Chapter 11 A Conversation with Centaurs

A/N a recent review by boekenworm asked how Tony Blair could cast magic, I hope this note which is essentially a reworded copy of a PM I sent him/her will clarify this matter to my readers:

The mace he is carrying is the mace of the Court Mage, which REALLY can be seen in the British House of Commons whenever parliament is in session. The ceremonial mace lies on the table between the two sides of the house and has to be present in the chamber whenever parliament is in session, it represents the authority of Her Majesty in the government; my slight amendment to historical fact is that this is also the staff of the Court Mage, as Tony Blair is the legal and literal holder of this office, he is able to perform magic, notice how his language is so formal when casting spells. Hope this clarifies this for you.

I stepped out of the hole in the air and Elrond followed me through, the hole closed behind us. This was certainly more comfortable than apparition, no feeling of being squeezed through a straw, I was glad I had learnt how to do it, whilst I was honeymooning in the States. I glanced past the gates, up the pathway to the castle, and saw the familiar figure of Professor McGonagall making her way towards us.

"Hello, Dudley, and from what I have read in the Prophet, you must be Elrond, what brings you to Hogwarts today? You didn't say in your letter."

"We are here to talk to Firenze who I believe is still a teacher here about the decree of Her Majesty and what it means to his people. I think we will be welcomed by them, but as Firenze mentioned in our last meeting centaurs are a patient race," from other things I had read, I could add stubborn to that statement, but I hoped for some progress today.

"Yes, Firenze is still a teacher here, and I must say a better divination teacher than Trelawney ever was. She was prone to make announcements in her classroom and couch them in a manner as if they were predictions. She couldn't predict yesterday's weather, but I understand she had made a couple of valid prophecies, so she must have had some ability as a seer, but honestly, predicting the death of a student every year was a bit much."

We followed her up the long path to the school, Elrond looking round in wonder at what he was seeing, he had read about Hogwarts, and heard about it from Winky, his mother and myself, but never seen it for himself.

We entered the school only to see Firenze emerging from his classroom, "Minerva, what is going on, I felt a presence, not unlike the hive mind and it requested that I meet you here immediately. Whatever, or whoever, it was that spoke to me, needs to cut down on their power, its giving me a headache." There was a slight flash in the air surrounding Firenze who looked a little dazed for a moment, "oh, thank you Hogwarts that has helped and I accept your apology, that message was at a much more acceptable level. He looked over at the headmistress and myself. "Dudley Dursley as I live and breathe, to what do I owe this honour, I didn't expect to see you again for a long while. Has there been some progress in our case with the ministry?"

I reached into my pocket and removed a copy of the proclamation from the Queen, regarding magical races in the kingdom and handed it to Firenze. "You need to read this, although it is only part of what you want, it is a start."

He glanced at the notice in his hand, and handed it back to me, "I'm sorry, but I cannot read, our society has for so long been forced to eke out a simple existence that we have no written tradition any more, all knowledge and learning is via the hive mind or orally."

I took the proclamation back, "my apologies, I had no wish to cause you any embarrassment; that is a proclamation from Her Majesty the queen, making all sentient magical races of the realm into full subjects with all legal rights under the law. The Ministry of Magic must allow the centaurs the right to settle where they will and accept them as equals to witches and wizards. Your foals could even carry wands and attend Hogwarts if that is your wish."

Minerva looked quickly at me, and then back at Firenze, "that is something I had not anticipated when I heard about this ruling from Her Majesty, Dudley we may have a slight problem there, Firenze has a classroom on the ground floor as he finds it difficult to master the stairs. How would this affect future centaur students at the school, if they cannot make their way to the classes?"

There was a small chime of a bell from behind us, in the direction of the stairways leading upwards from the entrance. We turned and looked to see, that the stairs had vanished and a slope extended upwards to the first floor, the slope then changed back to a stairway and back to a slope, again. "I don't see any problems there, Minerva, it seems Hogwarts is able to accommodate that slight difficulty with ease. I only requested the ground floor classroom at the time because I or Professor Dumbledore did not know the castle could do this. The castle seems to have developed a lot since those computers were installed, it is almost as if she is learning herself."

