Chapter 12: Phorion's help.

Disclaimer: I own nothing. Except for Phorion, perhaps. Phorion is new to this chapter, and she is one of my favourites!

A night the next week, Harry dreamt that he was walking down the Charms corridor – how odd – a tunnel! Harry ran to it – it was humming faintly … he could hear people talking in there, laughing … Harry heard his name. Everyone laughed a bit more, and Harry saw shadows move across … he tried to get to them, to ask them why they were talking about him – he ran strait through the hazy mist and found himself out in the grounds … he heard the centaurs, and remembered when they had attacked Ron and him, and he got very angry … he went round Hagrid's cabin, and found himself behind a tree, listening to them.

'We have to kill him,' a first said. There were at least fifty.

'How can we?' a second one roared.

'Quiet, Darphin, everyone will hear us …'

'I am sorry,' said the centaur named Darphin in the same uptight voice.

'We have no magic, we will kill ourselves trying to get it,' a third, unfamiliar voice said. Harry listened closer, shivering slightly in the small breeze.

'We must kill the others ourselves, then. Then we'll see who he thinks is tough!' said another voice; Harry recognised this voice; this was Bane.

'Yes, however right you are, there are dozens of us, yet hundreds of them. They are exactly like us – we are no cleverer!'

'Let them try and hurt me,' a fourth, new voice snarled. This voice was clearly a woman's.

'You can't try, you're only a female,' Bane said.

'Try this!' she cried, and Harry saw the arrow going strait for his head. Bane only ducked just in time.

Harry laughed, and found himself in the middle of the tribe. Harry swore, and fell over; a grey-coloured centaur advanced onto him, bringing out his bows and arrows, but the female centaur kicked him hard … Harry saw that she had black eyes, and beige hide flecked with grey. She helped Harry up.

'Thanks,' said Harry, very much wanting to wake up. 'Hey!' he yelled, 'I'm in a dream – you can't get me – none of you re real, I'm in the Hospital Wing, I am, and I'm asleep, I'm with Andrea, there's nothing you can d–' A centaur grabbed Harry form behind; Harry coughed and spluttered; the pain felt very real. Suddenly, Harry was released. He turned around quickly to see that he had an arrow on him; directly in his head.

'Let's go,' said the female.

Harry hastened to obey. He climbed onto her back, trying to wake himself up. When Harry started hitting himself, the lady centaur looked around.

'Are you sure that's safe?' she asked.

'I'm in a dream,' Harry smiled. 'I can do what I like.'

'If you like,' she said, now galloping towards the castle, which didn't seem to be getting any closer.

'So, what's your name?' Harry asked, feeling as though he might as well be polite.

'Phorion; you must be the Potter Boy,'

'That's me,' Harry said, smiling again.

'I may not be welcome back for a bit. It doesn't help that I am – am,' she made a sound that was almost like a sob. Harry felt a bit helpless.

'You can stay in the castle,' he said, without thinking of it.

'I can?' she said, turning around at him in surprise.

Of course she can …but she injured so many of your friends …is the time right for revenge, Harry?

'NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!' Harry yelled, waking with a start.

'Andrea, are you there?'

'Mfph,' she replied. 'Is everything OK? Oh my God, did you yell, I thought it was just in my dream…'

'I'm –' Harry tried to say "fine", but the words didn't get out of him; he had just spotted a beige horse in the corner of the room.

'Harry, who's that?'

'Er, that must be,' Harry racked his brains for the centaurs name, 'Phorion, the female centaur. She was, er, kinda banished, so she's with me now.'

'You're nuts,' she said, but she was smiling at him. Harry grinned back.

'Phorion?' he called softly.

'Good Morning,' she said, and she stood up. 'How are you?'

'Fine,' Harry said. 'Oh yeah, this is Andrea, Phorion, my,' he gave a slight pause, 'girlfriend,' he ended. Andrea smiled even further, blushing again.

'Nice to meet you,' Phorion said. Now that he was out of a dream, Harry could see that she had long straggly blond hair in faint waves, not unlike Luna's, and that she was wearing a ragged half-top over her torso, which Harry was thankful of. She looked exactly like all other male centaurs apart from these few things; in addition, she smiled a lot more. Still confused on weren't or no the dream was real, Harry stood there, and was about to ask Phorion how she got up here, when Andrea spoke.

'Should we, er, move,' Andrea suggested. 'We're going to cause a lot of trouble when people are around, they'll think that she's going to kill them.'

'I could,' she said, as if Andrea was saying that she could not kill any student, 'but I am not going to. I am not on that side of the herd.'

It took Harry a good thirty seconds to register what she had said.

'You mean there are a good side and a bad side?' he asked Phorion.

'He Who Must Not Be Named cannot get all of us. Some of us are too clever, although this is very few,' she admitted sadly. A rumble above them told them that the students were waking; they were near the Hufflepuff Common Room.

'I am not a bad centaur,' Phorion said.

'I know you aren't,' Harry said. 'But, all the same, better to be safe then sorry.'

He led them out of the spare Hospital Wing, up a couple of secret passageways. They got out behind a tapestry, and Harry saw the one-eyed-witch.

'Oh yeah,' Harry said, turning to Andrea, who looked puzzled. 'Tap the hump of this statue –' he indicated the one-eyed-witch '– with your wand, and say Dissendium. There's a tunnel down there, you can use it for a hide-out when the centaurs –' Phorion coughed loudly 'I mean – the bad centaurs. But you must never go down the tunnel. Never. Got that?'

'Dissendium, never go down the tunnel. Yeah, got it,' she repeated, looking a bit puzzled.

'Let's keep moving,' Phorion suggested. 'Where are we going?' she added, looking around.

