Summery: Something saved the Potters at the last second, but when they escaped, Harry was transported to the forests by Hogwarts. Now alone in the Forbidden Forest, what will happen to Harry?

An: Ok I have good news and bad news, the good news is I finally got my computer back! The bad news is the hard drive was completely cleared so I had to type all this chapter again, so it took me longer to get this updated. Sorry about that.

And A big thank you to all who review, it fills me heart with joy to read them, and when lacking inspiration I just look at them and I get inspired to write more! Keep them coming!

Oh and slytheringirl89, I would never pair Harry with Hermonie, or Ginny, not in a romantic relationship at least, NEVER! YOU CANT MAKE ME!… Ahem, sorry about that…

Well enjoy the chapter..

Chapter 4

Ced walked down the cold hallway, carrying a large overflowing cauldron, it was the food for the prisoners who ate this week. He pushed away all the hands that were reaching out through the bars that lined the walls, trying to grab him, and the cauldron he was carrying, but most were too weak to keep even a decent grip, let alone stop him from continuing forward.

They all gave deep moans of longing when the smell of the food reached them, and a few found a little bit of strength to reach into the cauldron before Ced could pull it away.

"Back you dogs!" he snarled and crushed someone's hand that was unlucky enough to get in his way, "You've all been fed three days ago, you can wait one more day!"

The prisoners all let out pain filled groans and kept up their reaching for him. Ced walked a little more quickly but the hands were starting to get too numerous again.

"Here now!" he shouted when someone with a particularly strong grip got hold of his arm.

"Stop that or I will call the Dementors!" That made person loosen his grip and all the prisoners start to scream again. He pulled himself away from the person grabbing him and went on.

He was entering the VIP's area now, (Very, Important, Prisoner) were the worst of the worst was held, the Lestranges, the girl with the pretty hair Sparoehawk, they even had that Barty Crouch for a while before he died last month. But the most famous out of them all was Sirius Black.

He had to be Ced's favorite, anyone who could stand the Dementors for as long as he did without going crazy was special, so Ced fed him every day, unlike the other prisoners. He still had some hope the man's friends would get him out, and remembering all the extra food and decent treatment from Ced, Sirius might then pull some strings to get him out of this hole.

Ced chuckled to himself at his thoughts, him, hope a former prisoner would help him get out of Azkaban. That was rich, after a few years in the VIP section with the slop he fed them all why would the man ever want his jailer out and about in the world.

He really needed to get his head out of the clouds. Like the man would ever get out anyway, all the evidence pointed to him being a murderer, he had no chance at freedom, even with Albus Dumbledore on his side.

"Lunch time Sirius!" He called as he reached his door, "Get it while its somewhat hot!"

He went up to Sirius's cell and peered in but there was no one in there, startled Ced dropped the cauldron he was carrying, it hit the floor with a loud clang and the food went all over the floor.

"No, Impossible!" he fumbled for the key at his belt for a minute trying to un-hook it, but his hands were shaking too badly, he lost his temper and ripped it off along with a piece of his pants.

Not noticing the rip Ced jammed the key into the small keyhole in the cell door and threw it open, he searched the whole cell desperately, even though he knew the horrible truth, Sirius Black had escaped.

In a blind panic he ran down the hallway he had just come down, past the prisoners, and past the first sweep of Dementors that patrolled the hallways, he ran into his small office were all the files were held, his apprentice, who never went into the prison but kept all the paperwork in order, looked up in surprise when Ced came running in.

He was good looking lad of about 18 years, fresh out of Hogwarts.

"Master Ced? What's-"

"Prisoner escape, number 736521, send out the alarm!" The boys eyes widened in horror.

"But that's-"

"Yes I know who it is just send out the alarm! I need to put this whole place on lockdown!" The boy ran from the office to another room that was covered in dust and grime, with no hesitation he grabbed the rope that hung from the ceiling and pulled.

A loud siren sounded over the island making the prisoners wail as loudly as the blaring noise, it was eerie the way the two sounds seemed to merge together.

Ced ran from the room and started the one drill he never thought he would need, the mass lockdown spell, he grabbed a small whistle and blew it as hard as he could, no sound came out but he knew it was working, the Dementors were swarming toward him, they looked confused, if the way they were moving was any hint.

"Dementors!" he shouted out, they all turned their faceless heads toward him, waiting, "Start the lockdown spell, there has been an escape!" they all turned and glided away, they knew what to do.

The Dementors spread out all over the prison, each time they passed a cell they put their cold clammy hands on the doors and instantly chains came out of the walls and wrapped themselves around the prisoners, the terrified prisoners let out loud screams as the chains drained them of all their magic, turning them into temporary squibs.

It was an automatic binding charm that had been placed on the prison since it was built, it had never been used before, they had never needed it before. Ced gave a small sigh of relief to see that even after hundreds of years the spell was still potent.

After each prisoner was secured and screaming, or weeping over their lost magic, he sent the Dementors outside the prison to patrol the stormy waters, making it icy cold, if the fool that had held all of his hopes of leaving the island had decided to swim, he would freeze to death before he reached the shore.

