Disclaimer: I own neither Stargate nor the Harry Potter franchise. 'Stargate' and 'Harry Potter' both belong to their respective creators. No infringement is intended and no profit is made. I own none of the characters associated with them as well. I simply write for my own personnel enjoyment

A/N : Sorry again for the longer delay but this chapter just didn't wanna get written nicely. So I had to do it slowly. Too many ideas running around in my head you know?

Love the reviews & the advise. Keep it coming. It help a lot.

Anyway. Enjoy!

Chapter 4

At first the Caput head-elf of the Ancient and noble house of Potter had thought they were doomed. Their poor master hadn't been able to keep his sanity intact due to all the abuse and hardships they had heard he had suffered from. Master Harry had been ordering them to bring more and more weird muggle things to him and had chosen to build a house for himself in some smelly gloomy dark underground. They had made changes to the underground sewer chamber and now it was barely tolerable. He even had a few younger house-elves learning wizards arts instead of important things like cleaning and maintaining all of master's properties. The fact that the younger ones who learned these new things were enjoying themselves was also very troubling to the older generation of house-elves.

Their belief that he was not right in the head was further enhanced when one House-elf who had been cleaning saw him grinning manically at a metal orb in his hands. But as House-elves they were loyal till the end and they would serve their master faithfully even if they could clearly see his madness. All they could do was hope and pray that their master would get better. They were just beginning to consider offering up some form of ritual sacrifice in honor of some old long forgotten Mythical God to plead to said God to restore sanity to the last of their masters when all his wacky actions seemed to start making sense to them, all that useless muggle material brought was made into many things awe-inspiring and frankly intimidating.

The first thing that their master had built was a giant something that took an entire section of the chamber. Their master had described it to them as a machine brain that would help him in thinking and had called it 'kompooter' or something like that. He had then given this 'kompooter' a nice girly voice and some intelligence but not too much intelligence their Master had said when he had introduced 'her' to them. He had requested a few elves to step forth so that he could train them in some basic ways of using the girly 'Kompooter'.

The second thing Master Harry had built with the liquid metal that he now controlled was a wrist watch with which he could be in contact with the 'kompooter'. It was shiny and very very pretty.

Although all the house-elves in the service of House Potter were scared of all these new machines and a little bit jealous of the liquid metal servant his master always kept with him they were none the less very pleased their master was not insane.

He was just plain weird.

But that was fine

Because they all knew that weird in the magical world was a sign of greatness.

June 8 1994

Harry Potter sat on a mat covered floor meditating. He had finished his Martial arts practice and was now trying once again to find his animagus form through meditation. He was also trying to rather unsuccessfully block out the voices of all his fellow practitioners that were learning from Neville. His friend had come a long way in a short time and his transformation was almost as startling and visible to others now as his transformation had once been. It was a bit of a relief for him truthfully.

'It helps him get better and it keeps certain manipulative eyes from focusing at me and my sudden changes for too long' thought Harry as his gaze swept from his oldest sparring partner to the trio of redheads that were following Neville's instructions.

None had felt the changes in Neville as close the red-headed twins had. Gone was their meek occasional prank victim who could be easily bullied into doing anything they asked him to do 'nicely'. Replacing that meek nervous chubby boy was a strong young man who knew his self-worth, who knew how to fend for himself and who had wiped the floor clean with them the first time they had taunted him. Now they were learning from him and were rather happy about it because the martial arts form actually helped them concentrate better on important things. Well important to them anyways.

'Never would anyone have believed that the twin terrors of Gryffindor would act so docile and respective towards Neville Longbottom' thought Harry amusedly as his gaze locked onto the last figure practicing martial arts with them.

Ginny Weasley had proven to be more and more of an irritating and frustrating enigma. First was the subtle changes in her behavior. He was sure now that even the twins had noticed this about their only sister being close to her now. Second was her knowledge about things she wasn't suppose to know or understand. Third was her boldness in approaching them and tricking them in joining their regular morning activity. He had decided to keep an eye on her. To Harry her keeping big secrets meant big trouble just like last year with that diary. He knew that Ginny had figured it out by now that he was suspicious of her and had kept her head down and nose clean. That is until just yesterday.

