Horror in the Forest:
As opposed to the Christmas of revelations, the Easter holiday was positively boring. While Lily did make sure Harry was up to scratch for his exams, they were still quite a way off and he was only in first year, so she used it more as an excuse to teach good study habits than actually caring. She did however spend most of a week going over that year's Potions syllabus with the three children. She was frustrated with Harry and Neville especially for how far they had fallen behind even where they had been when they had started Hogwarts half a year previously, but even taking their stories of the lessons with a pinch of salt, she couldn't blame them for losing enthusiasm for the subject. Susan was doing significantly better, as she hadn't been specifically targeted, apparently Hufflepuffs were beneath Severus' notice generally.
It was at times like this that she wished she hadn't been so soft hearted with Severus. In hindsight even by second year he had been actively interested in dark magic and enthralled by the 'take what you feel you deserve' message of Voldemort. Probably if either of them had another option of a magical growing up near them they would never have gotten to know each other, they were just fundamentally different people. Sure, excuses could be made about his violent father and self-entitled bully housemates, but ultimately he had chosen to embrace that. By their fourth year the only thing that was holding them together was their shared love of potions, yet it took until he called her a 'Mudblood' again after she tried to get the Marauders to leave him alone for her to finally cut ties for good. Maybe if she had done it earlier he wouldn't have been so deep in his obsession and could have let it go. Maybe if she had shown him the door over an incident not involving James then Severus may have considered that he was the problem, not the Marauders. Or maybe Severus was just so petty and small minded that he would latch onto whatever he could to feed his insecurities.
Anyway, enough reminiscing about the past. Several long revision sessions later and the boys were back up to scratch. They probably weren't at Outstanding level, but it wasn't as if any of the exams mattered until OWLs, not that she would admit that to the children, so it would do for the moment. The rest of the time was focused on playing around, and having fun. After all, even if the second term of separation was easier on everybody than the first had been, they were still eager to make the most of being around each other again.
Therefore it was in high spirits that the children returned to Hogwarts for the new term. This exuberance waned somewhat when they remembered that Norbert (or apparently Norberta) was gone. Despite how initially terrifying the idea of a baby dragon was, even before the legal implications, it had quickly worked its way into their hearts, like a scaly, venomous puppy. Still, Hagrid was getting regular updates on its progress and was willing to pass them on to all of his helpers so they were not completely out of did, however, make life significantly easier for the trio now that their need to sneak away from their housemates was reduced to just practicing with the cloak. Over the Easter Holidays all three of them had just about managed to reproduce a couple of high level detection charms. Casting a spell is a long way from mastering it though, so their already low stamina due to their age was compounded by inefficient spellwork. Even with improvement from constant practice throughout the term, the best they managed was a dozen or so casts in an evening before exhausting themselves, so the sneakoscope was still in heavy use. It was all worth it however when finally a breakthrough was made.
Even with the advantage of knowing what they were looking for, it still took until early June until Neville finally thought he felt it. He had been sitting under the cloak focussing on the meditation exercises that Professor Flitwick had taught them earlier in the year to sense one's own magic. Harry and Susan both cast the human revealing charm with as much power as they could muster. On the edge of his consciousness he felt the slightest touch, like a feather brushing across skin. There! He had felt something!. Of course, like with the charms lesson at the beginning of the year, the elation of success immediately knocked him out of the meditation and however hard he tried he couldn't reach it again that evening. It was incredibly frustrating, to have been so close and then reduced back to grasping at shadows. His mood and the excitement were infectious, so that none of the three noticed the hours slipping away. By the time they finally gave up for the night, Harry and Susan were almost dead on their feet having pushed themselves far too hard by pouring their magic into the revealing charm again and again. It was a shocked squeak from Neville that finally brought them all back to earth, as he checked his watch and found that it was nearly midnight.
Even if they all managed to get back to their dorms without being caught, this would raise a lot of questions from their room-mates that they couldn't really answer. Disappearing off regularly to spend time with friends was one thing, but whatever was evidently good enough to make them risk staying out late would be much harder to get dropped as a subject. However, even that would be entirely dependent on them not getting caught. Sure the Marauders had wandered around at night all the time. But even without a roommate to worry about, quickly gained knowledge of the school's passageways and later on the Marauders' Map they still got in trouble for it on occasion. Also they had to get to three different parts of the school. Out of solidarity, and because none of them liked the possibility of getting lost at night in the corridors on their own, they decided to stay together until they reached the Grand Staircase and then part ways there.
They were nearly there when everything went wrong.
"Well, Well. What have we here?" A sneering voice emanated from the shadows. "Students running about at night? You are in trouble. Follow me." The caretaker, Argus Filch, shuffled into the light, his gangly, bulging eyed cat wrapping round his feet, purring as if in sympathy to her master's glee. "We'll see what Professor McGonagall says about this." He cheerfully threatened as he led the three down straight to her office. Rapping smartly on the heavy wooden door he ushered them inside with a leering grin.
