The Reaping of Time

"By a route obscure and lonely
Haunted by ill angels only…
I have reached these lands but newly…
From a wild weird clime that lieth, sublime,
Out of SPACE – out of TIME"
- Edgar Allen Poe, "Dream-Land"

I

It was the subtle things that struck him first, the tiny miniscule changes. The trees of the woodland were shorter with lack of age and were loaded down heavily with snow, making them decidedly less sinister. The path to the castle was lined with rose bushes that stood at full bloom despite the weather and season. Stone gargoyles sat upon the towers of the entrance to the grounds, icicles hanging at their spread wings and just inside, a large birdbath was placed, water frozen over, white and still.

Hagrid's cabin sat in the same corner of land near the Forbidden Forest, long tendrils of grey smoke rising from the cobblestone chimney. The pumpkin patch was in a different area of land set off to the west than to the east of the house. There were no cages holding magical beasts, causing the space around the home to seem empty. A small black pup, which he knew to be the boarhound Fang, was chasing crows around in front, yipping happily.

The castle had not changed much, not that he really expected it too. The towers stretched to the sky, spires climbing high. The arched windows gleamed in the bright winter sunlight. The castle's appearance struck happiness within him as this was how it should be. Hogwarts was not supposed to represent the dark and cold that came with the cruel hands of war and death.

There were students up toward the front, playing gaily in the snow and their laughter and happy chatter rang clear in his ears, reminding him of days that seemed so long ago. Some of the students took advantage of the clear crisp air as a chance for a flight over the Quidditch pitch. He noticed with a cringe that some of the broomsticks had stopped, their owners watching them curiously.

He could feel their eyes on him. He always could.

"People are staring." He stated, fists clenching, eyes darting. "We should have gone in through Honeydukes. This is too open."

The girl beside him smiled, softly and almost sadly. She gently massaged his tense fingers open and threaded her gloved hand in through his bare one.

"It's ok, Harry," she said, stopping in front of him. She tenderly pressed her fingertips to his pale cheek, making him look at her. "There will be much more to come and if we went in through Honeydukes that would have been both a blessing and a curse. After all what we have done once in the castle anyway? It's best to go in through the front door, less suspicious that way."

"But Voldemort-"

"Mate, it's not like You Know Who is going to come out from behind a bush to attack you or anything. Remember he doesn't know you because you don't even exist yet," said a tall red headed boy as he clapped him on the shoulder and shook him a bit. "Relax, Harry, and let's get to the castle before we freeze."

Harry let the boy wrap his arm around his shoulders and lead him on up the path but he stopped when the girl's hand slipped out of his. He turned around and looked at her. She stood still, her frizzy brown hair blowing in the wind. Her eyes were set off to the west and she stood motionless, breath being her only movement.

"Hermione?"

Her brown eyes were lit up in wonder and a kind of tender melancholy. She smiled at them and promptly walked off of the path into the snow.

"Oi! 'Mione, what are you doing?"

Harry let his eyes move from his companion to her destination. She was treading her way to a group of students in the snow. He watched them, automatically counting their number as five. His heart constricted as he saw a flash of red hair and heard a laugh so familiar, from his memories of years past. He looked toward the boy and in an instant, his friend seemed to understand. The words he spoke had no need only to reassure them both.

"Come on, Ron… She's found them..."

"Padfoot, really, I am trying to read," exclaimed a short, hazel eyed boy as he tried to retrieve a worn, leather bound book from his friend. "Give it back."

He was met with a laugh; the boy clapped the other on the back, grey eyes sparkling brightly. He shook his black hair from his eyes as he smiled at his comrade, mischief shown in his stance and every movement. His merriment became great barking guffaws as the shorter boy was tackled from behind and to the ground by a young man in glasses, followed then by a red-haired girl and a short pudgy boy.

"For Merlin's sake, get off me!"

"Really, Moony, you should have more fun. I mean at times you act so… so… Mr. Padfoot cannot seem to find the word. Help me if you would, Mr. Prongs."

James Potter looked up, his glasses lying lopsided on his nose. A thoughtful look crossed his face. "Mr. Prongs believes that the appropriate term would be… unmarauderish!"

"That's not even a word, James," scoffed the girl, rolling limberly off the dog pile.