While sparring was an important part of practicing martial arts it came with the price of hurts and bruises. Especially when you were sparring on the stone hard floor of a classroom. So after falling down in her bum one time too many during a sparring match, the petite redhead had lost her temper and claimed that she knew a place a thousand times better than this. Naturally saying that had everyone's eyes and interest on her and Harry could see that she didn't want to reveal that. But reveal she did under the pressure of all the gazes in front of her pleading her to save them from the pain of falling on hard stone floor.

So now here they were in this fascinating room on the seventh floor. A room that could be almost anything they wanted it to be. A room known as the Room of Requirements. And while everyone was happy to have a spacious well-padded floor and training and exercising equipment, Harry was getting more and more suspicious of their female friend.

'What is she hiding?' thought Harry 'How does she know these things? About this room, about Dumbledore? This has gone far enough and I'm too busy to keep an eye on her all the time. I'll have to think of something more…... appropriate' mind made up Harry went back to trying meditate and patiently waited for this session to end.

"Stay behind for a while Neville. I need your help with something" Asked Harry as everyone was leaving.

"Yes Harry?" asked Neville as he shut the door behind the leaving redheads.

"I want to know if you can do something for me." Asked Harry hoping he wouldn't say no.

"What?" asked Neville Curiously

"I need you to get closer to Ginny, become a better friend to her and keep a close eye on her" replied Harry plainly.

"Wha -why?" asked Neville stuttering a little. The thought of getting closer to a fire-cracker redhead female with a short fuse wasn't very pleasing. Although he didn't know Ginny well, he had heard much from her grandmother about the shrilling dominatrix that her mother was and had little doubt that Ginny was the same. Not to mention all that mess from last year.

Harry sighed knowing it would be hard to explain his suspicions to his now not-so timid friend without telling him his own secrets.

"I know. Believe me I know. I've been keeping an eye on her and she seems …. Different somehow"

"Maybe it's because what happened to her last year. You know things like that don't just pass away without changing you" reasoned Neville.

"This is different Neville. There is more to it than that. She seems to know things. Things she's not suppose to know. Her behavior is different and after last year's fiasco I don't trust her. Please my friend, will you keep an eye on her and let me know if she's up to something" Requested Harry hoping this much would convince his friend to get closer to the only female Weasley. He could get his elves to keep an eye on her for him but he knew that it wouldn't be as effective as sending in Neville.

'On second thought maybe I should do both and throw in a little electronic surveillance for good measure as well. Never hurts to be safe' thought Harry making a mental note to talk to his head-elf Caput about this.

"If you think this is important I guess I'll give it a try." Said Neville reluctantly. Even if Neville didn't want anything to do with getting closer to his doom, he would do it if Harry asked him. After all, of all the students in the school only Harry had experience in such things and he trusted Harry's judgment in these matters impeccably.

The First technological item that Harry had built was a super computer based on the designs he had scanned form FERU itself. Only this one was much bigger but unfortunately didn't use crystal based technology so was still inferior in comparison to its Alteran equivalents. Still it was more than adequate for current requirements. Harry had provided the computer with limited AI to perform many operations on its own. Harry had deliberately kept the AI less smart and dependent upon him because he didn't trust a fully independent AI. He had even given it some of its own nanites which had helped in speeding up construction of more technological items he had wanted to build. Harry needed a computer with such high level capabilities for his next big project.

The nanites Surveillance drones.

These nanites drones were primarily designed for Alteran anthropologists who sought to observe primitive developing cultures and civilizations remotely and stealthily without 'polluting' said environment with their presence. When released into an environment, these small probes would morph their appearance to resemble items in their locality effectively camouflaging themselves. Armed with limited ranged scanning and cloaking technology they were designed to work in tandem with other drones to effectively cover the desired area of surveillance in grid network of sorts. They could also 'hack in' to the local electronic telecommunication networks providing access to all information existing in there as well.

They could be used as the perfect surveillance and espionage tool against less-developed civilizations.

They were perfect for what Harry needed.

Knowledge was power and with his mastery over the power of knowledge Harry could turn the tides against him. Besides it never hurt to know more about ones opponents.

'As they say, Forewarned is forearmed' thought Harry. 'Now all that remains is to release them in Hogwarts, Hogsmeade and the Forbidden forest for the field testing. After that I'll release them in all the magical hotspots and then finally into the muggle world as well '

The other reason Harry had for using these drones was that he wanted them to use their powerful sensors to scan and record every bit of magic taking place around them so that his sensors could not only have ease in identifying the type of magic being done later on but also to have a pre-existing database of all spell signature outputs to experiment further into making new spells or perhaps even create a spell matrix emitter. But that was far into the future.

