Chapter 10: Butterflies

Brenna and Cyrus walked into the forest, confident yet cautious of their surroundings and position. They wore their traditional outfits from back home, full draconian armour, dragon skin boots and black cloaks with a border of scarlet, ultramarine, emerald, gold and silver thread, the hilt of a silver sword glinting on each of their hips. Evidently, 'back home' wasn't extremely far away but the culture was completely different and that was reflected in the way they dressed. They knew that the centaurs didn't take kindly to people venturing into their territory and it was only a matter of time before they made an appearance to ward them off.

True enough there was a stampede of hoof beats and within seconds Brenna and Cyrus were surrounded by centaurs with bows and arrows raised ready to shoot.

Immediately, Brenna and Cyrus bowed low to the many centaurs around them, one hand closed over a fist in front of them, a gesture of respect.

"We mean no harm" Cyrus said both still in their bow. There was some shuffling before one of the centaurs spoke.

"Rise humans, speak, what is it that you seek?" A chestnut coloured centaur with the typical black hair addressed them as he and the other centaurs lowered their weapons.

"We seek your permission and agreement" Brenna said watching the centaurs for reactions. Predictably they were sceptical and some more spiteful than others at the prospect of helping humans.

"We do not help humans; we do not set ourselves against the heavens."

"We know and we do not ask for your help only your accord." Cyrus responded.

"What then do you ask our permission and agreement for, humans?"

"We ask that you allow another creature refuge in the forest which you call home. We ask, respectfully, that you would also allow us to visit this creature regularly. We will not disturb the forest or yourselves, we simply wish to allow a friend to come with us to Hogwarts." Brenna spoke to the entire herd though her attention remained trained on the centaur who spoke to them.

"What would lead you to believe that we would grant this, human?"

"We trust that you are a just society and hope that through your justice and empathy you might allow our friend a place to stay hidden from the prying eyes of students yet still close to us."

"Which creature is that of which you speak?"

"A dragon, and I recognise that you may be hesitant to willingly share the forest with such a creature, but this dragon will not harm you. He will not disturb the creatures of this forest as food can be provided for him."

"Such creatures as dragons prefer to hunt."

"He may hunt in the surrounding areas, out of human view, or, with your permission, deeper in the forest."

"Dragons often fall victim to predatory instincts."

"This dragon is different, he knows justice and restraint. You have my word that this dragon will comply with the conditions of an agreement."

"A human's word means little when humans violate that which they swear."

"My word means more. My word is my honour, and my honour is worth more than my life."

"These are devoted words which you have spoken human, and yet you are but a free foal."

"I am not without commitment; my words are as faithful as my heart is constant. I speak only my loyalty."

"What is your name, humans?" Cyrus and Brenna understood that the centaur meant their last name, the name that they shared.

"Templar, the name of our forefathers." There was an audible gasp from some of the listening Centaurs at the response.

"Do you share your day of birth, humans?" Cyrus looked at Brenna from the corner of his eye not quite sure why this would be important.

"Yes we do."

"What are you called?"

"Cyrus" "Brenna" Once again a few of the centaurs took in a surprised breath.

"You're allegiance lies with the Order." It wasn't a question but a statement, a statement that the centaurs knew to be true judging from their outfits and the medallion that hung from their necks. It was also clear that the afore mentioned Order was not the Order of the Phoenix. "What business does your Order have with Hogwarts?"

"Our Order has an alliance with the Order of the Phoenix; we are here to protect the students of Hogwarts from the threats of the war."

"And you wish for a dragon to accompany you?"

"Yes"

"Very well, chosen ones, your dragon may take refuge in the forest and hunt in its depths all that you have asked is granted, chosen ones."

"Pardon my incompetence, but chosen ones?" Brenna asked blinking in surprise at the way the centaur addressed her.

"Yes, young ones, the prophecy written by the heavens of Templar Twins in the Order of the Dragon. Noble ends will come of their services, victories and power, noble ends equally. Her spirit is strong and powerful, chosen is she as Center as he is by South. Within her lies the parts of each governed by spirit. Within him dwells the flame surrounded by traces of the others. Chosen leaders by the heavens, the Templars, united by the dragon, the flame-bearer, the truthful one, written is it in the stars." Then one of the other centaurs spoke for the first time.