When that was taken care of he could only hope the boy had done his work properly.

It was a slow day in the Auror department. There just didn't seem to be anything anyone needed done… ok one thing but it was just a case of breaking and entering, turns out it was only a confused owl smashing through a window.

"I'm not surprised James left," Auror Harper, (His first name too embarrassing to be mentioned so we will just call him Harper) grumbled as he messed with the items on his desk, "Its gotten so dull around here!" he shouted slamming an empty inkpot down on his desk.

"What do you expect, He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named is dead, and almost all of his Deatheaters are rotting away in Azkaban," another Auror said pokeing her head in, "I almost wish the brute was back," the woman went on walking into the cubical , "Things were much more intresting then."

Harper sighed and jestured to the seat in front of the desk, the woman bounced in and sat with a loud plop, she tossed her honny blond hair over her shoulder and gave a wide smile in his direction.

"I wish you wouldn't talk like that Laura," Harper said disapprovingly, "You were only here for the end of the war, you didn't see its true horrors." Laura snorted.

"Harper, you've only been here for two years more than me, and besides-" she played with a strand of her hair, twirling it around a finger "-I wanted to see those horrors, it's the only reason I joined the Aurors," she, let the piece of hair she was playing with go and smiled at him again, "That and to take out a few Deatheaters along the way." Harper just looked at her in pure disbelief, every time she said that it startled him.

She laughed at his expression, her brilant smile was almost blinding, "You're too soft Harper!" she roared, "Much, much too soft."

"Now see here-!"

An alarm went off, it almost sounded like someone screaming! Lauren and Harper threw their hands over their ears.

"What's that sound!" Lauren shouted, but Harper couldn't hear her, his attention was on the tall imposing figure that was outside his cubical, this was an Auror he didn't recognize, the giant man jestured to Lauren and Harper and jerked his thumb up the isle, the meaning was clear, he wanted them to go.

Harper nodded, grabbed the confused Lauren by an elbow, and went after the man, as they went up the isle the giant stopped a few times to collect more confused Aurors and continued on until he reached the confrence room.

Every Auror in the department was there demanding answers, the Head Auror was desperately trying to calm every one down but with little success, the alarm was too loud, and the arguing was just making the noise level worse.

The Head Auror, a woman named Sara Teagan, was a small woman with very light brown hair and pretty green eyes, most people didn't think much of her at first, but after you saw her duel, and watched her deal with all the politics that went with the job you never doubted why she was Head Auror, normaly the woman was calm and dependable, but now she looked like a nervous wreck.

She was flailing her arms trying to get the confused Aurors attention, she was shouting something and looking close to panic. The large man held up a hand, instantly gaining her attention. She turned her desperate eyes to him begging for help.

The man pulled out his wand and shouted so loud that even Harper could hear him "Quietus!" the alarm stopped abruptly, and now the only sound was the Aurors screaming.

She gave a releived smile in the man's direction and turned back to the panicking crowd, she pulled out her own wand and sent out a loud banging noise, instantly all the Aurors pulled out their wands and aimed at her.

She looked startled for a minute but quickly replaced the look with a scowl.

"All right you lot put your wands away and listen up!" the croud did as they were told, giving mumbled apologies, "The alarm you all just heard means that there has been an emergency at Azkaban," the Aurors all turned to the person standing next to them and started whispering.

"QUIET!" the Head Auror shouted, "Now I don't know what's going on right now," all eyes were glued to her, "But I'm going to find out, I want a group of twelve to go to Azkaban and see what the problem is, any volunteers see me."

She turned to the giant man, who was the only one to have the sense to put up a silencing charm, "Kingsley, report to my office, now." The man nodded and went after her into her office that was, conviently, next to the confrence room.

Lauren grabbed Harper and pulled him toward the office after them, "What are you doing!" Harper yelled and tried to wrench his arm out of her grasp, but she just turned her brilant smile back to him again.

"We," she pronounced the we very slowly as if he was too stupid to understand, "Are going to go volunteer before they run out of spots." Harper had fianly gotten free of her grip and was backing away slowly.

"By Merlin you're crazy," he said shaking his head, "You are telling me you are going to go to Azkaban, willingly."

"No," Harper gave a small sigh of relief, "We are going to go to Azkaban willingly." Before he could protest she had grabbed his arm and was dragging him to the Head Aurors office.

"Its not willing if you force me!" Harper shouted as she dragged him closer and closer to the door, "I'll have the law on you harlot!" She gave a loud laugh.

"We are the law stupid!" With that final note she burst into the office were a large group of people were all standing around the Head's desk, all eyes turned to them, Harper was slightly nervous at the sudden attention, but Lauren had no such fears.

"We want to go." She announced. Harper was still trying to pull away, "I don't!" he shouted, or at least he tried to, Lauren must have put a silencing spell on him.

Sneeky little snake.

The Head Auror looked surprised at first but finally shrugged, "Fine Auror-?"

"Sampson, and this is Auror Harper." She nodded toward Harper whan she said his name, Kingsly gave an amused smile when he saw Harper, but Harper wasn't in the mood to be friendly.

