Disclaimer: Characters and settings belong to JK Rowling and Warner. Marry, I do maketh no moolah here.

ooOOoo

Chapter 84

It was a wild ride, buffered only by the fleet unicorns cantering alongside Simon. They seemed to be guiding the horse through the Forest. That was handy, Harry thought giddily, because he didn't have the faintest idea how he was meant to direct him.

Especially right now…

"Potter – you dropped the reins!"

"Yeah… but I've still got my wand!"

"You tw–" Whatever Draco was going to say was cut off when Simon scrambled up the side of a dormant stream as the unicorns flattened the ferns into a new road. There was a yelp as the jolting stride made Draco bite his tongue.

Good boy, Simon.

It was virtually pitch black. The sky should still have held some light – sunset was officially around about now – but the thick clouds overhead ate the light. The sky grumbled, hungry still.

Simon kept to a canter. But it was the unicorns which set the pace. Simon kept going in the midst of the megaherd, and Harry and Draco did their best to stay on. One time Simon stumbled over something – a root, a dip in the ground, a rabbit hole, perhaps even his own hooves – and Draco slithered sideways with a panicky yell.

Harry grabbed the pommel as Draco threatened to pull him off the horse.

The unicorns slowed almost to a halt. Simon did stop, but only long enough for Harry and Draco to pull themselves back up to an even keel. Then he was off again, straight from walk to canter: it was entirely possible the horse knew how uncomfortable the trot was for its riders. It more likely that Simon didn't like having Harry and Draco, who were still novice riders, bouncing around on his back.

"He's not exactly a stupid horse," Harry told Draco, who'd just offered this reason for Simon's eschewing trotting as a means of covering the ground.

"No, he's very Slytherin in that respect," Draco said. "Shame I'm not at the moment," he grumbled. "This really is the pits… We should have stopped and let me ride my broom…"

"I don't think the unicorns thought of that."

"Hope Simon doesn't – ouch – get –ow! – all worn out from carting us two through the Forest before we – argh! – before we even get through the barrier," Draco said.

It sounded incredibly uncomfortable behind the saddle. Harry might have had more sympathy, but he was too glad it wasn't him back there. He ducked as a branch swished towards him.

The branch slapped Draco in the face. He swore.

"Sorry. Didn't see that coming in time to warn you."

"Yeah, right…"

"You know, I was counting on there being more light," Harry said. He'd been trying to get the reins back, but snatched at the pommel again with both hands, almost dropping his wand, as Simon lowered his head and charged up a slope.

Draco managed to grab the wrist of his broom-hand with the hand of the arm he had around Harry, locking himself in place. He might have slid off Simon's rump otherwise. Harry had to pull himself forward as soon as the ground levelled off. His arms ached – it had been too long since he'd played Quidditch and he was out of condition. Draco's weight had pulled both of them backwards, nearly taking Harry out of the saddle.

It was highly doubtful Simon would allow them to ride through the Forest perched on his rump. Simon was a horse with high standards.

"If it's dark, then the Death Eaters won't be able to see us," Draco pointed out.

"And we won't be able to see them. I was planning on hiding a lot."

"Simon's hard to hide."

"He's black. And silent with those shoes when the spell's active. And he's a sneaky sort of a horse – sneaky in a good way."

"Sneaky? No, just cunning. Told you he was a Slytherin."

More branches. The unicorns gave some light, but it wasn't enough to let Harry and Draco see all the hazards coming in above equid-height. While the unicorns were polite enough to show Simon the best way for a tall horse with willowy long legs, they mightn't have been aware of the needs of the horse's cargo. Now that they were going through some fairly scrubby area of the Forest with lots of low branches, Harry and Draco abandoned conversation in favour of ducking and dodging potential concussions.

Neither voiced the fear that the unicorns could be leading them in the wrong direction. Even though it was a probability. Even Hagrid had to admit unicorns were only animals, albeit as sacred as animals got. And unicorns had never been documented to have complex plans.

The trails they funnelled Simon down might only be deer trails. At one hair-raising point when Simon slithered down a bank and splashed through a stream, Harry knew that this could be some sort of wild unicorn cavalcade that they performed on strange and mystical occasions… nothing to do with Voldemort or the salvation of Hogwarts.

Yet Luna had known they would come.

How did she know these things?

She couldn't possibly be right about Space Bunnies, and the idea of Dementors singing was ludicrous.

