Epiphany

A/N: This story decided to go a slightly different direction than I had originally intended, but so be it. Remember, this is AU. Also, it's diatribe time again.

Standard Disclaimer: I am not blonde, female, British or rich, so Harry Potter is definitely not mine. Some OC's and their behaviour are mine, and definitely non-canonical.

Warning: References to some extreme nastiness

From behind the four watchers, a deep voice said quietly, "Something akin to your own sorting ceremony, wasn't it?"

The four turned, to see a group of centaurs had quietly arrayed themselves behind where they had been watching the unicorns from. Two, the stallion who had spoken, and the mare standing beside him, carried bows, but the other four on each side of the pair carried bows, as well as daggers in a scabbard slung to one side, and a long sword slung to the other side of their bodies. These eight had metal covers over the fronts of their hooves.

Whether the eight were an honour guard, or warriors ready for battle, was an open question, and one that the four humans did not care to have answered in the near future.

Hagrid stepped forward, and spoke. Politely, and formally, but with a touch of familiarity and respect, although little by way of obvious friendship. "Ah, Firenze. And you as well Moira. Thanks fer arranging for us, that is, me, the Perfessor, and these two young'uns, to see this. It were really special."

McGonagall nodded. "Yes, thank you for allowing us to attend this. I have not seen the like for a half-century, when I was a girl. It was wonderful, and with all my heart, I thank you."

The younger witch held up her hand, as if to ask permission to speak. The large centaur smiled at her, and said, "Ah. Hermione of the Granger herd. We have heard of your thirst, no, your obsession for knowledge. What do you wish to ask?"

She blushed but asked, "Sir. I understood that only virgins could see unicorns." Looking up at her professor and Hagrid, she blushed further and continued, "But we all could see them. I don't understand."

McGonagall blushed too. In her youth, girls talked about sex behind closed doors, but it was certainly not discussed in front of strangers that you had just met. She knew that times had changed, as they always do, but her early upbringing still held some sway. However, she was pleased that Hermione would let nothing get in the way of her seeking knowledge, not even her own modesty.

The centaur stallion murmured something in his own language to his companions, who all smiled broadly. He then tilted his head back and laughed out loud. Smiling at the young human he said, "You humans are so obsessed with sex - it amuses us! Your problem, Miss Granger, is that over the years, the tales passed through many cultures, who all added their own biases to the information. When what you call the ancient Egyptians first wrote down their encounters with the horned ones, their idea of purity involved having a pure spirit and heart, and their passage into the afterlife depended on it. The Christian monks who translated the stories from previous generations were obsessed with sex, and dreamed up the bizarre concept that humankind was inherently wicked due to Eve's transgression, which they called the original sin. To them, the natural functions and acts of sex were inherently and themselves sins, which is odd as they lived in gender-segregated communities, so to them 'purity' meant having never had physical relationships. There are many who have been sexually experienced, but who have pure hearts, while there are many whose hearts would not have passed the Egyptians' tests in the afterlife, but who are yet virgins." With this, he looked at Draco and scowled.

"The Egyptians were, shall I say, more correct. All can see the unicorns, but they are a very shy creature. Only those who are pure of heart can approach them, or touch them. In previous times, the younger humans were taught nothing about sex, often to their detriment, and so innocence, ignorance and virginity were all linked together."

With this, Hermione was blushing more fiercely than before, but she nodded and thanked the stallion for the lesson.

At this moment, Draco felt he needed to take charge of the situation. He sneered as he asked, "Why are we wasting our precious time talking to this animal here?"

A voice from their recent past came from the group of centaurs, as Harry Potter stepped out from the group. "Perhaps it's to see if you can move past the hatred that your father has so carefully taught you and which has been consuming you, as it was consuming me, and maybe even perceive that there is something beautiful and magnificent in this world."

As the sight of the boy who had injured him physically and politically, obliterating his self-styled importance in Slytherin House, Draco drew his wand and started to shout a curse at Potter. But before he could get the words of the unforgivable curse out of his mouth, Potter gestured slightly with his hand and Draco's wand exploded in a flash of light. Draco's hand was burnt, and his entire arm flopped down to his side.

The young blond tried to raise his injured hand, but found that all of the bones in his arm had disappeared.

