Kat noticed Snape bullying the other students out of the forest, and walked ahead of the group. She was eager to get Shinrei to the infirmary as quickly as possible.

They quickly emerged at the edge of the forest. Kat headed straight for the infirmary, not stopping for anyone.

***********

A few minutes earlier Mahou came walking, rather angrily, up the hill to the school. She had felt the earthquake and had braced herself for it. Totter she did, but fall she did not.

Then she saw Nimue and Luis standing by the entrance to the school which looked out upon the Forest. Flare went her anger. Rather stomping up to Nimue, Mahou screamed in a rather loud voice, her arm slicing through the air in an angry, hopeless gesture.

"How could ye *DO* this ta me?!" she shouted. She didn't care if Luis heard, she didn't care if he was there. She glared something terrible at Nimue, tears of frustration, humiliation, anger, and embarrassment pricked at her eyes.

"How could ye! Ye didna ha'e ta save me from th' forest! Tha' be where I belong! Forbidden or no', at least when I was a tree, I was part o' somethin'! An' then a *human*," the word dripped from Mahou's lips like so much sweet acid, "like ye had ta come up an'.. an'.. the Spirit *Bowed* ta ye! A human!!" Her voice just louder at each utterance of the word human.

Wiping at her eyes, getting even more frustrated that she was crying, Mahou wanted to haul off and slap the girl before her. "I belonged, Nimue. When I was so much bark and leaf, I *belonged* somewhere. Half Elf, half human, half witch, half elf-mage. I donnae belong anywhere! I'm no' sure I want ta belong wi' humans. No' sure at all." She walked up to Nimue, right in her face, her lime-green eyes blazing. "Ye shoulda left me there.. at least then I still woulda had some self-respect."

Next, she drew her arm back and let it fly.. attempting to smack Nimue right across the face.

Nimue had not been surprised that Mahou's anger had flared in her direction. It had been fairly obvious that she had somehow upset the half-elf girl back in the forest and now the reason for that had come out.

She hadn't had a chance to get a word in edgewise and didn't know if anything she could say would help anyway. She wasn't about to apologize for being who she was.

However, she had underestimated the depth of the girl's anger and therefore was unprepared for Mahou's blow.

She staggered slightly under the blow, her cheek reddening.

A sudden involuntary shudder ran through his body at the mention of the Forbidden Forest. And at this time of the night, too. It was no sweet moonlit escapade. Luis had gone through more than enough to know there was danger lurking, a danger that had never been so palpable until lately.

Students? Which students? By the look on Nimue's face, Luis would bet there were Gryffindors aplenty involved. The mere idea began to make his heart beat faster, thudding like a dull drum against his chest.

This was not that much fun anymore. He had no time to react when Mahou stalked forward and proceeded to scream at and slap Nimue. Instinct taking over, Luis reached into his robes and pointed his wand at Mahou in one smooth, almost graceful gesture.

"Predimienta." A restraining spell, mildly cast, enough to keep Mahou's hands at bay.

"Now is not the time for childish tantrums, hermanita," he said softly. "Whatever you did that for, I'm sure these reasons are insignificant to the threat in that Forest. The threat TO OUR CLASSMATES' LIVES lurking in that forest." He spoke with constrained yet deliberate emphasis, looking much older in the very serious cast of his face.

Nimue looked at Luis grateful for his intervention. She couldn't have put it better herself. She knew Mahou liked Luis - maybe she would listen to him.

"Luis, is right Mahou. I had no idea you wished to remain in the Forest but I do know that your transfiguration was not intended to offer you sanctuary from the human world. Myself and the others went into the woods because we were concerned not only for your safety but for your state of mind. Half-elf you may be but also human."

She turned to Luis, her face no less anxious, "Before Marvo and the others left to go deeper within the Forest, there was a message about another student being in some sort of trouble. Someone not with us. I
don't know who or of what House but that wouldn't matter anyway. It is my hope that Dumbledore has been summoned to negotiate for their safe release."

She knew that there were alternatives to this supposition, none which boded well at all.

Mahou looked at Luis, shocked, though one could barely tell through her anger. "I ne'er asked ye ta go lookin' fer me," she half-snarled, half whispered. "This may no' be th' time, Luis, but I *am* a child, remember? I'm no' older like ye." She sank to her knees, crying silently. "Human.. feh. More human than I'd like ta be.."

Not looking at the two, Mahou shivered, her clothes from the Quidditch match not welcome against the chilly evening. "I didna want anyone ta follow me inta th' forest. I didna want ta be saved.. half human or no'... I still be half elf. An' elves do ha'e a certain.. pride.." She sniffled as Blackfoot nudged her knee, and growled lowly at Luis for his spell. The half-elf felt like everyone was turning against her. She didn't know what to do.

