The Forbidden Forest

"Who's there-" Hagrid's voice came from nearby. He came running toward the firelight in a panic and saw who they were by its glow. "Did you sneak in after me? How dare you—this is the Forbidden Forest!" He looked very, very angry, his chest heaving rapidly, but he soon realized how urgent the situation was. Glancing back repeatedly, he urged them, "You need to get out of here, quickly! Aragog doesn't like anyone but me-"

"Who's Aragog?" Sirius flicked his wand rapidly, spell after spell shooting from its tip. To Rose's astonishment, he remained composed enough to ask, "That big fellow behind you?"

"Whoa-cool!" James's excited voice rang out in the darkness. "You've been secretly keeping an Acromantula! Right here in the Forbidden Forest!"

"Potter! You won't think it's cool when it eats you!" Lily shouted, furious and terrified. She and Rose held hands tightly, standing back-to-back as they waved their wands to drive off wave after wave of spiders.

Apparently, she had remembered wrong. They were Acromantulas.

While she was distracted by the thought, she slowed her spellcasting for a few seconds. Several spiders jumped onto her robes and shoulders, making her scream.

"Are you all right, Rose?" Lily cried anxiously. She was furious; she hadn't expected Potter to come somewhere so dangerous. Perhaps both of them would become the spiders' extra Halloween meal tonight, she thought in despair.

"Rose? Where are you?" Sirius shouted toward the sound of their voices. "Come over here-"

"Are we-are we going to die here?" Peter's voice trembled; he sounded terrified.

"Of course not. You're not so scared you're going to wet yourself, are you?" Sirius said impatiently.

"Hagrid-" A deep voice sounded above their heads. He seemed to be in an excellent mood. "You've brought others here—I can't guarantee anything, heh heh-" His great pincers clicked.

"You can't do that, Aragog!" Hagrid was angry too. He waved his arms as he argued with his old friend, but it seemed they were about to fall out, because Aragog said he couldn't control his children.

"Go on-get out of here!" Hagrid strode into their midst and shooed them away like little chicks. "Don't look back, follow the moon!"

In the panic, Rose stepped on and crushed several smaller spiders. This seemed to enrage the others, and their attacks grew fiercer.

Follow the moon, but there was no sign of it in the Forbidden Forest. They raced through the pitch-dark woods like headless flies. Rose nearly tripped over thick branches several times, but Lily kept a tight grip on her hand in the darkness. Even when their hands almost came apart on several occasions, they quickly grasped each other again.

Just as Rose felt her throat was so dry it might bleed, the clicking finally began to fade, and the darkness lifted somewhat. Rose could make out small patches of night sky.

Exhausted, she braced her free hand against her knee and struggled to catch her breath, fighting to keep her heart from bursting out of her chest.

Only when the deafening thump of her heartbeat gradually faded from her ears did Rose notice that something about the sounds behind her seemed off. She turned to look. Lily was nowhere to be seen; Sirius was there instead.

The frantic run had brought a flush to his normally fair face. Beads of sweat ran down his chin, slid over his Adam's apple, and disappeared into the half-open collar of his shirt.

In the cold air of late October, Rose thought she could almost see heat rising from him.

Their tightly clasped hands were sweaty too. Even though they had stopped, Sirius's large, pale hand, its knuckles prominent, still held hers tightly.

"Where's Lily?" Rose asked anxiously. She looked all around, but there was no sign of Lily. Without another thought, Rose gritted her teeth and prepared to run back into the Forbidden Forest.

"Don't go-" Sirius used the hand holding hers to pull her back. "James is with Evans. I saw them just now."

"But I can't see her anywhere!" Rose looked around uneasily.

"I guarantee James will get Evans safely back to the castle!" Seeing her doubtful expression, Sirius led her toward the castle. "We agreed beforehand that if we got separated in the Forbidden Forest, we'd all meet at the castle. For all we know, Evans is already sitting in the common room eating sweets."

"Lily would never go back to the common room without me!" Rose said indignantly. Suddenly, as if she had remembered something, she stopped short, pulled her hand free of Sirius's, and crouched on the ground with her face in her hands.

"What's wrong?" Her sudden movement alarmed Sirius. He crouched beside her and asked anxiously, "Did a spider bite you? Or—we'd better get to the Hospital Wing. Madam Pomfrey will know what to do!"

He reached for Rose's arm to pull her up, but after several attempts he still couldn't budge her. Rose stubbornly remained crouched on the ground.

"What's wrong?" Sirius crouched down again and asked patiently.

"I swallowed the leaf, I swallowed the Mandrake leaf-" Rose sounded close to tears. "There was only one week left before I succeeded, but I accidentally swallowed it!"

This was a reason Sirius could never have anticipated. He crouched in front of Rose and thought for a while, then his Adam's apple bobbed slightly. "It's all right," he said. "I just realized I think I accidentally swallowed mine too."

"Really?" Rose lifted her face from her hands, her blue eyes watery from being pressed so hard.

She looked up so quickly that Sirius didn't have time to move away. They were talking at extremely close range, but Rose was too absorbed in her sorrow at having to start over to notice.

"Mm." Sirius nodded distractedly. He hardly dared breathe; they were so close that he could even smell the sweet scent of oranges on Rose.

"Then we can only start over," Rose said dejectedly. "James will definitely laugh at us. He always does so well!"

"Not necessarily. Maybe he did something stupid too," Sirius said brightly, his confident tone making it sound like a statement of fact.

"But what if Mandrake is poisonous?" Rose wanted to cry again. She hadn't lived long enough yet.

"It probably isn't," Sirius said hesitantly. "Peter's still alive and well. He ate a leaf half a month ago."

They walked toward the castle. At the front door, Rose found Lily looking anxious. Lily threw her arms tightly around Rose and, still shaken, asked whether she was hurt.

"I told you she'd be all right, but you just wouldn't believe me, Evans!" James muttered. "Sirius was bound to be with her!"

"Shut up, Potter!" Lily said fiercely, her fists clenched so tightly that they looked ready to meet James Potter's face at any moment.

Sirius walked over to James and bumped his shoulder against his, a teasing look on his face. Then he glanced at Lily Evans.

"Where are Peter and Remus?" Sirius asked. "It's already past curfew."

"Over there—they're coming."

In the distance, Remus dragged a completely exhausted Peter along, their steps uneven as they joined the others.

"Peter was terrified," Remus said with a rueful smile. "And then we nearly didn't make it out. Luckily, Hagrid came-"

The sweat and tears on Peter's face were indistinguishable, mingling with dirt and drying on his skin. He looked a complete mess.

"All right, we'll go in batches," James said hesitantly. He shot Sirius a quick glance, then pulled a silvery, shimmering piece of fabric from inside his robes and handed it to Lily. "You two use this. Be careful; it can cover both of you at once."

Under Lily's complicated gaze, Sirius sighed and resignedly pulled open the creaking front door. He and James crossed the Entrance Hall and entered a corridor patrolled by sentries.

"Come on, you great idiots!" Sirius shouted. James cast a spell at them, then ran in the opposite direction. Sparks exploded beneath the sentries' feet, and they changed course and chased after them.

Outside the door, Remus dragged Peter along, while Lily and Rose huddled together beneath the Invisibility Cloak. They went up the marble stairs and through the silent, deserted corridors, finally reaching the Gryffindor Common Room.

The fire in the hearth had nearly burned out. Rose thought she ought to wait in the common room for them to return, but she was so tired that she fell asleep as soon as she touched the sofa.

When she woke, she was back in her four-poster bed. The curtains were drawn tight around her, with a faint glimmer of light showing through a gap.