Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter or the Chronicles of Narnia.

Author's Note: About half of this chapter is stolen from OotP, chapter Fight and Flight. I did this for a few reasons. It's one of the few times Harry and Hermione are alone in the woods. The Centaurs are easy to cross between the two worlds. And, this seemed to be one of the key moments in Harry's life where he would need a Narnia adventure. Oh, and I was sort of lazy with it, but it seemed like an easy enough build up. So, if people can get away with just copying the books word for word and throw in some dialogue from characters, than I can do this. Now, enjoy the story!


"Who are you?" said a voice.

Harry looked left. The chestnut-bodied centaur called Magorian was walking towards them out of the circle: his bow, like those of the others, was raised. On Harry's right, Umbridge was still whimpering, her wand trembling violently as she pointed it at the advancing centaur.

"I asked you who are you, human," said Magorian roughly.

"I am Dolores Umbridge!" said Umbridge in a high-pitched, terrified voice. "Senior Undersecretary to the Minister for Magic and Headmistress and High Inquisitor of Hogwarts!"

"You are from the Ministry of Magic?" said Magorian, as many of the centaurs in the surrounding circle shifted restlessly.

"That's right!" said Umbridge, in an even higher voice, "so be very careful! By the laws laid down by the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures, any attack by half-breeds such as yourselves on a human -"

"What did you call us?" shouted a wild-looking black centaur, whom Harry recognized as Bane.

There was a great deal of angry muttering and tightening of bowstrings around them.

"Don't call them that!" Hermione said furiously, but Umbridge did not appear to have heard her.

Still pointing her shaking wand at Magorian, she continued, "Law Fifteen 'B' states clearly that 'any attack by a magical creature who is deemed to have near-human intelligence, and therefore considered responsible for its actions' —"

"'Near-human intelligence'?" repeated Magorian, as Bane and several others roared with rage and pawed the ground. "We consider that a great insult, human! Our intelligence, thankfully, far outstrips your own."

"What are you doing in our Forest?" bellowed the hard-faced grey centaur Harry and Hermione had seen on their last trip into the Forest. "Why are you here?"

"Your Forest?" said Umbridge, shaking now not only with fright but also, it seemed, with indignation. "I would remind you that you live here only because the Ministry of Magic permits you certain areas of land -"

An arrow flew so close to her head that it caught at her mousy hair in passing: she let out an earsplitting scream and threw her hands over her head, while some of the centaurs bellowed their approval and others laughed raucously. The sound of their wild, neighing laughter echoing around the dimly lit clearing and the sight of their pawing hooves was extremely unnerving.

"Whose Forest is it now, human?" bellowed Bane.

"Filthy half-breeds!" she screamed, her hands still tight over her head. "Beasts! Uncontrolled animals!"

"Be quiet!" shouted Hermione, but it was too late: Umbridge pointed her wand at Magorian and screamed, "Incarcerous!"

Ropes flew out of midair like thick snakes, wrapping themselves tightly around the centaur's torso and trapping his arms: he gave a cry of rage and reared on to his hind legs, attempting to free himself, while the other centaurs charged.

Harry grabbed Hermione and pulled her to the ground; face down on the Forest floor, he knew a moment of terror as hooves thundered around him, but the centaurs leapt over and around them, bellowing and screaming with rage.

"Nooooo!" he heard Umbridge shriek. "Noooooo… I am Senior Undersecretary… you cannot - Unhand me, you animals… nooooo!"

Harry saw a flash of red light and knew she had attempted to Stun one of them; then she screamed very loudly. Lifting his head a few inches, Harry saw that Umbridge had been seized from behind by Bane and lifted high into the air, wriggling and yelling with fright. Her wand fell from her hand to the ground, and Harry's heart leapt. If he could just reach it -

But as he stretched out a hand towards it, a centaur's hoof descended upon the wand and it broke cleanly in half.

"Now!" roared a voice in Harry's ear and a thick hairy arm descended from thin air and dragged him upright. Hermione, too, had been pulled to her feet. Over the plunging, many-colored backs and heads of the centaurs, Harry saw Umbridge being borne away through the trees by Bane.

Screaming non-stop, her voice grew fainter and fainter until they could no longer hear it over the trampling of hooves surrounding them.

"And these?" said the hard-faced, grey centaur holding Hermione.