"A little quiet isn't he." Kingsly said with chuckle, his voice was rich and deep sounding, Harper was almost startled by the sound of it. Lauren nodded, "Yes, but he's a good dueler, now enough about Harper, let's go!"

Kingsly shrugged and held out what looked like a mini Dementor, "This is the portkey to Azkaban, now that we have a full group we can leave, everyone get a good grip." arms struggled to reach the thing, and Harper thought he could see a chance of escape when Lauren let him go.

But she just used the hand that was holding his and touched the tiny figurine. Harper gave up all hope of escape.

"On three, one, two," before he could say three Harper felt the tug of the portkey activating and they were on their way.

Why did everything hurt?

Sirius groaned and rolled over and burried his face into the soft substance under him, it turned out to be a very bad idea, whatever it was hurt to be inhaled.

Sirius opened his his eyes and came face to dirt with white sand, he sat up spitting out the mouth full of sand and clearing his nose as best as he could, when had Azkaban gotten so sandy?

'Wait, sandy?' Sirius took a look af the area around him, a beatuful white beach streached out before him, colorful shells decorated the shoreline and various seabirds flew overhead, the breeze carried the smells and sounds of the ocean.

Waves crashed the shore loudly and covered his bare feet with icy water, the smell of the salty sea hit his nose along with the smell of something fishy, but best of all was the sun, the bright beatuful sun beating down on his face, warm and plesent.

It hit Sirius then, he was free, he had survived the night swimming through the very waves that were splashing weakly aganst his feet now. The thought was overwhelming, his legs wobbled and gave out.

He was free, his whole body shook with sobs, his hands dug into the white sand and he squeezed it as hard as he could, just to hold on to something, just to prove it was real, sweet fredom, it was his, he turned his tear stained face to the sun and let the warmth hit his face.

Then Sirius dud something he never thought he would do again, he laughed, long and hard, the waves rumbled, seeming to laugh with him and rushing up to soak his ragged outfit.

"I'm free." he whispered the words he had only dared to think, his lips tingled at the feel of the words. Sirius threw back his head again.

"I'M FREE!" he shouted, and he was.

"What you have done is irresponsible and stupid," the elder said gruffly "And you will have to be punished." Faunus lowered his head to hide his anger, he should have known he would get in troubble with Dai, the old stallion was the newest member of the counsel, the only member who hated him, and unfortionaly for Faunus, the only one available to speak with him when he returned.

"But Honorable sir," Faunus had to force himself to sound polite, "I don't understand what I did wrong."

Dai Gave him an ugly sneer, "If you can't see what you have done wrong then that human loving couple of yours hasn't been teaching you properly." That was Faunus's breaking point.

"Now listen here you old nag," he snarled, his tail swished back and forth angrily and he pawed at the earth with a foreleg, "You can try to get me in trouble with the other elders, but leave Firenze and Lilith out of it!"

Dai flinched back in surprise at his sudden outburst but quickly composed himself, "You have no right to speak to an elder this way, Farah will hear about your behavior!" the elder said in a shrill whinny, Dai turned and with suprising energy tried to take his head off with a well aimed kick (Faunus easily dogged it) before running back toward the old tree.

Faunus knew he had went too far with Dai, he may have been an annoying old thing, but he did have a high power position in the herd, and if it came to a Gather it would be his word aganst an elder, a leader, aganst a foal, an apprentice.

He winced, by defending Firenze and Lilith he may have gotten them in a worse situation, all apprentices misconducts were taken out on the Master, not the student. Faunus cursed his wild temper again.

But he didn't have time to curse himself, he had to get to Lilith and fast, if Dai was going to Farah then he needed support. Apprentices weren't allowed to defend themselves against an elder, only an adult was allowed to, normally he would have went to Firenze, but he was partially an outcast and, as much as Faunus hated it, he had no support among the elders, Lilith on the other hoof was one of the council members granddaughter, so she did have some pull.

As Faunus ran his thoughts quickly turned to another mare, Farah.

Farah was the head elder, her word was law, she was stern, stubborn (As a mule!) stuck to all the old laws, and could call a Gather if she wished to. Faunus hoped she didn't, at least not right away.

A Gather was when the whole herd was gathered to make a dission about a single centaur's actions, and a good portion of the herd was still wary about his living with them. Sure they accepted what the elders had decided about him when he was first brought to the herd, but still, who were they more likely to listen to if it came to a Gather? Faunus would most likely lose.

Most of the time the punishments were lenient, but Dai would spin Faunus's story to make it sound worse than it actually was. Faunus raced around to the side of the tree, there was a quicker way inside that only he knew about. It would take some quick transforming but with Yang's help it wouldn't be a problem.

"Yang!" The bird appeared with a black burst of cold flame and flew at the pace he was running, he gave a churp. "I don't have time to explain, I just need help getting into a form."

The bird trilled happily, "Yes I know I should change forms more often but I don't have time to talk about it now!" Faunus stoped abruptly.

