Edited this the most so this one you can complain about

Chapter 3

November 28, 1995 Hogsmeade

"I think that that went well." Hermione smiled as George signed the parchment, finishing the list of Dumbledore Army's students. Harry smiled as he looked at Cho, who giggled with her friends.

"I must admit, I didn't think that this was a good idea." Harry sighed.

"Relax, mate! What could possibly happen now?" Ron grinned.

BBBBBOOOOMMMMM!

The sounds of a gigantic explosion made the entire pub go silent as it shredded and echoed in the air.

"What was that?" Ron squeaked. Ginny and several other fourth years gasped as the pub rumbled softly.

"That sound like it came from outside!" the youngest Weasley said as she looked towards the door. Instantly, everyone in the pub rushed to the door and shoved each other to get out. "Hermione, what's going on?" Harry whispered with shock as he, Ron, and Hermione rushed outside with everyone else.

"I don't know!" Hermione whispered back with shock. Everyone, students, professors, owners, were looking up with shock as another loud crack went through the air.

"What the bloody hell is that?" Ron asked with confusion, echoing the question that was on everyone's mind. In the sky above them was a large orange ball shooting through the sky, with a large grey smoke trail behind it.

"Is that an asteroid?" Harry gaped.

"I'm not sure! But whatever it is, it's going to crash into the Forbidden Forest!" Hermione said as she pulled a pair of binoculars out of her bag and put them to her eyes. "Where the bloody hell did you get those?" Ron gaped at Hermione.

"I always carry a pair on my trips to Hogsmeade. I never know what I'll see. What in the-?" Hermione gasped.

"Huh? What is it?" Harry frowned.

"That's no asteroid! It looks like some kind of ship!" Hermione gasped, making Harry and Ron whirl towards her.

"What the bloody hell are you talking about?" Ron gaped at her.

"Call me crazy, but that's not a satellite, and it's definitely not anything that I've ever seen. That wasn't made by muggles or wizards. Could it be..." Hermione said as the mysterious vessel continued on its path across the sky.

"We're not going to end up like dinosaurs, are we?" Harry asked.

"No, I don't think so. Whatever that is, it's going to smash into the Forbidden Forest. It might destroy a few acres of forest, but the impact won't cause any major damage." Hermione

said as she continued to watch the Forward Unto Dawn.

"Bet you anything that Umbridge either Owl the minister or Floo him. There's no bloody way she missed that. Fudge will have aurors at the crash site the moment it crashes." Ron frowned.

"Or Dumbledore and the professors will beat him to it." Harry smirked.

"Wait, what's that?" Hermione frowned as she turned to the left slightly.

"What are you staring at? The bloody thing is that way!" Ron pointed at the Forward Unto Dawn.

"I'm looking at something else, Ron. Harry, look at where I'm pointing!" Hermione handed Harry her binoculars. When he looked through, he blinked with shock. In his sight, was a tube looking machine that was shooting like a bullet. Then, Harry yelped with shock as a metal cross shot out from the tube.

"Whoa! It's like a parachute! I think something or someone's flying that thing!" Harry frowned.

"I know. I think that this confirms something that I've long thought about. Harry, Ron... we're not alone in the universe." Hermione frowned.

"What? Like an alien?" Ron squeaked.

"Exactly." Hermione nodded

"We should talk to Professor Dumbledore when we get the chance and avoid Umbridge as long as we can. Come on." Harry said as he headed towards the path back to Hogwarts, with Ron and Hermione right behind him.

The Forbidden Forest

"John? JOHN!" Master Chief blinked as his vision faded in and out. He painfully brought his hand up to his face and slowly opened and closed his fist.

"John, are you okay?" Cortana asked as Master Chief's vision slowly came back. Now, he could see that the pod was flashing warning lights, and the glass of the pod was cracked.

"Yes. I'm here." Master Chief said. Then, he kicked the door with his foot, sending it flying away with a crash.

"Could we possibly make any more noise?" Cortana asked as Master Chief grabbed his assault rifle and pointed it in front of him as he looked around.

"Where are we?" Master Chief asked.

"Calculating now... we're in England's north providence. The time is twelve twenty-five, and the weather is clear blue skies. The temperature is seventy-two degrees Fahrenheit, twenty- two degrees Celsius. Not bad, considering winter's right around the corner." Cortana chuckled. Then, the ground rumbled.

"I think the Dawn just made contact." Cortana said.

"Can you get us down to the ship?" Master Chief asked as he slowly began walking forward.

"Affirmative. Setting a waypoint for the Dawn." Cortana said as Master Chief continued walking through the trees.

"Are you sure that there are no population centers nearby?" Master Chief asked as he looked around.

