Happy Belated Halloween to you all!

I'm so sorry! I was supposed to post this yesterday, but didn't have the time to finish it and I didnt want to post something half assed. Extra long chapter to make it up to you though.

During the course of the next few days I'll post a oneshot with the mauraders, A new chapter of "Allure of Darkness" and "Opposing forces of Nature" along with a two shot on Hermione/James Potter. They were all supposed to be up on Halloween, but this cold is killing me! UGH!

PS: How was everyones Halloween?

Xx

Samhain

The boys turned to form a circle. All with their wands drawn.

"Hermione?" she turned and looked at Evan, disbelief shining through her eyes at the sound of his trembling voice.

"Yes?" she replied timidly.

"Get in the middle, don't make a fuss."

Usually she would have done the opposite, but she was afraid, and for once she tried to trust that her dad had more in mind than loyalty when he had decided on her bodyguards.

The howling and growling continued, but they couldn't see a thing, all of them tense, and jumping at the slightest sound.

"We should move." she said, voice a whisper like she was afraid the creatures in the darkness could hear her, the boys tensed a bit, like the idea of movement put them more at risk. "If we stay it's not a question of if, but when."

Lucius and Evan exchanged glances, silently debating with each other the risk of staying versus going. Eventually they nodded to each other and told the boys to start moving.

At first they tried moving in the circle they were staying, but it proved difficult. Evan took to the back, Lucius to the front, the boys spread around Hermione, but now all facing forward. For a while nothing happened, the darkness was still around them, the light from the moon shining through at irregular intervals. The sounds of the forest was all around them, closing in, moving around, having them on high alert. Sometimes it felt like they were being circled by whatever was out there, sometimes it seemed like they were being watched. It all boiled down to them being prey, and whatever was out there was hunting them down, waiting to devour them, hurt them, terrorize them.

Suddenly the horrible sounds they had heard stopped, leaving the forest eerily quiet. The sense of relief at first was replaced by fear.

"Why did they stop?" Mulcibers voice echoed Hermiones thoughts as she thought them. At first she had thought the voice had been all in her mind, and that she just somehow used her "frightened voice" as Mulciber.

They had so dearly wished for the noises to stop, but the noises let them know where the monsters where. Hermione had stopped thinking about them as animals in the forest, and admitted they could be something more ominous. Whatever was out there, it wasn't cuddly puppies and bunnies, thats for sure.

They stopped again, wands pointing outwards, but instead of monsters emerging from the shadows, they just saw fog creeping in. It filled the forest ground, making it impossible to see where they were stepping. Only when it reached their hips did it stop, the forest still just as quiet. The fog filled up all they could see of the forest, moving towards them, and past them, fast. It was like watching clouds on a windy day, it just seemed to fly across the sky. Instead it was fog, clouding up the forest and filling them with fear.

They were all too afraid to move, or talk, afraid that anything would bring something charging at them. Tense and quiet, the moon lighted up the fog, making it blue in an otherwise black world.

A CRACK like stepping on a branch broke the quiet, and they all tensed even more, Regulus actually screamed.

"Sorry." Avery mumbled, guilty of breaking said branch, and they all looked at him like they were going to kill him. Hermione couldn't help but let out an amused snort. When she made eye contact with Evan who looked like he was about to piss himself, it turned into a full out laugh.

The others soon followed suit, the tense situation becoming unbearable enough that they had to let it out somehow. And the out of place laughter helped loosen up the group.

Regulus squaked "It's not funny!" Humiliated by screaming like he did.

The others continued laughing, even stone faced Lucius "It's sort of funny."

"Whatever." Regulus grumbled.

"We should keep moving." Evan said when they had all calmed down, except for the pissed off Regulus. "The faster we get back home, the better."

Silence was broken by the crunching of leaves and branches under their feet. They all stayed quiet however, thinking that there is such a thing as tempting fate.

They must have been walking for an hour, or at least it felt like it, when the trees changed. It was like they were moving around to keep them there.

"Are the trees moving?" Hermione said, keeping close to Evan because she stepped back, unwilling to go closer to the dark trees without leaves. They were bare, high and dark, like a picture in a horror book for children. Skeletal was the word Hermione would have used to describe it, the branches reaching outwards like they were grasping for something or someone.

"Don't be silly, trees don't move." Avery said, but then he uttered a soft "Shit." when one on his side seemed to move.

Then all of the trees at the same time started to make gurgling noises.

The boys stepped closer to Hermione to protect her. She wasn't going to protest, even if part of her wanted to let them know that she was a better dueller than any of them, and that they really didn't need to protect her.

