10

Journey To A New World

Prologue: Chiron the Centaur Falling...

The ground was cold and hard against Ceres' back, and she could feel something tickling the side of her face mercilessly. Ceres moaned in pain and opened her eyes slowly, looking around for the awful thing that was tickling her like mad. She grabbed at it with greedy, eager hands and pulled it away from her face, only to see that it was leaves. Leaves? When did she go outside? When did she sleep outside? Ceres frowned, and wondered why it was so dark outside, even with moonlight. Ceres sat up slowly, her back throbbing in pain as she looked around. The dark outlines of trees could be seen in the distance, but only that much. A few trickles of moonlight could be seen on the ground through the leaves of the trees, but the trees were so thick that hardly any moonlight was there. Ceres could hear another pained sound from not that far away, making her jump and turned her head towards the sound, straining her eyes to see it. She could see a dark outline of a figure, but she could not see a far.

It was then that a voice could be heard did she know whom it was.

"What is heck is this? What are we?" The voice said almost loudly. Ceres could hear the voice was annoyed more than anything, and somehow Ceres didn't blame her. Ceres closed her eyes and wished Hel would be quit, in case an animal came.

"Cerry? Is that you?" Hel leaned over and placed her hand on Ceres' face, feeling it and playing with her curly hair to see if it was. "It is! What are you doing here?" Ceres could feel a snippy retort prickling up her throat, but Ceres bit it back. It seemed Hel didn't know what had happened BEFORE they came here just as much as Ceres did.

"I'm not sure, but we should stay quit in case something comes towards us." Ceres said softly, her voice a sweet melody in the quietness of the forest. She was not used to hearing her voice in such a clear or dark air such as the forest. Ceres could feel that something was wrong with this forest, something strange was in it, but she couldn't put her finger upon what it was. Just then another person sat bolt upright feet away from Hel, and Hel gave a sound squeak and clamped her hand over her mouth.

"Why is it so dark? It's so dark and damp!" said Calliope in an annoyed way, just like Hel. It seemed Ceres was the only one not annoyed but the fresh smell and soft feel of the forest around her, even if the ground was a bit hard under her hands.

"Cal, keep your voice down." Hel hissed at her other friend a few feet away. Ceres looked around above and below her slowly, trying to figure out what time of the day (or night) it was. It was hard to determine, but it was far too dark for it to be daylight.

"Let's hold off on the questions for a bit, okay? We know we're in some weird forest, and its dark, and we have no flashlight or anything. We should—."

"Oh look Cerry! I have my cell phone. I could use that to call someone." Hel said suggestively, pulling it out of her jean pocket. Calliope gave an excited whoop and crawled closer to them while Hel tried to turn it on.

"Wha—It won't work!" Hel exclaimed, not understand any of this. Ceres gave an exasperated sigh and took the cell phone from Hel's surprised hands.

"The battery isn't low, it must have gotten broken. I think we fell from somewhere." Ceres said, handing it back to her, trying to figure out if they had been on a plane of some sort. Ceres gave them this idea, and the other two girls snorted with laughter.

"Why would we go on a plane anywhere? I have good memory, and the last thing I remember is that we were all at your home Ceres." Calliope said, still laughing softly. Ceres frowned and thought harder on that. She shook her head, her curly dark hair brushing her neck softly.

"It doesn't matter. We can figure out how we got here when we figure out where we are. Lets wait until daylight, and then walk around. For now, lets sleep." Ceres said, trying to think of something they could do during the morning for food. If they walked, they would defiantly need food and water.

A sound could be heard in the distance, far away from them, but close enough to be heard. A rustling and movement in the clear clean air that Ceres could feel. Ceres' back stiffened on instinct she didn't know she had and she spun around without warning to see what it was. But nothing was there. With her heart pounding she could almost sense that someone was still there, or that something was still there, or was there. She could just feel it. Ceres shook her head, trying to clear her thoughts, and just knew that her friends were looking at her as if she was crazy.

"Yes Ceres, I think sleep sounds good." Hel said nervously, and Ceres just knew Hel and Calliope were giving each other glances. Ceres rolled her eyes and felt along the ground, trying to get a nice spot to sleep on. When she did, she sat there on the cold ground, trying not to think of how they got there, and slowly feel asleep.

