"You should give it back." Hermione told the Hammer at breakfast, the sharpness and concern in her voice attracting unwanted stares that they were forced to wave off before it started another round of fresh rumours.

"I'm not gonna give it back." Harry said dismissively, waving his hand and trying to enjoy his drink.

"It's the right thing to do, Harry. How do you expect to keep it safe? We're not as powerful as any of the adults!"

"What are they going to do with it if we give it back? They wouldn't know what to do with it aside from stick it in another magic mirror to reflect on their mistakes."

"Doesn't this mean the case is solved, Hammer?" Neville asked from the Hufflepuff table, "I mean we got the thing they're after and you got all your answers."

"I haven't gotten all the answers I want yet, Nev. Not by a long shot. Heck, we still don't have a clean culprit yet. As far as I'm concerned, we're still in business."

Neville turned back to his table, the other Hufflepuffs noticing the darkness in his expression. For most, it was a passing curiosity and for others it was a sign of the times. Between the clumsy, crestfallen boy who had showed up missing a toad at the Hogwarts Express and the newly brooding character that occupied the space between the twin lines of golden trim, there was a world of difference that the other Hufflepuffs could only attribute to his choice in friends.

A note that came in with the breakfast post deliveries informed the group of when their detention would be. It was a handwritten set of instructions by Professor McGonagall this time, telling them to report to the entry hall of the castle at sundown to Mr. Filch wherein he and Hagrid would be supervising their night's task. Her handwriting didn't look like the one that gave him the cloak on Christmas. Hermione seemed disappointed in herself for having received a punishment, but Harry was nonchalant about the whole affair. After all, this wasn't the first time he had stepped over the line at a school, and by the Hammer's reckoning it wasn't going to be his last.

Passing by an empty classroom near the library, he paused at its cracked open door, coming to rest in a tiny sliver of light that came from within the room. Inside was a silhouette of Professor Quirrell, immediately recognisable by his purple turban, the quiet sounds of pleaded whimpers reaching the Hammer's ears,

"Please, no. Not that… not again." The man sounded close to breaking down into all out tears. Harry held a hand up to his mouth to muffle the sound of his breaths, continuing to watch Quirrell hold onto the edges of a desk and plead quietly with no one but himself. A few moments later he straightened up from the desk, "I-al-alright." He moved like an inexpertly piloted marionette, jolting away from the desk suddenly and causing the Hammer to move away from his sliver of light and into a dark corner. A moment later the Professor had burst from the door and was striding away down the hall. The Hammer waited - he hadn't been spotted, or Quirrell was so involved in his sad little pep talk to the point where he didn't notice Harry standing in the hallway. Either way, it was good news.

Looking into the classroom, there weren't any other signs of anyone else's passage save for a door ajar at the other end of the room, but it was all circumstantial.

He met the other two in the entry hall, only to be joined by a sulking Malfoy. Apparently someone had been busy with bad decisions on his own time. Harry tipped his hat at the boy and smirked. Malfoy begrudgingly nodded his head but kept his distance from them. Filch was preceded by his feline harbinger - Mrs. Norris the red eyed cat, plodding up to them before setting down and meowing somehow condescendingly.

"Follow me." The grizzled old man told them, lighting a lamp he had brought with him. Harry wondered why he didn't use a wand lighting spell - it seemed cheap and easy.

The weather outside had warmed from the heart of winter, an early spring thaw returning everything to how the Hammer had remembered it before leaving on winter vacation, if only muddier. "I bet you'll think twice about breaking school rules again, won't you, eh?" He spoke as they crossed the yard, turning to leer at them, "Oh yes, hard work and pain are the best teachers if you ask me," The Hammer's smirk came back as he took a sidelong glance at Malfoy. The other boy avoided his gaze, "It's a pity they let the old punishments die out… hang you by your wrists from the ceiling for a few days, I've got the chains still in my office, keep 'em well oiled in case they're ever needed…" Harry looked to Neville in disbelief - they shared a short, mouthed exchange about how what Filch had to say was completely abnormal, "Right, off we go, and don't think of running off now, it'll be worse for you if you do." The old man looked to them, expecting fear in their faces. The Hammer wasn't going to give him the satisfaction.

