Chapter Twenty Seven
Pansy, William and Cho walked slowly back to their camp with Titania and her brother, Marcus. Pansy's feet were killing her, no matter how much William tried to help her he couldn't carry her for miles through the forest. The rough ground a twigs cut into her soft feet, she'd spent a fair amount of time running around her garden barefoot over the years but that was soft grass and large flag stone paths not forest floor.
Titania had offered her a lift, which had only led to a large amount of yelling from Bane and several of the others that thought they shouldn't be helping them at all. Pansy thought it was best to just walk, she could bath and rest her feet when she got back to her nice, semi-warm camp bed.
"You really are living in tents." Titania said, looking over their camp.
It looked very small and rather pathetic compared to the village the centaurs lived in.
"When did you build your homes?" William asked, building up the fire as quickly as he could, which Titania and Marcus seemed almost amusing, and set the kettle on to boil.
"Oh… they've been there since long before we were born." Marcus shrugged, looking at the hanging laundry.
"It was lovely." Pansy said honestly, "Like a magical fairy village or something."
"Thank you… I think." Titania smiled, "Where would you like to begin? We have several others who are happy to help you build, and we have many good trees to get the wood from."
"Well we can draw out some plans tonight, but it's getting a bit late to start building I think?" Cho suggested, wanting nothing more than a long sleep.
Titania and Marcus nodded, settling down around the fire.
"Tea? Or coffee? Or possibly hot chocolate?" Pansy offered, scrapping the worst of the dirt and blood off her feet.
"Tea please." Marcus smiled, "Dandelion if you have it."
"Umm… we have blackberry and nettle?" Pansy smiled awkwardly, digging through the box of teas.
"Lovely, thank you." Titania nodded, looking rather confused as Pansy dropped two tea bags into their mugs.
"It's… interesting." Marcus said, taking a sip and wincing.
Pansy smirked into her cup, "Maybe we could add learning what's safe to eat and drink around here to the list of things you can teach us?"
Titania looked very excited and clapped her hands together, "Oh yes!"
"Calm yourself sister." Marcus said harshly.
Titania's shoulders sagged, "I'm sorry. You see I have always been so interested in humans, I watched them from the forest's edge from when I was a young foal. You are such a strange species, full of the strangest of ways!"
"Well if there's anything we can help you with, please, just ask." William smiled.
Titania grew excited again, earning her another glare from Marcus.
Pansy and Cho quickly made some dinner for them all, earning them more worried and slightly disgusted looks from the two centaurs.
"We have a spare tent for you to sleep in, if you'd like to stay." Cho said, handing them some blankets, "That way we can get straight to work in the morning."
"It's lucky that it is still only approaching the veil." Marcus said, gazing up into the sky, "It is bitterly cold during the darkness months."
"We are so grateful that you are agreeing to help us." Pansy said, trying not to yawn, suddenly very much feeling the cold.
"We are happy to help. You will lose so much…" Titania sighed.
"Sister, we must not speak of such things." Marcus warned, "Good night, humans."
Pansy fell asleep, cuddled up in William's arms with her brain racing, she was surprised that she fell asleep as quickly as she did. She woke up several hours later, needing the bathroom and feeling annoyingly wide awake.
William was still snoring peacefully next to her, she slipped his arm from around her shoulders and pulled on a thick cardigan and wrapping a blanket around her shoulders, before creeping from the tent.
It was still dark outside, the air was fresh and clear making waves of peace flow over Pansy as she breathed in the cool air.
"You are awake." Marcus's voice cut across Pansy's thoughts, "Would you like some tea?"
"Umm… yes, please." Pansy smiled, pulling her cardigan closed around her nightdress, "I just need to pop to the bathroom."
Marcus stirred the kettle on the edge of the fire, waiting for Pansy. She went to the bathroom quickly and came back, snuggling down in one of the camp seat, curling her legs under her and took the cup gratefully from Marcus. She took a sip and let the rich, sweet taste wash over her tongue.
"This is really lovely, much better than the tea bags we have." Pansy smiled.
"Yes." Marcus said plainly, nodding slowly and taking a sip of his own drink.
"Thank you for coming to help us." Pansy said, after several minutes of painful silence.
"Titania was determined to come." Marcus shrugged, "I would not let her come alone. It was mother that suggested we help you any way."
"That was very kind of her." Pansy smiled, "I'm sorry if it caused any trouble between you all. We never meant to get anyone else involved in all this really. To be honest I'm not entirely sure how we didn't think about traps you might lay."
"Bane hates humans." Marcus shrugged again.
"Oh… OK then." Pansy said awkwardly, "Good to know."