"Ok Yang, Sparrow form." the bird gave him an annoyed sounding trill but started what Faunus called the transformation song, it was a sweet simple tune that almost sounded like the churping of small birds.

Faunus started to glow brightly, then he started to shrink, he watched in awe as the trees seemed to grow ten times their normal hight and how all of a sudden Yang seemed to be a giant.

He looked down which turned out to be a bad idea, the ground looked like it was rushing up at him, he let out an alarmed tweeting noise, but stoped at the sound of his own voice. He would give away were he was again!

He kept his beak closed as he felt his bones go hollow and his feathers sprout, brown, tan, and white with a few splashes of black across the head and neck.

He gave a small shudder, he hated transforming into small defenseless animals, but what could he do? Every time he turned into anything with teeth and claws he had to fight the unbelievable urge to kill something, he had almost made a fatal mistake in a leopard form he had tried out.

He fluffed his feathers out, no time to dwell on the past, he leaped and started flapping his tiny wings, Yang gave a trill and took off after him, there was a tunnel just big enough for a small bird, it led almost directly to his small home in the heart of the tree, the best area available.

Faunus flew into the small hole flapping his small, sturdy, wings as fast as he was able, it was somewhat hard without a breeze but it couldn't be helped. At first it was just a long tunnel but then it drooped off and Faunus let himself drop into a controlled dive. How he loved the rush!

His wings were flat aganst his sides, his beak pointed down into the dark, then the light of the tunnel suddenly appearing and the haste of opening his wings to make sure he wouldn't crash.

There was nothing like flying, Yang appeared in the tunnel right next to him, the black flame seemed to darken the way. Faunus quickly changed back but it was somewhat of a headrush being so big again so quickly, and he felt so heavy now!

He pushed open the piece of old bark that was the door, to the room and staggered in. It was a surprisingly well lit room with a large bit of root that shot out that had been formed into a table, a baisen, also made of part of the tree, held their collected drinking water. When they were done with the water, the tree just absorbed it, keeping it well watered and healthy, It was a very good system.

Lilith was in a side room with another moss curtain hanging off the top of the entrance. At the sound of his hoof beats Lilith turned and gave a high piched squeal.

"Faunus!" She ran over to him and squeezed him tighter then she ever had before.

"Lilith! Can't breath, have, problem!" he gasped out, Lilith loosened the hug but did not let him go.

"What is it Faun?" Faunus explained as fast as he could, dodging the questions about how he had gotten in the tree so fast, when he finished she looked like she would rip something apart, he was feeling nervous about being the only thing she had a hold of.

"I don't aprove of the way you handled Dai, but I do appreciate the way you defended us," she had momentarily softened, "And I'm proud of you for saving those humans, and fighting off those Werewolves." her eyes filled with hate again, "I need to see Farah right away," she let him go and headed toward the door, "You need to go find Firenze and tell him what going on."

Faunus nodded and walked out of the room after her, she went left, Faunus went right, or at least he acted like he was going to as soon as Lilith was out of sight he turned to Yang who was watching him closely from his perch on a makeshift shelf in the wall that held a glowing blue Will-o-Wisp lantern.

The bird gave a trill, and a small churp, "Yes I want you to spy on the meeting, make sure you're not seen." Yang glared at him, "Don't look at me like that!" the bird gave another trill this time he sounded angry, "I know you can't do anything that would hurt someone," Faunus said with a sigh, "But your just spying, no one would get hurt."

The birds featheres fluffed up but he didn't say anything for a minute, before giving a few chirps, Faunus frowned, he hadn't thought of that, "I see your point, but you won't be caught," the bird gave a slow trill, Faunus sighed, "No I don't want to take that risk, well then can you at least find Firenze and tell him whats going on for me, he is the only one besides me who can understand you," the bird trilled again in a scolding tone "I know its wrong but I really want to find out what they are going to do about the Werewolves."

'And about me.' He thought secretly, the bird eyed him with as much scorn as he could before disappearing in his black flame, well Faunus guessed he wouldn't get any help from Yang with his next transformation, he felt his whole body groan in protest as he prepared to transform, he never did more then one form a day for good reason, it always caused transforming back to hurt more, and more with every form.

Yang had told him that the pain would pass with time and practice, but Faunus didn't have the time, energy, or magic, to keep doing multiple transformations. He was going to feel this tommrow without Yangs help, and Faunus proably deserved it.

Once again he had to chose a small form, one that could defend its self . (just in case) as well as hide easily, after thinking about it he decided to chooses a form he realy hated, but he could controle its urges easyer than any other carnivore.

A Runespoor.

Faunus didn't have a problem with snakes normaly, he could talk to them as easily as if he was talking to another Centaur, so understood them better than most, they weren't monsters, just animals following their instincts.

But turning into one always made him cringe, for some reason he could turn into some snakes more easier than others, (Under the protective eye of Yang) and his best controle over a serpent form was, surprisingly, a Runespoor.

This form would be tricky without Yang to guide him, but he could do it. He went back through the door for more privacy and changed back into his human form, a scrawny, 5'6, strong boy of 13 years old, and lay down.

