Ron and Neville's plates were already mountainous by the time Harry and Hermione arrived in the Great Hall to take their places for dinner, and Ron's cheeks were already bulging with food. Ron looked up from his plate when he saw them sitting down on the other side of the table.

"Wazhup, Harry?" he mumbled through a mouthful of mashed potato, some gravy trickling down his chin.

Hermione's nose wrinkled at the sight, and she focused her attention on her steak and kidney pie instead. Neville gave Ron a nudge. Ron looked confused for a moment, then he seemed to catch on. He managed to swallow, wipe his chin, and said, "Did you notice? No Malfoy tonight."

Harry glanced at the Slytherin table and grinned; sure enough, Draco and his henchmen were missing.

"Hah!" he said, "I guess Malfoy was too ashamed to show his face."

Hermione couldn't help smiling at that. In her moment of satisfaction she thought it wouldn't hurt to extend an olive branch.

"You played very well today too, Ron."

Lavender, who had also grimaced at Ron's poor table manners, looked up from her plate and nodded.

"Those were some amazing Saves. I hope you make it on the team."

Ron's ears reddened, but he looked pleased nonetheless. "Er… Thanks," he said, quickly returning to shovelling food into his mouth.

Harry hefted a rather large slice of roast beef onto his plate, followed up with a heaping pile of mashed potatoes and a mound of peas, and was in the middle of pouring gravy over the lot when Seamus and Dean scooted down the bench to make way for the two Weasleys plonking themselves on the bench beside him.

"We heard you cleaned Malfoy's clock," said Fred, grinning. "According to the word going around, you do a mean Wronski Feint."

"Pretty advanced tactics," George agreed. "Most Firsties can barely tell one end of the broom from another, much less fly like a pro."

"Well, it's not like I knew what I was doing," said Harry, starting to wish everyone would just shut up. "But at least it put Malfoy in his place."

"Just makes you even more brilliant," said Fred. "If Oliver doesn't put you on the team, he's an idiot."

"I suppose," said Harry, half-smiling. "If I try out, that is."

"What?" said George, his eyebrows rising in surprise. "Why wouldn't you try out?"

"I just haven't decided yet," said Harry. "Besides, someone else who actually knows what they're doing might like a shot," he added, glancing at Ron, who was still focused intently on his food, and already on his second plateful.

After dinner, in the common room, Oliver Wood himself waylaid Harry, and even Hermione was starting to get annoyed.

"What's this I hear, Potter? Madam Hooch said you were brilliant today, but is it true you might not even try out?"

Harry sighed, resting his Charms book on his lap, rethinking his vow to try out if Malfoy tried out for the Slytherin team. There was someone else who was just as keen to clobber Malfoy in particular and the Slytherins in general, and Harry would be just as happy if he did.

"Look, maybe I will, maybe I won't," he said. "I keep telling everyone, I just don't know yet."

Oliver peered at Harry pleadingly. "Well, er… I really hope you consider it. The Quidditch team could really use a new Seeker, and apparently you're the right man for the job."

"I might," said Harry after a brief hesitation, "but if I don't, you should give Ron Weasley a shot. I know for sure that he's going to try out."

Wood looked mildly sceptical. "I heard he was pretty good at Keeping, but I dunno. It's a Seeker that we really need."

"So? … Ron obviously knows Quidditch and he's good on a broom. He'd probably be a decent Seeker too."

Oliver glanced at Ron, who was playing a game of Wizard Chess with Neville, then glanced at several older Gryffindors who were no doubt planning on trying out for Seeker. Oliver sighed.

"Okay, I guess I could at least give Ron a shot, but I really hope you show up Saturday afternoon."

Hermione watched Oliver resignedly cross the common room and slump in a seat next to the Weasley twins. She wanted to give Harry a hug, but gave him a little smile instead, as he was still getting quite a few looks from likely Quidditch team members or students who wanted to try out for the team, and she didn't want to embarrass him (and herself, for that matter).

"That was really sweet of you, Harry," she said quietly.

~o0o~

It was Saturday, and Harry and Hermione took seats in the stands toward the end of Slytherin try-outs. Sure enough, Draco Malfoy had tried out for the team, and at the conclusion he was chosen to be Seeker. Next up was the Gryffindor try-out.

Quite a few Gryffindors were trying out for positions other than Seeker, no doubt hoping they could best team members from the previous year, but Harry reckoned they were a bit delusional. Oliver Wood had made it very clear that he wasn't particularly amenable to altering the current line up.

Of the students trying out for Seeker, there were less than half a dozen, and Ron was the only First Year (apparently he knew better than to hope that he could convince Oliver to give him a shot at Keeper). Harry overheard Sophie Roper urging Sally-Anne to try out too, but Sally-Anne shook her head. Then he spotted Oliver Wood down on the pitch looking up at him. Harry couldn't help the little squirm of guilt in his stomach; Oliver almost looked like he was going to cry.

One by one, the older hopefuls performed, but even Harry with his limited experience playing Quidditch could see immediately that they really didn't have the focus or the reflexes to catch a Snitch.

