Authors Note: Okay, I'm so so so sorry that I haven't updated! I've tried...well, kind of. My life has been hectic. We went to California a few days ago, and now I'm all sunburnt. RIP. Putting a shirt on, not much less my stupid uniform, hurts like hell. I hate school. Anyways, enjoy this :D

Harry

The day was a somewhat perfectly normal day. Which was surprising, because Harry's life lacked those. However, everything was going exactly as it was supposed to. He went to lunch, talked to Ron and Hermione over insignificant, bothersome things that had no effect on the immediate future, he went to his classes and spaced out for the most part, but maintained the appearance of being awake for the sake of the teacher's...and his grades. Or, at the least, part of them.

That wasn't to say that future days were going to be similar, though. Winter break was creeping up on the Hogwarts students, and you could feel the chill of it, and the suppressed excitement, burrowing under their skin. It felt like electricity gently, slowly coursing through their body. The anticipation.

Although for most, this anticipation was unsullied, Harry carried with him a worry that something might happen. It dulled the electricity and made it into something quite less potent. More dangerous. More exciting. He truly was a Gryffindor. He was also still worried about the exchange students. He had heard from Dean, who apparently became fast friends with Will, that the duo (Will and Nico) was staying at Hogwarts for the Christmas, since they "had something to do". Harry, he was sure, was not the only person who was suspicious of this. After all, there wasn't much as Hogwarts as at anywhere else- he meant, sure, one could peruse Hogsmeade so long as they had some sort of chaperone, which although difficult to obtain, was not impossible, and the castle was always open for exploration, and one could train at Quidditch on the field without being interrupted, and there was more food available, and it was much quieter...okay, well, Harry had to admit, he could see why they might want to stay at Hogwarts. If Harry didn't decide to stay to watch the students, he would likely go with Ron to the Burrow. Hermione was going skiing, which Harry knew, or guessed rather, having never done such activity, was rather fun. The Dursley's had gone skiing before, but they made sure to keep Harry at home with the crazy cat lady next door, who kept on trying to give him stale chocolate cake that smelt like it was as ancient as the Egyptian pyramids.

Once all the classes were over, Harry sat on his broom, hovering above the Quidditch posts. Just kind of there, not doing much. He was thinking. About the transfers, what else.

Despite all that Harry wished otherwise, the two (Will and Nico) weren't as suspicious as Harry had originally thought. Things between Hogwarts and American school had a few differences, at least in their magical counterparts. While they were still at the Burrow, Harry had tried to grill the two on their school, and had gathered that American magic schools -Ilvermorny- focused more on other things than magic. In conjunction to typical lessons such as Potions and Charms, there were also fitness classes that were imbedded into their schedule, similar to that of a Muggle school. Things such as English, maths, and science classes were not required but open if anyone wished to take them...which nobody really did. Nico had made a joke about a girl named Annabeth, but once he was pressured to explain, he left.

Besides being secretive, the two hadn't caused any trouble so far. Harry had even found that they were fun, if the mood came to it. On one of the first days, they had gathered into their room, and they had drank and played 20 Questions with a twist. Harry thought it quite an enjoyable night. He kind of hoped they would do something like that again.

Harry jolted forward, deciding to fly a few laps around the field. He loved that fresh, crisp feeling as the wind whipped against his face, sneaking into the gaps between his cloak and his scarf, mussing his hair up. In the Christmas air, it felt as though icicles were grazing along his face. He felt like he was a flame, burning through the sky. A star, falling, falling. He twisted into a loop, letting out a small scream of adrenaline. Nothing felt quite like flying, he had to say. He was so much more natural up there. One time, in a drama class he had took after-school for free when he was quite young, his teacher, a somewhat portly and naturally hyper blonde teacher had told the class that how they felt shouldn't affect their acting. She said, "Once you walk in, leave your baggage at the door. You can pick it up another time, but for now, lose those unnnecassary things. Don't let it affect you when you have a thing to do."

Harry had dragged that advice around ever since. He had been, what, maybe 7? Nevertheless, he did just as she had said. He left everything down on the ground, quite literally. Worries, stress, anger. He lost himself in the rush of air as it fluttered his clothes, as he dodged imaginary balls streaking towards him, and weaved through the crimson Quidditch hoops. The only things he needed to focus on was when to turn, to not fall off. Simple, easy, but more complicated tha the average person might think.

Finally, he decided he needed to get back to real life and be responsible. He never liked doing that. As soon as his feet hit the ground, he felt a shock of sadness, being that he didn't want to be there. Neverthless, he carefully brushed off the broom with some polish, taking off his scarf and throwing it over his broom, using it as a sort of convenient shelf. He made his way inside, careful as he turned the corner. Even though it wasn't technically curfew time quite yet, Filch was well-known for giving kids detention for being out- even an hour before curfew. He was just grumpy like that. Harry suspected it was because he couldn't do magic, yet still was given the arduous job to clean the entire Hogwarts. And, surely enough, Hogwarts was enormous. Harry couldn't entirely blame Filch, but it was still annoying that he was forced to go to the extremes to avoid the hunch-backed caretaker.

Night was just beginning to set- the sky was streaked with the soft glow of stars, and the castle leered high above, spires pointing like a dagger, a shadow against the night.

