Chapter 12: Second Impressions
The next few days were a blur for Harry. Kentarre acted and spoke the same way, but she didn't look the same as when he had first met her. For one thing, he now noticed that her skin was paler than anyone else's, and her face was shaped strangely. Everything that set her apart from the rest of the students now waved itself at him like a red flag against a blue sky.
As for the matter that she had spoken to him about, he still remained undecided, though every time Kentarre came within his vision he was reminded of it. She entered his thoughts as well, plaguing him with little rest. His dreams, however, seemed to point him in the direction that he would choose, as if foretelling what he would decide; he dreamt of battle always, of a battle with a boy with auburn hair and golden eyes dressed in black and silver and a man whose skin was green and whose eyes were a burning red. And always there was the familiar figure of Kentarre, standing off to the side somewhere, watching the boy with similar passion on her face to the expression on his.
And then there were Ron and Hermione; Hermione would only discuss it when Kentarre wasn't around, and Ron seemed to be waiting for Harry to decide. When they did discuss it, Hermione held that Harry shouldn't have to do this, that Kentarre could pick someone else for it and be no worse off. Ron, having not made up his mind yet, agreed with just about any point that was brought up. However, when he was asked for his own opinion, he fell silent, mumbling, "Harry should make his own decision." Hermione thought he shouldn't be hasty, that he could take his time, but Harry didn't want to linger too long for fear of going mad with each sighting of the silver headed girl that he had--almost--come to call his friend. She never asked him about it, but she was always there, watching his struggle, waiting, though however discreetly. She didn't talk to anyone much anymore, except when spoken to, and even then her answers were blunted, as though her mind were constantly elsewhere. She spent a lot of time just standing at windows, watching the forest in solitude, her arms folded and her face clearly stating that she was having deep thoughts without revealing what those thoughts were.
As for Kentarre, well, she would be glad wh en her waiting for him to decide was over. Many times her mind screamed at her, *This is stupid! Make him decide now!* But she never did. She couldn't bring herself to force him to make the decision; in fact, she couldn't even pluck up enough to ask him what he had chosen to do, if he had chosen anything. Kentarre kept telling herself, *When he chooses, he will tell me, and I will know. Until then there is nothing I can do, or should do. He has learned all he can from me. This battle he must fight alone.*
* * *
"Well, the only way we'll ever know is if someone can manage to ask him!" Ron pointed out. Hermione replied, "Well, why don't you do it, then, since it was your brilliant idea to come here in the first place!" The two of them came to a halt as Ron sighed in absolute frustration. Harry had told them that he would be walking near the lake. Kentarre, it seemed, was nowhere to be found, and none of them too eager to find her. Ron and Hermione had made it outside, bickering all the way. The lake's frozen gray surface stood out against the snow, and Harry could be seen next to it, standing and staring. Ron and Hermione were just approaching him when a figure emerged from farther off to the right, near the castle wall. It was Kentarre, and she was going to get there first.
"Don't think too hard, Potter," she said with a trace of a laugh. He looked at her over his shoulder and gave her a weak smile. She came up behind him and stood with her long, graceful fingers interlaced at her middle. "If it's any help, Potter, I must say that this is not quite as hopeless as it seems," she began, but Harry cut in. "How?" he asked, his voice desperate. "How is it not as hopeless as it seems? The fate of the planet is in my hands and you say it's not as hopeless as it seems?" She held up a hand. "Let me finish," she told him calmly. "I will not abandon you when the time for battle comes. You will need my help, and I shall give it. Also, you must know that Hermione and Ron intend to march into battle with you, however wise or not that may be. You are not alone, Potter. You are far from alone." There she fell silent, and Harry, not in the mood for much speaking, especially to the person he had been avoiding for a while now, remained silent.
The sun was just rising over the opposite side of the lake, and Kentarre lifted her face to its reddish light. A light breeze blew her bangs from her face, and when she looked over, she saw that Harry's forehead was similarly bared. His lightning-shaped scar darted in and out of sight behind trembling tendrils of hair. The rest of his face, specifically his eyes, looked worn, tired. "You haven't been sleeping well," she told him skeptically. "I know--when you don't sleep, I don't sleep. Your thoughts keep me up." Harry looked at her sharply. "You can hear my thoughts? Can you hear them now?" She shook her head. "No. It's only when you're thinking is louder than everyone else's thinking that I can hear you. See, the way it works is when everybody's thinking at once, all of them combined sound like a lot of soft buzzing, but when they're all silenced, and one person starts thinking again, I can hear that person in particular because they're the only one thinking at the time. Does that make sense?"
Harry, his head spinning from lack of sleep and the explanation he had just been delivered, nodded slowly. She looked away and added, "Not to mention that my thoughts have been following you wherever you go, whether I can hear you or no."
His eyes sought out hers, but they were not looking at him; rather, they seemed far away again, the look that had come into them noticeably often over the past few days. He saw that her face also looked tired, probably almost as bad as his, and he wondered why she stayed up with him.
Suddenly there came a bird cry from up above; a falcon's screech. Kentarre looked up and held out her arm for Nemesis to land on. Harry had seen falconers on television before, and he noticed that they always wore gloves when the falcons were perched on their arms, but Kentarre didn't have one. He dismissed this thought when Kentarre pulled a letter off of the falcon's foot and allowed him to fly away. She untied it and began to read it aloud, her face very grave. "My Liege," she began, "We have found the hideout of which you told us in your letter and we wait for instruction. It is approximately two leagues from the castle, a short distance from our meeting place, but we have visited it only once, for fear of being discovered dare we venture there again. Your eternal servant, Nazo." She looked up and turned around to find Ron and Hermione right behind Harry, their faces warily watching hers. She smiled and folded the letter, placing it in her pocket. "Guess it's time we were on the move, then," she said cheerfully, and then she started back up toward the castle, whistling. Ron watched her incredulously. "What's gotten into her?" he asked, confused. "What's so bloody good about that?" Harry shrugged, but in his mind that he knew very well what had gotten into Kentarre. If he was correct, the letter had just said that Kentarre had told those people about the place in his dream, and they had found it. Now Kentarre was going to go there and check it out, and that's what she was happy about. He watched her slender, retreating figure with a kind of wonder on his face. Then he sighed, and Hermione asked him what was wrong.
Harry looked at her suddenly, as if it was the first time he had seen her in a long time, and he said, "It's nothing." But his eyes didn't quite stick with that.
The three of them went back up to the castle. Since it was Saturday today, there would still be time before the rest of the castle was up. Kentarre had apparently gone off somewhere else to think, and the three of them had no desire to see her again so soon, so they went off to the Great Hall for breakfast.
Kentarre, however, had not gone off somewhere else to think. She had started straight for Dumbledore's office, and now she stood right outside it. She gave the password, but the gargoyle remained stiff and quite dead- looking. She growled. Dumbledore had apparently changed the password. Reaching her gloved left hand up, she touched the gargoyle's horned forehead with two bare fingers. After a pause, the gargoyle's eyes lit up and he stepped aside. "I-I didn't know it was you, ma'am," he apologized. "I'm very very sorry. It won't happen again, I promise--"
"It's all right, just step aside," she told it, and as she walked past him, it straightened as best it could and said, "Yes, ma'am."
Dumbledore's office door looked different, somehow. She felt the symbol on her left hand tingling, and she immediately knew that some kind of Kelohra was at work here. She put her right hand on the doorknob, intending to go right on in, but she received a shock--literally. Once she touched the brass knob, a wave of sharp pain flew up her arm. She cried out and let go, a string of vehement curses escaping her lips. It took a few moments for the pain to subside, dulling into nothing, and Kentarre looked for some way to get around the door and into the office. She then heard a kind of mumbling from inside the room, and there came following a cry of pain that sounded like Dumbledore! She didn't want to shout, for fear of letting whoever it was inside know she was out here, but as she was thinking fast, a cruel laugh came from inside. "It's a new feeling, isn't it, Dumbledore?" said a cold voice that Kentarre knew only too well. "That feeling of subordinacy that you forced upon me from the minute you declared yourself my enemy! Do you like your new position? You'll die in it!"
Kentarre could stand it no longer. *Kaeru's got Dumbledore!* her mind screamed at her. *I've got to do something!!* Her reason shouted back, *But there's no way for me to get in there!* Then an idea came to her. *I'll get in the same way that he got in!*
The silver headed girl, eyes ablaze, then rushed down the moving stairs, taking them three at a time. She got to the closest classroom and went in, emanating blue light as she went. When she got in, she was Zorensei, and there was no time to lose. Now that Kaeru could sense her, she had to be fast. She didn't stop running as she went to the window and dove straight through the glass, flying upward to avoid the shards. She found the window that belonged to Dumbledore's office in no time--it was the one that poured green light--and she flew right up to it, throwing caution to the winds.
She expected to see Kaeru standing over a cowering Dumbledore; she expected to hear sounds of pain muffled by the half-inch of glass between them; she didn't, however, expect to see the light coming from Dumbledore himself or to feel the pain herself. The lightning blue rings on her left hand burned as they never had, and she felt as though her very blood were churning and frothing inside her. All in all, it was quite unpleasant, and Zorensei very nearly fell out of the air. However, years and years of hard training had paid off. She managed to keep afloat, hovering there and watching Dumbledore watching her. Finally she gathered the strength to fling open the window with her right hand and throw herself into the room. The pain, if anything, intensified as she entered, but one thought echoed in her mind- -*I must save Dumbledore!* For she could tell that this was not Dumbledore's doing alone. This was surely Kaeru's interference, though how he had done it she couldn't guess.
Dumbledore slowly approached her, making the pain rise in a horrific crescendo. Panting, she did the only thing that she knew would work-- physically overpower the old man. Indeed, just as he grabbed for her throat, she wrestled with his arms, pushing them away from herself and pinning them at his sides. He, with surprising agility, sidekicked her legs out from under her, but she had already begun the work. When he went to throw her back out the window, she released the magic, putting nearly everything she had into dispersing Kaeru's treachery.
It worked, but not soon enough. Now Kentarre, she was too weak from the pain and the effort, and could not bring herself to stop her fall. She plummeted towards the lawn, bracing herself for the contact--that never came. She miraculously slowed and hovered just feet above the ground. Looking over her shoulder, she saw that it was not quite miraculous; Dumbledore's torso hung out of his window, his wand arm extended towards her with his wand clenched in his fingers. She reached out and touched the ground on her hands and knees, and she felt the magic lift off of her gently. Her arms trembled for a bit, and then she collapsed panting on the grass.
Just moments later she heard incoming impacts on the ground, and she looked up and saw Dumbledore approaching her at a swift pace. She tried to get up, but all she could manage was to lift her head.
Dumbledore bent and began to help her to her feet, his face the picture of concern. She waved him off and went the rest of the way, gradually working her exhausted body into what resembled an upright position. She winced a few times as she kinked a few places that were still tender from the extremity of the pain she had felt. Wordlessly, the old man held out his arm for Kentarre to hold onto, and she looked at it for a minute before grudgingly taking it.
Once inside the front doors, Kentarre realized that they would not get to Dumbledore's office without being seen. There were all manner of students milling around inside the Entrance Hall, and the two of them had attracted the attention of all. Several people stared at Kentarre, whose robes were tattered and ripped and whose face was an image of complete exhaustion. She ignored them all with as much dignity as she could muster, and Dumbledore--well, Dumbledore was used to being stared at. Harry, Ron, and Hermione, who had been talking nearby, now began following the pair of them in silence.
It seemed to take an eternity to reach an empty hall, but when they did, Kentarre murmured softly, "To your office, Dumbledore. I'm not going to that hospital wing of yours." The headmaster nodded, apparently thinking this prudent.
