As far as Sirius knew, since Albus sat down with the children and gave them a proper chastisement, there hadn't been any overtures of peace between Catherine and Harry. Granted, there hadn't seemed to be any outright statements of war, either, so Sirius supposed he would take what he could get.

"I worry about her, Moony," Sirius said, rubbing his eyes. It was raining again, springtime in Scotland. "She's too much like me."

"And he's way too much like James," Remus said, sitting by the fireplace, reading essays. "You two never had these problems."

"We couldn't afford to fight," Sirius said, his eyebrows twitching. "I didn't have anything else, and James would have considered it a waste of energy, with the battles going on outside Hogwarts. And sometimes inside Hogwarts."

"The drawbacks of a peaceful, happy childhood, I suppose," Remus said, scratching his chin and looking up. "Sirius, how good are you at reading Ron's handwriting?"

"Ron Weasley? I'm okay at it. Severus doesn't even try, you know. He reads what he can at first glance and takes off points accordingly for what he can't read."

"Lucky Ron that we're not Severus, then, eh?" Remus said, smirking. He handed Sirius the essay and stretched his arms and back, looking out at the rain. "If it's any consolation, Kitty's doing brilliantly in my class."

"She ought to," Sirius said darkly.

Remus didn't answer, but he didn't have to. The two men understood the reason Catherine bothered to study was to win, to beat Harry, and it was the reason Harry had started studying as well. As long as they kept their feud to their scores, though, Sirius supposed he could handle it.

"Have you figured out who all gave her valentines yet?"

"Hmm? Oh, no," Sirius said. He passed back the essay and said, "I think this says hag, but you're right, looks a bit like 'but', doesn't it? No, I've figured out that George Weasley sent one of them, but he didn't bother disguising his handwriting. What's bugging me is who sent her that chocolate bar. That's the kind of thing James didn't start doing until he started actually dating Lily. That's sensitive information, isn't it, Moony? Favorite chocolates, favorite flowers, rubbish like that."

Remus's lips twitched and he said, "You don't call it rubbish when you're getting chocolates for your children and planting the gardens to please your wife and daughters. I wouldn't panic until someone gives her a bouquet of poppies. They could have gotten a lucky guess on the chocolate."

Sirius hummed, but he rubbed his eyes again and looked back out over the grounds. He could scarcely see them through the rain, which was becoming thicker and heavier. He knew that being a father would be a responsibility, and that it would only get harder as they got older, but he really hadn't been prepared for this part. He supposed he'd always imagined that Catherine and Caroline would be asexual until some polite, suitable husband came around when they turned thirty, and then they'd have his blessing.

Possibly.

It certainly wasn't turning out that way.

"D'you think I should pressure them to make peace?" Sirius asked, rubbing the back of his neck thoughtfully. "Or maybe Prongs and I could come at them from both sides, talk them into it."

"Do you remember what happened when I suggested to James that he'd be better off not charming Lily's skirt to fly up whenever she came down the steps fourth year?"

Sirius grinned, remembering how furious Lily had been every time James did that, but he understood Remus's analogy. Best not push two very stubborn children on something and get their backs up. They'd achieve peace on their own terms, or it wouldn't be a lasting one. But all the waiting was just so hard.

/-/

James cleaned away the cups and plates as the two women pored over Dorcas's notes gleefully.

"This is exactly what we need," Lily said excitedly. "James, come look at this. Dorcas has exactly what we need! Where did you get this?"

"Journals stolen by one Gilderoy Lockhart," Dorcas said bitterly, "from their rightful owner, studying werewolf colonies on the continent. I thought you might be able to get some use out of it. I've certainly got all I can."

James raised his eyebrows, looking down at the lists and shorthand notes. He'd never learned to read shorthand, although Lily and Sirius and Dorcas and Gideon all used it during the war to keep Order records. He'd tried, but he hadn't gotten much out of his efforts.

"What is it, love?"

Lily looked up at him with shining eyes and said, "I think with a bit of help from Sev, this could give our team the breakthrough we need to make that next step with the Wolfsbane potion."

Since this had been Lily's obsession for some time, James expressed his happiness and steeled himself for many nights alone while his wife worked late on the puzzle.

/-/

Sirius licked his lips and watched his daughter walk into the library. He had half a mind to follow her in, knowing that Harry had just gone in a moment ago. Should he make sure they didn't do anything foolish?

