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The First of Thrice


The forest was still. Little moonlight filtered through the trees, the darkness seemed to swallow up the air beneath them. They stuck to the path as much as possible, but much of the path was overgrown by brush and traveling vines. “Lumos,” whispered Remus, holding his wand aloft so the light glowed around the five of them as they moved through the dark, illuminating exposed roots and large dips in the ground so that they could make their way forward without falling down. Beside the sound of their footsteps and nervous breathing, the only sound was Peter’s muttered counting of steps, so that they would know when they had gone far enough out to be officially off the grounds of Hogwarts.

They had gone about fifty-seven paces, by Peter’s count, when James made the mistake of saying, “Blimey, I don’t understand why it’s forbidden, there hasn’t been a blasted thing worth forbidding it over.” He no sooner had spoken the words than they heard an ominous crack in the woods to their right. All five heads turned to peer into the dark.

“We’re all going to die,” trembled Peter.

“Shut it,” Sirius snapped, “And keep counting your steps.” Though his voice shook ever so slightly, too.

Lily inched closer to Remus in the darkness, keen to stay in the circle of light that his wand gave off.

Another crack from deep in the trees.

“Perhaps we should, er, turn off the light a mo’,” Sirius suggested. He reached for James’s arm and Lily’s wrist and nodded for Remus to grab hold on Peter. Lily took hold of Remus, forming a chain. “Nox,” whispered Remus, and the light extinguished, throwing them all into utter darkness.

The cracking became slowly louder and the Gryffindor first years clutched onto one another in the dark. As it became louder, it also echoed off itself, throwing the sound off various trees around them, making it sound as though it were coming from every direction at exactly the same time. None of them knew which way to look, which way to expect an attack from. But then, as suddenly as the cracking had started, it faded off, the noise getting further and further away until they couldn’t hear it at all any longer.

“What do you think it was?” James hissed.

“Dunno,” replied Sirius.

“Nor do I,” added Remus. “But we’ll have to listen closely for it to come back, just in case… Lumos.” The little area they’d been standing in lit up once more only to reveal Peter cowering behind Remus, whimpering in fear.

They turned and continued on. They’d been walking for some time, though everything looked precisely the same as it had before, dark and gloomy and outlined by spindley fingers of tree branches reaching across the path. The only thing that marked the distance they’d past, besides the ache in their legs was the sound of Peter’s breathy mutterings. “One-hundred-sixty-one, one-hundred-sixty-two, one-hundred-sixty-three, one-hundred-sixty-four,” counted Peter, his voice low, “One-hundred-sixty-five, one-hundred-sixty-six…”

“It’s not so bad in here actually,” Sirius said. “I rather like it, actually.”

“Peaceful,” agreed James, mostly sarcastically, “I should like it a great deal better in the day.”

“I wonder how old these trees are,” said Lily.

“I expect as old as the castle,” replied Remus. “The forest was much larger before Hogwawrts was built, you know, they had to cut much of it in order to build the castle. They preserved this portion of it as a part of a treaty with the centuars.”

“There are centaurs in this wood?” Peter squeaked. “But Fantastic Beasts gave them an extremely dangerous rating and --”

“We’ll be fine, Peter, for crying out loud, they’re only centaurs!” James said, exasperated. “Keep. Counting.”

“One-hundred-... er… seventy, I s’pose…” Peter muttered, moving away from James to the other side of Remus and Lily, glaring at him through the darkness.

Lily’s voice was laced with curiosity. “What are centaurs like, anyway? Are they really part man, part horse?” She asked. “I should like to see one, I imagine they’re very --”

“Shhh,” Remus cut in suddenly. “Nox.”

All of them came to an instant halt and clustered back-to-back quickly, looking about the dark forest. Remus had the best ears - probably because of his wolfish-tendencies, thought Sirius with a small smirk - and could hear things far sooner than the rest of them could. They stood, waiting, their palms sweaty. There was indeed something in the forest once again, not very far from them. Branches were cracking as they had been before. Then they stopped. Silence fell over the path as far as everyone could tell - everyone but Remus, who could hear the breath of something very large, rather close at hand.

After a long pause that felt like eternity, there was more cracking and crunching in the forest and then a voice called out, “Is that you, Nerimai?”

“Yes,” said a voice closer to them, only feet away in the dark. Remus felt Lily clutch his hand behind their backs and he felt warmth tingle up his arm, even though her hands were rather clammy. He closed his eyes, allowing his ears to sharpen. James could feel every muscle in his legs tense, ready to bolt should they need to run.

There was a crunching and Sirius saw, very faintly, a dark black shape move onto the path… tall and looming overhead… a centuar. He held his breath as the creature passed by, stepping over a large log and disappearing among the trees. “I’ve been looking at the stars.”

“Yes?” Nerimai asked, “And what do you see, Bane?”

“The First of Thrice,” Bane replied. “It begins tonight.”

Nerimai’s voice was low, “You read correctly.”

“You have taught me well,” Bane said. He paused. “Should we not look into stopping --”

“No,” snapped Nerimai. “We do not interfere. We know, we observe, but we do not interfere.”

“Even when --”

“No matter what,” Nerimai interrupted.

Both were so quiet for a long moment that everyone but Remus wondered if they hadn’t snuck off into the darkness, unheard. Remus knew though, for he could smell them, ever so slightly on the breath of he air.

“Come,” Nerimai said lowly. “Let us go. This place is not ours alone.” There was the sound of his hooves cracking twigs and leaves beneath him, and then the echo of Bane’s steps following along through the trees.

