A Sirius Unicorn

Chapter 10. The Weeping Willow

"Athena! Over here!" Sirius shouted, waving his arm as he saw a

flustered looking Athena enter the Griffindor Common Room. Her normally calm and regal face was almost panic-stricken.

Standing up from his designated Marauder's chair, Sirius gave the sixth year boy he had been talking to a pointed look. The boy was quick on the uptake and promptly offered his seat to the 'seventh year mystery', as

Athena was often referred to by anyone other than the Marauders, Dumbledore and McGonagall.

Sirius waited a second in his comfy seat before politely -well as

politely as Sirius could ever be-asking, "Er-hem, Robert, my fine chap, don't you have something better to do than stare at Miss Skydancer all day?"

In embarrassment, the boy, Robert, jerked his head away from staring at the enigma that was Athena, and offering a shy grin quickly left the two alone.

Before Sirius could even turn around to face her, Athena had whispered, "He's found me."

Sirius didn't even bother asking who. "How do you know?"

"One of his Death Eaters was trailing me in the hallways just now. I never saw his face, but everytime I passed a suit of armor, I saw his reflection, just far enough away so I couldn't make out any features, and always in the dark." Her hand, in a fit of nervousness flew to her face, her fingers unconsciously outlining the star shaped mark on her forehead.

Staring blankly into the scarlet rug at her feet, she uttered, "How did he get in?"

Sirius stood from his chair and knelt before her, grasping her hand away from the mark and holding it within his own. "There's no reason to be scared

Athena. Dumbledore is here, not to mention myself and the Marauders. You know we wouldn't let anything happen to one of our own." He let his other hand slowly go to her face and brought it even with his own. Looking into her forest/sky eyes, he softly whispered, "I wouldn't let anything happen to you." It looked as if he was just about to kiss her when-

Athena jerked away. The catatonic state forgotten in the heated moment. her eyes turned icy and she said coolly, as one of royalty is so inclined, "You misunderstand, I'm not afraid for myself. I'm afraid for Hogwarts. I will be responsible for anyone hurt here."

Sirius nearly rolled his eyes in frustration. Sighing, he said, "Right then. Wait here while I get Moony and Prongs. Together, we'll go to Dumbledore's office and alert him to the intruder." He stood from where he knelt and added, "Um, I didn't mean to presume that you were afraid, I- ugh, guess I should have know better."

Athena's hard features softened at seeing the great Sirius Black

fumbling for words. Giving him a reassuring smile, she said, "Maybe we could talk about your.. 'misinterpretation' later?"

Sirius's hurt look quickly passed as the old mischief returned to his eyes, "It's a date." And just like that, he went to find Remus and James.

Athena shook her head in amazement. What was that human saying again? Oh yes, give them an inch, and they'll make it a date. Oh well, she thought, it's not like Aramos is going to see us together. Wait! Where did that come from? Why should Aramos care if some human boy of barely eighteen years was trying to take her on a date? A headache beginning to form, Athena cleared her mind of irrelevant thoughts and focused at the task at hand, her eyes locking onto her ring.

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"I still say we should have taken the brooms out the window of the tower and flown to his office." James whispered as the quartet briskly stepped down the staircase trying to beat it before a particularly nasty section changed floors. They had run into one of James's little fangirl's, Willow Murgon. The girl had delayed them a great deal with her pent up adoration spilling out onto an embarrassed James. Finally, Sirius had told the girl that James would meet her later if she would leave them alone. The girl had cluelessly scampered off, humming a happy little tune.

"And I still say to SHUT UP. Don't say another word until we get there." The boys looked to one another in shock at Athena's display of anger. She was never angry, and when did she learn what shut up meant anyway?

Just when they were about to leave the staircase behind, Lily and Rose came out of nowhere with several books in their hands. The darkness of the hallways prevented either group from seeing each other until it was too late.

As fate would have it, James and Lily took the brunt of the attack. Both were rendered to their knees and all of Lily's books were strewn over the stone floor.

