Chapter 11: Mastered
Kentarre suddenly put her hand to her forehead. Hermione glanced at her worriedly, holding her hands out to help her, but Kentarre pushed the help aside, making her way towards the window. When she got there, she froze, and then moved her hand slowly away from her face, her eyes wide in shock. None of the others would ever know what she saw, but she whispered to herself in a strange language that none of them could place. Then she began to swear in English, and her voice rose just a little.
Harry opened his mouth to ask what all that was about, but Kentarre would hear none of it. She strode away towards the portrait hole, and then was gone. Ron's eyebrows were raised. "What the dickens was that all about?"
Harry got up and went to the window. He saw nothing unusual, but he wondered where it was that Kentarre meant to go. Hermione and Ron were right behind him, and Ron said, "Something's really going on now... and I have a feeling it's right under our noses and we don't know anything about it. I say it's time to do some snooping."
"I'll get the cloak," said Harry, as if that were final, but he felt a hand on his arm. "Are you sure you know what you're doing?" asked Hermione. "We don't know what she can do if she catches us." Harry gave a small smile. "Don't worry. I think I know what she's hiding, and she won't do anything because she thinks we don't know." Hermione smiled back. "Harry, I don't know when I've ever been more proud of you!" she exclaimed, and Harry blushed.
"Well, come on, Harry," said Ron, who was on his way up the stairs to the boys' dormitory. Harry quickly caught up with him, and the two of them were back down with the cloak in minutes.
The halls of Hogwarts were darker than usual because the torches were burnt down to embers. Harry had never been out of bed this late--Ron's watch told him that it was 3:06 A.M. However, he felt that he couldn't have slept if he had wanted to; knowing that Kentarre was out doing something he knew nothing about would be enough to keep even Ron awake. Meanwhile, next to him, Ron yawned. Hermione, who was in the middle, dug into him with her elbow, staring ahead. Harry followed her eyes and found Peeves, who was floating about twenty or thirty paces ahead of them, cackling and making pictures on the wall with chalky erasers. As they got closer, he stopped in midair, his feet about two feet off the ground. He sniffed ceremoniously at the air and said loudly, "I smell a stinker, I do. Stinkers sneaking up on Peeves, they are. Should tell Filch if students out of bed."
All three of them stopped. Hermione pulled out her wand and whispered, "Okay, we'll go around that corner up ahead." Then she pointed her wand under the cloak towards something on the other side of Peeves. "Wingardium Leviosa!" she hissed, and Harry saw a stack of books on a chair at the end of the hall waver in the air. Then Hermione lowered her wand, and the books dropped to the ground. Peeves turned his head gleefully to where the sound had come from, and Hermione whispered, "Now!" They all ran as quietly as they could towards the corner and pulled around it, keeping the cloak tight around them. When they made it to the next corner, they ducked to one side of the hall just to one side of a suit of armor to see if Peeves had heard them go by. They all tried to catch their breath while listening for Peeves at the same time, which proved to be a harder task than they had expected, because they had run for so long. However, after a few minutes, they heard and saw nothing and no one, so they readjusted the Invisibility Cloak and went on.
Soon, albeit not soon enough for the three of them, they reached the Entrance Hall. "Kentarre must have had some intention of going outside," Hermione breathed. "We must be not that far behind her." Ron checked the entire Hall to make sure it was clear, and then Harry asked, "Ready?" The other two both nodded, and they checked their hold on the cloak before starting off at their quietest pace across the Hall. At one point, Harry stepped on the edge of the cloak, making them all stumble. Hermione's arm flew out from under the cloak for a split-second, and they were all afraid that they would come tumbling down onto the Hall floor, but Ron grabbed Hermione and Harry pulled the cloak out from under his sneaker. So far, no harm had been done, but they all tried hard not to look nervously around to see if anyone was about to see them.
The journey to the door seemed to last an eternity, but finally they made it. Ron and Harry pulled the door open while Hermione kept the lookout, and then they all slipped through, easing the door shut behind them.
Outside was just as cold as Harry remembered it, if not colder. Right away, their teeth were set to chattering. Hermione asked, "So, what exactly are we looking for? We don't know what she saw. We could be hours out here, looking at something out of the ordinary and not knowing it." Harry refused to give up. "Just keep your eyes open. She didn't start swearing for nothing." Ron protested, "But Kentarre would swear if a tree fell down. We don't know what we're looking for." Harry's shoulders sagged, knowing his friend was probably right.
Just then, Hermione exclaimed, "Look! Over there!" Harry looked where she was pointing, and he saw the sky lit up with bright colors; he could distinctly make out an orangey-red, yellow, a foresty green, a deep purple, an ordinary-looking brown, and a whitish silver. "Those don't look like Northern Lights," said Hermione, her voice speaking her wonder. Ron could do nothing but gape, and Harry's brow knitted together. "Well, if they aren't Northern Lights," said Harry, "what are they?" Hermione said, "Well, I think we just found what Kentarre was looking at. Come on!"
Ron protested, "But we don't know how far away they are!"
Hermione, who had broken out from under the cloak and was striding toward the Forest, which was directly under the lights, looked back at him. "That's what we're going to find out!" Harry and Ron looked at each other, shrugged, and then followed her. Harry pulled off the cloak, and Ron handed it to him; Harry folded it and stuck it in his robe's breast pocket.
When they got in the Forest, Hermione lit her wand, but when Harry and Ron started to do the same, she stopped them. "We only need one," she said, "and we don't want it to be so bright we can't follow the lights anymore." Ron shook his head, Harry shrugged, and they moved on.
It was slow work, and they never seemed to get any closer to the shimmering apparition, but eventually they came to where they were almost directly under it; or so it seemed.
Without any sort of warning, the lights faded into the night, leaving the trio of them stranded in the dim light of Hermione's wand. The three of them stood there looking at each other with varying expressions that said 'Uh-oh' and 'What do we do now?'. Ron was about to say something when Hermione put her hand up to silence him. She looked as if she were listening very hard, and Harry tried to ask her with his expression what she was listening for, but she wouldn't look at him. After a bit, she motioned for them to follow her and moved on in the direction they had been going. Harry and Ron looked at each other and shrugged, but they did follow, not wanting to be separated.
At first, Harry heard nothing, but as they went slowly on, he began to hear something that sounded like it might be voices. Just then, Hermione stopped, and Ron would've run right into her if she had not put her hand out. Hermione put out her wand, put her finger to her lips, and then to her ear. Harry leaned closer, and the three of them adjusted their ears to hear what was being said. Harry couldn't hear much, and he tried to get closer so he could. He almost fell, and there was a falter in the voices. He froze, and after a tense pause, the conversation continued. He moved again, this time finding a hole in the dense vegetation that he could peep through. What he saw made his eyes go wide. There was a clearing, about fifty paces both ways, and not too far away stood a group of people--six people, to be exact, and only one that he recognized. Kentarre stood closest to the hidden trio, and the other five were facing her, standing at intervals in a kind of sideways zigzag. Kentarre was speaking angrily to them in a strange language--possibly the same one she had been speaking only 3/4 of an hour ago in the Gryffindor common room.
It was then that Harry noticed how the others were dressed; it seemed to Harry that Zorensei would not have looked out of place here. They were all wearing outfits that, like Zorensei's, seemed to have a main color, and they were all different. The clothes looked almost ecclesiastical, with many overpieces and sashes that were variations of the main color. *But why is Kentarre involved in this?* he asked himself. *How does she know these people?*
Kentarre finished speaking, and one of them, dressed in a mouse sort of brown, which would've made him look like a monk if his clothes had not been so accesorized, stepped forward and addressed her in the same language, his voice pleading with her, reasoning even. Though Harry could not understand what was being said, it was almost as though he understood what was going on. He couldn't have explained how he knew even if he tried, but it seemed as though the entire situation had revealed itself without him noticing; the group of five were warriors that had come to help Kentarre, but she didn't want them here because they had come too soon, as if there were things she still had to do before they were even in the picture. The man in brown was telling her that they had detected the fight between Learst and Zorensei and had come here as quickly as possible, thinking that she had gotten herself into trouble; and besides, she was going to need them eventually anyway, them and their weapons, and they could keep hidden until she called them. Kentarre bluntly said that she still didn't want them here yet, because too many things could go wrong, like they could be found, or Learst could see them.
Harry then noticed the weapons that the man in brown had spoken of; each one of the five held one, and they were all different. There were two women and three men; one of the two women, the one dressed in yellow, held a bow and a quiver of arrows, and the other, garbed in a kind of orange-red, held an enormous, intricately decorated shield. The three men, respectively: green, purple, and brown held a staff, a sword, and a piece of folded cloth that was a brownish-black material and looked light as paper.
Kentarre finally consented to accept help from the strangers, and then the man in brown, who had the piece of cloth folded and hung at his belt, knelt to Kentarre. The others all did the same, going down on their left knees. Then Kentarre told them to get up with one word, which they did. Then she instructed them to stay here and let no one see them. Harry couldn't quite understand the next part, but it seemed to be that Kentarre was telling them to return to their original state, whatever that meant, and to not use their weapons--not yet. Then she told them that she would go back now, and they all knelt again respectfully, bowing their heads. They all murmured something in unison that Harry couldn't catch, and then Kentarre nodded and turned back to the woods. Only too late, Harry saw that if she kept going, she would walk right into their hiding place!
He tried to communicate this to the other two, but they had already moved away. It was just him left, and Kentarre was coming closer every second. He pulled out his Invisibility Cloak and roughly pulled it over himself, and only just in time; Kentarre passed by him, striding with more purpose than he had ever seen her before. She went right on without stopping, so he knew that she hadn't seen either Ron or Hermione.
When she was completely out of sight, Harry almost let out a sigh of relief, but then he remembered the other people in the clearing just behind him. He took off the cloak and looked through his peephole once more, but he didn't see the multicolored warriors--instead, he saw five ordinary-looking people dressed in black robes, just like the ones they wore at Hogwarts. Harry looked over at Ron, who had been waving at him to get his attention. Ron pointed in the direction that Kentarre had just been going, indicating that they should head back. Harry nodded and slowly got up, trying to not make any noise, and returned to his friends' sides. "Let's go," he whispered hurriedly, and Hermione nodded. The three of them shouldered the Invisibility Cloak and started back toward the castle.
It was after about twenty-thirty minutes of forest that they finally emerged onto the castle lawn. "How long do you think it took Kentarre to get back?" asked Ron, breathing hard. Hermione said, "Well, she looked as though she could've kept going for quite a while, so I'd say she's been back for about ten minutes or so." Harry asked, "How do you figure that?"
"Well," she answered, "She looked pretty mad when she left that clearing, and she was walking pretty fast."
"So were we," protested Ron. He was bent over with his hands on his knees, panting.
"Oh, stop being such a baby!" Hermione told him. Harry said pointedly, "Let's just get back into the common room. Then we can continue this little quibble."
They crossed the lawn and entered with caution. When they were sure that the coast was clear, they made their way up the marble staircase and to the Gryffindor common, having no run-ins with any prowlers because one, the castle was very large, and two, it was so late, or rather early, that no one who was about was likely to be more than half awake. The teachers would've all gone to bed, which would've left Peeves, who never slept, and Filch, who probably didn't either.
When they arrived back into the common room, after a little hassle with the Fat Lady, who had decided to fill their ears with a lecture about going out late at night and disturbing other people's sleep before letting them in, Ron collapsed in one of the armchairs. The fire had completely gone out, leaving the room lightless save for the dim light from the nearly-set moon. Hermione lit her wand, and Harry did the same; Ron, who was too worn out to even stand, merely gasped for air. Harry looked at him concernedly, but Hermione would have no mercy. "You know," she told him, "you really should go to bed."
He gave her an irritated look and said defensively, "I'm not used to staying out this late, that's all!" Hermione sighed and went to the window. "It is a bit late," she said quietly. "I guess they wanted to make sure we were all really asleep." Harry joined her. "Well, if that's true, that was definitely the way to go about doing it," he said, glancing at Ron, who was sprawled on the armchair.
