The Pride of Centaurs
(A/N: I would like to thank everyone who has taken the time to review my story thus far, whether the review was positive or negative. And to anyone who has persisted in reading this far despite the general lack of action: I'm attempting to cause things to get more exciting toward the end of this chapter. Let me know what you think.)
On the whole, the beginning of term feast was not a very exciting affair. The sorting hat did not choose to warn the students to stand together against Voldemort, probably figuring that now that Voldemort's attempts to ascend back into power were now common knowledge in the wizarding world, all those who were going to stand against Voldemort were already doing so.
Harry was relieved to see Hagrid occupying his normal spot at the table this year, although he did look rather tired. Tonks was sitting beside him, today appearing as a wizened looking witch in her late fifties or so. Harry supposed that Tonks judged this appearance to be more suited for the teaching profession than one with spiked hair. Beside Tonks was sitting Professor Snape. Looking at Snape this year did not provoke the normal dread in Harry that it would have if he was going to have Snape if a teacher this year.
Ginny kept yawning throughout the feast, and conversation was not very interesting. Harry kept glancing up at Hagrid, who upon second glance seemed not only to be tired, but also very worried about something as well. Harry was very curious about what this could possibly be, but after the feast ended, Hagrid went back to his cabin right away, so Harry did not get a chance to talk to him about it.
When Harry, Ginny, Ron, and Hermione made it up to the Gryffindor common room, Harry mentioned his concern about Hagrid to him.
"I wonder whether he's sent his brother back home yet?" asked Hermione.
"I don't know if he necessarily even survived his confrontation with the Centaurs at the end of last year, they were pretty vicious," said Harry.
"Do you think we should go talk to him?" asked Ron.
"Why don't we wait 'til tomorrow, I'm really tired, and besides, wouldn't we get caught?" asked Ginny.
"I've never told you about my invisibility cloak, have I?" asked Harry, grinning. "No, we won't get caught," he reassured her. "But if you want to stay back because you're tired, feel free."
"I would come," said Ginny, "but I'll fall asleep standing up if I don't get to sleep soon."
"Well, good night then," said Harry.
"Yeah, good night," Ginny responded, and kissed Harry on the cheek.
Harry, who was mildly embarrassed at even this mild public display of affection, quickly retreated to his room to grab his invisibility cloak. Moments later, he, Ron and Hermione were making their way across the grounds to Hagrid's cabin.
They reached the cabin and removed the invisibility cloak. When they knocked on the door, a very nervous sounding Hagrid called, "Look, I don't want a fight, I'm leaving right now!"
"Hagrid, it's us!" Harry yelled through the door. "Let us in!"
When Hagrid opened the door, his face was panic-stricken, and it was quite obvious that he had been packing all the important things in his cabin into one trunk. Fang was barking like mad.
"Look, you guys have got ter get yerselves back ter the castle right away. I'm headin' there just's soon's I can get my stuff packed. I'm not safe this close ter the forest anymore," said Hagrid.
"What, why?" asked Ron, looking as confused as Hagrid did scared.
"I don't have time ter explain," said Hagrid, impatiently. "Just go! I've got ter pack! Oh no! Too late!" Hagrid was looking with increasing panic over the heads of Harry, Ron, and Hermione.
The three of them wielded around as quickly as they could. The scene that they saw was almost enough to make Harry scream. No less than 20 centaurs had emerged from the forbidden forest, each carrying a bow and a quiver of arrows.
"Hagrid, you have not heeded our warning to leave your cabin immediately. Therefore, you have brought your fate upon yourself," said one of the centaurs.
Hagrid, who had reached into the cabin and grabbed his own bow and quiver, was currently fastening an arrow.
"Wait for a moment, so that the young have a chance to retreat," suggested one of the centaurs.
"Those are no young," replied the first centaur. "The black-haired boy, and the young woman insulted us about three months ago, by assuming that we were simply tools at their disposal."
"Well, then we must at least let the red-haired one go," said the kinder centaur. During this time, Hagrid had paused in loading his arrow, so as not to provoke the centaurs to attack before they had released anybody who they were planning on releasing.
Harry and Hermione were terrified, and they each shot a glance at Ron. Each of the three of them had already reached down into their pockets and grabbed their wands, but had not yet pulled them, because they knew that the presence of wands would simply provoke the centaurs to a greater extent.
"No," said Ron, "I won't leave without my friends. I'll stay here and fight if necessary."
