Disclaimer:

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Harry Potter characters, places or anything thought up by Ms. Rowling because they are hers, but I own my original characters, so there, I did something. Right?

The Secret of the Centaurs

Chapter 2- The Stranger in the Forest

When Kat woke the next morning all of the girls were up and getting dressed. So she did that too and when she came out from the drapes around her bed, they all stared at her.

"What?" Kat asked after a few moments.

"Were you here last night?" asked a girl she didn't know, with long light brown hair with lighter streak, which she couldn't tell if it was real or not.

"Well I went to Dumbledore's office but then I came here once I was manually sorted." She answered.

"How are your 'manually' sorted?" Rose asked, curious.

"Oh, well, Dumbledore gave me a little test, and he put it in a folder and it came out with Gryfindor written on it." Kat explained.

She looked around the room and there were Rose, Sally and the girl with the light brown hair.

They all seemed to accept that and then went along in getting ready. So Kat walked down the stairs and saw Lynn's group sitting in the common room like they had last night. She started walking toward them, hiding a grin. They looked at her and sighed in unison expecting an earful.

"Hello," she paused, "What were you doing last night?"

"N… Nothing, nothing at all," stuttered Jason, with a forced blank expression and earned an elbow from Adriana.

"Yes, so anyway are we going down to breakfast?" Kat asked.

They all stared at her blankly with partially glazed eyes, and she learned that they were not morning people… at all. But eventually after explaining the advantages of going now, she got them moving. So shaking her head in disgust, she herded the third years down to the Great Hall.

Breakfast was delicious like all of the other meals served in that room. But they talked about Quidditch, which coincidentally was their favorite topic.

" I'm chaser this year, again" Michael told Kat.

"I'm beater," said Adriana, which surprised Kat because she didn't think girls would like that position but looking at Adriana confirmed that she would be good. She was a real tomboy, she was broad shouldered and athletic, and she didn't like sniveling girls at all. Not to mention, having no patients with them either.

"I'm for beater also." Jason told her.

"And I've got chaser with Michael" said Lynn.

Kat sighed; she wouldn't be able to play this year.

"Don't worry Kat, next year you'll be so good they will have to let you play," said Jason.

Kat snorted, "I can't even fly a broom rather than play Quidditch!"

"Well, boys, it seems we have a mission this year, wouldn't it?" Adriana said, grinning mischievously at the other boys.

The boys nodded very seriously, but they also had that 'glint' in their eyes. Then Lynn said "So, Kat, what position sounds the best, since you've never seen one?"

"Well, either seeker or chaser." Kat replied.

"Well," he said looking at Kat, "your build looks like you're up to flying fast, and you have rational thinking, I can see from last night." He added smiling widely, "So, if you have good eye sight then, yeah, you could be the next seeker, especially since the present one is horrible." Lynn whispered the last part and looked over to Chip Persouly, the present seeker, and shuddered. From what they told her, they haven't won a single game since he came onto the team, and the only reason why he was on the team was because he was the only one who could decently play seeker out of all of the people that tried out. "Well, when we're done with you they wont be able to turn their backs on you. But just one verification, you aren't afraid of height's are you? Cuz that might just end it right here."

"No, I'm not. I'm the opposite of my dad who is afraid of them, but I thrive on them and nearly kill my dad of heart attacks because of it." Kat replied.

"Wait! Back up, there is just one little problem, Chip is in fourth year so you'll really have to go with Chaser." Michael told them.

"Good, now that that's settled, what day shall we do these little lessons?" Asked Adriana.

"Well, we can do it at quidditch practice, Monday afternoon, Wednesday evening, or Friday afternoon. Probably once a week. You will have to use one of the school brooms though, sorry." Michael said thinking.

Kat grimaced at the thought, because of what they have told her, which is, that they are horrible.

"Well we would have to get the captain to get permission from Dumbledore, but I'm sure whoever the captain is will agree with us, and let us do it for the sake of the team. But first, does anyone know who the captain is?" Jason asked.

"You numb skull, you should know that it is Vito Pat." Lynn just shook his head. Jason just rolled his eyes at Lynn, and Lynn just grinned back at him.

" I am not a numb skull, Lynn, I just happened to have an extremely bad memory," Jason retorted.

"Well this is all nice, but since the decision is made up, that Jason asking Vito, can we now eat, right?" Adriana drawled with her elbow on the table and looking at Jason.

"Hey! I am not doing it," and so the argument went on between the two as everyone else took Adriana's advice, except Adriana herself and Jason, and started eating.

Then just as Kat got her schedules, the girl from Kat's dorm sat down beside her. "Hope you don't mind me sitting here, but I don't know anybody here since I'm muggle born," she said, then she went on, "So, since you are in my dorm, I thought I'd sit here." She took a big breath then, "Sorry I usually don't talk so fast and so much." The girl blushed slightly. Kat just smiled.

"My name is Kat StarGazer, the one who the hat blew up on last night," Kat said while holding out her hand and smiling wryly.

"Oh, sorry, I'm Annie Rose Wright, Rose is just my middle name, but my mom calls me Annie Rose when she's mad at me," she said. She then shook Kat's hand. "So what classes do we have today?" They both looked at their schedules; they saw Transfiguration first, it was said to be one of the hardest classes they had.

