Rose stepped out into the Autumn air as she gathered Fred's hoodie around her. Aelfric was waiting impatiently for her at the bottom of the stone steps leading down from the school to the grounds.

"You took your time," the fairy huffed.

"You left quickly," Rose shot back.

"I didn't know you'd miss me so much!" Aelfric fake swooned.

"Oh, hush, you! Now, what's on the itinerary?"

"I-ten-ah-wary?" Aelfric asked.

"No. It's a schedule or agenda. Just a synonym."

"I love cinnamon!"

Rose sighed, "No. Synonym. It means a word that means the same as another word."

"Well, what word is it the same as?"

Rose groaned and just started walking to the Forbidden Forest. Aelfric quickly caught up to her and started happily talking.

"So, on the agenda today, you're going to meet with the Centaurs, the Winter Phoenix of the Forest, the thestrals, the hippogriffs, and you'll come and see the other fairies again! Maybe I'll even let you meet some knarls that we have or the fire crabs! They're very sparkly, but they don't like it when you try to take their sparkles away."

"Their sparkles are part of their shells, Aelfric," Rose said with a sigh.

"Well, why didn't they just tell me that?!"

"Have they ever talked to you?" Rose wondered out loud.

"No. But then again, not a lot of the creatures in the forest talk. Oh! We could go see Aragog! He's a giant spider, and he has all sorts of kids!"

"Acromantula?"

"Yeah! That's… Yeah!"

Rose shook her head as they entered the Forest. There was no beaten path, but there also wasn't grass that wasn't patted down. It appeared obvious to Rose that many creatures ventured to the edge of the forest, but none of them ever left the protection of the tree line.

"So, are we meeting with the Centaurs first?"

Aelfric bobbed his head happily, "Yep! They said they wanted to meet you! So you're going to meet them!"

Rose sighed, "I figured. Now, just lead the way. I'm going to remember everything I know about centaurs."

Aelfric sighed sadly, but happily chattered at Rose with nonsense, knowing she wasn't paying attention.

Rose knew that centaurs had a rich and complex culture, normally based on of their environment and their peculiar biology. Social ties are the most important things to centaurs because families are the core unit in which culture is passed from parent to child. It isn't uncommon for several generations to live in the same family group, like the group in the forest, and for children to be raised by the extended family or clan.

Speaking of family, centaur marriages were handled different ways in different clans. Most were monogamous between mare and stallion, but some allowed for one stallion to marry multiple mares. Centaurs are very loving and protective parents. Children are typically born a few years apart. Twice as many fillies are born as compared to colts. Centaur women remain fertile through middle age (typically around 100 years old) but males remain fertile their whole lives.

They pass on their cultural values through story and song, proverbs, and customs. Stories tend to have subtle morals woven into simple but compelling plots. They are hardly ever friendly to outsiders, though, especially if that outsider is a female. As there are more females in their culture, they didn't like that most other races thought of females as weaker, or less than, males. Rose is a female. What if they judged her off of her anatomy?

"You better be ready, Rose, we're almost there!" Aelfric said while tapping her cheek with his whole body.

Rose sighed and nodded, "I'm as ready as I'll ever be, I suppose."

Aelfric giggled gleefully and grabbed her pointer finger on her left hand and 'dragged' her forward. Rose felt nervous, but she wouldn't let it show. She couldn't be perceived as weak in front of these beings. She took two deep breaths before she was suddenly in a clearing filled with centaurs. There were foals running around laughing gleefully, fires sparking and crackling underneath spits of meat, or cauldrons of liquids. Tents made of fur (at least from what Rose could tell) were put up around the area, some pregnant mares laying half in and half out of the shelters were yelling at the foals on occasion, and the stallions were doing miscellaneous tasks in the camp, some were playing with the foals, some cooking, some tending to mares, and some were walking around with bows and arrows on their backs.

Rose wasn't ready.

Aelfric, however, was. He put his hands up to his little mouth and screamed louder than Rose thought possible from him, "Presenting the one, the only, Rose Potter!"

Suddenly everyone's attention was on Rose. She felt her face burn and she bent slightly, more curving her back forward than anything. She knew that that was how centaurs bowed, and she was going to show them that she understood them. She heard the clopping of hooves and waited until they sounded close enough before speaking up, "Hello, noble centaurs. I am sorry for the intrusion into your home, but Aelfric told me that you wanted to meet me."