A beefy Second Year named Mclaggen who looked big enough and strong enough to beat up Dudley had tried out for every position, and was the last one to chase a Snitch before Ron got his chance. Mclaggen had proven to be quite a good Beater in fact, and not bad at Keeping, but there was no way he could ever hope to be a Seeker with his build, and he seemed to know it by the time his try-out was finished. None of the potential Seekers so far had even come close to the Snitch.

Oliver looked more dejected than ever when Ron finally got his chance to show his true mettle, but when Ron shot up into the air like a rocket, he started to look a bit more hopeful. And when Ron performed a rather spectacular bit of aerial acrobatics and actually managed to catch the Snitch while upside down at the top of his loop de loop everyone's jaw dropped.

A delighted goofy grin spread across Oliver Wood's face. There was no question that the Gryffindor team had just found their new Seeker. There was much backslapping from the current team members, and Ron looked thrilled most of all to be congratulated by Fred and George.

Fred and George stepped off to the side to allow the Gryffindors from the stands to mob Ron. Harry and Hermione managed to make their way through most of the crowd of Gryffindors, but the throng was still thick, and they waited near the Weasley twins for it to thin out a bit. They were close enough to overhear the Twins hushed conversation.

"So, what d'you think?" asked George. "Ron managed to pull that off on a school broom. Just imagine what he could do with a good one."

Fred sighed and nodded. "But even if we pooled our resources, we'd barely be able to afford a few twigs."

"Right now, yes! But First Years aren't even allowed to have their own brooms at school anyway. If we put our heads together and draw up a plan, we might be able to come up with enough for at least a Comet next year—they're no Nimbuses, but they're better than the Cleansweeps."

Fred frowned thoughtfully, then started to nod again. "Yeah, I think you're on to something, George. … Means we'll have to work a bit harder to learn the right spells and stuff for joke products quicker, but I suppose Mum will be pleased if that means we improve our marks."

~o0o~

A few days later at breakfast, several owls carrying a long thin package between them dropped it on the Slytherin table in front of Draco Malfoy. He beamed with delight as he tore off the paper to reveal a sleek, shiny Nimbus 2000. Harry immediately recognised it as the broom he had seen in the window of the shop in Diagon Alley.

Ron scowled. Apparently he recognised it too.

"Bloody Hell!" he groaned. "I just bet he had his father convince Snape to bend the rules," he told Neville. Neville grimaced and nodded.

"You're probably right," he said. "Or he convinced the rest of the school board to change the rules. Gran told me Malfoy's father is on the board. … Still, I wouldn't worry too much. He was the only one trying out for Seeker anyway, and he didn't fly half as well as you did."

~o0o~

The next few weeks passed quickly, as Harry was finding many of the classes more interesting when the lessons began moving on from Magical Theory to wand-work.

It wasn't that the schoolwork and homework had been dreary or difficult; it was more the fact that it wasn't, especially with Hermione's study tips speeding up the process. It was hard not to find the classes boring when he already knew the material before the lesson even began (though Binns was always boring, regardless).

But the silver lining was that he had more time to spend flying and exploring the castle and grounds of Hogwarts with Hermione, playing the occasional game with Ron and Neville, or Dean and Seamus. Sometimes he and Hermione even spent time together with Parvati and Lavender. It was flying with Hermione and exploring the castle and its environs with her that he enjoyed most.

Hogwarts felt more like home as the Dursleys became a distant memory, and he wished he never had to go back. The only real drawback was the nearly constant itching of his scar now, and not being able to do much about the mystery of Snape and Quirrell.

One of them had to be working with Voldemort, but with no sign of any suspicious activity from either of them, and no teachers likely to believe him or Hermione enough to investigate, he had little choice but to push that to the back of his mind for the time being.

It was a few days before the end of October that anything interesting happened on that score, but Harry wasn't sure that he liked it very much.

The forest loomed all around him. Except for a glimpse of moonlight and stars peeking through the black canopy of leaves above at intervals, making his way through the shadows was a slog, and the gnawing of trepidation in the pit of his stomach grew stronger. The branches of trees and bushes seemed to be reaching out for him, clawing at him, threatening to drag him into a darkness from which he would never emerge.

But Harry knew he had to find his way out of the forest, and he refused to succumb to the fear. It helped that Hermione had one of her hands wrapped around his, and in the next sliver of moonlight he gave her a smile which he hoped didn't look too anxious.

She returned his smile with a nervous one of her own. Seeing the scratches on her face, and the twigs caught up in her tangle of hair made Harry even more determined to find their way out of the forest. He jumped when he heard the hoot of an owl breaking the silence of the night, and Hermione let out a little squeak.

His heart racing now, his breath quickening, he began to pick up the pace, hoping he wouldn't trip over the gnarled roots of silhouetted oak trees. Hermione stumbled beside him, her own breathing growing ragged. Then she gasped and halted, nearly making them both topple into the brush.

"Harry," she whispered. "I heard something. I think it's just up ahead."