Hermione smiled and shook her head, and then she went over to sit in another one of the armchairs, the one facing Ron's, presumably to think. Harry, however, remained at the window to do the very same thing. He looked out over the Forbidden Forest to the place where they had first seen the lights in the sky. It was then that he realized that the colors of the lights they had seen matched the ones that the mysterious warriors had been wearing; deep purple, pine green, orangish-red, brown, and yellow. *Well, that makes sense, since they're the ones who put the lights in the sky,* he reasoned.
He looked back over at Hermione and saw that she had fallen asleep with her head on her fist. Ron was snoring gently with his chin on his shoulder and his arms dangling over the arms of the chair. Harry smiled faintly at the two of them and then went over to gently prod them awake and tell them to go to bed, which they did without objection. Harry himself, with one last glance out the window, followed Ron up to the boys' dormitory and to his bed.
*The Next Morning*
Hermione yawned. "I don't know how I'm ever going to make up all this lost sleep," she said quietly. Ron replied, "I do. In History of Magic, like we always do."
"Well, like you always do."
"Hey, can I help it if Professor Binns is a bore?"
"There are methods of looking occupied, you know. You could at least try to stay awake."
"Why bother? I'd get so bored of trying to stay awake that I might actually fall asleep."
"You're insufferable, you know!"
Ron shrugged and yawned again. Harry looked around and then wondered aloud, "Has anyone seen Kentarre this morning?" Ron's eyes fluttered open and he said, "Huh? Kentarre? Nope." Hermione also shook her head, and Harry, who was close to nodding himself, decided not to worry about it. After all, Kentarre could take care of her own affairs.
Later that morning, in Herbology, Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Dean, whom they had asked to be in their group because Seamus kept on bringing up sports, saying that all of them were way left behind where Quidditch was concerned, which Dean disagreed with, so they left Kentarre to be picked by another group, where she ended up with Seamus and Neville and one of the Hufflepuff girls. Kentarre was wearing her dragonhide gloves, but when asked why, she wouldn't say; they were working today on repotting one of the smaller plants, a species that Professor Sprout had called Isidets, and small they were. Harry had never seen a plant so small. They each took up only three ounces of soil, and they were in pots that were made of a kind of ceramic, which, said Professor Sprout, was essential, as they were allergic to clay pots. Thus they had been instructed to carefully take the Isidets, which were marked with a blue tag, and place them into another pot that had been similarly marked.
However, as she was telling them this, Professor Sprout said, "Now, before you put them in the new soil, you must place a spell that I will teach you on it. The Isidets are, as you can see, very delicate, and the soil they are put in must have certain protections against normal conditions. Now, the spell is as follows: take your wand and do this-" The professor performed a rather easy-looking motion with her own wand, and then asked the class to try it as well, which most of them did without much difficulty. "This really shouldn't cause you any trouble," she told them, but Neville didn't look so sure. He was asking Hermione to show him again, which she did, slower and with patience. After a while, he seemed to get it, but he looked disappointed, because Herbology was his best subject for the sole reason that there was less wand-waving and potion-making and you-have-to-get-this-exactly-right-or-else.
They all then went to get their ceramic pots from the front of the class and then returned to their areas to begin work. Kentarre kept her gloves on and continually and inexplicably glanced at their previous project, the Carkels, which were blooming bright blue blossoms. She looked more wary than usual, even for her, and Harry occasionally tried to catch her eye, but with no success; she would not look at him.
After class, when they were walking away from the greenhouses, Harry caught up with Kentarre, who had shot out of the room like there was a hippogriff on her tail. "Hey, Kentarre! Wait up!" She did not look at him, but she did slow down so he could catch up. "All right, out with it," Harry told her. "What's up?"
Hermione agreed. "You can't avoid us forever, you know." Kentarre looked at her sharply. "I never tried, for you are right, it would be completely futile. However, I can choose not to tell you anything, which is what I'm going to do until further notice."
"From who?" Ron wanted to know.
She gave him a withering glare, but he would not be so easily thwarted. "I think you know perfectly well from who, Ron Weasley," she said in a voice that had icicles on it. Ron looked defensive, but there was also a trace of shock on his face. He exchanged worried glances with the other two, and Hermione took over the investigation. "No, actually, we don't," she said in a businesslike manner. "Please, enlighten us."
Kentarre's eyes flashed at the bushy-haired brunette, who met them with a cool stare. "Stay out of my business," Kentarre growled. "You may find yourselves biting off more than you're ready to chew." The silver-haired girl picked up her pace, intent on leaving them behind, and Harry called after her, "Now what's that supposed to mean?" but she was gone. Harry heard a snicker from behind him. "Awww, Potter, are you having a fight with your girlfriend?"
Harry turned around, and there was Malfoy, flanked by Crabbe and Goyle, who were chuckling oafishly. Harry asked, "Malfoy, why is it that whenever I even so much as talk to a girl that you think she's my girlfriend?" Malfoy replied with a sneer, "Because it's true. She said so herself." Hermione glared at him. "That's a load of tripe and you know it, Malfoy," she told him, and he looked at her with cool eyes. "So you're saying this because you think you got the job? My, my, Potter, we have been busy, haven't we?"
"Oh, can it, Malfoy. Everyone knows you're all talk. Kentarre proved it."
"All she proved is that she would stoop that low just to get back at me."
"Well, that makes two of you, doesn't it?"
"I'd watch out for her if I were you, Potter. I mean, you should know firsthand that you can't really trust a girl." He paused here to look pointedly at Hermione, whose eyes flashed.
Harry's eyes narrowed. "Why should whatever she's up to concern you, Malfoy? I thought you two were over."
"So you think you're special just because she talks to you? Your head's gotten bigger, Potter. I'd watch out for that if I were you."
Ron started toward Malfoy, apparently having had about enough of the banter. Hermione, however, was ready. She took a hold of the back folds of his robes and pulled--hard. Harry grabbed one of Ron's arms, and together, they managed to restrain him, while Malfoy laughed at all three of them. Ron said through clenched teeth, "You'd better keep a good eye on your back, Malfoy."
"Threats, Weasley? I thought we had done with all that."
"It wasn't a threat, Malfoy, it was a warning."
The oily blond laughed again and walked off with his two cronies following him. Ron slowly relaxed, and Harry and Hermione loosened their grips on him. "He's got something coming to him," Ron growled, and Harry and Hermione exchanged glances. Then the three of them finished their walk towards Hagrid's cabin for Care of Magical Creatures.
Kentarre was nowhere to be seen, which was odd, as class was about to start, but Malfoy, however, was there, making himself useful by talking quietly to a snickering crowd of Slytherins. When Harry, Ron, and Hermione walked up, Malfoy broke through his surroundings and smirked at them. Harry ignored him and the rest of them as best he could while Ron was looking thunderous.
Hagrid emerged from his cabin just as Kentarre appeared seemingly out of nowhere. She joined the class at the rear, but she could not escape for long the searching eyes of both Malfoy and Harry. Malfoy got there first, and the two of them engaged in what seemed to Harry to be a one-way conversation. Malfoy murmured furtively in Kentarre's ear, and Kentarre replied shortly, her annoyance showing all over her face, as if there was a bug that she longed to swat at. Malfoy clearly had figured this out, and continued his torment. Harry couldn't hear a word of what was said, but this exchange seemed to go on for quite a while, and Kentarre's answers became increasingly longer. Finally she caught his eye, held it, and delivered what appeared to be a deadly insult that lasted for a few minutes. After this she moved up towards Hagrid, and Malfoy sulked away.
The lesson today was, of course, their term project: the wraiths. Hagrid proceeded to tell them that their task would be to simply feed and study them. They would then have to write a one-roll parchment on the behavior of the wraiths in a new environment. Hagrid then put them one by one into another crate, which was their signal to start taking notes. Kentarre was looking pensive as she pointed to each of the wraiths as if counting them. She then left the class and went up to Hagrid. "Did another wraith go missing?" she asked him. Hagrid looked up and counted them himself. "Well, bless me, there is one missin'! I hadn' noticed it 'till now! There used teh be eight of 'em, but now there's..." But Kentarre had stopped listening. She was now looking angry, almost as angry as she had looked the previous night in the common room, and her gaze turned to the Forest beyond Hagrid's cabin. However, she apparently decided that whatever it was could wait, because she turned back to the rest of the class, her jaw set like stone, her eyes flinty. She came back over and proceeded to take notes with the rest of them, avoiding Harry's eyes.
After class was break, and Kentarre lingered until all the class had gone. Harry didn't notice her staying, because Neville had gotten bitten by one of the wraiths, and they were all taking him to the hospital wing. Kentarre asked Hagrid, who was heading back up to his cabin, "Did you hear any noise coming from the pen? At any time?" He looked at her for a minute, and then he said, "Well, no, not exac'ly." Kentarre said an abrupt "Thank you" and then went back up to the castle at a rather fast pace. Hagrid shook his head at her as she went, and then continued to his cabin.
Kentarre went up to the library, intent on having an intense study session alone--well, as intense as she could make it within the short break. Today was Tuesday, and she knew that a certain someone visited the library regularly every Tuesday during first break. She had found this out by asking him; now, she was glad she had.
No one molested her on her way, because all of them by now were used to her swift stride and her get-out-of-my-way-or-I'll-run-you-over expression. She made it to the library, only to find that the vulture-like Madam Pince was standing outside its closed doors, looking menacing. Kentarre barely had time to open her mouth to ask when the librarian barked, "The library's closed. Come back next week." Kentarre's eyes flashed, but she held in the orders she had been about to give the woman. Instead, she asked, "Why is the library closed?" The woman leaned closer and said, "Read the sign."
The silver-haired girl looked past Madam Pince and saw a large black-and-white sign on the library's left door. It read 'Library closed due to repairs on the windows.' Kentarre deeply wanted to ask what happened to the windows, but the woman was now eyeing her with nasty expectancy, and she did not want to aggravate Madam Pince any more; the obsessive librarian might not let her in next time if she did. Accordingly, Kentarre started back down the hall the way she had come, but with no more intention of finding Harry than of finding lice in Malfoy's hair. However, the person she did intend to find would be fairly easy to find; he would be in the place he was in when he wasn't in the library or eating.
Kentarre stopped. This thought had never occured to her before. *So he has turned human. I had my doubts, but I'm sure now. He's human. How marvelous.* She then continued her walk down the hall, but before she could reach her destination, the bell rang. She began to curse savagely on her way, having to alter her course towards her next class, going through several languages before exhausting her supply of curses and breath.
She arrived at her next class, which was Charms, still fuming. To Harry, who had been in the class for only a few minutes, she looked livid, almost murderous, but he had not seen her when the bell first rang. Harry and Ron exchanged glances and shrugged at each other. Kentarre took her seat without talking to either of them, and Professor Flitwick started class. They were working on charming pillows to be softer, and there was a bit of a contest involved; whoever had the softest pillow by the end of the class, with Professor Flitwick himself as the judge, would get homework off tonight. They all had groaned, because each and every one of them knew that they didn't stand a chance against Hermione.
Meanwhile, Kentarre's thoughts seethed in her mind, stirring themselves into an angry froth. *That bell just had to ring!* she thought, and cursed again. This was followed by a pause and another string of curses in varying languages. *I will get him alone one of these days, even if I have to wait until Thursday, and then he will have an earful delivered by yours truly!* The girl's pale face turned once again to the window just to her right, and she felt that sense of unfriendly presence coming from it. She attempted to shake it off, and then she went over to the professor's desk to pick up a pillow. The pillows, of course, were rough and lumpy, so it would be easy to tell whose was the softest.