No, Remus was right. He had to let them make their choices, to give them a chance to make the right ones. He took a deep breath and forced his steps away from the library. As hard as it was, he needed to let them grow up. No one had looked over his shoulder for seven years – except Remus – and it wouldn't do his daughter any good if he spent the next seven years looking over her shoulder and trying to control her and tell her what to do. He would watch from a distance, and if he was lucky she would turn out to be more like her mother than she was thus far proving.

A thought struck him at the end of the corridor that Caroline was bound to be more difficult, and he groaned audibly.

/-/

Blaise sat on his bed, ignoring the coolness of the room as he flipped through his History of Magic notes.

"What are you doing?" Draco asked, wrinkling his pale nose slightly. "Have you forgotten that we've got a chess match to win?"

"I haven't forgotten," Blaise said, closing the notes and setting them aside. "I'm just using as much time as possible for revising, Draco. And if you don't want to lose out to Granger again, I suggest you do the same."

It was a low blow, but Blaise really didn't care. Sometimes people responded best to toughness.

/-/

Harry looked up at Catherine, who sat across from him with her haughty expression and perfectly combed long, dark hair, and he had a flicker of an emotional tangle he didn't know how to untangle, and it passed when her nostrils flared.

"So," she said. "Are you going to surrender?"

Harry snorted.

"That's not making peace, Kitty. You can do better than that."

"Well, I'm not surrendering," she said stiffly. "I was winning."

He couldn't really argue with that. Still, he wasn't about to admit defeat, not even now when he knew there was no future for their fight. There had to be a way to settle winning and losing without getting the whole thing dragged out again.

"Let's settle this," he said softly, "with a dare."

Her eyes sparkled and she cocked her head.

"I'm listening."

"We do something daring, and the first person to chicken or get caught loses, and truce from there on out. Agreed?"

Catherine turned over the terms, looking up at the bookshelf thoughtfully. He could see her upper lip shifting as she drew her tongue over her upper teeth under the skin.

"It has merit," she said slowly. "What's our dare?"

"What's forbidden that isn't really pranking?"

"Nothing from Dueling Club," she said hastily. Harry nodded. Neither wanted to be kicked out of it, and neither wanted to disappoint Uncle Sirius further than they no doubt already had. "What about…breaking into Filch's office?"

"Small-time," Harry said with a snort. "The Weasley Twins do that all the time." He scratched his nose. "We could skip class or something."

He knew it was a bad idea before she even opened her mouth indignantly, and he waved off her disapproval.

Then she said, grinning, "Forbidden Forest."

"What about it?" he asked, frowning.

"We see who can go in the furthest," she said calmly. "Without getting scared, and without getting caught."

His stomach turned with foreboding, and he knew at once that this was a terrible, terrible idea, but she had that look that showed that she knew exactly what he was thinking. He hated that look, hated that she knew him well enough to read his mind and feel superior to him. She wasn't superior, wasn't half as brilliant as she thought, and he was going to prove it to her. He was going to show her. After all, he'd been Sorted into Gryffindor, and she was just a Hufflepuff.

"You're on," he said firmly. "Get your cloak and meet me outside in twenty minutes."

She didn't even comment on the weather, and Harry could feel his heart pound with exhilaration as he rushed upstairs to get his cloak.

/-/

Dorcas flipped through her notes, written in careful shorthand. She'd stopped using shorthand during the war, but with the heightened interest in her work after Umbridge's dismissal that had not been so keen in years, she felt the need to protect her findings until she was ready to release them. Perhaps she was being overly cautious, but she told herself over and over again how not being quite cautious enough had nearly lead to her death during the war, and if not for some very good timing on the part of Cara Black, both Sirius and Dorcas would almost certainly be dead.

With a shiver, she pushed aside the insidious memories of that night, memories that came through in moments of darkness of mind. She set aside her notes and rubbed her temples.

"Dove?"

She looked up at the doorway to her study and saw Fabian watching her with caring concern, and expression he had worn a great deal of late.

"It's fine," she said, forcing a tired smile. "I think it's just time for bed. Are you tired enough to join me?"

He said nothing, watching her as she quickly packed up her things for the night so she would be ready to go to the office in the morning. She placed a kiss at the corner of his mouth, and ignored his worried expression as she walked past him, down the hall to their bedroom. Everything would be fine, eventually.