She heard some hushed whispers in the background before a male's voice spoke, "Stand straight, human Rose."

Rose stood up straight again only to be faced with the chest of a chestnut stallion. She tilted her head up to look at him but avoided eye contact so she wouldn't come off as aggressive or rude.

"We have indeed wanted to meet with you. I was not, however, aware that you were… Female."

A light gold mare made an insulted noise and stood quickly from her place half-way in a tent, her stomach distended as she was obviously with child, "Magorian!"

"Aylorn, this is not the time," a black bodied, black haired, wild looking centaur with a black beard said with disdain in his voice.

All of the Mares were stomping their hooves now, and an elder mare who looked shockingly like the black-bodied centaur trotted up to him before slapping the back of his head in pure rage, her eyes glittering like sapphires, "Bane! Show some respect! Aylorn is with child! With Magorian's child; you have no right to tell her how to act."

"Mater," Bane whined as he rubbed the back of his head. "I'm just defending Magorian!"

"Yes, well, defending him is fine. Snapping at Aylorn, however, is not."

Rose was frowning slightly. Her mere appearance seemed to be causing problems within the clan. She bit her lower lip as she thought how to fix this problem, even while Aelfric giggled gleefully in her hair. The chaos made the fairy very happy, but Rose didn't like the fighting that was starting to build in the camp.

"I'm sorry," Rose said finally, drawing attention back to her and the maniacally laughing fairy. She turned her attention to Magorian, "I know I'm not nearly intelligent as you are, being a human and all, but what is going on here?"

This seemed to appease most of the centaurs, but a white-blond centaur with astonishingly blue eyes didn't seem to like Rose very much.

"Well," Magorian said slowly, "as I understand it, we have fallen under the influence of Mars for a moment. My bonded, Aylorn, is not happy with my initial comments toward you, and Bane tried to defend me, but his mother, Zalath, would not let him treat Aylorn with the disrespect that he did. This caused minor conflicts throughout the clan to break out."

Rose nodded and smiled gently at Aylorn, her eyes sparkling with kindness and her cheeks pulled up in a giant grin, "How long have you been with child?"

"Ten moons. The young one could come at any time," Aylorn said with a wide smile, her eyes sparkling with happy tears. "This will be my first foal."

Rose gasped happily and clapped her hands together, "Oh! Congratulations to you!"

"Thank you," Magorian and Aylorn said with wide smiles at each other. Magorian then turned back to Rose, "Come into our camp, Rose Potter. You can meet the others in the clan."

Rose nodded and smiled gratefully as she moved further into the camp. Soon enough a small filly with her fire-red hair braided on either side of her head walked up to Rose. She was biting her lower lip nervously, her hands wringing in front of her. Soon enough she stood in front of Rose and took a deep breath before she just started talking, her blue eyes sparkling.

"Hi. I'm Freyna, I have a foal-mate, he was born at the same time as me. His name is Kyshon. We're the only ones here who was born with another. Do humans have foal-mates? We asked all the other Talker's if they had foal-mates and they said no. Non-Talker's sometimes has many foals together at once, though. What are human's like?"

Rose smiled slightly, "Well-"

Before she could answer, a mare came over, "Freyna! Don't go bothering our guest with your questions. I'm sure Kyshon can play with you, why don't you go play?"

Freyna's eyes filled with tears, and Rose's heart hurt for her, "How about I ask her first batch of questions and then she goes and plays? I know what it's like to be curious."

Freyna's mother's face seemed to relax and she smiled tiredly at Rose, "Alright. You heard her Freyna, after she answers these questions, off to play."

Freyna nodded her head eagerly before turning back to Rose, who smiled at the filly.

"To answer your questions, humans do have foal-mates, but we call them twins. I, myself, have a foal-mate. His name is Harry. Us humans normally only have one child at a time, but we can have many, sometimes up to eight. The more children there are, though, the more unlikely that the children will survive, because the mothers can't keep up with their needs, and they're very small when they're born."

Freyna nodded, her eyes wide, "I'm not alone? There are other… Twins?"

"You're not alone."

Freyna smiled brightly and hugged Rose tightly before she turned and shouted, "Kyshon! Kyshon, I want to talk to you!"

As she trotted away Aelfric sighed, "Harry isn't as fun as you."

"Don't I know it," Rose said with a sigh.

