A Sirius Unicorn

Disclaimer: I own nothing, except the plot and a few OC's you haven't heard of. The world is J.K. Rowling's and a few of my idea's for the Unicorns came from the book, The Unicorn Chronicles, and the movie, The Last Unicorn.

Chapter Five. Part Two. Padfoot and Silver

By the time Athena had stepped out onto the moonlit grounds of Hogwarts, she had lost site of the foursome. She knew they had been heading toward the nasty old tree called the Whomping Willow, but then they had disappeared. Checking to make sure she was alone, Athena touched the necklace and transformed into the silvery form of the Unicorn Princess.

It felt so good to be back in her own form, that Athena couldn't help but gallop around the grounds. She cantered past the game keeper, Hagrid's Hut and picked up speed as she entered the Forbidden Forest. She barely noticed the curious eyes of a centaur as she thundered past. When she heard hoof beats behind her and saw the handsome palomino racing to catch up, she slowed. When he was even with her, she took off again. This time, he had caught on and met her challenge. The two of them raced around the dark trees and low hanging branches.

Athena didn't know where she was headed, all she knew was that she was having a blast! The Palomino centaur seemed to be having as much fun as she was. He wasn't as fast as her, but when she saw him falling back, she would slow down and then they would thunder off again. Their little race lasted for about two hours.

Just as the centaur seemed to be on the edge of exhaustion, Athena stopped. She waited in the middle of a clearing for the panting centaur to catch his breath.

"Th-at. Was. F-un!" He finally managed to pant out. Athena smirked and touching him with her horn, she telepathically communicated, "Yea, it was. You weren't half bad for a centaur. By the way, my name's Athena."

His blue eyes lit up in amusement at her unusual attitude for a Unicorn. "You're the first Unicorn to talk to me. I always thought that Unicorns were forbidden from talking to centaurs? Oh, and my name's Firenze. A pleasure to meet you." He said this last line after dropping onto one knee in a bowing gesture.

Athena quickly imitated the bow, saying, "The pleasure is all mine. And Unicorns aren't forbidden. The one's in this forest must just be stuck-up." He laughed at this. "I hail from the Black Forest. Anyway, it was nice meeting you." He gave a sad look. "Um..Maybe I'll see you around some time?" She finished encouragingly.

His sad look immediately changed into a smile and he nodded. She took her horn off of his golden shoulder and cantered off. He gave a small chuckle and after glancing back quickly to make sure it hadn't all been a dream, Firenze galloped back to the rest of his herd. Now quite a distance away.

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Athena didn't want to admit it, but she was rather lost. It had been a while since she had left the blonde half-human, and she was beginning to worry that she would actually have to call for Niome. Suddenly, she heard a wolf cry off to her left. She almost jumped into a tree for how bad it had startled her.

When she finally felt her heart rate slow down, Athena cautiously headed toward where the howl had come from. Athena had never taken her mother seriously when she had said that 'curiosity killed the Unicorn' and she didn't plan on backing down now. Besides, seeing a wolfed out Remus could prove interesting. Or at least she hoped.

Peering around a large fallen tree, Athena saw him. He was standing in a clearing with his back to her. His large muscular wolfish body covered in a thick brown fur. The only way she recognized it to be Remus, was that when he turned around and looked her in the eye, she saw a hint of sad soft brown behind the wolf's amber glowing eyes.

Since he didn't seem to be threatening her, just yet, Athena took a chance and looked over his shoulder. Just as she suspected, there stood a brilliant stag, a big, black shaggy dog and a squeaking fat rat. All four of them, the werewolf included, were gaping at her. Slowly, the black dog walked up to her and sniffed her leg. So as not to spook him, Athena very carefully, and very slowly lowered her horn to touch his shoulder. He didn't flinch away, and when he heard her voice inside his head, "So, Sirius. What's new?" He hardly jumped in surprise. He thought back with their telepathic connection, "Same old, same old. But you being a Unicorn. I shoulda known." He then turned his shaggy head and barked over to the rest of the Marauders who cautiously came up behind him.

They all gave her strange looks. Sirius was panting. Athena thought he looked pretty cute with his tongue out and big gray puppy eyes glancing between her and the rest of the boys, err..animals.

James was looking apprehensive. His doe brown eyes searching hers for a sign that she understood the gravity of the situation. When she nodded at him, he seemed slightly comforted and his proud antlered head shot back up again in an expression of relief.

It was hard to see little Peter's watery eyes, but when she did finally catch them, they seemed to be showing fear and, maybe even awe. He quickly scurried up Prongs' leg and up all the way to the top of his antlered head. Upon reaching his destination, Wormtail squeaked a welcome and waved his tiny paw at her. Even though Athena wasn't particularly fond of Peter, she returned his hello with a nod and turning her silvery head slightly, happened upon the glowing eyes of Remus Lupin.