"WHY ARE YOU EVERYWHERE I TURN POTTER!?" Lily screeched as she, James and Rose frantically picked up the overturned tombs.

James waited to return his books until after she allowed him to help her up, then he grinned, "Just lucky I suppose, what's your excuse?"

Lily looked like a fish floundering for a moment before she seethed, "My excuse for what prey tell?"

"For being everywhere I am of course." Lily did not seem to appreciate James's attempted joke. In fact, she looked very much like she was about to strangle him.

Athena was just about to help her before Remus came to the rescue and said calmly, "Look Lily," He politely turned to Rose and acknowledged her as well, "Rose. We're kind of in a hurry. We have to go see Dumbledore right now. So if you two could just-

"Dumbledore's just left for the Ministry." Rose said with barely

contained rage as she glared at the foursome before her.

"WHAT!? HE COULDN'T HAVE!" Athena looked livid. Sirius was almost afraid to stand next to her.

Lily rolled her eyes and said, "Well, he just did. Madame Pince told us as we were leaving the library. It seems he had some Wizengamot emergency or something to look into."

The four Marauders glanced at each other with worry and a non-vocalized decision was made.

Athena grabbed James's shoulder and whispered urgently in his ear, "This changes everything. We're going to get this done tonight. On our own. Escort these two back to the Commons and meet us by the lake."

James nodded and his entire demeanor changed. In a tight, serious voice, he said to Lily and Rose, "Come on Lily, I'm walking you two back to the Common room."

Rose looked like she was about to dig her heels in like a stubborn mule and argue, but Lily, keeping her gaze on James told her friend in a resigned voice, "Drop it Rose, let's just go."

As the three of them headed back up the way the Marauders had come, Sirius turned to Athena with a questioning look. "When we're outside," she whispered.

Almost at a run, they barged out the heavy oak doors of the castle and made their way to the bank of the inky black lake.

Having reached his limit of being left out of the loop, Sirius grabbed Athena by the shoulders and nearly yelled, "What the bloody-hell are we DOING!?"

Remus was just about to intervene when Athena roughly pushed Sirius away. In contrast to his emotional outburst, she was a statue of radiant calm and poise.

"We're going to confront this Death Eater and kill him." She said as if she were predicting the forecast.

Remus gaped and Sirius narrowed his eyes in confusion.

Finally, disappointment lacing his words, Sirius said, "You're not the person I thought you were."

"I'm not a person." Athena deadpanned as she scoured the distance, looking for shadows in the dark.

Sirius growled, but Remus put a restraining hand on Sirius and in his rational dialogue explained, "No, you're not a person. What Sirius was trying to say is that-

"We didn't take you for a killer." Sirius finished as he shoved by Remus and walked back up to the Unicorngirl, looking into her face for some hint of the girl he thought he knew and was getting to like.

Athena briefly paused in her searching and looked at the pained young man before her. She rested her hand on his shoulder and said, "Unicorns aren't killers. We're practicalists. We kill when we have to, not for enjoyment. Think of what would happen if this Death Eater reports back to Voldemort that Wormtail's findings were true? Voldemort might go so far as a full scale attack on Hogwarts. Many innocent students would die, all because we let one evil man go back to his dark master." She paused, brushing away some of Sirius's ebony locks. "I couldn't live with myself if that happened, and I don't think you or Remus could either."

"Ah-hem," Remus broke the two from their moment and said, "Maybe there's another way. Why don't we just incarcerate him until Dumbledore gets back?"

Athena shook her head, "We don't know how long he's going to take. It's too risky."

Sirius's eyes brightened and smacked himself in the forehead mumbling, "I should have thought of this sooner!" He turned to his puzzled companions and said in excitement, "James learned from his father how to summon the Order of the Phoenix. If we can incapacitate this Death Eater and then drag him just past the Hogwarts gates, we can get the Order to disapparate him away. They can use him to extract secrets about Voldemort and his forces!"