Aelfric and Rose stayed in the camp for a short while longer, getting to know Aylorn and Zalath a bit better before they made their excuses and left. Aelfric sighed as he led Rose away, muttering about how centaur hair was impossible to knot, unlike human hair.

"Where next, Aelfric?"

He didn't answer but it was apparent enough when they reached their destination.

"Thestrals," Rose said breathlessly as she looked at the herd of horses chewing on the grass aimlessly.

They were completely fleshless, their black coats clinging to their skeletons, of which every bone was visible. Their heads were dragonish, and their pupil-less eyes white and staring. Wings sprouted from each wither — vast, black leathery wings that looked as though they ought to belong to giant bats. Rose thought back to her Patronus and realized it was almost an exact replica of the real thing, except it was white.

"They're so…" Rose was speechless as she moved forward.

"Creepy?" Aelfric offered.

"Beautiful," Rose decided as she held out her hand to a thestral only to have it nuzzle into her hand. She felt her breath catch in her throat as she gently pet the thin beast. Others started coming up to her and nuzzling her and her face split into a giant grin. She could feel the curiosity pouring off of them in waves, although some of them were just hoping for food that she didn't currently have.

"You're so weird," Aelfric huffed as he fluttered above her.

"I'm sorry, I don't have any food at the moment," Rose said to the Thestrals that had gathered around her, "I promise I will the next time we meet, though. You all are so beautiful…"

Rose patted every single Thestral before Aelfric finally pulled her away. She couldn't stop grinning as Aelfric pulled her deeper into the forest, but she did soon start shivering. It was getting rather cold, although not in a terribly unpleasant way. She was still filled with the joy that she had after meeting the Thestrals, and it seemed to only get stronger the colder she got. Finally, Aelfric stopped moving forward.

"So… I know that your Headmaster Dumble-bore has a Phoenix up in his high tower, but I would like to introduce you to the Winter Phoenix of the Forest!" Aelfric said with a wide grin as he shot through some trees.

Rose followed him and was shown a large cave that glittered with slippery ice. A surprisingly large phoenix was sitting inside of it, watching Aelfric with baleful black eyes. In fact, it's eyes seemed to be the only dark thing about it. Its base color was an arctic blue, but some feathers were sky blue, white, or even cerulean. Its beak was gray where it connected to its head, but it slowly turned blue as it reached the tip.

The Phoenix's eyes were following the flying fairy around, and the only movement that it was making besides its eyes was the steady rising and falling of its chest.

"Hey, hey, hey! Winter Phoenix of the Forest! I brought you my Rose! Rose is cool! I like her, and so does everyone else! Well, I think everyone else likes her! And you're going to like her too! So meet her!"

The Phoenix was giving off a vibe of annoyance before heaving a great sigh and making his way towards Rose. He warbled quietly, a wavering note that made Rose's face split into a grin.

"Hello. I'm Rose Potter. It's nice to meet you."

The Phoenix blinked at Rose before huffing and moving away. Aelfric gasped.

"He doesn't like you!"

The Phoenix squawked in annoyance at the fairy, as if in rebuttal.

"Are you sure he just doesn't like you?"

The Phoenix warbled, filling the area with amusement, and letting Rose know he agreed with her, and not the buzzing fairy.

"Well that's just rude," Aelfric whined, floating between the two. "Here I was, doing my best to keep both of you happy by introducing you, but no. You're both going to be rude to me. Like, mean people. You're both mean people."

The Phoenix made a clucking noise that passed as a chuckle and Rose sighed, "Now, Aelfric, see sense. I'm not being rude to you, I just think you might be too fast-paced for him."

"And I think that he's too slow!"

The Phoenix fluffed up all his feathers like an insulted peacock.

Rose sighed, "You know, I don't think he's all that slow."

"And yet he'll never race me. He's too scared too."

There was an angry squawk from the Phoenix again and he flapped his wings at Aelfric.

"I think he just doesn't want to show off."

"Well tell him-"

"You realize he's listening right?"

Aelfric and the Phoenix huffed in annoyance before Aelfric spoke again, "Well if you don't want to show off just get over it and Race me! Whoever reaches Rose first from your cave wins!"

The Phoenix tilted his head to the side, seeming to measure the distance before his eyes got a devious glint and he squawked in agreement.

"Are you sure-"

"One two three go!"

Rose screeched as with a flash of light the Phoenix was right next to her, a full ten seconds before Aelfric reached her. Rose had her hand pressed firmly over her heart and took a deep breath before glaring at the preening Phoenix.

