Those- Who- Lived

Chapter Three

Christmas passed with nary a change nor a whisper so. The dog remained behind the door, Harry went home for Christmas while Ron stayed, and Nanna was ecstatic to have her brother back. It was a normal Potter Christmas: The Longbottoms came over to celebrate, there was butterbeer; firewhiskey for the adults, and most special of all, Harry's father had managed to talk his wife into allowing him to give Harry the invisibility cloak he was so proud of for Christmas. Harry hadn't wanted to let it go all Christmas day, and Nanna and Neville had found it hilarious that he would stroll about the house as a disembodied head because he insisted on wearing it. What had really surprised him, though, was that both he and Neville had received Weasley sweaters for Christmas. It was the first year they had received one, and both of them grinned as they planned to wear them on the trip back to Hogwarts. Harry, however, had ended up handing his down to Nanna after a few days. She had felt very left out, and, as Neville gleefully pointed out, Nanna had him twined around her little fingers. Of course, Neville had lasted even less time when Melanie had demanded that she get her brother's sweater, same as Nanna had. He'd then firmly told Harry to shove it as the other boy laughed and laughed and laughed.

School came back into session, the dog was still behind the door, and the Quidditch match after Christmas was as breathtaking as the first. Harry had spent five minutes rolling with laughter as Ron and Neville told them about the fight they'd gotten into with Draco and his goons, and Hermione told him that Prince and Blaise Zabini had been sitting together not too far away, and both of them had laughed and jeered at the fight, keeping quiet enough to not draw attention to themselves, but loud enough that she'd noticed. Harry was annoyed that Prince was laughing at his friends, but he supposed whatever worked, did. It's not like Prince was ever going out of his way to do something against him. He was just … there.

However, things grew several times warmer when Easter break came around, and Hermione began to press them about studying. Harry and Neville both glanced between each other and pretended to humour her. Ron felt slightly left out as Harry and Neville appeared to be studying with each other while they were in the library, until he finally looked over their shoulders and found them to be playing hangman on the paper between them. Harry quickly defended that they were using it as a memory tool, but since the present word was 'Holyhead Harpies' it didn't hold much water. Ron felt gleeful that they'd be joining him in the torture up until they both turned and glared at him. He then choked slightly, and ducked his head, turning a rather fine shade of pink. However, their attention was diverted when Neville noticed Hagrid's presence.

"Hagrid! What are you doing here in the library? I didn't think you'd be much of one for books!"

Hagrid jumped and rather firmly moved to hold something behind his back. "Shh, what are you doing in here? Not still poking yer noses where ye shouldn't?"

They'd visited Hagrid a few times in between, but Harry had been a little careless and brought the subject up again during the last visit. Hagrid had, irritated, made them leave before he even finished telling his story about James Potter and a prank involving soap and Lily's backpack. Now, however, Ron quickly smiled.

"We figured that out the first time you told us, the dog – Ye-ouch! Hermione!"

"Quiet!" Hermione hissed, echoed by Harry, Neville and Hagrid all together. Ron flushed and fell silent.

Harry turned back to Hagrid. "Enough of that, what are you doing here? You don't really seem one for books, you know."

Hagrid glanced about, and then hissed down at them. "Come to my hut later; I won't necessarily tell you, but I don't want to say it here, fer sure." Hagrid hustled out of the library, and Harry glanced at Hermione, Ron, and Neville with a stubborn look. He stood, and quickly slipped into the section Hagrid had been in. He came back with a small pile of books in his arms.

"Dragons." Harry hissed. "He's been looking at Dragon books. I think a dragon would be a wonderful pet in his eyes, wouldn't it?"

Neville glanced at the books and swallowed hard. Hermione looked mildly confused, but Ron shook his head quickly. "Dragon breeding is illegal."

Her mouth made a small 'o' and she quickly stacked her books with the rest of them as they hurried down to find Hagrid.

IIII

"He's insane!" Hermione ranted as soon as they got back upstairs. Harry was nibbling at his fingernails, a nervous habit, and he rolled his eyes at her exuberance.

