Disclaimer: See first 2 chapters.
Secret of the Centaurs
A/N: Sorry I'm not great at getting out my stories fast, cuz I'm kinda new at this hope you like it!
Chapter 3-Studies Begin
The next day at Breakfast Kat was looking at all of the owl's flying in hoping one of them was from the Centaur from last night or from a centaur and she lucked out and an owl swooped down to where Kat was sitting with the Quid Quartet and Annie. She glanced at Annie as she opened the brown envelope, and Annie grinned back at Kat, so Kat tore it opened and read:
Dear Miss StarGazer,
I am pleased to inform you that that you will be attending the astronomy tutoring on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Each time unless notified please go to the edge of the forest where you met Mesacon and I'll meet you there. Thank you and I look forward to meeting you tonight.
Sincerely,
Kikinko
"What's it say, come on you've been starring at it for 5 minutes now! What's it SAY!" Annie said starting to complain into Kat's ear.
"Fine, I said fine!" cried Kat at Annie who continued to complain. "Here" and she thrusted the letter into Annie's hands.
"Oooooo, can I come with you? I mean I want to learn too."
"NO you cannot come with me! I didn't even want this and now you want to come. No, anyway it just means more work and less time for free stuff you can do for me." Kat grinned, "Like homework."
"Maybe on one condition." Annie replied. "You do the Astronomy homework, and I only do homework for one class once a month." And she held out her hand.
"Deal" and they shook, "oh yeah and if your classes go down to one a week your deal is gone out the window, ok?" Annie said. Kat looked a bit putdown but agreed.
Then the Quartet noticed the letter, "What's that?" asked Adriana.
"Oh, nothing really just something Professor Dumbledore wants me to do." Kat replied.
"Look at Kat, it is her second week and she only has, already no time." Lynn said shaking his head. "What a shame, no free time like we did, to do," he cleared his throat. "Uh, 'other activities' like us. And the poor things haven't even experienced detention yet," he sighed and they all laughed.
**********7:30pm (That night)***
Then that night Kat slipped out of the school, even though she was excused for going to the forest on those days, she didn't want to be caught either way. So as she got to the forest she saw a centaur with salt and pepper hair, was on the edge of the forest talking to Hagrid the gamekeeper. Shyly Kat walked toward them, and she saw the centaur who's lower half was as black as his must have been when he was younger. Then the centaur caught a glimpse of Kat and turned toward her.
"Ah, Miss StarGazer it is a pleasure to finally meet you." The centaur said.
"Oh, 'ello miss. I guess this is the lady you'd be meeting. You should know you're lucky to be able to get training from this centaur, very for whatever reason it is. I'll be talking to you again soon then, Kikinko."
"Yes, it was nice talking to you Hagrid. Miss StarGazer will you come with me?" The centaur Kikinko told her. So they started walking into the forest. They walked in silence for a couple minutes till they came to a small cabin that looked roughly put up, and in haste. Then Kikinko turned to her and said, "Well Miss StarGazer, this is where you will be coming for your lessons. Hagrid put up this cabin with Mesacon and some other centaur. But inside you will learn about things that humans are hidden from, and books that humans have never laid eye's on. You will learn as much as I can teach you, which is quite a bit, but today we will learn the position of the stars."
Kat's eye's bulged slightly, "You don't mean all of the positions of the stars, do you?" She asked.
"Oh, no, not all of them." The centaur said and Kat sighed, "Just the important ones around, maybe 340 at leased, and you will be memorizing them tonight, now come on we better get moving." Now Kat's jaw fell, and thought, 'dang that's going to be a lot of memorizing for tonight.' Then followed Kikinko into the cabin. Inside it was very comfortable, with a cheery fire and a table and with some comfortable chairs to study in. But the table today was full of charts and on the walls there were book cases 3 big ones that were wall to wall. When they got in Kikinko sat down in one of the chairs at the table, specially made for centaurs. (Don't ask me how a centaur could sit, but it did, somehow.)
"Now lets get started." Kikinko said, and so they did. They also agreed to be on first name bases. So they worked hard till 10:30, and surprisingly Kat learned 240 out of the 340 by heart. They just sunk into her brain and sticked, weird. So she said goodbye to Kikinko and headed to the Gryfindor common room. When she got their no one was there; though Annie would have had Kat not persuaded her too. But when she got to the dorm everyone looked asleep, except Rose.
As soon as she got into the dorm Rose pounced and whispered a long succession of questions. It went something like this, "What were you doing out so late? Do you have a boy friend now? Maybe that guy you met on the train? Come on answer me why were you out so late?" And so on and so on. Kat had a small headache from studying the charts and it was slowly growing bigger as Rose rambled on. "Ok, ok, just be quiet I want to go to sleep."
