"Oomf," Harry was knocked forward again as something hit his back this time. It hit him hard enough that he was sure it would leave a bruise. He turned to glare again, but found Draco and his friends pretending as if they hadn't done anything. Harry wasn't fooled by the innocent look however, because he saw the smirk flash across the blond's face. What was it that they were throwing at him anyway? He looked around on the floor and saw nothing.

Harry had just gone back to taking notes yet again when he heard Snape shout, "Mr. Malfoy! If you throw one more lump of lacewing dung you will earn yourself a second detention!" Everyone's head snapped up and to Draco, who was caught red handed with a ball of translucent lacewing fly dung in his hand, dripping on the floor.

"Sir, I wasn't throwing-"

"Do not lie to me Malfoy," Snape snapped, suddenly stalking over to Draco and giving him a good glaring that had earlier only been reserved for Harry himself. "Mr. Potter's back is the proof. Lacewing dung is expensive, and you will repay me for the wasted material with detention at seven pm sharp!"

Draco set the manure back in the bucket that sat beside his and Crabbe's desk, and hung his head. "Yes sir," he said. Without a look to Harry or anybody else, Snape strode back up to the front of the room, and Ron sniggered. Now knowing what was smeared on his head and back however, Harry didn't feel like laughing. He was both amazed and grateful however that Snape had stood up for him, although to anybody else it wouldn't have seemed like it.

At the end of class Snape made a minute motion with his hand that Harry caught that indicated that he should stay back. Ron and Hermione tried to hang back as well, and for once were allowed to.

"Come here Potter," Severus said when everybody else but the three Gryffindor's had left.

Harry walked to the front of the room, and Snape waved his wand at Harry's back and said a cleaning spell.

"Most of it is gone, but I suggest you shower at lunch, or else your hair will begin to turn unpleasant shades of orange and pink."

Harry nodded. "Thanks."

"Go to class."

They left, and Ron and Hermione gave Harry an odd look. "That was awful nice of him," Ron pointed out.

Harry shrugged.

"Well, he is you know what to him now," Hermione pointed out. Ron stuck his tongue out in disgust.

"Yeah, but I bet Harry wishes he weren't."

"He is being nicer now," Harry repeated. "Better nicer than meaner."

"You've got a point."

Harry did as he was told and skipped lunch to shower, but as soon as he stepped back out of Gryffindor tower, Draco stepped out from around a corner.

"You got me in trouble today Potter," he spat. "Don't know how, but you did. You're such a pansy getting professors to do the dirty work for you."

Harry clenched his fist. "You're the pansy, throwing manure at the back of people's heads. You'd have a cow if I did that to you."

"That's because you are dung Potter," Draco spat again. "You're so used to living with those dirty Muggles that I thought you missed home, so I was bringing a bit of it back to you."

"What do you want Malfoy," Harry asked through gritted teeth. If there was no point to this then he was going to go to the Great Hall and snag a sandwich before Charms, but if there was, he wanted to get it over with.

"I want you to pay for being such a little pratt," Draco said. "If you were man enough you'd duel me."

"When?"

"Tonight during dinner, when all the Professor's are occupied. The empty room next to the Charm's room. Be there or I'll take it as admission of being a filthy coward."

Draco stalked off before Harry could say anything else, and Harry let his fists unclench. He had a good number of hexes and charms under his belt, and he would have to ask the twins to show him some more if he got a chance before dinner.

In Charms Harry wrote a note to Ron explaining what had happened, and Ron wrote down instructions to the big tongue jinx and the Petrificus Totalus charm so that Harry would have a couple more spells to use on Draco.

"I reckon you'd best not go at all," Ron said after classes had ended. "Dad says Draco's father was a Death Eater. I bet he taught Draco all kinds of dirty curses and hexes."

"Well I can't back out now," Harry said. "I'll just have to fight quick and run before I get caught by my... I mean by Snape. He can sense when I'm in danger."

"Well, the Charm's corridor is on the third floor... I reckon that gives you ten minutes of dueling time if he's coming from the Great Hall. Maybe twelve if he's got to come up all the way from the Dungeons."

"Hm... how many hexes can I get of in that time?"

"Ten, fifteen a piece. I don't know. I saw my brothers duel in secret at home, but I was never allowed before because I didn't have a wand."

"Well, don't tell Hermione, or she'll have a fit."

"Definitely. Are you sure you don't want me to come?"

"He just said the two of us. If he's not there right away I'll come straight back here. And if I'm not back in fifteen minutes after I leave the Great Hall then you'll know I got caught one way or the other and will probably be doing detention in the Dungeons."

"That sucks. You just got out of staying down there all night. You only had a couple nights back in the tower with us."

"Oh well, I'm used to it by now."

Ron nodded.