June 9 1994 , Saturday

It was Saturday night and like always the students were enjoying the weekend as they preferred. Same could be said for two particular students playing chess in the Gryffindor common room.

On one side was Harry potter. Normally Harry didn't partake in this time consuming game anymore but recently specially after being granted the use of nanites, he had decided to slow his learning pace and enjoy his life a little as well. While before Harry only played and lost the chess game to appease his friend, now Harry played the game with the aim to win it at least once. So far all he had succeeded in doing was prolonging the game and making his friend concentrate more.

Across form the raven haired young wizard was his friend Ronald Weasley. While normally when playing chess, his entire focus was on winning the game, tonight that was not so. Ron knew that he wasn't particularly smart but even he could tell that his best mate had changed a lot and being as close to him as he was, he knew what the problem was. Ron had been meaning to talk to his friend for some time and now was the perfect opportunity.

"I've been meaning to talk to you about something" said Ron distractedly as he played his move.

Across him Harry arched an eyebrow in question and silently contemplated his next move "About what?"

"Well….. It's like this. I know you've said you wouldn't go after Black or do anything thick like that" said Ron seriously " but for some time I think you've been readying yourself for just that, isn't it?" asked Ron and got a little irritated watching that his best mate still concentrating on the board and hadn't listened to a word he'd said.

"Harry!" Said Ron irritated

" I heard you the first time Ron" answered Harry " What makes you think that I would go looking for Black?" asked Harry evenly, his eyes still on the game. Maybe he could win this blasted for once by distracting Ron.

"Oh where to start! You've been studying better, you always know answers to everything the teachers ask! That's not like you mate" replied Ron ticking the things off on one hand as the other played his next move casually " On top of that you're always busy aren't you? And you're up and gone before I get up in the mornings doing Merlin knows what! " exclaimed his redhead friend.

"I've been studying better because that is what I should have been doing all along and I get up before dawn to exercise and believe me when I tell you my friend …..Everyone's up and gone before you get up" Replied Harry amusedly as he played his next move and internally cheered as he had Ron trapped.

"Hey!" protested Ron weakly. "I don't sleep late" seeing Harry's dubious look pointed towards him "Well, not always. Anyways why are you all of a sudden a Mr. Know-it-all if it ain't to get better and go chasing after Black eh?" asked Ron convinced that now that the truth was out his friend would agree and let him help. He played his next move.

"I am getting better because I have realized that I really don't have a choice" said Harry "Ever since I was born someone or other has been after me. First it was Voldemort" Ron Flinched "coming after me and killing my parents, then it was his ghost thingy in our first year, just last year it was that diary and the Basilisk and now Black is after me. What would it be next year?" here Harry paused to let all of that sink in to his slower friend "I can't afford to laze around Ron, Not if I want to live past my 20s"

"b-but we're just kids!" A thoroughly shocked Ron said automatically not really thinking about all his friend had told him

Sighing Harry got up, not really in the move to play any more "Yeah we're kids all right. Kids that have done more than what many adult could say they ever have. The problem is that's how I'll probably die as if don't step up to the challenges" said Harry Yawning "I am tired. We'll play later, Good night Ron" mumbled a slightly tired Harry as he ascended the stairs to his dorm room.

But Ron didn't answer. He couldn't answer because his mind had gone into shock. He was not so much shocked at what his friend had said in the end 'cause Ron already knew that sub-consciously. No what had so utterly shocked Ron was the chess board in front of him. Because for once Harry had come very close to beating him at his own game.

'He really is getting better' thought Ron feeling glad, jealous and puzzled at the same time.

June 10 1994 , Sunday

It was a wonderful Sunday at Hogwarts. It was 10 in the morning and in his bed alone in the dorms, Harry Potter was meditating and trying to find out his Animagus form. So far his quest in doing so had been frustratingly fruitless. He had even tried the Animagus Revealing potion that was suppose to either provide you an image about your animagus form or have no effect what so ever at all proving one didn't have the potential to achieving ones animal form.

