Wishfull-star: The story is going to be interesting! That's what I can assure you, now that I am back here!

Nallynotme: I'm so sorry for keeping you waiting. Well, you can have the details given below of why I just disappeared. Sorry again!

UlanyKarczmarz: Guess, I have also not forgotten the story specially when I already have some future chapters in my arsenal. I just needed to sort some things out. Sorry for the wait though!

Chapter 5

The forest was dark and silent, except for the occasional rustle of leaves or snap of a twig. The trees were twisted and gnarled, their branches reaching out like claws. The air was thick with the smell of the trees and animals, and a sense of dread hung over the place. But for the ASL trio it was the most exciting place to be at midnight, especially in this world.

No one had dared to enter the forest, for it was home to many fearsome and mysterious creatures. But the brothers wanted an adventure since the beginning of the session, which was yesterday. They were excited to go and have an adventure and here they are.

Some of the creatures were visible, such as the giant spiders that spun their webs across the paths, or the wolves that howled in the night. But unfortunately none were dumb to approach them. But they can point some of the creatures which were hidden, lurking in the shadows, waiting for them to fall as their prey. Merry was close to Luffy, making the rubber boy not get too distracted enough to get separated from his brothers.

"Do you know I heard there can be Dragons here?" Sabo asked in a tone which was sure to pique his brothers interests.

Luffy's and Ace's eyes sparkled at that.

"Really?!" Ace asked excitedly.

"Ne, can I have one?!" Luffy asked jumping and looking around as if a Dragon would pop up any moment.

"The one who finds first gets one!" Ace said excitedly with a smirk, making Sabo chuckle at the pouting face of Luffy in response.

"What other things are here in the forest, 'Bo?!" Luffy asked. For the first time in his life he was interested in hearing the knowledge his brother has.

"Umm, let's see," Sabo said holding his chin in a motion to think but it was actually for exaggeration. "There are rumors about dragons, of bad witches that cast curses and hexes, of fairies that lured travelers with their enchanting songs. There are also mythical creatures like Unicorns, centaur and many more, which are only heard in legends and tales."

"Woah!" Ace and Luffy responded. Sabo sure knows a lot.

The forest was a place of magic and danger, where nothing was as it seemed. It was a place where one could find wonder or horror, depending on their luck. It was a place where only the brave or the foolish would venture. This was what the Forbidden forest is but for the brave souls it was a walk to a park and for the brothers it was less dangerous than the Grand Line.

After some moments of walking to the seemingly endless forest, they came to a clearing, which was an ideal place for a spar.

"Me first!" Luffy said excitedly jumping in his place.

"Then I'll fight you, crybaby!" Ace teased cracking his knuckles.

"Hey! I am not a crybaby and I can definitely kick your ass!" Luffy declared making Ace snort.

"Ok! Ok!" Sabo said clapping his hands and holding a piece of wood for chalking down the wins and loses. "We will have 50-"

"100!" "100!"

"Ok, 100 fights each with each other." Sabo completed. And with that the fight started.

The ending of the fight had Sabo immensely worried. He had watched the fight completely and had seen Ace going all out at the first match but after the first five Ace didn't need to. All 'cause Luffy was not strong enough to have that force dumped on to him. He really hopes it was all a mistake and Luffy being Luffy.

But it had to be broken when he fought with his little brother after his fight with Ace, which was a draw. Luffy was weaker than the one he had seen in Dressrosa. Heck, he could tell that he was weaker than the time he had started his journey. One look on Ace told the same to him. They need to talk about this later.

"Aww," Luffy was pouting. "I could have won!"

Luffy had lost and won only two three matches, which was not good at all. His Haki was the only one which had made him victorious in those. His Haki was in the best shape just like how it had been when he had became the Pirate King. But his strength had a drastic drop because of which his armament haki couldn't stay for long.