He had to use a lot more magic this time, and he had to focus it on the areas he wanted to transform first instead of relying on Yang to do it for him. He shut his eyes, he hated this part, he let the magic that he had held back go, he made his arms shrink and dissapear into his body first, he didn't see it, but he could feel it, and that was worse.

After that he felt his legs merge together into a tail and then get longer and longer, that was the tricky part, he also had to move his organs and change them to match the way the body was now, his spine was also a very disturbing thing to feel grow, he had to keep adding ribs and sections of spine. Disturbing.

He kept his eyes firmy shut, he didn't want to see what he looked like now. He added the scales next, bright orange with black stripes, it would make it more difficult to hide but in the dark of the underground cave it would be hard to spot it.

Now came the realy tricky part, changing his head while keeping controle of the transformation, he felt his body shrink, while that was happining he made his head change into the somewhat familiar shape of a serpents, he had to make quick adjustments for his brain, eyes, nose and tongue, his teath, fangs now, were pokeing uncomfortably into his jaw, he quickly made them retractable and gave a small sigh, hiss, of relief.

He felt some pressure on both sides of his neck and gave full controle to his magic, it knew what to do from here, and needed only slight direction from Faunus, twin heads and necks sprouted from the sides of his body completely identical, Faunus felt his mind split when the new heads came into form.

All three heads gave another sigh of releif when the transforming was done.

"Well that went better than expected, I was sure that the stupid boy would screw it up for sure," The right head hissed disstainfuly, the head on the far left turned and glared at the right head, "Well if you havent forgotten it we are that stupid boy, and we need to get moving if we want to see that meeting, lets go now." The right head gave a small snort but didn't argue.

The Planner made the body move out into the hallway and up the cracks in the tree that only a small animal could spot, and only a serpent could climb, moving up the wall was simple for the Planner as he slithered effortlessly through the cracks and creveses, this tounge flicked out to taste the air, no warm blooded creatures close but the sents of some passerby still lingered.

He caught the sent of a female centaur, healthy, young, and in good physical shape, another sent cought his attention, his own, it clung to the filly, this must be the direction they were to go in.

"Pretty, pretty, lights." The middle head whispered in a drowsy voice, "What are you talking about you mouse-brained brained fool?" the right head, the Critic, hissed, "There are no-" Both the Planner and the Critic's heads were filled with images of a blue flame in a jar, the beautiful bright blue light of the Will-o-Wisp, light blue streaks were running through it that glittered, it was very eye-catching, there were even whisps of purple mixed in.

The Planner forced his mind away from the Dreamers, the Critic reluctantly did also, the Dreamer gave a small sigh of sadness when he felt his two 'brothers' break away, he just wanted them to see the pretty light…

"Lets just go! The sent is drifting away, hurry up you piece of dung, I could lead this body better than you could," The Critic gave an angry hiss at the Planner, the Planner just glared at him before returning back to the mission at hand… or no hand…

He pondered what the correct saying was for a serpent, while he tracked Lilliths sent down into the cold of the caves, the Critic couldn't help but to comment, "Who in their right mind would send a bunch of elderly nags down into the cold? If it was MY deicsion they would be in a much warmer place." He grumbled to himself.

The Planner ignored him and ventured deeper into the cave, the sent was getting stronger now, and he could hear voices, how he could hear voices without ears he would never know. But he did.

"-Totally unacceptable, in my day elders were respected! Its his human blood, I always said it would come back to haunt us eventualy, and now it has, mark my words he will get worse-"

"All he did was defend his Mentor," an older voice rasped out, "Same as anyone would have done as an apprentice." he heard an angry snarl at the comment, the Planner moved closer to the edge of the opening of the cave.

"Why in the world are you making us move across stone, its cutting my fragile skin! If I was in controle we would be sliding across some nice patch of sand right now instead of this stone!" the Planner ignored him again although the urge to bite the Critic crossed his mind a few times.

The Critic kept his chattering up making it hard to hear what was being said, "Will you shut up!" The Planner hissed and made a lunge at him, the Critic leaned back in surprise causing all three to lean with him, the Dreamer tried to passify them with images of calm warm places but someone accidently slammed their head into the Dreamer causing him to get angry and get involved in the squabble.

But all three stopped when someone started shouting.

"I WILL NOT STAND HERE AND BE INSULTED BY MY OWN HERD!" all three heads turned toward the opening of the cave. What was going on?

Lilith's voice came next "Dai, we are not insulting you, we merely think that you are taking your hatred too far, think about what you are saying, now! Its crazy, we should be thinking of the werewolves in the forest, and the two humans in the Place of Peace. Not of sending young foals into exile."

"Those things do not matter!" Dai snarled, "What do those humans have to do with us, nothing, what do those Werewolves have to do with us, nothing! Only the herd matters, and that foal is growing into a danger, he got the wolves noses full of Centaur sent, so when in the next two nights come and wolves are invading the tree you will see that I am right! If we drive him out now he will take the wolves with him!"