But as with all things it was never that easy for Harry. Harry had indeed had a dream proving that he had a form. The problem was that all he had been able to see in his dream was an indescribable glowing shape that had no recognizable characteristics that Harry could see. He had of course consulted all the information he had access to and had finally stumbled upon a vague reference claiming that this was due to the fact that some wizards and witches had a magical animagus form. The reference also speculated that this was probably because said Wizard or Witch was too powerful to be in tune with a mere normal animal spirit. While that information had been very nice to know, that too wasn't the end of his troubles in gaining his Animagus form since the only guaranteed way that Harry now had left for becoming an animagus was to meditate and find your animal form within you by yourself. A slow and tedious prospect similar to finding a needle in a haystack.

'I'll master it no matter how long it takes. If dad could do it then so can I' Thought Harry stubbornly.

That is how we find Harry sitting quietly with his feet folded underneath him and meditating.

The serene silence was interrupted by the beeping sound coming from wrist watch on his hand. The wrist watch had been one of the first things Harry had constructed after finished building his Computer as a means to remotely communicate with it. The Beeping was indicating that something had been found that he had set the AI and the house-elves operators to be on the look out for.

Sighing and getting up from his meditative pose, Harry waved his hand over his wrist and a mini- holographic screen popped out with Alteran script flowing through it. He would have to go to his secret lab to check the information in detail.

15 minutes later Harry stepped into the control room he had built adjacent to his computer core. As the name implied, the Control room was the place from where everything in the lab could be controlled. It was also the place where all the information form the recently activated surveillance drones network arrived and was being processed with the help of two little house-elf sitting on their cute little chairs. They were Siley & Wiley. These two were unique amongst their kin as they were not only twins girls but also unfortunately mute. They were intelligent thought and were well suited for the job of information monitoring.

"Hey girls. What have you got for me?" asked Harry moving towards an empty terminal to see the information in detail that had been collected by the surveillance drones being presented to him.

'Hm. Looks like trouble is brewing within the forbidden forest' thought Harry as he went through all related information collected and as he read on the whole picture of the situation started to emerge in front of him.

Thinking about the situation presented to him Harry knew that if left unresolved would cause a lot conflicts probably even loss of life.

'I have to think of a way to stop this from becoming any bigger a problem than it already is and I have to find a solution as fast as possible' thought Harry as he paced around, concentrating on all the options available and while Harry had many ways of resolving this conflict peacefully, none could be achieved as fast or as stealthily as needed. Finally hitting upon a plan insane enough to work, Harry dashed towards his computer terminal and started looking through all the supplies stock he had available here and at the rented warehouse in London.

' I have most that I need for my insane plan!' thought Harry as he quickly scribbled down the few things that he need to brought form the warehouse and quickly summoning Dobby who appeared with a pop.

"What can Dobby do for Master Harry?" exclaimed Dobby excitedly and bowed.

"Gather a few of your brethren and get me all the items on this list from our London warehouse and bring it to the newly constructed Scuba bay near the lake entrance. Be quick about it please. Lives are at stake!" said Harry as he handed the list to the house elf who popped away with a hasty bow.

Getting up and praising the now blushing silent twin house-elves for a great job, Harry went back to his office and opened a cabinet he had put there. In it he had placed all the interesting and useful items he had brought out from his and the Black family vaults. Riffling through them Harry finally found what he was looking for. Suspended in his hand on a golden chain bearing the Potter family crest was something that would provide him what he was desperately lacking at this moment. TIME. For in his hand was his very own time turner.

'Sometimes you just gotta love the way wizards mess with things no one is suppose to. It is as enticing as it is horrifying' thought Harry as he gazed at the innocent looking tool that had so much potential.

Quickly locking the cabinet Harry walked briskly towards the control room and ordered the Computer AI and its large nanite force to being construction of a design he had just provided to it. The design was adaptation of something else that was already proven to have worked well.

'As the Alterans say… When in doubt look in to the greatest engineers of them all. Mother nature.' Snorted Harry 'easy for them to say as they had the technology to mimic nature's designs so closely. But then again so do I' thought Harry happy about his situation as he adapted the designs to his specifications.

Finished with that, Harry moved towards the newly dug-out section of his secret lab. The Scuba Bay was a huge underwater submarine pen of sorts he had designed and had built with the help of the house-elves and the nanites specially for the purpose of employing the underwater hatch in the chamber. Turning the corner, he came upon his latest ongoing technological tinkering.

Harry was building his own mini-sub. Only it was not complete and while most of the hull and other major components were installed and tested many minor tid bits remained.