"That was rude. No warning, just poof! Phoenix!"

The Phoenix gave her a look as if to remind her he couldn't talk before letting out a gentle warble and pressing his beak to her head. For a moment her mind felt uncomfortable, as if her brain was getting a really tight hug and then the warmth from the continuing phoenix song seeped through the strangeness and everything returned to normalcy. She hummed in contentment as the Phoenix, who she now somehow knew was named Vitality, gently preened her hair with his sharp beak.

"So not only did he win," Aelfric grumbled, "but he gets to mess up your hair? I'm not allowed to mess up your hair!"

"Don't be stupid, Fairy," a strange voice said in the back of her mind as Vitality momentarily stopped preening her. "I am taking care of my little one."

"He's not messing up my hair, Aelfric, and if he was I would stop him."

Vitality made a choking, clucking sound, and Rose recognized it as his version of a snort. She shot a glare at the proud phoenix before repeating, "Yes, I would stop you."

Aelfric didn't seem convinced.

"Well, I hope you know you can't take him up to the castle with you. I think your Dumble-bore would be angry at you for having a phoenix."

"Sadly, I think you're correct. Vitality must stay here."

"Vital-a-what-now?"

"Vitality. It's his name."

"That's a stupid name."

"As compared to Aelfric!" the voice that she knew was Vitality's said in her mind as the Phoenix let out a screech at the fairy.

"It's his name, don't make fun of it."

Vitality made a noise of contentment when Rose defended him and went back to gleefully preening her hair, occasionally stopping to nuzzle at her head. Rose frowned slightly as she thought about it, and she realized she'd be very sad if she had to leave her feathered friend alone all of the time.

"Vitality, is there any way that you could possibly do that flashy thing and come visit me every once in awhile? How far does the mind-talky-thingy work?"

"Mind-talky-thingy?!" Aelfric squeaked out.

"It works as far as it needs to work, and yes I could come visit you with the 'flashy thing' as you call it. You would just have to tell me when a good time was for my visit."

"I can do the mind-talky-thingy too?"

"What's the mind-talky-thingy?!" Aelfric squeaked again.

"He annoys me," Vitality noted.

"Be nice Vitality. And the mind-talky-thingy is exactly what it sounds like, talking through my brain. I think?"

"You both annoy me," Vitality corrected himself.

Rose sighed and shook her head, making the phoenix squawk and flap his wings at her, the wind it created messing up her hair again, making it so the phoenix didn't feel guilty when he settled down to preen it again.

"Listen, Vitality, we need to go," Rose said, looking up at the sky and noting how it was nearing dinner time. "I really appreciate your help with my hair and all, but I need to get back to the castle so I can eat dinner."

"You have to go already?" Aelfric whined as Vitality let out a sad warble.

"Yes, I have to go."

"Well… Since he saw fit to cheat maybe he can do the flashy thing to us to get you to the edge of the forest?"

"It wasn't cheating, you never said I couldn't. And I suppose that that is a possibility if you'd be fine with it, my little one?"

"I'm fine with it. And it technically was cheating, you didn't tell him you could do that."

"Yeah!"

"It technically wasn't cheating, because he never said it could only be via flight."

Rose sighed and decided it'd be best to avoid arguing schematics with a phoenix.

"Well, how do we do the flashy thing?"

"Both of you must touch me. I will do the rest."

"Aelfric, over here," Rose said. "Just touch him and he'll to the flashy thing."

Aelfric landed gleefully on Vitality's head, and Vitality plopped his head onto Rose's shoulder. With a flash, they were gone from the clearing. The flashy thing felt much different than apparition, or even portkey. It felt more like she was flying without having to move, it was like the wind was both pushing through her hair and staying still. It wasn't an uncomfortable experience at all, and Rose suddenly felt as if doing any normal mode of wizarding travel would be ruined for her for life.

They reappeared in the same little area that Rose and Aelfric had entered the forest at, and Rose realized that there was a little bit of frost on her shoulder where Vitality had been laying her head.

"Thank you so much, Vitality, I really must be going, though."

"You're welcome, my little one."

"Bye, Aelfric, tell the other fairies that I'm sorry I didn't visit them this time. I'll make sure that we visit before the end of the school year, okay?"

"Okay! Bye, Rose! I'll look after your blue chicken for you!"

"Blue chicken?!" Vitality screeched.