"If it wasn't for my sheer genius, the Map would be a worthless!"

"Sheer genius, he says," remarked Padfoot, black hair falling into sparkling grey eyes once more. He used the large tome to gesture towards mass of limbs. "Prongs' ego has finally grown large enough that even Moony is affected. Before you know it even dear Wormtail will be rumpling his hair and sweet Tiger Lily will be stealing the snitch from under Madame Hooch's nose."

"Hey!"

"I'll have you know, Sirius, that I made him put back that dreadful monstrosity," the girl stated, flicking her hair over her shoulder.

Sirius Black raised his eyebrow in incredulity. "Mr. Padfoot does think that the lady lies."

"I have never said a lie in my entire life, Mr. Black!"

"Touché."

"Umm… excuse me," interrupted a soft feminine tone into their friendly banter.

Looking up at the girl, the trio of ruffled boys slowly disentangled themselves. The boy, Moony, on the bottom wiped the snow off of his sweater, walked up to grey eyed friend, who was staring at the small group, and wrenched his book out of limp hands. He stopped and followed the others gaze and a gasp swept past his lips. His companions came to stand by his side and stared much like he was doing.

The first thing that was odd was that none of them had ever seen the intruders before, being as they looked close to their own age they could not have been students. They would have known or, at least, recognized them. However, they seemed rather ordinary at first glance but the longer the golden eyed boy stared the more their eccentricities caught his attention.

The girl that had spoke had a glassy appearance to her chestnut eyes almost as if tears had been forced away. She brushed her very frizzy hair from her face, drawing attention to the dragon skin gloves on her hands. Despite the fact that dragon skin gloves were very rare and extravagantly expensive, she did not have the haughty appearance of a wealthy pureblood witch. She seemed kind and gentle and very comfortable in her pale blue sweater (adorned with a navy 'H') and faded muggle jeans.

The boy, that had walked up beside the girl and slowly slid his exposed hand through her covered one, had a short crop of black hair that seemed to have a permanent bed head look. He wore small silver spectacles over emerald eyes. He had an earring in his left ear that dangled a small claw which appeared to belong to a dragon. He was dressed in a long black trench coat over a dark green sweater (with a black 'H'). He fingered at a necklace, an ordinary silver chain holding a lion head pendent with ruby jeweled eyes on it. He looked off to the side avoiding the ones in front of him.

Lastly, a red haired boy jogged up to the two, appearing rather lax in his baggy clothes and windswept locks. He went to stand by the other boy and clasped him on the shoulder. He wore jeans that were loose on him and his maroon sweater (with a yellow 'R') had rode up on him showing a glimpse of a platinum Muggle-made belt buckle with an antique etched knight upon it. He smiled a bit at the group but quickly looked away and whispered something in the other's ear, who chuckled, almost nervously, at what he had said.

"We're sorry to interrupt but we were wondering if you could show us to Headmaster Dumbledore's office. I am worried that we will get lost. But if you can't, I am sure we can find someone else to assist us." Her brows furrowed and a sheepish look crossed her lightly freckled face. "We will just do that. You seemed to be enjoying yourselves. I'm dreadfully sorry; we'll go now."

They turned to walk away but the hazel eyed boy, Moony, called them back. "Wait!" – he effectually missed the trio's soft smiles, as if they were expecting this all along – "I can show you. I have to ask him something today anyway." He walked up to the girl offering his hand in greeting. "My name's Remus Lupin."

"Hermione Granger," she declared sticking out her unoccupied hand for him to shake. When his hand clasped hers, a small flicker of emotion, perhaps worry but it seemed dimmer, crossed her eyes. However, it was gone as swiftly as the wind. She smiled brightly and introduced the dark haired boy, who was still holding her other hand and looking determinedly at the ground, as 'Harry Connor' and the red haired boy, who smiled softly at the group and looked away just as quickly as before, as 'Ron Faris'.

"Are you going to be students?" asked Sirius, leaning languidly against a small beech tree.

"Yes," responded Hermione, the two boys staying oddly silent. "Seventh years; we are really excited. Hogwarts is the most esteemed school of magic in Britain. We have heard a lot of great things about it and I have always dreamed of attending here."