"Next time, Lu," Sabo said giving him a smile. He is really happy that Luffy is not like Ace, otherwise he would be blaming himself as a burden. But he isn't. He is their baby brother and they will protect him with their life if needed.

"Come on, let's hunt something and eat," Ace said, and in response each of their stomach growled, making them chuckle.

This was how most of the nights of the trio started to pass.

On one Friday morning, they were again early to rise to catch their breakfast. It was good for them to spend their time early in the dinning hall, rather than hear the screeches of Ron Weasley who looked offended at them sharing a bed. Well, if their room mates would have learned about them sneaking off every night, there would be more of a commotion from the Weasley. He literally tried hanging with them but his insults on them, made Luffy pissed off on him repeatedly.

After getting breakfast, Luffy plopped on the table sleeping soundly, before a few whispers made onto his ear.

"There, look."

"Where?"

"Between the blonde kid and the one with with freckles."

"Sleeping kid?"

"Did you see his face?"

"Is that...?"

"Yeah, Harry Potter. What's he doing there?"

"Why is he hanging with them?"

This went on and on, pissing Sabo and Ace who were sipping their coffee or hot chocolate milk. Ace glared darkly at the kids, making them leave the table instantly. Sabo was ignoring the voices, and speaking to Ace in hushed voice.

"We have Potions today," He said distracting Ace from the kids, who were treating their brother as a messiah for a thing he doesn't even remember.

Ace gritted his teeth, knowing what it meant. Whatever they have heard about the Snape guy they didn't like it at all. He will probably target them.

"I seriously don't want to go to his class. He pisses me off with the way he stares at us."

"I wish we could skip it," Sabo sighed next to him. That is when Merry came in with a letter and perched on top of Luffy's sleeping crown, pecking him but was unable to wake him up.

Sabo shook Luffy who was still lightly snoring. Ace whispered for the promise of chocolate milk, which was still in his cup, since he kept on refilling it. Luffy woke up instantly. Merry perched on top of his shoulder hooting. Sabo passed some grains to the little bird. And Luffy grinned at the cup placed before him and gulped it down in a go.

"Your letter," Sabo said passing the letter to Luffy who tore the envelope open.

"Dear Harry,

I know you get Friday afternoons off, so would you like to come and have a cup of tea with me around three?

I want to hear all about your first week. Send us an answer back with Merry.

Hagrid."

Luffy took five minutes to read, before grinning widely. "Yay! We gotta meet Giant-ossan!" Luffy did his little dance of excitement, before jumping. "Let's go! Let's go!"

"As much as I want to go, we have classes, Lu!" Ace groaned.

"We can go after it," Sabo added making Luffy pouty, before a grin made its way to his face. Sabo quickly wrote the reply for Luffy. Boy, he still wasn't able to hold his quill, leave the words. They need to do something, if they want Luffy to pass the exams at least. May be the Muggle pens might work.

"Then let's go and finish those classes!" And off they were.

Potions lessons took place down in one of the dungeons. It was colder there than up in the main castle, and would have been quite creepy enough without the pickled animals floating in glass jars all around the walls, for the normal kids. But the brothers weren't normal. The animals in the glasses only fascinated them and made them look forward for the class, even if they didn't want to.

The man, Professor Snape, was interesting. He had an intimidating air, for at least the eleven years old. But for the brothers who had fought till death and seen death it was nothing to be afraid off. They had gone through Garp's training and lived it off, what else can be more frightening that him?

They all took their seats, the classroom was set up into tables that were made for five to sit at, Ace, Sabo, Luffy, Hermione and a mildly late Ron chose one of the tables.

Snape, like Flitwick, started the class by taking the roll call, and like Flitwick he stopped at Asher and Felix, scrutinizing them with his eyes, before moving of to other names. He completely stopped at Harry's name.

"Ah, yes," He said, almost like a whisper, "Harry Potter. Our new celebrity."

Luffy didn't even look interested in the man's words. But some like Draco Malfoy and his friends Crabbe and Goyle sniggered behind their hands.

