A/N: Whoot! I posted chapter 3, ate a clementine and a quick bowl of soup, then sat down and typed up this chapter! Aren't you so proud of me?? Onward, men!

Veneficus Amicus

By Nu Rho

Days had past since Harry had gone missing. Four days to be more exact. Four days past, and no sign of him what-so-ever. Four days past, and Draco was near the end of his rope. Dumbledore had people from the order searching high and low. Draco had been questioned as to the whereabouts of the Dementor attack, but he could hardly give them any coordinates. The Slytherin had even been taken out on the second day, but was unable to again find the same area where he had lost the golden boy, something that confused him very much.

"I don't get it!" He had complained. "We took a straight course, no detours! It had to have been somewhere directly between Hogwarts and the muggle house!"

No one could seem to find Harry, though. No one knew where to look. Silly wizards, though, didn't even realize what they were so desperately doingwas what the problem with their tactics was.

- - - - -

Over the past four days, Harry had accelerated little in the art of wandless magic. Without the wooden tool with which to focus his magic, he used what Manyara referred to as 'raw magic', or un-aided magic. It was much harder to focus and aim at one thing in particular--trying to get a single pebble to hover resulted in about ten pebbles and a few small shrubs hovering--and he had yet to master anything relatively difficult. He was, however, performing wandless magic. And that alone was something most wizards could not--or even attempted--to do.

After his morning exercise of magic--wingardium leviosa-ing a few light objects, expelliarmus-ing a stick from Manyara's grip a couple of times, and Immobulus-ing a few smaller day-critters (which Harry had discovered is a version of what Manyara had used on the venomous tentacula)--Harry sat down heavily on a rock outside Manyara's cave and watched the forest day-life lazily.

The two had talked quite a bit in the past few days and Harry had learned that his friend Manyara was what some people call a spark-snake, or winged serpent. Also referred to as a lindwurm, this winged serpent is quite large with a pattern of scales, strong as steel and flexible as thick leather. They are much like normal snakes as far as body shape, though some do have long horns emitting from the back of their heads. They are quick, strong, and impossibly agile, as Harry had noted first-hand when Manyara would hunt. Also, they--of course--hand wings. Manyara's were leathery and triple-jointed like most dragon wings, though some spark snakes had feathered wings. As spark snake hides were worth a fortune in gold in the past--and still are, except that nearly all the people who were brave, or stupid, enough to try and hunt them had been killed doing so--they were not what one would call common in the least, and on top of that, usually preferred seclusion, especially from humans. Spark snake hides were worth even more if killed while they're wings were out, because once dead, the wings can't be opened by any sort of magic spell or potion yet discovered. The wings are obviously more delicate than the rest of the snake's body, so over time, the snakes had developed two score-like scars in they're backs--an easy way to tell the difference between a spark snake and other large magical wingless-snakes (which are not worth as much)--that the wings can disappear into. Also, spark snakes are what most refer to as elemental and are quite powerful in their element. Harry hadn't asked which element Manyara was, but it was a safe assumption he was either fire or shadow, judging by his colors. They were also quite intelligent and incredibly loyal, if their trust is earned.

As far as life here for Harry, the past four days had been more interesting than anything else he'd yet done this summer. As Manyara had said, Harry was indeed already shifting to the nocturnal lifestyle. His 'morning' now consisted of roughly the time between 12 noon and 3 o'clock. The past few days, he and Manyara had been staying up a little later at night, and waking up a little later in the day. It was also true, Harry noted, that the forest seemed much more awake at night. His eyes had also become used to the shadowed environment of the forest floor, but glancing up at the sky through the twisted branches, he did sometimes miss an open sky and large patches of warm sunlight residing on the open field of grass around Hogwarts. He did miss the lake and the castle itself. Thinking back to all the times things got stressed--homework, exams, Draco's taunting--he didn't really miss it that much after all, but... Absence does make the heart grow fonder.

He wondered vaguely if people were missing him back at Hogwarts. School would start again soon.. Just a little over a week now. Would Dumbledore even tell the other students the truth? He laughed quietly to himself. No, it doesn't matter if he does or not. Hermione would figure it out, anyway. His smile was soon replaced by a frown with the presence of a new thought. Would she care enough to figure it out? Would Ron care enough? Harry's missing, big surprise. Some people would think he was killed by Voldemort. Others would accuse him of running from his fate. But maybe.. If things went in his own favor for once.. Harry would be presumed dead. Then, he could start a new life here. Maybe leave the forest eventually, but here he had a friend and a purpose other than to be everyone's Golden Boy. Here, the rules were kill or be killed, the same as for everything else that lived in this forest. No Azkaban, no Dumbledore, no muggles, no wizards. Here, he didn't have to be special, and he wasn't. And he liked that.

Manyara watched the boy think from just inside the cave. He had told his friend he would just be sleeping for a little longer, but the deep-rooted thought reflecting from the young wizard's face made him too curious to sleep. He didn't want to pry into Harry's private thoughts, though. Besides, he already had a pretty good idea as to what the boy was pondering over. But his friend just looked so troubled...

"Good morning, Amicus." The snaked yawned through his greeting as he slithered out of the cave and over to his friend. "Something on your mind?" he asked softly.

Harry continued to stare ahead and when he answered, he sounded far away. "No, not really..."

Manyara smiled to himself and gave Harry an even glare. "What is it you miss most, Amicus?" He pressed.

Harry paused and lifted his gaze towards the sky. "I miss flying," he stated honestly, then nodded and looked towards the serpent. "I really miss flying."

Well, Manyara thought. We'll have to see what we can do about that...

- - - - -

Draco was a smart wizard. He was top or nearly top in all of his classes, but for the life of him, he could not understand how Harry--and the entire Grey Forest, as he had nick-named it--had simply vanished. Nothing, nowhere! It was simply lost.