James and the red haired girl, Lily, began to walk hand in hand beside Remus who led the strangers toward the castle. Lily was studying the two boys that had yet to utter a single word to herself or her companions. They walked together in companionable silence but she seemed to notice that they sent each other secretive smiles throughout their friend's dialogue. She did not necessarily think it suspicious of anything appalling but it was peculiar. In fact, a lot about them appeared bizarre such as their muggle clothing and separate items of great value, but she dared not mention it in front of them.

"So where have you attended school before?" she asked, brushing her flaming strands from her gemstone eyes.

"We were doing independent study," the bushy haired teen said this in such a way that echoed finality with a smart, brisk coldness. None of the five Hogwarts students were comfortable enough with the newcomers to speak anymore on the subject.

"What classes are you taking for your NEWTs?" asked the pudgy boy, who had jogged up to stand between Remus and Hermione. He smiled kindly at the three newcomers but only Hermione appeared to register his presence, greeting him with a smile and sadness lurking in her eyes. The other two seemed not to even acknowledge that he existed as they didn't even look in his direction. Two looks of various degrees of feeling seemed to cross their faces at the time he spoke, but the source was unidentifiable.

"We are all taking Defense Against the Dark Arts, Transfiguration, Potions, Care of Magical Creatures and Charms. I am taking Arithmancy, Herbology and History of Magic while the boys will just be taking Astronomy instead."

Remus and Lily shared a glance at the girl's long list of NEWT level classes but dared not mention it.

"What houses do you think you'll be in, you think? You know about the houses, right?" asked James. He pulled out a golden snitch from his pocket and let it drift from his hand slightly before he quickly grabbed it. The red haired girl looked at him in a disapproving manner for his actions but she spoke not a word. Sirius gave her a pointed look that clearly said 'I told you so'.

"We'll be in Gryffindor," said Hermione softly and she squeezed Harry's hand tightly, giving him a small smile. The group assumed that he was concerned of being separated from his friends. Remus thought the boy looked as if he might not be able to handle being split from his friends as he had not let go of Hermione's hand since he joined her side earlier.

"What house are you lot in?" asked Hermione.

Remus broke from his short reverie to see a pair of hauntingly familiar emerald eyes stare straight at him from within an equally familiar face. A cold clammy feeling crept up his neck and the skin of his scalp prickled horribly. A nauseous feeling slowly took over his body and he stopped walking as if he was, suddenly, unable to take another step. The emotions felt similar to the symptoms inflicted by a Dementor, the guards of the wizard prison, Azkaban, however, it left as soon as Harry broke eye contact.

"We are all Gryffindors," spoke up the girl from her place beside James, both of them oblivious to Remus's brief battle. "It would be lovely to have a roommate. I am the only seventh year Gryffindor girl. I mean I like my privacy but it would be nice to have someone to talk to in my house that isn't younger or these idiots."

Lily rolled her eyes at Padfoot, whose face was showing exaggerated fake shock. "Tiger lily, you should be ashamed of yourself. We all know that James is an overbearing and jealous boyfriend, and Remus is a bookish prat who has McGonagall wrapped around his finger and Peter is a sewer rat by his stench but that is no reason to take it out on the rest of us!"

"That would only then leave you, Sirius," Remus breathed out, in mock exasperation, fingers rubbing at his temples. It was the smile on his face that gave away his words as merely an act.

Sirius let a grin spread across his handsome angular face. "Exactly, I am the innocent one."

'Tiger lily' laughed, a crystal laugh that rang clear and clinging like bells, "You have never in your life been innocent, you great mutt."

No one noticed the pained look that crossed Harry's face at her words except Hermione and Ron who discreetly comforted him as the others watched as Sirius approached the girl from behind.

"And you would know wouldn't you, Lily, love?"

He wriggled his eyebrows at her and caught her around the waist. She let go of her boyfriend's hand in surprise. James looked as though this display was an everyday occurrence and walked away shaking his head. Remus motioned for the others to follow him but the trio stayed rooted to the spot watching pair in astonishment.

Lily turned in the embrace and wrapped her arms around him. She smiled at him leaned up as if to kiss him but blew on his ear. His eyes grew wide as she pulled back from him. She pushed him back roughly her whole demeanor changing. She pointed his wand right between his eyes, her having pulled it out of the back pocket of his trousers.