The cluster of Gryffindor First Years waited until the sound of their hooves had faded off, and even then did not relax until Remus muttered, “Lumos,” and they once more had a small circle of light to stand in.

“That,” said James, “Is what centuar is like. Are you quite happy now?”

“Well I didn’t see them, did I?” Lily asked snappily, though she had to admit that she hadn’t wished to very much, either, based purely on the vague shapes she had perceived through the dark, and the cryptic way they’d spoken.

“What do you think they were talking about? The First of Thrice?” Asked Remus as they started walking again.

“Dunno,” replied Sirius. “Sounds like some sort of weird holiday.”

Peter was muttering numbers again, though he’d completely lost count somewhere along the way, so he simply started counting where he could last recall having been, “One-hundred-sixty-six…”

Lily said, “How much further do we have to go?”

“Two-hundred and thirty-seven paces by Peter’s count,” replied Sirius. “Plus an extra dozen or so to be sure we’ve cleared the limits of the grounds.”

Lily sighed, quite regretting coming along with the boys and wishing she’d at least put on a jumper before running after them. Her clothes weren’t nearly warm enough in the cold night air. She wrapped her arms around herself and rubbed her shoulders. Suddenly a jumper was laid across her shoulders. She looked up and saw James, now jumperless himself, as he jumped back to his own side of the path. “Thanks,” she said.

“You’re welcome,” he replied.

James’s jumper was warm from his body heat and Lily clutched it close ‘round herself, thankful for it. “I’ll bet it’s some sort of Centaur version of Chanukah,” said Sirius, going back to the previous topic. “The First of Thrice begins tonight. Something to do with the stars. They worship the stars, you know, centaurs.”

“They can tell the future by them, I’ve heard,” James said, “Like divination - you know, crystal balls and all that hoo-ha.”

Remus replied, “Fairly accurately, usually. Of the last twenty-two centaur predictions, twenty-one have been correct and the last has yet to happen, according to Binns.”

“Maybe we should’ve asked that lot to read our fortunes and tell Peter here to stop being such a baby,” James suggested with a snicker.

“I’m not a bloody baby,” Peter interrupted his tremulous counting.

When they’d walked the two-hundred-thirty-seven paces (plus a dozen… or more given the number of times Peter had lost count on their little trek), they finally came to a stop and looked around themselves. “I see a clearing,” said Sirius, and he pointed and they walked the little ways through the woods to the place where a small circular space let the moonlight flood down all the way to the floor of the forest. They stopped on the very edge of the light, not quite daring to step into it just yet. Remus extinguished his wand light. They stood surveying the space. “Alright,” said Sirius finally, “This looks good.”

Lily felt a lump in her throat. “So.. so what now? You’re going to… to call him and when he appears -- then we -- we stun him?”

“Yes,” Sirius said, “That’s the plan.”

James said, “All at once.”

“What if we do that… and it doesn’t work? What’s the back-up plan?” Asked Lily, who hadn’t been present for all the preparatory conversations.

“Then Peter is going to run to get Dumbledore and we’re going to do our damnedest to distract Voldemort until he gets here. If we can, we lure him back over onto the Hogwarts grounds so he can’t disapparate away once Dumbledore arrives,” replied James.

Lily could feel her heart thumping in her chest like a jackhammer. “Alright,” she replied.

Sirius took a deep breath. “You lot find hiding places,” he said. “Once you have, shout so I know where abouts you are and then… well, you know.”

They divided up, each walking around the circle. Peter took a bush closest to the path back to Hogwarts, since he was the one that would have to run back to Dumbledore, should things go sour, and the others ducked behind trees and brush all around the circle. “Here,” shouted Peter.

James nudged Lily as she ducked toward a log to hide, “Take the invisibility cloak,” he told her.

“What for?”

“So you can hide better,” James replied, holding out the silvery cloak to her.

Lily eyed the cloak for a moment, “Why don’t you use it?” She asked.

“Because…” James said, “You need it more than I do.”

“Here,” came Remus’s voice from opposite the clearing.

James thrust it at her. “Just in case.”

“Because I”m a girl?” Lily asked, “You think I need extra help because I’m not as fast or as good as you?” Her eyebrow raised, she put a hand on her hip.

“It’s not that,” James replied.

“Then what?” Lily demanded, “What are you saying James?”

“Blimey,” he snapped, rolling his eyes, “Forget about it. I was just trying to help. Don’t got to bite my bloody head off. And for that matter, I’d like my jumper back.”

Lily took the jumper off and chucked it. It landed just inside the circle of moonlight. “There. Have it. Go away.” She disappeared into the darkness. “Here!” She yelled a moment later.

“Girls,” James grunted as he grabbed his jumper and pulled it on quickly, angrily, and then dodged off behind a tree. “Here!” He snapped.

Sirius took a deep breath, hands trembling, and pulled the mirror out of his bag and carried it out into the clearing so that the moonlight hit the glass and looked down into the eerily reflection-less frame. “Hullo?” He called, “Um… Your um… Lordship?” He cleared his throat, “Lord Voldemort… sir?”

Was there a magic word? A phrase which would call the Dark Lord to the mirror? He wasn’t sure how to address the Dark Lord either, not in a way that would be convincing at least.

“My name is Sirius Black and, er, I’d rather fancy a talk with you.”

And then, Sirius’s heart nearly stopped, something moved in the mirror… and then there he was… the Dark Lord… staring back at him where his own reflection ought to have been.