Disclaimer: Characters and settings belong to JK Rowling and Warner.

Chapter 83

Harry and Draco led Simon past the trees towards the lake, passing as close to Hagrid's hut as they dared, staying out of sight of the main part of the castle, and they kept their hoods up to cover their faces and, in particular, Draco's pale hair which would shine like a beacon in the murky twilight. A few early speckles of raindrops took the edge off the air which otherwise felt like it had been baked and left to sit. Harry held up his hand. "Wait," he whispered, squinting up at the path leading down to Hagrid's hut. The path which, coincidentally, gave an excellent view of the gates and the meadow Harry and Draco were planning on crossing.

A lanky figure swathed in a black cloak was sitting on a boulder by the path. The head turned; a nervous watcher.

"What's he doing here?" Draco hissed.

They hid behind a tree as best as they could. Simon's hindquarters were fairly obvious, sticking out from behind the trunk as they were, but the person sitting on the boulder wasn't looking at the trees.

"It's Dean Thomas."

"I know it's Dean Thomas. I have classes with Gryffindors inflicted upon me, remember?"

"Right back at you – with Slytherins to make it worse. But why's he out here?"

Draco rolled his eyes. The whites gleamed. "Didn't I just ask that?"

"Hey – that's…" Harry squinted again "… Justin Finch-Fletchley?"

"Those two have been sneaking around far too much lately," Draco spat, bristling with suspicion. "They're not even in the same House. It's not natural, I tell you."

Harry stared at him.

Draco had the grace to look abashed. "Well, it's only natural in extenuating circumstances."

"Like when a Slytherin is involved."

"Those situations would be extenuating enough, yes."

"Do you even know what 'extenuating circumstances' means?"

"Yes. It means that they involve me." Draco pressed his lips together.

It was Harry's time to roll his eyes.

Dean and Justin looked around furtively then pulled their hoods up to hide their faces and crept off down the path.

"I think they're going to the Quidditch Pitch," Harry whispered.

"Maybe. Let's not stay to find out."

Harry thought this sounded like good advice. They hurried on, Simon stalking at their heels.

"Oh, hell… Whoa, Simon. Stay very still, there's a good horse. Malfoy – quick – your hood's slipped a bit. I can see your hair."

But Draco had seen them, too: Dumbledore, Flitwick and Hooch, the three of them leaving the castle on their way to the paddock. "Damn," he breathed, yanking his hood up to better cover his face.

The professors had exited the castle near Hagrid's. Dumbledore stopped and stood for a moment, his face turned towards the Forest and Hagrid's hut, eyes shaded by shaggy white brows scanning the deepening purple world for… for what? For Harry? Did he know Harry and the others had escaped? Probably not – he'd be in more of a hurry if that were so. Were Dean and Justin playing lookout for them?

Flitwick pointed at the equine silhouette on the hillside and said something to the others. Dumbledore nodded, but he still didn't move. It was as if he were waiting for something.

"At least we saw them before they saw us," Harry pointed out as Draco pushed at Simon's hindquarters to get the horse standing head-on to the castle and thus better hidden by trees.

"You sure? Oh, move over there, Simon," Draco whispered. "Honestly, if anyone had told me just two months ago I'd be sneaking around at night watching your back for you, shoving at a horse's bum to hide said horse from Hogwarts professors, not to mention going against the Dark Lord, I'd've said they needed to get a top-up of their head-potions from St Mungos. Or maybe I'd've just laughed and pointed at the crazy person. Mind you, it'd probably have been Luna saying that to me, so I might've just let it slide as another day at Hogwarts…"

He was complaining in a whisper so Harry didn't tell him to shush. Although he wished Malfoy hadn't mentioned Luna in such an easy-going way.

They waited a nail-biting two minutes until the professors had passed out of view. If Dumbledore had spotted them and intended to stop them he was being very obscure about it, even by Dumbledore's standards.

They hurried on, skirting the lake as they sneaked their way towards the main gates.

The lake was the place they'd planned on getting on the horse and the broom, and then moving swiftly towards the gates where Draco would get on behind Harry. Draco activated the silencing spell on the shoes.

(Hermione had pointed out with the aid of graphs and charts and several books that it had been sheer luck that the silencing charm Draco had used hadn't exploded the shoes going through the barrier. Draco, a little green, had agreed that the next time they went through the barrier they'd do it without the silencing spells, and quickly activate them on the other side.)