When they arrived in Dumbledore's office at last, Kentarre eased herself into a chair and sighed. Dumbledore took the seat behind his desk, and the other three stood a few feet behind Kentarre. Once she caught her breath, Kentarre began to speak. "Kaeru... he's the one behind this, I know it. And if he got Dumbledore, there's no way that any of the rest of you are safe. And I can't protect you."
Dumbledore smiled. "Well, Kentarre, that certainly wasn't the beginning. Perhaps you should start over. Who is Kaeru?" She nodded. "Kaeru is the one you call Voldemort. You see--no, there's too much. Kaeru used to b e one of our number, a--what's the word for it?--Celestial Warrior, as you would say it in your language. Well, needless to say, he was fascinated with Earth and wanted to become human himself. He used the weapon I had given him when he joined us to change himself into a human and then went to Earth. However, because he had to turn himself into a human using the weapon, he couldn't take it with him because only Kelohran hands can take it off my world. He, while on Earth, learned magic and placed all manner of spells on himself, attempting to make himself immortal, thus making himself better than Kelohrans and humans. He became what he is today, the one you call Lord Voldemort." She paused here and then continued. "I don't know how we're ever going to withstand him now that he--" Here she stopped, and Dumbledore gave her a swift, calculating look. "Continue," he prompted, but she appeared not to have heard him.
Kentarre was staring at her gloved left hand. Harry couldn't see the expression on her face, so he moved toward her. Her black eyes were wide and her jaw was tense. He asked, "What's wrong?" She looked up at him. "Now that he's got the one thing that could stand against me," she finished in a quiet voice. Harry was nonplussed, and he was sure his face showed it. "He's got his weapon back," she said self-scoldingly. "He's got the one thing that could stop me from killing him in his pocket--and I know exactly how he got it," she continued, her tone getting angry. Apparently Dumbledore sensed this and said sharply, "Calm yourself, Kentarre. Even if you were strong enough to kill him now, I wouldn't allow it. Not in Hogwarts. Not now."
At this Kentarre looked almost sulky, and she grumbled, "All right. I'll watch my step. But if he doesn't stay out of my way, I'll kill him. End of discussion." Dumbledore gave her that piercing stare that he usually reserved for Harry, and then he nodded slowly. "I suppose that you should be the one to bring justice to him," said the headmaster, though his eyes were sad. "However," he continued, "I do request that you do this without the sight of other students. They do not need to be subject to that, and though they do not know who you are, their innocence remains." Kentarre nodded. "Fair enough."
Harry hadn't been listening much, since he already knew this, but now that there was a break, he cut in. "All right," he said, "now that all that's cleared up, let's move on to more recent happenings. Why was Kentarre lying on the grass and how did she get there?" Dumbledore said with a wry smile in Kentarre's direction, "I think she can answer that. It just wouldn't sound right, coming from me." Kentarre shot him a playful glare before meeting Harry's questioning gaze with a cool one of her own. "Kaeru got a hold of his weapon, and apparently he's been getting bolder. He used it on Dumbledore, and it worked quite marvelously. You see, Kaeru's weapon's sole purpose is change--be it change from cold to hot, poor to rich, or good to evil."
Kentarre then proceeded to tell them everything that had happened after she found that she couldn't get into Dumbledore's office, skipping lightly over her descriptions of the pain she had felt. When she finished, there was that silence that often followed the clarification of events. Dumbledore asked Harry, "Does that quench your curiosity?" When Harry nodded, he continued, "Then I'd appreciate it if you'd leave now. Kentarre and I have things to discuss."
Hermione and Ron had already begun heading for the door, and now Harry followed them. The green-eyed boy had a sinking feeling that he'd only been given the shortened version of the facts, that there were still gaps in the great story behind the mysterious girl called Kentarre by some, Zorensei by others.
Harry did not see Kentarre again that day, except when he returned to the common room later that evening; she was standing by the window, fingering the silken ropes that strung her black drawstring bag that held her pipes. Indeed, when he went up to bed, she had not moved, but she had taken the pipes out. When Harry left, there were about seven people, including Kentarre, left, but as he went up the stairs, he heard the pipes' playing singing up at him. This surprised him. *Kentarre's never played for anyone but us,* he thought. *Well, or at least I've never heard her play for anyone else. But maybe she has when we're not around.* He went a little ways back down the stairs and sat down to listen. It was the same melody that he had heard Zorensei singing down on the snowy Hogwarts grounds.
Suddenly, something went through Harry's head that he would never see again, nor be able to explain. He saw a very large house, a manor, made entirely of stone and set in the side of a forested mountain. Then, as if he were flying closer from above, he saw a girl sitting on the roof near a turret. The girl looked familiar, though she was dressed in a kind of ceremonial ecclesiastical robe, with many overpieces and sashes and cords. Yet, it was Kentarre, and her face was uplifted, though he knew she could not see him, and she was singing softly to herself. Her lips moved, though Harry heard no sound, and the song that Kentarre now played on her pipes corresponded with the Kentarre on the roof's mouthings.
Then Harry was left staring at Kentarre, sitting on the steps that went to the boys' dormitory. She sat there, blowing softly on her pipes as the song finished. When she lifted them finally from her lips, she locked eyes with Harry and held them; the expression in her eyes was peaceful, and Harry immediately knew, though he couldn't tell how, that she knew all that he had seen. Suddenly, Harry had no more need for debate; he knew what he would do. Something told him that he had just seen the world that Kentarre came from, and that Kentarre very much wanted that world to stay the same. Some remote corner of Harry's consciousness still protested, *But why should you help her? She's done nothing but lie to you all year.* And Harry countered, *I know, but she's not so different from us, and there are other people who live on her world besides her. She needs my help, and who am I to refuse? Besides, Voldemort's coming whether I decide to fight him or not, and he'll come after me, so I'll end up coming against him anyway. What choice have I got?*
With this last, Harry broke the connection between his green eyes and the pair of black ones, which watched him still, and he resolutely went the rest of the way up the stairs to bed, feeling that a great burden had passed to him from the girl that had only seconds before told him more than he had heard since he met her.
* * *
Kentarre's eyes told him that she knew this already. Harry wasn't sure what he expected her reaction to be, but this would do, he guessed. It certainly seemed to suit Kentarre, for she looked at him with calm, steady eyes in an expression that said the-world's-end-couldn't-shake-me. Kentarre, after a pause, nodded. "Very well, Potter. Meet me by the front doors tomorrow morning at four thirty, and we'll talk." Hermione raised an eyebrow. "Well, surely you'll do more than talk, if it has to be four thirty in the morning. No conversation takes that long." Kentarre smiled that mysterious smile at her. "Very good, Hermione. Yes, we'll do more than talk, but you'll have to be on time to find out what else." She smiled sweetly and walked away, and Harry groaned. "Four thirty! And when exactly do I get time to sleep?" Hermione smiled. "Well, you'll just have to go to bed early, won't you?" she told them, and Ron and Harry looked at each other doubtfully. Ron asked him, "You plan to go alone, do you? Well, I can tell you, I don't fancy getting up before dawn, so I'll give you that luxury--just this once." There was a pause, and then the red- headed boy added, "It's only because my curiosity isn't all that strong so early in the morning!"
Harry then told him, for almost no reason at all that he could tell, "No, I think she means me to be there by myself. That something else that's going to happen is just for me, I think." Hermione and Ron gave him odd looks, but Harry couldn't very well explain what he had just said anymore than he could read Kentarre's mind, so he just let it lie.
That night, Harry did say that he was going to turn in early, but what he really wanted was some time alone to think, so he got into his pajamas and sat by the window doing just that. He was just getting into the thinking part when a tap on the window woke him from his reverie. It was Kentarre-- or rather, Zorensei, and she was floating near the window, looking in at him. He made no move to let her in, but instead looked away from the window. A flash of blue light from the window caught his eye, and when he looked back, he saw that the window was open and Kentarre was now inside, sitting across from him on the long windowseat. She looked at him for a moment, and he grew uncomfortable and looked away. "You're trying not to be angry with me," she said after a pause, and he looked back up and met her eyes. "What makes you think that?" he asked her, trying not to look guilty.
She smiled at him. "Your eyes told me. Besides, why else would you avoid me like this?" Harry thought about this, and realized that he hadn't really thought about being angry with her, but rather it was natural. He said after a moment, "Well, I guess it's because this is all new to me, and I haven't really gotten used to the fact that the fate of the world now rests on my shoulders..." His voice took on a tone of self-mocking, and Kentarre said sharply, "No, it doesn't, Harry." Harry locked eyes with her. It was the first time that he could remember her calling him by his first name.
"It doesn't because there are certain steps you have to take first, and I have to be there with you. You aren't alone. We'll do this together. I promise. However, I can't promise that nothing will go wrong; no plan is entirely foolproof, not even Voldemort's. You know, he thinks he's ready to attack the castle. He seems to have gathered a bit of an army, and he thinks they're strong enough to take us out. I must admit, they're very strong and very clever, but we have a weapon that not even they can beat-- trust. They can't beat it because they don't use it. My point is this, boy: no matter what happens, you are never the only one left."
Harry then remembered something. "Kentarre," he began, "you said something in Dumbledore's office that day, when you got hurt. You said that even Dumbledore couldn't withstand Voldemort, that none of us were safe anymore, and that you couldn't protect us. What did you mean?" Kentarre took a deep breath and said slowly, "Harry, what I meant was that Kaeru could use his weapon against any of us and I couldn't get near you while you were under his influence and that I could never know which one of you he would use it on next. I may be very old and very smart, but I'm not a genius, I'm not a miracle worker and I'm not a mind-reader. I can't make all of this go away. If I could, I wouldn't be here, and there would be such a thing as world peace." Kentarre paused then, and her eyes wandered to the window, to the moon floating just above the trees of the Forbidden Forest. There was something in her eyes that Harry couldn't read and couldn't describe, but it seemed to come from deep within her, a part of her that Harry didn't even know existed. It also seemed to him that this something came from the same part of her that the vision of her home that she had sent him had come, and though he couldn't read it, he knew that Kentarre was happy with it, which gave him another reason to go with her through the battle. She wanted to keep that something, and he couldn't even describe it, much less bring himself to take it away from her.
Kentarre looked up at him and broke the silence. "You've been thinking a lot, haven't you? I'm sorry that I had to put you through all of this in such a sloppy manner, but we had to get through this, you understand. Battle is brewing in Voldemort's eyes, and when he decides to come, none will stop him from coming until he is on the front steps. We have to be ready, and that will take enough time as it is." Harry met her eyes, which were burning black. "You saw his hideout?" he asked her, as if just coming to that. "Yes," she said without hesitation. "I saw it. I saw what he's hiding in it. All of what you saw in your dream is true--and much worse than that." Here she stiffened, as if determined not to say anymore. Then she stood and said, "I suppose you and I should get some sleep now. Don't forget." She gave him one last look, and Harry saw in that look volumes of gratitude. *She's thanking me,* he thought. *Well, I suppose she should.*
And then she was gone out the window, and the lock clicked behind her. Harry also rose, and then he went over to his bed, set his glasses on the nightstand, climbed in, and was soon asleep.
Kentarre, meanwhile, flew up to the roof and stood on the top of the Gryffindor tower, looking off into the distance without seeing anything at all. *He's still not with me,* she thought to herself. *And once he learns what he has to do, I wonder if he'll ever really join me? I can't force him; that I cannot and will not do. What can I say? What can I do?* These and other questions ran through her head as, after many hours passed, the sky began to lighten to a whitish-grey. Kentarre, who had been dozing, woke herself and shook off the dew that had gathered during the night. She took a deep breath of the cold morning air and jumped off the roof, gathering speed as she went down. After a few stories had passed, she began to slow herself, until she came floating down to the ground, landing softly on the frosty turf. She then walked smoothly over to the front doors to wait for the boy.
