Chaser 2, Holyhead Harpies
What Happens to Hogwarts?
6. (creature) centaur
9. (song) 'Everytime We Touch' by Cascada
10. (quote) 'It's my turn to show you a sight you've never seen before' - Haruka Nanase, Free!
WC: 1243
A/N: If you're my QL judge, have some virtual chocolate, because this is very sad and you have to read it. If you're not my QL judge and you're looking for some typical, Mel-fashioned fluff... This is a story about what happens to Hogwarts if Voldy wins. Keep an eye out for the inevitable KBOW fluff that I'll be writing to cheer myself up after this one.
Bane knows the moment the Curse strikes Harry Potter in the chest, killing him for real this time. He falls upon his forelegs as visions of the future come rushing towards him.
"Bane!" "Bane!" "Are you alright?" "What's happened?" he hears various voices cry, but he blindly strikes out at empty air, trying to motion away the centaurs he knows are crowding around his fallen form.
The only way out of these visions is through them.
He gasps as fragments of futures started filtering through.
A blonde haired woman, racing through the Forbidden Forest, blue eyes wide with terror, followed closely by a young man firing spells over his shoulder at some unseen terror behind them.
The man stumbles over a tripwire, triggering a magical wall that hurls him backwards. The blonde stops, unwilling to continue without him, but the man waves her forward from the other side of the magic and shouts for her to run.
"Go! Katie, run! It's you they're after, they won't hurt me once they realize who I am. Just go!"
She runs, but something tells Bane there's more than one trap in the forest now.
As the vision dissolves, Bane feels a wetness on his cheeks that he hadn't realized was there. His beautiful forest was destined to be taken over by the monsters storming the castle?
He slumps forward as another vision takes hold in his mind.
Bane recognizes the redhead as the youngest Weasley girl. He remembers catching glimpses of her during detentions in the forest, and he is saddened to see how broken she is now. She sits on the floor of a common room cloaked in green. There is an iron collar around her neck and she rocks back and forth on her knees, straining against the chain that is bolted to the wall behind her.
Currently, she is alone in the room, but she seems to be holding an animated conversation with no one in particular.
"I miss you, Harry," she whispers, her fractured gaze not seeing the room in front of her. "With you, it was all bearable. I remember how happy your kisses made me. Your voice haunts me in my dreams. I just wish I could feel your touch one last time, hold you one last—"
The door bangs open and Slytherin students pour into the room, laughing and pointing at the young woman on the ground.
"Hey, Weaselette," one of them says, gripping her arm and shoving her to her feet. The redhead looks down, saying nothing. Seeing the fight gone from her eyes is what hurts Bane the most in this vision. He'd always admired how much of a spitfire she was.
"We learned the Cruciatus Curse today. Care to see how good of a student I really am?"
The girl whimpers, but soon her whimpers are turning to screams of pain as the students gather around, laughing at her cries.
The vision begins to fade, thankfully, leaving Bane with one last clear view of the Hogwarts crest emblazoned on the boy's robes.
The entire thing is embroidered in green.
Firenze arrives at the centaur camp shortly after they dragged Bane into the shade of a tent. He limps into the clearing, head hung low and blood flowing from a deep cut in his flank. The hoof-shaped scar on his chest is marred by three bloody slashes.
The other centaurs gaze at their fallen brother, but no one stops him. In times like these, with their leader overcome with horrifying visions and the castle falling to pure evil, even the centaurs can forgive past grievances.
"Harry Potter is dead," Firenze says, voice heavy with grief. "The castle has fallen to the Dark Lord and his followers. Those who have managed to escape alive won't be seen in the near future."
He finally looks up, daring to meet the gaze of those he once called brothers and sisters. "They will soon come for us as well."
No one moves.
"Celeste," he calls out, and a centaur woman trots forward, her blonde-white coat gleaming in the starlight. "Where is Bane?"
"Inside the tent. He is overcome with visions of the future. We are not sure how long he will be indisposed."
Firenze nods. "I shall wait by his side, then, so that I may give him my urgent news the moment he is capable of hearing it."
He gallops into the tent, stopping only when he sees a thrashing Bane lying on the floor. Settling on his knees, he tentatively reaches out a hand and places it on the other centaur's shoulder.
"Bane. My brother, be at peace. It is I, Firenze. I have come back to you," he whispers, and Bane's thrashing pauses as his vision clears a bit.
"Firenze," he says, a soft chuckle escaping his lips. He notices the mark on his chest. "It appears that the fates have forgiven you. My brand has been overruled,"
Firenze glances down, then back up at the older centaur. "What do you see?"
"It is too heartbreaking to explain."
"Shall I show you the events of the Battle?"
"No, Firenze. It's my turn to show you a sight you've never seen before. Take my hand." He holds his palm out to Firenze, who takes it after a moment. "Now, close your eyes. I shall take you into my visions and show you what is to become of our beautiful home."
As everything fades to black, all Firenze can feel is the tremble of Bane's hand in his.
He sees a war zone.
The castle is shrouded in a bleak mist that seems to suck the color from the rest of the grounds as it swirls around the top spires. Across the front lawn, students march in double file, all dressed in black and all wearing the Slytherin crest. Upon closer notice, he sees that it is a version of the Hogwarts crest, but the only house represented is that of the Parseltongue.
At the head of the crowd stand some of Voldemort's head Death Eaters, grinning like cats as they stand before a stage.
The students stop and one of the Death Eaters stands. "We're here today to witness what happens to children who steal magic. When the Dark Lord took reign, he swore to stamp out the Mudbloods who dared to join our society. So far, he has performed admirably in that task." There is a pause, but no one moves.
"Each May 2nd, on the day the Dark Lord claimed power over the Usurper, he has sworn to honor the bravest, the most daring member of Hogwarts students…"
Firenze's mind is whirring with the horrors that begin to play out before him. He watches as students duel each other, then teachers, then, as one student shines from all the rest, as they set the last task: murdering a Muggle-born child, one just turned eleven.
The little girl's eyes are blank as she falls to the floor, a cheer rising from the gathered crowd as her murderer takes a victory lap.
The vision ends, and Firenze and Bane finally look at each other, the full impact of what they've seen hitting them.
It's become a killing zone, his beloved school. He doesn't realize there are tears streaming down his face until Bane reaches up and wipes them away.
He's beginning to wish he'd perished on the battlefield.
If this is the future, he wants no part of it.