Ron quickly made his statement. "This is all a load of rubbish," he groaned. "When am I ever going to use this charm?" Harry personally agreed with him, but he didn't get a chance to say so, because Hermione piped, "Well, Ron, you never know, do you? I mean, you could be stuck at some nasty roadside inn and have to sleep in a bug-ridden bed with a lumpy, hard pillow, and with this spell, you could make the pillow a lot nicer, and-"
"Hermione," said Ron with a tone of okay-I've-had-enough. "You're babbling." She 'hmmph'ed at him and went back to her pillow. Harry tried not to laugh at the pair of them, when he spotted Neville's pillow. Fortunately, this time he had done no worse than to change its color, but the color it had turned was rather remarkable. It was now a kind of greenish-blue color, but the funny thing was that the color was changing even as Harry watched it. Seamus and Dean had started to laugh appreciatively, and Harry was stifling his giggle. Ron heard him, and asked, "What?" Unable to reply, Harry pointed over in Neville's direction. Ron looked, and his eyes lit up. "Hey, Neville, how'd you do that?"
Neville, at a loss for words, suddenly noticed that someone was talking to him. "W-what?" he stammered. Ron repeated the question, and Neville said, "Well, I just said 'Incadesus Colorium,' and-"
Hermione interrupted him. "Well, that's because it's really Incandesus Fluforium, Neville, not-"
"Cool, let me try it!" Ron raised his wand, and soon his pillow was also shifting rainbow colors. Harry said, "Hey, that's neat." He also performed the spell, and his assignment was soon shimmering away with the other two. Soon the whole class, minus Hermione and Kentarre, the former of which thought they were all being utterly ridiculous and the latter of which didn't care, had produced cushions that rotated through the colors of the rainbow, as if they could not make up their minds which color they wanted to be.
"Neville," said Ron, clapping him on the back, "you've discovered a treasure." Neville's pudgy face cracked into a rare smile, and Harry, grinning openly, went back to enchanting his pillow to being softer.
They were having so much fun that it was not until later that Kentarre caught his eye. She was watching him and his friends make attempts at their pillows with a certain amusement in her eye. Her pillow, he then saw, was on her desk in front of him, still plain. He couldn't imagine why she wasn't working on it, unless she had finished already, which was highly unlikely, because not even Hermione had gotten finished. Harry decided against pointing this out to the others because it wasn't all that important, but his eyes somehow found themselves drifting over in her direction through the whole class period.
However, when class was over, he completely forgot about Kentarre altogether. Professor Flitwick had been so amused by their iridescent pillows that he laughed himself off his chair. It was time for the test.
He instructed everyone to get in a line and give him their pillows one at a time so he could grade them. Harry and Ron got spots in line near the back, but Hermione was the first to go. She cheerily handed the professor her pillow, and he placed it in front of him on the desk. He removed his hat (causing several people in the back to snicker at the absence of hair on the top of his head) and laid his head down on top of it. "Ahhhh," he said contentedly.
After a pause he roused himself and cleared his throat in a dignified manner. "Well, um, yes, I think this deserves a high score…" he said, scribbling on his parchment. Hermione beamed at him and removed the pillow, placing it in the box that they had come from.
The line progressed, growing smaller and smaller. At last it came to Harry's turn, and the professor moved his head around a bit before commenting, "Fair. A bit lumpy, but fair." Harry took it away while his score was being tallied. Ron's results were slightly less than satisfactory, but that was because Seamus had been cracking some of his latest jokes, making Ron laugh and aim his wand a little off-his desk was now varying degrees of hardness, some parts being softer than others.
It was Kentarre's that was the real surprise. The professor placed his head on her pillow-and it almost sank out of sight! He cried out in surprised pleasure, catching several class members' attention. "Yes, you've certainly mastered this one," he mused to himself as he wrote her score down.
As it turned out, Kentarre had had the softest pillow, and the other students got out their quills to write down their assignment, Harry, Ron, and Hermione being no exception. Kentarre simply stared at the scene on the other side of the window, her face expressionless.
Just as everyone was putting their books away, there was a rapping at the window. Kentarre was the only one who didn't jump. There, fluttering to a stop on the sill, was a falcon, Kentarre's falcon Nemesis. She looked at the professor, whose expression of curiosity mirrored those of the rest of the class, and then she opened the window to let the bird in. She undid the message around its foot, nodded gratefully, and then it flew off. Kentarre took one look at the folded message, and then pocketed it.
The bell rang.
There was much talking in the halls as the students were let out to go to their last class. Harry and Ron had gotten into a discussion about their favorite arguing matter, Quidditch, and Hermione was going over the spell they had learned with Neville, who had never quite gotten the knack of it.
Their last class was Transfiguration. Professor McGonagall met them outside the classroom with the same expression that she always did: businesslike and straightforward. Harry and his friends entered, laughing with the rest of the students as they all went to class. Kentarre was already there, and she was sitting with her chin resting on a loosely balled fist, looking pensive.
They all took their places, and class began. Professor McGonagall got up to the front of the class and began the lesson. They were going to attempt to change a whistle into a wombat, and it looked difficult. Neville leaned over and asked Hermione rather louder than he had intended, "What's a wombat look like?" Professor McGonagall looked at him sternly and said, "Longbottom, open your book to page 325, and there you will find a picture of a wombat. The rest of you can get started." Neville miserably got out his book, and Harry went to work on his whistle.
At the end of the hour, Harry had managed to produce a rather greyish-looking wombat who still had a small hole in the nape of his neck. They placed their wombats in cages for grading and then packed their books. Amongst the chatter of the Gryffindors, Kentarre stood by the window, completely oblivious to everything else. Indeed, when the bell rang, she seemed not to notice. Hermione, who had been watching her suspiciously, called to her. She did not look up; a closer examination revealed that she seemed to be lost in thought. Her eyes were far away, and Harry could almost feel the absence of her mind. He approached her and followed her eyes, though he saw nothing but the forest that surrounded the entire castle. However, though it might have been part of his imagination, he did seem to feel a kind of chill coming from the woods.
An equally chilly voice from beside him made him jump. "He's planning something," said Kentarre softly. "We'd better be on the watch. Potter, you're coming with me." She started to walk away, but Harry stopped her. "Wait a minute. Where are we going?" She gave him a sly smile. "Well, you want to know what he's up to, don't you?" She continued towards the door.
Harry followed her, with Ron and Hermione closely in tow, listening. "What who's up to?" he asked insistently. Her jaw visibly tensed, and she didn't answer him. Harry began to lose his temper. "Look, you can keep secrets all you want, but I'd kinda like to know who it is we're spying on. I haven't agreed to even go with you!"
"That's because I'm not giving you a choice, Potter. You're coming."
"Says who? What if I refuse?"
"Well maybe you didn't hear me. I said you're coming, whether you refuse or not."
"Why is it so important that I don't know who it is that we're dealing with? What are you hiding? Why are you keeping this from me?"
"Because you already know."
This startled Harry. It was not the answer he'd expected, not that he'd expected much, and he didn't quite know how to answer that. After a pause, he said, trying not to sound ignorant, "I do?" It didn't work. Kentarre replied shortly, "Yes, you do. His name is-"
The silver-haired girl stopped suddenly, almost causing Hermione to collide with her. Kentarre's black eyes met Harry's bright green ones. For an instant, it seemed to Harry that he saw an eternity staring out at him from those eyes; but it was only for an instant. Her eyes narrowed at him. "I'll talk to you about this later. I'll be in the common room shortly, but there's something I have to do first." With that, she left him standing in the rapidly emptying corridor.
Ron came up behind Harry. "How does she walk so bloody fast?" he breathed. "I could barely keep up!" Harry said nothing, but his eyes told Ron and Hermione that he wasn't going to give up without a fight. He too practically flew off down the hall, his short legs taking big strides to try to catch up. Ron, still panting, exchanged a glance with Hermione, but Hermione shook her head. "No," she said, "I don't think he means for us to follow him."
And Kentarre, whose thoughts remained with the black-haired boy with the scar, wove her way through the castle to her destination. *Potter,* she thought, as if he could hear her, *if we can just get through this, I swear to you, you'll solve more problems and gain more wisdom than is in your fathom. All you have to do is trust me.* She reached the doorway to the place where he should be. He wasn't. She threw open the door way to find an empty Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom. Her brows met in anger. "I'll get you, Learst," she muttered darkly, "if I have to hunt you down myself."
She turned to find Harry right behind her. Her eyes widened, mirroring his. *He followed me!* she thought, at first her thoughts sizzling with anger. Then she calmed. *Well, I guess it's about time I did tell him a thing or two.* Harry was breathing hard, as if he had been running. "Did you hear?" she asked him, and he stared at her for a minute before nodding, as if he was afraid she might be angry. She sighed and told him, "Well, I suppose... go find your friends and then meet me in the common room. And this time, I'm going straight there." Harry noticed that her eyes shimmered oddly, and he wanted to believe her. "All right," he said, and without another word, he walked back down the hall to where he had left Hermione and Ron to tell them what he had heard.
Kentarre had known that he would. It's what friends do. She sighed again, this time the sigh containing volumes of relief and a hint of pity for the boy who had just turned the corner. He had to do all of this with one eye blinded. Kentarre knew that if she had had to do this in his shoes, she would've either gone mad or killed somebody. Or both.
Then Kentarre, true to her word, headed for the common room of the Gryffindors.
Harry found Ron and Hermione where he had left them. They didn't notice him walk up, for they were both staring down another hall. Harry came up behind Ron and followed their eyes to the person down the hall. It was a man who had his back turned to them; he was dressed in Hogwarts teacher's robes, and he looked very busy. Harry determined that the teacher was Professor Jycein. "What's up?" he whispered to Ron, who jumped out of his skin. After recovering, he told Harry that Jycein had arrived there out of a side corridor and had been standing there for some time, just fumbling with something; he hadn't even looked at them. Harry's brow furrowed, wondering what the man could be doing, and then suddenly Jycein stuffed whatever it was that he had been handling into his robes and rushed away down the hall--in the opposite direction. Hermione started after him without a word, but Harry laid a hand on her shoulder. "Wait," he muttered, "we're supposed to meet Kentarre in the common room."
"I want to know what he's up to!" Hermione pulled out from under Harry's grasp and continued down the hall towards wherever Jycein was going. Harry and Ron looked at each other and shrugged. Ron began to follow, and Harry, after one glance down the hall that went to the common room, did the same.
They tracked him through the corridors until he led all three of them to a hidden place behind one of the tapestries that Harry was almost sure just the day before had been a solid wall. However, Hermione led the way, and she decided to follow Jycein all the way. Harry stopped her, saying, "Wait. What if he's just leading us on? What if it's a trap? He probably knows we've been following him." Ron thought about this and then said sardonically, "Yeah. I mean, he could have a whole army behind this tapestry that we never knew about. Come on." Ron moved forward and held open the tapestry for the other two, letting it swish back in place after him.
The tapestry entrance led to a dark hallway that had fewer torches than the open corridors in Hogwarts. There were no windows, and the place was made entirely of cold stone. There were voices coming from up ahead, and the three of them looked at each other before deciding to go on.
The hall didn't go far before it came out into a small, square room with a small, square window that let in a bit of odd, greenish light. Harry, who had decided to go first, peeked around the corner and saw that the room was much like the hall attached to it; bare, cold, and stone in its entirety. Professor Jycein stood facing the window; Harry could hear him mumbling something, and then a cold, expressionless voice answered him. Harry couldn't mistake the voice; he had heard it in his dreams as well as in person. It was Voldemort.
Ron nudged him from behind. "What's happening?" he hissed, and Harry relayed what was going on. Hermione went pale when she heard who Jycein was talking to, and Ron's eyes looked odd. Then Harry went back to listening, and the conversation became clearer as he listened.
"You know that we can't have her finding our little temporary base. Do whatever you need to, but don't let her find us!" Voldemort was saying, his voice rising a little and sending a chill down Harry's spine.
"Very good, Master. I will make sure that she does not interfere."
"I also called you because there is a matter that concerns me. I have reason to believe that she has called in help from outside." Harry then knew that Voldemort was talking about Kentarre. "Lucius tells me that he has had words with you. You were supposed to do away with her before then. Why could you not do this simple thing?"