McGonagall was sitting at her desk, evidently catching up on some late night essay marking. Going by the amount of red ink that Harry could see on the top-most sheet, whoever had written it wasn't going to get a high mark. She frowned at the first years as they trooped in, heads bowed and desperately avoided meeting her eyes.
"Sorry to bother you ma'am." The caretaker wheedled with an utter lack of sincerity. "I caught these three sneaking around the upper floors."
"Thank you Argus." She dismissed him and then turned to the miscreants. "Well. What do you have to say for yourselves? Wandering around the school past midnight? I would never have thought I would see the like."
After several moments of oppressive silence Harry finally spoke up.
"Um, we were, um, doing some work and we, er sort of lost track of time…" He trailed off limply, quailing under the unwavering visage.
"Lost track of time? You expect me to believe that you lost track of time for over two hours?" The professor exclaimed. "I am disgusted. I would have thought that you were better than this. You are all going to serve detentions for this." Three sets of shoulders slumped as their eyes bored holes in their shoes. "There are no excuses for walking around school at night. It is dangerous, especially these days. I will also be taking fifty points. From each house."
At this the children started in shock and all began to protest.
"Please-"
"You can't-"
"But no-"
"Quiet!" McGonagall cut them off. "I can give you whatever punishment I choose. Perhaps this will teach you to keep an eye on the clock in future. Now back to your beds all of you."
None of them got much sleep that night, knowing that come morning they would have to face their housemates and explain not only where they had been the previous evening, but how they had managed to lose the house fifty points at once.
A bit of oblique references and others filling in the muggle raised managed to eventually convey that they had been busy with something related to family secrets. While this raised far more questions with their interrogators than it answered, they were at least questions that they couldn't be pushed to answer. The bigger, and more interesting problem, was how their houses reacted to the points loss. Given the strong political connotations of Slytherin and Gryffindor, most of the older Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws had resigned themselves to never winning the cup. Despite their houses being far less prone to trouble making and more consistent at hard work and helping each other, several of the teachers seemed to be having a subtle, or in Snape's case blatant, contest through the house cup to make sure that 'their' ideology came out on top. Hence, especially this late in the year, Harry and Susan's point loss changed nothing.
Without an immediate need for outrage, many of their housemates actually rallied round and sympathised. Fifty points and a detention each for just being out at night was was more than a dozen students might contribute to the total in a year. The same three had earned only twenty five points between them for literally saving the life of a fellow student from a rampaging wild animal while the teachers were running around the dungeons. People snuck out at night all the time, usually for a snack in the kitchen. In fact, while prefects were meant to deduct points and tell the teachers when they found someone around after lights out, unless they were a Slytherin and Gryffindor they never did. In fact, it became a running joke to guess who had written the essay, and what they had put in it, that McGonagall had just been marking to put her in such a foul mood. Most of the older years were so distracted with the upcoming exams anyway that they barely noticed.
Of course, not everyone was that understanding. In any group, even Hufflepuffs, you will get a few who just see the misfortune of others as an opportunity to elevate themselves. The most shocking incident was Michael Corner, one of Harry's very own roommates, who kept making snide comments for the following week about Harry 'not respecting the honour of the house'. It suddenly made Harry very aware of one lesson that the adults in his life had repeated again and again. Your Hogwarts house does not determine your character, there were innocent, brave and cruel people on both sides of the War from all houses.
In stark contrast Gryffindor had been neck and neck with Slytherin, and Neville had just sunk that unequivocally. In addition, most members of Gryffindor adored McGonagall, viewing her as their fierce defender against the unjustness of Snape. This led to him being actively shunned by everyone. It was so bad that people even refused to talk directly to him. Instead they would loudly 'comment' to each other about 'that other boy' or 'Loser Longbottom'. He ended up spending as much time as he could around the Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs. The only Gryffindor who didn't treat him like dirt was Hermione, who had heard the more measured interpretation of events from the other houses and was empathised from her own experiences of school bullying. Of course this didn't endear him any more to his housemates, especially those who saw his 'fraternising' as the reason for his 'crime' in the first place. But Neville confided in Harry that he didn't much care. It wasn't as if they had been particularly loyal to him anyway. As he put it "I imagine that if I had forgotten the password and got locked out they wouldn't notice and leave me to freeze on the doorstep overnight".
Neville also had a harder time with the Slytherins. Many of them were thrilled with the 'Boy-Who-Lived' getting humiliated and took every opportunity to try and rub it in. But from their perspective the best bit was how Neville had pretty much handed the House Cup to them on a plate.
