Another stick snapped beneath Harry's foot and he froze, waiting for the cloaked figure ahead to whirl around at the noise. When they continued to move ahead at a steady pace, he breathed out in relief and pressed on.

Harry's fingers were slick with sweat and he knew it was the humid air of the Forest more than nerves. He figured they were near the swamp now, and it seemed like the person he was trailing was heading straight towards it. He muttered a spell to stop his glasses from steaming up and switched his wand to the other hand in order to wipe his palm across his jeans.

If anyone knew Harry was out here at this hour, alone and unprotected, he strongly suspected they'd form a committee to murder him.

After all, it was less than a year since the fall of Voldemort and while the Wizarding World pretended to no longer jump at moving shadows, Harry could see through the facade. People were still afraid and probably would be for a good long time.

For that reason, even though Hogwarts was safer than it had been for decades, Headmistress McGonagall had announced strict curfew and safety regulations upon the re-opening of the school. Harry honestly didn't know what it was about him and rules - they never seemed to get along - for now here he was again, breaking them.

Of course, it could all be blamed on circumstance. Harry had previously been atop the Astronomy tower, waiting for Firenze. He'd wanted to talk to the centaur about Hagrid. The half-giant had been looking exhausted and worn during classes, dark circles beneath his eyes and occasionally even stumbling while he walked. That morning he'd actually fallen asleep in the middle of a sentence during a lesson on bow-truckles. Harry was concerned and hoped Firenze had some insight into what was going on.

Firenze was usually on the Tower on a clear night like this. Tonight he'd apparently had other places to be. Harry had waited nearly an hour, pulling his cloak tighter around himself and gazing over the ramparts at the school grounds. He'd looked at Hagrid's little hut in the distance, the light in the window still on, and then movement near it caught his eye.

A familiar slight figure, hood obscuring his face, was edging quickly along the trees behind Hagrid's house. Malfoy.

Harry thought it strange, moving stealthily as he could under the Invisibility Cloak that he'd almost out-grown, that Malfoy would be out here at night. The little git had always feared the Forbidden Forest - even on day excursions with teachers. Malfoy stopped suddenly, before a patch of swamp grass with tendrils swirling in the pond before him. He seemed to be listening for something intently.

Harry's eyes narrowed as he crouched down, close enough to see Malfoy's expression as he glanced around him nervously. If the ferret was this unnerved, why was he alone?

Draco saw something then and his eyes lit up. There appeared to be no malice in his delight, but Harry's gut twisted as Draco suddenly pounced and came up with something in his hand. He inspected it, then gave a small laugh of triumph. Malfoy stuffed whatever it was into the pouch at his side and took off. Harry made to follow him again, but a suddenly loud crashing made him turn around.

Something big, slobbery and fanged leapt at his chest, knocking him flat on his back. "Agh!" he yelled, panicking, and tried to push the beast's crushing weight off him.

"Oi! Fang! What've ye got there!?"

Harry gasped and turned his face as a wet tongue lapped all over his face. The hood of his Cloak fell back and Hagrid lowered his crossbow with a look of astonishment. Just as quickly, bemusement and a little bit of crossness replaced it. "Harry, what the blazes you doin' out here in the woods? Leave off, Fang!"

The boar hound finally let Harry up and he struggled to his feet. "Hagrid!" he gasped, breathlessly. The half-giant gripped his flailing hand and pulled him the rest of the way up effortlessly. Hagrid scowled at him.

"I'm disappointed in ye. I unnerstand breakin' the rules when ye gotta, but there ain't no more reason now that Riddle's gone!"

"I saw Malfoy out here," Harry stated, then winced at the new look of exasperation on Hagrid's face. "He was looking for something and I think he found it!"

"Merlin's beard, Harry, you know what people are starting to say about you always running about after Malfoy all over the school?"

"But I --" It took a moment for the words to sink in and Harry stared dumbly. "Wait, what?"

"Exactly, that's what I said." Hagrid answered shortly and turned back to his hut. "And I know it ain't true. But you best stop trying to go after him, he and his family already paid their debts. Nobody even talks to them anymore; they're a shunned family."

Stunned and more than a little disturbed, Harry followed. "Well, he's not helping his image any by sneaking around the grounds at night."

Harry somehow missed the look of pure irony that Hagrid flashed him over his shoulder. "What do you suppose he was up to?"

"Maybe he lost something," Hagrid said dismissively.