They marched across the dark grounds toward the direction of Hagrid's home. Harry wondered what they were going to be made to do - Hagrid would surely be more reasonable than Filch, but until they got to him, the Hammer was going to have to hold his tongue or else he'd have to see how frail Filch was compared to how he looked.

"Is that you, Filch? Hurry up, I want ter get started." Hagrid's voice reached them under the full moon's light, interrupted by the movement of the clouds as they plunged alternatingly into darkness and light, leaving the glow of Hagrid's hearth shining like a guide beacon in the night. It felt like half a lifetime ago that he had been having tea at Hagrid's.

The old man leading them let out a little cackle, "Think just because it'll be with him that you'll be better off, do you? No, you're going into the forest and I've got money on which one of you will come back by morning." He said it with an unreasonable amount of glee.

The Hammer noticed Neville's hand clench into a fist, but Malfoy stopped dead in his tracks before anyone could say anything.

"The Forest?" Malfoy repeated, he didn't even try to sound pompous, "We can't go in there at night - there's all sorts of things in there - werewolves, I heard." Now he was starting to sound ridiculous, but if Vampires were real, who was to say Lycanthropy wasn't?

"That's your lookout innit?" Filch said, his voice cracking with glee, "Should've thought of them werewolves before you got in trouble, shouldn't you?"

Hagrid came striding out of the dark with Fang following close in his wake. He was carrying the crossbow that the Hammer had seen propped up next to his threshold, a leather quiver of arrows across his back.

"Abou' time," He said, "I bin waitin' fer half an hour already. Y'alright Hammer, Hermione? Who're you lot?"

"Longbottom, sir, Neville Longbottom. I'm Hammer's friend."

"Draco Malfoy."

"I'm no sir, but I appreciate it." Hagrid replied, "Yer Hammer's friend?" Neville nodded emphatically.

"I shouldn't be too friendly with them, Hagrid," Filch said looking down his nose at the children, "they're here to be punished, after all."

"That's why yer late, is it?" Hagrid grumbled, frowning at Filch, "Bin lecturin' them, eh? 'Snot your place ter do that. Yeh've done yer bit, I'll take over from here."

Filch sucked one of his long canine teeth, "I'll be back at dawn," he turned to leave, looking over his shoulder, "for what's left of them." he said before he started back toward the castle, his lamp bobbing away in the darkness.

Malfoy turned to Hagrid.

"I'm not going in that Forest," He said, a note of fear and panic in his voice. The Hammer spat at the ground.

"Yeh are if yeh want ter stay at Hogwarts." Hagrid replied, "Yeh've done wrong an' now yeh've got ter pay for it."

"But this is servant stuff, it's not for students to do. I thought we'd be writing lines or something. If my father knew I was doing this, he'd-"

"-tell yer that's how it is at Hogwarts," Hagrid growled, "Writin' lines! What good's that ter anyone? Yeh'll do summat useful or yeh'll get out. If yeh think yer father'd rather you were expelled, then git back off ter the castle an' pack. Go on!"

Malfoy didn't move. He looked at Hagrid with a fierce insolence but then turned and looked away at the ground speaking words softly to himself. Posh git.

"Right then," Hagrid moved on, "now listen carefully, 'cause it's dangerous what we're gonna do tonight an' I don' want no one takin' risks. Follow me over here a moment."

"If it's so dangerous, do you have another one of those?" The Hammer pointed at Hagrid's crossbow.

"No, Hammer. Professor McGonagall said yeh might ask for somethin', but yeh've got yer wands, right?"

