Last time:

They lay there for a good time, exchanging small sentences back and forth. Neither one knew when the other fell asleep, but for them it would be the first peaceful night they had in many days. It was hard to have a nightmare in the Dream Realm without that nightmare coming to life. Besides the fact that most of the things they saw were images in their mind anyways. For now they were just grateful for the restful sleep. They both knew they would need it in the coming weeks. They didn't know that they would be lucky to keep having such good nights through out the rest of their journey.

Harry pushed aside a branch, looking beyond it into yet more dense woods. As he had predicted, they had made the forest two hours after dawn. They had then been forced to slug through deep underbrush, and branches so close together it almost formed a net. But there was food, and a stream a few minutes to their left. It was only by the occasional clearings, though, that Harry was able to tell they were still heading north. If it wasn't for that, they would have long since gotten lost in such deep woods.

Despite the fact that they might get lost, Draco mainly concentrated on the fact that it wasn't a swamp. No telling how many biting insects there would be if it was. Not to mention the large mud puddles they would likely have to wade through. Forests were easier to deal with if you had proper ground under you. Well, the ground was littered with leaves, shrubs and other things that can be found in a deciduous forest. Much of the undergrowth however were berry bushes. Passing one, he picked a plump, ripe blackberry from it. Instead of eating it, like he might have when he was younger, he put it in a pouch that he had formed from a piece of his clothing that had gotten caught in thorns. He had a variety of berries in there now, and Harry had followed his lead once he saw what the Snake had done.

After so many days of hard travel, Harry nearly didn't realize when the branches started to get farther and farther apart. He did, however, notice when it was pine needles instead of leaves he was stepping on. Breathing a sigh of relief, he continued walking. The trees were getting farther and farther apart as they went, until they finally spotted blue sky. However, the thinner the trees got, the more rocks they started to see. Eventually they reached the end of the forest, into the foothills of a range of mountains. The mountain they wanted was very close. It was, however, very close to night-time. They nodded at each other, and began to set up camp. Harry went back into the pine forest to get a fallen branch. Pitch was one of the best conductors around, and it would likely hold the little bit of magic they could use. That of concentrating hard on a target, and pushing bits of magic to it so that it would catch fire.

As Harry was looking around for a branch, he heard a yelp of what could be classed as sheer terror. It came from their camp ground, and thinking Draco was in danger, Harry sped off to where the yelp had sounded, forgetting the branch completely. Leaving the forest, he skidded to a stop as he saw what was in front of Draco. A black cloaked figure, who emanated pure evil. Red eyes glowed as they pinned Draco to the spot, leaving the blond helpless as the evil one got closer and closer. Harry shouted out, trying to distract the Dark One, and let Draco get a hold of his senses. It seem to work, for the other boy backed up slowly. That was when the figure began to speak in a high-pitched voice that leaked darkness "Draaaco, come here my child. Come join usss, and be hailed as a hero."

Harry, realizing what this apparition was trying to do, said softly "Don't listen, Draco. His followers are not hero's, just slaves. Your father didn't give up his freedom so that you in turn could be enslaved." The blond seemed to be undecided, his eyes shifting between them. When the Dark One said that he would free Lucius, Harry said in a harsh whisper "You don't believe him, do you? He'd be more likely to kill him, no longer needing him as bait!" Harry would have said more, but the evil one sent a wave of darkness at him, knocking him off his feet and pinning him down. He was also gagged so he couldn't say anything more. It was now up to Draco to decide what to do.

Draco, seeing Harry being knocked off his feet, made up his mind. Turning to the apparition of Voldemort, he said in a voice firm with conviction "He's right! Father would never want me to join you. And I don't want his sacrifice to be in vain. Be gone, Evil, you have no power here. I am a free soul, to choose whether I fight or not. But I will never go Dark!" After Draco finished, the creature dissolved into nothing more then a black blob, and shrieked as it fled. The Challenge was over, with Draco the victor.

Harry stood, and smiled slightly. "Well done, Draco." he murmured. They then continued setting up camp, exhausted after everything they just went through. Harry, sitting at the fire said "If I had to estimate, I'd say that it's been seven days or so since we started. If we keep this up, we'll make the mountain by day twelve. Then there's just the matter of climbing the giant." Draco nodded, and sighed mentally at the thought of more travel. But there was no help for it, and when Harry banked the coals he lay down. They were both soon asleep, exhausted after many days in the forest.

The foothills turned out to be only slightly easier then the forest, because of the quantity of rocks and boulders around. There was water, however, and they still had some of the berries they had collected in the forest. Then they came to a river. It was huge, and both were glad that they didn't have to cross it. It did grow smaller the closer they got to the mountain, but what had caught their interest in the first place was that there were fish. Harry went at it like a bear would, wading into the shallows which was pretty calm, and waiting for a fish to pass. Draco looked on with a look of disgust on his face. There was nothing to do about it, however. He contented himself with building a fire as near to the river as he dared. He didn't wish to scare the fish away with the roaring fire.

Harry turned out to be a pretty good fisherman, having the patience to 'tickle' the fish out of the water. What that was, precisely, was leaning over and letting his fingers dangle in the water. When a fish came by, and hid in his fingers thinking they were river weeds, he grasped it and threw it to the river bank. He caught five fish this way, before heading back to land. Draco had prepped the fish, and two of them were roasting, while the other three were drying for traveling food. Harry shook the water off away from the fire, and joined the blond at lunch.

This little pit stop had taken them about four hours, and they continued on their way as the sun was starting to set. They decided to keep going until midnight, having wasted enough time fishing. They hadn't realized, with the distraction, that they were close already to the mountain. They reached the base by midnight, and simply lay down when they reached it. They were far to exhausted to make camp that night, and it was too dark to even think about climbing. Dawn, however, found them already started, chewing steadily on the fish they had dried the previous day.

The climbing wasn't too bad, and within a few days they had nearly reached the top. That was when disaster struck. A bulging whale of a man blocked the easiest access to the top, his eyes leering at them. Or, more precisely, at Harry. The raven haired boy likely would have froze with fear had Draco not been there. As it was, it took all his courage to even try to go around. The bastard blocked him, his grin menacing. He didn't say anything, but his evil intent was clear. Suddenly something seemed to snap in Harry, and he saw red. He charged the over-large man, attempting to knock him over. He was so much smaller then the whale of a man, that it was far too easy for him to be pushed aside. His foot missed the cliff, and he found himself falling. He would have fallen to his doom had he not grabbed onto the ledge that Vernon was on.

Draco, who had up till then been un-able to get on the ledge, managed to push the man aside. He then grabbed at Harry, nearly missing him. He could see the fear in the other boy's eyes, and he said "Your going to have to trust me, Harry, as I trusted you." Though this didn't rid Harry entirely of fear, Draco could tell that it was no longer fear that he would purposely be dropped. With a lot of effort, Draco managed to get the raven haired boy on the ledge. Harry smiled at him, and they grasped each-others arms companionably. This caused Vernon, who had been watching with anger and horror written on his features, to vanish in a similar manner that Voldemort had.

The second Challenge finished, the two boys continued climbing. They reached the peak by sunset, exhausted by the climb. Their eyes locked onto the one figure who had been there before them. Madam Sel, who was smiling. She said in her breathy way "Congratulations, Natural Animagi! You have passed the Trial." Harry exchange looks with Draco, and they both let out a whoop of victory. They had made it, where many had failed. And, though they didn't know it, they were one of the few with a time under sixteen days.