Harry stopped in his tracks having a sudden horrible thought. "Maybe the Resurrection--"

Hagrid whirled fast for someone his size and Harry actually backed up a step. The half-giant's face was definitely angry. "Harry, I care for ye deeply and I'll say this as gently as I can. Ye cannot be this daft having a mother like Lily Potter, so I think what's going on is that ye ain't using that noggin' o' yours as keenly as ye should be! Think, Harry! Ye really suppose Malfoy's gonna try to bring back Riddle? After what Riddle did to him and his family? Ye really think that?"

"No!" Harry managed, horrified he'd even for a moment let his mind run over that possibility. He remembered Malfoy's terrorized face as he was made to torture Rowle, remembered Voldemort's rage after the escape from Malfoy Manor. No, there was no reason Harry could think of that would prompt Draco to bring back his former master. He lowered his head, face heated. "No," he said again, quietly. "I just . . . I thought . . . I don't know."

When he next glanced up at Hagrid, he found the half-giant's expression had softened somewhat. "Oh, Harry. I understand now. Ye've been raised to fight a war. Now it's over, but you're still lookin' for danger cause it's what ye've always done."

Harry pressed his lips together and looked away, frustrated. Hermione had said the same thing to him, just as sympathetically, and so had Molly Weasley and even Percy. He was fed up with it, even if it did contain just a smidgeon of truth. His mind raced to find a subject.

"So what are you doing out here, Hagrid? You looking for trouble too?" Harry countered, looking pointedly at the crossbow. He was expecting denial from the half-giant or another scolding, but not for Hagrid's eyes to suddenly overflow with tears.

He let the crossbow drop, great chest heaving and let loose a great bawl that startled several night birds out of the trees. Harry frantically tried to shush him. "Hagrid, I'm sorry, I . . . I'm sorry! Please don't cry!"

"Harry, I failed! I failed 'em!" Hagrid dropped to his knees with a thud. "I was supposed to keep 'em all safe!" He struck the ground with his fist and caused a tremor beneath Harry's feet. Harry knelt next to him.

"Who? Supposed to keep who safe?" Harry asked, heart aching for his large friend.

"The . . . The Carrows, they . . . They took them all. The students asked me for 'help, but there was nothin' I could do!" Hagrid sobbed. Harry rubbed his back, awkwardly and looked around, but there was no Hermione to help cheer Hagrid up this time. It was just him and the sobbing half-giant, man to man. And Harry was bollocks at comforting people.

"Took who, Hagrid?" He asked, gently.

Hagrid snuffled, wiping his nose on his sleeve and looked up at Harry through weeping black eyes. "'Haven't you noticed, 'Harry? In the common rooms an' the dorms . . . All the students who couldn't stay last year on account o' their bloodlines . . . Haven't ye noticed at all?"

"Noticed what?"

"The animals . . ." Hagrid choked out and scrubbed at his face. "All the animals . . ."

Harry's racing mind finally clicked on an image: Crookshanks purring on Hermione's lap as she stroked him. Several girls passing through the room had slowed and watched, faces unreadable before turning away quietly.

Since he'd returned to Hogwarts, Seamus' rat no longer woke Harry up, chewing on the wood of his trunk. Dennis Creevey's incorrigible calico no longer jumped on the table and batted at the tie on his essay scroll or tried to trip him down the dormitory stairs by dashing between his ankles.

So many small things he hadn't noticed missing; there having been so much on his mind, but Harry at last understood what Hagrid meant.

With the exception of Hermione's, all the muggleborns' familiars had disappeared.

* * *

"Of course I remember," Luna said serenely, tying a bleating vegetable lamb to its stake with twine. Her breath came out cold in the night air as she stroked the plant-lamb's wool, trying to calm it. "The Carrows decided to send the unwelcome students after their families, after collecting their wands. But then Crabbe pointed out they ought to take the animals away as well. After all, if Muggleborns shouldn't have wands or magic, they shouldn't have familiars."

"Yeah," Neville said, bitterly. He didn't look at Harry, hadn't said anything above two syllables since Harry had brought the matter up. But now he seemed to have gained his voice back. "They took Filch's cat too, because he's a squib. They had no reason for it, just wanted to hurt him. And then they got the idea that the all the blood-traitors who needed to be taught a lesson should lose their companions too."

Harry looked at him and remembered how Neville had been a thorn in the side of the Carrows. "Trevor?" he ventured, almost afraid to.