And so it was that at the start of dinner Harry looked for Snape, and not seeing him made a lame excuse to Hermione and hurried out of the Great Hall. Draco was in the room in the Charm's corridor just as promised.

"Well, well Potter, you were man enough to show up after all. I'm impressed. I figured you'd be hiding under your bed by now."

"I don't hide," Harry said, thinking that that wasn't exactly true, because he had found hiding a useful tactic at the Dursley's and in other times of trouble.

Draco scoffed. Whatever Potter, let's do this.

Harry nodded and pulled out his wand, but before he could get a spell off Draco was aiming some kind of green curse at him that slithered out of the tip of his wand before shooting at Harry super fast. Harry dove to the floor and aimed off a jelly legs jinx before rolling away, and shooting off the big tongue jinx that Ron had showed him earlier. Harry was amazed at how fast Draco's tongue swelled up. It swelled so much that he couldn't talk in order to throw any more spells at him. Harry stood up triumphantly and put his hands on his hips.

"Guess that means I won," he said a little cockily.

"Guess that means you have detention," came a raspy voice from behind him. Draco's eyes got wide and Harry spun to find Filch and his cat standing there in the doorway looking triumphant himself at having caught students breaking rules. "No dueling boys, that means detention. Harry lowered his wand and Draco poked at his tongue, wondering how to make it go back to normal.

Filch didn't even have time to drag them out of the room before Snape was running down the hall and coming to an abrupt halt behind Filch.

"What's going on here?" he asked Filch, and then looked past him to Harry and Draco's large tongue.

"Oh for pity sakes," he said and uttered the counter jinx, making Draco's tongue shrink back to it's original size.

"Harry cursed me!" Draco said immediately.

"Did not!" Harry shouted, "He challenged me to a duel!"

"Did not!" Draco shouted, trying to be louder than Harry. "He wanted to get back at me for-"

"You liar-"

"throwing dung and-"

"He said I was a coward if I-"

"ENOUGH!"

Both boys quieted immediately at the angry Potion Master's shout.

"Detention for the both of you! I will leave it to Filch to decide your fate. Now get to dinner... NOW!"

Harry and Draco scurried from the room and since Harry was the last one out Snape gave him a solid smack on the hind end that made Harry jump and grab his back side with an indignant look at his guardian as he ran off. He hadn't been spanked in a long time... in fact Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia had long since abandoned it for harsher punishments.

Back in the Great Hall Harry sulked until Ron and Hermione made him tell them what had happened. Ron looked sad and Hermione looked aghast.

"You could have been killed!" she scolded him. "And you probably lost us a bunch of points!"

Harry shook his head. "No points, just detention with Filch."

"Ugh," Ron said. "Snape is fond of cleaning floors, but Fred and George said Filch will make you clean toilets and other nasty stuff."

Harry shrugged. "We'll see." Detention with Filch wouldn't be the worst of it he was sure. Snape probably had more walloping in store for him as soon as he had him alone, and Harry didn't look forward to that in the least. He had at least had the sense enough to leave the swat on the butt out to his friends. It was too embarrassing to be spanked at eleven years old.

It wasn't until lunch time the next day that McGonagall came down to the end of Gryffindor table where Harry and Ron sat and gave him a stern look. "Your detention will be served tonight with Filch and Mr. Malfoy in the Forbidden Forest. You are to appear in the Entrance Hall at eleven sharp. I suggest you bring your wand and warm clothing Mr. Potter," she said sternly. "It's a dangerous, cold place." Harry nodded and she walked off.

"Awesome!" Ron said with glee. Harry gave him a dubious look.

"You get to go into the Forbidden Forest Harry! Fred and George have been trying to sneak in there for three years!"

"Well it's probably forbidden for a reason," Harry said, wondering what kind of monsters could be in there... lions and bears maybe, and hopefully nothing worse.

"I heard there are flying donkeys in there that eat animals as big as a Llama," Ron said knowledgeably.

"Where'd you hear that?" Dean piped in.

"My brothers." Dean scoffed and tuned back out of the conversation.

Whatever there was in there, Harry thought to himself, he hoped it didn't eat eleven-year-old boys that went to magic school.

Dressed in his warmest cloak and the new jeans and shirt Snape had given him ages ago, Harry waited quietly in the Entrance hall at ten fifty five that evening. Draco showed up as pale as ever a few minutes later and glared at Harry.

"I hate you," he said.

"Join the club," Harry told him.

Draco rolled his eyes right as Filch came in from outside. "Get out here, he scowled."

Harry and Draco moved forward and out into the chilly night air. McGonagall was right, it was very cold here at night, especially when it was almost time for it to start snowing.

"You'll be going into the forest with Hagrid," filch said as they walked away from the castle and down across the dewy lawns. "Something's been eating unicorns... and there's one hurt right now. Hagrid needs help finding it."