Harry remembered at the last moment he hadn't tightened the girth. Simon wrinkled his muzzle in a way that was only really menacing to someone who knew the subtleties of horsespeak as Harry did the buckles up a hole, and winced when Harry stuck a knee in the horse's stomach.

Simon had been holding his breath, of course, blowing his ribs out. He let it out with an indignant grunt and tugged at the bridle.

"There." Harry slapped the seat of the saddle. "That should be tight enough."

"Good," said Draco, who was holding Simon's bridle with both hands. Luckily for Harry's sake, he was one of those who knew enough of the subtleties of horsespeak. "He tried to give you a nip there."

"He might've just been warning me he's in a bad mood."

"Or he might have been after his pound of flesh. Maybe I should ride him and you should take the broom."

"What? Why? I got a majestically powerful rock to your pathetic excuse for scissors, Malfoy!"

Draco put his nose in the air and sniffed haughtily. "Perhaps, but he likes me better…"

Harry decided he could break Malfoy's nose later. "Shut up and give me the reins," he snarled. Simon wasn't the only one about to take a pound of flesh. "Stand still, there, Simon."

The horse sidled, not wanting someone on its back, but Harry swung up quickly.

Draco mounted his broom. "Want me to lead Simon for you?"

"Want me to give you a knuckle sandwich?"

Draco smirked, the only one enjoying the evening. "Pick up the pace there, Potter."

The horse cantered smoothly and for the most part silently past the lake, only arching its neck and snorting once when a giant tentacle reached out of the water and waved at them lazily.

The lake lay in a valley, and the hills and low clouds massing heavier and heavier as they moved in from the west soaked up any sunlight, leaving the water flat black. If Harry hadn't already known what lived in it, he'd have been quite alarmed. "It's just the Squid," he soothed.

Draco on his broom simply slid out of Simon's way and then glided back again. The thing about brooms was that they didn't have minds which needed to be predicted. Harry wished for a moment he had his broom, but reasoned quickly enough that it was better to have Simon taking him through the barrier rather than something inanimate which might stall in the middle. He ruffled the horse's mane. "Good boy, Simon."

But despite the initial shy at sudden movement, Simon didn't seem to mind the Squid, which was odd. Maybe he thought it was some sort of semi-mobile tree. Or maybe he was used to it – he'd been fine with it in the past, Harry recollected.

They were coming close to the gates now. Harry cast a quick glance over his shoulder towards the castle. The sun must be over the hills. Sunset this far north was a late affair in summer, but it was going dark far too quickly. Harry had been counting on dusk on the way out and dawn on the other side to help him find his way around. He couldn't see past the castle to Squirrel Hill, but there was a good chance Dumbledore was finding Sirius in disguise right at this very moment.

Simon skittered soundlessly on his charmed silver shoes, picking up on his rider's nervousness. Harry forced himself to breathe normally again. However…

"Got a bit nippy all of a sudden…" Harry shivered. It felt like all the cold stored up by the lake from winter was now seeping out to surround them. Maybe the clouds were a cold front coming down from the Arctic, but he could have sworn they were of a more westerly origin. Dark, too… But he didn't want to say that aloud. Simon started throwing his head up and down, the bit jingling as he mouthed at it unhappily, fighting the reins. The cold was bothering him. Or maybe it was the pearly barrier stretching up into the sky – Harry's eyes watered every time they looked too deep into it.

"Yeah." Draco's lips were pressed thin against his teeth, but Harry didn't think it was from the cold. "Dark, too. Right. We're close enough to make a run for it. I'll put the spell on the shoes back to sleep. Don't want to risk them in the barrier, not on top of everything else. Only the mind-ones need to be active…"

Harry saw it in Draco's eyes: they reached the same thought at the same time. And it was a bad one.

"What if Simon's post-Imperius jitters muck up his ability to tune in to the spell in the shoes and get us through the barrier?"

"Bit late to worry about that now," Draco said stiffly. But he looked terrified. "I guess if Simon won't go through, then that's that. We'll just have to trust his judgement."

Harry decided not to point out that Simon was only a horse. It was too obvious.

Now that the spell was off, Simon's hooves clip-clopped down the last of the road before the gates.

When they reached the gates, the iron bars rippling softly where one gate had swung outwards to touch the barrier, Simon paused, leaning back. He snorted one of his low, rolling snorts that sounded like a drain unblocking. The whites were showing around his eyes.

"Not a good sign," Harry said.

Draco, his teeth chattering and eyes as wide as Simon's, said, "Something's off. The cold's coming from the barrier. It wasn't like that last time, I swear it wasn't."