As the day progressed, and Kat and Annie became good friends and helped each other out in their classes. Kat was good in Transfiguration; she got her match steel (they were changing them into pins), so she helped Annie as much as she could. Then in Charms, Annie helped Kat levitate her feather a bit into the air, whereas Annie's feather zoomed back and forth across the room. Herbology, they were both just average, and everything went rather smoothly. Potions was Kat's area, and she kept telling Annie it was just like cooking, and Kat did a lot of the cooking at her house, because her dad didn't cook that much of a variety of things. Then there was Defense Against Dark Arts where Annie did the better in, but Kat got a weird vibe off of the room, or was it the teacher? She couldn't tell, but sometimes more than others, she got jittery in that class. Also there was History of Magic taught by Prof. Cale, whose lessons started out interesting but then she started to just drone on and on and on. So Kat and Annie took notes when they were awake.

At the end of that week (Friday), Vito, the captain of the Gryffindor team, approached Kat and told her to meet the team every Wednesday for lessons for forty-five minutes. Kat was so excited and Annie was so shocked, that they were doing that for her.

Well, I told you what Annie looks like, but she is sometimes shy, but ready to help out when she can, and she works extra hard when doing something that she likes. She comes from a wizarding family, but both of her parents are muggle born. Mr. Wright has close Irish roots, but born in Canada, and Mrs. Wright is also from Canada, but they moved to Britain a few years ago for Mr. Wright's company. So that's Annie Rose Wright.

The first week came and went, and soon it was time for the first flying/Quidditch lesson, and by then the Quidd Quartet, as Kat called Lynn, Michael, Adriana, and Jason, and everyone else had settled in for a year at Hogwarts. The first flying Kat had ever done was fantastic. The broom was one of the better ones that the school had. Kat was a natural, but of course she didn't know everything about Quidditch, so they worked on that and just getting used to riding the broom. When the 45 minutes was over, Kat still felt like she didn't accomplish much, but Jason looked very smug about her being an amateur flier. Annie was walking down to the field from the stands toward her, but as Kat turned around, for no real reason she caught sight of something silver on the edge of the woods. Kat signaled to Annie to wait one second for her so that she could see what it was. She flew on the broom, she was suppose to be putting away, to edge and hid behind a tree as she saw a… Centaur? It was a woman with a silver top like a tank top that looked like an animal skin, almost. Kat just stared for a few moments, then asked, "Excuse me, are you waiting for someone?"

The Centaur turned around abruptly, and looked at Kat, then smiled, "Yes," she looked at Kat for a moment longer then said, "but can you take me to see your Headmaster, please?"

Surprised, Kat replied, "Of course, will you follow me?" Then as they walked out of the forest, Kat waved Annie over to her, and slowly she caught up with the centaur and Kat.

"What's it doing here?" Annie hissed at Kat.

"She wants to see Professor Dumbledore, so come on." They made their way into the castle, the centaur's hoofs clinking and echoing in the halls. Kat was trying to remember where the gargoyle was, and after about fifteen minutes Kat finally found it and said the password. "Gum drop", then the gargoyle started to move showing the stairs. Once they got to the top, they saw the Headmaster working on some paper work at his desk.

"Good evening Mister Dumbledore," the centaur said.

"Ah, Mesacon, it has been a while, hasn't it? Well, what is the reason that you have graced us with your presence?" Asked the Headmaster standing up.

"We have gotten a message from the Centaur in America, who ask us to train a girl in out ways with the stars. I need your permission, of course, to have her taught," the centaur Mesacon replied.

"Yes, of course, but who is the child you speak of?" Dumbledore asked the question that was on all of their minds.

Mesacon smiled, glanced at Kat and Annie, then said "The StarGazer Child." Both girls stared wide-eyed at the Centaur. Then said, "It is one of you, isn't it?" and turned around to face the two girls. Both girls just nodded at the centaur, who looked slightly exasperated, "Which one?"

Kat slowly raised her hand and asked, "Why do you need to teach me, instead of just taking astronomy like everyone else?"

Mesacon smiled kindly and answered, "We know much more than humans, or wizards do about the stars, and your family has always been special, because one of the descendents has a important destiny to fulfill. That descendent is you Miss StarGazer, and you will be taking lessons from us twice a week, because you need to catch up. Now, what days?" Kat just stared, eyes glazed from what the centaur had been telling her.

"Well, Miss StarGazer has Flying lessons on Monday nights, and just to be inconspicuous she also will be having Astronomy next Thursday, then every two weeks. That leaves Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday."

"Alright, then I will speak to the tutor and see what's best. You will both receive owls. Thank you" she nodded to all of them, and left the room.

"So, Miss StarGazer, Miss Wright, I think it is time for you to get back to your common rooms, don't you?" Dumbledore said looking questionably at them.

"Thank you sir," said Kat, and then they both staggered out of the office and down the stairs, toward the Gryffindor common room. When they got there they looked at each other; they both had an excited twinkle in their eye and Annie said, "Well, that was exciting." Then they went into the common room. As soon as they got in Kat thought, 'We shouldn't tell anyone should we?' So she turned to Annie and said, "That should be kept confidential, so swear." So they swore on everything they liked and loved, and somehow in Annie's, she swore on some guy named Bill Weasley, who she swore was extremely cute. She lived near him and their parents were close friends. Kat just rolled her eye's at her and thought, 'Geez we're only eleven', then they went up to their dorm to get the rest of their homework finished.

***Sorry about this being a short chapter but I've been really slow lately. Anyway hope you like it, and review PLEASE!!!!! *On her knees and pleading* PLEASE! Hopefully I'll get the next part up soon. Also, 'Thank You' to all the people who reviewed so far and they are Nightfall, -I was already going to the Weasley's in it, and Harry was born this year.

Amarria Rosetti and MoonWitch, -Thanks for reviewing it makes me feel so appreciated.

Korinna

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