It was not until the evening of the day after that they children finally forced themselves to write home about what had happened. They didn't want to, but realised that the story would get out eventually and it would only get worse if they tried to hide it. At least in the retelling they were reminded that the evening had started on a high note with the breakthrough with the cloak.
Lily almost choked on her breakfast cereal as she read through her post the following morning. A few quick floo calls later and a meeting was arranged for that evening, after Amelia had finished work.
The four adults were sitting in the familiar surroundings of the Longbottom Manor living room. Except now they were not laughing ideally over the latest fumbles of their growing children. Arguably the topic was the same, but the mood was very different.
"Remus, was McGonagall always this insane while we were at school and I just didn't notice, or has the last decade spent corralling Gryffindors finally got to her?" Lily sighed.
"I think she must have cracked. If she had been like this with us, we would have been thrown out by the end of the second year. Hell, Sirius only got deducted twenty points for the whole Severus fiasco." Remus replied. Both of the other women were intrigued by this reference, as it had come up occasionally before, but recognised that it was not something either wanted to talk about. Also Amelia had the sneaking suspicion that in a professional capacity she was better off not knowing.
"Back in my day lights out was more of a suggestion than a rule. Sure the prefects tried to hammer good sleep schedules into the first years for the first month or so, but after that nobody cared. If you stayed up too late and were sleepy the next morning you had nobody to blame but yourself." Augusta chuckled.
Amelia added in. "At this time of year, during exam season, there was not nearly enough space in the common room for everyone to spread their notes out for the all night study sessions, so we practically annexed the nearby classrooms. Had a regular rotation to make supply runs down to the kitchens. It took two people to carry that bucket of coffee back upstairs."
"We would just hang it off a broom and fly it." Remus reminisced.
"Through the corridors? With that poor mass distribution?"
"This was James and Sirius remember. James was pretty much born on a broom. Also only to the entrance hall, then we would go outside and pass in back in through the window. Occasionally we would run into Hagrid and he would give us rock cakes. They made excellent paper weights."
"Anyway!" Augusta brought them all back to the topic at hand. "I think it is clear that we all agree that this punishment is disproportionate and arbitrary. There is nothing we can do about that, so I think the best we can do is write back and make them understand that while we are disappointed in them breaking the rules." She smirked slightly. "Or in the case of this particular rule, getting caught by the teachers, we don't agree with the punishment. I feel the one who is going to have the worst time of it will by my Neville."
The others nodded to themselves.
"I didn't know many Hufflepuffs or Ravenclaws that well, but they seemed to have given up caring about the House Cup completely, and looking at what is written, that hasn't changed. It seems that the mood is more indignant that they were punished so harshly although there will always be a few who try to cause trouble. The Gryffindors will be the big problem." Lily agreed.
"The problem with 'brave and daring' is that everyone praises you when you succeed, but in return you get no sympathy for the inevitable missteps along the way. That is even without 'betraying the House Cup to the Slytherins' as it was apparently put." Amelia mused. "Well, at least he has friends in other houses to turn to. Imagine how bad it would have been if they had all been in Gryffindor."
"Also we should congratulate them on Neville's success with the cloak. Make sure they aren't scared off from practicing by this." Remus reminded them. "Even if my hunch about magical sensitivity doesn't pay off, by the sounds of it the sessions have been great for their friendship and they have been getting good work done on other stuff as well. It would be a shame to lose all of that just because of a bad scare. Just remind them to keep a better track of the time. If my memory serves me correctly there are a few alarm charms in the second year textbooks."
When they received the dispatches from their families, Harry, Neville and Susan perked up somewhat and stopped feeling quite so sorry for themselves, at least until that evening when Professor McGonagall stopped them as they were leaving the Great Hall together after dinner and informed them to be at the Entrance Hall at eleven o'clock next evening for their detention. While they were only in first year, Harry was a Ravenclaw and the others spent enough time around that house that the idea of missing a late night revision session the week before exams was horrifying. Also by the sounds of it they would most likely spend the time with Filch doing manual labour, which was nobody's idea of fun.
So they were surprised when, while Filch was indeed waiting for them in the Entrance Hall, rather than dragging them to the trophy room to polish the silverware, he instead led them outside. Of course, being the thoroughly objectionable bitter old man that he was (in attitude at least, nobody was actually sure of his age) he took this opportunity of a captive audience to expound upon his worldview.
"This will teach you lot to go running around at night. If I had my way I would get the thumbscrews out on the lot of you, teach you some respect from the beginning. Professor Dumbledore is too soft on you. A good beating would do you the world of good." He rambled loudly.
"Um. Mr Filch? Where are we going?" Susan eventually questioned. They seemed to be heading out into the grounds. At night. This couldn't be right could it? As soon as the words were out of her mouth, they could see another lantern bobbing towards them.