"That's because there are Dementors out there," came a soft voice to their right making Harry and Draco start. Simon didn't so much as flick an ear, which meant he'd already been aware of the person. "I've been listening to hear them sing, but they haven't made so much as a peep. Maybe it's the barrier."

"Luna!" Harry breathed. It was strange that Simon hadn't whinnied to her – but then the horse was busy being freaked out by the barrier. "What are you doing here?" He was torn between relief and horror. Why was she here? Had she come to see them off or stop them?

"What are you doing out here, Luna?" Draco demanded at the same time. "Oh, and Dementors don't sing," he added.

"You don't really know they don't." She sighed as if knowing there was no proper answer to that and slipped forward through the night. She was wearing a pale nightgown that went down to her bare feet (She must be freezing, thought Harry) and a blue gown embroidered with smiling Thestrals. The dressing gown was dark enough to let her blend into the night, but it was unforgivable how neither he nor Draco had noticed her, what with the nightie and the long pale hair spilling down her back and shoulders in a waterfall of moonlight. She shrugged making her hair ripple in a very interesting way as it fell over her shoulders and boo– er, (Harry did a quick mental edit so's he didn't feel like some pervy ex-boyfriend who was unable to move on), as her hair fell over her frontal chestal area, and waved a book. "Catching up on some reading," she said. "And waiting for you."

"Really?" said Harry, feeling his tongue thick in his mouth, striving mightily to say something clever despite this handicap. "Good book?"

"Yes, actually. It's the sequel to My Pal Pooka – this one's called Dunderhead. I read it years ago, and thought it was time to go through the series again. There's a third book – The Blue Grass of Kentucky which is a lot deeper and delves into philosophical themes underlying the passage through adolescence to adulthood – I'm hoping to get more out of it now I'm older."

Draco's mouth had dropped open. "You -? This -? I don't believe it. I've wandered into Hogwarts' weekly book club meeting. Where's Granger? Oh – that's right, she's got the sense to keep going on schedule. Potter," he continued, his voice dropping and becoming acid, "I always knew you were operating several sparks short of a spell but…"

Harry lifted his glasses and pinched the bridge of his nose. Simon was beginning to fidget at the chill from the other side of the barrier combined with the building tension on this and Harry shortened the reins to let Simon know Harry was not only aware of the situation but in control. "Yeah. Right. Sorry. Where was I? Oh, right. Luna, what the hell are you doing out here?"

"You really can't go through there." Luna motioned with her head towards the gates.

"Luna, we have to go," Harry sighed. "Dumbledore and Flitwick can't ride Simon. He'll dump them inside the barrier and, well, I wouldn't wish that fate on my worst enemy. Especially when he's riding behind me. He might take me with him."

"Thanks," Draco said. He was still sitting on the broom. "And yeah, I would take you with me if I fell. Just for the record."

"Simon wouldn't let either of you fall," Luna said as if it were as simple a fact as gravity. "Professors Dumbledore and Flitwick might be different, yes. Simon thinks they should be able to look after themselves. I heard about the riding lesson."

"Really? How?" Harry wasn't sure he liked news of Simon-related events getting around the school, even when it got to the relative safety of Luna's shell-like ears… her plain, ordinary ears he did not want to lick or nibble on in any way whatsoever. He sighed gustily. Hang on – had she just implied that Simon thought Harry and Draco were incapable of looking after themselves?

"I had afternoon tea with Mr Black and Professor Lupin. They wanted some hints that could help. Poor Mr Black…"

"Yes, poor Mr Black… That was a terrible thing to happen." Draco's shoulders were shaking with the effort of keeping a straight face. Harry didn't laugh: he was unappreciative of Sirius' name being mentioned, especially where Luna was involved. The next time Padfoot put his head in Luna's lap to have his ears rubbed he wouldn't have to worry about anyone trying to put a collar on him because Harry would cut his head off.

"But from what I heard, Dumbledore was going to put the Imperius on Simon…"

"…Correct…" growled Draco through thin lips.

"… and that would have been disastrous. I mean, the barrier has a heavily psychological element to it – thus the edge creatures like Granger's cat being able to get through it, especially when enhanced with the sorts of spells Draco put into Simon's shoes. So if you used something as horrible as the Imperius, which is so Dark you either need a soul-wall to stop yourself being dragged down with it or you have to be as powerful as Dumbledore, well, it would set up a harmonic with the personal spell component You-Know-Who inserted to make the barrier keyed to himself."