Harry showed up some minutes later, bleary-eyed and tousle-haired. His glasses were on crooked, and it took all the self-control that Kentarre had to resist laughing. "Well, come on then," she said in a let's-get-to-work tone. He grunted sleepily and followed her out onto the frost-bitten lawn, past Hagrid's cabin to the frozen lake, and then around to the other side. There she stopped and turned to face him. "All right, then, without further ado, I'm going to talk and you are going to listen and pay attention." She gave him a stern look that was on a completely different level than Professor McGonagall's, and Harry got the point.
Kentarre cleared her throat and said, "There are a few steps we'll have to go through to prepare ours elves for the fight against Kaeru. It will be hard on both of us, and I'm not sure how you will take this, so I'm just going to tell you. I have to transfer all of my powers to you." Here she paused and prompted Harry with her gaze to say something. He scratched his chin and said, "Yeah, you said something about that earlier, but I didn't know it would be like that." Then he froze and added, "Wait, your powers are going to be transferred to me? All of them?"
"All of them. It has to be that way."
"But, why couldn't I transfer my powers or whatever to you? I mean, why can't you do this?"
"Harry, I have already been taught in the ways of Kelohra. I cannot change now. I have gone too far, you see."
"Then why couldn't you transfer them to Dumbledore? His powers are more advanced than mine, and the combination would be stronger!"
"Same reason. He'd never be able to get used to not using a wand, anyway."
"So it has to be me?"
"That's right. Now, I told you I had found a Kelohran spell that will work for this kind of thing. However, as was to be expected, I suppose, there is no guarantee. You may be stuck with my powers forever or only a few hours. Your guess is as good as mine, pal."
"But... if I get stuck with your powers forever, then you'll never be able to use magic again!"
"We'll have to take that chance."
"But--"
"Look at it this way. What choice have we got? Our options are few, and we're wasting time."
"Okay, so what's next?"
"Well, after the transfer of power, you'll have to be taught how to use them together efficiently. You know, the basics; flight, kie, shield, invisibility, magic attacks, that sort of thing."
"What's kie?"
"It's what you might call a power-up. It happens when I turn into Zorensei."
Harry had just been wondering about that. *Who will I turn into? And since Zorensei looks different from Kentarre, will the way I look also change?* Kentarre was looking at him pensively. After he returned her gaze, she continued. "I don't expect you to understand all of this, so all I want you to do is listen." Harry looked directly into her steady gaze, but he couldn't hold it there for long, because her eyes were just so penetrating, so all-seeing, he almost had no choice but to look away. She went on, "I don't expect this endeavor to be easy for you. You may even find it to be harder than anything you've ever done, but all I ask is that you trust me through it all. It will all go a lot smoother for both of us if you do, and once it's over, well... let's just see where it takes us. Are you with me?"
Harry couldn't really bring himself to answer her question. His mind had given over to deep thinking, and the subject matter was very important to him. No one had spoken to him like that, softly, without command or order, in a long time. Dumbledore used a tone that was similar to that, but his was more... reasoning. Kentarre's voice was almost pleading with him, and yet at the same time she seemed to be comforting him, telling him that though it may not come out all right, they could at least try with all they could muster. It was such a maternal tone that Harry wanted to stand here and listen to that voice forever.
But he knew that he couldn't do that. He looked up at her and saw that her eyes hadn't left him throughout all of this. For a moment, Harry thought he saw a flash of color in her coal black eyes, a dash of the rainbow. Then the flash was gone, and he was left staring at her staring at him. He said hesitantly, "I... I think I am." He stopped and looked back at the castle, thinking of Ron and Hermione. What if they disagreed with him? What if he was left with only Kentarre and Dumbledore as his friends and supporters? How many enemies was he going to have to face if he made this decision?
But Harry wasn't ready to give up. He squared himself and faced the girl standing at his left. "I'll do it," he announced, and he saw her eyes flash exultation. She gave him a grateful smile, and then she started walking back towards the castle. She said over her shoulder in a dry tone, "Now all we have to do is make sure you don't get yourself killed between now and next Thursday!" Harry jogged to catch up with her. "What's next Thursday?" he asked her. She replied, "It's the next new moon. There has to be no moon in the sky."
"Why?"
"Because that's how it has to be." She began to run, and Harry, recognizing the challenge, obligingly let her beat him back to the castle.
* * *
"Next Thursday, is it?" asked Hermione. Harry said, "She said it had something to do with the new moon." He shrugged. Ron said, "Well, I'm still a little muddled about this whole business, but if you say you'll do it, Harry, I'll be right behind you." Hermione nodded her agreement, though her eyes still spoke her objections. "I still don't see why it has to be you," she said. Harry told her, "Well, it's going to be me, so that really doesn't matter anymore. Maybe it's just my bad luck acting up again."
But Harry didn't really think that all of this had anything to do with luck. In fact, it seemed that Kentarre's eyes, while still remaining unfathomably calm, reminded him why it had to be him. And while Thursday crept slowly forward, Harry found that his mind often wandered to nowhere at all, placing him in a very bad state for Snape's Potions lessons. Harry's potions, no matter how easy they seemed or how exactly he followed the directions, never seemed to come out just how Snape wanted them. And Snape, sensing with that unsettling ability of his that something was up, wasn't making things easier. He always had a smirk on his face when it was Harry's potion being examined, and he always seemed to come up with the most scalding remark possible. "Your potion seems to be lacking some degree of color, Potter," he observed in a voice that dripped with cruel amusement. "Perhaps we are having trouble following instructions? Did I not clearly state that four pinches of ground kappa scales were to be used, and no less? Unsatisfactory, Potter, very unsatisfactory." Harry could not bring himself to say anything, for he knew from experience that the very second he opened his mouth, no matter what he was going to say, Snape would call it cheek and take away points.
As for Kentarre, well, he didn't notice her much anymore. Sure, she was there always, but she no longer seemed to demand his attention. She didn't speak much to him, but she followed him around the corridors, partially because they had the same classes and partially because, well, that's what she had been doing all through the year, and she wasn't going to stop now. Besides, she joked, she had to keep him alive long enough to make it through the week, but Harry wasn't quite sure what it was that was trying to kill him.
For Kentarre, this week passed slowly enough, thank you very much. She didn't speak much; but then, she was never handy with words, and she usually kept her mouth shut anyway. However, she now spent her lunch hours in Dumbledore's office. When she was spoken to, she gave vague answers, as if she understood, but wasn't really listening, and if one were to inspect her face at random hours of the day, they might've detected traces of agitation. Kentarre was not fond of idle waiting, but her training had made her wise and developed for her some patience, so she kept reminding herself that compared to the time she had waited to finally do away with Kaeru, this was small business. Still, she absolutely could not stand all this waiting!
Her one consolation was watching Harry. She often found herself staring at him, though he seldom noticed. *He'll do just fine,* she told herself. *I think I've finally convinced him, and he's got his own reasons now.* This seemed to settle her seething thoughts for a bit, though it wasn't long before she again felt like pacing holes in the floor.
Her conversations with Dumbledore were often quite lengthy and not always relevant to the crisis at hand. Nonetheless, Kentarre enjoyed having someone to talk to who was on her level of thinking; she didn't normally enjoy having someone to talk to at all. Dumbledore, however, was different. His eyes reminded her of one of her friends back home, but his humor was unlike anyone else's. But the part she liked most was all that she learned from him. He was almost always willing to share his knowledge of the particulars of wizardry, and Kentarre found this helpful, because all in all she hadn't learned much about that from the teachers here. She knew that having rather extensive knowledge about wizardry, and even more knowledge of Harry's peculiarities, would help in the long run in teaching him how Kelohra was different and how to use it efficiently.
In a nutshell, it wasn't entirely a bad week--from certain points of view. Harry's Potions grades were rapidly looking worse, and Hermione ridiculed him often, telling him that if he needed help with something, all he had to do was say so. But how could he tell her that he didn't know what it was that kept his mind off of whatever it was supposed to be focusing on? A few times he tried to bring into focus those places where his mind went when it was wandering aimlessly, but all he got was a dull ache in his temples and someone telling him he didn't look well. He wondered once if he should be worried about this, but then, he reminded himself, he was probably just feeling nervous--after all, Thursday was but three days ahead. He considered telling someone, but what would he say? Harry personally thought it best if he kept his mouth shut until it blew over.
So he did.
*A few hours before dawn, Thursday*
Kentarre had that feeling again; the feeling that even if she had tried to sleep, the feat would've proved itself quite impossible. So now she sat, alone and enjoying it, under the stars in the tree that she had chosen to spend the night. From up in the topmost branches, she had quite a clear view of both the sunrise and the Gryffindor tower window. A cool breeze played across her pale cheeks; the night was almost perfect. Kentarre suppressed a sigh and closed her eyes. *I won't fail,* she told herself and whoever else might be listening. *I can't. Too much depends on my success... and his.* Her eyes opened themselves, two glittering black spheres in the whiteness of her upturned face. She almost wished a storm would come up, just so she could ride it out in this tree.
Suddenly, from the recesses of her mind, a whispering voice came unbidden. "Kentarre," it said, "thou must trust the boy." The girl with silver hair lowered her chin. She answered with her own thought, "I hear thee. This thought hath occurred to me, your Greatness, but art thou certain we canst trust our fate to one so unbelieving?"
The voice took on a new tone, one with a hint of amusement. "Kentarre, my servant, canst you think of no one of whom the boy expresses likeness?" Kentarre's lips showed a trace of a smile. "I understand now. Thy words are a comfort, my Guide and Supplier of Life, and an honor. I thank thee."
"Thou hast served me well. Farewell, my most loyal servant. I shall not be far." The voice then left her, and Kentarre was left with a sense of security and peace. And, as if to prove her correct, the sky showed its first signs of lightening. Thus the day began, finding the girl who was not of this Earth with much confidence in her heart.
*A few hours later, when Harry was just waking*
Harry awoke after experiencing a rather strange dream. Images had flashed before his mind like a collage; one minute he saw Kentarre standing on the stone roof of the alien world, the next he was in a dark place filled with shadows that seethed and writhed just behind his line of sight, and the next he was standing next to the boy with hair that was tinted red and gold eyes that seemed to penetrate all in his battle against a man with greenish skin whose mere presence reeked of evil. And then there had been a new scene, one of fear and tense anxiety, where many people with blurred faces sat in a single large room and awaited their fate while something important happened elsewhere. They seemed to waver in and out of sight, as if they were not quite invisible.
He sat in bed and considered this dream for a while before realizing that his meeting with Kentarre was scheduled to begin in exactly seven minutes. He slid his glasses onto his face, pulled on a black school robe over his pajamas and went downstairs.
When he got outside, Kentarre wasn't anywhere in sight, so he went down the steps a ways to wait. Presently, there was a whooshing sound, and Kentarre dived down at him from somewhere in the sky. She slowed and landed beside him with a cheery, "Good morning." Harry was unable to speak. Kentarre looked as though she had been flying through bushes. Her hair was ruffled and sported a few leaves and twigs, and her robes were wrinkled and likewise decorated. When Harry was quite certain that if he opened his mouth he wouldn't laugh out loud, he said, "Been keeping busy?" The girl, her breathing excited, nodded.
After Kentarre had been given time to catch her breath, she stood and removed the remaining clinging leaves from her garments and mane. "Well," she said briskly, "shall we begin?" Harry looked up at her, his expression pensive. After a moment, having seemingly come to a sort of conclusion, Harry also stood, saying, "All right." Kentarre then placed him under direct scrutiny. "Well, you're a bit scrawny, but that can be fixed. All right, come with me." Then she strode off in the direction of the forest, with Harry coming behind her at a slow jog.