~*Da.. why did ye make me come here...*~ she said aloud in elfin. ~*I donnae belong here..*~ She stayed there, in her sullen position.

A sudden movement was seen in the lake, and Alpha rose from the water. She liked to practice her skills and she felt completely at home in the water. She picked up her bathrobe and walked towards the entrance, where she saw Nimue, Luis and a blazing fury (Mahou). She just saw Mahou striking Nimue.

She walked a little faster towards them. What was going on? As she approached the three, she heard Nimue say" ....my hope that Dumbledore has been summoned to negotiate for their safe release" . Questioningly Alpha looked at Nimue. Seeing Nimue so anxious Alpha became worried: "What's going on in here?"

Nimue looked to Alpha. Her appearance had broken the tension some and she realized that nothing was reaching Mahou. She was too locked into her own misery.

Nimue recalled times when she had been similarly too caught up in her dramas to recognize the value of friendship. She realized that she had grown a lot in the past year.

"There has been some trouble again in the Forbidden Forest. The Lord of the Forest is angry and has summoned the Headmaster. I am not sure who is still there or who....."

She realized that in the interim some figures had left the forest and noted them enter the castle via a different entrance. One she thought was Kat and definitely it appeared at least one was severely injured in some way as their body was being floated.

She couldn't see well enough to see who it was.. "Oh no...."

Luis had given Alpha a nod when she arrived. Another presence would be helpful in calming Mahou down. He hoped.

He swished his wand to the left, murmuring, "Abrumpo predimiento," releasing Mahou from the restraining spell now that the Irish girl seemed too caught up in her own self-induced misery to throw another screaming fit.

He looked at Blackfoot the Fox by his feet. "I'm sorry, pumpkin," he said to the fox, "but a man's gotta do what a man's gotta do."

Nimue's declaration made him follow her gaze at the group in the distance. "Anyone from Slytherin? Gryffindor?" he asked tentatively, squinting through the darkness.

Mahou, still in her kneeling position, turned her head at the sound of the concerned voices above her. She leaped to her feet when she recognised the floating figure.

"Shinrei!" she cried. She grabbed Luis's hand and stared into his eyes, her own full or worry. "Shinrei be th' one tha's floatin' there... I think she's bein' taken up ta th' infirmary!" With her elfin sight, Mahou was able to see who it was in the darkness. It was a little fuzzy because of her human side, but she still had enough elfin-ness to see her clearer than a normal human.

Putting aside her smouldering anger, she hoped now to help Shinrei. And later to apologise to Nimue and the others.. especially Dumbledore for going in there in the first place..

"Shinrei!" exclaimed Nimue. "Of course, you're right - your eyesight is undoubtedly keener than ours. The entrance they've gone in will be closer to the Infirmary. If you want to go and see how she is...."

Nimue felt it best she not accompany them. Not that she didn't feel concern about Shinrei but with the situation between she and Mahou she thought a cooling off period was needed.

"Shinrei?" Luis echoed in disbelief. He squinted, long enough to watch the group from the forest enter the castle and quickly disappear from sight.

It was as if someone had drawn an invisible spear and stabbed it right through him, straight through the chest. He could not breathe.

"She has to be okay, right?" he babbled incoherently to Mahou, gripping the girl's hands as if he could draw air from her. "I mean, you saw her still breathing. I'm pretty sure I did."

He went on to utter several more phrases in mixed Spanish and Portuguese, then he quickly released Mahou with a thankful squeeze on her shoulder. "I'll be seeing you, hermanita," he said to her, "ladies," and absently to Nimue and Alpha. "I have to go."

Luis turned and sped towards the infirmary as if the hounds of Hell were on his heels.

Alpha looked with amazement as Luis ran from them to the other entrance. She shook her head, looking questioningly at Nimue and Mahou. "What is going on here?" she muttered to herself. She drew her bathrobe a bit closer. The evening air at Hogwarts was a bit chilly.

"I think I'm going inside," she said "are you coming too? Maybe one of you can tell me all about what happened in the forest. I heard the merpeople in the lake making a lot of noise and I saw that they were scared, but I can't understand them."

"I'll stay out here until I know the Headmaster is safe." Nimue shivered in the night air, "Something is going on and I don't think it is just to do with the Forest. It is the Land itself and while I may be young I still feel its disturbance within my being."

"The Forest Lord said he had been awakened by the stirring of an ancient Evil. That doesn't sound like your usual dark wizard or anything similar and if the merpeople are scared too...."

She didn't finish her thought but looked back towards the trees, "Maybe you should tell Dumbledore when he returns?"

"Yes, ok." Alpha said shivering. "But I'm going to take a quick shower and dress myself properly before I see Professor Dumbledore. I'll be here as soon as I can. Will you give me a warning if he comes? She grinned at Nimue. "Please don't summon me, but use another spell, please?" She quickly disappeared into the castle and went down to her dorm.

