Thin Pages

The Forbidden Forest

The books were a curse and a blessing. Sirius and Remus couldn't think of anything better than to be able to have the ability to see the school years that they missed. At the same time, it was a painful reminder of what they lost. They tried to focus on the positive, though the Christmas chapter with the Mirror of Erised proved to be the most difficult one. That was saying something, considering the early stuff with the Dursleys was no walk in the park either.

Remus knew it was worse for Sirius. He held so much guilt and regret about the last fourteen years. He knew the books were bringing feelings up. Neither of them knew at all how troubled Harry's early years were, and that includes the school year, which was supposed to be easier. That being said, there was a nostalgia to reading as well. Harry had so much of his parents in him, there were times it was like reading about James and Lily.

Sirius whistled and ran a hand through his hair. "Let me tell you something, Remus, we've had our fair few adventures, but we didn't ever have any with a dragon."

"Truthfully, Harry's had more excitement in his year than we had in our whole run." Remus said.

Sirius scoffed, "I wouldn't go that far, he hasn't even stepped foot inside of the forest yet."

"I'd be surprised if he doesn't at least once." Remus said.

"I'd be a bit disappointed," Sirius muttered. "Almost as disappointed as I was that he and Hermione forgot the cloak!"

"Yes, you've bored that topic to death and I'm ready to move on. One more chapter and then break for lunch?" Remus asked. "And then we can finish it after."

"Sure, sure," Sirius said. "I'd like to see what McGonagall does. Hopefully she's not too hard on them."

~TP~

"I can't believe how hard on them she was," Sirius muttered right when Remus had finished the last line of the chapter. "Merlin, you'd have thought they blew up an entire wing of the school. It was beyond overkill."

"At least you know Harry's been in the forest at least once," Remus joked.

Sirius ignored him. "They were caught being out at like one am, which is apparently the worst thing a student can ever do, so as a punishment, McGonagall sends them out an hour after curfew to go galloping around in the forbidden forest until dawn?"

"It wasn't until dawn," Remus muttered.

"Filch said he was picking them up at dawn," Sirius said.

"He was definitely trying to scare them." Remus said. When Sirius glared at him, he held up his hands. "But you're absolutely right, Sirius. And either way, eleven is pretty late for a detention. We must have done a million worse things when we were at Hogwarts and we never got something like this."

"Well," Sirius scoffed. "Apparently we're not as memorable as I thought. What did McGonagall say?" he flipped through the chapter for a second before letting out an 'ah ha' and pointing on the page. "'Four students out of bed in one night! I've never heard of such a thing before!'" Sirius looked at Remus with an expression of disbelief. "Never? Not once in even the last twenty years?"

Remus breathed out a laugh, "Oh, you know how teachers are. Especially in the first year. They exaggerate so you feel bad about it and never do it again. But honestly, I think McGonagall panicked. She was not seeing Harry at that moment, she was seeing James."

Sirius pursed his lips and nodded. "Yeah, you're right. She saw Harry sneaking around out of bed and thought it was gonna be another seven years of rule breaking and pranks and went WAY overboard trying to stray him off that path."