"Sirius, have you noticed that something seems to be causing disturbances in the Forbidden Forest?" Remus asked. The two men were sitting in Sirius's quarters on the second Saturday of the term, waiting for Harry to arrive so they could go eat lunch in Hogsmeade together. Sirius wanted to spend as much time as possible with Harry, not only because he loved talking to him, but also to keep an eye on his safety and well-being. The boy had had quite the year and Sirius wanted to be sure he was holding up well with all the pressure being placed on him.

"You know, Rem, I have. The centaurs have been agitated since Hagrid got back a few days ago. You don't think he brought a foreign beast with him back from his mission? You know how much he loves magical creatures…" Sirius mumbled, shaking his head.

"Maybe we should take a look around tonight? It's the full moon, I've taken the wolfsbane potion so I should be fine. Harry will be with Albus tonight for his private lesson, so I doubt he would mind." Remus suggested, grinning at his friend.

Sirius returned the smile. "Why not? It would be like old times… Padfoot and Moony walking around Hogwarts."

Before the two could discuss their plans for the following evening anymore, Harry walked in, looking frightened.

"Harry," Sirius said urgently, walking up to his son. "Are you okay?"

Harry swallowed thickly and nodded. "Yeah, I'm fine. Hagrid was just… er, telling me about his mission. Giants are pretty bloody terrifying…" The truth was, Hagrid had just introduced Hermione, Ron, and Harry to his little brother, Grawp, and Harry had promised to help keep Hagrid's secret about him. Although he didn't like lying to Sirius, he knew his overprotective father would freak out if he found out Harry had been within ten feet of a young giant.

"No kidding," Sirius said, ruffling his son's hair. "I can't imagine what Hagrid's been through in the last three months."

"Hopefully he hasn't brought anything back from his adventures," Remus mumbled, walking over to the two of them.

Harry tensed up at Remus's words and Sirius noticed. "Merlin, kiddo, are you okay? You sure you're up to going to Hogsmeade today?"

Harry nodded. "Yeah… yeah, I'm fine, let's just go."

With that, the three left for the Three Broomsticks. Harry felt better during his trip to Hogsmeade, allowing the giant to go to the back of his mind for the time being, so that he could just enjoy the time with his guardians.


"Alright, Sirius, are you ready?" Remus asked, putting on an oversized bathrobe in preparation for the transformation.

"Yep, we'll leave from here and go straight to the forest. I say we head towards the centaur colony first, see if we can hear any clues from them on what's going on - if we don't get anything from them, we'll go on and start walking around. I think we should check the different clearings scattered throughout that forest, where unicorns graze. We'll have a good view of large spaces then. If we don't find anything, I guess we could just ask Hagrid about it tomorrow. He cares about all living creatures, so if one is causing a ruckus, he would know." Sirius said, also donning a bathrobe to change into his animagus form easier.

"Okay, I'm going to go upstairs and wait for the transformation - if you want to come up there too, go ahead and change into a dog, just in case the potion doesn't work." Remus said, turning to move up the rickety steps of the shrieking shack. "Oh and Sirius, if the potion doesn't work, we should stay here. I don't want to risk biting a student."

"Absolutely, Rem. I'll be right up," Sirius said, staring out the window at the full moon for a few more moments before transforming into his alter ego and following his friend up the old staircase.


"Okay, Harry, so as we discussed earlier, I believe the way to go about defeating Voldemort will be through the destruction of horcruxes - now, in my not so humble opinion, I think Voldemort would have used seven horcruxes, a powerful magical number. I also think, with the help from a ministry employee, I have located the site of another one. Before I show you that man's particular memory, however, I would like for you to take a look in my pensieve. I think what you see, you will find enlightening." Dumbledore said, gesturing over to his pensieve.

"Er- okay." Harry said, walking over and placing his head in the bowl. He plunged his head inside and was in an old orphanage, somewhere in muggle London.

Then, he saw Dumbledore. He followed the man inside the orphanage and towards an office, where a strict looking lady gave Dumbledore some information about a boy; a boy who's name made Harry's blood run cold.

"Now I must tell you, Tom is not like the other children. He causes a lot of trouble, but strange things have been happening with him." The lady, presumably the owner of the orphanage, told Dumbledore.

"Not to worry, Madam, we at St. Marcus's take care of the children. Perhaps he will return next year a bit more behaved?" Dumbledore said kindly, showing himself out of the office.