"You are going into the forest!" The caretaker cackled in glee. "Just think of all of the nasty besties in there that could eat you. I hear there are werewolves that would just love a little firstie to snack on. Now was the full moon last night or tonight?"
Harry was saved from getting into an indigent argument about werewolves by the arrival of Hagrid, with Fang trailing at his heels.
"Hello Harry, Neville, Susan. What did yeh do ter get sen' ter me?" He greeted them.
"Now now Hagrid, they are here to be punished, don't be too friendly." Filch admonished.
"I'll do how I ruddy well please Filch. Yeh brough' them here, so yeh can leave now." Hagrid growled back. It was warming to the students that even other members of staff seemed to share their loathing of Filch. Muttering to himself the caretaker turned around, and soon all that could be seen was his lantern wending its way back up to the castle.
"We sort of lost track of time, and got caught out after hours." Neville replied to Hagrid's earlier question. "What are we doing here? Helping muck out some of the pens now the animals are asleep?" Having spent a lot of time with Hagrid over the year, firstly just the occasion weekend meeting, but then helping babysit Norberta, Neville could think of a lot of menial tasks that they could help Hagrid with, but was wracking his brains to come up with one the absolutely must be done at night.
"Nah. We are goin' out into the forest." Hagrid supplied. "There is summat after the unicorns recently. They have bin turning injured, and I foun' a few dead this year. Close teh the school an' everything. We are goin' to see if we can find what has bin goin' on. Not quite sure why McGonagall wants you with me, but we'll manage."
The longer this explanation went on, the more worried the children became. Harry especially, from the constant stories from Remus, knew that the forest, especially near to the school wasn't actually that dangerous if you knew what you were doing. Still, sending a group of first years out there at night without any preparation was asking for trouble, even without there being something out there both willing and able to hunt unicorns. Even a fully mindless werewolf might go for a unicorn, but shouldn't be able to catch one without extreme luck, they just weren't fast enough.
"Er, Hagrid? Isn't this really dangerous?" Harry voiced the question they were all thinking.
"Nah. There ain't anything in the forest that'll go fer yeh with me an' Fang here. As long as yeh don' panic and stay with us yeh will be fine. I am not expecting teh catch the thing. Bin trying all year an' got not so much as a footprint. The centaurs have bin looking too, don' like things in their territory. Bin close mouthed abou' what they suspect, bu' they don' like it. The worst we may find is a badly hurt unicorn and we have to put it out of it's misery, bu' I don' expect yeh to watch tha'."
Slightly mollified, and crowding in close, they set off. While Hagrid's lantern didn't burn that bright, they took in in turns to cast Lumos charms to reveal the footing. While Hagrid was the only human to visit the forest regularly, there were large animals aplenty to leave trails through the undergrowth. After about half an hour of stumbling, with Hagrid cheerfully pointing out interesting plants and signs of animals along the way, there was what seemed like a brief shriek in the distance. Hagrid held up a hand to quieten them and stood still, listening, but nothing more came.
"Right. I tha' was a unicorn I think. Close as well. Not sure exactly where though, so best if we split up an' sen' up sparks if yeh see anythin'. Neville, stay with me. Harry, Susan, take Fang."
None of them were exactly happy about this, but given where and when they were they followed Hagrid's instructions without argument. Now that they were off the trail the going was a lot slower. The trees were old and large, so there was plenty of space between them and not much underbrush, but even just placing their feet so they didn't trip on something hidden under the leaf litter took time.
Despite his size, Hagrid was far more graceful in this environment than the first years and it wasn't long before the two groups lost sight of each other. After about fifteen minutes Harry and Susan rounded a tree to find a patch of silvery liquid reflecting the wandlight. It was evidence that something had been around, and Fang's growl and raised hackles suggested that it may not have gone far. Upon closer inspection it seemed that the leaf litter had been disturbed by something and a trail highlighted by scattered drops of the fluid led away. After a brief whispered conversation they decided to send up sparks and then follow to see if they could find anything else while Hagrid was coming to them.
Their utter lack of woodcraft meant that the children's attempts at stealthy tracking were laughable, rustling and stumbling along. However, the dark shape crouched over the fallen unicorn was so engrossed in its prey that it didn't even notice them clambering through the trampled section of hedge into the clearing. While illustrations of unicorns were common in many wizarding children's books, even the accurate ones did no justice to the sight of one in the flesh. While superficially resembling a horse, there was no way it could be mistaken as such. Its coat seemed to shine with silvery ripples in the rays of moonlight sneaking through the gaps in the trees. Its proportions seemed slightly distorted from a mundane equine, exaggerated or distended in some indefinable matter. Not that the children noticed any of this however. Their eyes were fixed solely on the cloaked figure stopping over the exposed neck of the magical creature. They froze in their tracks, suddenly very aware of how foolhardy their decision to follow had been, silently praying that it wouldn't turn around and spot them. It wasn't just the intellectual understanding that whatever was capable of hunting down a unicorn and then decided to feed off it, would see them as little more than light amusement, or a light snack. Despite the poor light, voluminous robe of cloth and shadow obscuring the thing, the aura of malevolence and unnatural chill, even for a Scottish night, were unmistakable. There is a small core at the heart of every person left over from the days when humanity was just another type of ape roaming the plains, and it was now screaming to hide and hope.