"We will aid you in your plight as we are bound to obey the heavens."

"We welcome you to the forest and to Hogwarts, chosen ones, and stay faithful to your hearts; the heavens show trials ahead, trials that must be faced together and end in either victory or death." With that the Centaurs all turned and galloped away, leaving Brenna and Cyrus shocked at the information presented to them, the prophecy, and the imminent danger that lied before them.

Brenna woke with a start from her dream, her eyes frantically searching the darkness around her for any sign of a threat, her right hand grasping the dagger hidden beneath her pillow. Steadying her breathing, Brenna released the dagger and sat up in bed drawing back the curtains.

The sun was only just beginning to rise meaning it was around 6 in the morning. Thinking back over the dream/memory of her and Cyrus' trip into the forest and the prophecy the Centaurs shared with them Brenna climbed out of bed and rummaged through her trunk, taking out her uniform robes, trying to dispel the feeling of butterflies in her gut that hearing the prophecy again caused.

Being as early as it was, none of the other Gryffindor girls were up, so Brenna did her best to quietly walk over to the bathroom and have a shower. Due to Brenna's extensive training from her previous 'school' she barely made a sound and none of the girls even stirred in their sleep. After quickly washing her hair and scrubbing away the night and day before, Brenna dressed in her school robes that were so different from the traditional style she was used to, the style she had seen herself wearing the memory.

Grabbing her bag and books from beside her bed Brenna made her way down the stairs of the Girls' Dorm and into the Common Room where a fire was undoubtedly burning, keeping the cold drafts of the castle at bay. At such an early time, Brenna did not expect anyone else to be awake, she had always been an early riser, she was a morning person, so it came as quite a shock when she found someone sitting on the couch in front of the fire.

Hearing someone else in the Common Room, the boy on the couch turned to look at Brenna.

"'Morning" Sirius said mildly surprised to see her up so early.

"'Morning" Brenna replied walking over to sit on the couch next to him.

"You're up early." He commented noting that her hair was wet and she was dressed in her school robes, her tie loosely done up, with her books and everything.

"So are you." She replied glancing at him. Sirius, while he didn't have his books with him, was dressed in his robes, his school tie undone but still hanging around his neck.

"Yeah but I'm always up this early, you're not."

"I couldn't sleep, plus I like the early morning."

"Were you planning on going somewhere?" He asked eyeing the bag at her feet.

"Yeah, out to the grounds I'm still going to, just waiting for it to get a bit lighter out, but I suppose now's as good a time as any. Want to come?" She asked standing up.

"Um, yeah, sure why not? What's the worst that could happen?" The smile on Brenna's face dropped.

"Why would you say that? Only bad things happen when people say that!" Even though she was reprimanding him, the corners of Brenna's lips tugged upwards.

"Brenna, are you superstitious?"

"Only about that bloody saying, you know last time one of my friends said that he got burnt by a dragon."

"There're no dragons around here though."

"You don't know that, there could be a dragon in the Forest."

"There aren't any dragons in the Forbidden Forest, Brenna." Sirius said with a very patronising tone that made Brenna think: Actually there is a dragon in the Forest, I know because I put him there. But, of course, she didn't say that.

"That you know of, now let's go for a walk and you better hope that we don't come across a dragon that could mistake you for a cow." Sirius' eyebrows shot up and a grin grew on his face at her last comment.

"A cow? You think a dragon would mistake me for cow?"

"Well dragons generally eat cows and deer, but Potter seems more like a deer so you would have to be a cow, plus that would be the theory I tell reporters and the teachers." Brenna said slinging her bag over her shoulder as they began walking to the Portrait Hole.

"We'd still have to find a dragon first."

"That's actually easier than you think. And if we run into a dragon you have to be respectful okay, don't make any comments like 'bloody hell it's a bloody dragon', they don't take kindly to that sort of thing."