"And – wow. Yes. That would be nasty," Draco said, nodding. "I'd only thought of the uselessness of Imperius in terms of its needing constant casting on an edge creature, which I judge to be nigh on impossible when you're so busy feeling like you're being shredded from the inside out thanks to being inside the barrier, and in that case while Dumbledore and Flitwick might have fallen off and been stuck in the barrier until it was broken, they'd be able to be released at some stage. But… with the harmonic bouncing back on you and making what you believe into a reality… Wow. Ugh." He shuddered. "Imagine the mess…"

Harry wasn't sure what would happen, but when it came to Dark magic he trusted that a Malfoy knew that of which he or she spoke. As for Luna – well, she was kind of weird when it came to running around asking questions. She'd even had Snape teach her how to make Mendeleev gloves, for goodness sake. (Even if they'd gone berserk, it still said a lot for the extent she would indulge her curiosity.)

Luna shuddered, too. "Professor Flitwick could keep his focus long enough, I think, but to be honest I don't think anyone has more than a small chance."

"How'd you work this out? Your uncle?" Grey eyes narrowed and Draco's tone became arch on the final word.

"Huh?" Harry felt like they'd plunged into another conversation. "All of a sudden he knows your uncle, Luna?"

Luna ignored Harry and gave Draco a mild look of reproof which suggested he'd found his target, yes, but she was going to counter him with the Power of Lunaness. "Mum was pretty smart, too. And I don't want Simon getting – um. Mulched."

"No. Fair enough." Draco leaned back casually on his broom and his mouth turned up at one corner in a cynical smirk. "You mean you wouldn't mind so much if it was Dumbledore or Flitwick getting, as you put it so prettily, mulched?"

"I think anyone who tries taking Simon into the barrier without taking into account the danger they're putting him in deserves anything they get," Luna said with unaccustomed ferocity. Her upper lip had gone tense and Harry wondered if she'd picked that expression up from horses. Did all horses get that expression before they bit someone, or was it only Simon?

"Are you referring to us?" Draco said. His eyes were icy.

"Yes. Although I think Simon won't let you do anything too stupid," she said, suddenly serene again as if the little moment of rage had never been. She stepped up to Simon and stroked his nose and the horse settled a little. "Go on – try going through the gates."

"I thought there were Dementors through there," Harry said.

"There are. Simon can feel them."

Draco pulled at his lower lip, then said, "I hate to say this, Potter, because foolhardy runs are for Gryffindors and other mental asylum escapees, but if we can get through the gates and ring that bell then cast our Patronuses to get rid of the Dementors, then we have a good chance of not only getting through thanks to the element of surprise, butalerting Hogsmeade, too. Maybe then they can shelter us for the time it takes to organise someone more skilled than us to use the potions."

Harry stared at him blankly for a full four seconds. "Huh. You want to trade that snake in for a lion, Malfoy?"

"No, a straightjacket," Luna said crossly. "That's the dumbest thing I've heard since Dumbledore's planned Imperius on Simon. You're basing your plan on the most preposterous series of ifs I've heard outside of Hogwarts: a History. First of all, it feels like there's an army of Dementors out there, which means too many Dementors for you two to counter with a couple of Patronuses. And secondly, Simon isn't your mindless servant, he isn't an idiot, and he isn't going through the gates."

"He has to," Draco said. "Go, that is. And now. Because people are going to come looking for him very very soon. And if we don't take him, Luna, be assured that they will. They must have found Black by now. What say you, Potter?"

"I say let's let Simon say," replied Harry and slid his foot out of the stirrup. "Hop on…" He held out his hand. Draco got off the broomstick and stood, making sure his cloak wasn't going to get in the way (it was too difficult to dismount in midair, especially when trying to exchange one bony seat-astride for another), and took the hand. He put his left foot in the empty stirrup and Harry swung him up so he was sitting behind the saddle, the broom in his right hand. Luna looked at them worriedly.

"I hope you know that if you sit over Simon's loins like that for too long he'll get a bad back," she warned.

"We aren't planning on this being more than the time it takes to get through the barrier," Harry promised her. "Ready, Malfoy?"

"No." Draco was still trying to find a comfortable spot, not helped when Simon hunched up his back and bounced at the bristles tickling his flanks. Draco gave a muted whimper and quickly readjusted the broom. "But let's go. The game's 'Simon Says', didn't you say?"

"I did. Come on, Simon, what do you say?"