But the unicorns had come.

Stephanie had told them to trust the unicorns. Luna had been expecting them.

Animal or no, Harry clung to his trust of them like he clung to Simon's saddle: it was his last hope of getting through the barrier.

"Potter…"

"I see it."

Pearly through the trees, the vegetation around it long withered and brittle barring a single oak shivering determinedly with life where it touched it, stood the barrier. The wall spun from malice and time that kept Hogwarts apart from the rest of the world, slowly strangling the only home Harry had ever known. Like the unicorns, it glowed with its own light.

Unlike the unicorns, Harry felt its scorn as a thin itch in his scar.

A massive silhouette paced before it.

The unicorns and Simon stopped, Simon blowing heavily, sweat already forming on his neck and flanks from the effort of lugging two young men through the Forest on a warm night. Harry grabbed the reins while he still had the opportunity.

Harry squinted at the silhouette as he tightened the reins to let Simon know his rider was back in charge (and hopefully prevent any panicky gallops on Simon's part). The barrier outlined the shape of a horse and rider… or did it?

Simon tossed his mane and snorted. He would have turned around but the unicorns pressed in on either side of him, holding him steady. Shorter than the black thoroughbred, one of the unicorns had its shoulder pressed against Harry's foot. Harry didn't dare move in case the hard metal of the stirrup bruised the ethereal beast. They were tough, yes, unicorns were, but not against iron. Professor Grubbly-Plank had taught Harry's class that before she let anyone near a unicorn. Harry shortened the reins, not letting go again when Simon tossed his head and tried to snatch control of the bit again. "Shh, Simon, it's all right," he said, hoping he wasn't lying through his teeth. He turned his head, trying to get a better picture of what was now walking towards them.

Draco lifted his feet higher before a unicorn could squash one against Simon. Good thinking, Harry realised: Simon might think he was being kicked forward. Draco's fingers tightened on Harry's cloak. "Um… is that…?"

"…A centaur? Yes." Harry raised his voice a little. "Hello?"

"Hale be thou." The centaur's hooves hit the packed dirt of the trail with muffled thuds which reflected the great weight they carried. Harry made a mental note to turn on the silencing charm on Simon's shoes the very moment they were through the barrier.

The unicorns slid away as the centaur approached until it was right in front of the horse and its riders.

Simon arched his neck and blew great gusting snorts. Not a greeting: a sign of alarm. Harry patted Simon's neck. Simon wasn't too sweaty – his coat was just a little damp, and already it was drying and turning his coat prickly. They'd need to start walking again before the horse got chilled.

Walking through the barrier then galloping for our lives… The morbid thought slipped into his mind before he could stop it.

"Oh… Yes. Hello." Harry felt the greeting was totally inadequate. It was the centaur they'd met in the Forest before. And he still didn't know his name.

The centaur came up to them and extended a huge hand over the back of a unicorn. Simon arched his neck, his eyes bulging as he attempted to size up his opponent, and Harry hoped the horse didn't do something insane, like attack the centaur. Simon hunched up his back and if there hadn't been unicorns still surrounding him he would have bolted. Keeping the reins tight in his left hand, Harry took the centaur's hand and shook, then the centaur shook hands with Draco, who looked as if he was bottling up enough nervous pressure to explode a case of butterbeer.

"Harry Potter. And Draco Malfoy. I am Tigris."

"Mr Tigris," Harry said. Finally we get a name for our mysterious centaur shadow.

The centaur smiled like the Mona Lisa (not that Harry thought anyone else in the Forest tonight would know what the Mona Lisa was – no-one except for Hermione, of course. Harry spared a quick wish for the safety of his friends, just in case there was any kindly power passing by. You never knew with unicorns). "I know you meant no insult. I am Tigris."

"Tigris," Draco said, shooting Harry a look that said Don't-provoke-the-crazy-centaur.

"Well met, sons of Hogwarts. If late met."

"We were… erm… delayed," Harry said. Had the centaur been expecting Dumbledore?

"I had feared Albus Dumbledore had forestalled you. I am glad he did not."

Were centaurs psychic? After the unicorns he was prepared to believe anything. Harry tried to keep his thoughts positive to centaurkind in general. "Er… Yes. You – ah… you knew it would be us?"

The centaur's dark, almond-shaped eyes were devoid of anything other than a great solemnity. "The child-filly who belongs to this horse was the only one other whom could have been carried within his penumbra. I knew it would be two of the trinity."

