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Chapter 5

To Live Right

Harry sighed as he knocked on Hagrid's front door and waited but a moment before the menacing guy pulled it open. Well, okay, the giant guy tried to be scary, but Harry could always sense his doubt and uncertainty. The guy was a gentle giant and would never lash out at him (without just cause) no matter how many times he made the threat.

Before Hagrid could even exit his house after grabbing his crossbow, and a lamp his large grey boarhound slithered out around his giant legs and had at first tried to jump up at Harry yapping happily, but one gesture and the dog stopped, looking sheepish before he happily accepted Harry stroking his head and lavishing him with attention in a less slobbery way than the dog had thought of beforehand.

"How do you do that?" Hagrid demanded as he slammed his door closed.

Harry just shrugged with a giant smile. "Blah, no problem at all Mr. Hagrid," he answered politely. "It's all about image and respect even in the animal kingdom. People don't give animals enough credit. If a creature respects you then it will listen, but if it does not; then it won't."

"Nonsense!" the giant of a man boomed out heatedly as he led on, but his dog, Fang walked behind by Harry's side. "Why would Fang want to respect an evil dark wizard like you?"

"Dark…? Possibly," Harry agreed, which startled the large man. "But evil is an extraordinarily strong word, Mr. Hagrid, which your people throw around like people are born that way. Do you not agree that as a decent human being that I should protect people?"

"Why would you protect people?" he scoffed at the thought. "You're just a bully, jealous of your own brother."

"Jealous that my brother was loved while I was not?" he asked with a bitter tone that caused the giant man to flinch as he led the way through the trees into the forbidden forest. "Yet, you call me a bully for defending innocent kids incapable of defending themselves?"

"They're just Slytherin's!" the giant spoke before crying out in pain as Harry withdrew his wand and with a flick the giant man's back crashed into a large tree with vines whipping round to hold him to it as Harry wasn't smiling now.

"And your just a filthy fucking hybrid half-giant! Now what difference is there? You must be evil because you have giants blood running through your veins. Should I perhaps do the world a favour and just kill you, so we don't find the bones of devoured children hidden throughout the grounds?" Harry asked coldly and Hagrid grimaced and had a stay tear in his right eye.

"Honestly, Hagrid," Harry continued as he calmed only a little. "It doesn't matter to me that your father had some fun with a giantess – maybe fell in love… humans can be weird. I have no personal attraction of giantesses, but that doesn't mean I hate him or you because of anything so ridiculous. They were obviously consenting adults. But look at your so-called friends – the so-called good guys and ask whether disgust would be the first thing to cross their minds, because I would place money on it! Most aren't even tolerant to people like us, or maybe some are just humouring you? Do you think that Dumbledore cares – with his power he could have forced a proper ILEGAL investigation into the Chamber of Secrets fifty-five years ago, but you were a pretty easy scapegoat for the full-blooded human! Even now Dumbledore defends Tom Riddle – or if you hadn't known – Voldemort."

Hagrid flinched as his eyes widened, and for the first time in his life was cowering from a student, and Fang whimpered a little but didn't move as Harry swiped his wand, the vines uncurling from the half giant, and the large man fell to the ground gasping for breath and rubbing his sore wrists from the vines as Harry put his wand away.

"You condone Terry's brutal attacks on other students!" Harry hissed out as he resisted the strong urge to kick the huge man in the face. "Yet when someone stands up to him you say, 'they're only Slytherin's', or 'they've been corrupted by Slytherin's!'. That's fucking retarded, so get a fucking clue! That's the sort of thing that leads innocent kids to go on a murderous rampage when the adults who are supposed to protect them don't give a shit, and you know, normally the bully is never in the line of fire but 'innocent' people who never gave a shit enough to stand by them against the bullies are. It's about time someone stood up to bastards like Dumbledore letting this shit carry on!"

After that, Harry just shook his head in revulsion and left, gesturing Fang to stay as he was going to follow, and Harry felt like a walk by himself. Harry walked for well over an hour as he calmed down and was not sure exactly what he was supposed to be doing in the forest but shrugged that off as unimportant when he heard some soft whimpering's of fear. He knew the sound of fear easily as when Terry and his butt-buddies went on the prowl that was what he heard from the victims of the Boy-Who-Lived.

Harry ran faster than he could remember and jumped through a thicket of bushes landing with a crash in a large clearing, his eyes narrowed. He took witness of around twenty filthy looking men carrying all sorts of weapons from knives to spears, and chain. He also saw many small cages containing creatures from common pixies to forest fairies, and even a couple of weird furry creatures, two, one black, one white, spirits of some kind he didn't doubt from what he sensed from their magic, but they were trapped in the magical cages.