There was the sound of angry stomping, and bellows of rage, it sounded like a bunch of wild horses fighting. Not the civilized way of the centaurs. The three heads had never heard anything like this before.

"Enough!" a loud commanding voice echoed through the tunnel, "I have heard all of your arguments for the foal, Faunus, and I am in agreement with Lilith, the foal has done nothing wrong, in fact, he may have strengthened our truce with the humans."

"What about the wolves?" Dai asked in a desperate tone, he was loosing the argument, and knew it, "What if they attack. It would be all his fault!"

"Do you honestly think a herd as large as ours could be bothered by pack that small, even without their human mind they know better than to attack a group this big." That was true, the Herd was about 80 strong, and they still had room for more.

"They are mindless beasts!" Dai snarled, "When they pick up the sent they will continue to go forward until they or their target is dead, you know this, the foal should be cast out to protect our own foals."

"That old nag has a point," The Critic hissed "We could have brought the wolves directly to the rest of the herd." The Planer turned to glare at the Critic, "But we didn't, we made sure they couldn't find our sent by going through the Silver river, and deep into the Spiders territory so they wouldn't even think to go after us. There is no way they could find this place." The Critic grumbled for a while before quieting down, they had missed another part of the argument.

There was the sound of more wild whinnying and a thumping sound, and then sound of hoof beets, coming at a canter! Was the runner insane? With all the twists and turns in the tree and stone path one false move could permanently cripple them!

"Quick! Get to higher ground we will be trampled if we stay down here!" The Planner shouted to the other two, in their fight they had fallen to the floor instead of the safety of the wall they had been moving across.

All three strained to move as fast as they could to the wall, they had just climbed to the wall when the vibrations in the earth got to what felt like an earthquake to the serpents, the Dreamer panicked and let out a small cry of alarm when a gust of wind almost blew them over, as they clung to the wall.

"Should we send someone after him?" a new whispery voice asked,

"No, let him cool down, he has always had a terrible time with loosing an argument, he will see reason soon enough," The strong voice said, "Now back to what we will do with the humans, and the werewolves."

"I thought you said they wouldn't be a problem?" the raspy voice chimed in.

"They are not, but they are something we still should be wary of, left unattended they could be a problem, send out two warrior groups for the dawn patrol, tell them to keep an eye out for any sign of them."

"And the humans?" a gruff male voice asked, "What about them?"

"As I said before, Faunus's rescue of them will strengthen our truce with them, but I think we should send out an escort to make sure they get out safely, and to remind them that the forest is ours, we will not accept people in our home. We can't look weak in front of them." There was a murmur of agreement from everyone in the room.

"Now if there isn't anything else, I will call this meeting to a close,"

"Lets go, there is nothing more we can learn, and they might spot us if we stay here." the Critic said taking the Planner by surprise, normaly he was so, well, critical. Is it possible he changed his ways?

As quietly as they could they sliped out of the long cold tunnel, "Once again I ask, why put a bunch of old nags in the dark and cold! And on a bunch of stone! We will fell this for days, My scales have loosened! And I'm hungry, isn't there anything to eat in this dump!" well so much for change. You could never change a Critic.

The Critic kept up his commentary until they were outside again, (using a new shortcut the Dreamer found,) and the first rays of the sun warmed their cold blooded body.

"It could be warmer, but it will do." The critic hissed, and stretched his neck out, the Dreamer agreed and stretched out as well.

"We can't relax now, we have to turn back before we are caught out here." The Dreamer sighed but agreed, it took a little longer for the Critic to agree, but he did and together they let themselves fade back into one person.

When Faunus felt himself come back together he gave a small sigh of relief, it was the oddest feeling in the world to be three seprate minds at the same time, and yet be a single creature when in the form.

At least Runespoor's were never lonely.

"Yang!" A black fire appeared in front of him and the annoyed bird appeared.

"Did you tell Firenze what was going on?" The bird gave him a 'What do you think?' look, even if he was angry with him he would obey Faunus's orders. The bird gave a quiet, grumpy sounding trill.

"Well no need to get so defensive!"

Another trill, "Look I will make it up to you later, but right now we need to find Lilith to let her 'tell' us what's going on." the bird flew to perch on his back but said nothing.

Harper trembled in furry, how dare that red haired, yellow toothed, silver eyed fiend do that to him! He winced as he held his head in his hands. He had almost forgotten the cut on his forehead. His back had taken all his attention up until that point.

He shut his eyes as his headache got worse, and the dull throbbing in his back started up again. Then a pounding noise started echoing in his ears, what in the world was it?

"Harper?" It was Kingsley, he was knocking on the door, Harper didn't answer.

Kingsley must have took his silence as in invitation, he opened the door and came right in.

"Come to yell at me? Well you're too late, Auror Teagan already did." (At least he thought she did) He grumbled and turned away from the man. His head was killing him! The throbbing in his back kept up with the pounding in his head.

He heard a sigh.

"I did not come to yell at you Harper, just to get a few facts strait, and Sara wont be able to get them from you in her current state," Harper shrugged and motioned to the spot next to him, he wasn't in the mood to argue with the man. If he wanted to hang around, fine. Kingsley sat and dug around for something in his pockets, Harper watched with some curiosity.