"I do know that just after Dudley had the computers installed for the internet, the castle showed that it could help with checking if students were out after curfew and this has been a great help to the staff, I have not had a need to speak to the castle since then, but it is possible that the castle has been learning from the internet."

"Kingsley informed me that the castle would help students in the past by creating shortcuts via the stairways if they were running late, although most students will obstinately try to get back onto the known route. It seems as if creating these ramps is just an updated version of that, but it is still possible that Hogwarts has been accessing the internet for herself, when I spoke to her whilst we were installing the computers, she seemed almost eager for the internet to be installed, helping with the installation in any way she could, even to installing the fibre optic connections for the signals to come through."

"I remember that day, the whole school was evacuated to the great hall, and we were sure the school was in danger, I never knew that was your doing, Dudley, I was not teaching a class at the time and was wandering the grounds. I may be exiled from my herd, and the forest forbidden to me, but I can wander the grounds."

"Yes, well, that has nothing to do with why I am here today, Her Majesty's decree means that your people can be recognised as a fully sentient magical species within Britain and if you as a species are willing to take an oath to support Her Majesty and the kingdom, you will enjoy all rights as enjoyed by muggle, wizards, and eventually goblins, and any other magical races we can contact."

"Are you entirely sure of this, what about the decrees of the Wizengamot confining us to this small forest around Hogwarts?"

"Her Majesty is the ultimate authority in the wizarding world, this goes back to the signing of the Magna Carta, although the magical world cut their ties at the time of the Civil War in England, this does not mean that her authority was revoked. She made this abundantly clear when she addressed the Wizengamot, the other day."

"The muggle queen in the Wizengamot, I can only assume there was some objections to that."

"Only one protestor made his objections known, a Lord Theodore Nott, about my age, Right Honourable Tony Blair, the court Mage and muggle Prime Minister bound his magic after firing his own stunner back at him. He has a month to apologise before the effect is made permanent, and his son also called Theodore will take his place in the Wizengamot, although that will probably not be for several years yet."

"So the staff of the Court Mage survived all this time, it was made by goblin craftsmen, with the help of centaurs for King William and gifted to the Royal House after the Battle of Hastings by both peoples."

"It still survives in part, the staff has been altered over the years, with ornamentation etc., but it is still present in the House of Commons whenever parliament is in session."

"Fascinating, I am sure, but we now have to convince Bane and the rest if the herd of the significance of this event. I have met with you before and understand your trustworthiness, but I doubt Bane will be so trusting, he maintains a healthy disrespect for wizarding kind."

"What would it take to convince him of the truth of this matter, the sooner he as leader of your herd, accepts this, the sooner your people can take their rightful place in the kingdom?"

"He would need to read the proclamation for himself, and as I said, none of us can read, we have lost that skill over the years of being forced to scrape out a hunter gatherer existence by the Ministry. Also I do not think he would trust a wizard teaching him how to read, thinking that you would just teach him enough to read the proclamation, and teach him wrongly at that."

"I see, who would he trust?"

"I have no idea, we had good relations with the Eledhel in the past, like those of your companion trying to look inconspicuous behind you, but they have so long been under the influence of wizards that I doubt he would trust him either, thinking it was just a trick."

I stood and pondered this for a while, and an idea came to me, "would Bane trust another centaur to teach your people how to read, and trust their word of the proclamation?"

"He very likely would, but we know of no other centaur communities, there were some on the continent the last we heard of, but this was several hundred years ago, we have no idea if they still exist today."

"I think I know where we can get the help we require for this, are you willing to take a short trip with me to London, I may need the assistance of the American ambassador as I'm unsure if the problem of communication has been solved yet, but all in all we should be back in time for Dinner tonight?"

"Hmm, I have a class this afternoon, so couldn't attend immediately, but…"

He was interrupted by the Headmistress, "Firenze, if I remember your schedule, you are teaching the seventh year N.E.W.T. class this afternoon, if you could assign them something to do in your absence, I have no objection to you taking Dudley up on his offer, I admit to curiosity myself about this."