Now Harry believed that this was a very stupid, though noble thing to say. The centaurs, apparently, found it simply insulting. "He believes that he can fight us!" scoffed the previously sympathetic centaur. "You're right, he may be stupid, but he is not innocent."
The centaurs raised their bows in unison. "Get behind me!" commanded Hagrid, attempting to step in front of the three young wizards. "And don't do anything to provoke them!"
But apparently, the centaurs were already thoroughly provoked. Several exciting and important things happened in the next several seconds. The lead centaur (the one who had began to converse with Hagrid originally) shouted "Fire!" Immediately, as the centaurs were pulling back their bowstrings, Harry, Ron, and Hermione had each pulled their wands and they yelled "Expelliarmus!"
Many of the centaurs lost their bows as a result of that. Then, as several centaurs began to reach to the ground to find their bows, and Hagrid prepared to fire his own arrow, two centaurs who still possessed their bows managed to hit Hagrid with arrows. Hagrid bellowed, and began to fall backwards as Harry, Ron, and Hermione scrambled to get out of the way. They each yelled "Expelliarmus!" again, more urgently this time, and this time their collective voice was supplemented by a fourth. Even over the voices of his friends, Harry recognized the other voice as Dumbledore's. Even the centaurs who had recently managed to collect their bows from the ground lost them again, and they flew a few feet away. The centaurs turned around to see their new adversary.
Dumbledore said "You will retreat now, and give each of my comrades the chance to retreat once and for all from your Forbidden Forest, as well as the land immediately surrounding it. Including this cabin."
The centaurs hesitated. Harry whispered to Ron and Hermione, "Next time, we'll do the Stunning Charm instead of trying to disarm them." The centaurs seemed to be weighing their odds against 4 wizards. They seemed to decide that these odds were not too good, and so, they began slowly to retreat, mumbling angry under their breath the whole time.
Dumbledore made his way over to Ron, Hermione, Harry, and Hagrid. He knelt down beside Hagrid. "I'm all right," Hagrid said, weakly. He did not appear to be telling the truth, as he did have one arrow sticking out of his chest, and another sticking out of his right arm.
"Yes, I'm sure you'll survive," said Dumbledore. "But allow me to summon Madam Pomfrey anyway... Actually, maybe we ought to take you to her. It doesn't seem like this area of the grounds is too safe any more." Dumbledore performed a levitation charm on Hagrid's trunk and his body as well, and both floated behind Dumbledore as he made his way back to the castle.
"You three," he said, motioning to Ron, Harry, and Hermione, "ought to come with us. But don't forget that cloak of yours. You wouldn't want to lose it."
"We're uh... How much trouble are we in?" asked Hermione cautiously.
"You? Well, as far as I'm concerned, it was the centaurs who did something wrong," said Dumbledore. "You're just lucky that Firenze was able to warn me of the Centaur's intentions ahead of time. Apparently not all the Centaurs are against Firenze, and so he still has contacts within his species. And one tipped him off that Hagrid was in trouble."
"I mean, are we in trouble for sneaking out of bed," said Hermione. Ron shot her a glance that said something to the effect of "don't remind him!" As shaken as Ron must have been by this near death experience, he was still anxious to avoid getting in trouble if it was possible.
"Yes, well, I suppose I'll subtract 10 points from Gryffindor for each of you for being ought of bed late. But I'll add those 30 points back on the grounds that you helped to save the life of one of your teachers. Thus, you break even, and no one ever need know about your deviant behavior. And I simply wouldn't feel right giving you any detentions, as my discovery was through no fault of your own," said Dumbledore, grinning. "But," he said, appearing more serious, "I trust that the three of you will desist from roaming the grounds at night, and will never come so close to the Forbidden Forest again."
"Yes sir," the three of them responded earnestly.
"Okay," said Dumbledore, now that they had arrived at the castle, "Put your cloak back on and get to bed right away. You've had quite an exciting night." Observing the way the three youth were looking anxiously at Hagrid, Dumbledore continued, "Madame Pomfrey will have no trouble nursing him back to health, and you may visit him tomorrow in the hospital wing."
Once back in the Gryffindor common room, Harry, Ron, and Hermione removed the cloak.
Hermione regarded Ron, "That was really brave the way you stayed back there with us," she gushed.
"I really had no choice," said Ron modestly. "I couldn't have lived with myself knowing that I had left the three of you back there to die. I did the only thing that I could."
Nevertheless, Hermione gave Ron a quick kiss before the three parted to go to bed. Once Harry reached his familiar four-poster, he fell asleep as soon as he hit the mattress.