"Petrificus Totalus! That should teach you, you ignorant canine! I will not take part in your sexual innuendos as that is how rumors are started! James may have no problem with it but I certainly do! I will not have my reputation blemished! I am Head Girl so don't youdare think you can outsmart me! I will not let people believe I am cheating on James! I love him, you dimwitted, selfish animal!" Face as red as her hair she stomped away, throwing his wand into the snow in her anger.

Remus sighed, muttering the counter curse at the prone boy's figure, as Lily marched past him on her way toward the castle. James ran ahead, struggling to keep up with her. Peter walked over to help up his very disgruntled friend, who took off his robes and scarf to shake off the snow, scowling darkly. Remus turned back to the group and gestured his hand in the boy's direction.

"Pay no attention to the spats between Sirius and Lily. They are quite frequent and I am sure you will get used to them. Sirius really doesn't know when he is crossing lines that don't need to be crossed."

And for some strange reason, Remus got the feeling that these three uncanny people already knew that.

Indeed, later that night the three strangers had been sorted in Gryffindor and were occupying a dark corner. Remus watched them a moment over the top of his book, listening to their whispered conversation and only catching a few clear words. Something about them made him feel incredibly uneasy. Sirius would claim he was simply paranoid.

Remus preferred to think it was Moony in him trying to tell him something. All in all, Remus would not trust those three easily and he surely would try to make his friends wary as well.

'Try' being the key word. For it was true that no one could really make a Marauder do anything – especially if this Marauder was Sirius Black. Remus was not pleased when he glanced over at Sirius and noticed him staring at Hermione. His eyes were glazed and he just stared at her. Remus, quite used to this look on his mate's face, was not pleased in the least.

It would be just what they'd need for Hermione Granger to be Sirius' latest infatuation.

His eyes were jerked back to the trio as the redheaded boy, Ron, whispered harshly to Hermione and just loud enough that Remus heard every word. "And you listen to everything that Malfoy says, don't you, Hermione?"

Harry looked up from his hands and spoke quietly to his friends, speaking before any retort had left Hermione's lips. "He is listening to us."

Remus gasped as Harry looked straight up into his eyes and that horrible feeling rushed over him again. Suddenly, he could feel Moony clawing at his will even though the full moon was not for another week away. It felt as if the wolf had torn his conscious to shreds by the time Harry broke his gaze.

Remus watched with wide-eyed apprehension as Conner's other two companions looked up as well. With a suspicious narrowing of her eyes, Hermione lifted her wand and a pale blue circle dotted with six pointed stars surrounded the trio. She had warded them with a spell that Remus had never seen before and he would bet all the galleons he owned that it was powerful.

Nausea rose up within Remus and his stomach rolled horrible. Standing suddenly, he pushed his book haphazardly into his bag and stood, mumbling to Peter that he was going to the library.

Remus didn't even make it to the lavatory at the end of the Gryffindor hallway before he retched into a shadowed alcove.

"Nice going, Ron. We are not even here a whole day and already you are making them our enemies!"

"They are our enemies!" Hermione and Harry gave him almost identical looks of disbelief. "Essentially… at this particular time…" Ron scowled and held his hands above his head as if in surrender. "Fine, just tell me I'm an idiot!"

"You're an idiot, Ron." Harry deadpanned with a small smile on his lips. Ron grinned and gave Harry a light nudge with his fist.

Hermione sighed. "In any case, what's done is done. Potentially, however, it might make our mission a bit harder to accomplish, now that Remus believes us in league with Malfoy."

"We are in the past, Hermione."

Hermione simply glared at Ron who after a moment, colored darkly in the face. "Oh, you mean Lucius Malfoy."

Harry schooled his face and said in a sneering voice, "Ten points to Weasley for stating the bloody obvious!"

Hermione burst into giggles and Ron gave Harry a rueful look. "This mission is so we can get away from Snape, Harry!"

"Really?" Harry asked, eyes twinkling with shadowed mirth. "I thought it was so we can save the world from an evil half-reptilian madman."

"Well, that too."

Hermione rolled her eyes and effectively brought both boys back to reality. "Draco is supposed to contact us tomorrow."