"Very well, headmistress, Dudley, I accept it will take me about half an hour to set up the lesson plan for this afternoon, but after that I am willing to accompany you to London, to find out who this centaur is that will help bring our societies together."

I nodded my acquiescence to this and went to a quiet corner to make a quick phone call to the American embassy in London to alert them of our impending arrival and the matter we were bring ing to their attention, I received some slight good news that would help us sort things all the quicker, and settled down to wait for Firenze to be ready.

Firenze and I both took our leave of the school grounds and I gestured and a hole appeared in the air, "what is this, I assumed you would be using a portkey to get us to London, I've never seen anything like this before?"

"Trust me, it's more comfortable than a portkey or apparition, now if you would just step through the hole, I'll follow and we can proceed from there." Firenze did so and I followed, closing the portal behind me. We appeared in a small empty office in the American embassy, I had been given the coordinates earlier in my conversation with the embassy. I opened the door and motioned Firenze to follow me, we were on the second floor of the embassy, only a few doors away from that of the representative for the magical community that worked in the embassy.

I knocked on the door that had the sign, 'Magical Liaison Office' in bold brass letters on it. "who is it?" came a voice from inside.

"Dudley Dursley and Firenze, a British centaur as arranged earlier by phone."

"Ah, Lord Dursley, Firenze, a pleasure to meet you both, as you requested Lord Dursley, I have requested that a video conference be set up between you and Theseus Alexanderson, of the State Legislative liaison of the State of New Sparta. We should be ready to begin in about five minutes."

"Thank you, and please call me Dudley, all this Lord Dursley feels so pretentious."

"Very well, I agree, but some of your British wizarding nobility can be so uppity if they feel we ignorant colonials are not being respectful enough, of course little do they realise that as soon as they are in the states that their nobility means nothing and Lord might just as well be a first name." he sat down at his desk and turned on his laptop, making a gesture at the wall behind him which lit up like the screen. "I've taken the liberty of having the picture on the wall screen, so much better than looking at such a small image on the laptop."

Firenze looked at me, video conference… Theseus Alexanderson… New Sparta…?"

"A video conference is not unlike a telephone call, but with images as well as the spoken word, Theseus Alexanderson is someone I had contact with on my honeymoon in the United States and New Sparta was the first colony in the new world, it's now one of the States of the Union, the state that I believe can partially help with some of your concerns."

An image appeared on the screen of a middle aged centaur, "hello Sir, Dudley, and I must assume you are Firenze, the British centaur that Dudley said he had been in contact with in the past and who made him aware of certain fact of our history." I nodded and looked at Firenze who was looking a bit bewildered at what was on the screen in front of him."

"Greetings, honoured sir, I must admit to being intrigued how a centaur can be interacting with modern technology and from a place that I admit our society has never heard of."

"Ahh, yes, Mr. Dursley has made us aware that your society has lost a lot of its cultural diversity having been isolated by the strictures of the British ministry, but I was unaware that you did not know of our existence. The colony of New Sparta was settled two thousand years ago, when the Greek muggle population began to become a little less tolerant of our kind. We put up certain charms and wards to protect our privacy and carried on much as we had before; when western civilisation discovered the Americas about five hundred years ago, we decided that we would reintroduce ourselves to society and indeed was one of the first states of the union to sign the Declaration of Independence. It is since my meeting with Mr. Dursley that we have managed to solve some problems with modern technology, by a means that I spoke with him during his visit, but back to your conundrum, I understand that certain individuals in your society would not take to being taught certain skills and other things by a human wizard, do you think they would object to being taught by a centaur, especially if the one teaching was a centaur wizard?"

"I… I…" Firenze looked shocked at all he was hearing. "I honestly do not know how Bane, the leader of the British centaur herd would react to such a solution. Finding out that centaurs have existed outside of our own small circle of interaction is a surprise to me, and I can only imagine will be a surprise to my former herd as well. I, myself would welcome any help you can give in this problem to our society, but how you can help is beyond me; aren't you in this United States of America, which I have heard about through some of the muggleborn and half-blood students at Hogwarts, but from what I understand its thousands of miles away?"