He seemed to be having an internal conflict, so Athena quickly drew back a few paces, which he seemed to appreciate. She noticed that his eyes appeared to have lost some of the wolf's amber glow and seemed more subdued. She supposed that although he had become used to the presence of his fellow Marauders, he wasn't yet used to keeping the wolf at bay when standing five feet away from a tender white Unicorn. Athena gladly respected this fact. He also seemed to respect her wish not to be eaten. Their mutual respect earned the laughing of the rest of the Marauders as Prongs set off through the woods at a lope. Moony quickly set after him with Athena and Padfoot bringing up the rear.

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Prongs led the five of them all through the forest. They chased off a pack of giant spiders and had several wrestling contests. All in all, it was rather fun. The only damper on the night was the few occasional looks of suspicion from the Marauders. Well the Marauders minus Sirius. He didn't seem to care at all. Padfoot's tongue was lulling in contentment the whole night, and when his puppy-dog eyes met her ocean-emerald ones, his tail would wag.

At the first glimpses of dawn, the group led Athena toward the village of Hogsmeade. Athena had heard of the village, but had never seen it. They journeyed to the outskirts of the quaint town and came upon the most haunted building in Britain. Or so the Shrieking Shack was assumed to be.

As the five of them carefully entered through a hidden back door, and Athena saw no signs of ghosts, she quickly came to the assumption that the only inhabitants of the shack were the three animagi, the lone werewolf, and herself.

They all stood there, in the middle of what appeared to be a den, looking intently at each other. When the bright early morning rays of dawn penetrated the dilapidating boards of the Shrieking Shack, and Remus made his painful and horrendous transformation from beast to schoolboy, the three animagi changed into their human forms. As soon as he was human again, Remus collapsed. Luckily, James and Sirius seemed used to his fainting spells and managed to catch him before his head hit the ground.

The two of them dragged his limp figure onto an ancient worn-out bed. They then slowly turned around and continued staring at the silvery Unicorn occupying the middle of the room.

Athena was rather embarrassed. She couldn't very well transform in front of them because she would be naked in her human form. And that certainly wouldn't be very Princess like of her. Not that she cared. Well, maybe she did, just a little.

She opted for option B. This required her to explain the situation to the Marauders. So she timidly approached them and when they didn't back down, she lowered her horn onto Sirius's shoulder as she had done when he was Padfoot.

"Could you and the rest of the guys turn around a quick second. I don't happen to change with my clothes on if you get my meaning." She said shyly in his mind.

Whatever he had been expecting, this was not it. His eyes widened and he actually, after he had closed his mouth of course, smirked up at her. "Hey Prongsie, Wormtail, let's give the lady a little privacy a second." Sirius said grabbing a bewildered James and Peter by the shoulders and dragging them off into another room.

Without the curious eyes of the Marauders on her, Athena summoned the necklace and her other belongings. She touched the necklace with her hoof as she usually did, and once again she found herself prisoner to the blond headed girl she was becoming to accept as a part of herself. With a sign of resignation, Athena shrugged into her school clothes and indigo cloak. Looking over at the unconscious Remus, Athena shouted, "It's safe. You can come back in now."

"It can't be too safe, I've heard Unicorns don't like boys. If you're even a Unicorn. Perhaps that was just a disguise as well." James said carelessly as him, Sirius and Peter entered the room again.

With a tone of complete confidence, Athena responded, "Perhaps you aren't a real boy. Maybe you're really Rudolph." Sirius sniggered at this, causing James to 'accidentally' stomp his foot.

"OWW PRONGS! You great git! What's the big problem anyway? I mean, sure Athena kept this from us, but look what we were keeping from her." Sirius said gesturing to the three of them. Athena nodded her agreement. James still looked skeptical, but before he could open his mouth to say anything, she said, "We obviously have much to discuss, but it seems Remus needs some care for now, and this can wait."

James nodded and him and Sirius went over to the bed to gather up the Lycanthrope. They all set off back toward Hogwarts through a trap floor passage in the Shrieking Shack and came out through a passageway hidden beneath the Whomping Willow. Peter had to transform back into his rat form to disable the tree.

Once they had delivered Remus to an angry looking Madam Pompfrey, "Honestly, he should have been here an hour ago!", the four of them journeyed up to the Gryffindor common room.

Athena found herself sitting on the couch in front of the fire with Sirius sitting to her right and James pacing in front of her. Wormtail had run off to the Great Hall saying he was starved. Finally, after some world-class pacing, James turned to Athena and said, "Tell us everything."