(A/N: I would like to thank everyone who has taken the time to review my story thus far, whether the review was positive or negative. And to anyone who has persisted in reading this far despite the general lack of action: I'm attempting to cause things to get more exciting toward the end of this chapter. Let me know what you think.)
On the whole, the beginning of term feast was not a very exciting affair. The sorting hat did not choose to warn the students to stand together against Voldemort, probably figuring that now that Voldemort's attempts to ascend back into power were now common knowledge in the wizarding world, all those who were going to stand against Voldemort were already doing so.
Harry was relieved to see Hagrid occupying his normal spot at the table this year, although he did look rather tired. Tonks was sitting beside him, today appearing as a wizened looking witch in her late fifties or so. Harry supposed that Tonks judged this appearance to be more suited for the teaching profession than one with spiked hair. Beside Tonks was sitting Professor Snape. Looking at Snape this year did not provoke the normal dread in Harry that it would have if he was going to have Snape if a teacher this year.
Ginny kept yawning throughout the feast, and conversation was not very interesting. Harry kept glancing up at Hagrid, who upon second glance seemed not only to be tired, but also very worried about something as well. Harry was very curious about what this could possibly be, but after the feast ended, Hagrid went back to his cabin right away, so Harry did not get a chance to talk to him about it.
When Harry, Ginny, Ron, and Hermione made it up to the Gryffindor common room, Harry mentioned his concern about Hagrid to him.
"I wonder whether he's sent his brother back home yet?" asked Hermione.
"I don't know if he necessarily even survived his confrontation with the Centaurs at the end of last year, they were pretty vicious," said Harry.
"Do you think we should go talk to him?" asked Ron.
"Why don't we wait 'til tomorrow, I'm really tired, and besides, wouldn't we get caught?" asked Ginny.
"I've never told you about my invisibility cloak, have I?" asked Harry, grinning. "No, we won't get caught," he reassured her. "But if you want to stay back because you're tired, feel free."
"I would come," said Ginny, "but I'll fall asleep standing up if I don't get to sleep soon."
"Well, good night then," said Harry.
"Yeah, good night," Ginny responded, and kissed Harry on the cheek.
Harry, who was mildly embarrassed at even this mild public display of affection, quickly retreated to his room to grab his invisibility cloak. Moments later, he, Ron and Hermione were making their way across the grounds to Hagrid's cabin.
They reached the cabin and removed the invisibility cloak. When they knocked on the door, a very nervous sounding Hagrid called, "Look, I don't want a fight, I'm leaving right now!"
"Hagrid, it's us!" Harry yelled through the door. "Let us in!"
When Hagrid opened the door, his face was panic-stricken, and it was quite obvious that he had been packing all the important things in his cabin into one trunk. Fang was barking like mad.
"Look, you guys have got ter get yerselves back ter the castle right away. I'm headin' there just's soon's I can get my stuff packed. I'm not safe this close ter the forest anymore," said Hagrid.
"What, why?" asked Ron, looking as confused as Hagrid did scared.
"I don't have time ter explain," said Hagrid, impatiently. "Just go! I've got ter pack! Oh no! Too late!" Hagrid was looking with increasing panic over the heads of Harry, Ron, and Hermione.
The three of them wielded around as quickly as they could. The scene that they saw was almost enough to make Harry scream. No less than 20 centaurs had emerged from the forbidden forest, each carrying a bow and a quiver of arrows.
"Hagrid, you have not heeded our warning to leave your cabin immediately. Therefore, you have brought your fate upon yourself," said one of the centaurs.
Hagrid, who had reached into the cabin and grabbed his own bow and quiver, was currently fastening an arrow.
"Wait for a moment, so that the young have a chance to retreat," suggested one of the centaurs.
"Those are no young," replied the first centaur. "The black-haired boy, and the young woman insulted us about three months ago, by assuming that we were simply tools at their disposal."
"Well, then we must at least let the red-haired one go," said the kinder centaur. During this time, Hagrid had paused in loading his arrow, so as not to provoke the centaurs to attack before they had released anybody who they were planning on releasing.
Harry and Hermione were terrified, and they each shot a glance at Ron. Each of the three of them had already reached down into their pockets and grabbed their wands, but had not yet pulled them, because they knew that the presence of wands would simply provoke the centaurs to a greater extent.
"No," said Ron, "I won't leave without my friends. I'll stay here and fight if necessary."