A figure darted out from the main doors, looking leerily around before running across the broad expanse, then taking cover behind one of the trees dotting the Hogwart's lawn. Harry looked at the now-invisble figure, before slowly puting his broom down, and crouching to slowly extract the Cloak of Invisibility from his bag. It made a slight swishing sound as it brushed agianst the material of his bag. Dumbeldore had once told him it would prove useful to carry around, just in case, and Harry had done so excellently. Not that before now he had ever really found a use for the cloak. It wasn't as though he was attacked on the daily, even though he often felt as much.

Making sure the silvery Cloak covered all of him, he slipped towards the person, making sure that the Cloak made no noise, that he didn't disturb the quiet.

He stopped once he was able to see the person. They wore a black cloak, which would be suspicious in any other circumstance, except that part of wizarding culture was to wear cloaks, and had a shock of blonde hair, going in and out of view whenever the person moved. They glanced around, pausing momentarily as they stared in Harry's direction, but made no advance towards him, instead turning in the opposite direction and running off again. He hoped that he hadn't spotted the raven. Harry tip-toed after them- he doubted they would hear him over the sound of their own huffed breaths, or their gentle footsteps, but still, he made all precautions to be quiet, since one never knew.

They stopped once more behind a tree, looked around, waited for a moment, before repeating the process, Harry slowly trailing behind. It was a slow, careful process. Harry had no idea who they were, nor what might happen if he was caught.

The raven supposed that they were making their way to the Forbidden Forest. They skirted Hagrid's cabin, keeping an eye on the shack of brick and wood. A lone hippogriff inside the corral nearing it whinnied at the strangers passing. Harry ignored it, deciding that it might even be better if Hagrid woke up, since then he could catch the stranger.

Once they crested the edge of the leering, pitch-black trees, Harry second-guessed his actions. He could very well go back now, and leave whoever-they-were well enough alone. For all he knew, they were just trying to find some sort of rare herb.

But the temptation for adventure, if nothing else, never failed him, and Harry ended up ducking behind trees much as they did, attempting to keep his footsteps near where the stranger had made theirs. For the sake of tracking them, of course.

The stranger, leading a winding path through the forest, continued until Harry's feet hurt and he was sure they had walked over two miles, stopped suddenly at a large, empty clearing. Nestled into the roots of a blackened tree were three more figures. Two of them were slumped over, but Harry was unable to make out any features in the low light.

He dared to sneak closer. The stranger took off his cloak. They were tall, wearing a typical Hogwarts uniform with a red and golden tie. Will, Harry's imagination supplied him.

The blonde threw his cloak into a tree, leaving it to be used for another time.

A voice punctuated the darkness.

"So, why did you come to Hogwarts?"

"Why would I tell you! You-you trapped the corridor."

Nico

"Yeah, well. I don't want people to invade my space. Especially when I'm asleep." The raven insisted, pulling the other male's hair, glaring at him. He hoped that the limited light would set a mysterious atmosphere, and that, when combined with the fact he was tied up, he would confess everything quickly enough. However, it didn't seem to be working. He was getting irritated. He didn't know very much about torture, nor interogations, and he would rather he didn't have to resort to using the tactics he had learned earlier, right near the 2nd war. First of all, he had never experimented with them. Hades had given him reign over the Fields of Punishment, saying he could test out his methods there, but he didn't want to. Plain as that. It disgusted him, the purposeful harming of someone in such a way. Without even giving them a chance to fight back.

"Will you please just tell me what you were doing in the corridor? Clearly, nothing good. Look."

Nico, with a grim smile that felt as fake as it looked, pulled out the things he had found on the siblings. A few knives, their wands, poison, and a pack of gum. Nico was saving that last thing, since everyone knows that if you have a pack of gum in school, suddenly everyone becomes your friend.

"Do you see these?" Nico asked, waving the utensils in front of the man. The other nodded frantically. "What were you going to do with them?"

The man turned his head. "I won't tell you." He resisted.

"Why not?" Nico asked, lifting the man's chin up with the edge of the knife. "Are you scared of what I might do?" He asked once more, trailing the blade along his chin, pressing just enough for the other to feel it, but not drawing blood. He made an indentation in the skin, a thin red line that faded quickly.

"Will here can take well enough care of you, if I do decide to do anything. But I won't. Not if you co-operate."

"N-No." The man stuttered, moving his head so that there was more space between his neck and the cold metal.

"Well." Nico said, thoroughly disappointed in the man's willingness to co-operate. He turned to the still unconcsiouc, slumped figure of his sister. Slapping their face to wake them up, Nico smiled as their eyes opened wearily, darting around panickly.

"Wake upp." Nico sung, showing them the knife, waving it in front of her face. "Hiya! Your brother refuses to co-operate with me, so…"

He trailed off, letting them wake up and absorb the information.

They started screaming a second later.

Authors Note: Sorry this took so long, as is kind of short. I'm going to try to publish another short one by Friday, like a part two to this section. I kinda wanted to describe the torture, but I decided against it, since I wanna keep it T, ya know? So those who worry about it, don't, I'm going to continue after. Love y'alls readers, and a big thank you to Writer2006 and daughterofhades for the continued reviews! Bye!