Disclaimer: Harry Potter and Hogwarts et alia belong to JK Rowling and Warner. Not me. Me make no money here. Me promise.

Summary: Voldemort is on the rise and Hogwarts has been sealed off against him. When's a better time to get a new pet?

Rated M for future gore and bad for books 1 – 4. Probably a few for book 5 even though it's AU from the end of 4th year, but you can consider this a definite AU 6th year for Harry.

WARNING! This fiction is pure whimsy and written as escape from my original stuff (which tends to go badly at times). While there is a Beginning, a Middle, and an End, the Middle is going to be quite waffly. If you don't like waffle (and especially if you don't like horses!) then Stop Reading Now!

ooOOoo

Chapter 2: Two Seekers Don't Find a Snitch

Draco headed towards the Quidditch pitch, wand out and ready. Under the shelter of his Invisibility Cloak, Harry decided he had a point, and got out his own wand, ready to hex Malfoy into next Tuesday as soon as the Slytherin showed the first sign of betraying Hogwarts.

But if Malfoy was going to betray Hogwarts then Harry wasn't sure how the other boy intended to do so. Instead of heading towards the gates and the road to Hogsmeade, or even the lake, he made a beeline past Hagrid's hut and plunged into the Forbidden Forest.

Taking a deep breath, Harry followed.

He walked as quietly as he could. The Slytherin was jumpy, turning and pointing his wand towards any strange noise he heard. But given that this was the Forbidden Forest and the night-life here was more active than in many major cities, Harry wondered if Malfoy would wear himself out so badly looking for danger that when danger finally found him Malfoy would be an easy meal. Twice now, Draco had sent leg-locker hexes in Harry's direction when Harry had accidentally stood on twigs that snapped. Luckily the spells had gone wide, but Malfoy was so twitchy that Harry was seriously wondering if the blond boy had finally snapped under all the pressure of being the heir to the Prince of Darkness.

Once they came across a centaur, or a centaur came across them. It was hard to tell with centaurs.

"Excuse me, sir. Have you seen a wizard out here tonight?" the Slytherin asked, managing to remember to be polite despite the anxiety evident in his voice.

The centaur shuffled his hooves and said, "You are the only human I have seen since my return to the Forest, Hogwarts Student. The planets are inauspicious for searches tonight. Werewolves are also returning. You, too, should return to your place of safety."

Malfoy muttered something inaudible, then apologised to the centaur, who accepted the apology solemnly.

"If you will not return willingly then I hope for your safe if unwilling return."

Draco backed away, wand raised.

The centaur spread out his huge hands. "Nay, wizard child. I will not presume to interfere in your affairs. Your safety belongs to you and your elders."

Malfoy muttered something else Harry couldn't hear and bowed jerkily to the centaur. In turn the centaur bowed his head once before turning and trotting away through the trees.

Then he was off again, appearing slightly less nervous this time despite the centaur's warning of werewolves. To Harry, he seemed to be becoming more and more frustrated.

Harry was becoming more and more unnerved. He was following Draco, which was freaky enough, and – he could have sworn – something was following him. He hoped it was Remus, then remembered that Snape was gone and it was entirely possible that Remus hadn't had enough of the Wolfsbane potion to make him safe.

Then he followed Malfoy to the lip of a hollow and froze in horror.

No way could he be planning on going into there!?!

Draco didn't. He stopped at the top of the slope instead and shouted: "Hey! Anybody out here?"

Harry nearly shouted back, Yes, you great idiot. Now shut up before anyone else hears you!

Too late. There was a rustle and up from the hollow came an eight-legged shape from nightmare. Its exoskeleton glittered in places and its mandibles clicked. Draco kept his wand trained on it. Well, that was something, anyway. Harry suddenly remembered the Death Eater that Snape had trapped in the giant spider web. Had Lucius Malfoy gone so insane that he'd risk his heir to find a missing Death Eater?

Out of the spider's noises came words. Harry strained his ears to hear them, but couldn't make anything out beyond the clicking susurration. Draco was also speaking too quietly. Harry crept closer to hear what they were saying.

By the tense angle of his shoulders, Draco was upset with what the spider had to say. He turned to leave.

That was when the spider moved.

The young wizard was fast with the spell he threw. Almost fast enough.

Almost.

The spider knocked him down and tried to bite him. Draco kicked out and managed to knock the spider over. Another kick broke one of its legs. For a moment it looked like Draco would win.