Ceres had imagined she would wake up to the sound of birds chirping, but she soon realized that it wasn't the same kind of bird chirping. The sound that could be heard was a far off caw, like that of a crow's. Ceres sat up slowly, her back stiff from sleeping on the ground. When she looked around she saw again that it was still dark for it to be daylight, but light enough to say that it was surely morning.

So that's what's wrong with this forest, Ceres thought, during the night there would always be sounds in the forest. Whether birds or insects, but there was none, and even now there is none. To Ceres it felt strangely quit, and she could feel the promise of solitude in the cold air as well. Ceres turned her sore neck to her friends and saw that they were eating...wait, eating?

"Where did you get that food?!" Ceres exclaimed, stumbling over to them, sniffing the air and staring down at the food.

Cally and Hel shrugged at the same time when a figure walked out from behind a tree. Ceres watched him in amazement, his hooves (wait, hooves?) beating against the soft damp ground firmly. Oh my gosh, he's a centaur! Ceres could feel her normal surprised face slipping over her once bland one, her big brown eyes growing larger.

"I heard your voices last night and came to see what was in the forest, when I saw also that three girls had gotten lost. A centaur never lets women on their own alone in the forest, so I brought back food and watched you as you all slept." The centaur said, her voice deep and almost soothing. "My name is Chiron." He said with a warming smile. Dark brown hair curled around his human face, and equally dark brown hair was the rest of his horse body. His body from horse to man was obviously muscular. His chestnut brown eyes stared down into Ceres.

"So that was you I felt." Ceres said, her voice smaller than usual. Chiron nodded and sat down next to the girls the way a horse would, folding its legs in under itself slowly.

"Can we call you ChiChi?" Hel asked with a wide smile, once she was done eating. Chiron burst into surprise laughter, her deep voice booming loudly, but softly around them.

"I do not care, but I am afraid you will not be seeing me for long. I am going to take you to the edge of the forest near the Castle, since it is closer, and leave." Chiron said, standing back up slowly.

"There's a castle? Where are we?" Calliope asked. She cut right to chase, which was always like her, Ceres observed.

"Yes, there is a castle. I wont explain much; I think you have had a big enough shock for this morning. Venture around the castle and make your own assumptions. And yes, there are people within the castle, many, in fact. And no, not a Princess." Chiron said softly, sounding almost tired when he said that, as if many wonderers asked that same question. Ceres could see from the corner of her eyes that Hel looked down about the no Princess and Princes.

When they all began to clean up the food they had eaten, and left some there for wandering animals just in case, all three girls climbed up on top Chiron's back, and they were off to see the Castle.

Ceres' last thought was this: Where have I seen Chiron before?

Chapter 1: Great Hall Greeting Falling...

It was with a sound THUD did Harry Potter fall off his bed when he woke up that morning. He moaned in pain and sat up quickly, the sheets twisted around his no-shirt-only-flannel-pants body. He ran a hand through his messy black hair, cursing softly at the shooting pain that was about to come. He stood up stiffly and rummaged through his bedside drawer for his school clothes. What a strange dream he had that night. It was about three girls falling into the Forbidden Forest, and a centaur Harry had never seen, named Chiron, helped them out the next coming so that they could come to Hogwarts and find a way to get back home.

Harry looked in the mirror he had, which he barely used, to at least try to comb out his tangle of hair. Now he was a 7th year, and very much looked it. His body had filled out, being toned in just the right places. Even though he wanted a tan badly, his skin didn't seem to want to do that, so it stayed pale but smooth. His bright green eyes showed even more now that he had contacts instead of glasses. He was nonetheless handsome. If he didn't get attention from girls before, he was certainly getting it now, and he didn't like it. With a tired yawn Harry walked down the stairs from the Boy's Dorm to the Common Room. Everyone else was getting ready for breakfast, and was filing out to go to the Great Hall.

When Harry got there, he took his seat next to his two best friends, Hermione Granger, and Ronald Weasley, and promptly began eating without hesitation. Hermione and Ron chatted and argued about classes, and which were the worst this year and the best, when suddenly the doors to the Great Hall were pushed open loudly, and in walked (or rather trotted) the centaur Chiron from Harry's dream...