He listened, and then he heard it too, the rustling of leaves as if something was scrabbling or dragging itself across the forest floor. He marvelled at Hermione's sharp ears, given the noise of twigs snapping and leaves under their own feet.

"Yeah," he whispered back, rubbing at his itching scar. "I hear it too. Maybe we should take a look."

"I'm not so sure," she moaned quietly. "What if it's something horrible?"

"Well…" Harry hesitated. It wasn't like they knew enough spells which would be effective in a fight. "Well," he said again after the pause, "it's better to know what we're dealing with than know nothing at all."

"That's true," Hermione said resignedly, and he could feel her resolve as she braced herself. "All right then, let's have a look."

As quietly as they could, they crept forward, crouching low to remain hidden by the dark bushes up ahead. Harry's heart began thumping so loudly against the wall of his chest that he almost thought someone might hear it.

Cautiously, they both lifted their heads to peek into the clearing which lay before them. Hermione almost squeaked, but quickly covered her mouth to muffle the sound. Harry gulped, his scar burning now.

There in the glade was a creature shrouded in shadow despite being caught in the moonlight, hunching over some sort of dead animal which appeared to be as white as snow could possibly look on a starry night. The wraith-like figure suddenly lifted its head; Harry and Hermione ducked down quickly, peering through the branches and twigs to see what appeared to be silver blood dripping from its black maw.

They remained as still as possible, holding their breaths. Finally the wraith seemed to decide that it had heard nothing but a nocturnal animal hunting for small prey. The wraith rose to its feet, and to their surprise it took to the air, its black shroud billowing as it flew into the night. Harry and Hermione let out their breaths, and Harry could feel his racing heart slow to a more relaxed pace.

He felt a wave of sadness as he and Hermione stood up for a better look at the dead creature. It was a unicorn, the first he had ever seen in real life. He glanced at Hermione and saw tears glistening on her cheeks.

"Come on," he said gently after another minute of silence. "We don't need to keep looking at it."

Hermione nodded, still crying softly. They circled the glade until they reached the other side. Harry was startled again, and he heard Hermione gasp again. A brightly shining four footed figure lit up the forest. At first Harry thought it was another unicorn, but then he noticed it didn't have a horn. If anything, it looked like a doe.

The luminous doe seemed to beckon him. Then it turned and proceeded into the forest, its brilliance lighting the trees.

"Do… do you think it wants us to follow it?" Hermione whispered.

"Yeah, I do," said Harry, his voice hoarse, though he didn't know why.

He took Hermione's hand again and they trailed behind the luminous doe as it led them along a hidden path. Finally they emerged from the forest, relieved to see the welcome sight of Hogwarts, warm yellow light shining through some of its many windows. The luminous doe faded away, and they both clambered up the hill until they reached the lawn…

Harry awoke with a gasp, still sweating, tangled in his sheets. It had all been a dream—he couldn't believe he was in his bed. The experience felt too real to have been a dream. His hand trembling slightly, he reached for the glass of water next to his bed and took a sip, wondering what it all meant.

~o0o~

Hermione woke up, startled from her slumber, and saw it was morning. She touched her face, almost expecting to find scratches. She let out a sigh of relief when she found none, then shook her head and frowned. It all seemed too real to have been a dream.

After dressing and cleaning her teeth Hermione made her way down the stairs to the common room, surprised to see that Harry was already waiting for her, pacing in agitation. It was Sunday morning and she had expected to be waiting for him, as he often slept in a bit later on weekends.

"Are you okay, Harry," she asked after a brief hug.

"I think so," he said, frowning thoughtfully. "I had this really weird dream last night. You…" he trailed off, his cheeks turning pink, as if he was holding back something embarrassing.

Hermione's eyes widened, and her heart began to race.

"Was… was I in it?"

Harry paused, looking even more anxious, then he nodded.

"Yeah, actually you were," he said, his cheeks growing redder. "But we weren't doing anything, er... well... except for holding hands while we were walking through a forest."

Hermione gasped.

"Harry, did—did you see anything? Like a dark spectre, maybe…"

"...and a dead unicorn?" Harry's bright green eyes turned into saucers. "You had the same dream, then? Is that even possible?"

"I'm not sure," she said uncertainly. "I've heard about that sort of thing happening before, but I never really believed in it. … But since I found out I'm a witch, I'm not as certain. Was there a glowing deer in your dream too?"

"Yeah, I think it was a doe."

Hermione nodded. "That's what I thought too." She frowned. "It all seemed so real."

"I think it was real," said Harry more confidently. "I think that somehow, we were—I don't know—like, maybe we were sort of like ghosts or something. I think there really was something in the forest killing unicorns."

"You might be right," said Hermione, still not quite able to believe it. But she did, she suddenly realised. It was the only thing which really explained it, other than the fact that the scratches and the stumbling over tree roots had felt very real. "I've heard about people having out of body experiences before, but I never really believed in that either... until now."

AN: Thanks to everyone who left comments on the last chapter. Sorry for not replying. I honestly wasn't sure how soon I would finish the next one, and I didn't want to get people's hopes up.