Snape finished calling the names and looked up at the classes.

"You are here to learn the subtle science and exact art of potion making," He began. He spoke in barely more than a whisper, but they caught every word. Like Professor McGonagall, Snape had the gift of keeping a class silent without effort.

"As there is little foolish wand-waving here, many of you will hardly believe this is magic. I don't expect you will really understand the beauty of the softly simmering cauldron with its shimmering fumes, the delicate power of liquids that creep through human veins, bewitching the mind, ensnaring the senses... I can teach you how to bottle fame, brew glory, even stopper death, if you aren't as big a bunch of dunderheads as I usually have to teach."

More silence followed the short speech. Even Luffy who was bouncing and chirping in any class was uncharacteristically quiet. Ron was giving weird looks at them and Hermione was on edge of her seat and looked desperate to start proving that she wasn't a dunderhead.

"Felix Black!" Said Snape suddenly. "What would I get if I added powdered root of asphodel to an infusion of wormwood?"

Sabo smirked a bit, and minutely saw Hermione's hand going up. He had known the man would do something cheap like this.

"Asphodel and wormwood makes a sleeping potion so powerful that it is known as the Draught of Living Death, sir." Sabo stated calmly, giving more information than was needed.

Snape's lips pressed into a thin line at the perfect answer he got. He narrowed his eyes at him, before looking at Ace.

"Asher Black!" Snape's lips curled into a sneer, feeling that he would win this time. "Where would you look if I told you to find me a bezoar?"

Ace noted what Snape was excepting from him and grinned. He was going to prove him wrong with a single sentence and make him shut the hell up. "I would look into a goat's stomach, Professor."

Snape was visibly thinking if he should take a chance at Luffy, when he finally asked.

"Now, our celebrity, Potter. What is the difference between monkshood and wolfsbane?"

Hermione's hands went up once again while Ace and Sabo's anger was rising. The Professor hadn't learned his lesson of being proven wrong.

"The words!" Luffy said with such a confident grin, that even the teacher paused momentarily. But soon enough the class started howling in laughter. Luffy looked impressed with his work, while Ace snickered a little.

"Tut, tut" he sneered, "Fame clearly isn't everything." He ignored Hermione's hand and the dark glares from the twins. Seriously, they should be in Slytherin with those dark looks on their faces, Snape thought.

"Fame?" Harry Potter cocked his head at an unnatural length. For a moment, he got scared if his neck would break. Then the boy pouted.

"But I am no hero!" The boy said with a frown, making Snape feel a little guilty somewhere in his heart.

"Let's try again, Potter," Snape said ignoring the boy's 'nonsense'. "What is Veritaserum?" He asked a simple question.

Luffy blinked at the longest word he heard till now. Didn't someone say to look into a place if he does not get a words meaning? Oh! Yeah!

"Can I have a dictionary?" Luffy asked with his D grin. The students who knew what it meant started snickering.

"What?" Snape asked, completely baffled and at the edge of losing his calm facade. "What is that?"

"A place where I can get the meaning of looong words!" Luffy chirped and Snape found himself losing it.

Ace and Sabo kept glaring at the man, if he would do anything which would be rash, then they would not let him get away with it easily. Professor or not. They don't care.

"Is this a joke to you, Potter?" Snape asked his narrowed and angry eyes. Luffy blinked in confusion.

"Huh?" He said completely confused. He had only asked for a dictionary to answer the man's words and he is now blaming him. Luffy pouted.

Before Snape could trash on Harry, the door to his potions room opened.

"Blaise Zabini," Snape said looking at the boy, who had been guided by another second year Slytherin. The teachers have told him about his condition of unable to find classes, but seriously even he wasn't ready for the answer which he got.

"Seriously!" The boy groaned walking up to a seat, which was just at the back of Harry Potter. "Why the hell you change the classes? And why not tell me?"