"One problem with that," a cold voice said from the shadows, making all three Marauders jump. The man stepped into their range of vision. He wore a black cloak with the hood up. However, long blonde, almost white hair was visible. The man had his hand around James's neck with his other hand holding a wand to James's face. James appeared to be in some sort of trance and gave no notice of his surroundings, or the fact that his life was in danger. The man sneered at their anxious faces, "James here won't be able to summon anything."

Sirius glared daggers at the man, every muscle in his frame tensing as he snarled, "Lucius" with such vehemence that both Athena and Remus grabbed him for fear he would charge the man and jeopardize their friend's life. But, Sirius was more James's friend than perhaps anyone else could ever be and knew the consequences of provoking a madman like Lucius better than most, so instead of tackling the Death Eater like he wanted, Sirius grounded out, "What do you want Malfoy?"

Lucius Malfoy seemed to enjoy the look of absolute rage on Sirius's face as he said in his cold, mocking voice, "Temper temper Black. Wouldn't want some spell to slip on your friend here. Because that is what you call him. Isn't it? A friend? Well, as much as I'd love to reunite you with your little blood traitor, I'm afraid I can't. Not unless you give me two things."

"Greedier than ever I see."

"Hmm...maybe I should just give him his own wand and tell him to kill himself? You know I wouldn't hesitate Black." Still in a trance, James slowly reached into his robes and drew out his wand.

Sirius nearly choked, "Wait!"

"I knew you'd see things my way." Lucius grinned and concentrated for a second. James lowered his wand and stood motionless as before. "I'll let you get back to your filthy traitorous existence if you give me the Unicorn and allow us to escape unaccompanied."

"Not bloody likely you bloody son-of-a-

"I'll do it." Athena suddenly stepped in front of Lucius and lowering her wand, continued, "But you have to release James from the Imperious first."

Lucius glared at Athena for a second, and then silently lifted the spell off of James. Just as Sirius was about to rush to his friend's aid, Lucius gave a wicked smile and yelled, "EXPELIARMUS!" at James. At the close range of the spell, James was lifted off his feet and flew through the air to land heavily on his back. Sirius immediately whipped out his wand and was about to curse Malfoy, but Lucius had already grabbed Athena and held her firmly in front of him.

"I've kept my end of the bargain, now leave with your still-breathing blood traitor and get out of my sight Black!" Sirius stood rooted to the spot glowering at Malfoy but unable to do anything. Remus knelt beside James and felt for a pulse.

"He's still alive, but we need to get him to Madame Pomphrey quickly." With his wand trained on James's face, Lupin yelled, "ENERVIATE!" James gave a soft groan but made no other movement.

Athena, with her back against Malfoy and her arms pinned to her sides uselessly said, "It's alright Sirius. He won't hurt me. Just go." Sirius was about to argue, but he noticed that she wasn't looking at him. Her gaze rested intently over his shoulder at the gnarled tree between the lake and the huge iron gates.

Sirius gave a quick smirk and then looking back into Malfoy's cold eyes, growled, "Fine. You have what you came for, now go. Just leave me and mine alone you great git."

Malfoy glared at the young man before him. "Whatever you two are playing at won't work. The Dark Lord has trained me himself.." With his own words to reassure himself, Malfoy retreated from the three remaining Marauders. He made sure to keep Athena between himself and Sirius.

As he dragged her backward toward the gate, Lucius whispered in her ear, "The Dark Lord will be so pleased to see you, your highness." The mocking ring to his voice was gratingly evident. "You're all he ever talks about since he killed your dam."

Athena struggled to ignore the nauseating nearness of him and his taunting and concentrated on her surroundings, making sure that she struggled against him just enough to guide him in the direction she wanted.

Lucius appeared oblivious to her intentions as he continued, "Perhaps he may even take a fancy to your new...disguise." He laughed at his own joke and then sneered with contempt, his eyes falling on Sirius, "It appears others have at any rate." His voice lost it's mockery and became bitter, seethingly so. "How disgusting that one of such noble, pureblood can stoop to blood traitors and creatures. If Orion only knew-" WHOOMP!!!