However, Harry's eyes widened as he took stock of three dead Centaur, and a fourth bleeding rapidly with a huge cut across his young chest. Though, it was the fifth that was shocking as it was female, and he had never heard of any human seeing a female before – well, he had, but it was still uncommon. Old legends called Centaur's rapists of human women, but that wasn't actually true. Well, it likely happened at least once where the rumours came from, but then all intelligent creatures could be arseholes, but anyway, Centaur do have females.

She was a beautiful white coloured horse with a soft pale human half with no top like he would have most likely expected as the mergirls all wore tops to keep things in place and hold their modesty, but then they did have more contact with humans, so maybe it was a cross cultural thing, or Harry was thinking too much into something he had no immediate interest in.

The meres firm and soft looking breasts were large and on display, and her dark eyes held pure fear, her brown hair crinkling at the bottom by her shoulders. He figured that if she were human, she would be considered quite the catch as a certain goddess had blessed this one, but then that might be a female Centaur trait. Heck, Harry still kind of fancied her, but then Harry was quite open minded about things like that since a Centaur and Human could be two consenting adults, and their human half was more human looking than most other fae or cryptid. She seemed to be about Harry's age, and he thought she was quite cute. She wasn't overly large in body like the males of her kind were, but she had some tone, but she was slender and small as centaurs went.

Harry could see one of her legs caught in a spiked trap and she was on her side with the men leering down at her. Harry turned his attention back to the bleeding centaur to see him looking at him, his light eyes begging him, begging Harry not to save him, but to save her, as it was probably a manly things to do or something to die for the lady, but Harry had plans to save everyone – well, those still saveable, as in alive. Harry didn't need anyone in need to beg for his help, as long as they weren't evil bastards, Harry was always game for being helpful as he withdrew his wand with a flick of his wrist and he could already feel the spirit of his wand raring to tear some dipshit poachers like them into shreds. Harry could feel the hum and feel the power she wanted him to draw on. It wasn't revenge for herself, but it would likely calm her spirit to know they saved all these souls a fate worse than hers.

"Hey look! It's a boy!" one of the men finally noticed him and trailing his wand on Harry as they all looked over in surprise.

"Drop the cages, and step away from the girl and I 'might' let you go!" Harry spoke sharply and commandingly but even both centaurs looked as if they were doomed, and he felt his wands frustration, but she calmed as he fed her a gentle touch of power to show he knew they wouldn't heed his warning, but it was just a courtesy from Harry.

Some of the men laughed as one of the men spoke out laughingly. "Girl…?" he mock asked. "All I see is a bitch pony. We'll get a lot for a real living female to 'study' – or maybe a whore-house would pay more!"

Harry's eyes glowed with a hue of red as he spoke again. "Let me try this again! Put down the cages, and step away from the girl or I will make you wish I only hurt you! Then, those that I don't kill I'll give to these… 'ponies' – to play with and 'study'! – maybe a whore house will want you? I, never mind, even the blind drunk centaur would turn your shitty arses down."

"One boy, threatening all of us…? You must be on some hard shit!" one cried out before he cried in agony as Harry swiped his wand and the roots around him sprung up and grabbed him slowly squeezing the life out of him as they brought hum crunching to his knees, spilling blood and cutting deep into his flesh, Harry only watched in nonchalance as the man sqeed in panic and pain.

"Let him go!" one man demanded angrily as no matter what they tried they couldn't free him. "Who do you think you are you bastard!" he roared out as he flung several spells, but Harry just batted each one back capturing several of the men in his nasty and deadly spells, and one of those began melting one of his mates flesh to terrified screams.

"Me…?" Harry asked with a smug smirk. "I'm the guy who doesn't like dipshit bullies! And I like to rescue myself the odd damsel in destress, especially the cute ones," he said while winking at the female centaur and her cheeks lit up as Harry turned back to the men his eyes lit up red and bled back into pure black, the blackest black, and the poacher and his remaining 'friends' finally realised they were messing with someone they shouldn't be.

"T-they're j-just freaks… half-breeds!" one man stuttered out throwing some pathetic spells in his panic.

"Yet to me…" Harry spoke as he just let the man's spells splash harmlessly into his shield. "You're the freaks. I would rather the friendship and kindness of any other species than to associate with shit like you! You give humanity a bad name!"

"P-please!" one begged as he turned to run only to run straight into the solid black chest of an enraged male centaur and fall to the floor and most certainly pissing himself as more and more surrounded the clearing with spears and bows at the ready.