"Not sodding Draco again!" Ron growled, earning another heated glare from Hermione.

"Well," Harry ventured, "Maybe he might let Snape send us the message. You know how Snape feels about Malfoy's –" Harry imitated quotation marks with his fingers and said once more in that sneering voice, "'penchant for social performance in the most atrocious fashion'."

Ron shook his head amicably. "Merlin, it's as if the man swallowed a dictionary."

Hermione shook her head, leaned over to give each a kiss on the cheek, and left wishing them goodnight. No one in the common room noticed the circle flare to life again allowing Hermione to leave – no one but Lily.

Lily watched with calculating eyes as Hermione made her way up the staircase. Lily made no move to follow her and when she trudged up to bed as well an hour later, the curtains on the new bed were pulled tightly shut. Lily merely shrugged and walked over to open the window, hoping to ease the stuffiness in the room.

As Lily pulled on her pajamas in silence, something caught her attention from the corner of her eye. The breeze came through the window and Lily watched as it blew open a small muggle spiral notebook that sat on the trunk at the foot of Hermione's bed. Lily looked back at her curtains watching them sway in the breeze and then back at Hermione's bed.

The drapes never moved with the wind. Instead they suddenly shone with that same faint blue light she had seen downstairs before dying gently again.

When Lily finally crawled into her bed, she found herself lying awake for a long time, wondering why Hermione would have reason to ward her bed as she slept.

Lily didn't think it could be because of anything good and the girl's warding certainly didn't make her roommate feel any safer.

In fact, Lily had never felt as paranoid in her entire life – and she couldn't really understand why.

The Great Hall was filled with the rustling, talking – and a few last-minute studiers – all crowded around their breakfast. The Marauders sat a few places away from the trio and every so often one of boys would give them a glance. Those that knew the Marauders knew that it could only mean trouble, but were simultaneously relieved that they were not at the center of their devious nature.

"We need to devise a plan," James declared earnestly and nudged a snoring Peter before he dropped his face into his cereal.

"For what exactly, Prongs?" Remus asked as he smeared jam heavily over a piece of toast.

"Is't i' ob'ious?" exclaimed Sirius with a full mouth. Remus winced and Sirius gulped hard. "Prongsie wants us to prank the newbies."

Remus went a tad pale and glanced over at Conner who was talking in undertones to Granger. "I really don't think that's wise, Padfoot."

"And why not?" Peter asked yawning.

James beat Remus to it, grinning madly. "I think Moony believes it will dampen Padfoot's hopes with Granger."

Sirius had the grace to blush. "She's not my type," he mumbled.

Remus stared at him. "Are you kidding? I thought every female was your type."

"Yes and I'll go profess my undying love for McGonagall right now," Sirius growled.

"Please do," Lily grumbled as she slumped into the seat nearest James. "I could use some cheering up."

"Lily, are you okay? You don't look good." Lily glared at James, and stabbed some eggs menacingly. "…love."

Lily opened her mouth and looked over at her roommate. She finally closed her mouth and mumbled for them not to worry about it. Sirius was about press the issue – as always – when the owl post showed up – and someone screamed.

"What the bloody–!" Sirius exclaimed right before something sharp clipped his head.

He and the rest of the Great Hall looked on as a baby dragon landed in front of the new trio. The dragon was a gleaming emerald with a silver satin ribbon around its neck. It stuck its leg out and peered around at the students. The people that had been sitting near the trio had fled their seats and had their wands trained at it.

The three stared at the dragon and all those around them distinctly heard the redhead exclaim, "I'm going to kill that ferret!"

Hermione simply untied the letter and stood, her companions standing with her. Then, the trio began walking away while the dragon stayed put and just watched them leave. McGonagall was making her way from the head table when the tiny dragon growled and immediately burst into flames.

James plopped heavily back down into his seat and whispered, "Bloody hell…"

"Well, I believe that qualifies for Malfoy's habit of showing off."

"Obviously," Hermione said smartly as she headed straight for a shadowed corridor.

The boys elected to not say anything in response and merely followed her, mimicking her quick pace. After going down a small flight of steps, along with a few turns, they came to a large portrait of a bowl of fruit. Hermione leaned forward and gently tickled the pear in the painting. A rather girlish giggle emitted from the canvas and the portrait swung open to allow them into the kitchen.