After they entered the forest a ways, Harry puffed, "Where are we going?" Kentarre replied without looking at him, "We need objects to work with, and besides, you haven't properly met my warriors." This startled Harry, but he had no choice other than to follow her.
They reached the familiar clearing in better time than they had when they first came here. Kentarre emerged out of the brush quite unceremoniously and then she halted abruptly, almost making Harry collide with her. He saw over the rather broad shoulder in front of him that all five people that had been there were there now, and all of them were standing. Not quite in unison, they bowed to Kentarre, muttering something. Harry saw that they wore rather nondescript clothing, some of it badly mismatched, but their faces were the same. Kentarre inclined her head at them, and then she began to speak to them. "I will speak to you in English so the boy can understand. This is Harry Potter," she gestured behind her at Harry, who moved out from behind her so they could see him. "He is the one who will help us, and he is at last ready." The warriors all inclined their heads at Harry. Then one of them, dressed all in brown, stepped forward. He said in a tone that was almost reverent, "I am Nazo. I am honored to finally meet you, Harry Potter." The others all introduced themselves in a similar way, being Kesshin, the girl in the red-colored garment, Ukeire, another girl dressed in yellow, Hanji, a man in a deep purple, and Tanoshimi, the last man garbed in green. After they had all introduced themselves, Kentarre turned to Harry. "These are my Celestial Warriors. They have waited just as long as I have for you, and I think they are pleased."
Harry's eyes traveled across each one's face, finally coming back to Kentarre. Finding no words to say that even sounded right in his head, he merely nodded. Then Kentarre turned back to the group of five. "The boy and I shall go apart now. We'll keep in touch." Then she began to walk back the way they had come, saying, "Coming, Potter?"
They went back a ways into the forest, and then Kentarre stopped. Looking around her, she said in approval, "This'll do." Then she turned to face Harry. "Before we begin, I want you to ask me any questions you might have." Harry looked at her, and then asked sheepishly, "Uh, what are we going to do now?" She chuckled. "We're going to see how well you can manage your thoughts." Harry thought that this didn't really answer his question, but the twinkle in her eye told him that this was all the answer he was going to get.
Then, without another word, Kentarre went over and picked up a rather medium-sized and unremarkable rock. She placed it at Harry's feet and said, "All right. Examine the stone from where you stand. Fix its image in your mind." Harry looked down at the stone and etched its details into his memory. "Now close your eyes and hold the image." He did. "Now, roll the stone over in your mind. Without opening your eyes, tell me what you see on the underside."
This was far harder than Harry had expected. How was he supposed to know what the underside of the stone looked like? Dubiously, the stone in Harry's mind rolled over, but the flipside looked exactly the same as the top! Kentarre said sharply, "No. You can't do this if you think too much. I want you to relax; don't think about what the underside looks like, just roll it over and see! Do it again." So Harry did it again; several times, in fact, but it never seemed to be any different. Kentarre, however, wouldn't let him give up. "You have to relax," she told him. "That's the only way it will work. Just clear your mind and see."
Harry reset himself and put the image of the stone in his mind. Trying with all his might not to think about what the underside might look like, he gave the rock a gentle push. It rolled, and Kentarre whispered, "Freeze!" The image in Harry's mind did just that, and then she asked him, "What do you see?" Harry examined more closely the flipside of the rock, and he saw that it was indeed different from the top. "It's got moss and dirt all over it," he described, "and there's two cracks, one on the left and one coming up from the bottom." Kentarre whispered, "Open your eyes." He did, and he saw that Kentarre had flipped the rock over, revealing the rock's dirty and cracked underside. Astonishingly, it looked exactly like he had seen it! He looked at Kentarre in surprise and saw that she was smiling at him. "Very good, Potter. Very good."
Then Harry saw something that he couldn't have explained even if he had tried, but it seemed to him that as Kentarre smiled at him, someone else smiled as well, someone who seemed to be trying to occupy the same space that Kentarre was. The other someone's face appeared just behind Kentarre's, but before Harry could realize this, it was gone, and there was no one but Kentarre.
They tried a few more similar exercises until Harry could get in on his third try. After that, Kentarre led the way back to the castle where several students were already up. "If anyone asks, you were out walking and you met me on the way back to the castle. It's best if they don't think we were out together." Harry privately agreed, but he had a feeling that his reasons were different than Kentarre's. If Malfoy found out that they were having early-morning excursions, Harry wouldn't hear the end of it for quite some time.
Well, that part of the explanation was easier for Kentarre than it was for Harry. For one thing, no one usually had anything to say to Kentarre, and for another, whenever Kentarre was in a crowded room, she often could be seen wearing a scowl, thereby discouraging anyone from striking up a conversation. For Harry, on the other hand, it was not so simple. Fred and George were up now, and they both inquired as to Harry's whereabouts earlier in the morning. "You know, it's such a coincidence that you and Kentarre both came in at the same time," said Fred sarcastically. "Yes," agreed George, "one would almost think that you were out together, but that simply couldn't be it, could it?" Harry said, "Well, no, that's not it. Actually, I woke up early and couldn't go back to sleep, and, er, I went for a walk, and I, er, met Kentarre just as I was coming back in." Fred put a hand on Harry's shoulder. "Right, Harry," he said teasingly, "we believe you. Well, we'd better be getting down to breakfast before it's all gone. See you!" With that, the twins started for the portrait hole, stopping long enough to glance at Kentarre and then wink in Harry's direction. Ron rolled his eyes. Then Hermione said, "So, Harry, what really happened out there?" Harry then relayed as best he could without sounding totally loony the events of the morning.
While they talked in lowered voices, the common room cleared as other students went off to lunch. It was Ron who finally pointed this out, and the three of them then likewise headed for the Great Hall.
The Great Hall was surprisingly still full of people, though the mail had already come and many of them were finished. The three of them sat down and scrounged for breakfast, stuffing themselves with what they could find before the bell rang. Kentarre was nowhere in sight, but that didn't seem to bother any of them.
When the monotonous shuffle to class began, the trio moved on in silence, each one's mind in a different place than the other two. The day promised to be a rather long one, and indeed, it seemed an eternity before even the first class was over. As it turned out, they were given a rather large load of homework, but it only occurred to Ron to complain about it, which he did to some considerable extent. Harry's mind flitted around as if it desired to be anywhere but the castle. It seemed as though images flashed before his mind, but they blurred away from him like reflections in a rippling pond as soon as he attempted to focus them.
The day seemed to slow even more, gradually, almost unnoticeably coming to a crawl. Then, in Defense Against the Dark Arts, the last class of the day, everything came to a stop.
Harry had been trying to hold onto what Professor Jycein was saying to copy down for notes when suddenly a voice spoke to him from the front of his mind, holding all of his attention. *Harry* it said in a cold, sibilant voice *you think that by joining with that alien that you will not lose against me? There is only one way that you can protect your friends, and that is by coming to me. With me you shall come to no harm. Can Kentarre promise you that?* Then there came a pause, a terrible pause in which Harry's mind reeled; he felt as though he were under scrutiny by many pairs of eyes, and then suddenly he found himself alone in an empty room. He attempted to shake himself, to somehow bring himself back to the present. He needed something to think about, something to focus on, but there was nothing to grab onto. He struggled like this for a moment before he realized that he was hearing something, another voice, familiar somehow. It said, "No, no, no. You have to relax. Don't think about the other side, just roll it over and look!" As he was marveling about this, an image came into his mind; a small stone by his feet, and another pair of feet not far away. *The stone,* he thought. *I have to roll it over.* He set himself to do this, but there seemed to be something in his way. The stone in his mind was blocked by something, and Harry could not get through it. He tried again to do what Kentarre had told him, to roll the stone over without thinking at all, but that thing blocking it was compelling him to think. Harry tried again and failed. He suddenly felt as though he was beating himself up against an impenetrable wall. *This is impossible!* he thought after his fifth try. That familiar voice spoke to him again. "No, it isn't. All you have to do is brush the thoughts away. The only thing that will accomplish this is your willpower." Harry considered this, but as he pondered, the wall seemed to grow stronger and even more impregnable, and as its strength grew, suddenly Harry became aware that the scar on his forehead was burning with an unquenchable fire. Then Harry, driven by the pain, attempted with his mind to go around the wall instead of through it. Suddenly, his way was free, and the stone rolled over, revealing the flipside with its dirt and moss and two spidery cracks.
"Harry! Harry, wake up!" Harry started and hit his knee on the underside of his desk. The fingers in his right hand ached, and he realized that he had been gripping the edges of the desk with a grip like death, while the other hand remained firmly attached to his forehead. He untangled his sore fingers to find Hermione staring at him with concern in her eyes. Ron was by her side, and his face was ashy. "Are you all right, Harry?" asked the red-headed boy. Harry asked no one in particular, "What happened? Where'd everybody go?" He looked around, seeing the class empty. "Well," said Ron, "you went all stiff, and then Kentarre started making noises like she was hurt but trying not to show it. She asked to be excused, and Jycein told her to stay, but she went anyway. Then you started clutching at your forehead, and the bell rang." Harry, in a bit of a daze, got up from his chair, slung his bag over his shoulder, and went to the door.
Outside, two people were having a heated conversation.
"-don't see why you're making such a fuss," said the voice of Professor Jycein. "You left the classroom without my permission anyway, so there's really no big deal."
"No big deal? You know perfectly well, traitor, that the only reason I asked you to leave was because I had to. It wouldn't do on my part to simply barge off in the middle of class without asking the teacher first." The second voice Harry recognized in an instant.
"Which you did anyway."
"Yes, I did, because if I didn't I would've been subject to a very difficult situation that I have no desire to explain twice!"
"Oh, that's a shame."
"Don't get cheeky with me, Learst."
"Why do you keep calling me that?"
"Shouldn't I? It's your name."
"Not since I turned human it's not."
"Learst, you know just as well as I do that that has nothing to do with it. Name change is optional."
"Yes, but I took that option, so you might as well get used to it. The name's Jycein."
"Would you stop getting off the subject? The point is I've had enough of your games. Try something like that again, and your life will be miserable henceforth."
"Ooh, I'm trembling in my shoes."
"Just keep in mind that I can arrange much worse than trembling."
Then Harry heard angry footsteps leading away from the classroom, and Harry, having no desire to be left alone with an angry Jycein, took this opportunity to open the door in a great hurry and follow after her. "Oh, Harry," someone called after him, and he had no choice but to turn around. Jycein was looking at him with an unreadable expression. "Are you sure you're all right, Harry?" asked the professor. Harry replied, "Uh, yes sir, I'm just fine, thanks." Without another word, Harry dashed off down the hall.
Kentarre had disappeared, but Harry had some idea of where she would go. Come to find out, he had been right. He found her fuming under the marble staircase in the Entrance Hall. "How dare that scum talk to me like that?" she hissed as Harry and the other two came up. She looked at Harry, and he saw her eyes flash furiously. Then her gaze softened to something not so harsh--like a stone--and she said, "Well, I'm glad you got yourself out of that mess. Are you all right?" Harry thought about this, and then he said, "I suppose so. What happened?"
"Kaeru."
"Oh. You mean he tried to--?"
"Mm-hmm. He sure did, that b-" Hermione started. "Kentarre!" she said sharply, and the girl with silver hair laughed. "Well, I suppose there's no hope for it. Out of curiosity, Potter, how did you get yourself out? Not even Dumbledore managed that." Harry told her about the stone, how it had come unbidden into his mind, and how the barrier had come in his way. When he got to the part about going around the wall, Kentarre nodded to herself, and when he was finished, she chuckled. "I guess you've got more devices against him than even I thought," she admitted. "Very good, Potter. Very good."
