Chapter Eleven
"Did it work?"
"Yes."
"How well?"
"No telling. He could die within the next day or the next month. Maybe even in the next year."
The darkened form of a hooded man stood at the edge of the castle grounds, gazing up at the castle. "Not good enough." He grinned and whipped around, kicking the centaur in the middle of his chest. The centaur stumbled back and then fell down when he was hit with another blow to the jaw.
"I did what you told me to! You said you would let my tribe go!" Another blow to the stomach made him cough blood.
"I lied. You played your part well and now I'm through with you," said the cold, low voice. It was a youthful voice, one belonging to a man not in his twenties yet or just arriving. He raised his wand and grinned maliciously at the centaur. "As for your tribe, the hawk harpies will have fun ripping them apart." Then, there was a flash of green light.
Astra knocked on Avalon's door late that night and opened when she heard nothing. "Avalon? Are you here? Vee?"
Avalon was sitting in front of the fire, gazing into it. Astra walked over and sat down next to her sister. "What's wrong?"
"Have you ever felt like your whole life was meant for nothing?" she said in a soft voice.
Astra nodded. "Sometimes, though, not long."
Avalon didn't turn or even seem to blink as she stared into the fire. "I feel like that right now."
"Why?"
Avalon was silent for a moment before thrusting something powder like into the fire. The fire suddenly burst and Astra had to cover her eyes to keep from being blinded. "Wha! Vee?"
Avalon continued to stare into the fire. "The one thing I can never do is read my own fortune, see my own future. All I can do is see what I do through others lives. I suppose it's all a part of the time/space continuum that I should never be able to know fully what I will do unless I see it in someone else's future, so that I won't try to change what will happen and thus create a paradox."
"You know just as well as I do that time isn't like that. You can't create a paradox just because you did something differently than what you thought you were going to do. Time flows both in a circle and in a straight line, so that what happens will happen and the world be done with it," said Astra.
Avalon's gaze lowered and she put her hands on her face. "Then, explain to me why I thought Kennedy was the one I was intended to be with when he's going to die and leave me?"
Astra stared at her sister disbelievingly. "What?"
"You have Draco! Why can't I have what I want!" she moaned. "Why do I have to be the one that will grow old ALONE!" She was crying into her hands, her shoulders shaking with the force of her sobs. Astra's mouth went dry as she stared at her sister.
"You.. you must be joking, right? I mean, Kennedy has always been there. He couldn't die. Hell, he's worse than a cock roach! He'd survive a nuclear blast!" Astra was shaking herself, her heart frozen in her chest.
"He will die… very soon," said Avalon, though her voice still broke as she thought about the one man she ever loved dying and leaving her all alone. Astra knew Avalon hated being a lone more than anything, even though she put herself into her own solitude.
"You saw it?"
Avalon nodded and then looked to Astra. "And… he came back today from a trip saying he'd been attacked by something. He doesn't know what it was, but he knows he's weakening and soon he won't even be able to move."
"Poison? Was he attacked by a snake or something?" Astra frowned as she thought of any animal that could have hurt her friend.
"A snake would be predictable. No, something else hurt him, though I think poison is correct." She sighed and rubbed her face. "I don't know anymore what to think."
Astra thought of the boy she first fell in love with. Could Avalon's life be similar enough to her own that she would lose her first love? She hugged her sister tightly, rubbing her shoulders as she looked into the darkness on the other side of the room.
There was a creak as Kennedy walked in slowly. "Avalon?" he said in a soft voice.
Avalon and Astra looked up at Kennedy as he smiled at them tiredly. "I'm sorry if I kept you waiting, Avalon. I was downstairs talking to Headmistress Snape."
Astra stood up and walked over to Kennedy, hugging him. "Be careful," she whispered harshly before walking out.
Past the door, she started running. She kept running until she was outside and then she ran harder toward the forest. Harry saw Astra running toward the forest and was almost run into by her if she didn't slow before stopping in front of him. He could faintly see tears going down her cheeks, though she made no motion that she was crying.
"He's dying isn't he," Harry said softly.