Harry had no idea what a penumbra was. The swingy thing under a clock?

Draco sighed and dismounted, pushing a unicorn out of the way gently but firmly, just as he did with Simon when the horse tried to steal apples from the bag of brushes. It tried to sniff at his face but he leaned away as if it had bad breath. "Let's let Simon rest a moment, hey? Penumbra or no, he's still got to get us through the barrier."

Harry followed suit. The unicorns backed up to give him room. Down on the ground he found that the air was sweet with their breath. It was good to have his feet on the ground, but he also liked the feel of being on Simon with the ability to flee or charge at any given moment. Providing that given moment didn't include unicorns blocking all paths, of course. And the air the unicorns breathed out was heady; nothing overly intoxicating, more like butterbeer or the smell of Luna's hair than firewhisky. One exhaled softly into Harry's face, making friends like a horse would in the exchange of breath.

Unicorns are not horses.

Harry made the mistake of breathing in instead of out. His head reeled and he grabbed at Simon's mane for support.

Simon was shifting his attention between the barrier, the centaur, and the shadowy trees. Harry had a bizarre and fleeting image of the Simon as a human, rangy in an old overcoat, cupping a hand around a furtive cigarette to hide the glow as he lurked in the alley of a dingy city, uncompromisingly hard glittering eyes milking the world of its secrets. In another universe the horse was human and a detective. And he looked alarmingly like a Muggle version of Snape, what with the lank hair falling over his black eyes. In that universe Draco was a canary singing in a cage carried by Pansy the news anchorwoman, and in a zoo, next to the cage where Sirius the lynx paced with matted fur, was Harry the three-toed sloth hanging upside down chewing leaves with Ron, Remus and Hermione in Muggle school uniforms banging on the glass to get his attention and Dudley was the shadow minister of defence and Neville was a tree with Voldemort the squirrel running free through his branches and magic was the universe sighed into being by a unicorn.

Harry squeezed his eyes shut – the unicorns were making his brain fuzzy. He rested his forehead for a moment against Simon's neck and breathed in. The smell of horse was earthy and stripped away surrealism.

Harry opened his eyes and tried to get a grip on the conversation going on between Draco (most definitely not a canary although that pointy nose and the sharp eyes were a bit eerie after the vision) and the centaur.

Draco was looking up at Tigris with guarded hope written on his face. "I take it you're here to help us?"

The centaur stared down at him and blinked slowly. "As you would help the herd."

"Okay. Both our herds." Draco stretched his legs and patted a unicorn yearling which was curious about his hair. "It's not edible," he told the unicorn indulgently, pulling back just enough to avoid the colt breathing into his face. Harry realised Draco already knew not to breathe too deeply around unicorns. The unicorn curled back its upper lip, exactly like Simon would have done when given something new to taste-test. Speaking of Simon, Harry had seen the horse greet the unicorns before; how come Simon wasn't affected?

"All herds are one," the centaur said.

Draco cocked his head. He scratched behind his ear. "True. If you don't mind me asking, what do you do with criminals or the insane in the centaur sector of the herd?"

"Some are driven out. Some are killed. Some search constellations inner and outer and find God."

Harry had the distinct impression this centaur was in the latter group. It made him uneasy. Trusting unicorns was one thing – they weren't in the realm of the rational and people could take 'rational' in some very strange directions. Was that what the centaur had done, or had he tapped into the intuitive wisdom of the unicorns? If they had intuitive wisdom, and Harry was betting his, Draco's and Simon's lives as well as the lives of everyone in Hogsmeade and Hogwarts that this was true.

Draco bit his lip and looked around the trees. It wasn't so much a clearing as an area where the Forest was less dense. The trail the unicorns had brought them along disappeared into the pearly mist of the barrier and spring growth was already blurring it. Draco frowned in thought as his attention turned to a log away to the right. "Er… I'm sure I've seen this place before. The darkness makes everything different, but I bet if I go to the other side of that log there I'll see a nice fat colony of exploding puffballs. This is a weak spot in the barrier, isn't it?"

"The one the cat went through, yes."

Draco looked alarmed now. Harry thought it was because the centaur knew about Crookshanks and the barrier, but Draco asked, "Did you know there were spiders here?"

"The Forest would no longer harbour them if they harmed unicorns."

Draco's shoulders lost their rigidity. "Do you know about the barrier trees, s- Tigris?"