Both Athena and Lucius were knocked to the ground by the force of the Whomping Willow's branch. Having been the recipient of the blow, Lucius temporarily had the wind knocked out of him. Athena took the second to yank the ring off her finger.

The next thing Sirius saw as he and Remus sprinted toward the flaying tree was the brilliant whiteness of Athena's true form as she gave a rib-cracking kick to Lucius.

However, as Lucius very satisfyingly flew back unconscious, Athena was hit from the side by a wayward branch. It lifted her up, in all her Unicorn splendor and hurled her fifty feet away to land in a crumpled silver heap.

Sirius and Remus gave each other a quick nod and simultaneously turned to the enraged tree and shouted, "IMMOBULUS!" Immediately, the tree quieted and the stillness of the night took over. The sudden change from violence to silence left the two boys immobile like the Willow for a second.

A weak cry from behind them shattered their reverence. "Hello! A Death Eater is just lying there with his wand still in his hand! Is either of you going to maybe stun him or something?" James limped over to them, his hand shakily grasping his wand, but his eyes their usual playful self.

Sirius gave his Marauding brother a bear hug and with his bark-like laughter ringing through the pierced stillness, exclaimed, "No Prongsie! We wanted you to feel like you didn't completely mess up tonight, so we saved the easy task for you mate!"

Remus just laughed and cast a resounding, "STUPEFY!" on the prone Malfoy before Sirius and James could forget to in their banter.

"It's good to have you back Prongs." Remus said with a smile as he too gave James a brotherly hug.

"Nice to be back. It was a nightmare being trapped by Malfoy's

Imperious. I felt like I was swimming through tar and being forced to eat too much treacle tart at the same time." James shook himself out of his wandering thoughts and turned toward Malfoy. "Come on Remus, let's get this trash out of here." Remus and James both elbowed Sirius and then left, both laughing their heads off.

Sirius put his hand to his head in the classic, 'why me dear lord'

gesture and raised his wand shouting, "ACCIO ATHENA'S RING, ACCIO ATHENA'S WAND, ACCIO ATHENA'S CLOTHES!" Immediately, all of the aforementioned belonging zoomed into Sirius's outstretched hands as he ran over to the unconscious Unicorn.

Upon reaching her, Sirius slid to his knees and grasped the beautiful ring, pondering how to transform her. He knew the ring was the cause of her transformation, but he wasn't exactly sure how it worked. He tried just placing it in contact with her white body, but that had no effect. It did affect him however when his fingers accidentally grazed the silk of her coat. He couldn't help himself. It was softer than the plushest velvet and more radiant than new fallen snow. He stroked her neck, enjoying the feel of her coat and marveling at the silver silk hair of her wavy mane.

Tenderly, his fingers danced around the star shaped mark that made up her forehead. Right in the center of the glowing star was her horn. Sirius almost felt too afraid to touch it. It looked like one huge diamond carved to perfection into a spiraling delicate horn. He gently ran his hand over it, wondering at the feeling of something so beautiful, yet so powerful.

He withdrew his hand and gazed at her horselike head for a moment, taking in its delicate beauty. He didn't know a lot about horses, but he knew her face was beautiful. He felt he would have known it were he blind. Shaking his head at his own corny thoughts, he gazed down to her hoofs, the gold of her hoofwall catching his eye as it reflected off the moon's silvery rays.

Going with instinct, he pressed the ring against one of her four golden hooves. Suddenly, a blindingly bright glow of white energy encased Athena as her body instantaneously transformed into her human guise.

Sirius's eyes widened to saucers as he realized that her clothes didn't transform onto her during the change. Feeling that their was something profoundly wrong in violating a Unicorn, particularly her, he overted his eyes and picked up his wand. He silently cast the transfiguration spell to transform her school robe into a blanket, a spell taught to all first years before the final Quidditch Match, and laid the blanket over her pale, fragile looking human skin.

