He didn't know when he fell asleep, he just knew that he jumped when he heard the door of the common room open. In walked dirty and tired Hermione, Neville and Harry. Ron yawned but sat up, Scabbers squeaking as Ron picked him up and placed the lazy vermin on his shoulder.

"Hey guys. How'd it go?" Ron asked.

Harry looked as though he was going to answer when a large yawn slipped past his lips. Ron gave a sympathetic grin. He had fallen asleep, no doubt they were all exhausted.

"Maybe you guys can tell me in the morning. Why don't we head to bed?"

It was a testament to their tiredness when no one protested. Even Hermione was dragging her feet to her room. At least, Ron assumed so. Couldn't exactly see with the gender magic barrier in the dorm. Seriously though, why did the girls have one and the boys didn't?

He didn't know. And he wasn't going to waste sleep thinking about it. He slipped into bed after making sure Harry and Neville were good. He placed Scabbers on the pillow he moved aside for the rat on a nearby nightstand.

The next morning was better. Ron helped wake Neville and Harry while Hermione had gotten herself up. Well, she had always been an early riser so, even as tired as she was, Ron wasn't all that surprised.

On their way down to breakfast, Ron asked again what had happened during their detention.

"Well, Filch took us to our detention. He led us to Hagrid's hut," Hermione explained with quick and precise bullet point like sentences. Impersonal, but did the job.

"Hagrid took us into the forbidden forest," Neville said with a hint of awe and fear in his voice. Ron nearly tripped over his own two feet at that.

"He did what? Isn't that place, oh I don't know... forbidden?" he questioned, already knowing the answer was going to be one he wouldn't like.

"Yeah. He said it was our punishment for being out," Harry admited with a slight bit of fear in his voice.

"Okay. So you went out to the super forbidden forest that would land you in detention, for your detention. What happened in there?"

"We went exploring."

"Really? Exploring? Sounds delightful."

"Hagrid had found unicorn blood. We were to help him out to find the creature, and if it couldn't be saved, put it out of it's misery."

"He wanted you guys to kill it?" Ron squeaked, rather horrified. He knew that there were children in the states who were his age who hunted things like deer, but this was a unicorn. Weren't they considered special or something?

"No. Oh god no. Hagrid was going to..."

"Okay, I get it. So you guys went searching for a unicorn. Did you guys find it?"

"Oh, it was found," Neville said with a slight quiver to his voice. No one had the urge to continue but Ron just had to know.

"So tell me about it."

"Well, we all broke off into groups. Harry, Hagird and I went off in one group, Fang, Neville and Malfoy went off in another. We were told to use a flare spell if we ran into anything."

"Like the unicorn?"

"Or worse."

"Okay, so you were in different groups in a dark and possibly rightly forbidden piece of land. What happened next?"

"Malfoy happened. He had been jumpy entering the forest. Mind you, I was scared too, it was spooky in there. Lots of shadows, lots of wind... Lots of spiderwebs. I don't know why, but he thought it would be bloody funny to scare me. I jumped and set the flares into the sky. It didn't take long for Hagrid, Harry and Hermione to show up."

"Hagrid was mad. He took Neville and Harry went around with Malfoy."

"You went with him?" Ron was quite surprised. Malfoy did always hold an air of animosity. A tension of sorts. He didn't think Harry would interact with him him willingly. Actually, it was doubtful it was willingly.

"I didn't have a choice."

"It was pretty calm with Hermione and I, until Malfoy ran into us."

"He ran into you?"

"Yes," Hermione began, adding her own bit to what sounded like a convaluted story, "He ran up, looking right spooked. He kept looking over his shoulders, almost as if he had run into a werewolf or something."

"To be fair, there was an odd wind blowing through. It was a bit warmer than expected," Neville added in rather dipolmatically.

"He was scared of something."

"He was scared of Voldemort."

Neville jumped, fear spread rapidly on his face.

"Harry!" he hissed out, "You can't just say- say that!"

"Why not? And what's the big deal about this Voldemort fellow. No one really talks about him," Ron commented.

"Ronald!" Hermione squeaked, "Voldemort was a big piece in your trial."

"Would you guys please stop saying that name?" Neville pleaded.

"Sorry," Ron apologized to make Neville feel better, "Anyway Harry, go on."

"Malfoy and I ran into the injured unicorn. It was dead when we arrived, and something shrouded in black was drinking its' blood," Harry began with his nerves catching in his voice, "My scar was burning when it raised its' head. Malfoy ran and I fell to the ground. It came towards me and I-I felt like I couldn't move. Then, from out of nowhere, a centaur appeared and chased it off. He was very nice. His name was Firenze. He got me out of there and back to everyone."

"What does Volde- I mean, what does he have to do with it?"

"Firenze gave me a warning. I think... I think he's not entirely gone. And there is something in the castle he's after."

"What would he be after?" Ron questioned. Harry shrugged his shoulders.

"I don't know. But whatever it is, I think it's in the third floor corridor."

"That's what Professor Quirrel and Snape were talking about," Ron blurted out.

"What?"

The four paused in the hall. Ron fidgeted for a bit and looked around the halls. When he saw no one, he began to explain.

"When I was in the hospital wing, I heard Professor Snape threatening Professor Quirrel. It makes sense. Professor Snape can be mean, but I haven't seen it towards another professor like that."

"What did he say exactly?" Hermione prodded.

"Not much. I was tired and Madam Pomfrey interrupted them and sent them off. What I do know, is that Snape was threatening Quirrel."

The four went on with their day thinking of the insanity of the past few days. The dragon, the forest, the fear that one of their teachers (most likely Snape) was working for a presumed dead dark lord and Ron's attempt to ignore the fact that the twins and Percy had made him celebrate his actual birthday with them. Ron didn't know exactly what to do, so he sent his dad a few vague letters, asking for advice. He loved his dad and all, he was cautious of what might happen if he let on what was going on.

The American government was not known for their subtly, and Ron didn't want to risk his dad's guardianship over this.

He and his friends spent their days on edge, now periodically making their way to the restricted third floor corridor to listen for Fluffy. He growled as always making everyone feel better that whatever was being protected was secured by Hagrid's large beast.

"Wait a second," Ron said aloud in the library where he and his friends were studying.

"What Ron?" Hermione asked sounding rather irritated.

"Fluffy is Hagrid's dog. Wouldn't Hagrid know what's being protected?"

"What the hell are you doing Hawkass?" Tony asked walking into what appeared to be a party room. Wrapping paper and tissue paper was strewn around everywhere and there was a hawk, cleaning their feathers as Clint wrote something down.

"Oh, hey Tony."

"Don't hey Tony me. What is this stuff? And why wasn't I invited?"

"Oh this? Ron sent me a letter about his birthday. Apparently, his birthday is is March First."

"It's halfway through March."

"I know. He didn't know until his brothers surprised him. But, I'm still going to celebrate it April second til he complains."

"And you got him three boxes-"

"Nah. I got him one. And Natasha's supposed to bring by the others' gifts for him. These two," he said gesturing to the red and gold packages, "Are for Fred and George. April Fools Day babies."

Happy belated Fred and George's birthday! And Happy birthday Black Widow! And Happy Honorary Birthday Ron!

And Ron has thought of something. So ideas! Story! Who wants the chaos?