Draco shot Harry a scared look at the mention of unicorns getting eaten, and filch continued, "Two second year Hufflepuffs are already down at Hagrid's waiting for you. Little brats chased Mrs. Norris up into the forbidden corridor..." Filch trailed off and Harry once again wondered what was so bad about that particular corridor.

It was only a minute more before Hagrid's hut came into view, and Harry waved to Hagrid, who was standing next to two shivering, scared looking Hufflepuffs, one girl, and one boy.

"'ere they are Hagrid... don't lose them in there." He grinned and Draco looked disgusted at the man's mouth which was missing half it's teeth.

"Don' you worry Argus. I'll have ‘em back safe to the castle before too long. There's a trail of blood and it's not too far off, only problem is it splits in two directions, and I need help following them.

Filch chuckled, "Happy hunting then," and then he was off on his way back up to the warm, safe castle, where Harry very much wished he were going right now.

Hagrid handed Draco and the Hufflepuff girl a lantern.
"All righ' then, Hufflepuff's wit' me, an' Harry an' Draco, you can follow the other trail.

"Well I get Fang then," Draco said, spotting the enormous boar hound.

"Fine then, but jus' so yeh know, he's a bloody coward," Hagrid said, and he set off.

They followed Hagrid as a group into the forest, and walked for ten minutes before they found the trail of blood. They followed the trail deeper into the forest for another five minutes, and then it split in two, just as Hagrid had said.

"You two take the trail to the left," Hagrid said to Harry and Draco. Iffin yeh get inter trouble shoot up red sparks with yer wands like this," here he motioned to the Hufflepuff girl named Ginger and she shot up some sparks with her wand by pointing it straight in the air like she was stabbing at something. Brilliant red sparks flew out the tip and up right above the treeline.

"See, can't miss that," Hagrid said. "Off yeh go. Do the same thing if yeh find the unicorn. Don't touch the blood."

Harry nodded, and set off. Draco had apparently been standing there waiting for Hagrid to leave, and suddenly had to run to catch up to Harry, because he didn't want to be left alone.

"This sucks," Draco said.

Harry shrugged. "Better than scrubbing floors."

"You would know, wouldn't you Potter," Draco scoffed.

"Shut up already or I'll leave you alone."

"As if," Draco said.

They had been walking for a few minutes now and suddenly the trail of blood had stopped being a trail and had started being a pool.

"Wait," Harry said, and he pointed to the silvery substance that was on the forest floor.

"That's worth twenty five Galleons an ounce," Draco said knowledgably.

"Hagrid said not to touch it," Harry reminded him.

Draco rolled his eyes. "Did I look like I was going to?"

There was a crack of a breaking branch somewhere from ahead of them and Harry and Draco quieted, suddenly alert for anything that might be coming to eat them.

"What was that?" Draco whispered frantically.

"I don't know," Harry said. "Be quiet."

"I heard there are flying donkeys in here that-"

"Shh," Harry chastised Draco with a stern look. He squinted in the darkness, and his eyes latched onto something that seemed to be slithering... no, floating on the ground towards them. Draco saw it too, and suddenly a scream was issuing from his lips and he was running in the other direction, Fang quick on his heals.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!" Harry could hear his voice receding into the forest, and he wondered if he'd find his way back to Hagrid, or only get lost deeper in the dark woods.

His head snapped back to the slithering figure, knowing now that his position had been given away for sure by Draco's terrified screams. Sure enough, the hooded figure looked up, and Harry saw red eyes watching him carefully as it stooped down to drink from the puddle of unicorn blood on the ground.

Harry backed up a few steps and fell over backwards as he tripped over a log. Wand in his hand, it shot up red sparks as he fell, and he and the figure looked up at the sky to see the bright display of light for a moment, and then before Harry knew it, the figure was coming after him. Harry leapt up and ran as fast as his legs could carry him, although without the screaming that Draco had thought necessary.

Branches whipped and tore at Harry's face and clothes as he ran, not caring in which direction he went, only that it was away from the figure. ‘It eats little boys, it eats little boys,' he kept thinking to himself frantically as he leapt over fallen logs, and at one point, a carcass of some large animal. And just when he thought he couldn't run anymore, he leapt over a log and found himself falling, falling, falling, and then he landed with a sickening crunch at the bottom of a pit.

Dazed Harry opened his eyes and looked up, hoping his pursuer wouldn't find him if he just kept quiet enough. Would that thing be crazed enough to follow him into the twenty foot deep pit? Could it even get back out if it did? Well, he had seen it floating...

