick to explain to all of them what he'd figured out that night, that Snape didn't want the Stone for himself, but for Voldemort,

None of them flinched this time, finally getting over their shock for good, but all three boys were now fully aware why everyone else in the world did it. None of them planned on telling Lily this though, they didn't think she needed another 'I told you so' moment so soon after the last one.

and that Voldemort was waiting in the forest for it. They had just thought Snape wanted to get rich.

Harry shook his head, sighing sadly at his younger self, but utterly sure that eleven year old him was wrong. If only he could remember why.

Ron hissed that Harry should stop saying the name, but Harry ignored him, still pacing around and talking fast about how the centaurs must have figured out that Voldemort was destined to come back,

"Can the planets show that?" Remus asked, truly interested.

"I failed astronomy, don't ask me," Sirius said.

"I've heard of branches of magic claiming that planets can foretell of dangers yes, and I suppose the centaurs may be able to read even more then that," Lily said curiously, she had always loved astronomy.

and that Bane was sure that Voldemort was also destined to kill Harry. Ron again snapped that Harry should stop saying the name,

"That's what he caught on?" James snorted, moving just a little closer to his son out of fear. An inept fear, but it was still there.

and Harry still ignored him, finishing by saying that if Snape did get the Stone that

Voldemort would for sure come back and kill Harry, but at least that would make Bane happy.

Sirius was stammering by the end of the sentence, boy he never wanted to say those words again.

"How on earth could you have said that with such a straight face?" Remus demanded.

Harry simply shrugged saying, "I was having an out of body experience. It didn't feel that real to me," and privately thinking that, at the time, no one would really miss him if that were true anyways.

Hermione tried to comfort Harry, reminding him that as long as Dumbledore was here at the school with them, You-Know-Who couldn't touch Harry.

"That's about the only thing keeping me in my skin right now," Lily agreed.

They talked long into the night until the sun was about to rise, but the nights surprises weren't over.

Sirius' voice hitched, he didn't think he could stand any more of Harry's 'surprises' without having a heart attack.

When Harry went up to bed, he found his invisibility cloak folded up in his bed.

James released a huge breath admitting, "honestly, in all the chaos, I forgot to ask you when you went back up there to get it."

Harry frowned, puzzling to himself how it had gotten there, and so were the others apparently as Remus asked, "I don't suppose it has a note again, telling you who left it?"

Sirius read out loud.

There was a note pinned to it, that only said 'just in case.'

"And that's the chapter," he said, tossing the book to Harry.

"Bummer," James said.

"It must be a teacher at the school then," Remus said, rubbing his jaw, "maybe McGonagall? She's in the Order to, there could be a reason she would have your cloak I suppose. Who else would give that back to Harry?"

"McGonagall doesn't even know I own the cloak though," James argued.

"Well who else other than a teacher at that school would both recognize it as belonging to you, and give it back to Harry?" Sirius argued, thinking Remus had a good idea.

"McGonagall and Dumbledore are the only two I can think of," Lily agreed.

Sirius wanted to argue that maybe it could still be one of the three Marauders, but then that brought up the awful question all over again of where they'd been all these years? Also how they knew about the cloak at the school, and sent it back to Harry? They had nothing new to go on, so he remained silent.

James sighed, still rather frustrated at why those teachers would have it at all, but knew better then to think on it for too long. It's not like Harry knew the answer, so he instead asked if Harry was ready to read.

HPHPHPHP

During my original rendition of this series, I got a comment from clh saying that the person was not pleased that Harry remembered it was Snape in this chapter, that it ruined the rest of the book:

I made Harry remember it was Snape for several reasons, the first of which so that you would see what would happen and understand it when, in the second book, Harry remembers Ginny's alive you recognize it wouldn't be the same thing as actually 'remembering.' I do know it kind of killed the mood, but if Harry didn't do it then, when he saw his Mom in such pain, then he hardly could have done it at a later time for possibly a lesser reason. Don't worry though, the suspension for the characters is still going to be there, as I'm pretty sure this won't happen again the rest of the series. There's only one other moment I can think right off the top of my head where Harry will clearly remember something, but it's nothing you guys are going to guess. As always, to each and every person, thank you for reading and reviewing, it really does help me push past some rough spots.