"If we did run into a dragon do you really think me being respectful will prevent it from eating us?"

"No one said anything about getting eaten, the dragon won't eat us, but he might burn your hair off. And being respectful works, you could ask my friends. We all were with the dragon, but Mavey was the only one to be an ass and he was the only one to get burnt."

"Your friend actually got burnt by a dragon?" Sirius said shocked that what he thought was lie sounded ridiculously true.

"Thought I was lying? I'm not, my friend really did get burnt by a dragon but he had it coming and it was mild burn, not too bad."

"That's really hard to believe you know that?"

"Yes I do, and don't say something like that if we meet a dragon either, they don't like being told that it shouldn't be possible for them to be where they are."

"How on earth do you know so much about dragons?"

"Live and learn basically, there are very few books on how to avoid conflict with dragons, mostly they're about how to train a dragon or defeat one or even taking care of them, but not how to treat them."

"You are so strange." Sirius said shaking his head as they stepped out onto the grounds.

"You just figured that out? And I thought you were smart." She said. It was not news to her that she was strange, weird, and odd or a freak, Brenna had been told many times by many people but she didn't care, in fact she liked that she wasn't like the girls that drove her completely mental, the 'normal' ones. Brenna, Cyrus and their friends back home were all different according to the 'normal' people, not their superiors but their peers, and they were all perfectly content with that, they were a better witch and wizards because of it.

"I call you strange and that's all you have to say?" Sirius looked at her with wide eyes and raised eyebrows, how on earth could she be okay with that?

"Yeah, you're not the first one to say that, and I like being strange, saves me the trouble of having to deal with the 'normal' people who are so bloody annoying. Plus if I wasn't strange, I probably wouldn't have the friends that I do. And I'm not so strange where I come from…well that's not entirely true but people understand better there."

"Do you consider yourself friends with anyone at Hogwarts?" Sirius was curious as to why she only ever used 'friends' to describe people that she knew 'back home'.

"Tricky question, as of right now, I wouldn't consider anyone 'friends' per say, but acquaintances, no offence, but you know absolutely nothing about me and I know nothing about you."

"Well, I love Quidditch, I'm a dog person; I have a brother and family that I hate and they hate me in return, I consider James, Remus and Peter to be my real family, I despise Pureblood fanatics and would like to be your friend. Now you know a few things about me." Brenna nodded, a half smile playing on her lips as they walked down toward the lake.

"I don't have many friends, only 4 that I really count and one of them is Cyrus; I speak 9 different languages not including English, I hate my uncle with an intense passion that my friends say scare the shit out of them, my four friends are my family, and I want Voldemort dead."

"You see we've got things in common, we both don't like the purebloods only thing, we hate our family, or members of them and our friends are our real family...You speak ten languages?" Sirius asked looking at Brenna with wide eyes and expression of disbelief that caused her to chuckle.

"Yes, Russian, Arabic, Romanian, French, Spanish, Japanese, Italian, Hebrew and Greek, and English of course" Seeing the look of shock on Sirius' face Brenna continued, "Languages are an amazing advantage when you travel. Cyrus speaks them too, except Japanese and Romanian; he speaks Cantonese instead. Learning languages is kind of something we do together."

"Everything you told me is so much cooler than what I told you."

"It really isn't. The only really interesting thing I told you was before about my friend and the dragon." Unconsciously they had walked over to the Forbidden Forest and now were at the edge of the trees. "Have you ever been inside?"

"Yeah for detentions a couple times and once we were idiots, me and James, and we went in. Some pretty dark things in there, really creepy too especially the centaurs."

"You had an encounter with centaurs when you were exploring with James?"

"No, no when we had detention with Hagrid, the gamekeeper."

"Oh yeah, I know Hagrid, and the centaurs aren't creepy, they're just misunderstood."

"No, they're creepy, the way they talk and everything it's just strange."

"That's probably why I don't find them creepy; they're strange, kind of like me." Sirius chuckled as they continued walking along the edge of the forest, quite far from the school, where people generally didn't walk too often. It was a rocky path with lots of holes and crumbling ground.