Simon sidled, arching his neck as he accustomed himself to the weight and the broom. The bristles resting on his rump couldn't have been comfortable, but at least he didn't seem to be ticklish there. But when Harry turned him towards the barrier the horse balked.

"Come on, Simon…" Harry gave the horse a slightly sharper kick in the ribs.

Simon began to back up.

"Simon… no, horses aren't meant to walk backwards…"

"Ouch, Potter. Just… ouch, all right?" Draco snarled.

"It's going to get worse, you realise," Harry snapped back.

Simon swished his tail and stopped, but otherwise ignored his riders. His head was up and his ears pricked, his dark eyes intent on something over the other side of the water. His attention had suddenly fixed itself on the Forest. Luna was looking in the same direction. Was Hagrid coming? His house was over that way.

What if it was Dumbledore?

Draco, clutching the broom higher, hissed, "Potter…"

"I don't know what's wrong," Harry said. He jiggled the reins, not daring to pull too hard in case he hurt Simon's mouth. That would mean hell to pay. He gave Simon another nudge with his heels. Simon didn't move. For all the reaction he gave he could have been Immobilised. "Damn. It's like he's got a spell put on him." Maybe if he gave Simon a really hard boot in the ribs the horse would – would probably do kangaroo impressions, come to think of it. Harry sighed.

"Oh, hell," grumbled Draco nervously. "Dumbledore did something."

Harry had been thinking exactly the same thing. "He knew we might break free of the Obliviate and –"

He stopped. At his back, Draco had also gone very still.

"Oh, here they come," said Luna, smiling happily. "I was wondering if they would."

There seemed to be a silvery glow moving towards them from out of the Forest. It was as misty as Luna's eyes and as it drew closer it reflected on the still surface of the lake which lay between the students and the Forest.

Simon stopped being a statue and whinnied and bobbed his head up and down. He would have moved towards the glow, but Harry pulled on the reins. Simon pawed the ground to express his annoyance at the idiocy of his rider.

The glow became a rustling wind through the trees as it moved faster and faster, softer than a Patronus, warmer than figs, harder than the moon.

"…Unicorns?" said Draco in disbelief.

It was a herd of unicorns. Several herds of unicorns. Harry hadn't known the Forest contained so many. They flowed between the trunks of the trees like a spreading pool of mercury.

Harry was so surprised he loosened his grip on the reins.

Simon moved forward towards the lake with a spring in his step, bobbing his head up and down in greeting as he whickered again. Harry didn't stop him. Draco said "Ouch" again and tightened his arm around Harry as Simon moved into a trot. "Make him walk," he said, sounding like he had his teeth gritted. "I'm going to fall off in a second. Or possibly jump out of self-defence."

Harry tried to comply, but it was difficult with Draco pulling him off balance. Luna, jogging at Simon's head, managed to pull on the reins and bring Simon back to a walk – just in time. Draco grumbled and pulled himself back into place, using Harry as his handhold.

"Let's not do that in the barrier, okay?" Draco said through clenched teeth.

Simon didn't seem too happy about his ill-balanced cargo either. Even as his ears remained pricked forward towards the approaching unicorns, which had spilled out into the meadow and now stood waiting, his tail swished and one back leg struck the ground unusually hard in a warning that he wouldn't put up with any more sloppy riding, oh no.

"You'll be all right now," said Luna, puffing slightly from her efforts to keep up with Simon's long strides. Once around the lake, she grabbed the reins again to stop the horse, climbing up on a convenient boulder and resting one hand on Simon's crest. She seemed to be trying to convince herself as much as Harry. "Harry…"

"Yes?" He was dividing his attention between the silent beauty of the herd of unicorns and Luna's pale face uptilted to his – she was equally beautiful, he realised dazedly, and leaned down as she whispered:

"Do take care. Some of us would be sad if you didn't come back. And not just because Simon was gone too."

Were there bells, or was it Harry's ears that were ringing? Luna still liked him.

"I –" he said, then realised he only had to lean down a little more, and then he could press his lips to hers and they were as soft and sweet as rose petals, just like he remembered them and her fingers were laced through his and –

"Will you two save the snogging until after the Dark Lord is dead?" Draco complained. And Simon shifted just enough to remind Harry that the horse had certain ideas on his foals kissing each other around him. The one eye in view gleamed with threat. Honestly, thought Harry crossly, blushing although there was no reason he should be ashamed of what a horse thought of his morals, had Simon fallen out of the Victorian era?

