The days passed, and although it still felt strange to have Malfoy there, Harry had to admit that he hadn't caused any trouble during the lessons so far. He also appeared to be keeping his word about not telling Umbridge about their practices. All in all, things were working out as well as he could have hoped considering the circumstances.
They had progressed through a number of spells since the start of their practices, and today they were working on expelliarmus. As always, once he had given a brief lecture about the spell, he had them pair off and try practicing it on each other. He partnered up with Malfoy, since he still didn't trust him enough to let him use magic on the others.
All of them were so focused on practicing that they didn't even notice the sound of something tearing through the forest, coming straight towards them. By the time they realized, it was too late. The centaurs were upon them, galloping furiously through the group, ready to defend their land to the death.
This is bad, Harry thought to himself as he scrambled to get out of the way. Centaurs were troublesome opponents—their tremendous speed and agility made it nearly impossible to hit them with offensive magic. Even though he counted only half dozen or so, he knew that they would still be at a disadvantage.
He glanced at his friends, who were in a state of complete disarray. Many of them, including himself, were wandless, having just been disarmed by expelliarmus.
For now, he had to focus on restoring order. "Everyone, stay calm and listen!" he yelled. "If you don't have your wand, focus on finding it! If your partner is wandless, watch their backs while they look. Fred, George," he addressed the red-headed twins, "you can cast protego totalus, right?"
"Sure can, Harry!" they answered in unison.
"Good. Then I need you two to cast as large a barrier as you can. The rest of you, once you have your wands, go stand near them. You'll be safe there. Now hurry!"
Once he had seen that everyone was following his orders, he set to work finding his own wand. He didn't even bother asking Malfoy to guard him. He would just have to hope that he would get lucky and find it before he became centaur fodder.
But the sound of loudening hooves told him that today was not his lucky day. He finally spotted his wand and lunged for it, but there wasn't enough time. The shadow of the centaur was looming over him, and he could do nothing but close his eyes and prepare for impact.
"Stupefy!"
After a moment of breathless waiting, Harry opened his eyes and looked around in confusion. The centaur was laying on the ground, motionless. The person who had cast stupefy…it had sounded like Mafloy. He stared at him. "Did you do that?"
The other boy gave a noncommittal shrug. "I don't know why you look so surprised. Isn't that what you told us to do?"
Harry could hardly believe his ears. "Thank you," he said at last.
"Save the thanks for later, Potter. We've got other things to worry about."
Harry knew he was right. Together, they started towards the rest of the group.
"Ronald Weasley!" Hermione said in exasperation. "Stop running away this instant and cover for me properly while I find my wand!"
"Well, hurry up will you!" Ron said anxiously, looking as if he would bolt any second.
"Ron, Hermione!" Harry hurried over to them.
"Harry!" Ron said with relief. "Thank goodness you're here!"
He put a hand on his friend's shoulder. "I'll help Hermione look, so keep up the good work."
"What? B-But—" Ron sputtered.
"Found it!" Hermione cried, holding it up with triumph.
"Took you bloody long enough!" Ron said. "Now let's go!"
They ran to where Fred and George were, two centaurs right on their tails. They made it inside the barrier just in time, out of breath and terrified, but alive.
"Is…is everyone here?" Harry panted, scanning the group for missing faces.
"Everyone but Luna and Neville," Lavender answered worriedly.
No sooner had she finished speaking than a blood-curdling scream filled the air.
That voice. Luna…!
In an instant, Harry was out of the barrier and running at full speed towards the direction of the scream.
"Harry! Please help!"
He turned around to see Neville sitting at the base of a tree, holding Luna in his arms. She was unconscious, and her head was bleeding profusely, staining her flaxen gold hair a sickening red. Neville had managed to cast a small, shaky protego around the two of them, but it didn't look like he would be able to keep it up much longer.
"Neville! Hold on, I'm coming—"
"Harry! Behind you!" Neville cried.
He whipped around and waved his wand furiously. "Stupefy!"
He hit the mark and then immediately cast protego around the three of them just as
Neville's barrier crumbled.
Good. They would be safe for now.
"Neville," he knelt beside him and felt for Luna's pulse. "What happened?"
"I hit her, Harry," he answered with tortured eyes. "I saw a centaur coming, and I
didn't have confidence that I would be able to hit it like you can, so I did the only thing I could think of and used stupefy to get her out of the way. But then she hit a tree, and…" He hid his face in his hands. "iIt's all my fault. I killed her."
"It's alright, Neville," Harry said. "She's not dead, but she definitely would be if the centaurs had gotten to her. You didn't kill her, you saved her life."
"She's really alive…?" he asked tremulously.
Harry nodded. "Yes, but for now we need to focus on getting out of here, so we can get her treated. Can you stand?"
"I think so," Neville said, rising shakily to his feet.
"Good, then I need you to carry Luna while I focus on keeping up the barrier."
They made slow but steady progress. Maintaining protego was difficult, especially since they were under assault by several centaurs who were attempting to break it down by force. But finally, they made it to where the others were.
The three of them were instantly surrounded by their friends. "Harry! Luna! Neville!"
"Luna's injured," Harry said, pushing his way through the crowd. "We need to stop the bleeding. Does anyone know any healing spells?"
"I know a few," Ginny said softly. "Let me take a look."
The rest of them stepped back as she bent over Luna and carefully examined her scalp.
"If it's this…," she mumbled to herself, "then I think…," she pulled out her wand, "vulnera sanentur!"
She took a moment to observe her handiwork. "Good. That takes care of the gash. And now, to clean it up…tergeo!"
Harry and the others watched in amazement as the blood vanished before their eyes, revealing a scalp underneath with no signs of a cut or injury.
"This is the best I could do," Ginny said as she stood and brushed herself off. "She's still suffering from the trauma of a head blow and a bit of blood loss, but at least she won't be bleeding out anymore."
"Ginny, that was incredible!" Harry said. "I had no idea that you could use such high-level healing spells!"
"It's really not that big of a deal," she answered shyly. "It was just something I decided to learn after…" Her voice dropped to a whisper. "After what happened my first year. You almost died in the Chamber of Secrets because of me," she said, her eyes filling with pain at the memory, "and I wasn't able to do anything. So, I decided that next time I would be prepared no matter what."
Harry stared at her in amazement. He had originally thought of Ginny as a timid, weak person, but ever since they had started these lessons, he had been proven wrong at every turn. She was quiet, but that didn't mean she was weak. She was quite possibly his most talented student, and he was growing to admire her sweet manner and compassionate heart more each day. She was no longer the girl that he had rescued that day in the Chamber of Secrets, but a strong, brave, beautiful, and intelligent young woman. She was, to put it simply, incredible.