Firenze turned to Harry and very sternly asked, "Harry Potter, what have you been taught about battle?"

Harry hung down his head, a bit embarrassed and shamed. "I am sorry, teacher. I was surprised. In battle, it is acceptable to kill, because that is most likely the objective of your opponent. It is acceptable to wound to stop a fight which is not 'to the death', but you must not drop your guard until the non-lethal outcome is proven correct, as your opponent may fake injury to put you off-guard. However, permanently maiming or crippling harms your spirit as much as it does their body, and is the mark of a diseased mind."

Firenze nodded. "Very good. You are young and have only been taught our ways for a couple months. But do not forget again. Being surprised in battle can get you killed. Now, what have you been taught about killing and death?"

Harry Potter gulped, as he was being quizzed in front of people who were not necessarily friends. He answered, "Death is a natural and normal part of the cycle of life. All life, except for some plants, feed off nutrients from things that have gone before. Death releases the spirit to whatever comes after."

The centaur asked, more kindly, "And what comes after?"

Harry smiled, as this was a lesson he found intriguing. "Nobody really knows, although many claim to know with absolute certainty. Different religions claim different things. Some say that the spirit just ceases, which many people find too uncomfortable for their liking. Some teach that the spirit goes to a place of happiness or torment, depending on how they spent their time in this life. Many others claim that the spirit returns to this life in a new body, with the debts and benefits from the previous incarnation determining the new status. There is one that teaches that we are caught in this cycle until we become enlightened to the true reality of the universe. But nobody, at least nobody I have ever met, really knows. So our role in this life is to be as good as we can, in case one of them is correct."

Firenze nodded. "So can you fix the injuries you have caused to young Malfoy? To do the best you can in this life."

Harry shook his head sadly. "No, teacher, I am sorry. I have not learned that yet."

The large stallion nodded sagely. "Very good, Harry Potter. It is often necessary to be aware of what we do not know, and to be aware of our faults and our failings. In this way, we do our best to not repeat them. In the future, you will learn how to heal the injuries you caused when this young fool attacked you."

All for humans were shocked by this statement, with Draco, of course, being shocked the worst. He started with his usual whine of "When my father hears about this", when he was sharply interrupted by the large centaur.

"Draco Malfoy, your father has no authority within these woods. Neither he, nor the monster he had enslaved himself to, nor his delusional followers, has any power within this forest. Those who have enter this land without our permission never leave!"

Draco, who was whining and whimpering loudly, shook his head. "But my father is a powerful pure-blood wizard. He is an honoured member of the Wizengamot. The Death Eaters are invincible."

Firenze translated Draco's comments to his companions, who began to laugh.

The centaur looked at Draco, and shook his head at the young wizard's stupidity. :Draco Malfoy, your grandfather was a honorable man. Your Dark Lord had him murdered when your family refused to support his reign of terror. This put your father at the head of your family. Your father, who proudly bears his brand like cattle! Do you know how you gain that brand?"

Draco smiled and said "The Dark Lord gives you the Dark Mark when you serve him well!"

The centaurs laughed at this remark as well, once Firenze translated for them.

"Young human, you get branded like the obedient cattle you are, by committing murder at your Dark Lord's command. There is nothing honourable about murdering innocent and helpless people."

Draco protested, "But they were only mudbloods and blood-traitors!"

The centaur scowled. "How can a two-year old child be a traitor to anything? How is raping and murdering a five-year old girl honourable. All that does is prove you are so corrupt that there is no turning away from your depravity and from your enslavement to the abomination that calls himself a Lord! He is performing unnatural dark rituals to make himself immortal. And then, he will not need your father, nor any of his friends any more. How long do you think they will survive when that happens?"

At this point, the younger witch was being physically sick hearing of how Death Eaters got their marks.

Draco gulped. The centaur was lying. He had to be lying! Definitely had to! Draco yelled, but with an uncertain quiver in his voice, as his aura began to flare with the growing doubt, "You're lying!"

He turned to two of the centaurs with him "Clarissa, Horatio, please come forward and display your trophies. You humans may recognise the patterns. I assure you, the Death Eaters are very 'vincible', to use your terminology."