"My Lord, it is not as easy as you make it sound. She is strong and she is smart. I have tried to best her in battle, but I failed. Zorensei is just too powerful! I cannot overtake her." At this, Harry started. *Was he talking about Kentarre or Zorensei?* he began, but then his mind finished the thought for him. *They're the same person. I thought so for a while, but I never was sure.*
"Hmmm. Perhaps I have set my expectations of my servant too high. Perhaps he would like me to let someone else handle the job that I have set before him, since he cannot complete it himself."
"But, my Lord, she--"
"You will not fail again! If you do, I shall personally feed your hide to the wraiths that our pet is so fond of. That is, if there is any left of you after Zorensei is done with you." The voice laughed, a familiar laugh that had no real mirth at all, no emotion. The hairs on the nape of Harry's neck stood.
"Now, on the matter of the Potter boy--" Harry's ears perked, and Hermione, who was right next to him, gasped. "He must not be allowed to leave. We will get him--with or without Zorensei. It matters not. But not now. We do not want to alert Dumbledore."
"Very good, my Lord. I will do as you have commanded."
This sounded like the end of the conversation to Harry. He looked at the other two; Hermione looked as if she had been Petrified, and Ron's face betrayed serious calculation. Harry nodded his head towards the hall, when there was a stirring from within the room. Jycein had ended the connection with Voldemort, and he was preparing to leave.
The three of them went as quickly and as quietly as they could back down the hall, not looking back for fear of finding Jycein right behind them.
They didn't stop until they had reached the entrance to the common room. Ron stopped for breath, leaning against the wall. Hermione was also panting, and Harry's heart was pounding to jump out of his throat. Ron said after a pause, "Well, should we go in?" Harry still couldn't breathe, so he nodded. Hermione gave the password and they went in.
It was dark; someone had put out the fire. The sun outside the window had gone down, though Harry hadn't realized just how much time had passed since they had gotten out of class until now. There were shadows everywhere, and Hermione was about to light her wand when Harry said aloud, "Hello?"
A familiar voice from the darkest shadow said, "You're late, Potter." A girl stepped out of the shadow by the window: a girl dressed in a blue sleeveless shirt covered in black lace and the same color blue jeans with black flame erupting from the hem. Her long white hair went down past her thighs, and the blue streaks across her face, great stripes under her eyes and in an intricate design skirting her forehead, seemed iridescent in the light of dusk. Her silvery eyes went from Harry, to Hermione, and then to Ron, whose mouth was open. One end of Harry's lips curled upward. "We got caught up, Kentarre," he said. She smiled. Ron said, "Hold on! You mean that this is--?" Harry nodded. "And she's also--?" Another nod. Hermione's eyes looked distrustful, but Ron asked Harry, "How long have you known this without telling us?"
Harry looked uncomfortable. "Well, I wasn't sure, and Hermione already thought that she could be, so I didn't want to..." he stammered, but Zorensei held up a hand. She said gently, "Please, let me explain. I think I have a better view of what's going on than any of you. My name is Zorensei." But she never got to finish, because Ron interrupted, "Wait, you said her name was Kentarre." She smiled and shook her head. "Perhaps I'm going too fast. In the form that you know me, I am Kentarre. However, when I change into this form, my name becomes Zorensei. I change form, so my name changes as well." Ron nodded slowly, and she continued.
"I'm here to fight a battle that has been a long time waiting. You know my opponent, I believe; his name is Voldemort." Harry saw Ron wince out of the corner of his eye, and he was reminded of his friend's dislike of hearing the name spoken. Even Hermione looked uncomfortable. Harry looked back to Zorensei. "Go on."
She nodded. "The reason I did not come before was because--" It was Hermione's turn to interrupt. "Wait a minute," she said, "why don't you start from the beginning?" Zorensei considered this, and then nodded. "Very well," she agreed, "but why don't you tell me how much you know of me, and then I'll fill in whatever gaps there are?" Hermione said, "Well, we followed you into the forest that night that you and Harry went off to fight whoever it was, and we saw you talking with a group of people dressed in funny clothes and speaking in a different language. We couldn't understand what you were saying, but--"
"I could," said Harry suddenly. Hermione looked at him. "When were you planning to tell us?" she demanded, and Harry said, "Well, I didn't want to tell you because I couldn't quite explain how it happened, and..." He then proceeded to tell them all that he had understood, but when he got to the part where Kentarre had been instructing them, he stopped, searching for a word. Zorensei watched his struggle, and she supplied, "I told them to kiese and stay that way. Kiese means to return to your original state; in my case, if I were to kiese, I would go back to being Kentarre. Does that make sense?" Hermione nodded, but Ron scratched his head for a while before he seemed to get it. Zorensei then looked back to Harry, who was watching her with uncertainty. "You understood what it was we were saying?" Harry nodded, and he saw something flash in Zorensei's eyes that looked something akin to triumph, and then it was gone. She continued, "I suppose, then, that I don't have to tell you that those people out there are my warriors. They serve me, along with the rest of the world that I live in. You see, I am what we call a Kelohr, the ruler, sort of. You see this?" she held up her left hand so they could see the three blue rings, which were throwing their bluish tinge on everything around them. "These blue rings are what make me a Kelohr. I was born with three; my warriors were all born with two. A normal Kelohran is born with one and eventually develops two when they reach the age of 100." Here she paused to let this sink in, and Hermione, seemingly on a whim, asked, "How old are you, then?" Zorensei smiled and answered, "You wouldn't believe me even if I told you." Harry pointed out, "Well, all of this is rather hard to believe, so why don't you try us?"
She smiled and gave a small, quiet laugh. "I suppose you're right," she conceded, "so I'll try you. I'm 3,845 years old and going." At this point Ron's mouth fell open again, and Hermione raised her eyebrows. Harry found this immensely hard to believe, but the proof of it was looking at him with concern in her eyes. "Am I going too fast?" she asked them, and they all exchanged glances before Harry said, "How do we know that you're not a different person altogether and that you're just pulling our legs?"
She gave him a grave look. "You want more proof?" she asked him, and he nodded. She also nodded, and then she stood. "Very well." She raised her left hand over her head and whispered one word. There was a flash of blue light, but not so blinding to make one look away. Harry saw her long tresses darken and dissipate and her clothes morph until Kentarre was standing before him, looking at him with black eyes instead of silver. She tried to resist smiling as she said, "Is that proof enough for you, Potter?" He could say nothing at the moment, not being able to do anything more than stare. "How is this possible?" he asked after a long minute, and she sat down again. "Well, my friend, that would be a truly long story. I have to get on to why I'm here." Her tone became sterner. "I told you that I have also had troubles with Voldemort, although my troubles with him started long before he was even called this. You see, he used to be one of my warriors himself, long before you were even thought of, long before these walls were ever built. He was fascinated with humans, he always had been, and then finally it became too much. He wanted to become one of you. Now, all of my warriors were given weapons, the weapons they were destined to carry since before they were born. His was special to him, and its powers were also essential to his transformation. He used it to turn himself into a human, and then he went to Earth.
"Now, since Kelohrans already have magic powers, when we turn human, we gain human magic powers. Therefore, he was turned into a wizard. When he came to Earth, he had to be born as a human, because now that his soul was human, he needed a body, and you and I both know that humans don't just come out of thin air. So he started life as Tom Riddle, and I believe you know the rest."
Hermione held up a hand. "So if you could've defeated him all this time, why didn't you?"
"Well, because I saw that the Potter boy would soon have interventions with Kaeru--which is what we called him when he was with us--and I didn't want to upset that. I saw that he was getting stronger, and that Harry here would soon put a stop to that. I wanted to see if the boy really could kill him without my help first."
Ron suddenly said, "Harry's nearly got himself killed a dozen times, and you could've put an end to that the whole time, your reason not to being that you 'wanted to see if he could kill him without your help'! What kind of a reason is that? Harry could've died!"
"Oh, no he couldn't have," she said with a mysterious smile. "Why not?" Ron demanded, sounding more and more sure that what Kentarre was telling them was complete balogna. "Because I have been watching him, and I believe he fits the bill." At this point she got up and went to the window. "You see," she continued, "there is a prophecy where I come from, a rather old prophecy that says that one day there will be a boy who will come and will save both Earth and my world from a destruction led by one man, and he will be called Dzione, or He Who Will Rise to Conquer Darkness. I think that that boy is you, Harry." She did not look at him.
"What makes you think that?" asked Harry.
"Well, for one thing, I know that if Voldemort succeeds in taking over Earth, he will soon be after my world as well. That makes him the man in the prophecy who will attempt to kill us all, Kelohran and human alike. Furthermore, you, Harry, have had dealings with him before, and you and I both know that you have been singled out before because of your scar and because you know him better than anyone--excluding myself and Dumbledore, that is. Thirdly, and my most recent discovery about you, you understood that conversation in the woods, did you not?"
Harry shrugged, not seeing the significance.
"We were speaking in the language of my people. You would only have understood it if you were destined to use it. That is the way with our language, and it is one of the reasons it is so safe to use it on Earth."
Hermione was still having trouble believing this. "So, let's just say for the sake of argument that Harry is this person. He would have to take on Voldemort and beat him all by himself? There's just no way!"
"Not by himself, apparently. With such loyal friends, I don't think he could go into battle without you two even if he tried.
"However, you needn't worry. I will be there with him, because there is something else to the prophecy that you need to know about. It has become apparent that a wizard alone cannot beat him, and I cannot do it myself, either."
"Why not?"
"Well, it's a little complicated, but if I have this figured right, the only way to beat him would be to combine my powers and those of a wizard."
"But you just said that the boy—Dzione—would fight him alone."
"He will."
"But you just said—"
"You weren't listening. I said that my powers and the powers of a wizard would be combined. I also said that there was only one person for the job. As to that, there is an ancient Kelohran spell that will enable a Kelohran to forfeit his powers to another person for an indefinite amount of time. Think about it."
"So… you would have to transfer your powers to Harry? Is that it?"
"If Harry is indeed Dzione, which I believe very strongly that he is."
Kentarre let this sink in a bit; the silence absorbed all of what she had said like a sponge in water. She knew, though, that they had been listening. Ron was shaking his head incredulously; his facial expression said 'How did we get ourselves into this mess?'. Harry stared at Kentarre, not really seeing her, wondering almost the same thing. All of his questions had been answered; now all that was left to do was believe. He was struggling with something inside of him that said that all of this was impossible. Yet, there was something else, something deeper that told him that it was real, all of this was true and that he would have to fight for everything, for this castle, for the two people sitting in front of him and all the rest of the people at Hogwarts. And he knew that it was more than that. He would be fighting for the safety of the rest of the world. He had never thought about it that way before. It was almost more than he could handle.
*I can't do this!* his logic screamed at him. *Why can't I keep from getting involved? Why is this happening to me?* He let this run through his head for a while,and then he looked at Kentarre. "This is serious, isn't it?" he asked, her, realizing how dumb this sounded. "I mean, this is real, right? This isn't just something you made up to scare us, right?" Kentarre shook her head. "No, it's real. Everything I've told you is true. You do believe me, don't you?" Her midnight eyes were searching, almost pleading. Harry mouthed soundlessly like a fish out of water for a moment, lost for words that seemed appropriate. "Well," he floundered, "I, well, that is, um, I... I suppose... I'm trying to..." She simply looked at him, letting him find his feet. He finally said, after a pause, "I think I do. It will take some doing, but I think I could believe you." Hermione looked at him wordlessly, her expression clearly telling him that she was not ready to vouch so easily. Ron still looked undecided for himself, but he looked at Harry gratefully, as if glad that Harry had made the decision for him.
Kentarre smiled at them and then turned back to the window. "Oh, and there's something else you should know... I almost forgot. You've probably figured this out already, but the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, called Jycein, is really Learst in disguise."
Yeah, I know, I know, not much of a cliffhanger because you knew that already! ;-) But that's okay, this chapter had to end somewhere!