They stopped at the edge of the forest where the vegetation began to thicken, the copse of foreboding black trees allowing only a narrow, winding track of earth that disappeared behind their imposing vigil. A breeze flowed into the forest like a breath being drawn. The hairs on the back of Harry's neck stood up. There was something off about the forest at night.

"Look there," Hagrid pointed at a puddle in the dirt, "see that stuff shinin' on the ground? Silvery stuff? That's unicorn blood. There's a unicorn in there bin hurt badly by summat. This is the second time in a week. I found one dead last Wednesday. We're gonna try and find the poor thing. We might have ter put it out of its misery."

The Hammer lit his wand and knelt next to the puddle, the light revealing a substance like viscous quicksilver reflecting their surroundings in pale steel tones. The puddle looked like it had dripped downward off an animal about a horse's height - the splatter was consistent with a wounded animal on the run in the Hammer's mind.

"And what if whatever hurt the unicorn finds us first?" said Malfoy, unable to keep the quaver out of his question.

"There's nothin' that lives in the Forest that'll hurt yeh if yer with me or Fang," Hagrid said.

"What if whatever is hunting them isn't from the Forest?" Harry asked, putting two fingers into the puddle of blood and drawing it up to his nose to smell it, rubbing his fingers together to feel its texture. It smelled sweet, saccharine.

"Ain't nothin' in the forest that isn't here because Dumbledore lets it be here. It's part of school grounds and the ministry keeps an eye on things. Right, so keep to the paths. We're going to split inter two parties an' follow the trail in diff'rent directions. There's blood all over the place, it must've bin staggerin' around since last night at least. Longbottom, go with the Hammer. You two come with me." Hagrid motioned to Hermione and Malfoy.

Neville walked over next to the Hammer and grasped onto his robe's sleeve. Fang loped over to them, panting happily at seeing Harry again. "Got ter warn yeh, he's a coward." Hagrid said, confirming Harry's suspicions, "Now if any of us finds the unicorn we'll send up green sparks, right? Get yer wands an' practice now - that's it - an if anyone gets in trouble, send up red sparks, an we'll all come find yeh. No fire spells, Hammer. It's a forest. So, be careful - let's go."

Hagrid motioned for them to follow him onto the path that led into the thick of trees, eventually reaching a fork in the road where he paused. "Could it actually be a werewolf in the forest killing these unicorns?" Hermione asked.

"'Course not. Werewolves are too slow to catch a unicorn. 'Sides, haven't seen a werewolf in these woods since…" Hagrid paused to count his fingers a moment, "Eighty-five." The children looked between each other, considering the fact that a werewolf wasn't impossible. "Alright, get moving you lot." Hagrid gave Fang a pat on the rump and sent the hound down the left hand path, "Remember, stay on the path!"

The Hammer and Neville followed in a quickstep behind Fang, eventually catching up to him when the dog was forced to begin climbing over roots overgrowing the narrow trail. Fang moved from pool to gleaming, quicksilver pool, sniffing quietly at each of them before moving on. The Hammer paused at each, taking the time to note that the blood didn't seem to be muddled by the surrounding dirt - the unicorn's lifeblood remained pure in itself even in the absence of the creature.

Near a large open meadow, Fang came to a halt, ears pricking up as the sound of flowing water came to them filtered through the trees. Fang bared his teeth but didn't growl. "Who's there?" Neville called out, his words echoing against the trees before dying quietly in the night.

The sound of hoofbeats drew their attention to the meadow, the Hammer taking a few tentative steps into the open. Someone riding a horse came into the clearing - no, the man was a part of the horse - it was a centaur. A swarthy man's torso that ended in the ruddy body of a chestnut horse strode out to meet them.

"You are accompanied by Hagrid. This means you are students. What are your names?"

"Neville."

"Harry."

"I am Bane." The centaur narrowed his eyes at Harry before looking up at the sky, "Mars is especially bright tonight, but the moon is surely waxing."

"And the seagull crows at midnight," the Hammer replied, "What are you getting at?"

"A Hammer soon strikes the heavens and scatters the stars. Are you that Hammer?"