Astra wrapped her arms around his waist and buried her face against his chest, sobbing. He caught her and held her tightly, frowning more as he gazed down at his friend. He rubbed her back consolingly as he looked out into the moonlit grounds over the rims of his glasses. Whoever did this was going to pay, and he was going to make certain that it never happened again.
He suddenly heard something in the distance of the forest. He pushed Astra behind him and looked out into the darkness. "Who's there!" he growled.
Astra wiped her eyes quickly and looked about. She could hear better than he could, but whatever it was that was stalking them was making sure she couldn't pinpoint where it was.
Suddenly, a bunch of Centaurs appeared in the moonlight. Harry took a step back, knowing they didn't like humans much, if at all. He had been lucky to befriend one, but the rest weren't as nice. "What do you want?"
The biggest centaur he'd ever seen walked up to him. He had to crane his neck back to look up at him. "You did this. You and your friends killed most of my tribe!" Harry dodged the blow aimed at his head, the big centaur's hooves making a loud thump on the ground when he landed.
"I don't know what you are talking about!" he gasped as he felt Astra against his back. "We just got here!"
"You were stalking in this forest long before the female came. I know you and I know you lie," the centaur growled.
"He doesn't LIE! Don't you DARE accuse him of such a thing!" Astra snarled as she came out from behind Harry.
"SILENCE!"
Harry leapt to catch Astra, but was stopped when he saw her holding onto the Centaur's front hooves. She snarled like an animal and her hands tightened on the ankle joints, a crunching sound cutting through the air following it. The Centaur's face drained of color and he tried to break free. She was looking over her glasses at the beast-man, menacingly. Her very gaze seemed to make him fear what else she could do to him, much less her angry strength.
A loud and sickening crunch sounded and then centaur screamed, though the others stopped when he threw his arms out wide. "Stop your advances, centaur, or else I'll make sure you will never walk again," said Astra in a quiet, eerie tone. Another sickening crunch and the centaur let out another yelp of pain.
"I'd rather DIE than let you kill another of my tribe!" he growled.
A small smile spread across Astra's face than made Harry's blood turn to ice. "You want to die? Fine!" Then, she lifted the centaur up and kicked hard at a very sensitive area.
"Wait!" Harry called at her to stop, but he was too late. The centaur was on the ground stunned and in a great deal of pain, his hind legs curled around the afflicted area. Harry stared at the scene. Astra had just basically kicked a centaur in the crotch.
"Demon woman!" hissed one of the younger centaurs.
Astra cracked her knuckles and grinned nastily. "Anyone else?"
The centaurs shied away from her, one picking up their leader and all ran off into the distance. Astra trembled with adrenaline as she hit the ground on her knees as the reality of what had happened occurred to her. She'd broken both his front ankle joints and kicked him where all men feared to be kicked. She could have killed him if she wanted, but she had enough sense not to.
"Astra… are you all right?" asked Harry as he came up behind her.
She nodded and sighed, looking up at the moon through the trees. "Did you hear what they accused us of?"
"Actually, it was only me they accused," Harry corrected her. She shot him a look over her shoulder and he smiled faintly. "Not the point, I know." He looked into the darkness of the Forbidden Forest. "They said we killed most of their tribe."
"Only we didn't."
"No, we wouldn't ever harm them unless they tried to hurt us," Harry nodded. "He said I and my friends killed his tribe."
"What friends? I'm the only one here aside from Avalon that you really know," said Astra as she stood up.
"I know." He looked about and frowned. "We have to find out what they were talking about. It's the only way we'll know for certain what happened." Then, he took her hand and started jogging after the centaurs.
Astra had a little difficulty running after him, as he was much faster than she was. She saw broken branches, heard strange noises in the night and felt something coming that she didn't want to see.
They came to a clearing and found a massacre. Male, female and children centaurs were lying everywhere, pieces of them mostly. It was as though the centaurs had been ripped apart. Astra's jaw clenched as she gazed on the grizzly scene. "You know what this means, don't you," she said softly.
"We're in another war," Harry said, eyes fixed on the bright blood in the moonlight. "And we're not going to come out of it for a very long time."