What was he doing?

Kingsley gave a small smile as he pulled out a potion vial, "Here we are," he turned to Harper, "Take this, it should heal you up nicely." Harper glared at Kingsley.

"If you hadn't forgotten, nothing magical is working for me right now, if I drink it I will just be tasting some foul water." Kingsley shook his head, "Don't worry they got your magic working again, the potion will do its job."

Harper took the vial filled with blue liquid and took a large swig of it, he felt almost instantly better. A small trickle of heat filled his veins. He smiled. It felt good to know his magic was back.

"Thank you, Kingsley," his face contorted it's self into a grimace, "I've been acting like a, greenhorn just out of Hogwarts, I apologize." Kingsley smiled and gave a deep chuckle, and Harper couldn't help but smile at the sound of it.

"It happens to the best of us, and I don't blame you for yelling after what you went through, now about what happened to get you in such a state…" Harper frowned. He did NOT want to be thinking about that right now, but Kingsley wouldn't leave until he gave him the story, Teagan would have made sure of that. He sighed, well he might as well get it over with.

"Right, that. Well I was looking for the prisoner down the VIP section….

Flashback

Harper tensed as he heard the scrambling of something over the ragged stone underfoot, was it the prisoner? A furry nose poked around a corner twitching back and forth, cautiously the body attached to the nose followed.

It was a greasy black rat, a fat greasy black rat. Harper gave a small sigh of relief, he was way too tense for his own good, and when did people make scratching noises?

The rat waddled forward slowly and had come halfway down the hallway when it noticed him. Its ears perked but otherwise it did not pay him the slightest bit of attention, it must be used to humans.

He relaxed, he moved forward but kept an eye on the rodent, you could never be sure with a rat, it may look somewhat tame but they could be nasty little blood suckers when they wanted to be, Harper walked slowly and was almost past the rat when it froze.

It had been grooming its whiskers but it just suddenly stopped, it went onto all four paws and started backing away, letting out harsh chittering noises, and a noise that sounded like a hiss. Harper frowned in confusion, the rat wasn't even looking at him, it was looking at something behind-

WACK!

Something hit his head knocking him down, something hard, he heard a clattering sound that could only be his wand, and the feeling of blood trickled down his forehead. He tried to stand up but he felt a sudden rush of magic fall over him, a stunner.

Boney hands tugged at him and pulled him up, and skinny arms kept him up and slowly dragged him over toward one of the cells.

It was halfway open. How could he have not noticed an open cell? Ced had told them that he had put the whole place on lockdown, so an open cell should have been an instant warning sign.

"Don't worry, Auror," a harsh voice panted into his ear, the persons foul breath and body odor reached his nose then, he almost gagged, but the voice, so distorted by lack of speaking he couldn't tell if they were male or female, didn't seem to notice his reaction, it just continued on.

"The pain isn't too bad, Bella didn't seem to mind it that much." the voice seemed to be clearing more as the person spoke, it was takeing on a more feminine quality, he had just been beaten by a girl.

Pushing that thought away he started to wonder about that comment, what was all this talk about pain?

"You know what the chains do to you, Auror…" she reached into his pockets and pulled out his identification tag, all ministry personal were required to carry some form of identifaction on their person at all times, many of the senior Aurors never followed the rule, and now he was seeing why.

The woman laughed an ugly laugh, "What a ridiculous first name! What kind of parents would curse a child that name! Well I will just call you Harper then shall I?" She dragged him further and further into the cell.

A low moaning reached his ears, and Harper got a brief glimpse of a woman chained to the wall, she wasn't a very good looking woman, her hair matted and dirty and eyes shrunken into her head staring lifelessly out, well Harper guessed a few years in the VIP section of Azkaban would kill any persons looks.

He was leaned aganst a wall, the arms released him, and he got the first look of the woman who had held him captive.

She was in better shape than the woman chained to the wall, her red hair was long and only had a few snaggs in it, her eyes were a dull silvery color that seemed to swirl around, (where in the world had he seen those eyes before?) and her smile was slightly bitter, he saw her teath, yellow and dirty looking, it made him cringe.

He could smell her foul breath again she was so close to him.

"I must thank you Harper for giving me a wand to use, now I can get out of this place with no effort," she started grabbing chains that he just now noticed were behind him, "Do you know why the chains don't absorb my magic." Harper couldn't answer.

"Well neither do I, but its been useful to have this ability, this luck," She leaned in as if about to kiss him, he cringed back and she smiled "This will hurt Auror Harper. I will enjoy your screaming."

She shut the chains around him, and then the pain started. It was like a muggle vacuum cleaner, it just started to suck and suck, at first his whole body felt like it was on fire, a fire that was moving in his veins, he could barly hold back his screams, the red haired demon just watched him impassively.

He clenched his teeth, and shut his eyes, he would not give her the satisfaction of hearing him scream! He thrashed aganst the wall, the stone cutting cruely into his back, hot blood started leaking down the walls. Then, suddenly, he was cold, very cold, and a deep agony filled him.