"Hermione, he's obsessed. He's always wanted a dragon."

"He lives in a wooden house!"

"And he probably won't notice that that doesn't agree with a dragon until after it's been lit on fire several times." Harry insisted. "We need to think up some way to get the dragon out of there, and it will probably take time. And we need to help Hagrid not get in trouble."

Neville gave Harry an amused look. "You want to help him out, hm?"

Harry sniffed at him, and turned away. "Only because he knows more about the – the dog. And what it's guarding."

Neville just laughed at him, and Harry made a face.

IIII

The egg, as expected, hatched, and Harry and Neville were in quite a fit after they'd caught Malfoy peeking in on the hatching. Both of them were watching him cautiously, but Harry couldn't help but wonder at the rather worried glances Malfoy took at Prince when he didn't think Harry was watching him.

Ron and Hermione were, surprisingly, the ones that always seemed to want to check on Hagrid and the fast-growing dragon, and Harry and Neville tagged along to keep an eye out for trouble. Neville was constantly ribbing Harry about his desire to keep them safe, and finally, Harry hexed Neville in the common room to make him shut up. Several people had been shocked, but Neville had just ridden it out, and came out laughing. He stopped ribbing Harry, though. Finally, Harry sagged with relief when Charlie responded to the letter Harry had sent out almost as soon as he had known, and Charlie had found it highly amusing that Hagrid had a dragon, and he was willing to have his friends bring it to him when they came by. That left Harry about two weeks to talk Hagrid into letting the dragon go. It was surprisingly easy after Ron got himself bit.

However, although Ron had been poisoned, it was a fairly decent week altogether. Neville was more than willing to help, and Harry would rejoice when they no longer had to worry about a prowling Malfoy who seemed bound and determined that they were up to no good. Just because they were, wasn't reason to stalk them!

As things would go, though, the crate found its way up to the tallest tower easy enough – it wasn't until they were on the way down and back out that they ran into trouble. Harry and Neville were strolling down the corridor under the cloak, trying not to laugh with relief, when out of nowhere some small and dark student ran into them and swore loudly. Hurriedly, Harry wrenched the cloak off him and Neville and glared at the perpetrator. His breath stuck in his throat as he found himself looking at Prince.

"You little twat! Get off me before we get in –" Harry glanced up in time to see Filch glare down at both of them, and he grumbled the end of his sentence with a grimace. "Trouble."

Prince stood and brushed himself off, his face as ugly as Harry's was. "I think we're already in trouble. I wouldn't have run into you without that being in the way."

Harry's blood ran cold as he realised that Prince now knew about the invisibility cloak, and he gave him a burning glare. Their staring contest, however, was interrupted when Filch stepped between them, pushing Harry out of the way as he snatched the cloak off of a squeaking Neville.

"Well, well, well, what have we here? Three boys out of bed with a rather interesting artefact. I think we'll see you three to a teacher, won't we, and this," He shook the silver invisibility cloak, "will be confiscated."

"You can't do that!" Harry shouted. If there were anything he wouldn't allow to happen, he wouldn't lose an heirloom! "That's mine, you can't take it! There's nothing wrong with it." He flushed, then, noting that that wasn't the best argument he could've made. He swallowed. "You can't confiscate it for yourself. If you're taking it away, you have to send it back to my family; that's Potter property." And my dad will likely send it back, so long as mom doesn't run into it.

Filch leered at him. "I think I've confiscated enough of your father things he's never managed to get back that I doubt you'll have any more luck. Now then, we've got the matter of punishment to settle. You're all out very late, you know …"

Harry followed with a sinking feeling in his gut, but he quickly kicked himself and gained a mutinous look. His father wasn't a prankster for nothing. Even if he had no inclination for it himself, he could most certainly find out how to get his invisibility cloak back, very easily. He wouldn't let this hold him back for long.