'Guess I wouldn't be finishing you after all. But don't worry I'm going to use you to make something even better. Something cooler. Something that will be needed to save lives and avert a potential disaster. Let's hope I can pull it off in time.' Though Harry as he affectionately petted the outer hull of the partially constructed mini-sub.

Moving in closer Harry wasn't surprised to see a future/past version of himself in a corner of the room already working over additional components needed for their plan to work. Looking up form his work the 'other' Harry nodded at him and returned to work concentrating on his personal nanites to mould the materials to his desired shape. Harry paced around waiting for Dobby to arrive with all the materials he had ordered and when he arrived with a few elves with a sudden pop, Harry quickly thanked them, shrunk the newly brought construction materials and spun his time turner 4 times to go back 4 hours. Getting there Harry quickly set out to begin the parts he had seen his past/future counterpart make.

'I just hope this much time is enough' though Harry as he concentrated on his nanites and began constructing the more delicate and complicated parts that couldn't be manufactured by his Computer AI and its nanites force.

8 hours of continuous tiring work along with a few energy drinks, a slightly tired Harry looked on proudly at his finished project. He was glad that he had built the scuba Bay as large as he had for his latest invention took almost half of the empty space available here.

Sitting innocently in front of him and gleaming silver from the overhead Sun crystal lights was the metallic version of the 50 feet long Basilisk he had fought and defeated and whose remaining carcass had been processed and stored as separate potion ingredients and various other thing in his family vault.

The amphibious mecha-Basilisk in front of him was the exact replica of that one except it was silver instead of green and its eyes were blood-red as opposed to yellow of the original basilisk and in his personal biased opinion this one was way better looking than the live one.

The entire hull was made from a futuristic super dense alloy that the Alterans had long abandoned the use of for their space crafts. It had the ability to withstand enormous heat and kinetic energy. It was the best option Harry had available with the unavailability of metals not present on earth.

While externally it looked like a Basilisk internally was a different matter entirely. The area above and behind the mouth was where he had built a small cockpit to pilot this monstrosity. Unable to arm his latest toy with typical living Basilisk killing equipment, Harry had improvised severely by using the materials he had available and as a result the mecha-Basilisk's function was more like an eel. The entire super structure had a series of Tesla coils form tail tip to the mouth doubling as an endoskeleton as well as allowing it to discharge high powered lightning bolts from its mouth using a combination of electricity generation and atmospheric ionization. The added benefit was that it could fire its primary weapon underwater as well. For secondary weapon Harry had chosen a simple yet high powered pair of laser beam emitters that he had placed in the eye sockets of the mecha-basilisk. They too had many purposes. For power Harry had built three Cold-fusion reactors into the metallic snake just incase.

Turning towards his work table, Harry looked at the utility belt he had recently finished. He had gotten the idea of using a utility belt from some of the comics he had been reading recently.

'Another thing to put to blame at the Dursleys and all those people who allow my placement with them. Now I can read all the comics and look at all the TV shows but I no longer have the desire. Why read and watch when one can live that life and my life is already so full of adventures. Still they have pretty good ideas so I get to enjoy a few anyway' thought Harry

The belt which looked suspiciously similar to the one Bat-man used. For now only contained a large number of special purpose nanites. These were special nanites that he had built for himself personally. Putting the belt on, Harry activated the nanites and watched as the Glob slowly creeped onto his torso and slowly covered his entire body. Ten seconds later Harry was completely covered by them.

Looking into a mirror he had ordered be brought he gazed at his handy work.

Instead on an almost 14 years old scrawny teen, Harry looked more like a muscled fully grown adult wearing High-tech looking metal armor. His face however was covered with a metallic helmet that was built to resemble a menacing dragon head. He still wasn't quite sure why he had chosen a dragon but his instincts were telling him to do so and they had yet to lead him astray.

' I'll have to meditate on exactly why a part of me is all of a sudden so attracted to dragons so much' thought Harry before shrugging the thought off for later.

"I do good work" said Harry aloud in an altered metallic voice proudly. The suit had many uses. Primarily it was there to keep his identity a secret. Also as it was made of nanites, it could absorb energy. In other words it could completely absorb most normal spells thrown his way. He hadn't yet had the time to test it properly but he was hoping he'd not have any use of the suit's defensive features and only use it as a means of disguise.

'Its high time that the Wizarding world be introduced to the concept of masked super-Heroes' chuckled Harry at the idea of ministry of magic getting freaked out at the idea of masked vigilantes that they could do little to stop.