"It is thousands of miles away, but not beyond the limit of magical travel, I would suggest that you return to Hogwarts and speak to this Bane and tell him, with Mr. Dursley, about this proclamation from Her Majesty's and explain you have enlisted outside help to re-introduce your herd to the modern world before they make a final decision. Mr. Dursley, I would request that you find some way for me to come directly to Hogwarts when… if they agree to this."

I nodded, "please, it's just Dudley, Mr. Dursley makes me feel as if I'm my father, a rather bigoted individual and Lord Dursley is rather pretentious, I believe I can sort that particular problem out whilst we are all together, if you don't mind me making a telephone call, at the same time."

"By no means, if it will facilitate matters I am all in favour of you making a phone call, I am intrigued as to whom you can call to sort this matter out."

I reached for my phone and called the telephone number of Hogwarts, Head's office, putting the phone on speaker, "headmistress McGonagall, it's Dudley Dursley I wonder if you can put this conversation on speaker, in order that Hogwarts herself can hear it and hopefully answer a query?"

The voice of professor McGonagall was heard quite distinctly through the office and from the expression of Theseus Alexanderson on the screen, I understood he could hear it as well, "certainly Dudley," there was an audible click on the line. "In what way can myself and Hogwarts help you today?"

"I would formally request that Hogwarts allow one, Theseus Alexanderson, the centaur liaison from the State of New Sparta to apparate directly onto the grounds of Hogwarts in the region of the centaur herd, in order to help them with making their mind up about the proclamation of Her Majesty, and their eventual inclusion in British magical society."

"There was silence on the line for a few seconds and then professor McGonagall replied to us, "hmm, I must agree with Firenze that is really most disconcerting, completely unlike the link I enjoyed in the control room the last time I spoke directly to the castle. Hogwarts agrees, with certain conditions, both yourself and Firenze must be present at the location that, this Mr. Alexanderson apparate to and state aloud the 'invitation' that he appear before the centaur herd, in order that she can lower the apparition ward for him to be allowed to appear. She further states that once he has appeared on the grounds she will personally make a change in the wards so that he can come and go for as long as it is needed. She fully agrees with your intentions to integrate the centaurs into society. If there is nothing else, I must get down to the great hall for the evening meal."

"No, I believe that is everything I needed to speak to you about, please thank Hogwarts for me and I will see you soon, when I return to the castle with Firenze later. I'll inform you and Hogwarts when this meeting will happen. Goodbye headmistress." I hung up the phone and looked at Firenze and Theseus, does that answer your concerns about this meeting?"

Firenze nodded quietly. "Most interesting Dudley, I am intrigued that the castle, Hogwarts appears to be sentient, this is something that we as a species have never encountered before and I would welcome the opportunity to speak to the castle itself when it is convenient to herself. Might I suggest tomorrow, if that is convenient for everyone, it being a Saturday, I understand that Firenze who is a teacher would have no classes and would be able to spend the whole day with myself and his herd?"

Firenze nodded at this, "I would welcome this opportunity, and personally I think the sooner the better, for too long my people have been denied their proper place in British society. What time tomorrow were you thinking of?"

"Hmm! I think as early as possible, 9 o'clock our time, that would be about 2 in the afternoon for you, this gives us most of the day to come to some sort of agreement or at least make a start with it. Is that convenient with you both?"

I nodded, and Firenze stated, "I look forward to it sir, I know how stubborn Bane can be and how long it might take to convince him that this is not some sort of wizards trick."

There was a chuckle, "believe me I quite understand how stubborn centaurs can be, I will look forward to meeting you both tomorrow," he turned to look at the American official in the office with us. "Consul, I thank you for setting this conversation up, and must apologise to ignoring you throughout the conversation, most rude of me, I would ask that you give Dudley my cell phone number, in order that he can speak to me tomorrow, in order to let me know the wards are down. Goodbye for now." The screen went dark and our conversation was ended.