A hundred points later, however, and one promised, nasty detention, Harry wasn't feeling so hot anymore. Well, actually, he felt about ready to melt into the floor and hide and neither Prince, nor Neville look like they felt any better. The only good thing about what had come about was that Slytherin was in the same pickle they were, with two students in shame and a hundred points down. If looks could kill, each of them would have dropped dead at least twice over, except that Malfoy seemed as angry with Prince as he was with Harry and Neville. Which, considering the look he received in turn, it was a mutual hatred that probably didn't concern any outside source.

The reception they received in Gryffindor was rather cold, though, as everyone looked at them as though they couldn't believe what had happened. The sons of two outstanding, Gryffindor aurors, as well as their Quidditch star, had just lost them the House Cup. However, the mitigating force was that Slytherin was in the same pickle. So, instead of being harped at, Harry and Neville were merely ignored and they both ducked their heads and set about studying. However, Harry, determined to the point of recklessness, wasn't just sitting quiescent as they waited for the storm to blow over. No, he was looking into how he could get his cloak back and he didn't care what the house thought of him over that. Nothing was turning him back from that.

"Harry, you're going to lose us more points if you're caught." Neville whined. Harry was once again muttering to himself under his breath in some unintelligible way, as he wrote quickly on his paper, only glancing at what he was working on occasionally. A glance proved Neville right: Harry was once again planning on how to retrieve his invisibility cloak. Although Neville could understand his temper, he really didn't think the idea was exactly smart. Harry, however, was determined to get his way, and Neville had long ago learned to not try and stop him. When he did get in a mood, Harry could make his dad yelp like a stung dog.

Harry continued writing as though he hadn't even heard Neville, and Neville subsided in his seat, shrugging over at Ron and Hermione, who both sagged and went back to work.

It was the end of that week that Harry set his plan in action, and he darted out of the common room before curfew, smiling and waving a folded parchment at the others to make them think he was sending a letter. Once outside, he made his way carefully downstairs, acting completely nonchalant, and smiling brightly at anyone he ran across. Finally, he found what he was looking for: Peeves. Harry smiled up at him and called softly, "Peeves. I've got a deal for you."

The poltergeist looked at him with interest and cocked an eyebrow. "Ooo, ickle-firstie. Looking for trouble with little Peeves?"

"Looking for Peeves to make a little trouble. I want to ruffle Filch's coat, but I need him out of his office. I want to make a deal. What do you want in return?"

Peeves stared at him for a moment, and then cackled with glee. "I'm liking this plot little firstie. But what can you do for me?"

Harry smirked. "Several things. I can help, I can buy things for you; I can do several things. If you want a potion, or some prank items, or anything. Or, since I'm going into Filch's office, I could give you a few things from there that you might make chaos with."

Peeves looked thoughtful for a moment, and then cackled long and hard before he swooped around, and leaned down to offer his hand to Harry. "You have a deal, firstie. I want three drawers of whatever from Filch's office. Place them just outside his door for me, contents intact. And also," Peeves took on a wry grin. "I want an everlasting bottle of ink."

Harry grinned and bowed, ignoring the offered hand. "You have yourself a deal. Keep him out of his office for fifteen minutes or more, and I'll do it. You'll have to wait a bit for the ink bottle though; I don't know where I'll get one of those."

Peeves grinned wolfishly. "You'll get it to me before the end of the year; else you'll be ratted out."

"But only then." Harry returned, ignoring the cold sweat on his back. Maybe Fred and George can get it for me from Hogsmeade …

Peeves cackled wickedly, and swooped through the wall, shouting and singing and making a racket. Harry raced out of the room and down the hallways. It wasn't far to Filch's office, and although Filch wouldn't be there, that didn't mean he wouldn't run into anyone else. Getting out would be fairly easy; he'd be invisible then. But getting there … Harry slowed his pell-mell pace to walk by a Hufflepuff prefect, smiling wanly and then ducking into Filch's office. The prefect gave him a sympathetic look, and Harry just ducked inside. That had been the best bit of advice he'd ever gotten from Sirius: People will assume whatever so long as you look like what you're doing is proper. However, he was in Filch's office now; he just needed to find what he was looking for.