And then the shadows moved and divided and there were two spiders.

Harry slipped out from under the cloak and threw the first spell he could think of: "Expelliarmus!"

The second spider shot backwards, knocking the first with it. There was the rattle of leaves and pebbles as the two arachnids tumbled down the slope.

Harry darted forwards and grabbed Draco by the collar of his robes. "Come on!" he hissed.

Draco jumped to his feet and shoved Harry away. The moon had risen and glinted off the Slytherin's bared teeth. Harry doubted it was because Malfoy was smiling. His normally sleek hair was falling over his face and he was doing a bad job of hiding how terrified he was.

"Potter, you great waste of space – what the hell are you doing here?"

"Trying not to die," Harry retorted, knowing they had to get away from the spiders' area of the Forest before the pair of spiders called out all their friends and relatives for the midnight snack. He tried to grab Draco again. "Come on, Malfoy."

The Slytherin shook him off. "Go on, yourself," he snarled. "And mind your own bloody business."

"Fine," Harry snapped. "But my business is making sure that you don't rescue any surviving Death Eaters."

Draco's eyes went wide, then narrowed with scorn. "Is that what you… oh, for Merlin's sake, Potter, grow another brain cell some day, why don't you? The one you've got is lonely."

"The one I've got is telling me that if we stay here any longer we're going to be killed by all the spiders that come swarming up from down there."

Draco sneered. "Know a lot about spiders all of a sudden, do you, Potter?"

"Just these ones," Harry said evenly. "I've only come across them once and I don't want to repeat the experience." He turned and started jogging away. If that idiot wanted to get himself killed, then fine. Harry wasn't some sort of suicide counsellor. There was a brief pause from behind him and then the rustle of footsteps through the groundcover.

Harry kept his wand ready for spider attacks. And because he had Draco Malfoy at his back.

ooOOoo

The attack came from above.

A spell thrown by Draco caught the spider and spun it away before it could decapitate Harry. Harry turned to see the other boy scanning the trees for more spiders. "Thanks," Harry said.

Draco glared at him. He opened his mouth and that was when the spider jumped on him.

Harry's spell missed, and if Draco hadn't been so quick to kick out again the spider might have bitten his leg off. Its mandibles sliced into the muscle of his calf.

"Aah!" Draco grabbed at the wound in his leg that was pumping blood.

Blood that would have practically every creature in the forest salivating.

Harry threw another spell before the spider could pounce again – he missed.

The spider crouched behind a tree, sheltered for the moment. Its eight feet rustled in the leaves as it considered its next move and its mandibles chittered, eager for more blood.

Harry tried to edge into a better position to fire off a spell.

He was too slow.

The spider jumped.

Something big, black and angry bolted out from the trees. It swerved so close to Harry that the boy had to dive down to the ground to avoid being trampled, and then it charged at the spider. It struck out with its front legs and crushed the carapace of the spider in the first blow. The spider screeched and spun around, as did its attacker, hammering the spider with a powerful kick from its back hooves.

The arachnid crumpled, twitching.

Quickly Harry shoved himself back up on his hands and knees and spat out a twig.

The moon came out from behind clouds and showed their saviour.

It was tall, jet black, and had its ears flat back with fury. It stamped its feet as it stood over Draco (who was sensibly curled up and lying still), turning its head to survey the Forest out of eyes as black as its coat.

It was a horse.

The sight of such an ordinary, Muggle animal in the Forbidden Forest temporarily struck Harry dumb. He swallowed. "Malfoy?" he whispered.

"Yeah," Draco's voice whispered back. "What is it?"

"It's a horse," Harry said, and felt stupid. But a horse was so wrong here.

The horse arched its neck so that it could look down its long nose at the boy at its feet. Draco stared back up at it wide-eyed. "Do you think it eats human flesh?"

"If that's the case then you're probably safe," Harry said, and regretted it. Malfoy was lying very still but the blood oozed out of his leg in a thick stream that stained the forest floor. "Your leg…"

"Tell me something I don't know." Draco rolled over, carefully not making any sudden moves. "Ouch," he whispered.

The horse stepped back and lowered its head to snuffle at Draco's hair. Draco went very, very still.

"I don't think it's going to hurt you," Harry said. "It's just a horse."

"Whaddaya mean, 'just a horse'? If it's 'just a horse' then what's it doing in the Forbidden Forest?"