The next few days were a blur for Harry. Kentarre acted and spoke the same way, but she didn't look the same as when he had first met her. For one thing, he now noticed that her skin was paler than anyone else's, and her face was shaped strangely. Everything that set her apart from the rest of the students now waved itself at him like a red flag against a blue sky.
As for the matter that she had spoken to him about, he still remained undecided, though every time Kentarre came within his vision he was reminded of it. She entered his thoughts as well, plaguing him with little rest. His dreams, however, seemed to point him in the direction that he would choose, as if foretelling what he would decide; he dreamt of battle always, of a battle with a boy with auburn hair and golden eyes dressed in black and silver and a man whose skin was green and whose eyes were a burning red. And always there was the familiar figure of Kentarre, standing off to the side somewhere, watching the boy with similar passion on her face to the expression on his.
And then there were Ron and Hermione; Hermione would only discuss it when Kentarre wasn't around, and Ron seemed to be waiting for Harry to decide. When they did discuss it, Hermione held that Harry shouldn't have to do this, that Kentarre could pick someone else for it and be no worse off. Ron, having not made up his mind yet, agreed with just about any point that was brought up. However, when he was asked for his own opinion, he fell silent, mumbling, "Harry should make his own decision." Hermione thought he shouldn't be hasty, that he could take his time, but Harry didn't want to linger too long for fear of going mad with each sighting of the silver headed girl that he had--almost--come to call his friend. She never asked him about it, but she was always there, watching his struggle, waiting, though however discreetly. She didn't talk to anyone much anymore, except when spoken to, and even then her answers were blunted, as though her mind were constantly elsewhere. She spent a lot of time just standing at windows, watching the forest in solitude, her arms folded and her face clearly stating that she was having deep thoughts without revealing what those thoughts were.
As for Kentarre, well, she would be glad wh en her waiting for him to decide was over. Many times her mind screamed at her, *This is stupid! Make him decide now!* But she never did. She couldn't bring herself to force him to make the decision; in fact, she couldn't even pluck up enough to ask him what he had chosen to do, if he had chosen anything. Kentarre kept telling herself, *When he chooses, he will tell me, and I will know. Until then there is nothing I can do, or should do. He has learned all he can from me. This battle he must fight alone.*
* * *
"Well, the only way we'll ever know is if someone can manage to ask him!" Ron pointed out. Hermione replied, "Well, why don't you do it, then, since it was your brilliant idea to come here in the first place!" The two of them came to a halt as Ron sighed in absolute frustration. Harry had told them that he would be walking near the lake. Kentarre, it seemed, was nowhere to be found, and none of them too eager to find her. Ron and Hermione had made it outside, bickering all the way. The lake's frozen gray surface stood out against the snow, and Harry could be seen next to it, standing and staring. Ron and Hermione were just approaching him when a figure emerged from farther off to the right, near the castle wall. It was Kentarre, and she was going to get there first.
"Don't think too hard, Potter," she said with a trace of a laugh. He looked at her over his shoulder and gave her a weak smile. She came up behind him and stood with her long, graceful fingers interlaced at her middle. "If it's any help, Potter, I must say that this is not quite as hopeless as it seems," she began, but Harry cut in. "How?" he asked, his voice desperate. "How is it not as hopeless as it seems? The fate of the planet is in my hands and you say it's not as hopeless as it seems?" She held up a hand. "Let me finish," she told him calmly. "I will not abandon you when the time for battle comes. You will need my help, and I shall give it. Also, you must know that Hermione and Ron intend to march into battle with you, however wise or not that may be. You are not alone, Potter. You are far from alone." There she fell silent, and Harry, not in the mood for much speaking, especially to the person he had been avoiding for a while now, remained silent.
The sun was just rising over the opposite side of the lake, and Kentarre lifted her face to its reddish light. A light breeze blew her bangs from her face, and when she looked over, she saw that Harry's forehead was similarly bared. His lightning-shaped scar darted in and out of sight behind trembling tendrils of hair. The rest of his face, specifically his eyes, looked worn, tired. "You haven't been sleeping well," she told him skeptically. "I know--when you don't sleep, I don't sleep. Your thoughts keep me up." Harry looked at her sharply. "You can hear my thoughts? Can you hear them now?" She shook her head. "No. It's only when you're thinking is louder than everyone else's thinking that I can hear you. See, the way it works is when everybody's thinking at once, all of them combined sound like a lot of soft buzzing, but when they're all silenced, and one person starts thinking again, I can hear that person in particular because they're the only one thinking at the time. Does that make sense?"
Harry, his head spinning from lack of sleep and the explanation he had just been delivered, nodded slowly. She looked away and added, "Not to mention that my thoughts have been following you wherever you go, whether I can hear you or no."
His eyes sought out hers, but they were not looking at him; rather, they seemed far away again, the look that had come into them noticeably often over the past few days. He saw that her face also looked tired, probably almost as bad as his, and he wondered why she stayed up with him.
Suddenly there came a bird cry from up above; a falcon's screech. Kentarre looked up and held out her arm for Nemesis to land on. Harry had seen falconers on television before, and he noticed that they always wore gloves when the falcons were perched on their arms, but Kentarre didn't have one. He dismissed this thought when Kentarre pulled a letter off of the falcon's foot and allowed him to fly away. She untied it and began to read it aloud, her face very grave. "My Liege," she began, "We have found the hideout of which you told us in your letter and we wait for instruction. It is approximately two leagues from the castle, a short distance from our meeting place, but we have visited it only once, for fear of being discovered dare we venture there again. Your eternal servant, Nazo." She looked up and turned around to find Ron and Hermione right behind Harry, their faces warily watching hers. She smiled and folded the letter, placing it in her pocket. "Guess it's time we were on the move, then," she said cheerfully, and then she started back up toward the castle, whistling. Ron watched her incredulously. "What's gotten into her?" he asked, confused. "What's so bloody good about that?" Harry shrugged, but in his mind that he knew very well what had gotten into Kentarre. If he was correct, the letter had just said that Kentarre had told those people about the place in his dream, and they had found it. Now Kentarre was going to go there and check it out, and that's what she was happy about. He watched her slender, retreating figure with a kind of wonder on his face. Then he sighed, and Hermione asked him what was wrong.
Harry looked at her suddenly, as if it was the first time he had seen her in a long time, and he said, "It's nothing." But his eyes didn't quite stick with that.
The three of them went back up to the castle. Since it was Saturday today, there would still be time before the rest of the castle was up. Kentarre had apparently gone off somewhere else to think, and the three of them had no desire to see her again so soon, so they went off to the Great Hall for breakfast.
Kentarre, however, had not gone off somewhere else to think. She had started straight for Dumbledore's office, and now she stood right outside it. She gave the password, but the gargoyle remained stiff and quite dead- looking. She growled. Dumbledore had apparently changed the password. Reaching her gloved left hand up, she touched the gargoyle's horned forehead with two bare fingers. After a pause, the gargoyle's eyes lit up and he stepped aside. "I-I didn't know it was you, ma'am," he apologized. "I'm very very sorry. It won't happen again, I promise--"
"It's all right, just step aside," she told it, and as she walked past him, it straightened as best it could and said, "Yes, ma'am."
Dumbledore's office door looked different, somehow. She felt the symbol on her left hand tingling, and she immediately knew that some kind of Kelohra was at work here. She put her right hand on the doorknob, intending to go right on in, but she received a shock--literally. Once she touched the brass knob, a wave of sharp pain flew up her arm. She cried out and let go, a string of vehement curses escaping her lips. It took a few moments for the pain to subside, dulling into nothing, and Kentarre looked for some way to get around the door and into the office. She then heard a kind of mumbling from inside the room, and there came following a cry of pain that sounded like Dumbledore! She didn't want to shout, for fear of letting whoever it was inside know she was out here, but as she was thinking fast, a cruel laugh came from inside. "It's a new feeling, isn't it, Dumbledore?" said a cold voice that Kentarre knew only too well. "That feeling of subordinacy that you forced upon me from the minute you declared yourself my enemy! Do you like your new position? You'll die in it!"
Kentarre could stand it no longer. *Kaeru's got Dumbledore!* her mind screamed at her. *I've got to do something!!* Her reason shouted back, *But there's no way for me to get in there!* Then an idea came to her. *I'll get in the same way that he got in!*
The silver headed girl, eyes ablaze, then rushed down the moving stairs, taking them three at a time. She got to the closest classroom and went in, emanating blue light as she went. When she got in, she was Zorensei, and there was no time to lose. Now that Kaeru could sense her, she had to be fast. She didn't stop running as she went to the window and dove straight through the glass, flying upward to avoid the shards. She found the window that belonged to Dumbledore's office in no time--it was the one that poured green light--and she flew right up to it, throwing caution to the winds.
She expected to see Kaeru standing over a cowering Dumbledore; she expected to hear sounds of pain muffled by the half-inch of glass between them; she didn't, however, expect to see the light coming from Dumbledore himself or to feel the pain herself. The lightning blue rings on her left hand burned as they never had, and she felt as though her very blood were churning and frothing inside her. All in all, it was quite unpleasant, and Zorensei very nearly fell out of the air. However, years and years of hard training had paid off. She managed to keep afloat, hovering there and watching Dumbledore watching her. Finally she gathered the strength to fling open the window with her right hand and throw herself into the room. The pain, if anything, intensified as she entered, but one thought echoed in her mind- -*I must save Dumbledore!* For she could tell that this was not Dumbledore's doing alone. This was surely Kaeru's interference, though how he had done it she couldn't guess.
Dumbledore slowly approached her, making the pain rise in a horrific crescendo. Panting, she did the only thing that she knew would work-- physically overpower the old man. Indeed, just as he grabbed for her throat, she wrestled with his arms, pushing them away from herself and pinning them at his sides. He, with surprising agility, sidekicked her legs out from under her, but she had already begun the work. When he went to throw her back out the window, she released the magic, putting nearly everything she had into dispersing Kaeru's treachery.
It worked, but not soon enough. Now Kentarre, she was too weak from the pain and the effort, and could not bring herself to stop her fall. She plummeted towards the lawn, bracing herself for the contact--that never came. She miraculously slowed and hovered just feet above the ground. Looking over her shoulder, she saw that it was not quite miraculous; Dumbledore's torso hung out of his window, his wand arm extended towards her with his wand clenched in his fingers. She reached out and touched the ground on her hands and knees, and she felt the magic lift off of her gently. Her arms trembled for a bit, and then she collapsed panting on the grass.
Just moments later she heard incoming impacts on the ground, and she looked up and saw Dumbledore approaching her at a swift pace. She tried to get up, but all she could manage was to lift her head.
Dumbledore bent and began to help her to her feet, his face the picture of concern. She waved him off and went the rest of the way, gradually working her exhausted body into what resembled an upright position. She winced a few times as she kinked a few places that were still tender from the extremity of the pain she had felt. Wordlessly, the old man held out his arm for Kentarre to hold onto, and she looked at it for a minute before grudgingly taking it.
Once inside the front doors, Kentarre realized that they would not get to Dumbledore's office without being seen. There were all manner of students milling around inside the Entrance Hall, and the two of them had attracted the attention of all. Several people stared at Kentarre, whose robes were tattered and ripped and whose face was an image of complete exhaustion. She ignored them all with as much dignity as she could muster, and Dumbledore--well, Dumbledore was used to being stared at. Harry, Ron, and Hermione, who had been talking nearby, now began following the pair of them in silence.
It seemed to take an eternity to reach an empty hall, but when they did, Kentarre murmured softly, "To your office, Dumbledore. I'm not going to that hospital wing of yours." The headmaster nodded, apparently thinking this prudent.
