Okay, I realize I haven't updated my Harry and Luna story and I promise to do so in the near future! How near that may be, I have no idea!
Sigh. It's been a long week. And it's going to be another long week again!
Maybe I'll get some fanfiction done this week, that all depends!
For now, enjoy this next chappie!
Chapter 3
Cider pushed her long hair behind her as she looked in the mirror of one of the girls' bathrooms in the Gryffindor dormatories.
It was evening, and the girl Hermione had showed her around. Cider just wasn't sure of it. She wasn't really sure of anything right now.
Hogwarts was beyond anything she had ever known.
She stared up into the gloomy heights of the ceiling. The rooms were large, but they frightened her. It was quite dark in the castle, but not like in the forest. She missed the moon and starlight.
She sighed in dismay at her long, tangled white hair.
"If only I could cut it." She thought aloud.
She had to admit. She wanted to be like...well...the modern people.
Since I'm not living in the forest now, and I'm a 'traitor', I might as well enjoy myself and get a stylish hair cut.
It was a strange idea, as no centaur usually cut her hair. They always wore it long.
"But I'm not a normal centaur. I'm not very 'usual' at all..." She answered herself.
She placed her hands, palms down, on either side of her head at different spots and tried to imagine her hair cut off at different lengths.
But hair is so unpredictable.
Wait...oh that would be so cute! It would be perfect!
She smiled at the idea of an extremely short hair do. It would be shocking to her people, if they could see her.
If only mother could see me now...
Then her heart ached.
Mother will never see me again.
She tried to fight the tears, but suddenly they were spilling out, and she began to wonder whether or not she really was foolish for being here, in a wizards' and witches' castle, wearing a robe, when all of her kind were naked in forests.
The door opened, and she hid her face in her hands, embarrassed to be found crying.
"So anyway," Said Ginny Weasley to another girl in her year. "I asked Mum if I could- Oh!" She stopped when she saw Cider. So did the other girl. "Oh I'm sorry Cinders!"
Cider groaned. "It's Cider."
"Oh. Okay." Ginny and the girl both blushed.
"It's alright." Cider said with a sigh. She sniffed and looked at Ginny. "You're Ginny right?"
"Yes! Ginny Weasley."
"Oh. Well. Hello."
They stood in an akward silence.
"And this is Haley Morris. This is her first year here. I was just showing her around." Ginny said, at the elbow prod of the other girl, who smiled shyly, but very curiously at Cider.
Cider smiled. "It's my first year here too." She said, giggling a little.
"Yes. Well welcome to Hogwarts!" Ginny said, genuinely excited.
Haley smiled at Cider and queiried "So your parents sent you here?"
"Haley!" Ginny whispered fiercely, smiling embarrassedly at her.
"No, it's quite alright." Cider said, though the ache in her chest grew and intensified. "No. My parents didn't send me here. I just...came on my own."
"How?" Haley blurted.
"Well, I um...I just...left home."
"You ran away?" Haley said, eyes wide, before Ginny could stop her, her eyes equally wide.
"Y-yes." Cider said, her eyes beginning to tear up again. "I- I'd rather not talk about it, if you please."
She pushed by them, breathing hard, as she left the bathroom. It was all coming flooding back to her. The hate her people had shown her. Her mother's back. The sneers of the people she had once called friends.
The burning ashes thrown into her face, singing her fur and cloud white hair.
She found herself in Gryffindor common room and stared around her. She plowed deliberately on, without looking, only wanting to just get away from everyone. She couldn't go back to the dormitories; Ginny would come into the room and apologize for her friend, and Cider didn't think she could stand it. Everyone was sorry here! Everyone was always sorry-
and she ran straight into a young man with disheveled dark hair and large, almond shaped green eyes behind round black glasses that looked like they had been through quite a great deal...
She gasped as she found her eyes focusing on a lightning bolt shaped scar on the young man's forehead.
"Harry Potter!"