"I don't know. Maybe it was on a Muggle farm near here and got frightened by the fight. It could have… jumped over a fence and got lost."

"Muggle horses… they're not very dangerous, are they?"

"Not that I know of. I think they're meant to be quite gentle." Harry suddenly realised that Draco probably had no idea of what a non-magical creature was like. "Since it hasn't run away from you it's probably quite tame."

"Yes, but does it know that?" Draco groaned. "Sod it. I've got to see to my leg." He sat up and the horse took a step backwards. "That's a start… now if it can back up all the way back to its nice, foetid little Muggle farm I'd be closer to being happy."

Harry tried not to grin. He stood up and walked over to the other boy, being very careful not to startle the horse. He had had a good look at how powerful a kick from those back legs could be. The spider's abdomen was crumpled like a paper bag filled with mince… ugh. The horse snorted a bit and tossed its head, but when Harry moved around it to check on Draco it didn't do anything too frightening.

Draco was already doing a good job of applying a pressure bandage using cloth he'd cut from the bottom of his cloak with a severing charm. Harry helped him tie the knot when Draco's hands kept slipping from the blood, then he pulled the other boy up to his feet. Draco was of a height with Harry – both of them had started to sprout up in the last year – and Harry realised that they had a long hike out of the Forest, especially with the threat of angry spiders and werewolves. Vampires, too, and… That kind of thinking didn't help. One step at a time, decided Harry. One long, bloody, drawn-out, uncomfortable step at a time. "Put your arm around my shoulder," he said.

"Why?" said Malfoy, all bristling suspicion.

Harry sighed, fed up. "Because if you stay out here something will eat you and Dumbledore will get into trouble for losing another student."

Grey eyes flickered with something like loathing for a second but which passed so quickly that Harry might have missed it if the moon hadn't been so bright. "I'm not ready to go back yet," he said mulishly.

"You've nearly had your leg bitten off. You've annoyed every spider within a radius of five miles and you're dripping blood that anything hungry – and that's probably everything in the Forest tonight – can smell. Basically, Malfoy, if you're not finished out here tonight then something out here tonight will finish you."

Draco actually bared his teeth again and Harry wondered just how deranged Malfoys got. The he felt hot breath on the back of his neck and nearly jumped out of his robes.

I'm too young to die of a heart attack.

It was only the horse, which was getting curious. Its ears flicked back and forth, usually in Harry and Draco's direction, but also to pick up whatever sounds it could from the surrounding trees.

"Come on," Harry said. "Maybe it'll follow us back."

"I'm not going back yet."

Harry let go of him so quickly that Draco staggered and fell with a startled "Oof!" at the horse's feet. The horse stepped back, ears twitching faster, alarmed at this new behaviour. "So what are you going to do instead?"

Draco snarled up at him wordlessly, and Harry was struck by the sheer pain in his eyes.

"Come on," he muttered, ashamed of how he'd let Malfoy drop like that. It couldn't have done the injury any good. Draco cursed at him weakly but he ignored it, pulling the other boy up again and steadying him. Once he was sure the blond boy wouldn't suddenly fall he checked the pressure bandage to see that it wasn't leaking too much. It wasn't. Without saying anything else he slung Malfoy's arm over his shoulder and they began the long trek back to Hogwarts.

ooOOoo

When Draco tripped on a root for the fifth time Harry called a halt and sat down on a log. "I need a breather," he said. He was sweating, too. It would have been awkward with Ron, who was a friend. Heaving a Malfoy through the trees was much worse. It seemed to be inherent that they wouldn't be able to work together, even when it meant saving a life. Harry would have thought the Slytherin would be more co-operative, but he only opened his mouth to curse Harry every time Harry jolted his leg. Harry was getting perilously close to dumping him in the middle of the forest and leaving him to his fate. It wasn't as if anyone would miss him.

"So why don't you?" Draco muttered.

Harry could have kicked himself – he'd been thinking aloud. "Like I said, Dumbledore…"

"…Would get in trouble," Draco finished, mimicking Harry. "Oh yes, we mustn't have the great and noble Dumbledore be seen to be human."

Harry rolled his eyes. The rustle of fallen leaves from behind him made him jump, but again it was only the horse who was still following them. Purely out of curiosity, Harry guessed; when he'd tried to pet it, it had backed off, raising its head and laying its ears back threateningly. It didn't seem very tame.

"Hey!" he squeaked. "What the hell are you trying to do now?"