"Goodbye, guys!" Rose said with a wave as she ran back up to the castle. She met Fred and George just inside the doors and hugged them both happily.

"So, we weren't really paying attention to what you were doing, so want to tell us all about your adventure?"

Rose smiled brightly, "Oh, I have so many things that I can tell you. But it will all have to wait until after dinner, as it stands, I'm starving."

The twins laughed as Rose dragged them into the Great Hall. Everything seemed like it would be fine for them, and they were extremely excited to see how the school year would play out, especially if the events kept coming at them as rapidly as it was right now. The twins and Rose happily laughed and made jokes all throughout dinner, and nothing seemed to be out of the ordinary.

"Cordelia!" Cian yelled as he was racing around the castle. "Cordelia! Cordelia! Cordeli- oof!"

Cian had run into Cordelia, who had braced herself for impact so she didn't fall, but Cian most certainly did.

"Read this! I told you- I told you she could do it!" Cian crowed from the ground, a slightly crumpled piece of parchment held between his fingers.

Cordelia sighed and snatched the paper from Cian's fingers, and started reading the parchment that had caused her king so much excitement.

Dear Cian,

It is my pleasure to tell you that so far this schoolyear has been going exceedingly well. We were informed that the Triwizard Tournament is going to be hosted at our school (I'm not going to get into the details, as I'm sure you already know all about it) and in the mean time I've been exploring. Not often, mind you, but often enough.

Aelfric, the fairy you met, if you remember, took me into the Forbidden Forest yesterday (it's really not as bad as its name would make you believe) and I got to meet some… Creatures? Beasts? People? I'm not sure exactly what to call them. I know my government classifies them as beasts, but I don't think they really are. They aren't… beastly or anything like that. I think they're mostly misunderstood and misrepresented. You can't define the many by the few, and all of that jazz.

Sorry, I got a bit off track.

I got to meet the Thestrals, which was so much fun! They really are beautiful creatures. Aelfric says they're creepy, but I know that they're really not. They were so gentle, Cian! I got to pet each and every one of them, and they were all so calm, docile really.

I also got to meet the Centaurs that live in the forest! Magorian, the leader of the clan, wasn't too kind to me at first, but everyone warmed up to me pretty quickly once his wife spoke up and I almost got to watch a civil war. It was fascinating, honestly. I felt so blessed to be welcomed into their camp, and I met a little filly named Freyna. She apparently has a twin named Kyshon, and she was very happy that other creatures had twins too, although she called them foal-mates.

Oh! I also met the Winter Phoenix of The Forest! He was nice too, he did this thing (I call it the mind-talky-thingy but he resents that) that makes it so we can talk to each other! Granted, no one else can hear it, because it's in my head, but that's fine! Oh, and he also did the flashy thing (another name he resents. He's trying to get me to call it some nonsense like 'Phoenix Travel.' How stupid is that?) with me and Aelfric to get be back to the edge of the forest so I could get to dinner in time. I'm not sure that I ever want to travel any other way now, I think I've been spoiled for life!

Anyways, so far those are the only adventures that I've had, and I hope that you haven't gotten into too much trouble either. I look forward to seeing you on our first Hogsmeade trip (whenever that is) and I hope Delco will be there too (yes that's pretty much telling you to take him with you to Hogsmeade of weekends, but don't tell him I told you to.) because I miss you both dearly. I hope you're not too bored without me to entertain you!

Sincerely,

Rose

Cordelia blinked slowly and frowned, "Already? She's already friendly with the Stargazers? And a phoenix?"

"Yes!" Cian said with a whoop of joy as he was jumping around Cordelia before he gained back his professionalism and snatched the letter away from her. "I told you, I told you, Cordelia! She did it! She did it! She is the prophecy child! At this point, it has to be her!"

"Okay… But how is she going to help us? It's not like she's all powerful."

"No," Cian agreed. "She isn't all powerful. But Rose Potter's greatest power is that no matter what size, no matter how significant, all living beings hold a part of her heart, and she loves them all the same. She's disillusioned by humans, I think, and with that in mind she will do everything in her power, and possibly some out of it, to take care of us 'beasts.' She wants us to be as happy and as safe as humans have the right to be."

"You're pathetically poetic when you're happy," Cordelia said with a roll of her eyes before she started walking off.

"Thank you!" Cian called after her.

"It wasn't a compliment!" she called back.