Kentarre suddenly put her hand to her forehead. Hermione glanced at her worriedly, holding her hands out to help her, but Kentarre pushed the help aside, making her way towards the window. When she got there, she froze, and then moved her hand slowly away from her face, her eyes wide in shock. None of the others would ever know what she saw, but she whispered to herself in a strange language that none of them could place. Then she began to swear in English, and her voice rose just a little.
Harry opened his mouth to ask what all that was about, but Kentarre would hear none of it. She strode away towards the portrait hole, and then was gone. Ron's eyebrows were raised. "What the dickens was that all about?"
Harry got up and went to the window. He saw nothing unusual, but he wondered where it was that Kentarre meant to go. Hermione and Ron were right behind him, and Ron said, "Something's really going on now... and I have a feeling it's right under our noses and we don't know anything about it. I say it's time to do some snooping."
"I'll get the cloak," said Harry, as if that were final, but he felt a hand on his arm. "Are you sure you know what you're doing?" asked Hermione. "We don't know what she can do if she catches us." Harry gave a small smile. "Don't worry. I think I know what she's hiding, and she won't do anything because she thinks we don't know." Hermione smiled back. "Harry, I don't know when I've ever been more proud of you!" she exclaimed, and Harry blushed.
"Well, come on, Harry," said Ron, who was on his way up the stairs to the boys' dormitory. Harry quickly caught up with him, and the two of them were back down with the cloak in minutes.
The halls of Hogwarts were darker than usual because the torches were burnt down to embers. Harry had never been out of bed this late--Ron's watch told him that it was 3:06 A.M. However, he felt that he couldn't have slept if he had wanted to; knowing that Kentarre was out doing something he knew nothing about would be enough to keep even Ron awake. Meanwhile, next to him, Ron yawned. Hermione, who was in the middle, dug into him with her elbow, staring ahead. Harry followed her eyes and found Peeves, who was floating about twenty or thirty paces ahead of them, cackling and making pictures on the wall with chalky erasers. As they got closer, he stopped in midair, his feet about two feet off the ground. He sniffed ceremoniously at the air and said loudly, "I smell a stinker, I do. Stinkers sneaking up on Peeves, they are. Should tell Filch if students out of bed."
All three of them stopped. Hermione pulled out her wand and whispered, "Okay, we'll go around that corner up ahead." Then she pointed her wand under the cloak towards something on the other side of Peeves. "Wingardium Leviosa!" she hissed, and Harry saw a stack of books on a chair at the end of the hall waver in the air. Then Hermione lowered her wand, and the books dropped to the ground. Peeves turned his head gleefully to where the sound had come from, and Hermione whispered, "Now!" They all ran as quietly as they could towards the corner and pulled around it, keeping the cloak tight around them. When they made it to the next corner, they ducked to one side of the hall just to one side of a suit of armor to see if Peeves had heard them go by. They all tried to catch their breath while listening for Peeves at the same time, which proved to be a harder task than they had expected, because they had run for so long. However, after a few minutes, they heard and saw nothing and no one, so they readjusted the Invisibility Cloak and went on.
Soon, albeit not soon enough for the three of them, they reached the Entrance Hall. "Kentarre must have had some intention of going outside," Hermione breathed. "We must be not that far behind her." Ron checked the entire Hall to make sure it was clear, and then Harry asked, "Ready?" The other two both nodded, and they checked their hold on the cloak before starting off at their quietest pace across the Hall. At one point, Harry stepped on the edge of the cloak, making them all stumble. Hermione's arm flew out from under the cloak for a split-second, and they were all afraid that they would come tumbling down onto the Hall floor, but Ron grabbed Hermione and Harry pulled the cloak out from under his sneaker. So far, no harm had been done, but they all tried hard not to look nervously around to see if anyone was about to see them.
The journey to the door seemed to last an eternity, but finally they made it. Ron and Harry pulled the door open while Hermione kept the lookout, and then they all slipped through, easing the door shut behind them.
Outside was just as cold as Harry remembered it, if not colder. Right away, their teeth were set to chattering. Hermione asked, "So, what exactly are we looking for? We don't know what she saw. We could be hours out here, looking at something out of the ordinary and not knowing it." Harry refused to give up. "Just keep your eyes open. She didn't start swearing for nothing." Ron protested, "But Kentarre would swear if a tree fell down. We don't know what we're looking for." Harry's shoulders sagged, knowing his friend was probably right.
Just then, Hermione exclaimed, "Look! Over there!" Harry looked where she was pointing, and he saw the sky lit up with bright colors; he could distinctly make out an orangey-red, yellow, a foresty green, a deep purple, an ordinary-looking brown, and a whitish silver. "Those don't look like Northern Lights," said Hermione, her voice speaking her wonder. Ron could do nothing but gape, and Harry's brow knitted together. "Well, if they aren't Northern Lights," said Harry, "what are they?" Hermione said, "Well, I think we just found what Kentarre was looking at. Come on!"
Ron protested, "But we don't know how far away they are!"
Hermione, who had broken out from under the cloak and was striding toward the Forest, which was directly under the lights, looked back at him. "That's what we're going to find out!" Harry and Ron looked at each other, shrugged, and then followed her. Harry pulled off the cloak, and Ron handed it to him; Harry folded it and stuck it in his robe's breast pocket.
When they got in the Forest, Hermione lit her wand, but when Harry and Ron started to do the same, she stopped them. "We only need one," she said, "and we don't want it to be so bright we can't follow the lights anymore." Ron shook his head, Harry shrugged, and they moved on.
It was slow work, and they never seemed to get any closer to the shimmering apparition, but eventually they came to where they were almost directly under it; or so it seemed.
Without any sort of warning, the lights faded into the night, leaving the trio of them stranded in the dim light of Hermione's wand. The three of them stood there looking at each other with varying expressions that said 'Uh-oh' and 'What do we do now?'. Ron was about to say something when Hermione put her hand up to silence him. She looked as if she were listening very hard, and Harry tried to ask her with his expression what she was listening for, but she wouldn't look at him. After a bit, she motioned for them to follow her and moved on in the direction they had been going. Harry and Ron looked at each other and shrugged, but they did follow, not wanting to be separated.
At first, Harry heard nothing, but as they went slowly on, he began to hear something that sounded like it might be voices. Just then, Hermione stopped, and Ron would've run right into her if she had not put her hand out. Hermione put out her wand, put her finger to her lips, and then to her ear. Harry leaned closer, and the three of them adjusted their ears to hear what was being said. Harry couldn't hear much, and he tried to get closer so he could. He almost fell, and there was a falter in the voices. He froze, and after a tense pause, the conversation continued. He moved again, this time finding a hole in the dense vegetation that he could peep through. What he saw made his eyes go wide. There was a clearing, about fifty paces both ways, and not too far away stood a group of people--six people, to be exact, and only one that he recognized. Kentarre stood closest to the hidden trio, and the other five were facing her, standing at intervals in a kind of sideways zigzag. Kentarre was speaking angrily to them in a strange language--possibly the same one she had been speaking only 3/4 of an hour ago in the Gryffindor common room.
It was then that Harry noticed how the others were dressed; it seemed to Harry that Zorensei would not have looked out of place here. They were all wearing outfits that, like Zorensei's, seemed to have a main color, and they were all different. The clothes looked almost ecclesiastical, with many overpieces and sashes that were variations of the main color. *But why is Kentarre involved in this?* he asked himself. *How does she know these people?*
Kentarre finished speaking, and one of them, dressed in a mouse sort of brown, which would've made him look like a monk if his clothes had not been so accesorized, stepped forward and addressed her in the same language, his voice pleading with her, reasoning even. Though Harry could not understand what was being said, it was almost as though he understood what was going on. He couldn't have explained how he knew even if he tried, but it seemed as though the entire situation had revealed itself without him noticing; the group of five were warriors that had come to help Kentarre, but she didn't want them here because they had come too soon, as if there were things she still had to do before they were even in the picture. The man in brown was telling her that they had detected the fight between Learst and Zorensei and had come here as quickly as possible, thinking that she had gotten herself into trouble; and besides, she was going to need them eventually anyway, them and their weapons, and they could keep hidden until she called them. Kentarre bluntly said that she still didn't want them here yet, because too many things could go wrong, like they could be found, or Learst could see them.
Harry then noticed the weapons that the man in brown had spoken of; each one of the five held one, and they were all different. There were two women and three men; one of the two women, the one dressed in yellow, held a bow and a quiver of arrows, and the other, garbed in a kind of orange-red, held an enormous, intricately decorated shield. The three men, respectively: green, purple, and brown held a staff, a sword, and a piece of folded cloth that was a brownish-black material and looked light as paper.
Kentarre finally consented to accept help from the strangers, and then the man in brown, who had the piece of cloth folded and hung at his belt, knelt to Kentarre. The others all did the same, going down on their left knees. Then Kentarre told them to get up with one word, which they did. Then she instructed them to stay here and let no one see them. Harry couldn't quite understand the next part, but it seemed to be that Kentarre was telling them to return to their original state, whatever that meant, and to not use their weapons--not yet. Then she told them that she would go back now, and they all knelt again respectfully, bowing their heads. They all murmured something in unison that Harry couldn't catch, and then Kentarre nodded and turned back to the woods. Only too late, Harry saw that if she kept going, she would walk right into their hiding place!
He tried to communicate this to the other two, but they had already moved away. It was just him left, and Kentarre was coming closer every second. He pulled out his Invisibility Cloak and roughly pulled it over himself, and only just in time; Kentarre passed by him, striding with more purpose than he had ever seen her before. She went right on without stopping, so he knew that she hadn't seen either Ron or Hermione.
When she was completely out of sight, Harry almost let out a sigh of relief, but then he remembered the other people in the clearing just behind him. He took off the cloak and looked through his peephole once more, but he didn't see the multicolored warriors--instead, he saw five ordinary-looking people dressed in black robes, just like the ones they wore at Hogwarts. Harry looked over at Ron, who had been waving at him to get his attention. Ron pointed in the direction that Kentarre had just been going, indicating that they should head back. Harry nodded and slowly got up, trying to not make any noise, and returned to his friends' sides. "Let's go," he whispered hurriedly, and Hermione nodded. The three of them shouldered the Invisibility Cloak and started back toward the castle.
It was after about twenty-thirty minutes of forest that they finally emerged onto the castle lawn. "How long do you think it took Kentarre to get back?" asked Ron, breathing hard. Hermione said, "Well, she looked as though she could've kept going for quite a while, so I'd say she's been back for about ten minutes or so." Harry asked, "How do you figure that?"
"Well," she answered, "She looked pretty mad when she left that clearing, and she was walking pretty fast."
"So were we," protested Ron. He was bent over with his hands on his knees, panting.
"Oh, stop being such a baby!" Hermione told him. Harry said pointedly, "Let's just get back into the common room. Then we can continue this little quibble."
They crossed the lawn and entered with caution. When they were sure that the coast was clear, they made their way up the marble staircase and to the Gryffindor common, having no run-ins with any prowlers because one, the castle was very large, and two, it was so late, or rather early, that no one who was about was likely to be more than half awake. The teachers would've all gone to bed, which would've left Peeves, who never slept, and Filch, who probably didn't either.
When they arrived back into the common room, after a little hassle with the Fat Lady, who had decided to fill their ears with a lecture about going out late at night and disturbing other people's sleep before letting them in, Ron collapsed in one of the armchairs. The fire had completely gone out, leaving the room lightless save for the dim light from the nearly-set moon. Hermione lit her wand, and Harry did the same; Ron, who was too worn out to even stand, merely gasped for air. Harry looked at him concernedly, but Hermione would have no mercy. "You know," she told him, "you really should go to bed."
He gave her an irritated look and said defensively, "I'm not used to staying out this late, that's all!" Hermione sighed and went to the window. "It is a bit late," she said quietly. "I guess they wanted to make sure we were all really asleep." Harry joined her. "Well, if that's true, that was definitely the way to go about doing it," he said, glancing at Ron, who was sprawled on the armchair.