For the first time that night, Hermione screamed.

The trees were bleeding. Thick heavy blood, all flowing like somebody had cut gashes in them. The blood moved down the trunks, covering them so they were only blood red. It almost sounded like water running, but since it was thicker it had an element to it that was indescribable. Hermione had goosebumps , her hair standing on edge, as the sound filled the silence. Then it was broken up by a steady drip drop from the blood that collected on the branches and started dripping from it. The blood moved under the fog towards where they were standing. The moonlight hitting the trees since they had no cover, turned the fog red. As the blood filled up, and moved closer, the fog got more and more dark, until it too was blood red. The blood on the ground filled up around their feet, they could feel it soaking their shoes as they stood there looking for a way out.

"What do we do?" Hermione asked, looking to every one of them for support or ideas. She wasn't sure, she just knew she wanted to get away. From this place, from these trees, from the creatures in the dark waiting to get at them.

They turned to each other, all whispering to each other and themselves, too afraid of the blood and what it could mean. None could be heard over the other, all too afraid to make sense or to get out of their heads and realise they needed to keep a cool head.

For how does one fight trees? It wasn't exactly on top of the DADA curriculum.

Suddenly the moon got stronger, and they looked up at it through the blood red branches bleeding. When they heard the howl that sounded different than anything they had heard before, they got quiet. "What was that?" Regulus whispered, barely audible.

"Werewolf." Lucius said, in a tone that meant he knew. Hermione looked at him and thought she saw the rest of his hope vanishing. He had turned ashen, and his body seemed to stop moving, like the connection between mind and body had been cut and he was left suspended there.

"Lucius!" Hermione shouted at him, trying to wave her hand in front of his face. Save for his trembling lip you could believe that he was dead. The other boys seemed to panic even more, looking around for an escape with panic in their eyes. It wouldn't be long before their group would descend into panic, and they would scatter in craze and all become victims of whatever was in the dark.

"Snap out of it!" she smacked Lucius, to all of their horror. "We need you Lucius, don't fall apart now."

He stared at her, the moment tense until they heard the howl again, this time accompanied by several others. Then Lucius gave her a slight nod, and they moved again, blasting away one of the trees to get away.

But before they could escape from the clearing, Mulciber tripped and fell. "Mulciber!" Avery called out, trying to grasp his hand to help stop the fall.

A sickening sound between a snap and a crack alerted them to how badly it was. The cry of pain following it was something that would follow them all and haunt them later on. Evan and Avery moved to help him up, Lucius helping look at his leg.

Hermione stared in horror at Mulciber. He was covered in blood from the trees, it was so much it was dripping from him, like it was his own blood. His eyes had become red from the blood as well, some of it having been rubbed into his eyes when he tried to scrub the blood away to see.

If this was her first time meeting Mulciber, she would have sworn he was a bloodthirsty killer. And then he smiled, like he was trying to help lift her mood, but it had the opposite effect. She knew it would be very hard to not imagine Mulciber like this afterwards, knowing some of what her fathers followers did.

They were all so focused on Mulciber, that none of them noticed Regulus slipping away.

"Where's Regulus?" Evan asked, looking to Hermione like she had somehow vanished him. It was almost impossible to spot him since he had such a head start. Hermione had the common sense to use a point me spell which revealed his direction.

And in the same moment she berated herself for not using it earlier to try and get back to the castle.

"We have to find him!" Hermione said, but the boys all looked like they wanted to abandon him. Ashamed for them, Hermione just took of in his direction, not caring if they followed. She didn't move fast on her wounded leg, and the boys soon caught up with her even though they were mostly carrying Mulciber.

"Hermione." Lucius tried.

"I will fight you if you try to stop me." she said, shaking his hand off her shoulder.

He wisely stayed quiet and continued moving in his direction.

They found Regulus in the middle of a clearing, and he wasn't alone.

Four hags held him captive, snickering in high pitched squeals that made all of them cringe. It was uncommon for Hags to travel together like this, and it made it hard for them to fight them. They were standing around a fire, preparing it to cook Regulus it seemed. Hermione was deathly afraid that they had been too late when she saw Regulus unconscious body between the Hags.

The Hogwarts students put Mulciber against a tree so he could help fire spells from afar. Avery being the quickest of them, ran around to the other side of the clearing to get them from behind.

Then Evan, Lucius and Hermione charged at the hags, Hermione and Lucius taking out one hag each, while Evan moved quickly to the middle, and tried to get Regulus back. Avery jumped out of the trees behind the hags, screaming, making the hags turn, and he got one. The last one, seeing all her friends vanquished screamed at them, and charged at Hermione, the tiniest in size of all of them.