When they arrived in Dumbledore's office at last, Kentarre eased herself into a chair and sighed. Dumbledore took the seat behind his desk, and the other three stood a few feet behind Kentarre. Once she caught her breath, Kentarre began to speak. "Kaeru... he's the one behind this, I know it. And if he got Dumbledore, there's no way that any of the rest of you are safe. And I can't protect you."
Dumbledore smiled. "Well, Kentarre, that certainly wasn't the beginning. Perhaps you should start over. Who is Kaeru?" She nodded. "Kaeru is the one you call Voldemort. You see--no, there's too much. Kaeru used to b e one of our number, a--what's the word for it?--Celestial Warrior, as you would say it in your language. Well, needless to say, he was fascinated with Earth and wanted to become human himself. He used the weapon I had given him when he joined us to change himself into a human and then went to Earth. However, because he had to turn himself into a human using the weapon, he couldn't take it with him because only Kelohran hands can take it off my world. He, while on Earth, learned magic and placed all manner of spells on himself, attempting to make himself immortal, thus making himself better than Kelohrans and humans. He became what he is today, the one you call Lord Voldemort." She paused here and then continued. "I don't know how we're ever going to withstand him now that he--" Here she stopped, and Dumbledore gave her a swift, calculating look. "Continue," he prompted, but she appeared not to have heard him.
Kentarre was staring at her gloved left hand. Harry couldn't see the expression on her face, so he moved toward her. Her black eyes were wide and her jaw was tense. He asked, "What's wrong?" She looked up at him. "Now that he's got the one thing that could stand against me," she finished in a quiet voice. Harry was nonplussed, and he was sure his face showed it. "He's got his weapon back," she said self-scoldingly. "He's got the one thing that could stop me from killing him in his pocket--and I know exactly how he got it," she continued, her tone getting angry. Apparently Dumbledore sensed this and said sharply, "Calm yourself, Kentarre. Even if you were strong enough to kill him now, I wouldn't allow it. Not in Hogwarts. Not now."
At this Kentarre looked almost sulky, and she grumbled, "All right. I'll watch my step. But if he doesn't stay out of my way, I'll kill him. End of discussion." Dumbledore gave her that piercing stare that he usually reserved for Harry, and then he nodded slowly. "I suppose that you should be the one to bring justice to him," said the headmaster, though his eyes were sad. "However," he continued, "I do request that you do this without the sight of other students. They do not need to be subject to that, and though they do not know who you are, their innocence remains." Kentarre nodded. "Fair enough."
Harry hadn't been listening much, since he already knew this, but now that there was a break, he cut in. "All right," he said, "now that all that's cleared up, let's move on to more recent happenings. Why was Kentarre lying on the grass and how did she get there?" Dumbledore said with a wry smile in Kentarre's direction, "I think she can answer that. It just wouldn't sound right, coming from me." Kentarre shot him a playful glare before meeting Harry's questioning gaze with a cool one of her own. "Kaeru got a hold of his weapon, and apparently he's been getting bolder. He used it on Dumbledore, and it worked quite marvelously. You see, Kaeru's weapon's sole purpose is change--be it change from cold to hot, poor to rich, or good to evil."
Kentarre then proceeded to tell them everything that had happened after she found that she couldn't get into Dumbledore's office, skipping lightly over her descriptions of the pain she had felt. When she finished, there was that silence that often followed the clarification of events. Dumbledore asked Harry, "Does that quench your curiosity?" When Harry nodded, he continued, "Then I'd appreciate it if you'd leave now. Kentarre and I have things to discuss."
Hermione and Ron had already begun heading for the door, and now Harry followed them. The green-eyed boy had a sinking feeling that he'd only been given the shortened version of the facts, that there were still gaps in the great story behind the mysterious girl called Kentarre by some, Zorensei by others.
Harry did not see Kentarre again that day, except when he returned to the common room later that evening; she was standing by the window, fingering the silken ropes that strung her black drawstring bag that held her pipes. Indeed, when he went up to bed, she had not moved, but she had taken the pipes out. When Harry left, there were about seven people, including Kentarre, left, but as he went up the stairs, he heard the pipes' playing singing up at him. This surprised him. *Kentarre's never played for anyone but us,* he thought. *Well, or at least I've never heard her play for anyone else. But maybe she has when we're not around.* He went a little ways back down the stairs and sat down to listen. It was the same melody that he had heard Zorensei singing down on the snowy Hogwarts grounds.
Suddenly, something went through Harry's head that he would never see again, nor be able to explain. He saw a very large house, a manor, made entirely of stone and set in the side of a forested mountain. Then, as if he were flying closer from above, he saw a girl sitting on the roof near a turret. The girl looked familiar, though she was dressed in a kind of ceremonial ecclesiastical robe, with many overpieces and sashes and cords. Yet, it was Kentarre, and her face was uplifted, though he knew she could not see him, and she was singing softly to herself. Her lips moved, though Harry heard no sound, and the song that Kentarre now played on her pipes corresponded with the Kentarre on the roof's mouthings.
Then Harry was left staring at Kentarre, sitting on the steps that went to the boys' dormitory. She sat there, blowing softly on her pipes as the song finished. When she lifted them finally from her lips, she locked eyes with Harry and held them; the expression in her eyes was peaceful, and Harry immediately knew, though he couldn't tell how, that she knew all that he had seen. Suddenly, Harry had no more need for debate; he knew what he would do. Something told him that he had just seen the world that Kentarre came from, and that Kentarre very much wanted that world to stay the same. Some remote corner of Harry's consciousness still protested, *But why should you help her? She's done nothing but lie to you all year.* And Harry countered, *I know, but she's not so different from us, and there are other people who live on her world besides her. She needs my help, and who am I to refuse? Besides, Voldemort's coming whether I decide to fight him or not, and he'll come after me, so I'll end up coming against him anyway. What choice have I got?*
With this last, Harry broke the connection between his green eyes and the pair of black ones, which watched him still, and he resolutely went the rest of the way up the stairs to bed, feeling that a great burden had passed to him from the girl that had only seconds before told him more than he had heard since he met her.
* * *
Kentarre's eyes told him that she knew this already. Harry wasn't sure what he expected her reaction to be, but this would do, he guessed. It certainly seemed to suit Kentarre, for she looked at him with calm, steady eyes in an expression that said the-world's-end-couldn't-shake-me. Kentarre, after a pause, nodded. "Very well, Potter. Meet me by the front doors tomorrow morning at four thirty, and we'll talk." Hermione raised an eyebrow. "Well, surely you'll do more than talk, if it has to be four thirty in the morning. No conversation takes that long." Kentarre smiled that mysterious smile at her. "Very good, Hermione. Yes, we'll do more than talk, but you'll have to be on time to find out what else." She smiled sweetly and walked away, and Harry groaned. "Four thirty! And when exactly do I get time to sleep?" Hermione smiled. "Well, you'll just have to go to bed early, won't you?" she told them, and Ron and Harry looked at each other doubtfully. Ron asked him, "You plan to go alone, do you? Well, I can tell you, I don't fancy getting up before dawn, so I'll give you that luxury--just this once." There was a pause, and then the red- headed boy added, "It's only because my curiosity isn't all that strong so early in the morning!"
Harry then told him, for almost no reason at all that he could tell, "No, I think she means me to be there by myself. That something else that's going to happen is just for me, I think." Hermione and Ron gave him odd looks, but Harry couldn't very well explain what he had just said anymore than he could read Kentarre's mind, so he just let it lie.
That night, Harry did say that he was going to turn in early, but what he really wanted was some time alone to think, so he got into his pajamas and sat by the window doing just that. He was just getting into the thinking part when a tap on the window woke him from his reverie. It was Kentarre-- or rather, Zorensei, and she was floating near the window, looking in at him. He made no move to let her in, but instead looked away from the window. A flash of blue light from the window caught his eye, and when he looked back, he saw that the window was open and Kentarre was now inside, sitting across from him on the long windowseat. She looked at him for a moment, and he grew uncomfortable and looked away. "You're trying not to be angry with me," she said after a pause, and he looked back up and met her eyes. "What makes you think that?" he asked her, trying not to look guilty.
She smiled at him. "Your eyes told me. Besides, why else would you avoid me like this?" Harry thought about this, and realized that he hadn't really thought about being angry with her, but rather it was natural. He said after a moment, "Well, I guess it's because this is all new to me, and I haven't really gotten used to the fact that the fate of the world now rests on my shoulders..." His voice took on a tone of self-mocking, and Kentarre said sharply, "No, it doesn't, Harry." Harry locked eyes with her. It was the first time that he could remember her calling him by his first name.
"It doesn't because there are certain steps you have to take first, and I have to be there with you. You aren't alone. We'll do this together. I promise. However, I can't promise that nothing will go wrong; no plan is entirely foolproof, not even Voldemort's. You know, he thinks he's ready to attack the castle. He seems to have gathered a bit of an army, and he thinks they're strong enough to take us out. I must admit, they're very strong and very clever, but we have a weapon that not even they can beat-- trust. They can't beat it because they don't use it. My point is this, boy: no matter what happens, you are never the only one left."
Harry then remembered something. "Kentarre," he began, "you said something in Dumbledore's office that day, when you got hurt. You said that even Dumbledore couldn't withstand Voldemort, that none of us were safe anymore, and that you couldn't protect us. What did you mean?" Kentarre took a deep breath and said slowly, "Harry, what I meant was that Kaeru could use his weapon against any of us and I couldn't get near you while you were under his influence and that I could never know which one of you he would use it on next. I may be very old and very smart, but I'm not a genius, I'm not a miracle worker and I'm not a mind-reader. I can't make all of this go away. If I could, I wouldn't be here, and there would be such a thing as world peace." Kentarre paused then, and her eyes wandered to the window, to the moon floating just above the trees of the Forbidden Forest. There was something in her eyes that Harry couldn't read and couldn't describe, but it seemed to come from deep within her, a part of her that Harry didn't even know existed. It also seemed to him that this something came from the same part of her that the vision of her home that she had sent him had come, and though he couldn't read it, he knew that Kentarre was happy with it, which gave him another reason to go with her through the battle. She wanted to keep that something, and he couldn't even describe it, much less bring himself to take it away from her.
Kentarre looked up at him and broke the silence. "You've been thinking a lot, haven't you? I'm sorry that I had to put you through all of this in such a sloppy manner, but we had to get through this, you understand. Battle is brewing in Voldemort's eyes, and when he decides to come, none will stop him from coming until he is on the front steps. We have to be ready, and that will take enough time as it is." Harry met her eyes, which were burning black. "You saw his hideout?" he asked her, as if just coming to that. "Yes," she said without hesitation. "I saw it. I saw what he's hiding in it. All of what you saw in your dream is true--and much worse than that." Here she stiffened, as if determined not to say anymore. Then she stood and said, "I suppose you and I should get some sleep now. Don't forget." She gave him one last look, and Harry saw in that look volumes of gratitude. *She's thanking me,* he thought. *Well, I suppose she should.*
And then she was gone out the window, and the lock clicked behind her. Harry also rose, and then he went over to his bed, set his glasses on the nightstand, climbed in, and was soon asleep.
Kentarre, meanwhile, flew up to the roof and stood on the top of the Gryffindor tower, looking off into the distance without seeing anything at all. *He's still not with me,* she thought to herself. *And once he learns what he has to do, I wonder if he'll ever really join me? I can't force him; that I cannot and will not do. What can I say? What can I do?* These and other questions ran through her head as, after many hours passed, the sky began to lighten to a whitish-grey. Kentarre, who had been dozing, woke herself and shook off the dew that had gathered during the night. She took a deep breath of the cold morning air and jumped off the roof, gathering speed as she went down. After a few stories had passed, she began to slow herself, until she came floating down to the ground, landing softly on the frosty turf. She then walked smoothly over to the front doors to wait for the boy.