"The northern vertex is near. The Forest groans with the strain of bearing it."

"You mean the tree to the north?" Harry asked. The centaur nodded.

"This is going to muck up our timing," Draco grumbled.

"What? Oh – right." Harry swore under his breath. They'd decided Harry would go for the southern tree because it was near Hogsmeade and the ground was level with handy roads. But…

They'd calculated things for going though the gates. The tree Harry was going to ride to was on the flat, an easy canter across farmland – ironically Draco must have ridden near it when the Dementors had chased him and Simon. He'd assured Harry that he might have to jump a few fences but he should be fine. Now Harry would have to ride through a populated area which was bound to be patrolled by Death Eaters before getting into the relatively benign area of Muggle farms. However – "Hang on a tick. We're closer to the northern tree. It was meant to have been yours, but how about if I take Simon to that one instead?"

"Yeah, okay. I'll certainly be faster on the broom. And it's farms all the way out there, too. But it's hill country farms. Not Muggle farms, either. Farmed for generations by witches and wizards with family heirlooms in the form of breeds of stock Hagrid would sell his back teeth to meet… and I bet even the Dark Lord would think twice before meddling with hill country farmers. They can get a bit… interesting in the head."

"How interesting?"

"Well… I don't know much about the cattle farmers, but the shepherds can have very set opinions on anything from the proper age for docking to banning pineapples because they're symbols of oppression. Father deals with them through intermediaries. And not because of their personal hygiene. Just… don't make eye contact if you meet anyone. Especially if they've got dogs with orange eyebrows. And don't go into any paddocks where the cattle are white with red-tipped ears. Which is about all I know about cows, I'm afraid. And if anyone has llamas for God's sake take Simon and get the hell out of there before your heart is ripped out and offered for the sunrise or the precession of the equinoxes… no, hang on – the sacrifice for the precession of the equinoxes probably only applies if they farm alpacas. Alpacas are further north from what I've heard. If you're ever around Caithness and you see alpacas –"

"Okay, okay… avoid anyone and anything." What was Lucius Malfoy doing dealing with farmers? A rural recruiting program for Death Eaters?

"Except for the tree."

"Except for the tree, yes."

"…Although you'll want to avoid anything guarding the tree. And avoid touching the actual tree itself."

"Avoid anything and everything up to and including the tree. Got it."

Draco regarded him worriedly. "Do you think you can handle the uneven ground?"

Harry patted Simon's shoulder confidently. "He'll take care of me."

"Will he?" The centaur tilted his head as he eyed the horse. "There is a stain upon his honour. He has been compromised in a manner most ill."

Simon glowered back at the centaur.

"He… had the Imperius curse placed on him," Harry confessed.

"A great stain and a great evil." The centaur sighed. Tigris stared off through the trees as if his dark eyes could pierce them and divine the secrets of Hogwarts. "Desperate times have found you and desperation allows good to perpetrate evil."

"Tell me about it," Draco said. He was staring at the barrier. He winced and squeezed his eyes shut. The barrier had that effect on Harry, too. "Well, if you think you can handle the hills, Potter…?"

"There must be roads. Or sheep tracks, like Hagrid's herd of sheep leave through the heather behind Hogwarts. Hagrid's sheep don't give me any trouble."

"True. Sheep are generally harmless. Except for the bit where the rams charge at you and try to kill you because it's spring and they're feeling a bit cranky. Doubt they'll try anything with Simon, though. And it's a flock of sheep, not a herd. Townie. Muggle townie at that. Try talking like a wizard for once in your life."

Harry rolled his eyes. "I could talk some really good curses if you're ready to catch them. How come you know so much about the farms around here all of a sudden?"

Draco sniffed, but in a way that suggested Harry had amused him. "Good farming land around here. Follow the sheep – shouldn't be hard to do when you're a Gryffindor." He'd ignored the question, too.

'Follow the sheep' sounded a lot friendlier than 'follow the spiders'. But what was that Draco had said about breeds Hagrid would be interested in? That did not sound friendly. "Fortunately Simon is a Gryffindor horse."

Draco made a small noise of disgust.

They swapped Elmsworthy's locator stones. The little grey pebbles were inert now, but Elmsworthy had sworn they'd activate just fine on the other side of the barrier. Like the charms in the shoes and the potions in the bottles and darts, the non-inherent magic (different to the inherent magic of their wands) should be masked by inorganic material. And if they didn't work, well, Harry and Draco had some spells for finding the trees. Unfortunately it meant using the potion in the darts, which could potentially alert Voldemort.