Harry raised an eyebrow to the centaur, "And what if I am?"

"Then we shall see." The man-horse trotted a small circle in place before coming to rest again.

"Listen, we're looking for an injured unicorn out here. Something's been hurting them and we've been following a trail all night. There's blood but no body."

"Mars gleams brightly this night." Bane repeated.

A sense of unease overtook the Hammer, he looked around but saw nothing in the tree line. "Well… thanks for your help." He told Bane and tapped Neville on the arm, moving back to where they had last seen a splash of blood. Fang gladly continued the search. The two boys occasionally glanced skyward but saw no signs of the red emergency sparks nor the green of success, so they continued to press onward deeper into the heart of the wood.

Following the intermittent splashes of unicorn blood led them onward into thicker and thicker vegetation - the splashes of blood getting newer and larger as they continued, an unfortunate sign of getting closer to their goal. A wheezing, wet sound preceded their entry into yet another opening in the deepest part of the wood, the Hammer holding an arm up to stop Neville as he tried to see what it was they were running into. Fang had stopped again and was whimpering quietly, hesitating to proceed to the next splatter of silver blood.

Through the trees, the Hammer could see the gleaming white body of a unicorn lying on the ground in a mirror-pool of its blood. It was a pathetic sight, the skinny legs of the horse creature splayed out at unnatural angles, the single horn on its head seemingly dimmer than it would have been in life. The two proceeded forward to the edge of the thicket, only to realize too late that the darkness above the unicorn's corpse wasn't a part of the background nor was it an unfortunately cast shadow.

The darkness that clung to reality above the unicorn billowed like ink in water, connected to their world only at the unicorn's neck, the wheezing slurping noise explained by whatever-it-was suckling the blood from the once majestic creature. Harry held a hand up to his mouth, but Neville screamed a strangled yell of surprise.

Their noise got the creature's attention, the sounds of its feeding stopped and the Hammer feeling its gaze upon him. Pain wracked Harry's head, emanating from the scar as the creature gave an otherworldly shriek, piercing the night. The Hammer's vision swam, causing him to fall to his knees, clutching at his scar. The creature swam through the air toward them at a frightening speed. Harry's world began to fade and the last thing he remembered before passing out was the sound of Neville's yelled spellcasting and the sound of galloping hooves.

Some time later the pain subsided, lifting off of him like a curtain on the next act of a play he hadn't wanted to watch. He found Neville standing above him, wand held out in front of him with another centaur, the two of them staring at the emptiness above where the unicorn lay.

"Nev? What happened?" Harry asked as he righted himself groggily.

"I told myself never again, Hammer." Neville responded, wand hand beginning to shake.

"What do you mean?" Harry rubbed his scar, finding the pain to be more or less normalized.

"If it ever comes down to it, I choose to fight. Never again with this, with professors, the troll, whatever. I want to stand."

"Thanks, Nev." The Hammer chose the same, steadying himself with Neville's shoulder once he was up.

"I suppose I should thank you too." Harry said to the centaur, this new one a younger looking specimen with white-blond hair and a palomino body. He reminded the Hammer of an older Malfoy's top half glued to a horse.

"Are you alright?" The centaur asked, piercing pale blue eyes appraising the Hammer.

"I suppose I am." Harry looked himself over again, "Oh thank you, Neville." he received his hat back from his friend, brushing off the dirt.

"You are the one they call Potter." The centaur's eyes paused on his scar - taking in the red welt it was raised on.

"When I'm unlucky." The Hammer replied.

"You and your companion must get back to Hagrid. These woods are not safe now, especially for you. Can you ride? I believe I can fit the both of you. He knelt down onto his two front legs, "My name is Firenze."

Harry motioned for Neville to get on first, but his friend insisted that Harry should climb. Harry felt a little stunned but tried not to show it - he had woken back up into a world with a man-horse and a Neville who wasn't taking any bull. Before he could fully climb on Firenze, there was the sound of a stampede, hoofbeats ending in two others centaurs bounding into the clearing - Bane and another the Hammer hadn't met.