'Gryffindor Tower, I want you to meet some of my friends,' Harry replied, keeping his voice steady, though he was inwardly panicking; what if he was banned from Hogwarts? What if they murdered Phorion, whom Harry wasn't still quite sure about? She had still helped him, hadn't she?

'Password?' said the Fat Lady.

'Pulcherissimus,' Andrea said instantly, and the Fat Lady swung open to admit their entrance.

'Can you climb up stairs OK?' Harry asked Phorion.

'Of course. I am not a cow,' she said, with the slightest tone of scathing in her voice.

When Phorion came into the Common Room, the reaction was instantaneous; people started screaming and heading for their dormitories, running around in blind panic; Ron and Hermione sat there stunned, looking from Harry, to Andrea, to he new centaur in between them.

'Harry,' Hermione said slowly, 'what's happening?'

The Common Room was completely deserted except for the five of them. Phorion pawed the ground nervously.

'Well, er, Phorion saved my life –'

'Phorion?' Ron said, very puzzled. Then a look of comprehension dawned on his face. 'This centaur is called Phorion. What's he doing here?'

'She,' Andrea said.

'You what?' Ron said, looking baffled.

'Phorion's a she,' she repeated.

'Is she – I mean – are you staying here?' Hermione asked.

'I am now banned from my herd.'

'Like Firenze was?' Ron asked, without thinking. Hermione shot him a warning look.

'Yes,' Phorion answered bitterly. 'And – and now he's d-dead,' she sniffed, and Harry was shocked to see that she was crying. Hermione stood up, and, with Andrea, she took her to a corner and comforted her.

'Don't look at me like that – you look like an ape, or something,' Harry said; Ron was still staring over in the corner.

'Well,' he said finally, 'she's a centaur, and – and they're not that great at the moment, are they?'

'She saved my life,' Harry repeated, even though he wasn't quite sure about it. 'She's staying with me.'

Harry assumed that Ron had nothing to say to this, but instead of finishing off his diagram for Professor Sprout, he trudged towards the boys' dormitory.

'What're you going there for?' Harry called after him; Ron turned around.

'Shouldn't we tell people that she's, er, innocent,' he said, casting a wary look to the corner, where Phorion was chatting spiritedly to Hermione and Andrea; she seemed to have cheered up a lot.

Harry considered Ron's question. Wouldn't her presence alarm people if they thought she was dangerous? Yes, thought Harry. But wouldn't the teachers notice? Unless they thought she was dangerous, and didn't come up to Harry … 'Tell no-one about her. Well, maybe we'll tell a few people, like Neville, or Malfoy, so they don't freak out totally,' Harry grinned. 'But especially don't tell Ginny; I'm looking forward to scaring the hell out of her.' Ron laughed, and Harry guessed he went to tell Neville, who had been first to run upstairs.

The portrait hole swung open, and Fred and George came through, laughing, saying something about an Instant Insult Maker. Fred looked like he was just about to say something to Harry, but he heard the three girls laughing in the corner; Fred's head snapped round.

'Harry,' Fred whispered urgently, 'd'you know that there's a centaur over there? It could kill us.'

'I doubt it,' said Harry, with such obvious casualness; Fred and George looked stunned. 'She saved my life, so she's staying with me. I'll introduce you,' he added, and Fred and George almost backed off into the wall.

'Phorion? I've got a couple of friends I'd like you to meet,' he called, and she trotted over.

'Charmed,' Fred said, shaking her hand.

'Likewise,' said George, looking apprehensive, and taking her hand, too.

'Don't worry, I'm only a girl,' she said teasingly, smiling at their odd behaviour.

'You're a female,' Fred repeated.

'Do I look like a male?' she asked, firing up.

'No,' Fred and George said together, shaking their heads.

'You look great,' George said, inclining his head towards her slightly.

'Very pretty,' Fred added, looking at Harry, who was having silent fits of laughter.

'Well, I'm going to be staying here, so I suppose you'd get used to me,' she smiled, and Fred and George relaxed.

'Anyway,' Fred turned to Harry, 'you weren't in any classes this morning, were you?'

'No,' Harry answered, not missing the classes at all.

'Have you given up?'

'No,' Harry said a bit more angrier and told Fred and George about the voice he could hear in his head. They were both shocked more than Harry was; it scared Harry that people who were usually so bouncy and happy could look so scared; although Harry had seen them scared a few times before, it was worse seeing them now.

Blood traitor filth…

'Shut UP!' Harry yelled. Everyone turned around to him, and he added in a sheepish voice, 'it was the – the … you-know-what. In my head.'

Andrea hugged him, and Hermione placed a disillusion charm onto Phorion, whilst people were coming down.

'Try not to move too much,' Hermione whispered.

'This feels weird,' Phorion concluded, and Harry laughed, knowing the effects of the disillusion charm, having had Mad-Eye Moody put it on him two years ago.

It tuned out that no one was none the wiser that a centaur was in the room. Seamus and Dean came to sit with them, finishing off their homework from the previous night. Neither Harry, Ron, Hermione nor the twins had done theirs.

'Well, night, everyone, see you tomorrow,' Hermione said, rubbing her eyes at gone ten o' clock.

'I will come, too,' Phorion said from near the fire, and Seamus and Dean jumped.

'What?' they said in unison.

'I said I'd come too, didn't you hear me?' Andrea said quickly. Harry noticed Dean eyeing Andrea up and down; he got rather angry.

'See you in the morning Andrea,' he said brightly. Andrea laughed.

'You never give up, do you?'

'Nope,' Harry said, laughing slightly at what she said and at Seamus's and Dean's puzzled expressions. Andrea smiled and kissed Harry on the cheek; Dean slumped back in his chair and Seamus hit him in a playful way.

'See you,' she said on the way up to the dormitory, with Hermione and a chameleon Phorion hurrying in their wake.

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