"Where exactly did you say your school was, Mr. Dumbledore?" The lady inquired questioningly.

"I didn't," Dumbledore said simply, walking out of the room and down the hall towards Tom Riddle's room. Harry reluctantly followed.

Once the professor showed himself into the boy's room, he began to explain about magic.

"You mean, I'm special?" The boy asked - despite his childhood innocence, Harry thought he was creepy.

"Well, no more special than your friend's here, no." Dumbledore said, shaking his head. "You can just do different things than they can. Just like they can do different things than you."

"They can't do anything except whine about kids being mean and taking their toys." Tom Riddle mumbled, looking forlornly out the window.

"Which reminds me," Dumbledore said, setting Tom's wardrobe to fire. "I think something in your wardrobe needs your attention."

Tom walked over and opened his cupboard, looking at a small box of toys.

Dumbledore walked up behind him. "Stealing will not be tolerated at Hogwarts, Tom. I expect you to return all of these things to their owners before you leave, or I might have to revoke my invitation."

With that, Dumbledore began to leave, and Harry gladly followed, but Tom called him back. "Sir - I can talk to snakes. Is that normal for me?"

Harry found himself spit out of the memory and back onto Dumbledore's office floor after that last statement.

"That, Harry, was how I found young Tom." Dumbledore explained, helping Harry up. "How he got in that situation, is the next part of our lesson. I have a memory here from a ministry official that was in contact with Tom Riddle's parents and family, and I think it holds a clue to hunting horcruxes-"

"DUMBLEDORE!" McGonagall yelled, running into the office. "Oh, heavens, Harry, you're here. Something's happened with Sirius and Remus - it looks bad."

Harry and Dumbledore rushed after McGonagall out of his office, down the spiral staircase, and to the hospital wing. Harry wasn't sure what would have happened - he had thought Remus and his father were just going on a stroll that night, like they had done thousands of times in the Marauder's days. What could have possibly gone wrong with a little exploring on the Hogwart's grounds?

When they reached the hospital wing, Dumbledore opened the doors and they strode in; however, one look at the first bed had Harry cringing away. There was no way the mass of blood, bones, and flesh in front of him was a person. Why had McGonagall brought him to see someone so gravely injured?

With crushing realization, Harry recognized the matted black hair and, now broken, handsome features of his dad.

"Dad!" Harry exclaimed, shocked at the mangled appearance of his father. He felt tears prick his eyes and made to come closer, but a wolfish hand pawed at him. He turned around and backed up in shock for a moment. It was Remus, but he was in his wolf form, unable to talk; the look in his eyes, however, was all the confirmation Harry needed - this was bad.

"I… I tried to find out what happened, but clearly Sirius can't tell me and Remus won't be able to speak until morning." McGonagall said sadly, on the verge of tears.

Harry wasn't listening to his professor; instead, he was watching Madam Pomfrey's every move. "Will he be okay?" Harry choked out.

Pomfrey looked up to Harry sadly. "I'm going to do my best with him, Mr. Potter. We won't know until I can get him stabilized. For now… he's alive."

Harry felt as if his heart had stopped - he needed answers, but more than that, he needed his father to be okay. He felt McGonagall lead him over to a bed nearby, but Harry didn't want to sleep, he couldn't. He couldn't see his dad from this bed, and he wanted to watch him, be sure he was still breathing. He tried to fight her grip, but soon Dumbledore was there, and so was Moony, all pushing him down and holding him secure.

"Harry, son, I need to you to calm down." Dumbledore said gently, looking worriedly at Professor McGonagall.

Harry choked on a sob at the word son, coming from someone that was not his dad. He couldn't lose Sirius, he just couldn't. He tried breaking out of their grips, but all three of them were too strong for the boy.

"Albus, he's not calming down - maybe I should have waited until tomorrow to say something-" McGonagall began, holding Harry's hands in her own to keep him from flailing.

"No, he needed to know now. Harry, I don't want to do this, but we need you to calm down." Dumbledore said as he poured a foul-smelling potion down Harry's protesting throat.

"STOP, STO-" Harry choked, fighting with all his might against the hands holding him, attempting to soothe him. Soon, though, Harry's mind cleared, and he felt himself falling swiftly into darkness, enveloping him in a world of black, nothingness.