Harry hopped on the Mecha-Basilisk head and pressed his hand to its head allowing it open a hatch which lead to the cockpit. Harry jumped in and seated himself in the only chair there. Unlike regular earth vehicle cockpit, this one only had digital screens showing the view from various angles as well system information on the mecha-basilisk. Fastening himself to the seat, Harry put his hands into the indentions of palms in the arm rest of the chair. These Harry would use to control the machine.

'It's a pity I can't simply build one of those neural interfaces that the ancestors used to control their crafts.' Thought Harry wistfully 'That doesn't mean I can't cheat. I can simply control all the functions through my own personnel nanites'

At Harry mental nudge the hatch above closed on top of him. Next Harry navigated the Mecha-Basilisk close to the underwater hatch and hissed open after mentally activating the built in loud speakers. The underwater hatch of the chamber opened to his hissed command and the mecha-basilisk slithered in to the water.

Moving through the waters in a wavy pattern like snakes do, they reached the edge of the lake, only instead of moving upwards towards the ground level, Harry directed the giant snake straight towards the wall of earth within the lake at the speed of over 80 km/h. When they were 600 meters away form the rocky earth Harry unleashed the second and more unconventional function of the laser eyes.

"Engage drill mode" ordered Harry. At his command, the mecha-Basilisk eyes shot high powered laser beams in front of them at the earth heating it and melting it. Then all the scales on the mecha-basilisks body stood up at an inclined angle and started moving in a pattern similar to that of a drill. (1)

' Please work, please work, please work……' was the only thoughts going through a slightly nervous Harry's head. He was a little unsure about this since he only had enough time to test these things on a limited basis and hadn't had the time to test this function completely. But he was positive that his drilling mechanism would be easily able to go through the soft soil and loose rocks ahead of him. All the schematics he had run after his test said so.

And drill through it did. Other than a few minor shudders everything was working smoothly.

Sighing in relief, Harry guided the mecha-Basilisk towards an area of the forest he didn't particularly like since he was almost there last year.

Earlier that Morning in the Forbidden Forest

The aptly named Forbidden forest was home to many beasts and beings both magical and normal. Apart from the beasts there were only two species existing within the forest that were considered sentient.

The most powerful were the centaurs. They had been living within the forest from before the time of Hogwarts. Strong and agile, they were not only masters at co-existing harmoniously in the forests but their gifts in the art of Divination, healing and archery provided them with an edge that allowed them to stay at the top of the food chain within the forbidden forest. There were three herds of Centaurs living in the forbidden forest. Each herd had was bigger than 50 members each. They were the Plagiarius herd, the Amnis herd and the Silex herd. The Plagiarius herd lived in the clearings of the forest. The Amnis herd lived close to the streams that flowed within the forest while the Silex herd lived close to the edge of the Forbidden forest near the mountains bordering their home. Each herd defended their own territory and lived in harmony with the forest that they considered their home and property. The centaurs herd knew that even combined they were outnumbered and outmatched against the forces that existed outside of their turf so in times of great need the Herds would unite and defend what they considered theirs as one. They were also the ones mostly responsible for keeping the arcomantulas in line and confined mostly to their area.

Magorian, Stallion chief of the Plagiarius herd of the clearings was worried. It had been hours since some of the foals of their herd had gone missing and still couldn't be found. That was why the entire herd was out looking for them hoping to find them before something horrible happened to them. The forest was especially not safe for them this year.

The stars had warned them that a time of great hardship was upon them in which food would be scarce and a rotten evil would come to their forests and take what they considered precious from them. The stars had also predicted that should what they considered most precious be taken, they would have till sundown to find them or they would be lost forever.

Forewarned the centaur herds had stockpiled their food supplies and had kept their foals whom they considered most precious close to them. For almost a year things went on smoothly. The dementors had come as predicted and due to their evil cold presence and unhindered desire to suck souls any living being, the forest life had dwindled but the centaurs were prepared for this because they had heeded the warnings presents in the dark skies. Until now.

Some of the foals getting frustrated at all the confinement had sneaked away to play gallop at night when the elders were concentrating on star-gazing. And now they couldn't be found anywhere.

The herd had spread out in groups to search for them. Amongst them was Magorian the Stallion chief of the Plagiarius herd. His daughter Melantha too had been lost and he was worried and scared for her. They were searching in the area that scout patrols had reported seen dementors repeatedly. He was hoping that the foals had not been foolish enough to come this way. Sadly his hopes were dashed away he saw something that proved beyond a sliver of doubt that her daughter and most probably the rest of the foals had come this way had been probably taken by dementors.

