Chapter 8

James lay awake in his dormitory that night thinking about what Dumbledore had said almost two months ago about the forest. He had a naturally curious mind and whatever Dumbledore was talking about must have been important. He wondered vaguely how many other students would be thinking about this too...

"Snuffles!" James hissed at the red velvet hangings next to his. Sirius drew back his hangings, moonlight streaming in through the window by his bed and illuminating his face.

"What?" He mumbled.

"D'you think we should try and find out about the..." James began in a whisper.

"Forest." Sirius finished. "Yeah, I've been thinking about that too."

"Ahhh! No! Don't! Go away! Don't eat me!" James and Sirius turned to the bed at the far end of the room where a frantic looking Peter was becoming entangled in the hangings that he had brushed apart in his sleep.

Sirius snorted. Remus sat up and drew his hangings back too. "What's going on?" He mumbled sleepily. "C'mon its like 2 am!" His head hit the pillow again.

"It's 1:30 actually." James said casually. "So what d'you think of it? About the forest?"

"Nothing." Remus said quietly. "I don't think we should go into the forest at all."

"What?" Yelped James and Sirius together while Peter began moaning.

"I... I, you two can go of course. I just can't come with you... I don't like the creatures in the forest if you must know. They... they see me as a threat to them." Remus finished weakly.

"Nah, it wouldn't be the same without you. You're the clever one." Sirius said lying back in his bed again.

"I'm not actually." Remus muttered. "You two are more than I'll ever hope to be." He smiled weakly and Sirius and James grinned at each other.

Neither of them said any more about the forest the next morning at breakfast. It became clear that Remus, (or Moony as he was becoming frequently called, even by passing students) had no inclination to talk about it.

"Happy Halloween everyone!" Sirius said happily. The four, who were almost as festive as the Great Hall's decorations were draped in spider webs, had realistic false bats hanging from their hats and had each sprouted an enormous pair of fangs. Snape had scoffed at their decorations and had said openly to Narcissa that her cousin looked as though he had just journeyed into the forbidden forest, been bitten by a vampire bat who left several of its young on him, stumbled across the rumoured large spiders who too had taken a bite out of his left arm.

"So what are you dressed as Snivelly?" Sirius retorted loudly. "Either a vampire who doesn't wash his hair or a witch with an incredibly long nose..."

"Nice one Snuffles." James said sarcastically as Sirius grinned.

"I, Black, unlike you, do not wear fancy dress costumes to the breakfast table. Narcissa has been talking about you I hear. Last Halloween she discovered a horde of spiders in her hat. I wonder how they got there? Or how about that puddle of slime on the doorstep? Dear me, you really do know how to trick people Black!" Snape said in falsely impressed tones.

"You'll find a spider somewhere else if you don't shut up Snape!" Sirius spat through gritted teeth.

Snape narrowed his eyes. "If I see a single spider today, I shall be informing Professor Gryllus it was you who put it there. You watch it Black! And you Potter."

"Oh yeah, like I'm going to get detention for putting a spider in the Great hall!" Sirius laughed.

"I wouldn't be so sure about it. Especially if Potter here is involved." Snape suddenly did something very strange. His head jerked suddenly and he clutched his forehead as though burned. He was staring at James and said suddenly in his usual drawling tones. "I bet you're too scared to go into the forbidden forest." And with that he slithered back to the Slytherin table leaving James and Sirius staring at each other.

"He knows something." Remus said darkly that morning as they sat by the common room fire.

"He can't." James said thoughtfully.

"D'you think he just wants us expelled?" Sirius questioned.

"Yeah, reckon so."

"Well, what do you think about it?" Remus asked them.

"I think we should do it." James said with a determined expression on his face.

"Me too." Said Sirius.

"Are you coming too Moony?" Peter asked.

"I don't know." Remus said, fidgeting with the sides of the armchair he was sitting in.

"Let's do it tonight." James said. "While everyone's at the Halloween feast. We won't be missed."

"Ok." Agreed the other three.

Please let me know what you think, if you say it's absolutely rubbish then that's ok, I won't continue it but I just wanted to know what you thought. Thanks for reading! Please review!