From above him he heard branches cracking, and he held his breath, willing himself not to make a sound. Long moments passed in which he could tell the thing was looking for him, and he tried to remember Oliver's words once again about being small and unnoticeable as he cowered under a large tree root that stuck out of the dirt above him. After a few more moments however, the thing seemed to be moving off, but Harry dared not use his wand to send up red sparks, or else he'd give his position away to the thing that eats unicorns, and perhaps eleven year old boys too.

Harry waited for a long time and began to shiver in the darkness as he cowered at the bottom of the hole. He didn't seem to be hurt, miraculously, although he did ache from the fall. Disappointed that he had gotten himself into this mess, and also that he had ruined his new clothes and best cloak, Harry leaned his head back against the wall of dirt and mud and wondered if anybody would bother looking this far out into the forest. As if in answer to his question, he heard someone... or something? thundering through the underbrush towards him, and then there was a pale face with long black hair peering over the edge of the massive pit.

"Harry?"

Harry crawled out from under the tree root.

"Be careful! There's something up there that eats unicorns! It was chasing me!"

As if suddenly aware for the first time that he had run straight into the Forbidden Forest, Snape looked around himself in the darkness, and then back down to Harry.

"Just, hold on, I'll conjure a rope and pull you out."

"Ok!"

He heard the man muttering something in latin, and then a long, strong rope was thrown down to him.

"Tie it around yourself and I'll pull you out."

"K!" Harry did as he was told and then shouted up, "Ready!"

He tried to help as much as he could on the way out by pulling himself up on rocks and tree roots, but the walls of the pit were mostly mud and there wasn't much to hold on to. When he finally reached the edge, he allowed Snape to reach forward and pull him onto solid ground.

"Are you hurt?"

"No."

"Are you sure?"

Harry nodded in the pale moonlight. "Draco ran off screaming... I don't know if he's ok or not."

Snape rolled his eyes. "Yes. I passed him running out as I was on my way in."

"What about Hagrid and the others?"

"I do not know. Presumably they are fine as well."

Wands out, Harry and Snape began their long journey back out of the forest and to school grounds. It was a full half hour until they made their way out. Hagrid and the others were on the edge of the forest, Hagrid looking nervous and wringing his hands together.

"Harry!" he shouted, running up and giving Harry a hug.

"What happened to yeh?"

"I fell into a pit running away from that thing. What was it? It was hovering and slithering and it had a body like a human... it was drinking the blood Hagrid, right off the ground."

Hagrid shook his head. "I don' rightly know. We found the unicorn and it had been torn to shreds and sucked dry... there was no blood left in it at all." As if severely disturbed by this statement, the two Hufflepuffs shuddered and huddled together.

"That is enough for tonight," Snape said. "Everyone needs to get back to the castle. And I'm sure the Headmaster will want an immediate report Hagrid," Snape told him.

Hagrid nodded. "Yes Professor. I was going to go up there as soon as yeh'd found Harry. Draco said you went running in and I figured it had to be for him."

At this Draco gave an odd look to Snape, who ignored it and began his journey back up to the castle. Harry and the others followed, with Hagrid and Fang bringing up the rear.

Draco went back to the Dungeons as soon as he got inside the castle, and the Hufflepuffs hurried off to their house. After Hagrid had left for the Headmaster's office, Snape lead Harry down to his private quarters.

"You should shower before bed," Snape told Harry once they were safely inside.

"Ron and Hermione will be worried if I don't go back."

Snape nodded. "That's fine, but shower here first. Are you sure you are not injured?"

Harry nodded. "Fine. Thanks... for saving me again."

"From the moment you were given the detention I felt a foreboding sense of danger building. When I suddenly felt as if you were going to die I left the castle and ran all the way until I found you. I am amazed that you are not hurt from falling into a twenty foot pit."

Harry shrugged. "I'm good at not getting hurt in accidents. Stuff like that happened all the time at home. I fell off the roof one year shoveling snow off the roof and didn't even get bruised."

"Hm... it appears accidental magic has served you well then."

"Sometimes," Harry said, before looking down at his torn clothes.

"I messed up my good clothes," Harry said, suddenly sad again that he no longer had anything nice to wear. They were all torn up and dirty, and in some cases had blood stains from where the branches had torn at his skin.

"Clothes can be replaced," Severus said. "The important thing is that you are not injured."

Harry sighed. "Yeah, I guess so." He went to take a shower, and when he was done he put his torn clothes and ripped cloak back on, and headed back for Gryffindor tower with Snape as an escort.

Ron and Hermione were still waiting up for him, worried sick as predicted. Before Harry was allowed to go to sleep, he was forced to tell them every detail, and they were shocked and amazed by his story.

"It's a really good thing Professor Snape came to save you," Hermione said at the end of the story.

Harry nodded, knowing she was right, and he was grateful yet again for the rescue. "Yeah, I guess it was."