Unfortunately for them, Fang had other ideas. Flattening his body to the ground, he growled softly for a moment. Then his courage gave out and he scrambled around before crashing off through forest, whining loudly, bowling Susan over in the process. This seemed to break the spell, and the thing realised that it had company. It raised its head and turned to face the children. The only things that could be seen under the hood were drips of sparkling liquid from the interrupted meal and a pair of glowing, red eyes. It didn't make any move initially, just staring at the trespassers impassively as Susan struggled to her feet while Harry sank down to his knees, driven by the burning pain that felt as if it was splitting his head apart. Then, without warning, it issued an unearthly shriek, and surged forwards.
At the last moment the thing swerved to the side as something whistled through the air above the heads of Harry and Susan. With a screech of rage the abomination bounded away into the darkness of the trees as a pounding of hooves broke though the first year's shock just as a centaur burst into the clearing. He was incredibly pale against the night, with blond hair both on his head and his equine body. He was holding a bow with an arrow nocked and was staring intently at the direction the figure had fled. After a few breaths he relaxed, returning the arrow to its quiver and turning to the two children.
"Greetings. It is rather far from the school to find students, especially so young and so late." He stated, although still as if expecting an answer.
"W-we were with Hagrid." Susan stammered out, as Harry was still clutching at his forehead, amazed that it hadn't physically split in half. "We had detention."
The centaur didn't reply, just stood staring at them, or perhaps through them, and then turned to the sky. "Mars is bright tonight. First time it has been in ascendence in over a decade."
Harry and Susan waited for him to complete this thought, but he never did. It wasn't so much that they were scared of centaurs, while the Daily Prophet ran occasional scare stories about them, their families kept them away from that rag for a reason, but they knew they were far out of their depth and hoped that the more polite and cooperative their were the quicker this nightmare would end. After several minutes of silence the centaur finally walked over to the unicorn and bent down to examine in. Stroking its forehead gently, he whispered something at it and then stood up.
"Senseless killing of any kind is a crime, but to harm a unicorn is the worst of all. What do you know of unicorn blood?" He suddenly turned to the first years.
"Nothing. We only use bits of the horn and hair in potions, I think because they shed them naturally." Harry replied.
"That is truly the reason. For while unicorns are one of the most magical creatures to walk this earth, to harm one is a crime against magic itself. That thing" he spat the word, "seeks to use the power in the blood to fuel its own existence long beyond when it should have passed on. Yet all it will get is a cursed half-life."
"You know what it is?" Susan tentatively asked.
"As should you. The movements of the planets and the positions of the stars foretold of this. Can you not think of one so desperate and so foul that it would go to even these lengths to eke out even one more day so they can take another step on their quest to return to this country?"
A frenzied barking cut through the still night air, accompanied by the sound of hurried movement through the bushes.
"Ah. There yeh are!" Never had a bellow sounded so comforting.
"Hagrid!" Harry and Susan both shouted in relief, as the half giant crashed through the forest towards them, all attempt at finesse thrown to the wind, with Fang bouncing around him and Neville trailing in his wake.
"Hello there." Hagrid greeted the centaur as he reached them. "I don' think we've met. I'm Rubeus Hagrid, Keeper of Keys and Grounds at Hogwarts. Thank yeh fer finding the little ones. My fault fer sending them off with jus' Fang. Too dangerous 'round here these days." He nodded towards the body of the unicorn.
"Your reputation precedes you Hagrid. Well met, I am Firenze." The centaur inclined his head. "I think it would be best if you make your way back to the castle now. My brethren and myself will make sure she returns to the forest without further defiling."
"Yeh, well, thanks again. Best be off. C'mon now Harry, Susan. Yeh not hurt are yeh? Good."
They made the journey out of the forest in silence. Hagrid was busy peering between every tree with his crossbow held high, and Harry and Susan were struggling to digest what had just happened to them and what they had been told. Once they reached the open grounds before the castle Hagrid hustled them into his hut and put the kettle on. He insisted that they needed 'a good warming up', and the children couldn't argue with that. Sleep was the last thing on their mind.
Soon Hagrid and Neville were filled in on what had happened, including what the centaur had said.
"He knew what that thing was." Harry insisted. "It was like he was trying to tell us, but something was stopping him."