Harry showed up some minutes later, bleary-eyed and tousle-haired. His glasses were on crooked, and it took all the self-control that Kentarre had to resist laughing. "Well, come on then," she said in a let's-get-to-work tone. He grunted sleepily and followed her out onto the frost-bitten lawn, past Hagrid's cabin to the frozen lake, and then around to the other side. There she stopped and turned to face him. "All right, then, without further ado, I'm going to talk and you are going to listen and pay attention." She gave him a stern look that was on a completely different level than Professor McGonagall's, and Harry got the point.
Kentarre cleared her throat and said, "There are a few steps we'll have to go through to prepare ours elves for the fight against Kaeru. It will be hard on both of us, and I'm not sure how you will take this, so I'm just going to tell you. I have to transfer all of my powers to you." Here she paused and prompted Harry with her gaze to say something. He scratched his chin and said, "Yeah, you said something about that earlier, but I didn't know it would be like that." Then he froze and added, "Wait, your powers are going to be transferred to me? All of them?"
"All of them. It has to be that way."
"But, why couldn't I transfer my powers or whatever to you? I mean, why can't you do this?"
"Harry, I have already been taught in the ways of Kelohra. I cannot change now. I have gone too far, you see."
"Then why couldn't you transfer them to Dumbledore? His powers are more advanced than mine, and the combination would be stronger!"
"Same reason. He'd never be able to get used to not using a wand, anyway."
"So it has to be me?"
"That's right. Now, I told you I had found a Kelohran spell that will work for this kind of thing. However, as was to be expected, I suppose, there is no guarantee. You may be stuck with my powers forever or only a few hours. Your guess is as good as mine, pal."
"But... if I get stuck with your powers forever, then you'll never be able to use magic again!"
"We'll have to take that chance."
"But--"
"Look at it this way. What choice have we got? Our options are few, and we're wasting time."
"Okay, so what's next?"
"Well, after the transfer of power, you'll have to be taught how to use them together efficiently. You know, the basics; flight, kie, shield, invisibility, magic attacks, that sort of thing."
"What's kie?"
"It's what you might call a power-up. It happens when I turn into Zorensei."
Harry had just been wondering about that. *Who will I turn into? And since Zorensei looks different from Kentarre, will the way I look also change?* Kentarre was looking at him pensively. After he returned her gaze, she continued. "I don't expect you to understand all of this, so all I want you to do is listen." Harry looked directly into her steady gaze, but he couldn't hold it there for long, because her eyes were just so penetrating, so all-seeing, he almost had no choice but to look away. She went on, "I don't expect this endeavor to be easy for you. You may even find it to be harder than anything you've ever done, but all I ask is that you trust me through it all. It will all go a lot smoother for both of us if you do, and once it's over, well... let's just see where it takes us. Are you with me?"
Harry couldn't really bring himself to answer her question. His mind had given over to deep thinking, and the subject matter was very important to him. No one had spoken to him like that, softly, without command or order, in a long time. Dumbledore used a tone that was similar to that, but his was more... reasoning. Kentarre's voice was almost pleading with him, and yet at the same time she seemed to be comforting him, telling him that though it may not come out all right, they could at least try with all they could muster. It was such a maternal tone that Harry wanted to stand here and listen to that voice forever.
But he knew that he couldn't do that. He looked up at her and saw that her eyes hadn't left him throughout all of this. For a moment, Harry thought he saw a flash of color in her coal black eyes, a dash of the rainbow. Then the flash was gone, and he was left staring at her staring at him. He said hesitantly, "I... I think I am." He stopped and looked back at the castle, thinking of Ron and Hermione. What if they disagreed with him? What if he was left with only Kentarre and Dumbledore as his friends and supporters? How many enemies was he going to have to face if he made this decision?
But Harry wasn't ready to give up. He squared himself and faced the girl standing at his left. "I'll do it," he announced, and he saw her eyes flash exultation. She gave him a grateful smile, and then she started walking back towards the castle. She said over her shoulder in a dry tone, "Now all we have to do is make sure you don't get yourself killed between now and next Thursday!" Harry jogged to catch up with her. "What's next Thursday?" he asked her. She replied, "It's the next new moon. There has to be no moon in the sky."
"Why?"
"Because that's how it has to be." She began to run, and Harry, recognizing the challenge, obligingly let her beat him back to the castle.
* * *
"Next Thursday, is it?" asked Hermione. Harry said, "She said it had something to do with the new moon." He shrugged. Ron said, "Well, I'm still a little muddled about this whole business, but if you say you'll do it, Harry, I'll be right behind you." Hermione nodded her agreement, though her eyes still spoke her objections. "I still don't see why it has to be you," she said. Harry told her, "Well, it's going to be me, so that really doesn't matter anymore. Maybe it's just my bad luck acting up again."
But Harry didn't really think that all of this had anything to do with luck. In fact, it seemed that Kentarre's eyes, while still remaining unfathomably calm, reminded him why it had to be him. And while Thursday crept slowly forward, Harry found that his mind often wandered to nowhere at all, placing him in a very bad state for Snape's Potions lessons. Harry's potions, no matter how easy they seemed or how exactly he followed the directions, never seemed to come out just how Snape wanted them. And Snape, sensing with that unsettling ability of his that something was up, wasn't making things easier. He always had a smirk on his face when it was Harry's potion being examined, and he always seemed to come up with the most scalding remark possible. "Your potion seems to be lacking some degree of color, Potter," he observed in a voice that dripped with cruel amusement. "Perhaps we are having trouble following instructions? Did I not clearly state that four pinches of ground kappa scales were to be used, and no less? Unsatisfactory, Potter, very unsatisfactory." Harry could not bring himself to say anything, for he knew from experience that the very second he opened his mouth, no matter what he was going to say, Snape would call it cheek and take away points.
As for Kentarre, well, he didn't notice her much anymore. Sure, she was there always, but she no longer seemed to demand his attention. She didn't speak much to him, but she followed him around the corridors, partially because they had the same classes and partially because, well, that's what she had been doing all through the year, and she wasn't going to stop now. Besides, she joked, she had to keep him alive long enough to make it through the week, but Harry wasn't quite sure what it was that was trying to kill him.
For Kentarre, this week passed slowly enough, thank you very much. She didn't speak much; but then, she was never handy with words, and she usually kept her mouth shut anyway. However, she now spent her lunch hours in Dumbledore's office. When she was spoken to, she gave vague answers, as if she understood, but wasn't really listening, and if one were to inspect her face at random hours of the day, they might've detected traces of agitation. Kentarre was not fond of idle waiting, but her training had made her wise and developed for her some patience, so she kept reminding herself that compared to the time she had waited to finally do away with Kaeru, this was small business. Still, she absolutely could not stand all this waiting!
Her one consolation was watching Harry. She often found herself staring at him, though he seldom noticed. *He'll do just fine,* she told herself. *I think I've finally convinced him, and he's got his own reasons now.* This seemed to settle her seething thoughts for a bit, though it wasn't long before she again felt like pacing holes in the floor.
Her conversations with Dumbledore were often quite lengthy and not always relevant to the crisis at hand. Nonetheless, Kentarre enjoyed having someone to talk to who was on her level of thinking; she didn't normally enjoy having someone to talk to at all. Dumbledore, however, was different. His eyes reminded her of one of her friends back home, but his humor was unlike anyone else's. But the part she liked most was all that she learned from him. He was almost always willing to share his knowledge of the particulars of wizardry, and Kentarre found this helpful, because all in all she hadn't learned much about that from the teachers here. She knew that having rather extensive knowledge about wizardry, and even more knowledge of Harry's peculiarities, would help in the long run in teaching him how Kelohra was different and how to use it efficiently.
In a nutshell, it wasn't entirely a bad week--from certain points of view. Harry's Potions grades were rapidly looking worse, and Hermione ridiculed him often, telling him that if he needed help with something, all he had to do was say so. But how could he tell her that he didn't know what it was that kept his mind off of whatever it was supposed to be focusing on? A few times he tried to bring into focus those places where his mind went when it was wandering aimlessly, but all he got was a dull ache in his temples and someone telling him he didn't look well. He wondered once if he should be worried about this, but then, he reminded himself, he was probably just feeling nervous--after all, Thursday was but three days ahead. He considered telling someone, but what would he say? Harry personally thought it best if he kept his mouth shut until it blew over.
So he did.
*A few hours before dawn, Thursday*
Kentarre had that feeling again; the feeling that even if she had tried to sleep, the feat would've proved itself quite impossible. So now she sat, alone and enjoying it, under the stars in the tree that she had chosen to spend the night. From up in the topmost branches, she had quite a clear view of both the sunrise and the Gryffindor tower window. A cool breeze played across her pale cheeks; the night was almost perfect. Kentarre suppressed a sigh and closed her eyes. *I won't fail,* she told herself and whoever else might be listening. *I can't. Too much depends on my success... and his.* Her eyes opened themselves, two glittering black spheres in the whiteness of her upturned face. She almost wished a storm would come up, just so she could ride it out in this tree.
Suddenly, from the recesses of her mind, a whispering voice came unbidden. "Kentarre," it said, "thou must trust the boy." The girl with silver hair lowered her chin. She answered with her own thought, "I hear thee. This thought hath occurred to me, your Greatness, but art thou certain we canst trust our fate to one so unbelieving?"
The voice took on a new tone, one with a hint of amusement. "Kentarre, my servant, canst you think of no one of whom the boy expresses likeness?" Kentarre's lips showed a trace of a smile. "I understand now. Thy words are a comfort, my Guide and Supplier of Life, and an honor. I thank thee."
"Thou hast served me well. Farewell, my most loyal servant. I shall not be far." The voice then left her, and Kentarre was left with a sense of security and peace. And, as if to prove her correct, the sky showed its first signs of lightening. Thus the day began, finding the girl who was not of this Earth with much confidence in her heart.
*A few hours later, when Harry was just waking*
Harry awoke after experiencing a rather strange dream. Images had flashed before his mind like a collage; one minute he saw Kentarre standing on the stone roof of the alien world, the next he was in a dark place filled with shadows that seethed and writhed just behind his line of sight, and the next he was standing next to the boy with hair that was tinted red and gold eyes that seemed to penetrate all in his battle against a man with greenish skin whose mere presence reeked of evil. And then there had been a new scene, one of fear and tense anxiety, where many people with blurred faces sat in a single large room and awaited their fate while something important happened elsewhere. They seemed to waver in and out of sight, as if they were not quite invisible.
He sat in bed and considered this dream for a while before realizing that his meeting with Kentarre was scheduled to begin in exactly seven minutes. He slid his glasses onto his face, pulled on a black school robe over his pajamas and went downstairs.
When he got outside, Kentarre wasn't anywhere in sight, so he went down the steps a ways to wait. Presently, there was a whooshing sound, and Kentarre dived down at him from somewhere in the sky. She slowed and landed beside him with a cheery, "Good morning." Harry was unable to speak. Kentarre looked as though she had been flying through bushes. Her hair was ruffled and sported a few leaves and twigs, and her robes were wrinkled and likewise decorated. When Harry was quite certain that if he opened his mouth he wouldn't laugh out loud, he said, "Been keeping busy?" The girl, her breathing excited, nodded.
After Kentarre had been given time to catch her breath, she stood and removed the remaining clinging leaves from her garments and mane. "Well," she said briskly, "shall we begin?" Harry looked up at her, his expression pensive. After a moment, having seemingly come to a sort of conclusion, Harry also stood, saying, "All right." Kentarre then placed him under direct scrutiny. "Well, you're a bit scrawny, but that can be fixed. All right, come with me." Then she strode off in the direction of the forest, with Harry coming behind her at a slow jog.
