"Well girls, I don't know what to say." Professor Sprout shook her head at us, barely stifling a yawn. "I don't think I've ever seen First Year Hufflepuffs sneaking out after curfew!"

Kat and I exchanged a guilty look. After McGonagall found us, she'd marched us straight to Professor Sprout's living quarters, and Draco to Professor Snape's. Professor Sprout made us both herbal tea and didn't seem as angry as I thought.

"Draco Malfoy was trying to play a trick on our friends—to get them into trouble," I explained after taking a long sip of the tea. It was warming me up. "We were just trying to warn them, Professor."

"Hmmm..." Professor Sprout leaned back in her chair, pouring herself another cup of tea. "Loyalty is the most important Hufflepuff trait, I must admit I would have done the same." She paused. "But Katherine, you did punch Draco Malfoy in the face."

Kat raised her head high. "He was bragging about getting our friends in trouble. Then he told me that girls couldn't fight. I wanted to prove his sexism wrong."

Professor Sprout looked mildly impressed. "I would love to just give you a stern talking to, but you did both break school rules." She paused. "And I know Professors Snape and McGonagall won't be lenient with their students."

Kat and I exchanged a panicked look. Had Harry and Hermione been discovered? Turning back to Professor Sprout, she decided: "I will be taking twenty points from Hufflepuff each from you both." She paused. "And you must serve a detention with the other hooligans who were wandering around."

"Yes, Professor," we chorused.

She did lean forward with a twinkle in her eye. "Now go on—back to bed."

Kat and I apologised and after thanking her for the tea scurried off. We'd gotten off lightly, it seemed.

**

Professor Sprout was right—McGonagall and Snape were harsh. Draco lost himself fifty house points, and the respect of Cassie. Harry and Hermione had been discovered after Norbert was taken away (thank goodness) and lost fifty points each.

"It's a disaster," Harry said gloomily. "Everybody hates us."

"No, they don't," I tried to sound positive, but I knew I was lying.

The Gryffindors had turned completely against Harry and Hermione, who were now in disgrace. Nobody would speak to them without glaring. Gryffindor was now in last place in the house cup, with little chance of winning Quidditch.

Kat and I truly got off easy—nobody even noticed we'd lost house points until three days after the event.

One plus side was Cassie finally leaving her dormitory. The next morning she collapsed into my arms with a bruising hug, her big grey eyes full of tears. Her eyes said I'm sorry.

"Don't worry about it," I told her gently. "I know you didn't mean to tell your brother about where we were taking Norbert. He got away—no harm done."

Cassie raised her jumper sleeve, and I saw a red and nasty Indian burn on her forearm. Anger swelled inside me, and automatically I looked around the hall for her worm of a brother.

Cassie placed her hand on my chest, shaking her head. Quickly she pulled a notebook out of her pocket and began writing.

The burn really hurt... I couldn't take it anymore. I felt like such a coward.

"You're not a coward, you're so brave." I squeezed her hand tightly.

Cassie gave me a sudden bright smile. Oh yeah! Draco lost fifty points for our house—everybody is so pissed off with him. That makes it a bit better.

"Good," I said with a smile. "Now come on—let's get some breakfast."

**

I'd taken to walking Harry to his Quidditch practices—he was talking about quitting the team. While I didn't particularly like Quidditch, I knew how miserable Harry would be if he quit. So, I made sure he went, then watched the practice. I was getting better at watching Quidditch without being scared.

It was a disastrous practice. Nobody called Harry by name, he was just 'the seeker'. It knocked his confidence so badly he missed the snitch when it was floating right in front of his face. Knowing how sad Harry was going to be, I hurried into the changing rooms before the practice ended so he'd have a friendly face.

"He's ruined everything," Fred and George were the first ones back into the changing room. "We're going to have to work three times as hard to catch up. He's stupid—"

"Hey!" I found myself shouting at Fred, who looked startled to say the least. I stormed up to the twins until I was almost chest-to-chest with Fred. "Harry is not stupid!"