"By the sounds of it yeh were damn lucky Harry." Hagrid consoled him. "Pretty much imposs'ble to get a straight answer out of a centaur. What yeh got was clearer than anythin' I've ever heard them say. Never interested in anything closer than the moon, ruddy stargazers. Know what. Write it all down 'fore you forget and send it to yeh mum. Right clever woman she was at school and doubt that's changed. If anyone can work it out she can."
Eventually the adrenaline and fear began to wear off and all three of the first years began yawing. After all, by now it was the early hours of the morning, after a full day of school. Not knowing if Filch was still up and waiting for them, and not particularly keen to hand them over if he was, Hagrid offered to escort them all back to their dorms before they actually fell asleep and he needed to carry them. On the way he kept repeating his apologies for splitting up the group, sending them off on their own, until Harry finally pleaded for him to stop, insisting that it was entirely their own fault for following the trail before he had caught up.
Given their long day and late night, it was a miracle any of them made it down to breakfast the next morning, even if it was only Harry and Susan. Neville's current pariah status in Gryffindor meant that nobody bothered to check if he was awake, let alone physically drag him out of bed and half carry him to the Great Hall, which was what the other two required.
To add insult to injury a long trek through the forest in the cold had left them quiet aching on top of their exhaustion. Luckily for Harry he had Transfiguration first thing on a Thursday, and McGonagall of all people couldn't criticise him too much for staying up too late given that she had set the detention. Instead she just made a disapproving comment about 'hope you have learned something', much to the Slytherin's amusement. Second lesson was a free period, so by the time the next lesson rolled around he was coherent enough to stagger through the rest of the day with a bit of support from his housemates. Catching up with Neville in charms, it turned out the other boy had actually slept through his first lesson before a kindly house elf had woken him up as it was doing its rounds. Fortunately according to Hermione, Quirrell had somehow been even more distracted than usual, so hadn't even noticed.
Still, by and large three more exhausted students on top of those working themselves to the bone to cram for OWLs and NEWTs went pretty much unnoticed. The following day after lessons, they made their excuses and slipped away to the Marauder's base to discuss what they had experienced and compose letters home. While none of them had any knowledge of centaurs or their brand of astrology and none of the older students were in any state to be approached with questions at that time, they still could try and make some guesses. Writing down the exact words Firenze has spoken as best they could remember, to their mounting dread sense seemed to be forming in them. While the nuances were far out of their reach, one of the basic properties of Mar's influence was well known to be conflict and violence. So well known in fact that the mundane Romans had even named it after their god of war. The references to the last time it rose being over a decade ago, the ending of the War seemed to agree with that interpretation.
Something bad was coming. Something bad enough that a centaur, notorious for their disinterest, even hatred, of human affairs and legendary mysticism, was trying to warn them. Talking about someone coming back, on the edge of death. There was one individual who all three knew could fit that description. They had always been told growing up that he hadn't been seen or heard about since that night, but nobody knew what had happened. Of course their respective guardians all hoped that he was dead and never spoke openly about the possibility of his survival, especially as the quiet years ticked by, but all of them had lost too much in the War to truly rest easy.
This was far beyond them, mere first years, so they decided that they would send off all that had happened two nights earlier and wait to see what their families made of it. If anything was to be done, then it wouldn't be by them. They had more important things to worry about. Mainly the exams.
"I will strangle that woman with her own tail." Lily hissed vehemently, slamming her fist down on the table causing Hedwig to jump and flutter to the windowsill to get a safe distance. What was McGonagall thinking? Sending three first years out into the forest with Hagrid? Chasing after something killing unicorns? Lovely as the man was, for all of his physical capabilities his lack of magic meant that only Filch (and possibly the defence teacher by all accounts) would have a harder time protecting others. Remus had told her much about his full moon runs over the years and she knew even at the best of times there were creatures like acromantula and dire wolves that could run rings around the gentle giant, let alone something that could chase down unicorns. Even if the letter she had been reading was proof that her child had returned safe and sound, the thought of something that evil prowling near the school made her shudder.
She didn't even think that she could really have a go at Harry for his actions. Yes, trying to track down the creature before Hagrid reached them had been foolhardy, but by the sound of it the lesson had already been well and truly learned. He was eleven years old for God's sake, nobody could expect him to make perfect decisions and it was entirely the teachers' fault that he was in that situation in the first place. No. Chastisement now would only make things worse. What Harry needed was to be reassured that whatever went on at Hogwarts there were still adults who would always support him. She would call Remus and write a letter back from the both of them. After she had poured herself a stiff drink.
Back at school pretty much everything else had been forgotten, at least for the moment, by the arrival of the exams. While only the fifth and seventh years' tests actually counted, their infectious fervour combined with the prophecies of failure and doom from the teachers had driven most of the rest of the school into a nervous wreck anyway. Especially in Ravenclaw, people had barely any attention to spare for petty matters like eating and sleeping, let alone house points losses or the detentions of first years.