Hearing something in the forest next to them, Sirius turned quickly to investigate. Unfortunately, the rock he was standing on was loose and slid down the small hill when he moved causing Sirius to fall forward and collide with Brenna. The unexpected force of Sirius crashing into her sent Brenna tumbling onto the ground, her foot caught in one of the many holes that littered the ground and emitting a painful 'pop' as Sirius landed on top of her.

"Fuck, Sirius, what the hell?"

"Oh Merlin, Brenna, I am so sorry, are you okay?" Sirius asked as he pushed himself off her. Sitting up Brenna looked herself over, her eyes landing on her left foot which was sticking out at an odd angle. Sirius followed her gaze and his face blanched at the injury he caused. "Oh shit, I am so sorry."

"Its fine, it's only dislocated but I'm going to need your help to put it back."

"Put it back? You want me to put it back? Shouldn't we go to the hospital wing?"

"I don't particularly like the hospital wing and its simple you just pop it back in." Seeing that Sirius was still very hesitant she added, "Sirius, stop being a coward and just pop my ankle back in."

"I'm not a coward…"

"Your sure acting like one…Okay look, if you don't help I'm going to have to find my brother and since you seem to think that he's scarier than me, what do you think his reaction will be when he finds out you didn't help his little sister when she asked you to? Hmm, do you think that my Slytherin brother will take kindly to that?" Brenna held Sirius' gaze challengingly and after a few moments he sighed accepting that she had won.

"I'm no coward. So how do I do this?"

"Alright, gently pull out and guide my foot back in." Sirius walked over to her foot and gently picked it up taking a deep breath. Brenna shut her eyes, fists and jaw clenched, preparing herself for the inevitable pain. With another sickening pop Brenna's ankle was back in place.

"Are you okay?" Sirius asked looking up with wide worried eyes.

"Yes, thank you, and you're not a coward, I know that's the biggest insult you can give a Gryffindor, I just really don't like going to the Hospital. Can you help me bandage it?" She asked producing a roll of tensor bandage from her bag.

"Do you carry that around with you?"

"People tend to injure me a lot, so I've learned to be prepared." Sirius began wrapping her ankle to keep it in place shaking his head at Brenna's explanation. "On a related note, I guess you're like my friend now that you've injured my leg. Oh yeah did I forget to tell you that all my friends have injured one of my legs at least once? Levi shattered my knee cap, Darren broke my foot and dislocated my knee, Cyrus fractured my femur and arm, and Maverick broke my leg in 3 places. It's how we all became friends."

"That is so messed up. Now let's get you to the Hospital Wing." Sirius said once he finished wrapping her ankle.

"Nuh-uh I'm not going to the Hospital Wing!"

"Yes you are we have to make sure your ankle's okay."

"Its fine, see I can move it. There's no way I'm willingly going to the Hospital Wing."

"Who's the coward now?"

"I am not a coward-"

"Sure you are I mean you're scared of the Hospital Wing, buts that's okay, not everyone can be brave." Brenna glared playfully at Sirius knowing that he was using the same logic that she used.

"Fine, prick, but my ankle is fine." Grinning, Sirius offered Brenna a hand up which she rolled her eyes at. She then lied back down and did a kick-up. (You know that really cool martial arts move where you kick up in the air and flip forward and voila you're on your feet again!)

"Told you my ankle's fine." Brenna gave Sirius an adorable challenging smirk as she picked up her bag. "Now lets go to your precious Hospital Wing and then to Breakfast, Sirius."

"Hey, you used my first name!"

"Well we are friends now, come on, I'll race you to the Castle." Brenna took off running, laughing as she looked over her shoulder at him.

"Be careful, Brenna, you just dislocated your ankle!" He called running after her though his comment only made her run faster and laugh harder, a sound that caused butterflies to erupt in Sirius' stomach. What the fuck? Butterflies? That's never happened before! Why's it happening now? Bloody hell, I'm turning into a sap…Bloody fucking Butterflies!