Harry however moved to the injured centaur and with a few whispered words and flick of his wand that the other centaurs missed, the bleeding stopped in a beam of blue white light, and another flick of his wrist bandages wrapped around his torso.

Then Harry rushed over to the female. Her eyes widened in fright, but Harry had lowered himself as he banished the arrows fired at him and was quick in using his powers to free her leg. She had almost kicked him as he touched her leg, but with a brush of his wand across it with some calming words, and another beam of blue white light, and a wrapping of bandages Harry secured her wound and she eyed him wearily as he gave her a reassuring smirk. She found herself mesmerised by the depth of his black eyes as he held her hands together in his and giving her a reassuring smile as he had confidently placed her wand away before he let go and her cheeks flushed bright red as her heart pounded in her chest.

Harry chuckled as he reached out as stroked his fingers through her hair before standing up. The wizards had been stripped of their weapons and clothes, leaving their shitty pants thankfully, kind of, which made Harry grimace, and he noticed the blush of the girls face as she looked away from the disgusting sight too.

"Wow," Harry spoke with a grimace. "I assure you, they do not represent my species, and definitely not me," he said with a small grin as he gave the girl a wink and her cheeks darkened more. Harry stroked her cheek in reassurance before he walked towards the cages holding the other creatures. The rest of the centaur watching him warily as he re-drew his wand with a swipe, and all of the cages burst open with cheering little pixies and fairies, some personally thanking Harry before flying off.

The two furry little spirits stayed for a moment longer, the white one only too happy to snuggle to Harry's neck in gratitude while the black one floated nearby watching with worry aimed at its twin before they both blinked away.

"Human child!" the black coloured centaur broke the silence after Harry had stunned the remaining poachers as they were making too much noise, as the others, though alive were in too much of a state to have stayed conscious. "You come very close to our village," he spoke crisply and dangerously but even he could see the boy wasn't concerned as he even re-holstered his wand.

"No man…! No creature controls my freedom!" Harry retorted glaring. "I am not here to harm you or your loved ones. I'm not actually sure where I am, but rest assured, I would never allow for innocent people to be harmed."

"Why did you save us?" the female suddenly asked as she finally managed to stand, a look of wonder in her eyes. "You could have just left us to die, but yet… why?"

"Because it would be wrong not too," he said sincerely, which just baffled them.

"A wizard… a human…" the black centaur spoke, confused. "He… you really do not…? When I look into your eyes. You see me as equal… even Hagrid does not look to us as equal."

Harry was then startled as one centaur grabbed Harry and pulled him onto his back. "Then… we shall celebrate the lives that we have lost, and the gratitude towards such a unique human for the lives that were spared, and tomorrow we shall punish our captives!" he roared out to cheers from others including the one in black as they picked up their captives and the bodies of their dead and raced through the forest.

Harry had been shown through a large village. Well, he hadn't seen much, but he had been promised a tour at some point during his stay so he was happy, and green eyed again as they gave him his own barn like wooden place where he could stay for as long as he needed.

He had decided that he needed to fit in more, so he had stripped down until he just wore his trousers before transfiguring them into a pair of straw-coloured cargo shorts that hung to just above his knees and showing off his powerful body. He took his shoes off choosing to go bare foot, and found he felt so much freer from confinement, and it was nice to try something new.

"Harry," a soft voice spoke and in walked Shardie, the female he had saved. She had a slight limp, but that would heal soon enough as she was not very badly hurt, and with Harry's magic accelerating the healing process, she would be fine in a couple of days.

"Hey," he answered as he strapped his wand under his left forearm in its holster.

She blushed lightly and bowed her head. "You look… you look more the part now. I was asked to bring you with me. I… I hope that we can become friends. I am curious to know a little about human culture from, someone as… special as you."

"To me… we're already friends," he answered smiling at her surprise he took her hand and led her outside.

She led him from then on pointing out things he might find interesting with other centaurs watching curious of the odd human, and soon following on after them to the town square where a large crowd gathered around a large fountain with the village elder stood in the centre.

Harry was surprised by a lot of things that night, like for one, centaurs DO drink… they probably shouldn't but they DO. They're quite the party animals with instruments and music, singing and all sorts. It was actually more fun than anything Hogwarts had done, as it was untamed. The centaur for one didn't discriminate each other like humans did for stupid reasons.

Though, Harry had stayed with Shardie all night 'dancing' with her, and a few of her cute girlfriends. They seriously get more… the more he drank and got to know them, but by around two in the morning Shardie was carrying Harry slumped on her back, back to his room where she carefully lay him down on some soft hay, and lay down next to him watching him as his green eyes lingered on her, smiling tiredly.

To Be Continued…