Harry would worry about that when it happened. He couldn't afford to get worked up over scary possibilities, not when he was going to need all his courage just to get through the barrier. His hand shook as he put the stone in his pocket.

A unicorn rested its nose against his sleeve. Harry felt a smile touch his mouth. He was calm again.

Tigris watched them without comment. Harry would have liked some words of encouragement but the centaur seemed to specialise in ambiguity. Perhaps a penumbra was something cheerful. "What's a penumbra?" he asked. So what if he sounded like a moron? It was better to be fully informed – death with dignity was nice, but he'd rather live with a blush.

"The sort of semi-shadow you see in an eclipse," Draco replied. "You know. Not light, not dark. Where were you in Astronomy? I never had that with you so that's one thing you can't blame me for."

"Probably talking Quidditch with Ron." Eclipses again. Harry wondered if he should tell them about the dream he'd had the other night of Simon being frightened by an eclipse.

That was probably too obscure even by Tigris' standards. Harry kept his mouth shut.

"You will need more than your pebbles. You will need an escort on the other side," Tigris intoned in his deep voice. "You will need a pass. You will need… a guiding light from within." He stepped back, his massive hooves stepping almost as quietly as a unicorn's.

The unicorn stallion stepped forward, another unicorn following daintily at his flank. He touched noses with Simon. There were soft snorts to recheck identity – the equids hadn't had time to properly reintroduce themselves on the way into the Forest. No, Simon definitely didn't get weirded-out by the unicorn breath, so maybe it only affected humans. Or wizards. Harry had heard that stallions could fight to the death, but these two seemed to be old friends. The unicorn stallion gave Simon's neck a friendly nibble, as if they'd done some mutual grooming in their time. Simon might have reciprocated – he might even have dozed off had the centaur been somewhere else, but as it was the horse was edgy around Tigris.

The second unicorn also touched noses with Simon. It also seemed to be a friend, although Simon wasn't quite as impressed by this one as he was by the stallion. More like how he was when he was introduced to a Hogwarts student like Trudi, Zabini or Hermione. A young member of the herd, then.

The younger unicorn pressed its horn against the neck of the older. A quick twist, and silver blood welled in a shallow cut. The stallion didn't twitch, his dark eyes not leaving Simon's. The horse touched noses with the unicorn again. It was equine communication; Harry didn't see anything sinister in it, and probably there was nothing magical, either. Simon didn't start levitating – generally a good sign. How was it that something as… as mortal as a horse could be friends with a celestial creature like a unicorn? Harry wanted to touch the unicorn, but Simon turned his head, blocking his hand, and the unicorn stallion raised his own head just enough to suggest that Harry's touch would be a grave impertinence.

Perhaps horses were allowed to be friends, but wizards weren't really worthy.

Harry had a moment's bizarre image of Simon as the unicorn's pet, like people kept monkeys,

He shook his head. Either Dumbledore's Obliviate or all the air the unicorns were breathing out had really scrambled his brain if he was thinking things like that.

The centaur dipped his fingers into the blood dribbling down the unicorn's neck.

"Tigris…" Harry began.

The centaur fixed him with a look from dark eyes deep-set beneath heavy brows. "It is only damnation for those who take it without the blessing of the unicorn."

Draco cringed back as the centaur turned towards him. "That's a bit esoteric for me. I don't even know if I have a soul, let alone one capable of receiving a blessing…"

"The Dementors know the truth."

Harry shivered. He'd actually seen Sirius' soul rise before the stag Patronus had come to rescue them. "Is this supposed to protect us from Dementors?"

Simon laid back his ears and stepped between the students and the centaur, who stopped, silver-coated finger raised like he was making an important point. When Harry tried to pull the horse back Simon wrinkled his nostrils to warn Harry the horse wasn't in any mood to allow heroics from his wards.

Two unicorns moved forward, their hooves barely rustling the skeletons of last autumn's leaves. They aligned themselves either side of the horse. And the unicorn stallion touched noses with Simon again. There was another soft exchange of breath and the unicorn brushed its muzzle along Simon's neck.

The unicorns were bidding the horse stay still.

Simon obeyed with a sigh.