There were several filing cabinets in the room, and Harry needed to get three drawers out for Peeves, and then find his cloak. However, the file 'Confiscated and Highly Dangerous' certainly caught his attention. It was likely his cloak would be in there, and that it would cause Merry Hell if Peeves were to scatter the contents. Of course, there was also the fact that if what was pulled doesn't cause Merry Hell, he might still snitch, so the drawer was removed and Harry glanced inside. Within, was indeed the invisibility cloak, but beneath it was a small metal contraption that looked vaguely familiar. Convinced that it was something, Harry pulled it out and looked it over. On the bottom was the inscription 'Alan Prince, from 'The Godfather'' Harry wondered what the Hell Prince had been doing with something like this anyways, but on a whim, Harry placed it in his pocket anyways. A glance around found several other drawers marked, and one on 'detention records' and another of confiscated items joined the first on the floor. A glance outside proved it to be past curfew, and the hall was deserted. Quickly, Harry put on the cloak and pushed the drawers out of the door and into the hallway, the 'Confiscated and Highly Dangerous' drawer on top. With a mildly longing glance inside, Harry left, darting back up the hall and heading for Gryffindor tower, keeping an eye out for anyone coming out at him. He didn't want to run into someone again. He'd lost enough popularity.

IIII

Filch was furious the next morning, and nearly foaming at the mouth. Harry was one of the last to hear of what Peeves had gotten up to with the drawers, and when he did hear, he almost regretted handing them over. Almost.

"Papers everywhere! All of them burning! I hear that file held almost all of the records of Fred and George, too! That's why it was so huge." Harry heard as he came down. Neville was waving his arms frantically, and grinning so wide his face seemed ready to split. He turned as soon as Harry came in, and grabbed his arms to drag him over to himself. He looked Harry over for a moment, and Harry nodded fractionally. His smile seemed to do the impossible and grow wider. He then hollered loudly, and smiled back over at Ron and Hermione. "Did you hear about it, Harry? Three drawers of Filch's stuff went missing; two of them confiscated items and one full of records! Everyone thinks its Fred and George, because all of their records were in it. Peeves dumped the papers all over the Great Hall; they're still cleaning them up, and some of them got burned."

Harry rubbed his eyes, and then shook his head. "Filch is going to be livid."

"He already is." Neville laughed. "Fred and George have already been yelled at, but now they're indignant because they didn't pull it off and they want to know who managed to shunt the blame to them."

Harry forced a laugh. He did not want a prank war with the twins. He had just wanted his cloak back, and he wanted to know what this thing of Prince's was. It was boxy and black, with a handle and a long mouth. He couldn't remember where he'd seen it before, he was fairly sure it was dangerous and that the small lever between the handle and the upper part was not to be pulled. He hadn't looked it over for long, though; he'd rather quickly put it away, wondering if he should keep it or return it and how to return it if he did. What was he supposed to do, walk up to Prince and hand it to him? Slip it into his bag during potions? Leave it in the hallway when he was walking by?

Harry rubbed his eyes and asked Neville, "What classes do we have today?"

Neville gave him a long look. "Potions, what do you think? Unless, of course, one of those drawers finds its way down there. They haven't found the other two that were missing, you know."

"Great, that sounds promising. Peeves with two drawers of confiscated items. Wonderful." Harry rubbed at his face, and Neville then poked him, an odd look on his face that was mirrored in Hermione, though not Ron.

"No one thinks Peeves ran off with them, you know. He couldn't get into Filch's office; someone had to have helped him."

Harry glanced around them, and then grimaced when no one was close enough to forestall the conversation. "Look, I wanted my cloak back and I didn't want to lose more points. I need to talk to Fred and George as it is, because I wanted insurance that Filch wasn't going to catch me. So, I paid off Peeves to keep him busy and the drawers were part of the payment. I need to get him an everlasting ink bottle now, so if you'll excuse me." Harry stood and left, barely hearing Ron behind him mutter 'Absolutely barmy. Making deals with Peeves, framing my brothers defying Filch and McGonagall …'

Harry came abreast of the irritated Fred and George, their friend Lee looking between the two annoyed twins. When he coughed, they glanced down at him, and Harry smiled brightly at them. "Hey, I know you two are pranksters and you like jokes … what would you do if I said I never meant to frame you?"