Neville was silent for a moment, and looked up at the sky. There were a few stars out, but it was not as clear as it had been the previous night. Finally, he answered, almost too soft for Harry to hear. "I don't know. Some students, like me, got warning ahead and went to Hagrid with their familiars, but Crabbe and Goyle followed them and reported it. Hagrid saw the Carrows coming and let the ones he was entrusted with run off into the Forest. Better that than give them over."

"So that's what Hagrid's been up to. He's been searching every night for them?"

"That would explain why he's so tired during classes," Neville said. "I've tried telling him not to worry about it. Trevor would be impossible to find by now."

"Do you think he's dead?" Harry asked carefully.

Neville's mouth twisted. "I dunno. Probably. And if not, if he's been set loose out there, there's no chance I'd ever find him again. Not before some predator."

"You should always hope," said Luna as her sheep grazed upon the mossy growth around its stake. "Maybe he's found a lady frog."

Harry glanced back at Neville and was surprised to see a small smile on his face. "If Trevor's got my luck with girls, I doubt it."

"Oh certainly not," Luna agreed cheerfully. Harry stared at her, embarrassed at her candidness. "If he's got your luck with girls, he'd have at least five by now."

Harry snorted and tried to muffle his surprised laughter and Neville joined in, just as shocked.

"Yeah. Maybe," Neville said, shaking his head as he finished his last row of vegetable-lambs. In its early stages, the plant had to be treated under the moonlight, due to the sensitivity of the lambs' eyes to the sun. Neville had special permission from Professor Sprout to tend the plants after dusk and had invited Harry and Luna along for company. He'd invited several other people as well, but they'd all had plans.

As Harry struggled to get his lamb tied properly without being bitten, he could see why people had chosen to decline Neville's invitation. There was nothing glamorous about Herbology. Perhaps that was why Neville was so keen about it. Harry had to admit it was peaceful out here.

"Anyhow," Neville continued, "Taking away the animals certainly got the effect the Carrows wanted. They rounded them all up and put them in pens in a room in the lower dungeons. Crabbe kept walking around, telling all of us he was going to use Fiendfyre on the poor things on the next weekend, when all the Muggleborns were scheduled to leave."

"Please tell me he didn't," Harry replied quietly. He'd stopped what he was doing, appalled. His mind went to Hedwig in her cage, helpless to dodge the killing curse. That had been bad enough, but if she had burned -

"No, no, it didn't happen. The Carrows were going to let him torture a few before they went home, but they suddenly changed their minds and made everyone just stay in their dorms until it was time for them to board the Express home. They announced later that all the animals had been transported back to Diagon Alley to be sold to new wizards - real wizards who deserved them.

"It was a lie of course, although something nobody could prove. All we knew was that the animals were gone and the Carrows looked sour about it, so we don't think they've been killed. They aren't in the castle anywhere - not even their bones. We can be sure of that, because the house-elves searched and they know Hogwarts inside out," Neville finished.

"But where do you suppose they are?" Harry wondered.

"We have no idea. In a way, that hurts worse than if the Carrows had killed them. Whatever happened, it wasn't the Carrows idea and I really have a hard time seeing how Crabbe could have come up with a plan like that either."

"Yeah. Though I think Crabbe surprised all of us in the end," Harry said, darkly.

"He wasn't a very nice person," Luna agreed as her hands smoothed out the tangles the lamb was making of its vine. "Not even to his own housemates it seems. I talked to a girl who was crying in the bathroom. She told me what he did right after they got off the Express."

"A girl from Slytherin?" Neville asked, surprised.

"Yes. I think she said something he didn't want to hear. So he practiced a rather nasty spell on her cat."

Harry and Neville exchanged glances, guessing without words what that spell must have been.

"Did the poor thing survive?"

"I don't know. I didn't run into her much after that. She always seemed busy."

A sudden movement from the Forest made Harry turn his head. There was a pale green light flitting through the trees, and then it was extinguished. "Did you see that?" he asked, eyes straining through the dark.

Neville and Luna stopped and listened. Aside from the calls of night birds and the occasional bleat of restless pod-sheep, there was nothing. Harry saw the faint light again, farther on. Malfoy. It had to be.

"I'll be right back," he said lowly.

"Harry, you'll be careful won't you? It's on my head if anything happens to you," Neville reminded and sounded a little exasperated, but he didn't try to stop Harry.

"I'll be fine," Harry insisted. He remembered his Cloak was left up in the tower in his trunk and cast a disillusionment charm on himself instead.

Harry crept into the woods and onward after the flickering wand. He could hear Luna, asking whether Neville's grandmother still had a problem with tufted horasquonks in her attic. In the next few steps he was too far away to hear Nev's amused reply.