A/N: I don't own any of the characters or settings. J.K. Rowling owns them. I hope you like it so far, and I'm sorry this is so long. Otherwise it would've been a cliffhanger, and I don't like cliffhangers, even if I'm writing them. Here it is!

We had the day off from classes the next day, and I was spending the day with Harvest.

"So what d'you want to do?"

"Dunno." Harvest threw a glance outside. "I don't envy the quidditch team, though." The Slytherin quidditch team had decided to practice despite the dreary weather, and they were getting pummeled by the pre-winter storm that covered Hogwarts.

"Yeah." Harvest laughed. "You know, in some of the old Mexican legends, they mention rain spirits called chacs. If my mother was here, she'd say that the chacs angry."

"Huh. Well, if anything, the creatures in the Forbidden Forest are probably all hiding in their dens or whatchamacallits." I peered over the zooming quidditch players.

"You really think so? Maybe we could go in and check it out…" Harvest looked the most excited I'd seen her.

"No! Professor Dumbledore said we couldn't!"

"Then I'll go by myself!" Harvest attempted to stand up from her place in a lumpy armchair. I caught her arm.

"Wait. This is a bad idea. You really shouldn't go." I squeezed her arm. "We can go ask Snape for permission to look at Potions books in the Restricted Section. Say we're doing a little extra studying, that we're interested in some more advanced subjects. How about it?"

"Fine. I won't go. But let's just go to the library. If we try to ask Snape anything, you'll chicken out again." She sat back down primly.

"Hey! I will not chicken out!"

"Yes, you will. Let's just go to the library." She got up, brushing green filaments from the old chair off her robes.

"Okay." I shrugged.

After many hours of making fun of long dead wizards and witches names, we finally went back to the common room. Our beds were next to each other, I had made sure after I met Harvest.

" 'Night."

"Goodnight. See you tomorrow."

"You too."

Silence. It was almost too silent in the girl's dormitory. It reminded me of Malfoy Mansion, and how glad I was to be here instead of there. I got out of bed. I couldn't sleep, not at all. Plopping down on the window seat, I stared out the window. It was as dreary as ever, and the quidditch field seemed empty without the excitement of the players on it. The six goal posts loomed above the field, watching and waiting, it seemed, for a juicy young first year. I shivered.

Just as I was about to go back to bed, a glimmer of light on the field caught my eye. Two figures, one holding a small lantern, ran across the field. Their light glinted, and I caught a glimpse of red hair. I sighed. It was the Weasley twins.

I got up, threw my robes on, and pulled my wand off my nightstand. I didn't know why, but I felt obligated to keep the twins from getting into trouble. I had to prove myself after mouthing off to George. I wasn't a Malfoy. I was a Black. Of course, they couldn't know that, but it made me feel better to think about it.

I pulled the common room door open. "Lumos." It was dark in the dungeon, and as I walked I was sure that something large and slimy slithered over my foot. I climbed up the stairs, almost tripping once (Or twice. Or more). Finally, the seemingly bright lights of a lantern shone in my eyes. A torch sat on the wall beside the dungeon door, and I grabbed it to light my lantern more thoroughly. It brightened when I held the torch to it, hopefully bright enough to guide me through the Forbidden Forest. I put the torch up on the wall.

The Hogwarts doors were locked, but I had learned more than a little from my many years with Death Eaters as foster parents. "Alohomora." The lock clicked open. Luckily, Filch hadn't bothered to pull up the drawbridge, so I had no problem getting across the moat.

There were two clear sets of footprints in the mud, and I was careful not to destroy them, though I dragged a branch behind my own so that I could not be followed.

When I reached the edge of the forest, I took a deep breath. Breaking the rules was stressful. Then I plunged into the darkness. My tiny lantern barely lit a square foot around me, and I had to hold it to the ground to see the tracks.

As the forest grew darker and darker, I began to worry about getting out of the forest. I could just turn around, couldn't I? Just go back the way I came? I pushed this thought to the back of my mind.

I felt small crunching sounds under my feet. I had raised the lantern to see where I was going, occasionally checking the tracks. I squatted on the ground, shining the lantern onto a patch of dirt. About twenty spiders swarmed there, and as I swung the lantern around, I realized that they were all over the ground. I ran.

I heard some male voices up ahead, and so I sprinted that direction. There, in a large clearing, Fred and George sat, talking with a giant spider. I strained to hear exactly what they were saying. "…do you call an undercover spider?" asked one of the twins. "A spy-der!" cried the other one.

A loud, raspy laugh came from the giant spider's vicinity. "You shall tell me another one," commanded the spider, which I now recognized as an acromantula.

The twins bobbed their heads. "Okay, here's another: What are spider webs good for?"

The acromantula thought for a moment. "Wrapping wounds?"

"Yes," amended one of the twins, "but also spiders."

"I don't get it," rasped the acromantula. "You shall tell me another joke. One that makes sense."

"Yes, Aragog. So: What exactly do spiders eat in Paris?"

"French flies!" cried the other twin.

"You shall tell"

The twins didn't let Aragog finish. "Could you let us go? We have to get home before school starts." One twin glanced towards the long path back to Hogwarts.

"No! You will stay here…or…let's just say that my children are hungry tonight." Aragog hissed.

"That's nice...but gotta go." As if one person, the twins sped off. I knew when it was time to go, so I ran after them.

Millions of legs skittered on the ground, overshadowed by the thumping of Aragog's legs. "Come back!" The acromantula howled.

"Sorry!" One of the twins stopped. "We'll come back."

"Now I have you!" The acromantula spread its pincers. It lunged.

"Stupefy!" My voice was hoarser than I had intended it to be, but the spell did its purpose. A red jet of light hit the acromantula, knocking it backwards onto its back. The twin who had stopped stared. "Let's go!" I pulled him along.

"Oh. Sorry." It seemed like he was in shock. "Wait. Titiana?"

"Yes. It's me, I'm sorry for mouthing off at you a couple days ago if you're George, I'm not a git. Really."

"Okay."