After they entered the forest a ways, Harry puffed, "Where are we going?" Kentarre replied without looking at him, "We need objects to work with, and besides, you haven't properly met my warriors." This startled Harry, but he had no choice other than to follow her.
They reached the familiar clearing in better time than they had when they first came here. Kentarre emerged out of the brush quite unceremoniously and then she halted abruptly, almost making Harry collide with her. He saw over the rather broad shoulder in front of him that all five people that had been there were there now, and all of them were standing. Not quite in unison, they bowed to Kentarre, muttering something. Harry saw that they wore rather nondescript clothing, some of it badly mismatched, but their faces were the same. Kentarre inclined her head at them, and then she began to speak to them. "I will speak to you in English so the boy can understand. This is Harry Potter," she gestured behind her at Harry, who moved out from behind her so they could see him. "He is the one who will help us, and he is at last ready." The warriors all inclined their heads at Harry. Then one of them, dressed all in brown, stepped forward. He said in a tone that was almost reverent, "I am Nazo. I am honored to finally meet you, Harry Potter." The others all introduced themselves in a similar way, being Kesshin, the girl in the red-colored garment, Ukeire, another girl dressed in yellow, Hanji, a man in a deep purple, and Tanoshimi, the last man garbed in green. After they had all introduced themselves, Kentarre turned to Harry. "These are my Celestial Warriors. They have waited just as long as I have for you, and I think they are pleased."
Harry's eyes traveled across each one's face, finally coming back to Kentarre. Finding no words to say that even sounded right in his head, he merely nodded. Then Kentarre turned back to the group of five. "The boy and I shall go apart now. We'll keep in touch." Then she began to walk back the way they had come, saying, "Coming, Potter?"
They went back a ways into the forest, and then Kentarre stopped. Looking around her, she said in approval, "This'll do." Then she turned to face Harry. "Before we begin, I want you to ask me any questions you might have." Harry looked at her, and then asked sheepishly, "Uh, what are we going to do now?" She chuckled. "We're going to see how well you can manage your thoughts." Harry thought that this didn't really answer his question, but the twinkle in her eye told him that this was all the answer he was going to get.
Then, without another word, Kentarre went over and picked up a rather medium-sized and unremarkable rock. She placed it at Harry's feet and said, "All right. Examine the stone from where you stand. Fix its image in your mind." Harry looked down at the stone and etched its details into his memory. "Now close your eyes and hold the image." He did. "Now, roll the stone over in your mind. Without opening your eyes, tell me what you see on the underside."
This was far harder than Harry had expected. How was he supposed to know what the underside of the stone looked like? Dubiously, the stone in Harry's mind rolled over, but the flipside looked exactly the same as the top! Kentarre said sharply, "No. You can't do this if you think too much. I want you to relax; don't think about what the underside looks like, just roll it over and see! Do it again." So Harry did it again; several times, in fact, but it never seemed to be any different. Kentarre, however, wouldn't let him give up. "You have to relax," she told him. "That's the only way it will work. Just clear your mind and see."
Harry reset himself and put the image of the stone in his mind. Trying with all his might not to think about what the underside might look like, he gave the rock a gentle push. It rolled, and Kentarre whispered, "Freeze!" The image in Harry's mind did just that, and then she asked him, "What do you see?" Harry examined more closely the flipside of the rock, and he saw that it was indeed different from the top. "It's got moss and dirt all over it," he described, "and there's two cracks, one on the left and one coming up from the bottom." Kentarre whispered, "Open your eyes." He did, and he saw that Kentarre had flipped the rock over, revealing the rock's dirty and cracked underside. Astonishingly, it looked exactly like he had seen it! He looked at Kentarre in surprise and saw that she was smiling at him. "Very good, Potter. Very good."
Then Harry saw something that he couldn't have explained even if he had tried, but it seemed to him that as Kentarre smiled at him, someone else smiled as well, someone who seemed to be trying to occupy the same space that Kentarre was. The other someone's face appeared just behind Kentarre's, but before Harry could realize this, it was gone, and there was no one but Kentarre.
They tried a few more similar exercises until Harry could get in on his third try. After that, Kentarre led the way back to the castle where several students were already up. "If anyone asks, you were out walking and you met me on the way back to the castle. It's best if they don't think we were out together." Harry privately agreed, but he had a feeling that his reasons were different than Kentarre's. If Malfoy found out that they were having early-morning excursions, Harry wouldn't hear the end of it for quite some time.
Well, that part of the explanation was easier for Kentarre than it was for Harry. For one thing, no one usually had anything to say to Kentarre, and for another, whenever Kentarre was in a crowded room, she often could be seen wearing a scowl, thereby discouraging anyone from striking up a conversation. For Harry, on the other hand, it was not so simple. Fred and George were up now, and they both inquired as to Harry's whereabouts earlier in the morning. "You know, it's such a coincidence that you and Kentarre both came in at the same time," said Fred sarcastically. "Yes," agreed George, "one would almost think that you were out together, but that simply couldn't be it, could it?" Harry said, "Well, no, that's not it. Actually, I woke up early and couldn't go back to sleep, and, er, I went for a walk, and I, er, met Kentarre just as I was coming back in." Fred put a hand on Harry's shoulder. "Right, Harry," he said teasingly, "we believe you. Well, we'd better be getting down to breakfast before it's all gone. See you!" With that, the twins started for the portrait hole, stopping long enough to glance at Kentarre and then wink in Harry's direction. Ron rolled his eyes. Then Hermione said, "So, Harry, what really happened out there?" Harry then relayed as best he could without sounding totally loony the events of the morning.
While they talked in lowered voices, the common room cleared as other students went off to lunch. It was Ron who finally pointed this out, and the three of them then likewise headed for the Great Hall.
The Great Hall was surprisingly still full of people, though the mail had already come and many of them were finished. The three of them sat down and scrounged for breakfast, stuffing themselves with what they could find before the bell rang. Kentarre was nowhere in sight, but that didn't seem to bother any of them.
When the monotonous shuffle to class began, the trio moved on in silence, each one's mind in a different place than the other two. The day promised to be a rather long one, and indeed, it seemed an eternity before even the first class was over. As it turned out, they were given a rather large load of homework, but it only occurred to Ron to complain about it, which he did to some considerable extent. Harry's mind flitted around as if it desired to be anywhere but the castle. It seemed as though images flashed before his mind, but they blurred away from him like reflections in a rippling pond as soon as he attempted to focus them.
The day seemed to slow even more, gradually, almost unnoticeably coming to a crawl. Then, in Defense Against the Dark Arts, the last class of the day, everything came to a stop.
Harry had been trying to hold onto what Professor Jycein was saying to copy down for notes when suddenly a voice spoke to him from the front of his mind, holding all of his attention. *Harry* it said in a cold, sibilant voice *you think that by joining with that alien that you will not lose against me? There is only one way that you can protect your friends, and that is by coming to me. With me you shall come to no harm. Can Kentarre promise you that?* Then there came a pause, a terrible pause in which Harry's mind reeled; he felt as though he were under scrutiny by many pairs of eyes, and then suddenly he found himself alone in an empty room. He attempted to shake himself, to somehow bring himself back to the present. He needed something to think about, something to focus on, but there was nothing to grab onto. He struggled like this for a moment before he realized that he was hearing something, another voice, familiar somehow. It said, "No, no, no. You have to relax. Don't think about the other side, just roll it over and look!" As he was marveling about this, an image came into his mind; a small stone by his feet, and another pair of feet not far away. *The stone,* he thought. *I have to roll it over.* He set himself to do this, but there seemed to be something in his way. The stone in his mind was blocked by something, and Harry could not get through it. He tried again to do what Kentarre had told him, to roll the stone over without thinking at all, but that thing blocking it was compelling him to think. Harry tried again and failed. He suddenly felt as though he was beating himself up against an impenetrable wall. *This is impossible!* he thought after his fifth try. That familiar voice spoke to him again. "No, it isn't. All you have to do is brush the thoughts away. The only thing that will accomplish this is your willpower." Harry considered this, but as he pondered, the wall seemed to grow stronger and even more impregnable, and as its strength grew, suddenly Harry became aware that the scar on his forehead was burning with an unquenchable fire. Then Harry, driven by the pain, attempted with his mind to go around the wall instead of through it. Suddenly, his way was free, and the stone rolled over, revealing the flipside with its dirt and moss and two spidery cracks.
"Harry! Harry, wake up!" Harry started and hit his knee on the underside of his desk. The fingers in his right hand ached, and he realized that he had been gripping the edges of the desk with a grip like death, while the other hand remained firmly attached to his forehead. He untangled his sore fingers to find Hermione staring at him with concern in her eyes. Ron was by her side, and his face was ashy. "Are you all right, Harry?" asked the red-headed boy. Harry asked no one in particular, "What happened? Where'd everybody go?" He looked around, seeing the class empty. "Well," said Ron, "you went all stiff, and then Kentarre started making noises like she was hurt but trying not to show it. She asked to be excused, and Jycein told her to stay, but she went anyway. Then you started clutching at your forehead, and the bell rang." Harry, in a bit of a daze, got up from his chair, slung his bag over his shoulder, and went to the door.
Outside, two people were having a heated conversation.
"-don't see why you're making such a fuss," said the voice of Professor Jycein. "You left the classroom without my permission anyway, so there's really no big deal."
"No big deal? You know perfectly well, traitor, that the only reason I asked you to leave was because I had to. It wouldn't do on my part to simply barge off in the middle of class without asking the teacher first." The second voice Harry recognized in an instant.
"Which you did anyway."
"Yes, I did, because if I didn't I would've been subject to a very difficult situation that I have no desire to explain twice!"
"Oh, that's a shame."
"Don't get cheeky with me, Learst."
"Why do you keep calling me that?"
"Shouldn't I? It's your name."
"Not since I turned human it's not."
"Learst, you know just as well as I do that that has nothing to do with it. Name change is optional."
"Yes, but I took that option, so you might as well get used to it. The name's Jycein."
"Would you stop getting off the subject? The point is I've had enough of your games. Try something like that again, and your life will be miserable henceforth."
"Ooh, I'm trembling in my shoes."
"Just keep in mind that I can arrange much worse than trembling."
Then Harry heard angry footsteps leading away from the classroom, and Harry, having no desire to be left alone with an angry Jycein, took this opportunity to open the door in a great hurry and follow after her. "Oh, Harry," someone called after him, and he had no choice but to turn around. Jycein was looking at him with an unreadable expression. "Are you sure you're all right, Harry?" asked the professor. Harry replied, "Uh, yes sir, I'm just fine, thanks." Without another word, Harry dashed off down the hall.
Kentarre had disappeared, but Harry had some idea of where she would go. Come to find out, he had been right. He found her fuming under the marble staircase in the Entrance Hall. "How dare that scum talk to me like that?" she hissed as Harry and the other two came up. She looked at Harry, and he saw her eyes flash furiously. Then her gaze softened to something not so harsh--like a stone--and she said, "Well, I'm glad you got yourself out of that mess. Are you all right?" Harry thought about this, and then he said, "I suppose so. What happened?"
"Kaeru."
"Oh. You mean he tried to--?"
"Mm-hmm. He sure did, that b-" Hermione started. "Kentarre!" she said sharply, and the girl with silver hair laughed. "Well, I suppose there's no hope for it. Out of curiosity, Potter, how did you get yourself out? Not even Dumbledore managed that." Harry told her about the stone, how it had come unbidden into his mind, and how the barrier had come in his way. When he got to the part about going around the wall, Kentarre nodded to herself, and when he was finished, she chuckled. "I guess you've got more devices against him than even I thought," she admitted. "Very good, Potter. Very good."