Regulus was still unconscious, Evan trying with everything he had to get him back to consciousness. Mulciber fired a spell at the Hag that was still standing, and narrowly missed her as she connected with Hermione, making them both tumble to the ground.

Hermione pushed against her foe, scratching, kicking and doing everything she could think of to get her off. But the Hag was heavy, and she cackled at her feeble attempts, her hands around Hermione's throat.

The hag took her head and banged it against the forest floor, Hermione's vision clouding. She couldn't see the hag at all, just the hands that were choking the life out of her. She made a desperate sound, trying to alert the boys of what was happening.

The boys could no longer see the Hags, not even the one choking Hermione, they were all hidden underneath the fog, too far away from the fire to light them up and make them visible. When the boys took a relieved breath because Regulus woke up, they relaxed too much, and made too much noise.

One hag had crept up to Mulciber, the boy having a difficult time fighting her off with a broken leg. Two hags had attacked Lucius, seeing him as the strongest of the group. Evan had enough difficulty holding Regulus up as he was slowly coming to.

Mulciber managed to get the Hag with a diffindo, cutting off her arm. She screamed, foul breath overpowering him for a moment. Then the hag ran off, and they were left with three, two tearing at Lucius. Avery ran up to him, trying to drag one of them off.

Hermione was close to losing consciousness while the boys were fighting. With a final last effort, she poked the hag in the eye with her wand, piercing through to the socket. It made a squelching noise when she did it, the hag screaming in pain, and then she muttered reducto, her throat sore from being suffocated. The head of the hag blew up with her spell, shooting in a million direction with an odd sound of flesh being ripped apart from within.

Avery had managed to get the hag off, and he, along with Evan and Mulciber, fired spells at the Hag. All of them missed, but the Hag knew better than to fight a losing battle after having lost two of her foes already, and bolted.

Then the boys all together took care of the last hag, fighting her off, until the stupid thing managed to step into her own bonfire, and take fire. Hermione noticed the Hag running off screaming, as her burning figure ran past Hermione who was still trying to breathe properly on the ground.

After a bit of boosting between the guys, and congratulating each other on how amazing they all surely were, the noticed her missing.

"Hermione!" Evan called out.

"Here." she croaked, coughing after straining her throat.

They barely heard her but managed to find her.

"Good to see you're alright." Mulciber grunted, the nicest thing he had ever said to her actually.

"No thanks to any of you. Bodyguards my ass."

"Hey, I distinctly remember you calling out from help after being stuck in a ditch." Evan said.

"Seems like I would have been safer in a ditch." she mumbled, and then started coughing again to her annoyance.

"It was your idea to go running after Regulus!" Avery protested.

"Unlike you I didn't want to leave him behind!" She screamed, and coughed even more, almost covering up with Regulus said.

"You were just going to abandon me?" he said meekly, the boys not responding.

"We should have left you behind." Evan said in anger to Hermione.

Hermione's eyes were blazing with fury. "Fine, I don't need you."

"Fine." Evan said, Avery and Lucius trying to protest, knowing Hermione walking off was a bad idea for all of them.

Before they could stop her, she disappeared into the fog, walking away from the boys without another thought. She regretted it, knowing she was safer with them, she didn't even know what she could end up facing in this forest.

The fog was still omnipresent. The moon was hanging overhead, and sometime during the fight with the Hags, the sounds of it had started up again.

Howling

Growling

Movement

Wind

Leaves rustling

Branches snapping

It overwhelmed her, made her consider turning around again to find the boys. They brought her a small semblance of security, she had to admit. She still didn't understand why her dad would put Selfish boy Slytherins to watch over her. It would have been smarter to put brave Gryffindors, or maybe loyal Hufflepuffs. Someone that actually had something more in them pushing them to protect her.

Sometimes she spotted movement, or glowing eyes.

But she just kept moving, keeping an eye in the direction of where she had seen it, but she experienced that most of whatever was in the forest, they didn't care enough to go after her. Maybe she wasn't interesting enough to be attacked or eaten. Or maybe they were just biding their time, waiting to see when she was not on her guard, so they could take her down then.

She soon ran across a group of Thestrals, the horse like creatures walking over to her and licking her boots. Seemed like they were happy to help get rid of the awful blood from the trees. She petted them, not caring about their reputation, she had read enough to know that they weren't actually dangerous.

Maybe I could ride them to get back? She thought. But before she could move to do anything of the sort, they stood up straight, and looked behind them into the darkness. The silence was tense, and Hermione stared at the same spot they were.