/-/

Harry could feel his heart thumping wildly in his chest when Catherine met him at the front steps, her hood pulled up over her head, but her dark hair visible, peeking out from underneath it. Her eyes were shining with excitement, and Harry knew she was feeling the same thrill he was at doing what they knew they shouldn't be. As the rain pelted the tops of their hoods and stuck the fabric to their hair, he felt a strange explosion of feelings in his chest, again terribly brief and indistinguishable.

"Let's go," he said, glancing up at the lit windows on the castle and hoping no one saw them hurrying across the grounds toward the forest.

"Race you to the edge of the trees!" she squealed with delight, taking off with a bound even as she said it.

The briefest irritation at her cheating rose up in him, but as he raced after her, exhilaration took over again, and he raced after her, watching her cloak billow after her, even in the violent rain. He wouldn't, couldn't beat her to the trees, but it would be shameful to be too far behind.

The caught their breath on the edge of the trees, staring at each other's eyes, daring each other wordlessly to be the first to take that inward step.

/-/

Dean sat down with Neville and Ron on their dormitory floor, pulling his duvet with him to the collective homework zone, to help the group stay warm without stoking the fire again.

"Where's Harry?" Dean asked.

"Dunno," Ron said. "He ran up, grabbed his cloak, and ran off without any explanation."

"His cloak?" Neville said, his head jerking up. "When was this?"

Ron shrugged.

Dean and Neville shared a look. There was no real reason for Harry to have his cloak this time of night, anyway, but in this weather? It would be madness to go outside. Dean crossed to the window, peering out into the rain with a squint, but there was nothing to be seen through the pane. The rain smeared the image like a poor impressionist painting, and he could only guess what Harry was up to.

"Should we tell somebody?" Dean asked, rejoining the circle, pulling his duvet over his shoulders.

Neville pressed his lips together thoughtfully.

"If he's not back by curfew, we tell a teacher," he said with a nod. "Otherwise, we wait."

/-/

Harry wasn't sure how far they'd gone in, but they'd stuck to a kind of path, walking very close together with their wands lit in the thickness of the forest.

"Scared yet?" he whispered when they nearly walked into a massive cobweb. He used his arm to clear it from their path as Catherine snorted.

But she was nervous, and so was he, even though neither would say so. If she wasn't, she wouldn't have shrunk closer to him when they heard a strange clicking sound somewhere above them.

"What all do you reckon is in this place?" she asked as they kept walking.

Harry could feel the hairs on the back of his neck standing up as he tried to think of something impressive and scary he could say that would help him win the bet without being too cruel.

"Draco thinks there's supposed to be werewolves in here."

Again, Catherine snorted and said, "Harry, I'm not afraid of werewolves. Uncle Remus is like, the kindest person ever."

"They're not all on Wolfsbane, you know," he said defensively, feeling his cheeks go hot with embarrassment at her derision. "Anyway, I'm only saying what Draco told me. Hagrid says there's centaurs. They're supposed to be pretty brutal if you get them angry."

"You'd have to be a fool to insult a centaur," Catherine said with a sniff. "I mean the stuff Hagrid keeps here, the stuff he's not supposed to."

"What?"

"Oh, Harry, honestly," she groaned. "Everybody knows he's got all kinds of questionable pets and that he keeps them in the forest. Why else would it be forbidden?"

Harry hadn't really thought about it, but he said nothing, stopping her before she stepped into another massive cobweb. She murmured her thanks as he cleared it out of the way, and that weird clicking sound happened again. Harry raised his light upward toward it, but there was nothing there but the trees and more darkness.

"What time is it?" she asked.

"Late."

Catherine moved closer, so close that they were touching at the elbows, and Harry wasn't sure why he did it, but he linked his arm in hers, and she didn't argue. She just moved closer.

/-/

Neville put it off as long as he could, he really did. But there was just no way around the fact that Harry was still not back from whatever he was doing outside, and curfew was coming in about fifteen minutes.

"We need to tell a teacher," he said nervously.

"Why?" Ron whined.

Neville ignored him, pulling Harry's Invisibility Cloak over the pair of them and leading the way to the only teacher they could trust not to be too startled by the cloak, or to give them detention for being out of bed after hours – Professor Black.

A confused, but inviting voice answered Neville's knock, telling the knocker to enter, and Neville pulled Ron into the room and closed the door before whipping off the cloak.

Professor Black raised his eyebrows mildly at the two boys before saying, "What's wrong?"