Harry found himself nearly uniquely calm in the cauldron of nervous energy. His mother and Remus had repeatedly stressed that, as long as he didn't fail any classes, the results for the next few years didn't matter at all. Of course they would like him to do well, as it was all work that would eventually help for his OWLs and it was nice for personal pride, but there was no sense busting a gut over it. As they had both passed their formal exams with flying colours and his mum had even been head-girl, he felt that their opinions could be relied on in this.
The exams themselves were surprisingly relaxed given the build up. The teachers just tested them on things that they had covered during the year, no trick questions or surprises, and as he had been paying attention and done sensible revision, he had known it. The preparation work he had done at home both before Hogwarts and during the holidays hadn't hurt either, especially for Potions.
Before he knew it he was leaving his final exam, History of Magic. Thanks to his mother's notes, actually derived more from a syllabus published by the Department of Magical Education in 1912 that someone had dug up in the library and passed around than anything Binns had said, he knew exactly what could have come up. In fact, he had actually finished early thanks to his mother teaching him from the mundane essay writing guides she had bought for herself in the summer after her third year. Having written what he felt were all of the salient points, who even marked this stuff anyway, given Binns couldn't exactly hold a quill, he leaned back in his chair and let his mind wander.
This being the final exam brought home how close he was to the end of the year. It was amazing to think that it was just ten months ago that he had first arrived in Hogwarts. His previous existence with just his mum, Remus the Longbottoms and the Bones seemed a world away now. So much had happened in that short time. He had met new people, learned new things and begun to develop his magic. That was just the normal day to day stuff. There was also the weird stuff. The detention the previous week. The invisibility cloak. Hagrid and Norberta. Honestly, who would give Hagrid a dragon's egg? Even if they didn't know him he had told them he had named a cerberus Fluffy. The troll. Without that he would probably barely know Hermione, although they still weren't very close. All of the fuss in the first couple of weeks over the cerberus itself.
He wondered if anything was going to happen about that. He had made his bet on somebody going for whatever it was guarding before the end of the year, but Dumbledore catching them. That could keep him in sweets for the whole summer he mused dreamily. Better yet, he knew Susan had gone for 'nothing happens' and she would be so smug if she won. Especially as the odds were better given how sensationalist some of the rumours became.
He honestly didn't see why nobody had gone for it. He swore the centaur was trying to tell him someone connected to Voldemort was trying to get to the Philosopher's Stone. His mum had told him that while Dumbledore may be a bit batty, he wasn't stupid enough to use his students as a human shield for something as valuable as the Stone, but if Voldemort's servant, or whatever that thing was, might not know that. Maybe they would try to get in anyway. He bet they could. Voldemort would only send their most trusted after something like the stone, so they would be easily evil enough to get past the cerberus. Anyway, Hagrid couldn't be the only one who knew about the music thing. He had also told at least them and that hooded man at the pub… that hooded man who happened to have a dragon egg to give to Hagrid. Voldemort definitely knew it then.
By the time his train of thought had reached this conclusion, he had followed his year mates out of the school as they rushed to make use of the twin blessings of freedom from exams and clear skies. Most of the rest of the Ravenclaws and Hermione were too busy fiercely comparing answers that they didn't notice him catch Susan and Neville's eyes and slip away. Once they were far enough from the other clusters of students spread out in front of the castle, quickly filled them in on his epiphany. It all added up. Voldemort was going to send someone to go through the trapdoor and steal whatever was being guarded on the third floor.
"What can we do?" Neville asked. "We need to tell someone! Dumbledore, it is his trap, so he needs to know."
The three of them turned towards the school and began to hurry back inside before pausing.
"Umm, does anyone know where his office is?" Susan asked. Apparently none of them did. "We will just have to find a teacher or prefect and ask them then."
As luck would have it just as they were crossing the entrance hall they nearly ran into Professor McGonagall bustling down the stairs, arms piled high with what they assumed to be exam scripts.
"Professor McGonagall!" Harry called out to her.
"Yes Mr Potter?" She replied shortly. Harry steeled himself, McGonagall was always daunting for a young student and it appeared that they had caught her at a bad time.
"We need to speak to Professor Dumbledore. It's urgent."
"While I am sure it is, I am afraid the Headmaster is a busy man. He is at the Ministry today and is not expected back until much later. You will have to wait until tomorrow. Good day." She abruptly marched off without giving the children a chance to reply, and none of them felt brave enough to try and catch up.
With that plan foiled, they took the few minutes they had before the start of dinner to come up with something else. Finally they decided to send a letter off to Lily to explain what they had realised so at least they had told someone and she was the person they thought most likely to be actually at home. Dashing up to the owlery they sent Hedwig winging off to the horizon and considered what to do until the message was received. Given that nobody else seemed to be willing to listen and everyone was distracted by post-exam celebrations, they decided that the least they could do was stand watch. So a few hours later, when others were beginning to drift off to bed to catch up on sleep lost to revision, the three students reconvened at their room to pick up the cloak. There was just one small hitch however.