Now Harry believed that this was a very stupid, though noble thing to say. The centaurs, apparently, found it simply insulting. "He believes that he can fight us!" scoffed the previously sympathetic centaur. "You're right, he may be stupid, but he is not innocent."
The centaurs raised their bows in unison. "Get behind me!" commanded Hagrid, attempting to step in front of the three young wizards. "And don't do anything to provoke them!"
But apparently, the centaurs were already thoroughly provoked. Several exciting and important things happened in the next several seconds. The lead centaur (the one who had began to converse with Hagrid originally) shouted "Fire!" Immediately, as the centaurs were pulling back their bowstrings, Harry, Ron, and Hermione had each pulled their wands and they yelled "Expelliarmus!"
Many of the centaurs lost their bows as a result of that. Then, as several centaurs began to reach to the ground to find their bows, and Hagrid prepared to fire his own arrow, two centaurs who still possessed their bows managed to hit Hagrid with arrows. Hagrid bellowed, and began to fall backwards as Harry, Ron, and Hermione scrambled to get out of the way. They each yelled "Expelliarmus!" again, more urgently this time, and this time their collective voice was supplemented by a fourth. Even over the voices of his friends, Harry recognized the other voice as Dumbledore's. Even the centaurs who had recently managed to collect their bows from the ground lost them again, and they flew a few feet away. The centaurs turned around to see their new adversary.
Dumbledore said "You will retreat now, and give each of my comrades the chance to retreat once and for all from your Forbidden Forest, as well as the land immediately surrounding it. Including this cabin."
The centaurs hesitated. Harry whispered to Ron and Hermione, "Next time, we'll do the Stunning Charm instead of trying to disarm them." The centaurs seemed to be weighing their odds against 4 wizards. They seemed to decide that these odds were not too good, and so, they began slowly to retreat, mumbling angry under their breath the whole time.
Dumbledore made his way over to Ron, Hermione, Harry, and Hagrid. He knelt down beside Hagrid. "I'm all right," Hagrid said, weakly. He did not appear to be telling the truth, as he did have one arrow sticking out of his chest, and another sticking out of his right arm.
"Yes, I'm sure you'll survive," said Dumbledore. "But allow me to summon Madam Pomfrey anyway... Actually, maybe we ought to take you to her. It doesn't seem like this area of the grounds is too safe any more." Dumbledore performed a levitation charm on Hagrid's trunk and his body as well, and both floated behind Dumbledore as he made his way back to the castle.
"You three," he said, motioning to Ron, Harry, and Hermione, "ought to come with us. But don't forget that cloak of yours. You wouldn't want to lose it."
"We're uh... How much trouble are we in?" asked Hermione cautiously.
"You? Well, as far as I'm concerned, it was the centaurs who did something wrong," said Dumbledore. "You're just lucky that Firenze was able to warn me of the Centaur's intentions ahead of time. Apparently not all the Centaurs are against Firenze, and so he still has contacts within his species. And one tipped him off that Hagrid was in trouble."
"I mean, are we in trouble for sneaking out of bed," said Hermione. Ron shot her a glance that said something to the effect of "don't remind him!" As shaken as Ron must have been by this near death experience, he was still anxious to avoid getting in trouble if it was possible.
"Yes, well, I suppose I'll subtract 10 points from Gryffindor for each of you for being ought of bed late. But I'll add those 30 points back on the grounds that you helped to save the life of one of your teachers. Thus, you break even, and no one ever need know about your deviant behavior. And I simply wouldn't feel right giving you any detentions, as my discovery was through no fault of your own," said Dumbledore, grinning. "But," he said, appearing more serious, "I trust that the three of you will desist from roaming the grounds at night, and will never come so close to the Forbidden Forest again."
"Yes sir," the three of them responded earnestly.
"Okay," said Dumbledore, now that they had arrived at the castle, "Put your cloak back on and get to bed right away. You've had quite an exciting night." Observing the way the three youth were looking anxiously at Hagrid, Dumbledore continued, "Madame Pomfrey will have no trouble nursing him back to health, and you may visit him tomorrow in the hospital wing."
Once back in the Gryffindor common room, Harry, Ron, and Hermione removed the cloak.
Hermione regarded Ron, "That was really brave the way you stayed back there with us," she gushed.
"I really had no choice," said Ron modestly. "I couldn't have lived with myself knowing that I had left the three of you back there to die. I did the only thing that I could."
Nevertheless, Hermione gave Ron a quick kiss before the three parted to go to bed. Once Harry reached his familiar four-poster, he fell asleep as soon as he hit the mattress.