Hermione smiled and shook her head, and then she went over to sit in another one of the armchairs, the one facing Ron's, presumably to think. Harry, however, remained at the window to do the very same thing. He looked out over the Forbidden Forest to the place where they had first seen the lights in the sky. It was then that he realized that the colors of the lights they had seen matched the ones that the mysterious warriors had been wearing; deep purple, pine green, orangish-red, brown, and yellow. *Well, that makes sense, since they're the ones who put the lights in the sky,* he reasoned.
He looked back over at Hermione and saw that she had fallen asleep with her head on her fist. Ron was snoring gently with his chin on his shoulder and his arms dangling over the arms of the chair. Harry smiled faintly at the two of them and then went over to gently prod them awake and tell them to go to bed, which they did without objection. Harry himself, with one last glance out the window, followed Ron up to the boys' dormitory and to his bed.
*The Next Morning*
Hermione yawned. "I don't know how I'm ever going to make up all this lost sleep," she said quietly. Ron replied, "I do. In History of Magic, like we always do."
"Well, like you always do."
"Hey, can I help it if Professor Binns is a bore?"
"There are methods of looking occupied, you know. You could at least try to stay awake."
"Why bother? I'd get so bored of trying to stay awake that I might actually fall asleep."
"You're insufferable, you know!"
Ron shrugged and yawned again. Harry looked around and then wondered aloud, "Has anyone seen Kentarre this morning?" Ron's eyes fluttered open and he said, "Huh? Kentarre? Nope." Hermione also shook her head, and Harry, who was close to nodding himself, decided not to worry about it. After all, Kentarre could take care of her own affairs.
Later that morning, in Herbology, Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Dean, whom they had asked to be in their group because Seamus kept on bringing up sports, saying that all of them were way left behind where Quidditch was concerned, which Dean disagreed with, so they left Kentarre to be picked by another group, where she ended up with Seamus and Neville and one of the Hufflepuff girls. Kentarre was wearing her dragonhide gloves, but when asked why, she wouldn't say; they were working today on repotting one of the smaller plants, a species that Professor Sprout had called Isidets, and small they were. Harry had never seen a plant so small. They each took up only three ounces of soil, and they were in pots that were made of a kind of ceramic, which, said Professor Sprout, was essential, as they were allergic to clay pots. Thus they had been instructed to carefully take the Isidets, which were marked with a blue tag, and place them into another pot that had been similarly marked.
However, as she was telling them this, Professor Sprout said, "Now, before you put them in the new soil, you must place a spell that I will teach you on it. The Isidets are, as you can see, very delicate, and the soil they are put in must have certain protections against normal conditions. Now, the spell is as follows: take your wand and do this-" The professor performed a rather easy-looking motion with her own wand, and then asked the class to try it as well, which most of them did without much difficulty. "This really shouldn't cause you any trouble," she told them, but Neville didn't look so sure. He was asking Hermione to show him again, which she did, slower and with patience. After a while, he seemed to get it, but he looked disappointed, because Herbology was his best subject for the sole reason that there was less wand-waving and potion-making and you-have-to-get-this-exactly-right-or-else.
They all then went to get their ceramic pots from the front of the class and then returned to their areas to begin work. Kentarre kept her gloves on and continually and inexplicably glanced at their previous project, the Carkels, which were blooming bright blue blossoms. She looked more wary than usual, even for her, and Harry occasionally tried to catch her eye, but with no success; she would not look at him.
After class, when they were walking away from the greenhouses, Harry caught up with Kentarre, who had shot out of the room like there was a hippogriff on her tail. "Hey, Kentarre! Wait up!" She did not look at him, but she did slow down so he could catch up. "All right, out with it," Harry told her. "What's up?"
Hermione agreed. "You can't avoid us forever, you know." Kentarre looked at her sharply. "I never tried, for you are right, it would be completely futile. However, I can choose not to tell you anything, which is what I'm going to do until further notice."
"From who?" Ron wanted to know.
She gave him a withering glare, but he would not be so easily thwarted. "I think you know perfectly well from who, Ron Weasley," she said in a voice that had icicles on it. Ron looked defensive, but there was also a trace of shock on his face. He exchanged worried glances with the other two, and Hermione took over the investigation. "No, actually, we don't," she said in a businesslike manner. "Please, enlighten us."
Kentarre's eyes flashed at the bushy-haired brunette, who met them with a cool stare. "Stay out of my business," Kentarre growled. "You may find yourselves biting off more than you're ready to chew." The silver-haired girl picked up her pace, intent on leaving them behind, and Harry called after her, "Now what's that supposed to mean?" but she was gone. Harry heard a snicker from behind him. "Awww, Potter, are you having a fight with your girlfriend?"
Harry turned around, and there was Malfoy, flanked by Crabbe and Goyle, who were chuckling oafishly. Harry asked, "Malfoy, why is it that whenever I even so much as talk to a girl that you think she's my girlfriend?" Malfoy replied with a sneer, "Because it's true. She said so herself." Hermione glared at him. "That's a load of tripe and you know it, Malfoy," she told him, and he looked at her with cool eyes. "So you're saying this because you think you got the job? My, my, Potter, we have been busy, haven't we?"
"Oh, can it, Malfoy. Everyone knows you're all talk. Kentarre proved it."
"All she proved is that she would stoop that low just to get back at me."
"Well, that makes two of you, doesn't it?"
"I'd watch out for her if I were you, Potter. I mean, you should know firsthand that you can't really trust a girl." He paused here to look pointedly at Hermione, whose eyes flashed.
Harry's eyes narrowed. "Why should whatever she's up to concern you, Malfoy? I thought you two were over."
"So you think you're special just because she talks to you? Your head's gotten bigger, Potter. I'd watch out for that if I were you."
Ron started toward Malfoy, apparently having had about enough of the banter. Hermione, however, was ready. She took a hold of the back folds of his robes and pulled--hard. Harry grabbed one of Ron's arms, and together, they managed to restrain him, while Malfoy laughed at all three of them. Ron said through clenched teeth, "You'd better keep a good eye on your back, Malfoy."
"Threats, Weasley? I thought we had done with all that."
"It wasn't a threat, Malfoy, it was a warning."
The oily blond laughed again and walked off with his two cronies following him. Ron slowly relaxed, and Harry and Hermione loosened their grips on him. "He's got something coming to him," Ron growled, and Harry and Hermione exchanged glances. Then the three of them finished their walk towards Hagrid's cabin for Care of Magical Creatures.
Kentarre was nowhere to be seen, which was odd, as class was about to start, but Malfoy, however, was there, making himself useful by talking quietly to a snickering crowd of Slytherins. When Harry, Ron, and Hermione walked up, Malfoy broke through his surroundings and smirked at them. Harry ignored him and the rest of them as best he could while Ron was looking thunderous.
Hagrid emerged from his cabin just as Kentarre appeared seemingly out of nowhere. She joined the class at the rear, but she could not escape for long the searching eyes of both Malfoy and Harry. Malfoy got there first, and the two of them engaged in what seemed to Harry to be a one-way conversation. Malfoy murmured furtively in Kentarre's ear, and Kentarre replied shortly, her annoyance showing all over her face, as if there was a bug that she longed to swat at. Malfoy clearly had figured this out, and continued his torment. Harry couldn't hear a word of what was said, but this exchange seemed to go on for quite a while, and Kentarre's answers became increasingly longer. Finally she caught his eye, held it, and delivered what appeared to be a deadly insult that lasted for a few minutes. After this she moved up towards Hagrid, and Malfoy sulked away.
The lesson today was, of course, their term project: the wraiths. Hagrid proceeded to tell them that their task would be to simply feed and study them. They would then have to write a one-roll parchment on the behavior of the wraiths in a new environment. Hagrid then put them one by one into another crate, which was their signal to start taking notes. Kentarre was looking pensive as she pointed to each of the wraiths as if counting them. She then left the class and went up to Hagrid. "Did another wraith go missing?" she asked him. Hagrid looked up and counted them himself. "Well, bless me, there is one missin'! I hadn' noticed it 'till now! There used teh be eight of 'em, but now there's..." But Kentarre had stopped listening. She was now looking angry, almost as angry as she had looked the previous night in the common room, and her gaze turned to the Forest beyond Hagrid's cabin. However, she apparently decided that whatever it was could wait, because she turned back to the rest of the class, her jaw set like stone, her eyes flinty. She came back over and proceeded to take notes with the rest of them, avoiding Harry's eyes.
After class was break, and Kentarre lingered until all the class had gone. Harry didn't notice her staying, because Neville had gotten bitten by one of the wraiths, and they were all taking him to the hospital wing. Kentarre asked Hagrid, who was heading back up to his cabin, "Did you hear any noise coming from the pen? At any time?" He looked at her for a minute, and then he said, "Well, no, not exac'ly." Kentarre said an abrupt "Thank you" and then went back up to the castle at a rather fast pace. Hagrid shook his head at her as she went, and then continued to his cabin.
Kentarre went up to the library, intent on having an intense study session alone--well, as intense as she could make it within the short break. Today was Tuesday, and she knew that a certain someone visited the library regularly every Tuesday during first break. She had found this out by asking him; now, she was glad she had.
No one molested her on her way, because all of them by now were used to her swift stride and her get-out-of-my-way-or-I'll-run-you-over expression. She made it to the library, only to find that the vulture-like Madam Pince was standing outside its closed doors, looking menacing. Kentarre barely had time to open her mouth to ask when the librarian barked, "The library's closed. Come back next week." Kentarre's eyes flashed, but she held in the orders she had been about to give the woman. Instead, she asked, "Why is the library closed?" The woman leaned closer and said, "Read the sign."
The silver-haired girl looked past Madam Pince and saw a large black-and-white sign on the library's left door. It read 'Library closed due to repairs on the windows.' Kentarre deeply wanted to ask what happened to the windows, but the woman was now eyeing her with nasty expectancy, and she did not want to aggravate Madam Pince any more; the obsessive librarian might not let her in next time if she did. Accordingly, Kentarre started back down the hall the way she had come, but with no more intention of finding Harry than of finding lice in Malfoy's hair. However, the person she did intend to find would be fairly easy to find; he would be in the place he was in when he wasn't in the library or eating.
Kentarre stopped. This thought had never occured to her before. *So he has turned human. I had my doubts, but I'm sure now. He's human. How marvelous.* She then continued her walk down the hall, but before she could reach her destination, the bell rang. She began to curse savagely on her way, having to alter her course towards her next class, going through several languages before exhausting her supply of curses and breath.
She arrived at her next class, which was Charms, still fuming. To Harry, who had been in the class for only a few minutes, she looked livid, almost murderous, but he had not seen her when the bell first rang. Harry and Ron exchanged glances and shrugged at each other. Kentarre took her seat without talking to either of them, and Professor Flitwick started class. They were working on charming pillows to be softer, and there was a bit of a contest involved; whoever had the softest pillow by the end of the class, with Professor Flitwick himself as the judge, would get homework off tonight. They all had groaned, because each and every one of them knew that they didn't stand a chance against Hermione.
Meanwhile, Kentarre's thoughts seethed in her mind, stirring themselves into an angry froth. *That bell just had to ring!* she thought, and cursed again. This was followed by a pause and another string of curses in varying languages. *I will get him alone one of these days, even if I have to wait until Thursday, and then he will have an earful delivered by yours truly!* The girl's pale face turned once again to the window just to her right, and she felt that sense of unfriendly presence coming from it. She attempted to shake it off, and then she went over to the professor's desk to pick up a pillow. The pillows, of course, were rough and lumpy, so it would be easy to tell whose was the softest.