"What are you doing? Allowing a human to climb onto your back like a pack animal, have you no shame?" The Hammer swung his leg over and stepped back down to the ground.

"Do you realise who this is?" Firenze stood back up to face his compatriots, "The Hammer to scatter the stars! The sooner we can get him to leave, the better."

"What have you told him?" Bane squared up to the younger centaur, "We are soulbound to the course of the heavens. You should know best of all what is to come in the flow of the stars." The other centaur looked nervously between them,

"I'm sure Firenze was simply trying to do the best he could." He moped, pawing the ground.

"The best, Ronan? THE BEST?" Bane reared back in anger, "What best does this have to do with us? We are bound to the movements of the firmament, not prancing about idly ferrying children!"

Firenze pawed angrily at the ground, digging a rut in the dirt at his feet. The Hammer could see the tension girdering itself in the muscles of the younger centaur.

"Only a fool would continue to stare skyward as death clouds around him. Look at that unicorn! Do you not see the reason why it was killed? Are the movements of those stars still a mystery to you? I have drawn my line and I stand against the creature in this forest, even if that means standing on the same side as humans!"
"Y'know what, you all can keep talking centaur politics, but I'm going to go look at this." The Hammer pulled out his wand and sent green sparks into the air before turning and speaking, "Lumos Tenebrosus."

The blacklight glow made the unicorn blood light up pure white in the night like liquid moonlight. Around the body, the glow was so bright it looked like the body was being abducted by aliens. The Hammer approached the body, holding his other arm up to shield his eyes as he approached the scene. There was something else mixed in with the unicorn blood - the purplish blue glow spread out in a drip and spray pattern that looked to the Hammer like it was drool from a salivating mouth.

Harry grumbled and turned from the body, holding the wand out at the ground, trying to make heads or tails of the situation.

"What are you doing?" Bane asked him, a tone of voice the Hammer shrugged off as disbelief.

"Sometimes - just sometimes at the scene of the crime the suspect leaves more than they think they do." The Hammer murmured a response as he looked for more of the strong purpleish glow. He found a dense cluster of slobber near where Firenze was standing, unmoved from where he had been when the Hammer awoke. The splatter seemed to have recoiled and then trailed in a mix of flecks of brightly glowing pinpoints of unicorn blood back in the direction of the castle. The Hammer ended the blacklight and lit his wand in a more conventional fashion, looking down to where he had seen the trail of liquids.

There were bootprints in a size large enough to be an adult, probably male. Their depth made it seem like he would be closer to an average human rather than someone Hagrid sized. Whatever the illusion was, the spectral darkness had been a good cover for someone trying to conceal their movements.

"Did you find something?" Neville asked as he neared the edge of the clearing. "Nothing good, Nev, nothing good…"

"Hammer! Neville! Are yeh alright? Saw them sparks an…" Hagrid came bursting into the clearing just in time to see Harry bent over the unicorn corpse again, dipping two fingers into the blood and holding it up in front of him.

"Scourgify!" The Hammer used the cleaning spell on the tip of his fingers to remove the blood, but a faint white glow remained under the light of Tenebrosus. The Hammer made a small noise of acceptance. Hermione and Malfoy came into the clearing a moment later.

"Hagrid, whatever it is that's been killing these unicorns has been eating them too. And whatever that is, is probably in the castle." The Hammer jerked a thumb toward the school.

"No-" Hagrid began. "It is as he says." Firenze backed him up, "You would do well to leave." Bane grumbled something in agreement, pawing the ground with a hoof.

"We can talk about it back at my place." Hagrid offered, looking at the dead animal for himself briefly. He came over and put a hand on Harry's back, urging him along. Firenze cantered along next to them, escorting the party back out of the Forest until they had reached the cheery lights of the hut.

