I wasn't expecting to be attacked by a swarm of spiders, and I especially wasn't expecting the spider swarm to be chirping out things like "Hungry!" and "Food!" in tiny voices. Fortunately, I did not fall on my ass from surprise. My stride is long enough that even backpedaling, I was keeping ahead of the disturbing, chittering carpet coming toward me.

"Oy! You lot! Get away!" yelled Hagrid, slowly charging across the clearing, but they didn't seem to be listening and I wasn't exactly sure what one big man, a dog, and a crossbow were going to be able to do to stop an infestation of this scale. Plus, I was a little freaked out and may have been on the verge of developing a new phobia.

It would have been a lot easier if I'd already made my foci, but beggars couldn't be choosers when there was a wall of talking arachnids bearing down on you. I gathered up my magic, flung my right hand while envisioning the effect I wanted, and yelled, "Bombarda!" With a blasting rod, I can make the exploding charm drill through a couple feet of cinderblocks. Without a focus, the force spread out a lot, which actually worked better in this case. A ripple of force like the trailing edge of one of those slow-motion shots of a bomb going off shimmered through the air and flung the entire swarm of oversized spiders back across the clearing.

I didn't notice any of them turn into spider goo, and I thought I even heard a few scream "Whee!" as they flew, so, I guessed everything was alright? Hagrid had been yelling at them like they were sentient, so hopefully there wasn't an even bigger mommy spider somewhere that would be mad I'd defended myself from her kids. And, bonus, the wave had knocked one of the bigger branches off the tree. I reached over to check it out, and it felt dry and solid. Exactly what I'd been looking for.

"Sorry 'bout tha'," Hagrid panted, lumbering over, "I'll have to have another talk with Aragog about keepin' his kids out o' this part o' the forest." He surveyed the area and then nodded, "Guess ya weren't kiddin' 'bout not needin' a wand."

"A focus definitely helps," I admitted, gesturing with the fallen branch. "Hopefully I'll be able to make some good ones out of these."

"A fine choice. Storm-struck and won through battle," said a strangely resonant voice from behind us. Hagrid whirled around leveling his portable ballista and I started to charge another attack. I wasn't expecting to see a romance novel cover wandering through the trees toward us. A decent Fabio knock-off from the waist up, it took me a moment to notice he was a horse from the waist down. Maybe the forest was actually forbidden to keep young witches from running off with the centaurs.

"Oh, Firenze! Ya snuck up on us," Hagrid exhaled, lowering his giant crossbow. "We're jus' out here collectin' wood for Harry here ta make some big wands. Harry, this is Firenze. He's a seer."

The horse-man nodded in greetings, his long golden hair flowing about in a way that had to involve magic to not see him constantly getting it hung up on low-hanging brambles. "Perhaps not wands, after that display of unfocused magic. The stars spoke to me of a young man that would come to the school wielding old magics. They also say darkness walks behind him. Will you stand against this chasing darkness, or merely try to stay ahead of it? After all, we once pinned our hopes on another young man named Harry…"

The centaur didn't seem like he actually wanted an answer, and I'd never been a huge fan of divination, so I just asked him a question right back. "Do the stars speak of whether I'm going to get railroaded into wizard prison no matter what I do?"

He just shrugged. "The darkness can represent many things. Even deep in the forest, we hear tales of the corruption within the wizards' government. Though the Dark Lord was banished nearly ten cycles ago, the conditions that led to his rise are still present. Stars smile upon you, Harry. You'll need all the fortune you can get." With that pronouncement, he turned and cantered off into the woods.

"Tha's just centaurs for ya', Harry," Hagrid chuckled, "They're always showin' up talkin' 'bout the stars. My guess is tha' they get just as worried 'bout the future as the rest of us. Ya get what ya needed?"

"I hope so," I acknowledged. Hagrid was nice enough to take the large branch from me to carry, while I tied together the smaller sticks to take back. As we started heading toward the school, I asked, "So there's a Dark Lord, huh? And everyone's worried he'll come back?"

"Not everyone," the big man sighed. "Most folk jus' take for granted tha' he's gone. Dumbledore's been tryin' ta get them ta make changes for a decade, in case he comes back. Some'a the stuff tha's been happ'nin' this summer, It makes me nervous. Even if he's really gone… well, like the man said, wouldn't be hard fer another dark wizard ta' move in and start righ' back up." He shook his head, as if to physically banish the dark thoughts. "Don' tell the little ones tha', though, alrigh'? We try ta keep Hogwarts a hopeful place for the young'ns."

"You ever think that maybe you should tell the kids what's going on earlier, since they're the ones who go on to the Ministry and keep it corrupt?" I asked.

We walked for a few minutes in silence as Hagrid thought, for him to finally admit, "Mebbe so. It's jus' hard ta look a' those innocen' li'l faces an' think, 'This one's not even twen'y years from bein' a corrupt politician.'" He sighed and thought for another second, and added, "Pro'ly should, though. Got a Malfoy comin' in this year. Ran inta that boy the other day in the alley. Already a real piece'o work."

It was hard to look at such a cheerful, giant man so down, so as we walked back up to his cabin, I tried to soften what I'd been saying. "It's probably not guaranteed, or anything. I've changed a lot since I was 11. Maybe you can keep assuming they're good kids. Just try to give them more perspective, earlier." I tried to add in a joke. "I mean, they're not a lost cause until they're nearly 16, after all."

I don't think he got it. Maybe I didn't get it either.