It was a risk, but as the twins gaped at him, he knew it was a small risk. The two of them would likely be more impressed than anything, and when they broke into large smiles, Harry felt very relieved.

"You broke into Filch's office?" One asked.

Harry shrugged. "He took my cloak, and I wasn't going to lose an heirloom."

The twins glanced at each other, and one whistled as the other smiled. "Well then, that's a mighty piece of work you've pulled off there. We admit to being impressed. Why are we getting the fall?"

Harry shrugged. "I just grabbed drawers at random. Honestly, as if anyone wouldn't want to look in 'Confiscated and Highly Dangerous'? And I made a deal with Peeves, so I need you guys to buy me an everlasting bottle of ink next Hogsmeade weekend else I'll be ratted out."

Fred and George looked between each other and George reached into his bag and pulled out an ink bottle, handing it over. "Here you go, one everlasting bottle. It's not shatterproof, mind, but for a boy of your talents, I'm sure it'll be fine. It'd be a waste for such a wonderful prank to be ruined."

"Thanks." Harry smiled, and double-checked the label and the seal before leaving. It was unopened, and, of course, full, with an accurate label. Besides that, if he gave Peeves a pranked bottle, he was just as likely to be amused as anything else. It certainly wouldn't harm his chance of being ratted out, so long as he handed over something resembling the agreement. He just hoped nobody else tried anything with him.

Before heading down to breakfast, Harry darted upstairs and fetched Prince's –whatever- out of his side table, intending to return it once it came time for Potions. Of course, he had to arrive there earlier than Prince. His luck just wasn't running well today, since he'd spilled his cup at breakfast, and been beaten to the last apple by Dean. So, class started, and Prince barely arrived before Snape, coming in, sitting in his customary seat at the back, and looking unusually tired. Prince rarely ever looked anything but in top shape, and perfectly attentive. Instead, today he appeared to be more tired than anything, slouching at his seat, and not really paying attention.

Whap

"Mr. Potter, do you feel you are free from having to listen to your teachers today?"

Harry pulled himself from his thinking and glared back at Snape, straightening in his seat and facing forward. No, today was not his day.

In fact, nothing really went well until much later in the day, when he finally ran into Prince in the hallway. He'd had to orchestrate that, but not by much as Prince was walking without looking where he was going. Thus, Harry ran into him and made a point of spilling his bag, and accidentally ripped Prince's as well. Prince, as expected, lit into him with an impressive array of curses. Harry pulled together all of his stuff, purposefully leaving out Prince's item. Prince pushed him out of the way once he saw Harry had all his stuff, leaning down to get his own, but he froze for a moment when he saw the black –whatever.

"Potter, what the hell …" He looked it over, and froze once more when he glanced at the bottom where Harry knew the inscription was.

Harry frowned. "What are you griping about? That's all your stuff there. I need to get a move on; I don't know about you, but I have homework."

Prince nodded mechanically, shoving the item into his pocket and continuing to gather his things. Harry ignored the strange looks his friends were giving him and continued on his way. He just hoped Prince wouldn't report him. Maybe he'd think he'd just found it once Peeves had left it somewhere? That had been most of what had been happening with the contents of those drawers: the items in question were being ditched randomly throughout the halls, and more often than not, an item would be picked up and pocketed before anyone could say a word against it. Hopefully he'd think that.

IIII

The next week was bright and sunny first off. Peeves had been happy to receive his ink bottle, and he'd handed off some strange contraption to Harry that Harry had rather quickly ditched in a corner. It had tried to bite him!

However, they were soon issued a summons to their detention at eleven o'clock, and as far as he could tell, it would be with one very pissed off Filch. Glad that Filch was no longer allowed to use thrumbscrews, whips, or chains on students, Harry accepted the ruling and went as he was ordered. Filch meet them all and simply glared at them as though he'd be able to divine their secrets through sight. Prince appeared unperturbed; Malfoy, arrogant, and Harry stood calmly next to Neville.