"Take care of them, Draco," Luna said, turning her pale face to Malfoy's. She was still holding Harry's hand.

"I… of course I will," he replied somewhat gruffly. "But – hang on." He turned to look up the hill, and suddenly tightened his arm around Harry's middle. "Someone's coming out of the castle," Draco gasped. "Oh, bloody hell… Get it together, you two – not get it on!"

Harry straightened up and looked back over his shoulder.

Four people had just come out the main doors. They were jogging down the steps. Yes. That tall figure could only be Dumbledore. And was that Sirius behind him? Damn. It was. Someone had freed him from the Illusion spell. That slender silhouette was Hooch and, yes, Flitwick was in their shadow, his white hair chiaroscuro against the dark bulk of the castle, but the Charms master had sharp eyes and it was him pointing towards Harry and Draco.

"Go, Simon, go!" Draco yelped.

"Hold on," Harry commanded. He held the reins a little longer and Simon swished his tail and half-reared, annoyed that one rider was pulling him back at the same time as the other one was kicking him in the flanks. "Luna…"

"Go." She let go of his hand and Harry made sure he was holding the reins properly. Her lips moved silently and Harry only imagined he heard three words no-one other than his parents had said to him.

Harry stored every detail of her he could in that last split second. "Ready to go, Draco?"

"Whaddaya think I've been – ugh!"

The "ugh" was because Harry had relaxed his grip on the reins and given Simon a nudge with his heels.

The black horse lunged forward into the unicorn herd which parted and absorbed them, moving like a school of fish in a gleaming, instantaneous change of direction.

There were unicorns cantering light as thistledown dreams either side of him, billowing and whirling in a swarm that was as silent as it was beyond Harry's abilities to focus on any individual beast. Only Simon stayed constant, his neck arched and his eyes deep with the shadows that slipped between the glory of the unicorns. A spell whistled towards them and was blown away by the shifting, melting mass that was the herd.

Another one: it was aimed straight at Simon, who rolled his eyes in terror and bunched his muscles to leap sideways.

"Potter…!" Draco yelped. He was already sliding and he had a death-grip around Harry's waist. They would fall the moment Simon changed direction –

A unicorn tossed its head up and around, skewering the spell on its horn. The spell ran down the horn like St Elmo's fire down a ship's mast, and the unicorn threw it away into the darkness with a snort.

Alarmed by the near-miss, Simon shook his mane and might have bolted, but Harry's hand on the reins and the river of unicorns kept him on course.

Harry wanted to take out his wand, but he had the reins in one hand and Simon's mane in the other. Draco had his broom, and was using the other arm to hang on to Harry, hauling himself back over the middle of Simon's back. They were at the mercy of the unicorns.

Draco had stopped talking, but he was so close to Harry that he could feel how tight each breath was. Draco's fear mirrored Harry's and was the last and most human part of the ride.

The unicorn that had caught the spell turned its head and Harry looked deep into its dark eye.

It was the unicorn stallion who had accompanied them out of the Forest after Simon rescued him from the Glasshouse.

As soon as Harry realised this, the unicorn dipped its head in barest acknowledgement. And Harry felt a great wave of safety lift him and hold him.

"We're going to be all right," he told Draco. "We're doing the right thing."

Draco hadn't given up his attempts at finding a comfortable spot, and he gritted out bitterly, "Bully for us."

Harry heard a distant cry: it sounded like Sirius calling his name. Harry had never heard it spoken with such despair and it cracked his heart that he'd not told Sirius that he loved him and Sirius' last memory of Harry would be of the Boy Who'd Not Forgiven. He looked back.

Sirius was running down the hill. A couple of unicorns had wheeled back and now stood with their heads lowered, horns a threat. When Sirius tried to dodge them, they slid, liquid and dispassionate as moonbeams, to block him again. Mild and serene as ever, they lowered their heads. If he tried to get past they would kill him.

Sirius stood, his hands empty, his face bleak.

Harry must have unconsciously pulled on the reins, because Simon tugged at them irritably. Simon was on a mission and he wasn't going to pause for a moment, even for his friend.

"Harry…!"

Harry clung to the knowledge that the unicorns had come for them and stopped Sirius, and told himself he couldn't have stopped Simon if he'd wanted to now. It was easier than having a choice.

And Luna loved him.

He turned his face away from Sirius and Hogwarts: he had to save the world for her.

In the eye of the vortex of unicorns, they plunged into the Forest.

ooOOoo