Ron quickly made his statement. "This is all a load of rubbish," he groaned. "When am I ever going to use this charm?" Harry personally agreed with him, but he didn't get a chance to say so, because Hermione piped, "Well, Ron, you never know, do you? I mean, you could be stuck at some nasty roadside inn and have to sleep in a bug-ridden bed with a lumpy, hard pillow, and with this spell, you could make the pillow a lot nicer, and-"
"Hermione," said Ron with a tone of okay-I've-had-enough. "You're babbling." She 'hmmph'ed at him and went back to her pillow. Harry tried not to laugh at the pair of them, when he spotted Neville's pillow. Fortunately, this time he had done no worse than to change its color, but the color it had turned was rather remarkable. It was now a kind of greenish-blue color, but the funny thing was that the color was changing even as Harry watched it. Seamus and Dean had started to laugh appreciatively, and Harry was stifling his giggle. Ron heard him, and asked, "What?" Unable to reply, Harry pointed over in Neville's direction. Ron looked, and his eyes lit up. "Hey, Neville, how'd you do that?"
Neville, at a loss for words, suddenly noticed that someone was talking to him. "W-what?" he stammered. Ron repeated the question, and Neville said, "Well, I just said 'Incadesus Colorium,' and-"
Hermione interrupted him. "Well, that's because it's really Incandesus Fluforium, Neville, not-"
"Cool, let me try it!" Ron raised his wand, and soon his pillow was also shifting rainbow colors. Harry said, "Hey, that's neat." He also performed the spell, and his assignment was soon shimmering away with the other two. Soon the whole class, minus Hermione and Kentarre, the former of which thought they were all being utterly ridiculous and the latter of which didn't care, had produced cushions that rotated through the colors of the rainbow, as if they could not make up their minds which color they wanted to be.
"Neville," said Ron, clapping him on the back, "you've discovered a treasure." Neville's pudgy face cracked into a rare smile, and Harry, grinning openly, went back to enchanting his pillow to being softer.
They were having so much fun that it was not until later that Kentarre caught his eye. She was watching him and his friends make attempts at their pillows with a certain amusement in her eye. Her pillow, he then saw, was on her desk in front of him, still plain. He couldn't imagine why she wasn't working on it, unless she had finished already, which was highly unlikely, because not even Hermione had gotten finished. Harry decided against pointing this out to the others because it wasn't all that important, but his eyes somehow found themselves drifting over in her direction through the whole class period.
However, when class was over, he completely forgot about Kentarre altogether. Professor Flitwick had been so amused by their iridescent pillows that he laughed himself off his chair. It was time for the test.
He instructed everyone to get in a line and give him their pillows one at a time so he could grade them. Harry and Ron got spots in line near the back, but Hermione was the first to go. She cheerily handed the professor her pillow, and he placed it in front of him on the desk. He removed his hat (causing several people in the back to snicker at the absence of hair on the top of his head) and laid his head down on top of it. "Ahhhh," he said contentedly.
After a pause he roused himself and cleared his throat in a dignified manner. "Well, um, yes, I think this deserves a high score…" he said, scribbling on his parchment. Hermione beamed at him and removed the pillow, placing it in the box that they had come from.
The line progressed, growing smaller and smaller. At last it came to Harry's turn, and the professor moved his head around a bit before commenting, "Fair. A bit lumpy, but fair." Harry took it away while his score was being tallied. Ron's results were slightly less than satisfactory, but that was because Seamus had been cracking some of his latest jokes, making Ron laugh and aim his wand a little off-his desk was now varying degrees of hardness, some parts being softer than others.
It was Kentarre's that was the real surprise. The professor placed his head on her pillow-and it almost sank out of sight! He cried out in surprised pleasure, catching several class members' attention. "Yes, you've certainly mastered this one," he mused to himself as he wrote her score down.
As it turned out, Kentarre had had the softest pillow, and the other students got out their quills to write down their assignment, Harry, Ron, and Hermione being no exception. Kentarre simply stared at the scene on the other side of the window, her face expressionless.
Just as everyone was putting their books away, there was a rapping at the window. Kentarre was the only one who didn't jump. There, fluttering to a stop on the sill, was a falcon, Kentarre's falcon Nemesis. She looked at the professor, whose expression of curiosity mirrored those of the rest of the class, and then she opened the window to let the bird in. She undid the message around its foot, nodded gratefully, and then it flew off. Kentarre took one look at the folded message, and then pocketed it.
The bell rang.
There was much talking in the halls as the students were let out to go to their last class. Harry and Ron had gotten into a discussion about their favorite arguing matter, Quidditch, and Hermione was going over the spell they had learned with Neville, who had never quite gotten the knack of it.
Their last class was Transfiguration. Professor McGonagall met them outside the classroom with the same expression that she always did: businesslike and straightforward. Harry and his friends entered, laughing with the rest of the students as they all went to class. Kentarre was already there, and she was sitting with her chin resting on a loosely balled fist, looking pensive.
They all took their places, and class began. Professor McGonagall got up to the front of the class and began the lesson. They were going to attempt to change a whistle into a wombat, and it looked difficult. Neville leaned over and asked Hermione rather louder than he had intended, "What's a wombat look like?" Professor McGonagall looked at him sternly and said, "Longbottom, open your book to page 325, and there you will find a picture of a wombat. The rest of you can get started." Neville miserably got out his book, and Harry went to work on his whistle.
At the end of the hour, Harry had managed to produce a rather greyish-looking wombat who still had a small hole in the nape of his neck. They placed their wombats in cages for grading and then packed their books. Amongst the chatter of the Gryffindors, Kentarre stood by the window, completely oblivious to everything else. Indeed, when the bell rang, she seemed not to notice. Hermione, who had been watching her suspiciously, called to her. She did not look up; a closer examination revealed that she seemed to be lost in thought. Her eyes were far away, and Harry could almost feel the absence of her mind. He approached her and followed her eyes, though he saw nothing but the forest that surrounded the entire castle. However, though it might have been part of his imagination, he did seem to feel a kind of chill coming from the woods.
An equally chilly voice from beside him made him jump. "He's planning something," said Kentarre softly. "We'd better be on the watch. Potter, you're coming with me." She started to walk away, but Harry stopped her. "Wait a minute. Where are we going?" She gave him a sly smile. "Well, you want to know what he's up to, don't you?" She continued towards the door.
Harry followed her, with Ron and Hermione closely in tow, listening. "What who's up to?" he asked insistently. Her jaw visibly tensed, and she didn't answer him. Harry began to lose his temper. "Look, you can keep secrets all you want, but I'd kinda like to know who it is we're spying on. I haven't agreed to even go with you!"
"That's because I'm not giving you a choice, Potter. You're coming."
"Says who? What if I refuse?"
"Well maybe you didn't hear me. I said you're coming, whether you refuse or not."
"Why is it so important that I don't know who it is that we're dealing with? What are you hiding? Why are you keeping this from me?"
"Because you already know."
This startled Harry. It was not the answer he'd expected, not that he'd expected much, and he didn't quite know how to answer that. After a pause, he said, trying not to sound ignorant, "I do?" It didn't work. Kentarre replied shortly, "Yes, you do. His name is-"
The silver-haired girl stopped suddenly, almost causing Hermione to collide with her. Kentarre's black eyes met Harry's bright green ones. For an instant, it seemed to Harry that he saw an eternity staring out at him from those eyes; but it was only for an instant. Her eyes narrowed at him. "I'll talk to you about this later. I'll be in the common room shortly, but there's something I have to do first." With that, she left him standing in the rapidly emptying corridor.
Ron came up behind Harry. "How does she walk so bloody fast?" he breathed. "I could barely keep up!" Harry said nothing, but his eyes told Ron and Hermione that he wasn't going to give up without a fight. He too practically flew off down the hall, his short legs taking big strides to try to catch up. Ron, still panting, exchanged a glance with Hermione, but Hermione shook her head. "No," she said, "I don't think he means for us to follow him."
And Kentarre, whose thoughts remained with the black-haired boy with the scar, wove her way through the castle to her destination. *Potter,* she thought, as if he could hear her, *if we can just get through this, I swear to you, you'll solve more problems and gain more wisdom than is in your fathom. All you have to do is trust me.* She reached the doorway to the place where he should be. He wasn't. She threw open the door way to find an empty Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom. Her brows met in anger. "I'll get you, Learst," she muttered darkly, "if I have to hunt you down myself."
She turned to find Harry right behind her. Her eyes widened, mirroring his. *He followed me!* she thought, at first her thoughts sizzling with anger. Then she calmed. *Well, I guess it's about time I did tell him a thing or two.* Harry was breathing hard, as if he had been running. "Did you hear?" she asked him, and he stared at her for a minute before nodding, as if he was afraid she might be angry. She sighed and told him, "Well, I suppose... go find your friends and then meet me in the common room. And this time, I'm going straight there." Harry noticed that her eyes shimmered oddly, and he wanted to believe her. "All right," he said, and without another word, he walked back down the hall to where he had left Hermione and Ron to tell them what he had heard.
Kentarre had known that he would. It's what friends do. She sighed again, this time the sigh containing volumes of relief and a hint of pity for the boy who had just turned the corner. He had to do all of this with one eye blinded. Kentarre knew that if she had had to do this in his shoes, she would've either gone mad or killed somebody. Or both.
Then Kentarre, true to her word, headed for the common room of the Gryffindors.
Harry found Ron and Hermione where he had left them. They didn't notice him walk up, for they were both staring down another hall. Harry came up behind Ron and followed their eyes to the person down the hall. It was a man who had his back turned to them; he was dressed in Hogwarts teacher's robes, and he looked very busy. Harry determined that the teacher was Professor Jycein. "What's up?" he whispered to Ron, who jumped out of his skin. After recovering, he told Harry that Jycein had arrived there out of a side corridor and had been standing there for some time, just fumbling with something; he hadn't even looked at them. Harry's brow furrowed, wondering what the man could be doing, and then suddenly Jycein stuffed whatever it was that he had been handling into his robes and rushed away down the hall--in the opposite direction. Hermione started after him without a word, but Harry laid a hand on her shoulder. "Wait," he muttered, "we're supposed to meet Kentarre in the common room."
"I want to know what he's up to!" Hermione pulled out from under Harry's grasp and continued down the hall towards wherever Jycein was going. Harry and Ron looked at each other and shrugged. Ron began to follow, and Harry, after one glance down the hall that went to the common room, did the same.
They tracked him through the corridors until he led all three of them to a hidden place behind one of the tapestries that Harry was almost sure just the day before had been a solid wall. However, Hermione led the way, and she decided to follow Jycein all the way. Harry stopped her, saying, "Wait. What if he's just leading us on? What if it's a trap? He probably knows we've been following him." Ron thought about this and then said sardonically, "Yeah. I mean, he could have a whole army behind this tapestry that we never knew about. Come on." Ron moved forward and held open the tapestry for the other two, letting it swish back in place after him.
The tapestry entrance led to a dark hallway that had fewer torches than the open corridors in Hogwarts. There were no windows, and the place was made entirely of cold stone. There were voices coming from up ahead, and the three of them looked at each other before deciding to go on.
The hall didn't go far before it came out into a small, square room with a small, square window that let in a bit of odd, greenish light. Harry, who had decided to go first, peeked around the corner and saw that the room was much like the hall attached to it; bare, cold, and stone in its entirety. Professor Jycein stood facing the window; Harry could hear him mumbling something, and then a cold, expressionless voice answered him. Harry couldn't mistake the voice; he had heard it in his dreams as well as in person. It was Voldemort.
Ron nudged him from behind. "What's happening?" he hissed, and Harry relayed what was going on. Hermione went pale when she heard who Jycein was talking to, and Ron's eyes looked odd. Then Harry went back to listening, and the conversation became clearer as he listened.
"You know that we can't have her finding our little temporary base. Do whatever you need to, but don't let her find us!" Voldemort was saying, his voice rising a little and sending a chill down Harry's spine.
"Very good, Master. I will make sure that she does not interfere."
"I also called you because there is a matter that concerns me. I have reason to believe that she has called in help from outside." Harry then knew that Voldemort was talking about Kentarre. "Lucius tells me that he has had words with you. You were supposed to do away with her before then. Why could you not do this simple thing?"