George raised his eyebrows, glancing between the two of us. He mumbled something about meeting Lee Jordan and hurried off with his broomstick still in hand.

"Why are you sticking up for him? Is he your boyfriend?" Fred scoffed, and ouch that hurt. "I wouldn't expect you to understand Lyra, but he's ruined our chances at winning!"

"Winning? Is that all you care about?" My patience went out of the window as well as my temper. "What, so Harry tries to smuggle a dragon out of the castle to your brother but no, Quidditch is more important? And what, because I rejected you you're angry because you didn't win me?"

Fred dropped his broom on the floor and rubbed at his forehead looking exhausted. "It's just... I really like you Lyra, I thought you liked me back."

Any sort of heat and anger propelling me on evaporated. "I---I do like you back."

Fred's face lit up like a lantern, and part of me regretted saying it and part of me didn't. I'd been stupid to try and push him away. "You do? Then why on Christmas did you...?"

Other members of the team were appearing back in the changing room, as well as Harry who was trying again to resign from the team. I didn't have nearly enough time to explain exactly why I had to hurt his feelings.

"It's complicated," I said, which was true. "I'll explain it all to you. I should have before, it's just... a lot."

Fred nodded. "Listen, I'll stop being a dick to Harry okay? I'll tell the team to be nice as well. Just please, Lyra. Once all the exams and Quiddich is over... explain to me."

"I will," I boldly reached out and grabbed his hand and squeezed it. Fred beamed. "So long as you can wait that long."

Fred leaned down and kissed me gently on the cheek as softly as a feather. Lightly brushing my hair over my shoulder, he smiled, "Of course I can. It's something worth waiting for."

I didn't bother hiding my massive smile.

**

The hope of explaining things to Fred, and him not thinking I was a freak kept me through the next couple of weeks as we revised tirelessly for our exams.

A bump in the road arrived though when Kat and I received letters a week before exams. They said the same thing. Your detention will take place at eleven pm tonight. Meet Mr Filch in the Entrance Hall.

"Great," Kat said gloomily, balling the paper up. "I wanted an early night after all this stupid revision."

"I guess not," I sighed. I knew we deserved the punishment, but it was annoying all the same. "I wonder what they'll have us do that late at night?"

That evening we sadly said goodbye to Cassie and Sooty in our cosy dormitory and traipsed up the stairs to the Entrance Hall. Filch was there with a lantern, and so was Draco who scowled at the sight of us. He still had a faint pink mark on his cheek from where Kat punched him.

"Moran, Black," he scowled at us. "Where's my sister? I haven't seen her all day."

"She's with her real friends, people who care about her." I raised my chin high in the air. "You wouldn't know about that, would you Draco?"

Draco opened his mouth as if to say something, but Harry and Hermione arrived just in time. Filch grunted at us to follow him outside into the darkness.

"You'll think twice about breaking the rules, won't you?" Filch sounded delighted as he led us across the pitch-black grounds. "Pain and hard work are the best teachers I think..."

We were getting closer to Hagrid's house, and ever-closer to the Forbidden Forest. Surely, we couldn't be—

"Ah there you are, Filch!" Hagrid's massive form appeared out of the darkness clutching a lantern and his dog, Fang on a lease. "Thought you'd never turn up!"

I let out a sigh of relief. I could deal with helping Hagrid as punishment.

"Ah ha!" Filch chuckled, seeing the relieved look on my face "Think you'll have easy work, girl? No—the lot of you are going into the forest!"

Draco went three shades paler than usual. "You—you can't be serious," he had seemed to have lost the swagger he usually had. "We can't go in there at night! There's things in there—werewolves!"

"Werewolves are people, Draco, not things," Kat snapped, though she looked quite pale under her freckles.

Hagrid began walking towards us, the added light making everything seem much more normal—making me forget momentarily that we were going into the forest, the one place in Hogwarts I was truly frightened of.

