The first thing Harry did was look for his friends. The first one that he saw was Ron. Ron was in the entrance hallway talking to one of the dueling club students. When he saw Harry he waved and finished his conversation.
"So make sure that it's a slashing motion with the wand, keep practicing." The student walked off, stowing his wand away. "So what's up, Harry?"
"We need to go into the Forbidden Forest, something attacked Al and Rose's friend. Do you know where Hermione is right now?"
"Hogsmeade. But what about Ginny?"
"Don't think she should go with us this time."
Ron chuckled and they started going right back the way Harry came, back to the grounds. "You know what my little sister would say if she heard you say that."
"Something along the lines of," Harry put on a falsetta, "Harry Potter I can take care of myself just as well as anybody else, and you know it." He dropped the higher pitch. "Odds are that I'd receive a bat-bogey to the face right after that."
Harry pointed to a spot in the Forbidden Forest, "That's where I determined the attack originated from." Ron and Harry started walking towards it.
"So why don't you want Ginny coming with us?" Ron asked.
"We should have someone stay at Hogwarts in case something happens. What if they're luring us to the forest, could be a trap and we might need somebody to remain behind just in case."
Harry pulled out his faithful wand as they entered the line of trees, Ron did the same. They wandered past the first few trees and a wave of memories returned to Harry.
"I wonder if the car is still here." Ron told Harry, "That would be cool."
"Probably has a dead battery after so long. It's been too many years for that thing to not have run out of gas or died. Hey, didn't you give your dad a different car recently?"
"Yeah, mini cooper. He's already got it flying."
They talked about flying cars for a while while they searched the area. Ten minutes passed without them finding any evidence of who may have attacked Al and Rose. There were no footprints, crushed plants, or broken branches; absolutely nothing that could've helped determine which way a person may have run. Harry kept using the revealing charm: Apericium, but that was also useless.
"Homenum Revelio." Harry switched up his spell, looking instead for human presence. The answer washed over him as the spell spread out. Harry pointed towards a grouping of rotted logs. He dropped himself into a crouch behind a small bush, gesturing for Ron to do the same.
"There's two people over there." Harry pointed at the logs, "I don't know if they're Death Eaters or not, but be ready for anything."
Harry held out his wand at the logs. "Whoever is there, come out. Nobody is allowed back here." Harry let his voice carry all the way past his logs.
Something stirred behind the logs, dirt clods crumbling and dissolving as they fell from the front of the logs, rot shaking itself off as something moved. Harry kept his sight, and his wand, pointed at a spot right above the log; where a head would be if it looked up. Ron held his cover, his own wand copying Harry's. The stirring behind the logs stopped, a cloaked head looked out from on top, right in the line of sight of Harry.
"Just come out." Harry called, "We don't want any trouble." Harry stood up a bit, relaxing into a half crouch.
"Stupefy!"
A jet of red light flew from a wand some three feet to the right of the peeking head.
Harry ducked, the jet splashing harmlessly against a distant tree behind Harry. When he was able to look again, the peeking head now replaced by an arm and a wand.
From the log came a girl's voice, "Petrificus Totalus!" And the curse flew, not even getting close to Harry or Ron due to not being aimed.
Harry shot out of cover, "Stupefy!", and ducked back down. Hitting his target wasn't his goal, but seeing his area was.
From the limited glance, Harry determined the logs were in a U shape, and at the right end was another log jutting out from the U. One person must be hidden in the U, the girl's voice, and somebody must be behind the jutting log.
"Give me cover." Harry called to Ron. Ron nodded and began shooting spells haphazardly at the logs, just shooting them into the logs to keep their two assailants under cover.
Harry rushed from his bush to a tree on his left, then another, making his way around the U. He made it halfway before seeing a spell pass two inches in front of his face. He could feel the wind on the spell blow by him, rushing through his hair.
He ducked back to the last tree, firing off a trip jinx as he went. He flung his back against the tree and bark dug into his cloak to poke his skin.
They still weren't able to tell anything about their attackers, the cloaks covered every inch of skin.
"Expulso!" The girl screamed. Ron dove away as his bush cover was decimated by the ensuing explosion. Pieces of wood chips and leaves slapped him as he rolled away behind another bush on his right.
"So that's how you play." Harry grumbled to himself, then fired his own spell. "Reducto!"
Harry fired downwards at the cover hiding the girl, nodding grimly as the log disintegrated and she was forced to retreat. Whoever the girl's companion was; he retreated with her as well, sending spells over his shoulder as he joined her.
