- Text Size +
Into the Forbidden Forest


The next day seemed extremely long. Sirius was antsy all through classes, keeping his eye on the movement of the sun across the grounds, nervous and excited about the plans they’d formed for that night. James was picking up on Sirius’s anxiety and kept looking at him sideways in Potions as they worked on their assignment, though neither dared to talk about it, since Professor Slughorn continuously walked throughout the desks, looking over students shoulders and commenting on their work.

As worked up as Sirius was, his nerves couldn’t hold a candle to Peter’s. Remus was trying to maintain his patience with Peter as they worked, but Peter kept knocking over vials and spilling various ingredients across the table and onto Remus’s lap. There was a scary moment when a bit of something purple got on Remus’s hand and started to sizzle loudly, but luckily Slughorn was nearby and he used his wand to siphon it up before putting a bit of antidote on the reddened skin.

That night, during dinner, Lily sat down next to Remus at the Gryffindor table in the Great Hall. The four boys looked at her, raised eyebrows. “Yes?” Asked James pointedly, “Can we help you?”

Lily’s eyes darted from Peter to Sirius. “It’s tonight, isn’t it?”

Sirius swallowed back the nerves that swelled up his throat suddenly. “Maybe. Maybe not.”

“What’s it to you?” Demanded James.

Lily leaned forward and lowered her voice, “You shouldn’t do it. Please don’t do it.”

Remus leaned back with his napkin and swept it over his mouth, not wanting to take part in the conversation again. The others knew his opinion, but he’d committed to helping out either way. A part of him wanted Lily to talk sense into the others. He looked down at his plate.

“I don’t think it’s a good idea and… and I just really wish you wouldn’t do it. Give the mirror to Dumbledore. Tell him why you’re nervous about it.” She was looking at Sirius with pleading eyes. “He can help.”

Sirius frowned, “He can but he won’t. We’ve told Dumbledore about the mirror and it didn’t do any good. He didn’t do anything about it. So we will. And then he’ll have to do something about it. When -- when You-Know-Who is here, all bound up with stunners, Dumbledore won’t be able to overlook that.”

Lily sighed. “I’m just really worried about you is all. I don’t want anything bad to happen to you lot.”

“Why Lily Evans, do you give a damn about us, then?” James chortled.

Lily turned red. “Well, perhaps not you,” she replied sassily.

Remus couldn’t help but smirk down at his roast beef at the tone of her voice and the look on James’s face.

“You could come with us,” piped up Peter from the other side of Remus. “You’re so good… surely he couldn’t best all of us if you were there, too.” He looked at Lily with the most desperate expression he could muster.

Lily looked torn.

“He’s right, Lil… We could really use your help,” said Sirius.

“Would be nice to have a second level head around,” added Remus, “Right now it’s just me.” He rolled his eyes.

James shrugged, not saying anything. He didn’t want Lily to be there. He wanted her safe, in bed, tucked up in Gryffindor tower, where whatever happened out there in the woods… it wouldn’t affect her.

Lily seemed to be thinking along the same lines. She shook her head, “No… no I’m not going out there, I’m not mad, like you lot are.” She stood up, “Just… just think on it. Please.”

“You won’t tell, will you?” Sirius asked.

“I should,” she replied, then she shrugged, “But I told you I wouldn’t… so I won’t. But I should.”

“Thanks, Evans,” Sirius said.

Lily shook her head, “Don’t thank me. It’s probably going to be the death of you all and I’ll be guilty for the rest of my life for it.” With that, she turned and went down the other end of the table, where Alice Bell greeted her excitedly, glancing toward the boys, asking what she’d needed with them.

Remus chewed a carrot thoughtfully as the boys ate in silence for a moment, then he said, “I’ll only say it once more, and then I’ll go along with everything from here on out without another word on it, but - I think Lily’s right, for the record.”

Sirius and James ignored this statement altogether and Peter concentrated very, very hard on spearing his peas with the tines of his fork to keep from saying anything himself.




The moonlight was pale. The common room was still. Bilius and his girlfriend had been the last two to vacate the couches by the fire. But once the door had closed on the sixth year’s dorm room door, Sirius was up and out of bed. “Okay,” he hissed across the room.

They’d all been laying in bed in silence, supposedly napping so that they would be well rested when they went out into the forest, but none of them had been able to sleep. They got up, all still dressed and James tied his trainers as Sirius and Peter dug the mirror out of the trunk and wrapped it carefully in a sheet, hoping to muffle any sound that the Dark Lord may be able to hear through the glass. They slipped the mirror into Sirius’s book bag and he slung it over his shoulders. Remus tore the page with the map of the forest out of Hogwarts: A History, and tucked it into his pocket and each of them grabbed their wands and James swept the invisibility cloak around them.

Downstairs in the common room, they made sure that everything was still and the seats all empty, the fire dying in the hearth, before they walked to the portrait hole. Making their way through the castle, James felt the bubbling of adrenaline in his veins and stomach, his heart vibrating fiercely in his chest. They were in the Entrance Hall before long and looking up at the looming wood doors.

The boys stood quite still in front of the door, listening hard for any signs of life from elsewhere in the castle. They’d been lucky so far, having not seen nor heard any signs of Filch or Mrs. Norris or anyone else that may have been up and about - but that didn’t mean that they weren’t there. They listened carefully. “I think we’re good,” whispered Peter.

Remus lifted one finger to quiet him. “Shh,” he said, straining his ears.

It took a moment, but finally they heard what Remus had… and then, within a moment, there was Lily, careening around the corner of the staircase, running down the stairs, her trainers echoing off the stone walls, her ginger hair flying behind her, green eyes wide.

“What’re you doing?” Snapped Sirius as she reached the bottom of the stairs, “Trying to get us all caught?”

Lily came up short, surprise on her face and looked around, “Sirius? Where are you?” She hissed.

Sirius ducked out from beneath the invisibility cloak, “Here I am,” he said.

Lily ran across the hall, “I thought I’d missed you.”

“Missed us?” James held up the cloak so that she could see the cluster of them beneath it.

“I’m coming along,” she whispered.

“Oh thank Merlin,” sighed Peter.

Sirius grinned, “Alright then.” His eyes twinkled.

The boys shuffled about to make room for Lily to squeeze under the cloak, too, but no matter how they worked it they couldn’t all five fit under without their ankles showing, which didn’t worry Sirius much. “Once we’re on the grounds, nobody will see our ankles. From the castle it would look like a cat or something. We should be fine,” he pointed out.

And so, sufficiently covered, the Gryffindor First Years carefully pushed open the entrance hall doors, which creaked and groaned loudly, echoing off the walls, and slipped out onto the steps. They ran as fast as they could from the front stairs and down the pathway, across the grounds, afraid that Filch might investigate the creaking doorway before they’d gotten far enough.

When they were nearly to the edge of the forest, they slowed to a walk, moving along until they reached the spot where the grass tapered off into the mulchy underbed of the forest. Here, in the shadow of the trees, they pulled off the invisibility cloak, having agreed that it would be far more a hinderance among the trees and undergrowth of the forest than it would be a help.

They stood side-by-side, staring up at the looming black forest.

“Are you lot ready?” James asked thickly.

“No,” squeaked Peter.

“Okay,” said James, “Let’s go, then.” And with that, he took the first step into the Forbidden Forest.