"My Lord, it is not as easy as you make it sound. She is strong and she is smart. I have tried to best her in battle, but I failed. Zorensei is just too powerful! I cannot overtake her." At this, Harry started. *Was he talking about Kentarre or Zorensei?* he began, but then his mind finished the thought for him. *They're the same person. I thought so for a while, but I never was sure.*
"Hmmm. Perhaps I have set my expectations of my servant too high. Perhaps he would like me to let someone else handle the job that I have set before him, since he cannot complete it himself."
"But, my Lord, she--"
"You will not fail again! If you do, I shall personally feed your hide to the wraiths that our pet is so fond of. That is, if there is any left of you after Zorensei is done with you." The voice laughed, a familiar laugh that had no real mirth at all, no emotion. The hairs on the nape of Harry's neck stood.
"Now, on the matter of the Potter boy--" Harry's ears perked, and Hermione, who was right next to him, gasped. "He must not be allowed to leave. We will get him--with or without Zorensei. It matters not. But not now. We do not want to alert Dumbledore."
"Very good, my Lord. I will do as you have commanded."
This sounded like the end of the conversation to Harry. He looked at the other two; Hermione looked as if she had been Petrified, and Ron's face betrayed serious calculation. Harry nodded his head towards the hall, when there was a stirring from within the room. Jycein had ended the connection with Voldemort, and he was preparing to leave.
The three of them went as quickly and as quietly as they could back down the hall, not looking back for fear of finding Jycein right behind them.
They didn't stop until they had reached the entrance to the common room. Ron stopped for breath, leaning against the wall. Hermione was also panting, and Harry's heart was pounding to jump out of his throat. Ron said after a pause, "Well, should we go in?" Harry still couldn't breathe, so he nodded. Hermione gave the password and they went in.
It was dark; someone had put out the fire. The sun outside the window had gone down, though Harry hadn't realized just how much time had passed since they had gotten out of class until now. There were shadows everywhere, and Hermione was about to light her wand when Harry said aloud, "Hello?"
A familiar voice from the darkest shadow said, "You're late, Potter." A girl stepped out of the shadow by the window: a girl dressed in a blue sleeveless shirt covered in black lace and the same color blue jeans with black flame erupting from the hem. Her long white hair went down past her thighs, and the blue streaks across her face, great stripes under her eyes and in an intricate design skirting her forehead, seemed iridescent in the light of dusk. Her silvery eyes went from Harry, to Hermione, and then to Ron, whose mouth was open. One end of Harry's lips curled upward. "We got caught up, Kentarre," he said. She smiled. Ron said, "Hold on! You mean that this is--?" Harry nodded. "And she's also--?" Another nod. Hermione's eyes looked distrustful, but Ron asked Harry, "How long have you known this without telling us?"
Harry looked uncomfortable. "Well, I wasn't sure, and Hermione already thought that she could be, so I didn't want to..." he stammered, but Zorensei held up a hand. She said gently, "Please, let me explain. I think I have a better view of what's going on than any of you. My name is Zorensei." But she never got to finish, because Ron interrupted, "Wait, you said her name was Kentarre." She smiled and shook her head. "Perhaps I'm going too fast. In the form that you know me, I am Kentarre. However, when I change into this form, my name becomes Zorensei. I change form, so my name changes as well." Ron nodded slowly, and she continued.
"I'm here to fight a battle that has been a long time waiting. You know my opponent, I believe; his name is Voldemort." Harry saw Ron wince out of the corner of his eye, and he was reminded of his friend's dislike of hearing the name spoken. Even Hermione looked uncomfortable. Harry looked back to Zorensei. "Go on."
She nodded. "The reason I did not come before was because--" It was Hermione's turn to interrupt. "Wait a minute," she said, "why don't you start from the beginning?" Zorensei considered this, and then nodded. "Very well," she agreed, "but why don't you tell me how much you know of me, and then I'll fill in whatever gaps there are?" Hermione said, "Well, we followed you into the forest that night that you and Harry went off to fight whoever it was, and we saw you talking with a group of people dressed in funny clothes and speaking in a different language. We couldn't understand what you were saying, but--"
"I could," said Harry suddenly. Hermione looked at him. "When were you planning to tell us?" she demanded, and Harry said, "Well, I didn't want to tell you because I couldn't quite explain how it happened, and..." He then proceeded to tell them all that he had understood, but when he got to the part where Kentarre had been instructing them, he stopped, searching for a word. Zorensei watched his struggle, and she supplied, "I told them to kiese and stay that way. Kiese means to return to your original state; in my case, if I were to kiese, I would go back to being Kentarre. Does that make sense?" Hermione nodded, but Ron scratched his head for a while before he seemed to get it. Zorensei then looked back to Harry, who was watching her with uncertainty. "You understood what it was we were saying?" Harry nodded, and he saw something flash in Zorensei's eyes that looked something akin to triumph, and then it was gone. She continued, "I suppose, then, that I don't have to tell you that those people out there are my warriors. They serve me, along with the rest of the world that I live in. You see, I am what we call a Kelohr, the ruler, sort of. You see this?" she held up her left hand so they could see the three blue rings, which were throwing their bluish tinge on everything around them. "These blue rings are what make me a Kelohr. I was born with three; my warriors were all born with two. A normal Kelohran is born with one and eventually develops two when they reach the age of 100." Here she paused to let this sink in, and Hermione, seemingly on a whim, asked, "How old are you, then?" Zorensei smiled and answered, "You wouldn't believe me even if I told you." Harry pointed out, "Well, all of this is rather hard to believe, so why don't you try us?"
She smiled and gave a small, quiet laugh. "I suppose you're right," she conceded, "so I'll try you. I'm 3,845 years old and going." At this point Ron's mouth fell open again, and Hermione raised her eyebrows. Harry found this immensely hard to believe, but the proof of it was looking at him with concern in her eyes. "Am I going too fast?" she asked them, and they all exchanged glances before Harry said, "How do we know that you're not a different person altogether and that you're just pulling our legs?"
She gave him a grave look. "You want more proof?" she asked him, and he nodded. She also nodded, and then she stood. "Very well." She raised her left hand over her head and whispered one word. There was a flash of blue light, but not so blinding to make one look away. Harry saw her long tresses darken and dissipate and her clothes morph until Kentarre was standing before him, looking at him with black eyes instead of silver. She tried to resist smiling as she said, "Is that proof enough for you, Potter?" He could say nothing at the moment, not being able to do anything more than stare. "How is this possible?" he asked after a long minute, and she sat down again. "Well, my friend, that would be a truly long story. I have to get on to why I'm here." Her tone became sterner. "I told you that I have also had troubles with Voldemort, although my troubles with him started long before he was even called this. You see, he used to be one of my warriors himself, long before you were even thought of, long before these walls were ever built. He was fascinated with humans, he always had been, and then finally it became too much. He wanted to become one of you. Now, all of my warriors were given weapons, the weapons they were destined to carry since before they were born. His was special to him, and its powers were also essential to his transformation. He used it to turn himself into a human, and then he went to Earth.
"Now, since Kelohrans already have magic powers, when we turn human, we gain human magic powers. Therefore, he was turned into a wizard. When he came to Earth, he had to be born as a human, because now that his soul was human, he needed a body, and you and I both know that humans don't just come out of thin air. So he started life as Tom Riddle, and I believe you know the rest."
Hermione held up a hand. "So if you could've defeated him all this time, why didn't you?"
"Well, because I saw that the Potter boy would soon have interventions with Kaeru--which is what we called him when he was with us--and I didn't want to upset that. I saw that he was getting stronger, and that Harry here would soon put a stop to that. I wanted to see if the boy really could kill him without my help first."
Ron suddenly said, "Harry's nearly got himself killed a dozen times, and you could've put an end to that the whole time, your reason not to being that you 'wanted to see if he could kill him without your help'! What kind of a reason is that? Harry could've died!"
"Oh, no he couldn't have," she said with a mysterious smile. "Why not?" Ron demanded, sounding more and more sure that what Kentarre was telling them was complete balogna. "Because I have been watching him, and I believe he fits the bill." At this point she got up and went to the window. "You see," she continued, "there is a prophecy where I come from, a rather old prophecy that says that one day there will be a boy who will come and will save both Earth and my world from a destruction led by one man, and he will be called Dzione, or He Who Will Rise to Conquer Darkness. I think that that boy is you, Harry." She did not look at him.
"What makes you think that?" asked Harry.
"Well, for one thing, I know that if Voldemort succeeds in taking over Earth, he will soon be after my world as well. That makes him the man in the prophecy who will attempt to kill us all, Kelohran and human alike. Furthermore, you, Harry, have had dealings with him before, and you and I both know that you have been singled out before because of your scar and because you know him better than anyone--excluding myself and Dumbledore, that is. Thirdly, and my most recent discovery about you, you understood that conversation in the woods, did you not?"
Harry shrugged, not seeing the significance.
"We were speaking in the language of my people. You would only have understood it if you were destined to use it. That is the way with our language, and it is one of the reasons it is so safe to use it on Earth."
Hermione was still having trouble believing this. "So, let's just say for the sake of argument that Harry is this person. He would have to take on Voldemort and beat him all by himself? There's just no way!"
"Not by himself, apparently. With such loyal friends, I don't think he could go into battle without you two even if he tried.
"However, you needn't worry. I will be there with him, because there is something else to the prophecy that you need to know about. It has become apparent that a wizard alone cannot beat him, and I cannot do it myself, either."
"Why not?"
"Well, it's a little complicated, but if I have this figured right, the only way to beat him would be to combine my powers and those of a wizard."
"But you just said that the boy—Dzione—would fight him alone."
"He will."
"But you just said—"
"You weren't listening. I said that my powers and the powers of a wizard would be combined. I also said that there was only one person for the job. As to that, there is an ancient Kelohran spell that will enable a Kelohran to forfeit his powers to another person for an indefinite amount of time. Think about it."
"So… you would have to transfer your powers to Harry? Is that it?"
"If Harry is indeed Dzione, which I believe very strongly that he is."
Kentarre let this sink in a bit; the silence absorbed all of what she had said like a sponge in water. She knew, though, that they had been listening. Ron was shaking his head incredulously; his facial expression said 'How did we get ourselves into this mess?'. Harry stared at Kentarre, not really seeing her, wondering almost the same thing. All of his questions had been answered; now all that was left to do was believe. He was struggling with something inside of him that said that all of this was impossible. Yet, there was something else, something deeper that told him that it was real, all of this was true and that he would have to fight for everything, for this castle, for the two people sitting in front of him and all the rest of the people at Hogwarts. And he knew that it was more than that. He would be fighting for the safety of the rest of the world. He had never thought about it that way before. It was almost more than he could handle.
*I can't do this!* his logic screamed at him. *Why can't I keep from getting involved? Why is this happening to me?* He let this run through his head for a while,and then he looked at Kentarre. "This is serious, isn't it?" he asked, her, realizing how dumb this sounded. "I mean, this is real, right? This isn't just something you made up to scare us, right?" Kentarre shook her head. "No, it's real. Everything I've told you is true. You do believe me, don't you?" Her midnight eyes were searching, almost pleading. Harry mouthed soundlessly like a fish out of water for a moment, lost for words that seemed appropriate. "Well," he floundered, "I, well, that is, um, I... I suppose... I'm trying to..." She simply looked at him, letting him find his feet. He finally said, after a pause, "I think I do. It will take some doing, but I think I could believe you." Hermione looked at him wordlessly, her expression clearly telling him that she was not ready to vouch so easily. Ron still looked undecided for himself, but he looked at Harry gratefully, as if glad that Harry had made the decision for him.
Kentarre smiled at them and then turned back to the window. "Oh, and there's something else you should know... I almost forgot. You've probably figured this out already, but the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, called Jycein, is really Learst in disguise."
Yeah, I know, I know, not much of a cliffhanger because you knew that already! ;-) But that's okay, this chapter had to end somewhere!