"So this is where the three of you sneak off to! What is in this empty classroom?"
Apparently they had all been so wrapped up in their own musings that none of them had noticed that they were being followed. Although to be fair to the other two, Harry was the one who had been oblivious all the way from his common room. They turned around to the sight of Padma Patil staring them down, hands on hips.
"Umm - just hanging out?" Neville tried, without much conviction.
"Which must be done all the way over here rather than anywhere else in the school. We may have let you go with exams coming up Harry, but don't think you can keep us in the dark forever. We are in the same house!" Obviously she wasn't buying it.
Harry tried a different tack. "You know the family secret thing from a couple of weeks ago. It is to do with that."
But one does not grow up with a twin different enough from you to be sorted into separate houses without a stubborn streak a mile wide. "You are seriously going to play that card? You are going to go through seven years at this school while keeping something obviously important from all of your housemates. You can only sneak out because we let you."
"Fine." Harry gave in. Another pair of eyes might not hurt anyway. "You know the cerberus on the third floor? Well we think there is somebody after whatever it is guarding. When we had that detention in the forest, we were with Hagrid as he looked for something that was killing unicorns." Despite being safe in a warm corridor, Padma still shuddered at that idea. "We sort of ran into it, but a centaur turned up and chased it off. I gave us some cryptic hints, and we think it was trying to tell us that that thing thinks the philosopher's stone is under the trapdoor and it is trying to get it because it works for Voldemort." At this name Padma shivered again.
Having started Harry just kept going. "We have been visiting Hagrid occasionally this year, and he let slip that he told a suspicious stranger in the Hog's Head how to get past the cerberus, so we think whoever it is going to have a go at getting through the trapdoor. I only realised this this afternoon, and tried to find Dumbledore earlier to tell him, but we ran into McGonagall who said he is at the Ministry today. I sent a letter to my mum explaining what we think, and we're just going to keep watch over the corridor for tonight to see if anything happens, especially if Professor Dumbledore is away."
"So are you just going to sit in the corridor and wave to them as they go by?" Padma asked sceptically.
At this Susan and Neville turned to Harry and waited. This would be his secret to tell.
"Padma." Harry started seriously. "If I tell you, do you promise to keep this secret from everybody, even your sister. I know you all thought I was exaggerating when I said about a family secret, but it actually is and a very important one."
This was fast becoming far deeper than she had ever imagined, but she hadn't followed Harry just to give up now. "I promise."
Harry turned to Neville. "Can you get it, she won't be able to go in." As he trotted off to pick up the cloak. Harry filled Padma in. "When my dad and his friends were in school they were a bit like the Weasley twins now, always running pranks. This room was their workshop base. Over Christmas Remus snuck back into school and unlocked it for us three to hang out in. That was because of this." On cue Neville returned with the shimmering sheet. "This is an old Potter family heirloom that my dad used in school. It is sort of an invisibility cloak, but also isn't. This is what we will use to hide us when we look out. Want to come?"
Padma realised that there was more to this story, especially how it ended up with them being caught by Filch at midnight, and it wasn't as if she was doing anything else that evening. Hence, half an hour later, the four of them were bunched up in a corner of the corridor with a good view of the door to the cerberus room. Realising that they might be in for the long haul, they had 'liberated' some cushions to make a nest and were whispering to each other as they slowly made their way through Susan's last pack of every-flavour beans.
The hours passed uneventfully, but despite their boredom they were on a mission and persevered. This corridor was chosen to be out of bound probably because nobody used it. Finally, as the sun was setting, they heard footsteps approaching. Swiftly cutting off their whispered conversation on the long essay question on the Transfiguration exam the four waited with baited breath. To a combination of disappointment and relief, it was just Professor Quirrell. Although, why was he carrying a large harp and heading towards the cerberus door?
Calmly unlocking it and stepping through, the first years could hear Fluffy's snarls quickly die away to be replaced by music from the harp. Twenty minutes or so later and the harp was still going, if more softly, and Quirrell hadn't emerged. He didn't seem to be just checking on the protections then. Surely a teacher wouldn't betray Dumbledore and try to help Voldemort? Or maybe he was after whatever it was for himself? Didn't some of the older students who had had him for Muggle Studies said he had changed a lot since then? Maybe something had happened to him, or he had been replaced or forced.
Whatever had happened, the four decided that they couldn't just stay here, they had to go and investigate. Also even with the cushions their legs were cramping so they needed to walk somewhere. With Harry in the lead and the cloak stuffed in a robe pocket, they slowly pushed open the door and crept into the room.