Filch tried to intimidate them once more, but no matter what he said, it was all in past tense. He didn't even sound happy about their detention, and when Harry saw they were heading towards Hagrid's, he was rather pleased with the ruling instead. He kept his face calm, though, and Filch sneered before handing them over. However, when Hagrid detailed their task of entering the forest, Neville paled and Draco whimpered.

"I'm not going in there!" Draco insisted. Hagrid glowered.

"Ye are if you want to remain in Hogwarts. You don't get away with breaking the rules, Malfoy, so keep that in mind."

Prince snickered, and Malfoy glared at him as Neville swallowed hard, and Harry eyed the forest nervously.

"Now, look there." Hagrid led them towards the forest and pointed down a path. Harry looked, and squinted as he saw that there was something silvery glinting on the ground. He took a moment, and then he pulled back in revulsion.

"Unicorn blood!" Prince whispered, sounding disgusted. Hagrid nodded sadly.

"Aye, and this is going to be dangerous. Don't be doing anything stupid, then, young 'uns, and listen up. We're going looking for this unicorn; it's the second one in two weeks. I found one dead last Wednesday. We're going to look for it, and we may have to put it out of its misery."

"And what if what hurt the unicorn finds us first?" Malfoy whimpered, frightened half to death.

"Nothing in the forest will hurt you if yer wit me or fang."

Harry found that that wasn't the most comforting thing Hagrid had ever said.

"We're gonna split into two parties and follow the path in different directions. There's blood all over the place; it's been staggering aroun' for a long time."

"I want Fang." Malfoy insisted.

"Alright, but I warn yeh, he's a coward." Malfoy paled and Prince rolled his eyes, running his hand down over the pocket of his robe.

"Draco, you're a wuss. Stick with Hagrid, and I'll go with the bloody dog already." Malfoy turned to glare at him, but Prince just met his eyes unfailingly. "Well," Prince grinned. "I wouldn't mind watching you ruin another set of robes."

Malfoy flushed and turned away while Prince looked back at Hagrid. "I'm with Fang." Prince stated, Malfoy glaring daggers at his profile but saying nothing.

Hagrid looked Prince over and then nodded. "Alright then, Draco and Neville are with me, and Alan 'n Harry will go wit' Fang."

Harry looked over at Prince and found himself feeling weighed and judged by his eyes. Harry met his look unfailingly and Prince gave him a small nod.

"Now, if we find the unicorn, send up green sparks. If yeh run inter trouble, send up red sparks, and I'll come and find yeh, alright?"

Harry and the others followed and when they came to a split, he went down the right path with Prince and Fang. They walked in silence for the trip, watching for the splash of silvery blood on the path. Finally, Prince lit his wand with lumos and crouched to study the ground. Harry watched him with interest. Finally, Prince swore and stood once more, waving Harry along without a word.

"Hey, Prince." Harry spoke up. Prince glanced back at him, and Harry frowned. "What were you looking at? When you crouched."

Prince frowned in turn and waved Harry to keep up, looking away for a moment before he looked back at him from the sides of his eyes.

"I was looking for tracks. I'm not very good at it, though, so I couldn't figure much out. I think someone else walked down here, and they weren't Hagrid or a kid, but that much was pretty obvious."

Harry glanced down and, after a few minutes, he saw what Prince had been talking about. There were some footprints that were really very obvious on the soft ground, smaller than Hagrid's but larger than a kid's. "I see." He let the conversation die, and they continued to look, not really finding anything of note. However, Prince seemed to be growing uncomfortable, and his left hand had slipped into his pocket, seemingly loath to leave whatever he had within.

"Potter?" He queried quietly. Harry glanced over, keeping his face open. Prince looked at him and licked his lips nervously. "Thanks. For returning that."

"For returning what?" Harry asked, before blushing and feeling stupid. However, he let it stand. He wanted to know what that had been.

"My –my BB-gun."

