She was having an out of body experience.
That was the only possible explanation for what was going on. Because there was no other way for her to be looking down at the Centaurs and seeing them poke and prod her prone form with the tips of their bows. They seemed to lose interest in her quickly, dismissing her in favour of the more exciting being that remained floating in mid-air.
She was stuck looking at the arse end of about three Centaurs for a bit, as they gathered around the blonde star man, seeming to be discussing him at great length. Not that she could make out what they were saying, all the noises in her current state sounded like they were far away and on the other side of a very thick wall, muffled and indecipherable from general background noise.
The Centaurs eventually looked over their shoulder and parted the circle to make way for quite a scarred up Centaur who had the bearing of the herd leader, if she had to guess. He walked over her body like she was nothing and straight of to the man, who was not hovering as high off the ground as he had at first, her spell fading, as she had suspected it would.
The in-charge Centaur nodded his head to the others and then somehow managed to lean over quite gracefully to all grab a section of the man. It took about one of them for each limb, which wasn't a surprise given the sheer size of him. Moving in coordination, she was able to barely see that they were, in fact, typing his legs and arms together. Once he appeared to be fully bound, two of them were able to reach over and grab him up and carry him off into the forest.
Hermione remained floating if that is what you would call it, in her astral state, unable to stop them from kidnapping the man. She tried to will herself back into her body, but that didn't work.
Instead, she seemed to go higher and higher, rising above the clouds and the castle.
She was now swimming amongst the stars and seeing all of the constellations that she had been trying to study up close. There were even a few odd ones that she had never seen before. She didn't have time to get a closer look as she was moving forward so quickly - past other solar systems and numerous other worlds. She eventually ended back up at the end of the Milky Way resting just above what she had to guess was Pluto. She couldn't see Earth in the distance.
How the hell was she meant to get home? Apparating sure as hell wasn't going to be an option.
She tried walking and wiggling forward, but it didn't have any impact on getting her moving forward. She was starting to panic, she was going to be stuck in this limbo forever, but as she also began to feel herself getting heavier and she got the feeling of falling, except she wasn't...maybe she was…
Down and further down...slipping back into her body…
No longer amongst the stars, she could feel the cool breeze of the wind and the throbbing of her head. She did not doubt that she was going to be concussed from the solid hit the Centaur had managed to get her with. Groggily she opened her eyes and found that she was lying on her back, night sky above her, no signs of falling stars or anything.
Maybe that's all it was, a dream. I somehow hit myself in the head and imagined it all, she mused hopefully to herself, but it was quickly dashed when she turned her head and was startled when her nose brushed up against something.
She could tell it was bitterly cold metal, but she was struggling to focus on what the object was, her vision blurry still. She blinked in confusion trying to get a better look at what it was. Slowly her vision stopped being so blurry.
"Oh Merlin," she muttered when she realised what it was.
That bloody oversized hammer was intimately pressed up against her face. How it had gotten there she didn't know or care, right then she just wanted it gone, so she had room to breathe and figure out what the hell just happened and what was going on in general tonight because it was utterly mental so far.
Rolling over to the other side, she simultaneously shrieked and flinched as she saw it had floated over and was once more pressed up to her face. Merlin, she was over that mallet and the trouble and pain it had brought her so far.
Eager to get it out of the way, she tasked herself with sitting up. It was a struggle, but she managed. Being vertical also brought on more pain, her head pounding and pressure in her ears.
She glanced over in the distance and saw for sure that the star man was indeed gone.
Her mind struggled to process what that meant. Circe; she never had any inkling of Seer abilities or any of that Divination nonsense. But that vision…
As reluctant as she was to accept it as truth, it was the most logical explanation for what had happened to the man and as to why the mallet had been floating beside her.
Merlin. People were falling from the sky. Magic hammers and centaurs: all of this in one night. All she needed now was for Harry to walk out of the forest. As this kind of chaos was something you expected with the Chosen One around. But who knew, maybe he had rubbed off on her, and she had become a magnet for trouble.
Still feeling very unsteady and woozy, Hermione knew she couldn't lie there forever. She had to move; she had to get up to the castle and get help to find the man and get him back from the Centaurs. Knowing what they had done to their last captive...Not that Umbridge hadn't deserved it, she hated to think of anyone innocent going through such a thing.
Putting her hands to her sides, she bit her lip in concentration as she raised herself onto her knees. Her whole body ached, but she eventually managed to get herself up and stand. Taking one steady foot in front of the other she began the dreaded slow walk back to the castle.
Halfway back she realised that she had an unexpected companion. The hammer was there, floating in front of her, almost like it was trying to block her way.
Her suspicions were proven correct when she made to take another step, and the mallet zoomed up to hover right in front of her face. She waved her hands at it, trying to make it shoo, but it remained floating in front of her.
"Shooo," she hissed at it, trying to wave it away, hoping that as an apparent magical object that it would get the gist of her words.
If it did though, it chose to ignore her, because it didn't budge. In fact, it pressed up against her face, the force of it making her take a step backwards. She turned her head so that she could spit her next words out to it. "Go away, you silly mallet!"
It sank down to her chest at her words and pushed against it now, forcing her to take quicker steps back. She was getting the impression that it wanted her to turn around. But she wasn't about to let some unknown being's magical apparatus dictate what she should do.
Ducking underneath it, she tumbled forward and made a mad dash towards the castle, her body protesting as she did so. Again, she didn't make it far because the hammer was in her face, waving itself around and hindering her progress.
"I am trying to get help for your owner, master, whatever he is!"
It quivered at her words.
"I can't go back there alone," she went on, "I need backup if I am going into the forest after Centaurs, alright?" Merlin, she couldn't believe that she was talking to this thing, but whatever. If doing so let her get a move on she would sing it a damned lullaby if she had to.
Taking a tentative step forward, Hermione also made sure to point in the direction that she was going. "Castle. Getting help," she nodded as she spoke, "Not much time. Need to help your owner."
The hammer floated closer, and closer. She didn't like how close it was getting. She made to take a step back again, as she did though, it flipped itself upside down, with the strap at the end of it now level with her wrist.
She quickly clued on to what it was planning to do. "Oh no!" she cried, trying to pull back her outstretched arm, but it was too late, the thing had its strap around her wrist.
"Get off," she cried, tried to shake her hand free, but it had no impact.
Hand out in front of her, the hammer took the lead and dragged her quickly towards the forest. Hermione struggled with all her might, but she wasn't able to shake the thing off its course. It had been tugging at her for five minutes, and they were well and deep in the forest now, the trees thick with moss and age.
They eventually came to a halt, just behind an embankment and a fallen tree. The hammer slipped itself off her wrist, and she snatched her wrist back, holding it against her chest, in case the thing got any other ideas. It seemed to forget she was there though, as it hovered in place, just behind the log. Curious as to what it was doing, she too crept closer until she was pressed up against the trunk.
Peering over the top of it she was able to see the bloody Star Man sitting on a log of his own surrounded by a group of Centaurs and they appeared to be...listening to him talk?
"What?" she said aloud.
She raised her hands to her mouth in shock once she realised what she had just done. Damn well given away her position is what.
If all of the Centaurs heads whipping around to stare in her direction was anything to go by.