Pacing in the common room, in front of the fire, Draco pondered his choices. He could, (1) Let Dumbledore's little Order keep looking and failing, (2) Go against Dumbledore's instructions and leave on his own to try and find Harry, (3) completely give up and hope his father doesn't have him killed, or (4) Wait for the right help to arrive. Well, forget the third idea, no Malfoy goes out without a fight. And there was no way he could leave this in the hands of Dumbledore's lackeys, but by himself, he honestly doubted he would succeed (even though he would never admit it out loud). And right, he didn't even know where was going with this last idea... What help? Who in the world could do this better than he could? Who could--There was a pause in his pacing as Draco stopped and stared into the fire. Never, under any other circumstances, would he have even considered this, but... Hell, he needed help. Magic was obviously involved in this disapearance and there was only one person he knew who could appropriately be considered a living magic-textbook.

So, his plan not playable for another 10 days, our favorite Slytherin sat back in a black leather chair by the fire and tried to patiently wait out the arrival of the students.

- - - - -

The Burrow was always a bit hectic, but just two hours before the kids would be returning to Hogwarts was a hell house. Hermione was the only one that seemed to be keeping any sort of order.

"Honestly, Ron, we're going to be late!" She shouted, rapping her knuckles on the bathroom door.

"Well, it's not my fault someone woke me up late!" He retorted back at her.

"Now you're blaming this on me??" Her voice drastically rose from stern to angry. "Well, it's not my fault that you sleep right through your own alarm clock! I'm not your babysitter, Ron!"

"You know what?? Just.. Grah!" The door flew open, making Hermione jump a little. Ron was buttoning up his shirt while trying to pull on his socks at the same time. "I'm out, see?? I'm out! Let's go! Geez! ...Damn buttons!"

Hermione rolled her eyes and huffed. "Goodness, Ron, you're hopeless!" She grabbed her friend by the collar of his shirt and dragged him down the stairs, promptly pushing him into a seat at the kitchen table. "Just get you're shoes on!" She ordered, shoving a pair of shoes into his hands.

"Alright, fine!" He answered, pulling a foot up onto the seat and yanking on one of the shoes, while Hermione nimbly buttoned up his shirt.

"Here." The young witch handed Ron a dark blue sweater, which he obligingly pulled over his head just as his mother ushered a stumbling Ginny into the room.

"Alright, everyone in the car!" Mrs. Weasley yelled. "Arthur, where are you?!"

Arthur's muffled voice answered from the upstairs and Mrs. Weasly rolled her eyes. "Hurry, up, we're leaving without you if you're not down here in two minutes!!"

Roughly ten minutes later, once everyone and everything was in the car and everyone was sure they weren't leaving anything behind, the Weasley car drove off for King's Cross Station.

- - - - -

Finally, thought Draco as the train pulled into the station at Hogwarts. He waited impatiently for the train to come to a stop, arms crossed over his chest. He was looking a bit disheveled today, his jaw-length hair falling untidily into his face, one side tucked hastily behind his ear. He really hadn't done much this morning, barely remembering to throw on some clean clothes and brush his teeth. The past ten days had dragged on long enough, and he was eager to carry on with his plan. He was sure the mudblood would help him once she knew the details.

Hermione and Ron joined the crowd clambering off the train and tried to make for the boat, but were stopped by an irritable looking Draco.

"Oh, Draco!" Hermione exclaimed. "Good, is Harry here?? Neither of you were on the train and we were worried!"

"About Harry, of course," Ron felt compelled to add. "I was thrilled when you weren't on the train."

Draco glared heavily at Ron for a moment, then turned to Hermione, ignoring the bustling of students around them. "You need to come with me."

Hermione blink at him, then raised an eyebrow. "Sorry?"

The Slytherin glanced around a little nervously and leaned down, muttering more quietly. "It's got to do with Harry, you need to come with me."

Ron had obviously heard despite Draco's hushed tone and interrupted. "Ah ha! So it's your fault Harry wasn't on the train! I should have known!" Finding Draco glaring at him again, Ron just continued on with his mini-rant, glad to be making the Slytherin angry. "Besides, we can't miss the fea--"

"Shut up, Weasley!" Draco spat out, narrowing his eyes heatedly. Quickly pulling out his wand, he then hissed, "Silencio!" and grinned approvingly at Ron's silent protests. "I didn't ask you to come anyway, just Granger. All you'd do is get in the way and Potter would surely die."

This caught Hermione's attention and she forgot to yell at Draco for silencio-ing Ron. "Die? Is Harry alright?"

Draco paused and lowered his gaze back to the shorter girl before him. Deciding to answer honestly, he mumbled quietly, "I'm not sure, actually..." He motioned to the castle and raised his eyebrows in question. Hermione paused, but gave him a nodded consent and followed after him, soon also trailed by a babbling Ron, yelling silently, face hastily turning red.

In the hectic-ness of the rush of students filling disorderly from the train and fighting over boats, no one noticed the three students hurrying off around the lake. Or, at least almost no one noticed them.

End Chapter the Fourth

A/N: Yay, all done with this one. I feel like I kinda rushed through it, though, so many apologies if there is lack of detail. Thank you, California Smells Funny. I really do love nice reviews like yours. ::grovels:: Thank you for reading my babble! It's good to know someone does. : )

Btw, Me and my friend have started another fic, a bit more humorous than this one but also not very serious, so check it out maybe if you have the time. It's called Hogwarts: A Tragedy.

Well, I know this chapter was a bit of a bore, but it's a stepping stone towards the action, I swear. Hopefully see you in the next update, which shouldn't be too far from now. Cheerio!