**********

Once inside the hospital wing Kat put Shinrei on a bed for Madame Pomfrey. She was then hustled out again, being told that students who weren't ill were going to be in the way.

Madame Pomfrey examined Shinrei. This was a similar condition to when she had been admitted before. It had been something that Madame Pomfrey had not seen before, and had not got a very good cure for. Professor Snape might have a potion of some sort that would help.

Quickly she set up a barrier around Shinrei to stop students entering. She knew what these students were like. They would be here soon disturbing her and trying to do all sorts of spells to revive her
patient. This condition needed to be monitored carefully without interference. Shinrei was breathing... just. And Madame Pomfrey intended to keep her alive.

*********

Professor McGonagall had watched as the students started to emerge from the forest. She looked at Jian in the full body bind.

"It looks as though your services of the latest 'adventuring hero' are not needed," she commented
sarcastically to Jian. "So I think you can head straight to the infirmary and get yourself seen to. I
take it you will go on your own, I won't have to accompany you?"

She gave him a scowling look over her glasses as she released the body bind on him.

Jian gasped for air the moment the body bind was released. How he tried to struggle while caught in the very powerful spell, how desperately helpless he felt. It was like the flood, drowning but still breathing, but one knew, sooner or later, the gods would decide his fate.

If there was one thing Hupi Jian-Ri hated, it was the feeling of helplessness. This very fear drove him,
Since childhood, to prove that he could be in control of everything in his life. Everything.

"Xiexie," he told the teacher quietly, still breathing heavily. "Thank you, Professor. Accompanying me is not necessary. I know where the infirmary is. I can still walk, yes."

He managed to stagger to his feet. Then he coughed, sending sprays of dark-red blood to the floor and on Dylan, who was standing close by.

It was at that point that Dylan interjected. "No worries, Professor McGonagall, ma'am. I'll make sure he gets there," Dylan told her quickly, responding to what he saw as something of his duty. After all, he'd been there when this whole mess with Jian had started tonight, might as well finish it out.

"An' I will," he muttered to Jian, sotto voce. "D' y' want a hand?"

Jian attempted to smile his own lopsided version of a smile. "Yes. For that-" he gasped out- "I would be
most grateful to you."

As if to punctuate his statement, his body jerked forward and more blood dripped to the floor, this time
coming out of his... ..at first he did not know where...

Something warm was on his face, streaming down his cheeks like tears. He reached up, touching his own skin gingerly, afraid of the worst.

He was bleeding from his eyes.

When he looked up, a few students passing nearby saw his face. Then they screamed and ran.

Dylan, however, merely swore softly, and taking Jian's arm, snaked it around his shoulders to give the other boy some support while walking. "Jus' stick wi' me, here, an' I'll get y' right down t' Madame Pomfrey," he said, doing his best to keep his tone even and not betray his concern as he helped Jian walk out of the Great Hall and towards the Infirmary. "She's patched me up plenty o' times, she'll help you, no worries."

"That is a comfort to...to hear.." Jian said haltingly. "Thank you, Dylan."

He allowed himself to be assisted. There was no other way he could walk without crashing into a wall or into another person. As they walked, Jian kept his head down, so that no one could really see how badly he was losing blood. From his eyes, of all places.

For the first time, he wondered why he got so ill all of a sudden. Right after that blast at the Great
Hall...everything had gotten worse. There was a bad taste in his soul, almost greater than fear in the way it threatened to consume him.

And where was //she//? Was she still in the forest? Somehow, he could not feel her qi around...what if she was-

He cut his train of thought. That just was not possible. No.

Last out of the Forest was Marvo, looking a bit dishevelled, obviously he hadn't returned the same way as the others, and who knows what had happened.

"Right" He said, not no one and everyone "All clear? lets go report!"

Spotting Professor McGonagall he went over to her and advised her of the present situation.

********

There was no conversation as Dylan guided the bleeding Jian to the hospital wing. From the looks of both of them, it seemed as if they'd been in the middle of World War III, Dylan splattered with Jian's blood. But he had faith in Madame Pomfrey and her magical cures, even if the potions did taste like old socks.

As he stepped in the door of the hospital wing, Dylan called softly, "Walkin' wounded for y', ma'am."

She was there. It was his first realisation when he and Dylan entered the Hospital Wing. Her qi was very faded, very faint, but it was there.

Jian tried to actually catch a glimpse of her, but his efforts were to no avail. They had curtains around her, powerful magical barriers, too. But she was there.

One of Madame Pomfrey's nurses went over to attend to him, clucking with concern. Jian hesitantly stepped forward, to say something, that he did not understand why he had gotten ill so suddenly. No words came.