"They are young," said a slow, doleful voice from behind Harry. "We do not attack foals."

"They brought her here, Ronan," replied the centaur who had such a firm grip on Harry. "And they are not so young… he is nearing manhood, this one."

He shook Harry by the neck of his robes.

"Please," said Hermione breathlessly, "please, don't attack us, we don't think like her, we aren't Ministry of Magic employees! We only came in here because we hoped you'd drive her off for us."

Harry knew at once, from the look on the face of the grey centaur holding Hermione, that she had made a terrible mistake in saying this. The grey centaur threw back his head, his back legs stamping furiously, and bellowed, "You see, Ronan? They already have the arrogance of their kind! So we were to do your dirty work, were we, human girl? We were to act as your servants, drive away your enemies like obedient hounds?"

"No!" said Hermione in a horrorstruck squeak. "Please - I didn't mean that! I just hoped you'd be able to - to help us -"

But she seemed to be going from bad to worse.

"We do not help humans!" snarled the centaur holding Harry, tightening his grip and rearing a little at the same time, so that Harry's feet left the ground momentarily. "We are a race apart and proud to be so. We will not permit you to walk from here, boasting that we did your bidding!"

"We're not going to say anything like that!" Harry shouted. "We know you didn't do what you did because we wanted you to -"

But nobody seemed to be listening to him.

A bearded centaur towards the back of the crowd shouted, "They came here unasked, they must pay the consequences!"

A roar of approval met these words and a dun-colored centaur shouted, "They can join the woman!"

"You said you didn't hurt the innocent!" shouted Hermione, real tears sliding down her face now. "We haven't done anything to hurt you, we haven't used wands or threats, we just want to go back to school, please let us go back -"

"We are not all like the traitor Firenze, human girl!" shouted the grey centaur, to more neighing roars of approval from his fellows. "Perhaps you thought us pretty talking horses? We are an ancient people who will not stand wizard invasions and insults! We do not recognize your laws, we do not acknowledge your superiority, we are -"

But they did not hear what else centaurs were, for at that moment there came a crashing noise on the edge of the clearing so loud that all of them, Harry, Hermione and the fifty or so centaurs filling the clearing, looked around. Harry's centaur let him fall to the ground again as his hands flew to his bow and quiver of arrows. Hermione had been dropped, too, and Harry hurried towards her as two thick trees seemed to step aside to Harry's mind, revealing a magnificent golden lion.

"Your… your majesty," the powerful voice of Bane seemed to whimper before his front legs gave way giving him the allusion of bowing. At least, the young wizard thought it was an allusion since he had never heard of a centaur bowing to anyone before.

"Harry, what's going on," Hermione asked with trepidation as she gazed on the magnificent creature before them. Indeed, Harry had never seen anything like the powerful creature that he swore could have dwarfed the Hungarian Horntail he had faced the year before. The lion didn't seem to belong with its surroundings, not just because they were in Scotland, but its presence seemed to make everything dull and lifeless in comparison.

Without warning, the lion bared its teeth as it roared shaking the ground and air with its might. The remaining centaurs actually did bow then, but a feeling of power swept over them all. To Harry it felt like a gentle breeze interlaced with the wind from a hurricane. "Hermione," he yelled out and held on to her as dust flew around them in a great swirl.

After several seconds, the two teens looked around in confusion. The sun was breaking through the leaves and the centaurs had stood once more, pawing at the ground which had suddenly been in snow in fear and agitation. Finally, the huge lion had vanished without so much as a sound. "What have we done," Magorian whispered as he glanced around in fear. "The sun is wrong, the trees are not our own. We have been taken."

"It's their fault," Bane bellowed, once again bringing the focus of the massive herd onto the two teens.

"We haven't done anything," Harry said as he continued to shield Hermione. "We might have led Umbridge into the forest, but you took it on your own to attack her," he felt braver in saying that then he had just moments before. "Sure Hermione may have hoped you would, but it was you who did it, we never told you too."

The sound of approaching hooves, though lighter than those of centaurs pulled everyone's attention from Harry toward the brush. Moments later it quivered and rustled, before a bearded face poked through. "What's all this, then," it asked, before it stepped through complete, revealing its slightly hairy upper body and its goat like lower body. "I say, are you centaurs actually harassing a Son of Adam and Daughter of Eve?"