...With the three girls right in tow.

"Wow!" Hel said, turning her head back to get the full amazing affect of what Chiron called the Great Hall. Chiron chuckled softly.

"Yes, this place is wonderful, isn't it? Welcome to Hogwarts." Chiron said, his voice low, soft, and soothing. Ceres looked around with mild curiosity, and was more interested in going home than anything else. She would let Calliope and Hel marvel at the obvious glory of the Great Hall, but Ceres would take care of the arrangements to go home.

"Chiron, may I ask what you are doing in here? The Centaurs are not happy with us." Another soothing, strange voice said from the center of the table. Ceres watched the old man with a long silver bear stand up, his pointed hat pointing down to the ground a little.

"I found these girls in the forest last night, and they are most certainly not witches." Chiron said, coming to a halt in the middle of the Great Hall, going down on his legs to that the three girls could climb off him. The man with the silver beard look thoughtful for a moment, almost intrigued by this, and not at all surprised.

"I had a feeling some Muggles would slip onto our Grounds at some point. This just shows the Magical World is falling to bits." The old man gave a soft sigh and walked around the table, towards the three girls. Hel and Calliope seemed to be more engrossed with looking at the Hall and its many people, than watched the old man like Ceres was.

"My name is Albus Dumbledore, Headmaster of Hogwarts School. I am just guessing, but I think you girls would like to go home, am I right?" The old man moved closer to them, and finally Hel and Calliope fixed their eyes upon him, a look of astonishment on their faces as if he had just popped up out of nowhere suddenly. Ceres nodded at his question, and he continued.

"I will see what I can do, and normally it is quit easy. For the day you shall stay, and tomorrow we will try to take you home. But the Magical World is falling to bits, as I have said before, so it may be difficult." The man looked as if he wanted to elaborate upon why, but he had other business to attend to. "Eat breakfast, and you will stay with a house...hmm, the Gryffindor house should do for now." Dumbledore said with a nod of his head, thanking Chiron for bringing the girls here, and turning to go back to the table. Chiron was gone before Ceres and the girls could say anything, and Ceres felt strangely confused. The man had just said all that Ceres had wanted to ask, before she could ask it. Was it all that obvious? Perhaps it was.

Ceres looked around to find the "Gryffindor table" that Dumbledore had mentioned, and didn't know where it was.

"Umm...which table is the Gryffindor table?" Ceres asked, not shyly, but not too rudely, her voice firm and loud to be courteous. Just then, almost the entire Great Hall pointed to one table, with a lot of students that were wearing red and gold scarves. Ceres pocketed the information that every house had its own two colors. She might need that later. Ceres and the girls squeezed into the table, eating only small portions each, even though they could have eaten more. Dumbledore had picked a student from the table and asked her to come to the front table, where he could talk to her. The girl nodded her bushy brown hair as he spoke and sat back down the Gryffindor Table again. It seemed that Breakfast was going faster than normal, because all of a sudden everyone was leaving for classes. A sudden fear flooded through Ceres. What were they going to do all day?

Suddenly, the girl with bushy brown hair came up to them immediately.

"Professor Dumbledore asked me to show you around, and to give you the Gryffindor password. You are to stay with me all day through classes." The girl confirmed, her voice almost annoyed at this. "My name is Hermione Granger." Hermione said, extending her hand towards each of them.

"I'm Hel Helana, and these are my friends Ceres Caraway, and Calliope Charleston." Hel shook Hermione's hand, and everyone else followed. Two boys emerged from the large crowd and stood behind Hermione. One had fiery red hair and deep blue eyes, with freckles sprinkled across his nose, while the other had jet black hair and bright emerald green eyes. His eyes seemed to strike Ceres, and she almost stared, but she caught herself quickly and looked back at Hermione. And for the rest of the day, they followed Hermione in all her (rather boring) classes until they got back to the Common Room. Ceres was so tired she didn't care to talk to anyone, and immediately left for bed. Though she couldn't sleep in the Girl's Dorm, she and the other three girls slept out in the Common Room that night, which Ceres didn't mind. She was going home tomorrow, so she didn't care.

Ceres slowly drifted off to sleep, with the emerald-eyed boy's face skittering across her dreams all night.