"Uh oh, your not allowed to be out this late, I'm going to tell on you." She said in a mocking tone that just made Kat frustrated. "I'm going to sleep do what you like." Kat told her and fell into her bed and closed the curtains around her.
*******The Next Morning*******
When Kat woke up it was because of some people whispering fiercely. So she got out of bed changed her cloths and packed her days stuff and when she came out she saw it was Rose and Annie were fighting and trying not to wake anyone up. When they saw her Rose got up and beckoned them to follow her out of the dorm. As they did they walked into the almost empty common room, because most people go strait to breakfast. They walked out of the common room and Kat and Annie exchanged confused glances and followed Rose down the halls toward the Great Hall. But along the way they saw Professor McGonagall the head of the Gryfindor House. Rose called, "Oh Professor, I have something I want to talk to you about." She said it in her best goody too shoes voice. Then when they caught up to the professor she said. "Yes, Rose what can I do for you?"
"Professor, I saw Kat going into the forbidden forest this evening and the coming out at around eleven." Rose said now using her teacher's pet voice.
"Miss StarGazer?" she said turning to Kat, "Why were you out there last night?"
"I was there to see the centaur person." Kat said yawning. "You know like the tutoring thing?"
"Who gave you permission to go and have that tutoring?" McGonagall asked frowning now.
"Professor Dumbledore" Kat answered.
"Well we'll see if that is true." So then they walked the rest of the way to the Great Hall and then they walked up to the teachers table.
"Hello, Miss StarGazer? Back so soon?" Dumbledore said standing up.
"Sorry, Rose saw me going into the forest last night." Kat told him.
"Oh, I see that's the problem well then go sit down everything's fine, and I'll explain it to the Professor here." Dumbledore told the three girls. Annie and Kat happily obeyed but Rose shocked for a second, then scowled and then followed the other two girls.
"Why should you get special privileges, special tutoring and everything." Rose complained sitting down next to them.
"What tutoring?" asked Lynn who they were sitting next to and the rest of the quartet looked expectantly at Kat.
Uncomfortable Kat replied, "Uh, nothing really just some tutoring I have because of Dumbledore."
"That takes place in the night in the forbidden forest" added Rose.
Lynn's eye's narrowed and said, "What type of tutoring is it." His eyebrow raiding slightly.
"Uh I guess it is like astronomy." Kat answered, then glanced at Annie for approval and she nodded.
"Why would you get astronomy if we haven't started it yet?" Rose asked
Now Kat was really uncomfortable, "I don't know, ok it has to do something with my heritage you know StarGazer" they seemed to accepted that one but Rose still glared and Lynn looked suspicious and Jason the goof, noticed.
"Lynn being the big worried brother for little Kat?" He said in a teasing voice.
"Be quiet Jason, we kind of promised to take care of Kat when we said we would give her lessons and I definitely don't want to loose her as a friend or as a future team mate. Ok?" Lynn said irritably.
So then breakfast went on and so did classes, but during the whole day Annie kept pestering Kat about the lesson the night before and Rose seemed to be angry at her for getting special treatment still. But then that night at seven-thirty, just at Kat was slipping out the door, Rose caught her.
"Where are you going now, Kat?" Rose asked.
"To tutoring again, I have it twice a week." Kat answered.
"I'm still not sure about that, I'm coming with you." Rose said her eye's narrowing suspiciously at Kat.
"Fine but you aren't allowed to stay for the lessons." Kat submitted.
"Alright but why, can't I stay?" Rose asked.
"Because the information is special or something you ask Kikinko, the tutor." Kat replied. So they walked in silence to the edge of the forbidden forest where today was Professor Dumbledore was talking to Kikinko. "Hello Kat!" Kikinko called to her as they came out of the castle.
"Hello Kikinko, what are we going to study today?" Kat asked.
"Just a minute, what are you doing here miss?" he asked looking at Rose. But she just stood there gaping at the centaur.
"Well Miss Ladern, I hope you now believe Kat is actually getting lessons and if you come with me we'll talk about why and let them get along with their lessons." Dumbledore said speaking for the first time.
"Y..y…Ok" Rose replied and followed the Headmaster back into the castle.
"Now, today we will finish memorizing the stars left then start on constellations." Kikinko said answering her original question. Kat sight but then they went into the small cabin, and started the lesson and Kat learned most of the constellations and now had to study them on the weekends.
Then when she got back to the common room, another surprise was there. "Hey Kat just want to stay and see how you class went. Is that some homework?" Lynn asked looking at the charts she held.
"Yeah, I have to memorize some constellations." Kat said.
"Can I see them?"