Snape got a tick mark on his head. The boy was blaming him for all the classes he comes late? Or gets lost? He really needs to ask someone to monitor the boy. Well, he can't cut his own student's marks, so he ignored the words and continued where he left.

"Ten points from Potter for making fun in my class," He said. He swore to not meet the boy's innocent eyes blinking at him again. Before anyone could interject he started speaking again.

"For added information, a bezoar will save you from most of the poisons. As for monkshood and wolfsbane, they are the same plant, which goes by name of aconite. Veritaserum is a truth potion. Well? Why aren't you all copying these down?"

The room filled with the noise of sudden rummaging for quills and parchment.

Snape didn't like the trio who claimed to be brothers. It was Felix and Asher Black's father who got Lily killed. And Harry Potter? He was a nuisance that was a painful reminder of his past. But even so, there was something odd about the boys which he couldn't put a finger on. The boys were a tight knit. No one can see them separate ever. Always walking, talking, going to libraries and etc. together.

Heck, they were nothing like their Dad's and Mom's, expect for a few details on their face. Harry's eyes were of Lily's and that's where the comparison ended. Asher's eyes were that of Sirius's with his black mop of semi wavy hair. Felix got his mother's ocean blue eyes with the blonde hair. But they were whole different person! If they hadn't said their names, no one could even tell who they were.

As much as he knows, Potter was sent to Dursleys to live and the twins were raised by their grandmother until she died and then with their house elf. But they acted as if they had known each other for years! But that was ludicrous, Snape can attest that Potter would not have seen the twins at all, before meeting up in the Hogwarts Express most likely. Moreover it doesn't help to know that the boys parents were on other side. One who betrayed his best friend and took Harry's parents away. Why be friends even? How could a pure blood who supported Dark Lord be siding with Potter? Was it due to sympathy? Or was it due to their lack of proper upbringing?

Professor Snape's attention snapped to Potter who was trying to hold his quill, only for it to slip from his hands and make a mess of himself.

"What do you think you are doing?" Snape snapped at the boy, whose ink was drawled on the copies, and not a single word was clear.

"I'm writing," The boy grinned at him, making him freeze for a minute.

He is trying to be a bad guy and here is the boy smiling at him. His hesitation saved the boy from his fury as that was enough time for his copy to be miraculously changed to a scribbled copy having all the points he had said. He knew one of his self proclaimed brothers have slid it to him, but Snape couldn't muster courage to scold the boy, when the boy kept on giving him the bright sunny smile.

Snape coughed. "Now get in pairs and open your books to page twelve, we're going to brew a potion to cure boils."

The brothers were separated, each being set with the others. Like Luffy got set with Neville, and the brothers hoped no disaster would come into the room and Neville would know what he was doing.

Sabo was set with Ron, who kept glaring him and telling how he didn't deserve to be Luffy's brother or be in Gryffindor. The boy was pissing him off to be honest, but he ignored the boy and prepared the potion, without the help of the blabbering boy. If this continues, he feels he needs to get an ear muff before coming to the class. He could barely control his fire when he accused him and Ace of planning to murder Luffy, 'cause their Dad failed. He was grateful that Ace wasn't here to hear it.

Ace was set up with Hermione who was giving him looks of disapproval and doing everything on her own. She even asked if the things everyone is telling about their Dad true. He explained her patiently that he is innocent but it was okay if she doesn't understand. They were about to talk more about it, when a blast sounded from where Luffy was with Neville.

To their relief, Luffy was perched on top of the desk with a whimpering Neville. But the whole floor was covered in potions, making everyone stand on their stools before the potion could reach them. By the looks of the room, a small bomb had blasted where Luffy and Neville were working. They were covered in smoke and some cuts. It looks like before the potion could cover Neville, Luffy had pulled the boy up, saving him from serious damage.

"Idiot boys!" Snape snarled, clearing the spilled potion away with one wave of his wand. "I suppose you added the porcupine quills before taking the cauldron off the fire?"