"None that I detected. I'm scanning the area now..." Cortana said as Master Chief passed a large tree. Then, a snap made Master Chief whirl and point his gun at a bush. "What was that?" Cortana asked as Master Chief brushed the bush apart with his gun to find nothing there.

"I'm not sure." Master Chief frowned as he checked his ammunition. He had two frags and two plasma grenades and had 170 rounds of ammo for his assault rifle and 45 rounds for his magnum, "Well, we better get to the Dawn fast, and restock on our ammunition. And John... do you even have a plan after we reach the Dawn?" Cortana asked.

"We'll think of something." Master Chief said.

"I hope so." Cortana sighed. Then, a clicking noise made Master Chief stop.

"What is that noise?" Cortana asked as he looked around.

"I'm not sure. I don't think that we're alone..." Master Chief frowned.

"Scanning now..." Cortana said as the leaves in a tree rustled. Then, she gasped.

"CHIEF!" Cortana screamed, causing Master Chief to instantly look up just as a large figure slammed into him. Master Chief could now see that the large figure was a gigantic spider, which made a loud clicking noise. Master Chief instantly slammed his fist into the spider's face, causing it to hiss and stagger back. Master Chief immediately grabbed his gun and fired a full round into the spider's face, instantly killing it. Master Chief pushed the spider off himself and stood up.

"What is that?" Master Chief asked as he looked at the spider's body.

"It looks like a spider, but I don't have any data on this species. It's much larger than any species of spider that I have data on, even those on other planets like Reach and Harvest." Cortana said. Then, she laughed, startling Master Chief.

"What is it?" Master Chief asked as he looked around and kept his gun up.

"Sorry, it's just... trouble seems to find us no matter where we go, doesn't it?" Cortana chuckled.

"That's not something to be proud of. Was this spider alone?" Master Chief asked as he looked around.

"I don't think so, but we should get moving. No telling what else is in this forest." Cortana said.

"My thoughts exactly." Master Chief said as he sprinted away from the spider's body, leaving it behind as he leaped over a fallen tree trunk and continued on his path. After a few minutes of running through the trees, Master Chief came upon a river. He stopped and loaded his assault gun.

"I must admit, John, I'm a bit intrigued. If gigantic spiders live here, it makes me wonder what else lives in this forest." Cortana chuckled.

"I don't want to know." Master Chief said.

"John, I'm detecting activity in front of us, and it's heading this way!" Cortana said, making Master Chief instantly point his gun across the river.

"Wait, don't shoot yet. Let's see what it is first." Cortana said. Master Chief sighed as he lowered his gun.

"Fine. But if it turns out to be a threat, I'm shooting it." Master Chief frowned as he hid behind a tree close to the edge of the river. A rustling noise on the other side made him raise his weapon Then, to Master Chief's surprise, a creature that looked like a white horse with a horn on its head came out of the forest and lowered its head to the water.

"Cortana... is that what I think it is?" Master Chief asked as he stepped out from behind the tree. The creature raised its head and looked at Master Chief with curiosity.

"Yes, I think it's a unicorn..."

"But they're only myths and legends"

"Well, it appears on this Earth they're more than that"

As Master Chief extended his arm towards the unicorn, it let out a yell as it stood on its back legs and kicked its front, causing Master Chief to instantly bring his weapon in front of him.

"John, wait! It's not going to hurt us, it's just scared. Don't kill it!" Cortana yelled. Master Chief lowered his gun and backed up. The unicorn snorted as it lowered itself back on all fours, and then turned and ran back in the direction from which it came.

"We need to move." Master Chief said as he headed in the direction that the unicorn had come from.

"Chief, I'm picking up something. It's the same thing that I detected when we were in the drop pod. It appears to be... some type of jamming signal. I can't get a fix on it." Cortana let out a growl as Master Chief's helmet flickered.

"What type of jamming signal is it?" Master Chief asked.

"Origin unknown. It isn't human, Covenant, or Forerunner, if that's what you're asking. And it doesn't appear to be from one source. It's like it's all around us. Unlike any jamming signal that I've ever seen. And there's something else about it." Cortana muttered.

"What?" Master Chief asked.

"This signal doesn't appear to just be jamming my transmissions, it appears to be attempting to shut down all my electrical systems. I'm using your armor's systems to block the signal." Cortana said.

"Alright. Let's keep moving. How close is the Dawn?" Master Chief asked as he looked up at the Dawn's smoke trail in the sky, which was still visible.

"I'm using the distress signal that I planted on the Dawn four years ago to track its location. We're getting close, just a few more miles." Cortana said. Master Chief growled.

"We sure could use a Warthog or a Pelican, maybe even a Banshee right about now. I sure wish that we had Johnson or the Arbiter around. We could have used their help." Cortana sighed. Master Chief winched at the memory of the fallen man who he had been with through hell and had been brutally cut down by Guilty Spark.