Two of the armed centaurs, a mare and a stallion, came out of the group, and showed capes which were decorated with a familiar pattern. Looking more closely, the humans could see that the capes were made up on hundreds of pieces of skin all bearing the Dark Mark, which had been sewn together to form the capes.

Firenze then held up a case with a large number of small jars within it, each of which contained something that looked like a wisp of silver thread. He looked at Draco with a sad smile, and asked softly, "Would you like to see the memories of those we questioned. Some of the memories are of our interrogations, but many were of the Death Eaters' previous meetings with your so-called Dark Lord. I think you would find the ones where your father reported his 'successful' killing of the innocent family, or your aunt's description of torturing a young boy, who oddly looked a bit like yourself, most enlightening."

Firenze turned back to the humans. In disgust, he looked the whining human, and made a slight gesture. The young man found that the bones in his arm had been replaced and were all in their correct positions.

Draco was once again shocked at the centaur's powers. He knew that regrowing bones could be a painful and slow process, yet the centaur had replaced them in just an instant with his gesture. A gesture which seemed completely effortless to the creature.

On top of that, he remembered his father waxing eloquent about how the Dark Lord had with a significant effort, wandlessly and silently, summoned a drinking glass from across the room, something even the most powerful wizards could not do. The centaur had done much more that that, and with a seemingly trivial effort! Just to stop his whining!

"Draco Malfoy. About the time you were born, there was a major war when your Dark Lord tried to take over the country. Several times, he sent squads of his Death Eaters into The Forest near the nearby town of Hogsmeade, on days when the students from your school were to visit. From those we questioned, we learned that their orders were to massacre everyone in the town, including all the students, whether they were pure-bloods or first-generational. All the families of the Death Eaters had been warned not to go to the town on those days. All of the Death Eaters did eat death that day, and Aragog and his kin also ate well."

At Hermione's puzzled look, Hagrid murmured, "Aragog is the King of the giant spiders who live in the forest. Nasty beasts, they are. I can tell you, you don't want ter meet them. Spiders eat things."

Draco looked at the centaur in disbelief. "You couldn't have killed them all. That's impossible." The centaurs rippled their capes in response. Their meaning was clear to all.

Draco shook his head. "You didn't even treat their bodies with respect. They were all pure-bloods!"

Firenze translated this comment, and the centaurs chuckled. He then turned to the humans, and said "But we did treat them with respect. They called us 'Vermin' and announced that we should all be exterminated as the vermin we were. So yes, we treated them with respect. The very same respect they showed us. None!"

"Your precious Dark Lord sent several attempts to massacre the townspeople. None succeeded, as you can see. With some of the later attempts, we asked some of those we captured how He had treated the families of his oh-so loyal servants who had fallen attempting to carry out his orders, just to see how 'honoured' his dead were. He had declared that they all had failed him and proved they were unworthy of his Greatness. He then ordered his Death Eaters to murder their remaining families, as they had shown themselves to be 'unsuitable' to be called pure-bloods."

"That is the Great Wizard that your father has sworn his loyalty to. The one who branded him and his associates like the cattle they are, given the way He treats them. The wealth that your father is using to seduce the vain and the gullible was the plunder from the families the Death Eaters murdered. Your father's only value to the Dark Lord is his ability to take the stolen gold and undermine any and all attempts to make your world a safer and more just place, by convincing the greedy and stupid to ignore what should not be ignored."

Looking at the other humans, he added, "And this is what they would hold to be the ideal of wizardkind! Can any of you wonder why we forbid your kind from entering this Forest?"

Draco sat down hard onto the ground. He looked over at Hagrid, Professor McGonagall and Hermione Granger. The elder witch has very pale, and Hermione was curled on the ground weeping uncontrollably after being very sick – she had just witnessed a beautiful event in the magic world, and now she was hearing of some of its horrors. Hagrid had heard the stories before, and was scowling at Draco.

Draco ran this new information through his mind. He didn't want to believe any of it, but the capes told the tales very clearly.

Draco had trusted the stories of the Greatness of the Dark Lord. He had trusted the claims that the Dark Lord was supremely powerful, yet here was a creature his family had dismissed as not worth consideration, doing feats of magic that even the Dark Lord could not.

Draco had trusted his father...

Author's Note: This story went a very different direction than I had originally envisioned, but I think it worked. Hope you like how it ended.