Harry paused, and then smacked his forehead. "A gun! That's what it was. I could never remember." Prince was giving him a weird look, so Harry just smiled. "It's fine, you're welcome and I'm not about to mention it. I just hadn't been able to place what it was; I've never been very interested in muggle toys."

Prince gave him another look that made him think he'd said something really stupid, and then turned back to following the trail. They didn't get far before they were passed by something that whispered over the leaves. Prince froze, and, glancing nervously at Harry, pulled his gun from his pocket and aimed it comfortably at the trees around them. Harry copied him, using his wand, and thinking that Prince really had the right idea at the moment; he couldn't think of any spells that would be really discouraging to an attacker that could kill a unicorn, and having something reliable would have really been useful. Then again …

"Is … is that thing deadly?" Harry asked cautiously.

"Not this one, no. Most guns are, but this is a little kid's one, that fires ball bearings. They'll hurt, might take out an eye, but you could do as much with a wand in the hand of a muggle." Prince returned.

Harry paused and thought that a gun was a little more dangerous, even if it was supposedly a 'kids' one. "Whoever raised you was nuts."

"Thanks."

Harry shook his head at Prince's audacity, and then nudged him with his shoulder, tilting his head along the path they were following. Prince made a slight face, but they both set off, Prince keeping his gun in hand. Harry took a look at the tree roots, thinking that Prince had the right idea about tracks, but he found that the human tracks, or what they'd taken for them, were gone. Instead, there were delicate looking tracks of cloven hooves, and great splashes of silvery blood that made Harry think it was rather horrible, what had been done to the poor creature. Prince's tight face revealed nothing, and Harry grimaced once more, feeling rather glad he hadn't become a Slytherin and been compelled to keep so calm all the time. He rather liked being emotional; it made communicating a lot easier.

They soon came upon a clearing in the forest, and Prince flinched before throwing his hand out to make Harry stop. They both approached the clearing warily, and there on the ground was the unicorn, its white coat gleaming, and sprawled brokenly. It was clearly very dead. Prince glanced around the area, and stepped warily out of the tree line, his eyes roving restlessly. Harry couldn't take his eyes off the beautiful creature lying dead before him, but when he heard Prince scream he turned abruptly, staring at the other student. He had his hand pressed to his face, panting harshly, and Harry looked back over the clearing – and froze.

The slithering sound had returned, and a bush across the clearing was trembling. Out of the leaves, came a dark, cloaked figure, which glanced over at them, and then knelt next to the unicorn and bent to drink its blood. Harry watched with a horrible fascination, and he finally moved slowly over to Prince's side. Prince was breathing in short pants, holding his face still and his hand twitched reflexively on his gun. Harry couldn't imagine what was wrong with him, but he would be damned if he left a fellow student to fend for themselves, against that kind of –of thing.

Finally, however, the creature looked over at them with a fierce glare, blood dripping down its face. Harry felt ill, but he firmly grabbed Prince's shoulder and pulled him to his feet. Prince wrenched away from him, barely keeping his feet as he staggered off, and then he looked flat out at the creature. He seemed to respond without thinking, and Harry dove for cover as Prince's gun went off, doubling the creature over as they hit their mark. The gun discharged only three times before Prince swallowed audibly and then grabbed at Harry's hand. Harry didn't waste time; he stood and hauled Prince with him back onto the trail, running for all he was worth. They were off for about ten minutes before Harry remembered to send up red sparks. After he did so, Harry just collapsed to the ground, Prince remaining standing, staring into the forest with wide eyes and breathing hard. Harry placed his head on his knees and stayed there, shaking slightly. This had turned out a mess.

Once again I shunt the update up two weeks. A month just seems too long. Be grateful. Second year has been finished, and so it will be posted after first. Unless I get inundated with reviews, the chapters will likely consistently go up in two weeks stints until the end of second year. Then, depending on how complete the next is, I may or may not take a break until the next is comfortably outfitted.

More reviews mean I know you love me, and more inspiration to work. Please Read and Review.

Fire and Napalm