"Now, Hammer, what happened out there?" Hagrid asked him as all the children huddled together just outside his home.

Harry told his story, leaving nothing out and describing how Neville had saved his life with the aid of Firenze from a creature that seemed to be equal parts darkness and malice.

"T'aint no good, Harry." Hagrid commented, Hermione was twisting her robes to wrinkles processing the tale and Malfoy had become as pale as the moonlight.

"I don't believe it, I'll tell my father!" Malfoy said.

"And what's he going to learn? That there's ghosts here? That dark magic is real? That there are some places in the forest too dangerous for humans?" The centaur commented.

"But Hagrid's right, Harry. Who would want to hurt a unicorn?" Hermione asked.

"Unicorns are peaceful, innocent creatures, but powerful in their own magic. Only someone dark and desperate would drink the blood of a unicorn. It will keep you alive even if you are an inch from death, but the price is equal to that of the crime. You will surely live, but the life it grants will be accursed from the moment the blood touches your lips." Firenze told them, his words solemn.

They all looked between each other, unsure of how to continue.

"What kind of person would be willing to do that?" Neville asked.

"Hammer of the heavens, would you know someone who would be that desperate? Someone caught between life and death, willing to sacrifice everything for another chance?"

The lights turned on in Harry's eyes as he came to the conclusion, Hermione and Neville reaching the same one shortly thereafter.

"Of course! That gunsel's been drinking unicorn juice till he can get his mitts on…" the Hammer paused, looking at the stunned Malfoy who was still trying to process the disjointed conversation.

"Hands on what?" The silver haired boy asked.

"None of your business." the Hammer said, narrowing his eyes. Hagrid looked like someone had set his beard and pants on fire at the same time and he couldn't prioritize which blaze to put out first.

"Uh... Congratulations, detention's over! Git back to the castle'n go to bed!" Hagrid shooed them. Firenze took a step closer toward Malfoy, making the boy stumble backward over himself to get away from them.

"Hagrid, we know that giant dog is yours." Neville said, standing his ground next to the Hammer and Hermione. Hagird made some flustered noises.

"'Course he is, Fluffy's a right terror sometimes but 'es a good dog. 'Sides he calms right down soon as he hears some music."

The children looked at him in disbelief - it was people like this that were in charge of guarding the stone.

"So what else is after Fluffy?" The Hammer asked, "there's a trapdoor that leads down underneath him to another part of the castle but there have to be more traps."

"Ain't nothing down there, Hammer. Not that I know anyway. All the professors helped build the traps. T'aint none of yer business either way."

"I think it is, Hagrid. I think it is. There's something in the castle that's willing to kill children and unicorns and somehow everyone is too blind or too complacent to see it. We're gonna be at a tipping point soon and if no one does anything about it, someone's liable to die." the Hammer argued.

"Git ter bed Harry, it's late." Hagrid dismissed him in a truly adult fashion. The Hammer sighed - he wasn't going to get anything more out of him when his defenses were turned up like this. However, the important clue wasn't that there would be more traps behind the trapdoor, but the fact that all the teachers had helped in constructing the traps. It meant that everyone was in on it, and unless it had been properly managed, all the teachers would have a fair idea of what was awaiting them on the way to the stone. The Hammer turned toward Firenze,

"This is where I leave you, Hammer of the heavens. What may come next may be foretold but it would not be the first time it has been read wrongly." The centaur bid him farewell with the cryptic message before cantering away back into the Forest.

The Hammer smiled smugly on his way back to the castle - at least no one knew that he had already taken it. That would've only put the stone in even greater danger leaving it with the teachers. The three paused before they needed to separate and head in the directions of their common rooms. "Hammer, I'm with you on this - til the end." Neville spoke up before Harry even had a chance to say anything. Hermione nodded, agreeing with him, reaffirming what hadn't needed to be said. They finally had the upper hand and he would need the both of them when the phantom from the forest finally revealed its true identity. Come what may they would figure out a way of stopping whoever it was, once and for all.