Like he had just lost everything he loved and cared about, like the sun had gone out and the world was pitch black, tears started pouring down his cheeks, he couldn't stop them, how could he? He didn't remember how to be happy.

Harper opened his eyes, and she was there, the monster, the horrible monster who did this to him, his magic, gone, all gone, he felt a tiny fire flare up in his chest, but then the burning feeling came again and it was gone, cold, just cold. Not even the blood that poured down his back could warm him.

"You didn't scream," The beast in a womans flesh said calmly, "I admit to being impressed, Auror Harper, very impressed," she tilted her head to the side, as if picking up some sound, "I must leave now, the rest are coming, we will meet again Auror." she reached out for him and gently caressed his cheek, he didn't have the strength to pull away, then, suddenly, she was gone, his wand in her hand.

"Harper?" someone called out, someone he knew, Lauren? Was that Lauren? His head felt full and muttled, like he was on some sort of drug, or over tired. Across from him the black haired woman gave a small moan of pain. He idly wondered who she was. Another voice.

"Look, that doors open, be ready!" one of the team, he didn't remember his name, called out, the door was blasted in as a group of four rushed in, the first thing they saw was the woman, an Auror in front gave an ugly sneer.

"Bellatrix Lestrange, can't say that I pity her," he turned, and saw Harper. His eyes widened, "Merlin!" he gasped out, the other three, two other men and Lauren, all turned to him, hidden in the shadows. Lauren let out a small wail of horror and tried to run over to him. One of the men had grabbed her shoulder.

"Wait! It could be a trap!" Lauren shrugged his hand off.

"Are you insane? How could anyone set a trap in a room this small!" She ran over to him and reached for the chains, Harper's eyes widened in horror, "No!" he said as loudly as he could, he internally winced at the sound of his own voice, it sounded dead.

Lauren flinched and backed away, The leader of the group took a closer look at the chains, "Magic absorbers." Harper felt his magic flare again, desprate to stay in his body, this time he couldn't stop the scream that the absorbers caused as they ripped his magic away.

"Someone get him out of there!" Lauren shouted. Harper started sobbing again.

His back started hurting again, the fresh scabs had scratched off and the bleeding had started again. The world fadded in and out, he felt himself be taken down from the wall, the prisoners wailing had started up, the magic absorbers must have taken all their will to do so before.

But he didn't notice, he was suddenly in a white room, with his back throbbing painfully as a cold cloth was pressed to his skin. He recalled the Head Aurors voice yelling at him, asking him what happened, then black out….

End flashback

"I woke up just a few minutes ago," he said, as he told his story his cheek had started burning as if the womans fingers were still touching him, Harper felt the desprate urge to shower, for hours.

Kingsley, who just sat there through the entire story without comment or question, suddenly spoke.

"The woman who did this to you, what do you know about her?" Harper looked over at the mans stern face.

"Nothing, why?" Kingsley shook his head.

"There is something strange about the way she was acting," he pulled out a file from another pocket, "All the records we have on her say she is a man hater, the fact she touched you in a way that could be taken for intrest is extremely out of character."

Kingsley passed the thick file over to Harper, "Normaly we wouldn't allow a regular Auror look at the prisoner files, but I think you deserve to be knowledgeable about this woman, she may come after you again." Harper opened the file, he glanced at the first page he came across there were pictures of injuries on various Aurors, all male.

In the corner of a few of the pictures was the word 'Deceased' he saw quickly scribbled sticky notes on her dueling stragity and her apearence, pictures of her sneered at him as they ran away.

It was very detailed, he turned to the front of the file to see who had put it together.

"Sirius Black? He made this file?" Kingsley nodded.

"He was the Auror assigned to her case at the time, did a great job before- well you know." Harper nodded. A sudden thought crossed his mind.

"Do you think they could have joined forces?"

"Black and Sparoehawk? Maybe, I think she respected him when he was an Auror so the thought of them joining together is a possibility," Kingsley frowned, "But if they were partners, why didn't they escape together?"

Kingsley shook his head, "I don't think they planed anything together, they wouldn't have been able to come up with a plan, and Black had been long gone when she escaped. I think it was conisidence." Harper nodded, well it was hunch. Another worrying thought grasped his mind.

Harper stood up a little shakily, and started pacing, he always did this when he was nervous "We have lost two VIP prisoners in two days," he mumbled, "One right after another, the press will be all over us, and the public will proably panic." Kingsley nodded.

"Sara and I spoke about this already, we will leave it to the Minister, let him calm the public with pretty words, distract them while we clean up this mess." Harper sat down again, his strength had finally left him, Sweat beaded on his forhead and his mussles trembled.

His magic flared again making him wince.

Kingsley carefuly put a hand on his shoulder, "Take a few days off to recover Harper, you look terrible," Harper nodded as kingsley guided him back into a laying position o nhis side, "Get some rest, some one from St. Mungos will be over to check you over soon and then you can go home."

Harper shut his eyes and darkness engulfed him once again.