The American consul gave us the requested number to call in the afternoon tomorrow and we gave our thanks, making our way back to the special room that was set up for apparition and portkey arrivals. I opened the doorway in the air and Firenze and I stepped through to appear at the gates of the castle. After informing professor McGonagall and incidentally, Hogwarts of the time of the meeting tomorrow, I collected Elrond who had been enjoying himself looking around the castle and interacting with its house elves and took my leave and left to return home.

The next afternoon Firenze and I made our way to the edge of the forest, and Firenze called out loudly, "Bane, I would speak with you, I ask permission to enter the forest."

We waited a little while and there was the sound of hoof beats coming to the forest and a majestic looking chestnut centaur stallion ran into view. "Firenze what do you need to speak with me about, and who is that unknown wizard, I refuse to believe you have made any progress with the task I set you with to allow you to rejoin the herd."

I bowed, "noble centaur, I formally request that as head of the British herd of centaurs you allow me to introduce you to someone who could begin to rectify the wrong that has long been perpetrated against your people."

"I thank you wizard for your formality, but you must understand the little trust we have in wizards, their duplicity is long known to us, what could you do to assure us that you or this person unknown is not just lying to us to further humiliate myself and my people?"

I took out my mobile phone and dialled the number I had programmed into it yesterday afternoon before leaving the American embassy and waited for it to be answered, "Theseus, I am with Bane at the edge of the forest, if you would like to make your way here in order to speak with him!" there was the chime of bells from the castle behind us and with a pop, were were joined by Theseus Alexanderson the centaur I had first met in New Sparta and spoken with yesterday.

Theseus held out to shake my hand, "Dudley so nice to meet you again," he turned to Firenze, "Firenze, so nice to meet you in person," shaking Firenze's hand as well. He turned to face Bane, he gave a slight nod of the head. "Yourself, sir must be Bane, the head of the British centaur herd, may I formally make myself known, I am Theseus Alexanderson, State Liaison to the State of New Sparta of The United States of America; I would be honoured to speak with yourself and your herd regarding the matter of your integration back into mainstream society."

"most impressive in managing to apparate onto Hogwarts ground, but how do I know you are not a wizard operating under a glamour charm, there is an incident in our history where this was done and it lead to further strictures against my people."

Theseus made a gesture with his hand and Bane's eyes widened and it looked like he was going to fall to his knees, "what… how… there can't be that many centaurs, it feels as if there are thousands within my mind, how do you manage to keep yourself safe from the muggles and the American wizards?"

"We are not required to hide ourselves from American wizards, we are fully their equals in their society and the only restrictions we have in the muggle world is that we employ glamours or shape changes to keep ourselves secret from the muggles. But, if a muggle were to discover our existence, they are fully brought into the knowledge of magical America and all its citizenry, there is no Statute of Secrecy in the States. We firmly believe in hiding in plain sight as it were and not hiding where necessary."

Bane shook his head, "I can hear your words and your presence in my mind assures me that you are telling the truth, I would formally like to take this opportunity to greet you and request you speak with myself and the elders of the herd with your news," he turned to Firenze. "Firenze at this time you are welcome to return with me, back to the forest, if these talks are successful, I would welcome you completely back into the herd."

Firenze nodded at this, and looked at me, "thank you, Dudley, I can only hope that this is the start of a resolution between our two societies. I will be in contact when I have further news for you!"

Bane looked at me and stepped forward to shake my hand, "I must thank you, Dudley is it?" I nodded and he continued. "I hope that this is the beginning of an era for our two peoples, I will let you know via Firenze what is decided and hope we can call ourselves friends in the future if all works out here." I nodded again and he turned back to the two centaurs beside me and gestured for them to follow him into the forest.

I made my way back to the castle to speak with professpr mcgonagall and eventually home to my family. What would be the result of today's meeting, I could only wonder…

A/N A chapter which seemed to resist me slightly, yet once I got started, seemed to flow quite quickly, I wonder what will happen with the centaurs? Ha-ha, I know and what follows of course, indeed there are clues in 'The Start of Something New' the story before this one and the timescale on its complete resolution is there too if you read it. I hope you continue to enjoy the story and look forward to your reviews as this so often lets a fan fiction author know how their efforts are going. Until next time…