Once the portrait clicked shut behind them, each seemed to visibly relax. A small house-elf came forward to assist them and after Harry asked for three Butterbeers, it popped out of existence, their drinks appearing on a nearby table. Each sat down at the small round table and the boys popped open the tabs of their drinks. Hermione seemed to ignore her drink for a moment as she laid the scroll in the middle and tapped it with her wand. It immediately flattened itself.

"Profari," she whispered and tapped it twice more with her wand. Suddenly, a voice began coming from the letter, reading it in its sender's voice.

"These temporal spells make it a bit difficult to send face to face transmittal spells, which is just as well for the longer I can avoid looking at Weasel's smock the better."

Ron glared at Hermione who giggled despite herself.

"Although, I can't help but wish I'd went with you. If I have to listen to barmy old Moody tell me 'Constant Vigilance' one more time I'm going to hex his eye into a marble! Constant vigilance, indeed, should listen to his own advice before he gets locked in a trunk again!

"In any case, I suppose I should get to the point. Severus was unable to recover the Marauder's Map from our time. The charms were destroyed by the heat when the castle burned, though the paper was still intact. So, in order to find the cup, you'll have to get the original. How you are supposed to do that is unknown to me! However, Granger's intelligent she'll figure it out and if not then Potty will have to use whatever Slytherin gifts he's buried and make our Head of House proud.

"Severus also believes that there is reason to believe that the Grey Lady would know where Ravenclaw's quill is. There is a chance it wasn't used for a horcrux but Severus says that you can leave no stone unturned. We haven't found out exactly how to destroy the locket. The snake and the diary were obviously the easy ones. – By the way, the Dark Lord is still cursing your name for setting his great honking reptile on fire. – Severus believes that the properties of the metals when mixed with dark magic have to do with their acidity. He's researching this when in contact with light magic. His thesis is that somehow using light magic causes an adverse reaction and eats away at the caster's magical core."

"He's talking about Dumbledore trying to destroy the Gaunt ring," Harry whispered, remembering the old man's shriveled, blackened arm. Hermione nodded and Ron let out a soft grunt, twisting a bit in his seat.

"Severus should be in touch within the week. If anything unseen happens – which is likely given that you are the Golden Trio – the dragon will keep you safe. Bet you thought it was my" – Draco's voice changed from quietly smug to slick and condescending – "'penchant for social performance in the most atrocious fashion'." A small snort came over the transmition. "Potty, be careful. Don't want you to kill someone." Harry's face grew dark with hidden pain. Ron clasped his hand on his friend's shoulder. "Severus finished the batch of your potion. It's already shrunk.

"I suppose that's all I have to say! Have fun, Potty and Weasel! …And Granger, keep them from doing something stupid."

Suddenly, the parchment erupted in a cloud of shining green dust and when it evaporated, a small box sat in its place. Hermione quickly grabbed it and placed it in her bag, standing and placing the strap around her neck. Harry and Ron stood as well.

"Where are we off to, Hermione?" Ron asked as the painting swung outward and they stepped from the kitchens.

"NEWT Potions," she replied and they hurried down the hallway in the direction they had come.

"Just what I always wanted," Harry sneered, eyes flashing with bitterness, "to see Slughorn's face again."

By the time, Lily followed the trio on to Care of Magical Creatures she was certain that they just weren't normal.

All through Potions they had added steps within the given steps of the assignment and yet ending with three utterly perfect brews. Each of their books was used and all of them riddled with the same spiky spidery handwriting in the margins. Professor Slughorn had seemed a little too impressed when the trio had ended class with the three best potions – only rivaling Lily herself and Severus Snape.

Snape had been suspicious, eyeing the trio skeptically from behind his lank, greasy hair.

Lily had been surprised. However, she had the sneaking feeling that she shouldn't be.

But the turning point – despite the warding, the potions and even the dragon – was when she figured it would be her duty as Prefect to show them to their next class.

When, in order to gain their attention, she had reached to place her hand lightly on Conner's arm, he had jerked away so violently that he nearly lost his balance. He placed his hand straight out in front of him as if he was going to curse her without a wand. His green eyes had looked wild from behind his glasses – reminding her of a cornered animal.