"Y-yes. That's me." He said, looking a little embarrassed.
Then Cider felt awful about what she had said. He probably hated getting attention for that scar now...
"Oh. I...I'm sorry. I didn't see you! I wasn't watching where I was going and-"
He laughed a little, looking somewhat annoyed. "It's...alright."
"I really am sorry, I mean, about your scar. I mean, I'm not sorry about it being there, I mean, well, I'm sorry you have it too, but I meant that I was sorry about mentioning it, oh, I..." She blinked several times, blushing furiously as tears of embarrassment poured out of her eyes.
"Oh, well it's okay-"
She pushed by him.
He turned and went after her. "Wait! Please, come back!"
Several other Gryffindors stared. Cider stopped, embarrassed. Oh no! Everyone was looking now! So humiliating!
They were whispering and staring at the centaur and Harry Potter.
He gently put his hand on her shoulder, turning her a little.
"Look, I really am sorry. I didn't mean to be so rude."
She smiled and wiped tears from her eyes.
"Please don't cry." She looked into his earnest eyes and could tell he felt guilty.
Something about him made her stop crying. He was just sweet. He seemed to be caring and strong, and yet on the verge of breaking down himself. Blushing, he withdrew his hand from her delicate shoulder.
They stood in embarrassed silence for a few minutes.
She looked up at him. He was smiling at her in a friendly, apologetic manner.
"I know this sounds odd, but you have the whitest fur."
She giggled. He blushed. "I mean, I've never seen it that white before. Well, Firenze is white too, but, well, you just look prettier than he does." Then he blushed. "Oh that came out so wrong!"
They both chuckled.
"It's alright. Thank you for the compliment. You're very nice. Very sweet."
He blushed again.
"Erm. Do you want to come sit with me and my friends?"
She looked over his shoulder to where he gestured; a table where a young girl with bushy hair and a boy with very bright red hair sat. She smiled as she recognized Hermione Granger; the kind prefect who had shown her around earlier. She didn't know who the boy was. But if he was friends with this boy, he couldn't be so bad.
"Well, okay." She smiled, and he led her over to the table.
He cleared his throat to get the attention of his friends. The boy had already been watching them.
"Hey, you're Cider!" The red head boy said.
"Yes." She said, smiling genuinely. Genuinely pleased that someone had finally gotten her name.
"Oh! Hello Cider!" Hermione said. She had been looking at a book, doing work, and had looked up when Harry had cleared his throat.
"Is that your name?" Harry said, smiling. "Cider." He said trying it out.
"Yes." Cider said, and giggled. Ron laughed too and Harry blushed again.
"Hello Hermione." Cider said, smiling. "What are you doing?"
"Oh, it's just an essay for Charms." Hermione said. "Harry is supposed to be working on his too. So is Ron." She said, stressing the names for emphasis, and looking very pointedly at the two boys each, squinting her eyes a little and raising an eyebrow.
Harry groaned, and so did Ron. Cider giggled.
"Can you believe the horror we have to go through?" Ron asked Cider.
"Oh hush. We all have to go through it. She's going to have to go through everything you've already been through, as of school work!"
Cider smiled. "Oh please don't remind me!" She said and laughed a little. Hermione smiled.
"Don't worry." She said. "I'll help you through it."
Cider felt a little better when Hermione said that. She was so trusty looking with honest brown eyes. Cider knew she was in good hands.
Once again, Hogwarts felt very cozy and safe, and beloved to Cider, though it had only been her first day.
Erm...obviously I'm not sure about a romance between Harry and Cider, as they are a wee bit...er...different... I don't know. Tell me what you think in a review please! If yes, I'll make this into the most unusual HP fanfic love story ever written, if no, well, I'll just make it a story about a centaur girl who becomes friends with Harry Potter and goes to Hogwarts and tries to figure out what her wizarding career dreams are and tries to realize them. Or I could make it go some really bizarre direction. Whatever...