"Uh, I don't think so." Kat said thinking about what the centaur had said, 'These are almost sacred to centaurs! So don't let any other human see it, not even Dumbledore.'
"Come on their just charts probably just like the ones in the astronomy room. Come on just a peek." Lynn said.
"Uh, I don't think they are the same, but here." She flashed it into his view for a millisecond then ran up to the dorm. While Lynn thought, 'it looked the same to me but that was just a glance.' Then he also went to his dorm.
Up in the girl's dorm Kat was stashing her charts into her trunk, changed and slipped into bed as fast as she could and as quiet. Then she fell asleep, feeling guilty of not being able to share it with anyone.
******Next Morning******
They got to sleep in on Thursday, because that was the day they had astronomy. So at nine Annie woke Kat up getting impatient. "Come on lets go to breakfast already."
"Just a second let me get dressed" so she got dressed and the headed out had breakfast and everything was normal. That was until Rose came up and apologized for the other day but then again that was pretty normal too. But then something happened in Astronomy that night, the teacher just was explaining some of the important stars that were on a worksheet. But of course Kat knew all of this stuff so she just filled out the sheet and then doodled on the paper half-listening. She didn't notice the teacher staring at her and then the teacher said, "Miss StarGazer are you listening?" Kat's head snapped up.
"Uh, yes," Kat said hoping she knew the answer.
"What is special about Cygnus X-1?"
Kat sighed she knew this one, "It is a Black hole."
The teacher looked at her paper, and flipped through it as Kat sat nervously in her chair.
"How did you know the answers before I even gave them to you?"
"My dad gave me some tutoring." Kat lied.
"Well it seems like a lot to you have gotten all of the 30 questions right." The class stared at her and Kat started feeling very uncomfortable. "I'd like to talk to you after class if you please."
"Alright" Kat replied.
So after class Kat went up to the teacher yawning a bit. "Yes Professor?"
"Yes, Kat, I was wondering how you could know that information, because I get a sheet saying usually if someone has any background knowledge before coming here. You weren't on that list, so how did you know that?"
Kat fidgeted and answered, "Well, at my old school I was interested in astronomy, you know the name, StarGazer, so I read everything I could get my hands on and my dad had a bit, but he didn't really know I did that." Kat did her best to pretend that she was embarrassed.
"Well I have to accept that then." She said still looking a bit suspiciously at Kat.
Kat smiled at the teacher once more then left the astronomy running to catch up with Annie. When she did catch up Annie asked, "How did you know that? I mean she didn't even start talking about it yet!"
"Kikinko, taught me everything." She replied simply, but unfortunately for them Rose had been stalking them again trying to find out what she was doing.
"Ooo, is that a new boy friend Kat?" Rose asked. "Uh, not exactly," Kat said, while Annie snickered, "that's the person you met the other day, you remember him don't you?" Rose blanched, then walked away from them up the stairs to the dorm.
"Who did she meet?" a voice asked behind them, Kat whirled around to face, Lynn. "Oh, just the tutor I met yesterday, and what are you doing up?" she asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Homework" he said sheepishly.
"Well goodnight then," Kat said.
"Goodnight" Lynn replied.
So she and Annie went up the stairs to get ready for bed.
**** Next Morning****
Nothing event full except that they set up a list with when the flying lessons start, which was on Tuesday next week. Annie was real excited and well she wanted Kat to help her kind of giving her tips. But other than that nothing special happened the rest of the week except one thing. On Saturday though some thing very unfortunate happened, it was time for owl post and as the owls swooped down five or six were black, and from the looks from the ministry. Usually black meant it was about a death in the family, but if it was from the ministry, well lets say Kat felt something a bit wrong, I mean wouldn't you get it from your family? No one Kat knew very well got one and as Dumbledore stood up, he spoke, "Everyone who got a letter please let any teacher know if you need any time to your self and it can be arranged. So that there are no rumors, the reason is because evil wizard so many families have been taken by, Voldermort." Many students shuddered at the name, not liking the word heard. "An attack was on the outskirts of London in a small wizarding village called Spritens, was attacked, so please comfort those who have lost loved ones. Now enjoy the rest of the day, and catch up on your homework." His eyes twinkled a bit like a grandfather almost, so they did go on with the day and Kat sent a letter to her father thinking he might not have heard. So classes started again on Monday and so did flying instructions but there was a slight gloom in the atmosphere now.
A/N: Hey People! Hope you like this, I wrote faster than I usually do that's for sure. Thanks to anyone who has reviewed (which is not many *hint hint*) So REVIEW!! Any way thank you. Also I never got it corrected so sorry for all of the mistakes too. Thanks again!
Korinna
^_^