"Shut up, Potter," Draco said grimly. He was standing up on the log, trying to balance on one leg. "It's a horse. Horses are for riding. I've seen pictures, you know. It can carry me back to Hogwarts. Here, horse." He snapped his fingers. "Come here, horse. Come here, I said."

The horse snorted and tossed its head, black mane rippling down the crest of its neck like midnight surf. Its eyes gleamed in the moonlight and it didn't move a step closer.

Harry rolled his eyes again.

"Come here please?" Draco tried, and held out his hand. "Good horse. Please come here."

"Didn't know 'please' was in your vocabulary," Harry muttered, but he noticed that the horse had its ears forward again which made it look a fraction friendlier.

Draco ignored him. "Come here, horse. Good horse. You're a beautiful horse, you know… you've already saved my life tonight and it would just show what a noble animal you are (even if you are a stupid Muggle beast) if you help me get back to Hogwarts. Please? I promise I won't make fun of Muggles… well, not for a little while, anyway, and I can't guarantee any time longer than maybe thirty minutes. Good horse."

It appeared the horse responded even better to flattery. It stepped up to where Draco was beginning to wobble on the log and let the boy put his hands on its withers. It shuddered its skin a little, as if trying to shake off flies, then settled.

"Now will you be a good Muggle horse and let me sit on your back?" Draco wheedled. "I've never ridden a horse and your back looks very bony so if you don't let me sit there then I won't be too unhappy, I guess…" Very slowly, trying not to scare the horse, he slid belly-first over its back and let it get used to his weight.

"Damn."

"What?" asked Harry, who was amazed that Malfoy had got this far with what seemed like a rather skittish creature. Especially the Draco Malfoy who had shown no aptitude in Care of Magical Creatures beyond an uncanny knack of pissing off even non-human creatures.

Draco's voice was strained. "I can't swing my leg over its back without sliding off. Come and grab my arm."

This was quite possibly the weirdest thing Harry had got up to in his time at Hogwarts: Holding onto Draco's arm to stop him from sliding back off a Muggle horse while Draco tried to swing his injured right leg over the horse's rump. It was achieved soon enough and luckily the horse didn't seem too put-out by this behaviour. It only pawed with a forefoot when Draco held on too tight around its neck.

Draco actually apologised to the horse for this. Harry was amazed, but then he looked up and saw how Draco was slumped over the horse's neck with his lips so bloodless they looked white in the moonlight and his teeth chattering, and he realised that Draco was going to lose consciousness very soon. The spider's bite could easily have been poisoned.

"Don't worry," he said. "Madam Pomfrey will be able to cure you."

"I think that sp- spider was poisonous," Draco replied.

"Then you can get a cure easily enough from Snape…" Harry stopped abruptly as he remembered. Draco had turned his face away and with ice in his stomach Harry suddenly knew why Draco was out here.

"Sorry," he said quietly, but Draco didn't look at him.

Harry started walking again and, after a brief moment, heard the soft thunk-thunk-thunk-thunk of the horse's hooves following him.

ooOOoo

As they reached the edge of the Forest he could see a few lights high in the towers of Hogwarts. He hoped they weren't those of people worrying about him…

They were, apparently. A big, black dog came running towards him barking before it changed into the equally agitated Sirius Black, who wrapped Harry in a bear hug. "Over here!" he roared. Only then did he notice the horse, which was hesitant about leaving the shelter of the trees, and the motionless burden it was carrying.

"Is that the Malfoy brat?" he asked, his dark brows drawing together.

Harry nodded, but got no time to reply. A werewolf was running towards them: Remus Lupin, and as Sirius wasn't changing back into his Animagus form Remus must be safe.

No-one had told the horse.

Its nostrils flared and it reared as it roared a challenge. Draco woke up just in time to realise he was falling, and grabbed for Harry, who did his best to catch him. The horse pushed past them and charged at the werewolf.

"Remus! Don't hurt it!" Harry shouted from the ground, his arms full of weakly-struggling Malfoy.

No trouble there. The werewolf was dodging the flying, death-dealing hooves as fast as he could. One struck him on the side of the head and he yelped.

Sirius pulled out a wand and sent up a flare. The red-and-green lights burst just overhead, terrifying the horse, which broke off the attack and galloped off into the trees. Harry tried to see where it went but suddenly found himself too busy with Draco, who had gone into convulsions.

ooOOoo