"Hello," Hagrid smiled at us all. "Ready?"

"Don't be too friendly to them," Filch sneered. "They're here to be punished. I'll be back in two hours—for what's left of them."

Filch skulked off back to the castle, and I felt worse if possible. The trees were pitch black and enclosing, and a light summer breeze was lifting the leave up in a strange dance. I did not want to go in there.

"I'm not going into the forest." Draco said firmly, sounding afraid.

"You will," Hagrid said firmly, and for the first time I disliked him. "You got into trouble—this is your punishment."

"I though we'd be doing lines or something! If my father knew he'd—"

"Copying lines! What good is that to anybody? You can do something useful, or you can get out!" Hagrid growled.

Draco frowned, but stayed where he was. I was silent, but I was already drating a letter to mum in my head about how wrong this detention was. We were only eleven and twelve, why were we being sent into the forest?

"All right come over here you lot," Hagrid nodded to the edge of the tree. Reluctantly we followed him. He shone the lantern on the floor. "Do any of you know what that is?"

It was a silvery liquid, splattered against the bark of the trees and the ground. It looked familiar... "It's unicorn blood," Kat sounded repulsed. "Somebody—or something—has been killing unicorns, right?"

"Correct, Katherine," Hagrid sounded proud. "But they didn't kill it. There's a hurt unicorn out there somewhere. We need to find it—I'll heal it then."

Hagrid explained we'd split off into two groups—Kat and I would take Fang one way, while the others went with Hagrid another.

"I thought it'd be best to keep an eye on that one," Hagrid said to me under his breath as he passed me Fang's lead. "Figured he'd tried to get you girls in trouble if I left you with him."

Kat and I nodded, and after agreeing to send up green sparks if we found the unicorn—headed into the forbidden forest. It was pitch black and silent, even with Fang's laboured breathing, and Kat holding our lantern high in the air, so we didn't trip over our feet.

After about ten minutes of us searching I silence, I decided to bring something up I hadn't had the courage to speak about in months.

"So..." I trailed off. "When my mum came to visit over Christmas, she mentioned... well she said she knew your mother."

Kat didn't say anything at first, but from her stiff posture I could tell that she heard me. "She did?"

"Yeah," I said softly, knowing this would be a sensitive subject. "When mum was rescued from the horrible place she was kept, the wizards found another woman—a muggle woman."

Kat was silent for a few moments, as she led us over a large tree bough. Then when she did speak, her voice was high-pitched, and unlike hers.

"I'm only going to tell you this because—because-- well I trust you Lyra. Not to mention my Auntie Helen will only speak about mum after she's had a few drinks..." Tears were in Kat's eyes.

"Okay," I said quietly. "You don't have to talk about her—"

"I do," she said fiercely. "Okay, so my mum was young and bored and didn't have much money. But then she met this man, Jacob Novak. He was in a cult and got her believing all this stupid stuff. He was so lovely to her, she believed that he loved her. But it wasn't a cult, not really."

"Was a he a follower of You-Know-Who?" I said quietly, my hold on Fang's leash growing tighter.

Kat nodded, her eyes still shining with tears. "One day mum came home and told Auntie Helen she was moving away with Jacob. She tried to stop my mum, but she was so convinced she was right..."

"He took her to where my mum was taken, didn't he?"

Kat rubbed at her eyes. "She was gone almost two years. Auntie said my mum turned up on her doorstep with me, saying that Jacob lied to her and left her alone with me.... And she asked for forgiveness."

Stopping in my tracks, I noticed splatters of unicorn blood up another tree. "Must be getting close..." I murmured. Turning back to Kat, I asked: "Was this Jacob man your father?"

Kat shrugged. "Who knows? She wouldn't speak of him again. Mum was wonderful, but whatever they did to her to give me my powers, whatever Jacob did to her... it broke her."

A lump was in my throat. I had to ask, even though I felt sick. "Kat—what happened to your mother?"