For there lying at the bottom of a tree was her daughter's favorite scarf that she always kept with her.

Angered and desperate Magorian whipped out a hollowed horn made of Giant Boar tusk form his belt pouch and blew deeply into it three times. The booming sound of the horn echoed through out the forest.

Throughout the forbidden forest Centaurs of all the herds straightened and moved to gather their weapons. A call for help had been given. A call for fight had been given. It had been as the stars had foretold.

"Return to the clearings and let them know what we have found. Bring as many warriors as you can" bellowed out Magorian rearing on his hind legs in fury.

"What are we to tell the herd elders, Clan Chief?" asked one the younger centaurs as he pawed at the ground nervously.

"Tell them……. Tell them that the foul creatures that invaded our forest have taken our foals. We must rescue them in full force if we are to succeed" was the response "Now GO!"

By mid-day over a hundred armed centaurs form all the herds would have gathered in the clearing and would attempt to mount a rescue for the lost foals.

If things should have been allowed to have passed as expected, the Centaurs would attack the dementor's encampment and not finding the foals there would assume the worst and go on a rampage against the dementors. They would even succeed in killing several dementors with arrows dipped in unicorn blood willingly given before the scattered dementors would unite and kill a quarter of the attacking centaurs before the ministry personnel babysitting the dementors could intervene and stop the battle.

The battle would cause the dwindled centaur herds to untie and form one strong herd that could defend itself better. Their dislike for all things human wizard or not would increase as well deteriorating what little tolerance of the ministry of magic they had.

Fortunately for all, things would not continue down that path. Because someone was watching and was keeping an eye out for trouble and that someone had the power and the potential end this conflict before it even started and that's exactly what one Harry Potter intended to do.

Had Magorian been less focused on finding his daughter and more on his surroundings he would have noticed something sitting silently in the trees above observing what was going on below. Watching the leader of the man-horses call out the rest of his kin for battle it knew that their trap had worked. Seeing as the man-horses were distracted and talking to one another it stealthily got away and made its way back to his colony. It knew that if everything went accordingly, by night fall all his kin would get as much flesh to eat as they would want.

High Father Aragog needed to be informed that things were going as planned.

While centaurs controlled most of the forest, they weren't the only group that could be considered intelligent. The other species vying for more hunting grounds within the forest were the arcomantula. Giant magical arachnids of varying sizes, they had been introduced in the Forest almost half a century ago by the Hogwarts gamekeeper Hagrid and since then they had thrived in their new environment and had taken over a small yet considerable area of the forbidden forest as their trapping/Hunting grounds. This area had become desolate of animal life and the rest of the animals had learned to keep away. Mostly. All that mattered to the arcomantula hordes was edible flesh and how to get more of it. Fortunately the forest held other powerful beings that kept their endless pits of desire for meat in check.

This balance of power within the Forbidden Forest was shattered by the coming of the dementor hordes. Not being allowed to come within the castle and kept away from Hogsmeade by the villagers, they had sought the only source of souls that was available to them. The forbidden forest. Their presence and limitless gorging of the animal souls had left the forest almost devoid of life as the animals that survived had run away or had sought shelter amongst the centaurs and their allies the unicorns.

None of the residents of the forbidden forest were happy with the lifeless soul sucking intruders. The exception was the arcomantula colony. Since the dementors only sucked the soul of their victim as a food source, the dead carcass had no meaning to them and so like vultures following an army of maraud ring raiders, the arcomantulas would at a distance follow the wretched dementors and eat the trail of dead flesh they left behind. For months that had been the norm and the arcomantula colony had flourished and prospered. That was until all he food was gone from the forest and there was nothing left to hunt. The only animals and food that remained in the forest stayed very close to the Centaur homes for their own protection.

Desperate not to see all the increased number of his children starve and die, Aragog had devised a plan. The plan was simple, if the man-horses kept the last of the animals to themselves, them they simply would have to be killed and what better way to kill the arrogant man-horses than to have them killed by their generous soul sucking guests and take the leftover carcass as food as well. Aragog knew from living in the forest for over half a century that the man-horses were very irrationally protective of their hatchlings. So when his children spying on the man-horses had reported that some of the younger man-horses had moved away from the herd, he had ordered them to be captured and their belongings scattered close to where the Dementors stayed the most.