"Do you think the Arbiter made it?" Master Chief asked as he continued walking.

"Probably. He was on the half of the ship that got through the portal completely. I wonder how he's doing." Cortana said. Then, a rumbling noise made Master Chief whirl and point his gun at a group of trees.

"John, whatever is over there isn't organic!" Cortana said nervously. Then, the rumbling got louder as a large figure parted through the trees.

"Is that... a car?" Cortana asked with shock as the car stopped in front of Master Chief.

"There appears to be no driver." Master Chief said as he lowered his gun.

"That's impossible... vehicles that don't require drivers weren't constructed until twenty-thirty-five!" Cortana stammered as Master Chief tapped the car, which rumbled its engines again. "It appears that this thing has been out here a long time. Any way that you can hack this thing, get a map of this place?" Master Chief asked.

"Well... global positioning satellites weren't put into cars until two thousand, but... yank me." Cortana said.

"What?" Master Chief asked.

"This car and its ability to control itself has a striking resemblance to an AI. If you can plug me into a connection in this car, maybe I can communicate with it, ask it to lead us to the Dawn. Can you see an external port on the dashboard?" Cortana asked. Master Chief walked over to the side passenger's window and looked in.

"It looks like all this stuff is rusted out." Master Chief said.

"Chief, put me up to the dashboard. I'll connect with the wires and get into the system." Cortana said. (After Johnson died, Cortana leaped out of the computer chip and planted the Index into the controls. So, she can leap into the car's circuits.)

"Alright. But the first sign of trouble, I'm yanking you." Master Chief said.

"I wouldn't have it any other way. I'll honk the car's horn when I'm done. Yank me." Cortana chuckled. Then, Master Chief yanked the computer chip from his head and held it up to the dashboard. Then, a small pink Cortana leaped out of the chip and landed in front of the dashboard. She touched one of the broken wires, and then, the AI vanished.

"This is a bad idea..." Master Chief muttered as he turned and pointed his gun behind him in the forest. He had a bad feeling; the same one he had while on Halo. A few minutes ticked by, and nothing could be heard besides the soft rumbling of the car's engines. Master Chief frowned as he kept his gun ready.

"What's she up to?" The Spartan wondered. He couldn't shake the feeling that something or someone was watching them. A second later, the honk of the car's horn caused him to whirl towards the car. He immediately placed the computer ship under one of the broken wires. An instant later, the AI leaped from the wire and landed on the dashboard. She touched the computer chip and vanished an instant later. Master Chief immediately put the chip back in his head.

"My god, John... you're not going to believe what he told me." Cortana said.

"Did the car agree to take us to the Dawn?" Master Chief asked as the car rumbled its engines.

"He did, but... John, there's much more here than we thought. Much more." Cortana said softly. "What do you mean?" Master Chief asked.

"It appears that we're in the backyard of a structure called Hog-"

The Visor started displaying multiple red "contacts" encroaching their position

"John! We're not alone! I'm detecting activity, quickly approaching our position! And it's not just one! I'm detecting multiple readings!" Cortana yelled as a soft rumbling noise began. It got louder and louder by the second.

"What is it? More spiders?" Master Chief asked as he pointed his gun in the direction of the rumbling.

"No. Whatever they are, they're larger than the spiders." Cortana said. Then, several figures dashed from the trees and stopped in front of Master Chief while other figures ran around him. Master Chief instantly brought his gun forward.

"We're completely surrounded!" Cortana said as the figures stopped. Now, Master Chief could clearly see the four creatures that were in front of him. Cortana gasped, and Master Chief was startled. The creatures had the upper body of a human, but the lower body of a horse! They were all armed with bows and arrows, and they did not look happy.

"We've got about fifteen of these guys in total." Cortana said.

"What are they?" Master Chief asked.

"If I'm seeing them right, they're centaurs, creatures from Greek mythology that are half-man, and half-horse." Cortana said. Then, one centaur rode straight up to Master Chief until they were standing only a few feet apart.

"Human! You are not welcome here! This is our territory! Leave at once!" The centaur snarled as the Master Chief's finger tightened on the trigger.

"We're sorry. We didn't mean to intrude! We'll leave at once!" Cortana said diplomatically, causing the centaur to glare at John.

"No! Enough of this! We will send him back to the old man in pieces, like we should have done to the traitor!" another centaur to the left of Master Chief yelled. He then raised his bow and fired an arrow at Master Chief's head.

Then, Master Chief's hand grabbed the arrow, an inch from his helmet. He squeezed his hand, causing the arrow to snap in two.

"That... was a big mistake." Master Chief said simply and calmly.