Then without warning, they took of flying, leaving Hermione behind, possibly facing whatever had scared them so.

Then she heard the hooves on the ground, moving closer and closer, coming straight towards her. Suddenly the Centaur came out of the shadows, he raised himself on his hind leg, making a noise between animal and madman, like a battle cry. His front hooves were kicking in the air, his arms tensed to the side as he shouted.

He turned his eyes on Hermione, and she could see that they had gone completely black. After the little display of strength, he went down on all four legs, and walked slowly towards Hermione.

"Centaurs don't hurt children." she said, voice breaking after the assault on her esophagus and her fear shining through. With the darkness in the centaurs eyes, she was unsure if he was sane, or if something had happened.

When he only smirked in response, towering over her, Hermione knew it was gone, this was not normal. "Please don't" she said, wielding her wand in front of her, trying to scare it off with her wand. Like a centaur would ever be anything but offended by the sight of one, they never thought of Humans as a threat.

"Can you admit to needing help now?" Evan suddenly said to her left. When their eyes met, she made a slight inclination of her head, like she would admit to that, and he smirked in response.

They must have followed her, she was surprised that she hadn't heard them. But just happening to run across her at the best possible moment seemed unlikely.

Hermione and the boys turned to the Centaur charging against them, wands up.

"Don't hurt it!" Hermione shouted, sending a simple stunner at the magnificent creature.

"Kill or be killed" Mulciber said, and the conviction in his eyes scared Hermione when she looked into them,

"Something did this to him, we need to just stun him, so he can be taken care of by his tribe!"

When she threatened to disarm them if they did it any harm, they finally listened. It took a while to stun it, their stunners not strong enough for his big mass.

When he was finally taken down, other Centaurs moved around them in a circle.

"Wands down." Hermione commanded when she saw that their eyes were normal.

The leader of their group stared into Hermione's eyes, sizing her up. And then with a slight inclination of its head, like Hermione had done towards Evan earlier, the peace was confirmed. The boys all lowered their wands, but did not put them away.

"Young foals." the leader said. "You should not be in the forest tonight. There are many dangers lurking in the forest on Samhain."

"We are trying to get out, but can't seem to escape the clutches of the forest." Hermione responded.

"We will escort you out, as a thank you for not hurting one of our pack."

"Will he be alright?" Hermione blurted out, and was rewarded by a smile."

"What is your name foal?" he asked.

"Hermione." she responded, sure that her last name would make them turn away from her. It was well known that Centaurs read the stars. Hermione saw it as utter bullshit to be able to predict the future, but Centaurs were scary accurate.

"My name is Firenze, a pleasure meeting you."

She smiled at him, and he inclined his hand to motion her forwards. They moved through the forest in silence, the pack protecting them. She didn't see or hear as many things as she had when she was walking on her own. The overbearing noise of the forest around them had been replaced by the sound of hoofs against the forest ground. It was interlaced with their own footsteps, the steady beat of it all having a calming effect on them all after the trouble they had been through.

It didn't take them long to get out of the forest with the packs help. When they could see Hogwarts through the trees, the Centaurs stopped for a second, then all but Firenze moved back into the forest.

"Young foals we bid you farewell." Then he turned to Hermione and gave her a slight bow which she returned. Then he joined the rest of his herd waiting for him in the darkness behind the trees.

Left on their own, but free of the dangers of the forest, they all moved back into Hogwarts, Hermione and Mulciber brought to the hospital wing by the others. All of them ended up getting a thorough checkup by the nurse after they woken her up. They hadn't meant to, but Avery had managed to send several bedpans and various other instruments to the floor and made an insane amount of noise, startling her out of her sleep.

Then they were all forced to drink a bunch of potions and sleep over in the hospital wing. Evan, and Avery were the only ones without major injuries, but the Nurse was too tired to deal with them at the moment, opting to look after them more carefully in the morning. They also needed rest, and with everything they had seen, they weren't saying no to a Dreamless Potion that she passed their way.

Lucius needed some stuff looked after, but he was fed a Blood Replenishing Potion, a Dreamless Potion, and a Pain Potion. Hermione had a couple of spells done to her to fix her leg, and then got a Dreamless and Pain Potion. Mulciber had his bones removed completely to be on the safe side, before he got a Pain Potion, a Potion to Regrow Bones, and a Dreamless Potion. She couldn't seem to determine what the Hags had done to Regulus, so she just fed him some Dreamless Potion and Pain Potion and left it at that until she could talk to a colleague in the morning.

She was all out of Calming Draughts, but assured them she would get some in the morning. Finally able to stop fearing for their life, the 6 students fell sound asleep.