Harry felt like he'd fallen into a dream. He watched as the centaur used one of his huge hands to cup beneath Simon's chin. The horse twitched then, as one unicorn whickered softly, accepted the touch, although the muscles down his crest stood out with the strain of keeping himself still. Draco rested his palm against Simon's cheek.

"What are you doing?" he asked softly, his voice controlled so that the anxiety barely filtered through.

The centaur pressed the bloody finger to each of the horse's upper eyelids. "The sky is too busy for stars. Even the sun will battle today. There will be little light for you to see. This will help you in the darkness you shall find yourselves within. And it will find you guides beyond the barrier. And yes, Harry Potter. It will help shield you from Dementors. Filth is both fascinated and repulsed by Purity."

"Won't it hurt Simon when he goes through the barrier?" Harry said. "Or hurt us?"

"This is not magic of the sort wizards can harness. It is as far beyond your barrier as unicorns are beyond the things that crawl in wounds."

Simon shook his head. He would have bent his head to scratch the drying blood off against his foreleg, but Harry held the reins tight.

"Wish we were beyond the barrier," Draco muttered. "Dumbledore must be looking for us…"

"He will not see you. Peace, my friend," the centaur rumbled to Simon, and ran his bloodless hand down the horse's nose in reassurance.

Simon twitched again as the centaur dabbled his fingers in the blood still seeping from the unicorn's wound and went to paint the blood on Harry's eyelids.

The unicorns leaned closer. They were cool against the warmth radiating from the horse: moonlight instead of the light of day. Draco clutched his broom against his chest. "Potter…"

"We can trust the unicorns," Harry told him.

"Since when?"

"Since Stephanie started helping us… Since the Sickle, the fig and the Glasshouse… Since Hufflepuff set everything in motion," Harry said. It was a guess, but the centaur nodded.

"Fortune smiled when the greenwitch gave the unicorns shelter in these woods," the centaur murmured.

"She's been the one behind the scenes all along, hasn't she?" Harry sighed.

"She never left these trees. Now close your eyes."

Harry did so. The centaur's fingers were cool; the blood evaporating like alcohol instead of sitting tacky on his skin.

And when he opened his eyes again the world glowed silver like the unicorns.

"You okay, Potter?" Draco blazed with magic. It eddied in leylines beneath his skin, curling through his fingers and forming silver discs for his irises.

His pupils were tinged with red.

"Potter? You look like you've seen a ghost."

Draco leaned in closer. Harry steeled himself and refused to shrink back.

"I'm… pretty good, as a matter of fact."

The centaur lifted his hand again. His finger blazed.

Draco's eyes flickered as he blinked, then he squeezed them shut and visibly braced himself as the centaur applied the unicorn blood to his eyelids.

When he opened his eyes again, they went very round.

Harry grinned. "Remarkable, isn't it?"

Draco looked at his hand which was still resting on Simon's cheek. "Yeah. Your eyes have gone all silver."

"Yours, too."

A wobbly grin. "D'you think Luna's contagious?"

"Hope so. We're going to need a bit of lateral thinking."

"Hah. True. Look at Simon…"

They stared at the horse. Simon gleamed in hard blue shadows limned with flowing graphite lines. His eyes held a green gleam like the dying souls of emeralds. The charm set into his chest by some unknown wizard revolved slowly.

"Ugh," said Draco.

"The anti-theft charm? Yeah." It was making Harry nauseous just looking at it. Something was out of kilter. "Hey – can you see that other spell? Just off the anti-theft charm?"

Draco squinted. "It's… it's like it's thirty degrees off along the zed axis…"

"…Yeah. Yuck. Speaking of yuck, er… I hate to break it to you like this, but… well… y'know how Voldie's eyes are… er… red?"

"Yes. Yours have red in the pupils. Maybe you're evil now." Draco smirked.

Harry snorted. "Welcome to the Clique of Evil, Malfoy."

"Oh. Mine too? That's…" His face contorted a moment. "… That's kind of cool, actually. Last time I had that it was from hexunctivitis."

"I had that in my fourth year."

"Fourth year? Oh no…" Draco's smirk became a fully-fledged grin. "I had it when I was eight. I hear it's slightly different after you hit puberty."