Lily had been frozen to her spot, fear fighting its way up her back, making her spineless and taking away all courage she had. Again she had been surprised and again she had the suspicion that she shouldn't have been.

Granger had almost immediately jumped into Conner's line of vision, talking to him in a low and fast tone – and almost certainly Latin. Conner had calmed down and stared at Granger for a long time, his eyes glassy and weary. He mumbled his apologies to Lily and walked off. Granger had looked at Lily as well, mumbling about how they needed to get to class before running off to catch up with her friends.

Shaking and wishing she had a calming draught, Lily followed them outside into the snow. Her heart was slowly coming back to a normal rate and the frightened tears in her eyes had chilled in the winter air. However, her brain just felt blank and her limbs felt as if they weighed thousands of pounds, holding her down.

For some reason, she felt violated and again, she felt as if she shouldn't be surprised.

Professor Kettleburn was off toward the edge of the forest, a bloody sack beside his cane. His dark beady eyes sized up the students from beneath bushy white brows. His wizened face was as grim as ever, a few strands of his white hair framing his dark blotchy cheeks and the rest pulled back at the nape of his neck. His two-fingered hand gripped the carved eagle head of his wooden cane and the sleeve on his other arm swayed in the breeze with no arm to fill it.

Lily took her place beside Remus – who was as fortunately the farthest away from the trio. Remus stared warily at the bloody sackcloth and leaned over toward Lily, whispering, "I'm not feeling very comfortable with this." She was unsure how anyone could feel comfortable with Professor Kettleburn and his beasties.

"Alright, quiet down! Everyone can drop their bags and follow me. We are going into the Forest today."

Remus sighed and Lily felt her heart quicken once more, having the fleeting thought that today certainly would not be a healthy day.

The troop began their hike into the snow and then into the cold, dark, damp forest. Lily looked back behind her at the trio, noticing that they were perhaps the only ones who didn't look apprehensive. In fact, Faris leaned over to crack some joke to his friends and Lily watched as Granger giggled behind a dainty hand. Conner only smiled a bit, his eyes dark and shadowed and then suddenly he looked up into her own. Lily gasped and turned back to face the front of the group.

Kettleburn stopped in a small snowy clearing surrounded by tall, gnarled trees, the sack dropped beside him were he had been levitating it. Balancing himself on his cane, he leaned down and grasped the sack with his two fingers clasping hard. With a grunt he up ended the back and a headless corpse of what probably had been a stag.

Suddenly, the bushes off to the side of the clearing rustled and then parted as if allowing some invisible beast to pass by them. Hoof prints became embedded in the snow and the corpse was loosing pieces from being shredded off. The meat dangled in the air for a while before disappearing all together.

"Professor, what is going on?" asked a short Ravenclaw girl, shivering slightly, her gaze never turning away from the site.

Kettleburn didn't answer, but instead offered, "Does anyone want to take a guess as to what these animals are?"

"There's more than one? How can you tell?" came from a tall Hufflepuff boy beside Remus.

"Anyone want to answer your classmates?" Kettleburn asked, glancing at his class, sizing them up again, "No?"

"They are thestrals." Conner spoke up from the back of the group and the students parted to let him and his friends come forward. "There are three of them, two adults and one colt."

"Indeed," Kettleburn agreed, his black eyes watching the trio owlishly. "So you see them?"

Conner nodded, not looking at his professor and his friends nodded with him. Faris held a grimace on his face and didn't mention anything, not looking at the professor either. Granger nodded and said a quiet, "Yes, sir."

"How can you see them?" asked Fabian Prewett beside of Faris. Faris looked sick at the question and didn't answer, neither did his friends.

Kettleburn grunted to get their attention. "The only way a person can see thestrals is if they have seen a person die." His eyes went to the trio who denied his gaze. "… The only way…"

Conner walked forward and began to pet the invisible creature. Blood got on his hands and he didn't seem to care. Lily watched him, feeling pity for him as she saw tears glisten in the boy's eyes.

Then the paranoia began again. Something was wrong, too wrong with them and she decided that even if it killed her, she'd find out what.