She stopped in her tracks, and when she turned to me her face was broken, a vase dropped by mistake—the torture in her expression was so acute I felt like crying myself. What she said next, I wasn't expecting, but still broke my heart.

"She left me when I was six. Without a word. She was meant to pick me up from Primary School, but she didn't arrive. I don't know whether she's alive or dead.... I think that's worse. Not knowing." She took a ragged breath. "She knew what they did to me... I killed some of her flowers by mistake. She—she looked so disappointed, I always wonder if that was why..."

She covered her face with her hands, sobs making her body tremble. As instinct, I pulled Katherine into the tightest hug I could manage. She collapsed onto me, sobbing for her mother in what I believed was the first time in years. I held her, thinking of how similar our situations were. One parent absent, not dead but not allowed to be in our lives either...

Fang began barking, and the two of us sprang apart, wands out. We edged our way forward slowly, Fang beginning to growl lowly. We were almost upon a clearing, and silver blood was now more frequent—splashing up bark, pooled on the forest floor coating our trainers...

Apprehensively, we moved into a gap in the trees where a white glow was emitting. We gasped. Lying on the ground was the unicorn—clearly dead with its limbs sticking out at odd angles, its mane coated in silver blood.

"Oh no..." more tears sprang to Kat's eyes. I don't think she could stop crying. "Who would do this? Can you—can you heal it, Lyra?"

Taking a step forward, I hesitated. It was clearly dead, but I wanted to give the clearly distraught Katherine hope at least.

But then a bush behind the unicorn began to rustle. Both of us paralyzed with fear we watched as a hooded figure crawled out from the bush. Clearly struggling it approached the unicorn, pressing its mouth to the unicorn's wound.

"No!" I cried as an instinct, and the creature looked up.

In the distance I could hear a scream, and I was vaguely aware of Kat sending red sparks into the air as the figure got to its feet, staggering towards us, I began shaking, paralyzed in this one spot—then there was the stampede of hooves behind us, and a large figure jumped straight over us and began charging at the sinister figure.

It disappeared into the shadows, stumbling as it went.

Letting out a ragged breath, Kat and I turned to our savior. It was a centaur with tangled blonde hair and a very serious expression.

"You saved our lives!" Kat was breathing heavily, she must have been as scared as I felt. "What—what was that thing?"

The centaur's eyes passed over the two of us in interest. "My name is Firenze," he didn't answer the question. "Follow me, I shall lead you both back to Hagrid and your friends."

We followed him in silence, Fang whimpering beside us. "What was it you saved us from?" I tried again.

"Do you know what unicorn blood is used for, Lyra Black?" I didn't ask how he knew my name.

"We use its tail in our potions lesson... but I know its blood will keep you alive, but you will live a cursed life if you drink it." Katherine said solemnly, her tears drying.

Firenze nodded, content. "Correct, Katherine Moran. I know for a fact the inhuman people who captured your mothers experimented with unicorn blood on them. But when injected against a person's will... it becomes useless. You may as well be injecting water into somebody's veins."

Letting out a sigh of relief, I stroked Fang's ears to give me something to do. I had wondered if they had used unicorn blood on mum, and whether that would make me cursed. This was a relief.

"If you lead a cursed life from drinking the blood, why would anybody drink it?" Katherine asked, she sounded more like herself now. "That's a bit idiotic."

Firenze turned to us both, looking even more serious. "Think carefully, girls. Who do we know who anything would do to be brought back into power?"

We exchanged a glance. You-Know-Who. Did that mean that mean we had come face to face with You-Know-Who?

----

A/N Sorry this took a while!

Thoughts on Katherine's back story? We will learn more about Jacob as time goes on! Also Fred and Lyra talking again as well, yay, do you think Fred will understand?

Also, I'm going on holiday tomorrow (25th June) until the 2nd July. I have pre-written almost everything left for this part of the story, so when I have wi-fi in my hotel I will update every few days :)