"Harry's not in Gryffindor Tower," Neville said nervously. "He left an hour and a half ago with his cloak, didn't say where he was going."

"An hour and a half?" Professor Black said, grabbing his wand, standing abruptly. "Damn. Go back to bed, boys, under the cloak. I'll find him."

Neville saw him go to the fireplace and use some Floo Powder to make a firecall, saying "Remus," urgently into the flames, and something about Catherine and Harry before Ron closed the door.

It just would be something to do with those two, Neville thought nervously. It just would be.

/-/

"What was that?" Catherine said, feeling a horrible sensation in the pit of her stomach as she heard more clicking. Before Harry could answer her, she finally did walk into a spider web, and she squealed in horror, backing out of it, flailing her arms to try to get it off her as Harry tried to peel it away from her face.

It was a testament to how afraid they both were that he didn't try to use this moment to make her forfeit.

"Something just crawled over my foot," she whispered, horrified.

"What?"

"Something was just on my foot."

She felt the sensation again and gasped with horror, lowering her wand to the ground, where what had to be dozens of very large spiders were crawling all around her.

Catherine wasn't usually afraid of spiders, but she couldn't help it. It was like an army of them, and it wasn't natural. She screamed.

"They're just spiders," she told herself breathlessly, rooted to the spot. "Just spiders. They're only spiders, in nature, and they're not a big deal."

"That's not just a spider," Harry said slowly, pointing his wand toward a figure on the other side of the web she'd walked into.

It was a spider, strictly speaking, but it was as tall as Harry, and about three times as wide, counting the legs. Catherine felt mildly nauseous from fear, and she gripped Harry's hand, feeling his fingers squeeze hers as they tried to walk backward, but the sea of smaller spiders at their ankles seemed to rise in waves as the large one came forward.

"Stupefy!" Harry cried.

It hit the massive spider, which backed up, but when it did his light revealed that there were more of that size behind it, and Catherine screamed again, letting Harry pull her back the way they came, running as fast as they could with the smaller (but still massive) spiders at their feet.

As they ran they threw spells over their shoulders, but whatever these things were, they didn't have the skill yet, it would seem, to really stop the tide.

Catherine tripped over a tree root and pulled Harry down with her momentum, and he tried to pull her back up to her feet. She must have turned her ankle terribly, however, because as soon as she put weight on it, her knee collapsed and she feel again. Harry knelt beside her, his eyes wide and panicked in the wandlight as they tried, through their adrenaline, to think of what to do.

"You have to run," he said, panicked.

"I can't," she said, feeling tears. "Harry, I can't even stand. Go get help."

"If I leave you they'll eat you!" he cried, horrified.

Catherine sobbed as he tried to Stun a couple more, and then she heard someone cry her name, then Harry's. Then her name again.

"Daddy!" she shrieked, recognizing his voice. "Daddy, we're here!"

The sound of running through the forest, and she saw Uncle Remus, Uncle Severus, and her father coming up the path, wands out. Uncle Remus and Uncle Severus took care of the spider things with several spells, and Catherine's father knelt beside her, feeling her ankle where it was already swelling.

"Hold still," he warned. "This is going to hurt for a moment."

She nodded, and she yelped as what was clearly a broken bone went back into place, but then the warmth of healing came over the ankle and she sighed with relief, throwing her arms around her father's neck and sobbing into his shoulder.

He pulled her to her feet and checked that she could stand before taking a step back and frowning.

"You two," he said sternly, "are in such big trouble."

Never before had the pair been fixed with so many solemn gazes, but they didn't care about the months' detentions they had been given for their disobedience. Catherine, at the very least, was just happy to be alive.

A/N: Sorry this is so late today…. I kind of forgot it was Saturday… Oops?

Review Prompt: On a scale from one to ready to tear his hair out, how afraid do you think Sirius was when he knew his little girl had gone into the Forest in the middle of the night?

Q&A: NEW FEATURE! Ask a question in a review? In the interest of my not responding six million times to the same question, it'll be added to a stack of written-out questions, which I will answer at least one in the note at the end of each chapter. Since we don't have any as of yet, I'll make one up.

Q: How many chapters will there be? (ME!)

A: Great question! ;) I've got almost 130 prewritten, and I would guess it will be somewhere between 140 and 160, all told. Tough to say at this point. We've got a ways to go. ;)

Cheers

-C