"Apparently so," Harry said, trying not to let his face twitch at the uncomfortable memory. It had been worse than the conjunctivitis he'd contracted from Dudley, which only itched. Hexunctivitis had had Harry itching to see naked people. Up to and including professors. After one terrifying double lesson in Potions followed after a crowded lunch by Transfigurations and with the faint-worthy prospect of Divinations to follow, he'd confessed in the break between Transfigurations and Charms to Hermione that Voldemort had finally tunnelled through his skull and hollowed out his thought processes and he was '… going mad, MAD, stark raving mad, I tell you!!' She'd immediately diagnosed him, clicked her tongue in her 'I can't believe you haven't read Magical Maladies vol. XIII' way, and sent him to Pomfrey for eye drops. "Trust me, this is different."

"If it looks anything like the red in your eyes, I can imagine. Wish I had a mirror…"

Harry wouldn't have been able to stop himself from saying something about Draco and mirrors if his life had depended on it, but fortunately (because this was the sort of night when Harry's life could depend on the smallest thing), he was interrupted.

"The world moves. You do not," the centaur chided gently. Tigris's dun body glowed, the darker stripes down his spine and banding around his legs up to knees and hocks were starkly obvious where once they had been hidden by the greater darkness.

Harry looked up. Even the unicorns couldn't stop Simon looking sour – the horse was tired of waiting around in the Forest. Simon had a point. Harry reached up and ruffled the forelock. "Right. Let's go."

Harry mounted first. Draco clambered up behind him more awkwardly, hampered as he was by the broom.

"Scared, Potter."

Was that a joke? It was. "Oh yes. You?"

"I think that chattering sound you can hear is my teeth – I'm not really a castanets sort of guy."

The unicorns moved away as Simon pawed the ground. "I don't think Simon is, either. Er… sir – sorry, I mean Tigris, do you know what's on the other side?"

The centaur bowed his head. "Your task."

"Oh. Right." Fat lot of good that was… but the centaur had given them the ability to see in the dark. Harry turned his head to the unicorn stallion, and got that familiar thrill like a plucked harpstring in his spine when its eyes met his. "Thank you," he told the unicorn.

The unicorn dipped its muzzle.

The herd opened up like a morning glory flower, leaving the barrier as the only way forward. With the unicorn blood enhancing his vision, Harry thought he could see it rippling. Out of the corner of his eye there seemed to be faces pressing up against it but when he tried to see who they were they disappeared. Ghosts. Phantoms. How exactly had Voldemort summoned the magic to form the barrier? Perhaps he didn't want to know. Harry swallowed against his suddenly dry throat as he gathered up the reins.

"Hold on," he croaked.

Draco's arm tightened around Harry's waist, but that was the only sign the Slytherin gave that he'd heard.

"Look after us, Simon," Harry breathed. He took a handful of mane. "Now gee-up."

Simon sidled at first, then seemed to take heart from the unicorns. One ear was tilted back, concentrating on his riders; the other was canted sharply forward at the barrier. To the relief of both boys the horse went from walk to canter without bothering with the bouncy trot.

Simon lowered his head slightly, both ears set back determinedly now, as he ran towards the shimmering wall.

They plunged into the magic and the last thing Harry felt as his world fell away was his head splitting open from the searing agony of his scar. It was blinding light and hammering sound and every acrid scent and taste pouring over him to rip his skin off and turn him inside out. It felt like Voldemort was suddenly pouring his anger and hate and festering evil straight into Harry's head, prying Harry's skull open with cruel and inhumanly strong fingers, laughing at Harry's pain.

Come to me, Harry Potter… Pain was the voice of the barrier.

Ohmygodheknowswe'recoming! Draco! Simon! He knows we're coming and he's waiting for us on the other side!

Through the pain Harry was barely aware that he was still on Simon. It felt like being on a boat sailing over great rolling waves – Simon was cantering on steadily. And there was a constriction around his waist. Draco. The hold wasn't steady – and if Draco let go or pulled Harry off to the side they'd both die here in this hell between earths.

But Draco's pain couldn't possibly be as bad as Harry's, because Draco didn't have Voldemort ripping his skull open. Draco didn't know Voldemort was waiting for them.

And Simon… Simon didn't understand the sort of evil he was carrying them to meet. Simon was a horse and horses had no concept of evil. Evil was a human domain.

Harry had to speak. He had to warn them – Draco and the horse both. He had to tell them to get the hell away from Harry as soon as they were through the barrier. They had to run. Harry couldn't escape, but maybe they could…

It was his last conscious volition – he had to warn them…

He had to warn…

He… he had to…

He…

He opened his mouth and screamed.

ooOOoo