"You, Potter, why didn't you tell him not to add the quills? Thought he'd make you look good if he got it wrong, did you? That's another five point you've lost for Gryffindor."

Ace and Sabo had enough by now and fuming at the sight of their brother's blinking face, which showed pure confusion. Snape was targeting specially him continously, which wasn't fair.

"If you would allow, Professor, we would like to take Harry and Neville to infirmary," Sabo said with gritted teeth, making Ace go for Luffy at once. Sabo supported Neville and took off from the class before Snape could stop them.

Once out of the castle, the silence broke, "Thank you," Neville said to the three of them.

"No problem," Luffy said cheerfully, already jumping and running.

"You aren't hurt, Lu?" Sabo asked and looked at Luffy and found the boy okay, but still he needed to go to the infirmary.

"I'm not," Luffy said wiping his spot covered face with his robes, showing his unscathed face.

"We still need to go for Neville," Ace said supporting the boy from the other side. His legs were showing burns, making it difficult for him to walk.

"Don't protest," Sabo whispered to Neville who was looking ready to retort. "If we don't take you to infirmary, he also won't go and we don't want that."

"Is he always full with this much energy?" Neville whispered back seeing Harry jumping up and down and skipping the stairs with ease.

"Yah, he is a ball of energy," Sabo said with a fond smile, before turning to Neville and addressing an important question since the moment he had seen Luffy's rapidly paling face. "Please, tell me he didn't try to drink the potion or threw all the ingredients in the cauldron?"

"Ah, about that," Neville looked guilty. "He might have drank when I was not seeing."

"MONKEY D. LUFFY!" Ace roared and Luffy must have felt the impending doom which was hanging on his head because he had started running.

"Aaghhh!" Luffy shouted in the clutch of Ace holding him in a place. "I swear... I-I di-didn't drink the potion." The sweating and trembling voice told it clearly that the boy was lying.

"How many times did 'Bo and I told you that you are not supposed to drink it?!" Ace held the boy in choke hold.

After a few minutes...

The black and blue boy was getting a piggy bag ride on Ace without protesting. walking.

"I'm sowwy."

Neville sweat dropped at the sight. But he was curious as to why the twins would call Harry Monkey D. Luffy. Was it a code name?

Sabo saw the confusion in the boy's face and said, "If we want this idiot to live, then we need to keep him within our eye sight." He didn't want to address the question of why calling Luffy Luffy. Well, he needs to talk to Ace about it. They can't be sure that there wasn't any enemy or anything in this world. There weren't ready to fight Akainu or the likes of him.

"Is he that bad?" Neville asked, wincing at the boy and monetarily forgetting about the code name.

"A lot!" Ace said, still angry. They hurried to the infirmary. Neville got treated for the boils and Luffy got the medicine to prevent anything bad to happen to his internal organs.

A/n:

Hello guys! Sorry for being dead here for so long! And sorry for a short chapter too. Actually I have chapters written till ch 8 I guess but they are unedited. Also, with this story I was facing a little difficulties somewhere which can probably be considered as the over whemling ideas which I was getting.

But I have decided now that I am going to write this story how I want not how others would like.

Some facts I would like to make clear about the story are:

1. Don't expect shipping in the story. It's a big headache for me. So, it's a no.

2. No romance too.

3. Straw hat pirates would be coming in the story but they will be entering slowly. I don't want to be blasted by thinking ten povs.

4. The updates won't be regular at all. It can be once in two weeks or one and half weeks. It depends greatly right now. Since my idiot mind decided I have to write 'The Morning Sun Will Rise!' and rewrite 'Second Chance'. I really don't know why I am starting three fanfics altogether but that's fine

5. Also I am a student so I hope my fellow readers who are students might understand the struggle of submitting assignments in time and the burden of monthly tests and exams( which I have this week starting from Wednesday, why do we go to schools or colleges?).

That sums everything up. Sorry for making you all wait.

Have a good day/night.