Now the little man-horses were all tied up and hanging upside down near his cave entrance along with a certain 'guest' that had intruded upon their feast once again. He had arranged for a very special trap for the repeating intruder on rolling legs and it had worked like a charm. Aragog had to keep a very tight leash on his children to stop them from eating their guests yet. Not until the plan had worked. Even though he was blind, he could sense his surroundings like bats only instead of hearing, he sensed with all his webs spread around the colony.

And now his webby senses were telling him that the scout he had ordered to keep watch on the trap was coming back to him and his gait told him all that he needed to know.

The trap had worked, let the feasting begin!

Melantha, daughter of Magorian was scared. What had started as an adventure to enjoy a little free gallop away from all the smothering of their herd had turned out to be the worst and probably last thing they will ever do. The icky spiders had captured all her friends and they were now hanging upside down on a tree branch neatly wrapped in web surrounded by hordes of menacing giant spider clicking their pincers hungrily.

As the daughter of the stallion chief of their herd, she held some authority over the other foals and she had used that to convince her friends to come with her. Now she was feeling horrible that they too would die all because she was feeling a little rebellious.

'Atleast it had been fun. Especially when that metal beast trotting on circles and fiery sun eyes had come rushing in to free them. It had even squished many of the beasts and had almost reached them only to be caught in the biggest web she had seen.' Thought Melantha amusedly 'It was like the spiders were expecting it to arrive had laid down the trap in advance'

Movement form the east directed had gaze towards that direction and she saw that a wolf size spider was speedily moving towards the cave in the centre. The hurrying spider stopped in front of the mouth of the cave and clicked its pincers rapidly and called out someone called Aragog. She gasped at the elephant sized spider that emerged and started communicating with more clicking that was beyond her understanding.

Moments passes and as one all the spiders in the clearing moved towards her and the rest of her friends, their intentions clear in their hungry menacing clicks. They were about to be eaten.

"I'm sorry father" Whispered Melantha in a quivering voice as she closed her eyes and prayed to the stars to save them all.

It seems that her prayers were indeed answered as all activity with in the clearing came to an abrupt halt because in that moment at first the ground started to shake slowly and continued to shake faster making a few of the now nervous spiders fall from their perches and the hanging captives to swing back and forth. The shaking of the ground continued for awhile before it stopped…….. Only for the ground in the middle of the clearing to blow open violently in a flash of silver and red and spread dirt around in the air obscuring everything from view. But even though their multiple eyes couldn't see, as predators the spiders could feel something had intruded their colony. Something big and powerful. And that scared them.

Their fear turned into downright horror as the dust settled and they saw exactly who had come to pay a visit. Their instincts told them to flee for the king of serpents, their mortal enemy had arrived yet they were too paralyzed in fear to do anything. That changed when the giant serpent reared its head and let loose a widening arc of lightning into the sky and the terrified spiders fled into the woods for their safety.

Watching all this with the widest eyes possible from her entangled position, Melantha could only think of something he had heard a few human say before.

'Out of the frying pan and into the fire' thought Melantha as she silently vowed that if she ever got out of this situation alive, she would never disregard her elder's advice.

Even when all the Arcomantula fled, one remained. Too old, slow and blind beyond his webs to attempt to flee, Aragog instead went deeper into his cave and silently observed what their dreaded foe would do next. He hoped that the King of serpents would simply eat the little man-horses and be on his way. His hopes increased when the serpent monster moved towards the captives and started talking. Aragog was too far into the ground to hear what they were saying and his webs could only let him 'see' motion not sound.

Finally the Basilisk opened his mouth only for its razor sharp forked tongue to slash out and cut free the all the young man-horses. The Basilisk also spat a round egg-like rock at the feet of the man-horses. As soon as they untangled themselves, they picked up the rock egg and galloped away towards their herd.

As Aragog's last remaining hope dashed away, the Giant serpent moved towards the mouth of his cave and stopped a little away from it.

"Aragog! " Hissed out the dreaded beast "Come out. We have much to talk"

Gulping, the elephant sized arachnid moved out slowly. He dare not disobey.

A/N: Review Please!

(1) Yes I took the drill idea from 'the core' film. Disclaimer. I own nothing related to that movie. It belongs to its creators. No infringement is intended and no profit is made. I just like the idea.