Ron returned fire from new cover he'd moved to as the girl retreated, a stone pillar some ten feet away from Harry. "Impedimenta!" Ron bawled, aiming at the boy. The boy saw the spell coming and moved out of the way, but the girl was not so lucky. The spell completely missed the boy to hit the girl in the center of her naval.
She screamed as she was hit, falling backwards to be as immobile as Ron's cover. The guy ducked down and picked her up over his shoulder. He started to run away as Harry and Ron tried their hardest to give chase and send spells at him. While he ran, he turned around once to aim at the guy who hit his partner.
"Expulso!"
The spell landed at Ron's feet. The dirt ruptured like a volcano had sprouted from the ground. Dirt clods, rocks, leaves, all went sky-high from the explosion. Ron's body soon followed the lighter objects. Ron was thrown back into the air by the force of the spell and flew into a tree, slumping over, he didn't move from where he lay.
Harry stopped his pursuit and checked on his friend. No serious bleeding, he was only knocked out. Harry got up to continue his chase, then paused. The Forbidden Forest must still be home to magical beasts, leaving Ron here was an easy death sentence.
The guy and his companion got away, and Harry let them go as he carried Ron's unconscious body out of the forest and back to the castle. On his way, Harry ran into Hermione who was returning from Hogsmeade with Firewhisky and Butterbeer. She almost dropped the bag she was carrying when she saw Ron.
"Oh my God, is he okay? What happened?" She frantically rushed over to her husband's side.
"We went into the Forest in order to investigate something I found out. Two people in black cloaks attacked us as we looked. Ron hit one of the attackers with Impedimenta, but he was knocked out seconds later. I let them go so I could get him back to safety before an animal, or worse, got to him."
"Are the Skrewts still in the forest?" Hermione asked, remembering the beasts of their fourth year.
"Maybe, but I didn't want Ron to find out the hard way."
Hermione searched Ron for injuries, finding none she pulled out her wand and did some deft spellwork that made Ron's unconscious body follow Harry and her in mid-air as they walked. They walked straight back to the castle and made a beeline for the hospitality wing. They strode through the doors and set Ron down on a bed, by the time the matron was walking over, the work was done.
"I'm sorry," The student matron said, "But what is this?"
"He's been knocked out."
"I can see that. One sec, let's get the matron. Oi! Madame Abott!"
Hanah Abott came out of her office for the second time today to see an unconscious person, she sighed. "Will the madness ever stop? What happened?"
"He was knocked out. Hannah, is that you?" Harry asked.
"Yes it is me, Harry, I'm the matron now. Didn't your boy James tell you that? He came in last year with a massive lump the size of a quaffle on his elbow, I told him once he was fixed that he should tell his dad who's working here now."
Harry put a hand behind his head, "I guess he forgot to mention that. So, any help for Ron here?"
"Rest." Came the age-old answer. "Lots of rest."
It was at this moment that Ron chose to wake up. He mumbled and put a hand to his head, rubbing his eyes and ginger hair. He tried to sit up, but Hannah pushed him back down before he could get far.
"I said rest." She told him firmly.
"Oi, what the heck... Hannah? Where am I?"
Hannah walked over to a cabinet and pulled out a small chest, inside there was a piece of never-melting ice. She gave that to Ron to put on his head, "You're in the Hospitality wing. You were knocked out."
"Oh." Ron looked over to Harry, "Did they really get me? Hard to imagine, maybe I'm out of practice."
Hermione rushed over and hugged Ron. Then opened up her bag to reveal the drinks. "I'm so glad you're okay." She whispered while handing him a little bottle of butterbeer that came from the Three Broomsticks.
Ron kept looking at Harry, who nodded. "They got you all right. But I don't think that there was really any chance of you dodging, I had to drag you out of the Forbidden Forest before something else got you. It would be bad if we go through all that we had and a lousy Acromantula decides you're a tasty unconscious treat."
Ron had to agree with that logic, "But then they got away?"
"Yeah."
"We at least know that they're from Hogwarts."
A surprised look crossed Harry's face, "How do you know that?"
"One of them had a Ravenclaw prefect badge on, I saw it when their cloaks billowed while running, and the other had a Griffindor cloak. Standard issue for people who didn't bring their own. Now we know that their here, and we can bring them down." Ron sipped out of his glass of Butterbeer and relaxed, "Oh that's the good stuff. Rosmerta hasn't lost her touch in brewing these."
Harry smiled, "I hope that we can find them." An image of Albus bleeding went through his mind, "Or that wouldn't be the best outcome."