Trying to convince himself that he did not just take a peek at her, he grabbed her wand and put it in his pocket and then wrapped his arms around the bundle and hoisted her up. By this time, Remus and James were heading back toward him.

"We safely deposited Malfoy to the Order. It's strange how he could've gotten in here, the Order plans on investigating that. Hopefully, he was the only one." Remus said as he helped James who still appeared to be suffering on his right leg.

"We already know he wasn't. Wormtail, Narsissa, Snape, Regulus and god knows how many others are already here, and I'm sure they helped him." Sirius said as the three of them began walking toward the looming castle.

James smirked at Padfoot and the unconscious Athena and then shook his head.

Sirius huffed, "Spit it out Jamsie-kins. It's not polite to laugh inside your head at your bestest buddy as he's playing knight-in-shining-armor."

James and Remus both laughed, and finally, when James could breathe again, he said, "You do know you could have just enerviated her right?"

Sirius's eyes widened like a five year old's when they get caught with their hand in the cookie jar. Finally, he managed an, "Oh yea."

James and Remus were just about to give him some more grief when Sirius said in a voice more worthy of himself, "But where would be the fun in that?"

The three laughed all the way up to the hospital wing where a non-too-thrilled Madame Pomphrey took James and Athena and kicked a reluctant-to-leave Sirius and Remus out for the night.

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"Oh James! I'm sooo glad you're ok! Is there anything I can do?" Athena abruptly awoke as a high pitched shrill erupted in her sensitive ears. Wincing in pain, Athena was forced to endure the horrific shrill once again as it continued cooing, "When I heard where you were, I immediately came right up. Do you want me to get you some water, or maybe some breakfast? Maybe you want a message?"

At these last words, Athena's eyes flew open and she witnessed a red-faced James shying away from an excited girl. She recognized the fan as the same from the night before, Willow Murgon. Willow had her skinny hand clasped on James's forearm in an attempt to begin messaging. James looked as though he would die from embarrassment.

Hearing a soft, "Humph" from across the room, Athena turned her head and saw Lily Evans standing in the doorway to the hospital wing staring intently at James and Willow with a soft frown marring her face. If Athena didn't know better, she'd almost say that Lily looked jealous.

James apparently hadn't noticed the red-haired beauty in his presence as he gave a sigh and quietly told Willow, "I'm sorry, but I'm in love with someone else. I always have been, and I always will be. Now, please go away. If you're looking for someone to idolize, go rub Gideon's shoulders, I'm sure he wouldn't mind."

Willow looked at James in shock for a moment and then began crying. When she saw her weeping had no comforting effect on him, she huffed and ran out the room, her tears making a soft dripping noise on the hard, clean floor.

Lily stood aside as the girl stormed past her. James followed Willow's wake until his gaze settled on Lily. He was about to say something when Athena turned to him and whispered, "Shush, let her talk." James frowned at Athena for a second before returning to his Goddess. After a few seconds, of neither of them uttering a sound nor moving a muscle, Lily spoke, "I just heard that you were in the hospital wing. Dumbledore, uh, he, um," their gazes were locked together and it seemed some spell was forming over the two, making it impossible for them to tear their eyes away from each other.

Lily licked her lips and went on, her voice a little higher, "He wanted me to make sure you were alright for our duties tonight. He said something about a Death Eater being in the school." Lily slowly walked up to James's bed, their eyes never wavering. She continued in a small voice, "You should have told me last night, I could have helped you all."

"I didn't want to put you in danger Lily." James's voice cracked as he said her name. Athena thought it probably due to his lack of uttering her first name. Lily seemed to notice too. She swallowed and said, "I can handle myself."

James's lips formed upward in a smile and he said quietly, "I know you can Lilyflower." Before she had a chance to get ruffled at his nickname, he added, "Now tell me why you had all those books on Werewolves last night?"