"Son of… daughter of…" Magorian muttered. "Then it's true, our people have finally returned home," he said quietly before he suddenly through his head back and gave a mighty and harsh full bellied laugh. "We're home, after so many years," the centaur cried happily before it spread its arms and seemed to bask in the rays of the sun shining on its face. "Smell that? It's the smell of Narnia."

"Narnia," Hermione asked as she looked at the raven haired boy who still had his arm over her protectively. "I've never heard of any place called Narnia," she whispered. "Do you reckon that the centaurs call this place by a different name then we humans do?"

"Hermione, focus," Harry said through gritted teeth as he began to back the two of them away from the suddenly excited herd of horse-men. "Somehow we aren't in the Forbidden Forest anymore, and now we can't get back to save Sirius," Harry hissed in aggravation before he pulled her behind a tree.

The bushy haired girl fought the temptation to roll her eyes. "Harry, we don't even know if Sirius has really been taken," she told him. She watched as his emerald eyes closed at the sound of her voice wavering. "Kreacher owes you no allegiance, and you warned Professor Snape so he can tell Professor Dumbledore. We really don't have any more part to play in this."

Harry gnashed his teeth at the thought of leaving the rescue of his Godfather to the likes of Snape but finally he exhaled in a sigh. "Fine, we have other things to worry about right now, like getting home." The sound of retreating hooves caught their attention and after several seconds both teens peaked around the trunk of the tree they were hiding behind to find the clearing devoid of life. What they did see though was an old street lamp, its torch burning away despite the sun in the sky.

"Harry, if there is a lantern, there must be a road," Hermione jumped forward and began to slosh through the snow in search for some sign of a path.

"Um, Hermione," Harry said as he looked around the clearing in which they stood. "I don't think you're going to find a road. All the trees have grown pretty close together. I think there is just a Lantern here in the middle of a forest."

"Don't talk nonsense, Harry," the bushy haired girl admonished him as she continued her search. "There must be a road here somewhere, help me look."

"Oh, no-no-no, you won't find any roads here," a relaxed voice called out. Harry nearly jumped out of his skin, wishing he had his wand on him as he looked about. At first, he didn't see anything at all, until he glanced upward. There, hanging leisurely from a tree branch was a bright white leopard with dark grey spots. The wizard's eyes grew as the beast opened its mouth and spoke. "The Lantern Waste is no place for roads, nothing beyond but Telmar. No one ever bothers going to Telmar."

"Did… did that snow leopard just speak," Hermione asked from behind the raven haired boy in shock. "Animals… animals can't speak, unless you count your ability to talk to snakes, but even then I'm not certain every species can ta-," but whatever else she was going to say was cut off by Harry's hand on her mouth.

Ignoring the dirty glare he was receiving he looked up at the snow leopard, being more used to talking to animals than Hermione, he braved forward. "We've never heard of Telmar, or Narnia for that matter," he said thinking of what Magorian had said earlier. "We're from England, London to be precise. We were helping you could help tell us the way back."

"Eeng Land, Lund hun," the Snow Leopard said as he stood and stretched. "Never heard of them," it said lazily before turning away from Harry and jumped to the next tree over. "Now I've heard of Archenland and Calormen, those are to the south," he replied and nodded in what Harry guessed was the southern direction. "The giants live to the north, and Cair Paravel is the castle by the shore," he said pointing east. "I do doubt their majesties would see you now, anyway though with Christmas only a few days away and all."

"Christmas," Harry muttered in shock, letting his hand fall from Hermione's face. "We couldn't have time traveled again, could we," he asked her, but found her to be in a state of speechless shock. Glancing up, Harry noticed the sun was starting to set, had it really been that late in the day? "We'll have to find somewhere to stay, I suppose. Then we'll need to find someone who can help us get home. Can you help us Mr. Leopard?"

"The name's Emrys," the big cat said as it silently hopped down from the tree and sat at Harry's feet. "But I suppose I can show you the way. Though do mind the trees, some of them are still upset that they lost the war all those years ago," the white furred feline said before turning and beginning to walk. "There is a place we can go, but it's up North, near Giant Country. No one has stepped foot in it for nearly five hundred years."


Author's Note: Hey, it's been a while, but here's my latest attempt at Fanfiction. Review, and let me know what you think.