He swallowed and drew away from the nurse, as if remembering something that mattered more than his own life. He reached into his robes and drew out the yin and yang pendant.

He pressed the silver-black ornament into Dylan's hands before the other boy could react. "I think," he said, his accent so thick and his breathing so heavy that the words weren't so clear , "it is best you keep it, my friend, while I-"

He did not get to finish his statement. Jian Hupi simply froze with a burst of white light radiating from his bloodied body. He then slid limply to the floor, as if he was a phoenix who had just died. He would not awaken for a week.

In Dylan's hand, the silver-black pendant was no longer silver-black. It had turned the colour of the darkest midnight.

*********

Severus Snape was naturally intrigued by Shinrei Hikari's condition and after completing his appointed task of ensuring the students were out of the Forest, he headed for the Infirmary.

He had of course been presented with a list of the possible ingredients in the Gryffindor girl's potion by the Headmaster. From that list he had formulated some ideas about the nature of the Chishio draught - it was without doubt an interesting potion.

The incident in the woods now presented the perfect opportunity to confront the girl about her activities - if she survived.

"Madame Pomfrey" he announced without ceremony on his arrival, "have you had an opportunity to examine Miss Hikari?"

Madame Pomfrey looked up from her charge. She noted that Jian and Dylan were also waiting for attention. She directed one of her nurses to take care of Jian while she attended to Professor Snape.

"I have examined Shinrei, yes. I am a little confused as to the actual cause though..."

Randal, who had been lurking near the door since he had brought the advance warning of the injured students. Madame Pomfrey had not really noticed him once Shinrei had arrived and had not, therefore banished him.

"Sir, I might be able to shed a little light on the situation. You are aware of the list of ingredients I gave the headmaster..." He did not wait for confirmation. "Well Shinrei was in the process of trying to brew again. Apparently she seemed in a hurry, but urgent. There were a few things that I missed in the initial analysis..."

Randal handed Snape the list. "I don't know whether this will help with her current state, but it might be important, sir."

He looked up hopeful that he had hoped in someway. Madame Pomfrey watched interested to see if Snape made anything of the additional information.

Snape smiled slightly at this unexpected turn of events. He surveyed Randal's notes and nodded. "A most fortuitous find Mr Fudge. This will save a great deal of time. I think I see a pattern emerging in the ingredients but there is something I need confirmed."

He turned to Madame Pomfrey, "I should like you to examine Miss Hikari for signs of wounds, especially in the region of the hara - the area about her navel. We will withdraw to allow privacy."

Indeed, Snape suspected from the name Shinrei had used to describe the potion as well as her need to brew it herself rather ask for assistance that she was adding her own blood to it - blood ritually extracted.

Madame Pomfrey examined Shinrei again and then called the two back. "It is very interesting. It appears that there are a large number of small knife wounds. Some are far older than others."

She looked concerned and a little surprised. "It is almost as if she has been performing self-mutilation!" Even her words portrayed her disbelief.

"Not almost, Madame Pomfrey! Miss Hikari undoubtedly has been and for some time it appears." Snape's voice remained detached almost clinical.

"Her own blood was the final and most potent ingredient. Extracted most likely in ritual conditions. I now believe this so-called Chishio draught served as some kind of suppressant for the bleeding witnessed on a few occasions. Without the draught she will die very quickly."

He slightly shook his head, "Whatever has caused her to bleed out in this manner goes very deep. The Chishio does more than stop the bleeding but without speaking to her frankly it is a matter of supposition as to what those may be. Whatever, I doubt there is any known cure."

He paused, "I cannot recreate the draught but I can hold back the bleeding and keep her alive....over time I may be able to find something....to assist."

He sounded unsure because he was. Yet it was a challenge to his skills as a Potions Master to address this problem and find a solution.

"I will return shortly." With that he swept out of the Infirmary and headed towards the dungeons.

*************

For a while after everyone left the forest remained silent.

But then the thorn bushes surrounding Dumbledore parted and the Headmaster bowed to the figure of the Lord of the Forest and turning began to make his way back towards Hogwarts

"Dumbledore" The voice of the Lord of the Forest called out. Dumbledore turned

"The elf child" It said

"Yes. Mahou Amberstone?" Replied Dumbledore

"She has power, and courage. Add to this respect and understanding and she will indeed be worthy. We will be watching her. We will inform her if we are pleased.... Or displeased"

Dumbledore nodded

"And Remember Dumbledore. That which has awakened will be a danger to the Flesh as it is to the Green. The Elements are stirring. A Parliament will soon be called. You have been warned"

With that the body of the Lord of the Forest seemed to decompose and return to the earth.

Once more Dumbledore nodded. And continued his way out of the Forest. He had much to consider.