"He said that's why he wanted to set the traps, having watched you camp here for some weeks." Marcus said.
"Why?" Pansy asked, "I mean, you don't have to tell me, if you don't want to… but why?"
"Are you kind?" Marcus asked sharply.
Pansy opened her month for a moment before shaking her head, "I don't know. I think I try to be but is anyone really kind all of the time?"
Marcus gave her a small smile, "A good answer. You see, many humans are not kind, it is one of the reasons I wanted to come with my sister; I wanted to look after her, to make sure you are kind. Titania has never seen the bad side of humans, to her you are all fun, loving and kind. You are interesting."
"So… something to do with Bane hating humans is to do with a human being unkind?" Pansy asked, trying to follow the conversation.
Marcus nodded, "Yes. He lost a foal and his wife in a human attack, from your Ministry. They wished to remove us from our village. We lost many that day, including Bane's family."
"That's awful." Pansy said, covering her mouth, "I… I can't imagine going through that."
"Neither can I. It was many moons ago, long before I was born." Marcus told her, "But Bane never loved another, it wasn't in the stars for him and it brings him great pain."
"Titania said something about us loosing so much…" Pansy said carefully, "And then one of the others said something about threads or something… is that to do with the stars?"
"We are not permitted to talk to you about that." Marcus said blankly, "The stars and their knowledge is not for humans to know."
Pansy wisely dropped the topic; it was going to be a long few months if the centaurs couldn't stand being around them. They also needed their help, it was already cold enough some nights, it was going to be hell in those tents over winter, when they were covered in a foot of snow.
"You must take care of my sister, she is very young." Marcus said.
Pansy nodded, "We will, of course. I know things must have been difficult for you, but we've never done anything to hurt the centaurs, and we never would." she said somewhat defensively.
"Does that really matter when every centaur has been miss treated?" Marcus asked.
Pansy let out a huff, "I… I don't know. But I think so."
"Most humans will not admit when they don't know something. You are interesting, I have enjoyed talking to you." Marcus smiled, draining the last of his mug, "I shall see you in the morning."
He didn't wait for a reply from Pansy but stood gracefully and walked over to his tent. Pansy stared into the bottom of her mug, her mind even more awake than it had been before.
Did it matter that she'd never hurt a centaur if every centaur was hurt? Titania wasn't hurt, she loved humans and had been desperate to come and help them. Was it just a matter of time before she too hated humans after being hurt?
Pansy shook her head, that was something to deal with later. Right now she needed to focus on surviving long enough so that they could help Harry win the war against Voldemort, everything else could wait, was going to have to wait as goodness knows things would be worse for everyone under Voldemort's rule.
Pansy had given up on sleep, burying her nose in one of their many books the second the sun had risen enough to read by as she sat by the fire.
She cooked up large cauldron filled with porridge for breakfast, laying out their tubs of honey, sugar and nuts.
"I know where there's a big patch of blackberries." Titania said, plaiting her long white hair down her back and wrapping a long length of cloth around her breasts.
"You should of dressed in the tent sister." Marcus said roughly, "Humans do not show their skin."
Titania rolled her eyes, "I told you that! Don't pretend you know about humans brother. And they don't care, they are our friends."
Pansy, William and Cho, who had all been trying not to look at her naked human-looking half nodded quickly, not wanting to embarrass her.
"I'll come with you to get the blackberries." Cho offered, "It'll be nice to stretch my legs."
She grabbed a bowl and followed Titania into the forest, it wasn't long before the centaur knelt down and handed over handfuls of the berries.
"I thought these might be blackberries." Cho smiled, trying not to prick her fingers on the thorns, "But my mother always said you shouldn't eat berries unless you are one hundred and ten percent sure you know what they are. Too many of them are poisonous."
"Your mother is wise." Titania laughed, "My family has lived in this forest since Hogwarts was young. I grew up learning what was safe to eat, what would heal and what would destroy."
"How old are you?" Cho asked, "Sorry, if that's a rude question."
Titania let out a light, tinkly laugh, "Not at all. I believe centaurs are generally more open than humans are. I'm ten. But centaurs only live half as long as wizards and witches. I would not be too young to have a foal of my own soon, but I have no mate as of yet."
"You must be about our age then, equivalent of anyway." Cho smiled.
"I think so." Titania nodded, "Do you think we have enough berries for our meal?"
Cho looked at the full bowl and nodded, "Yep. These will make a lovely treat."
"Well hopefully we can teach you enough so that it's less of a treat." Titania smiled.
They wondered back to the camp, where Pansy and William were trying not to snigger at Marcus's disgust at the honey.
"This is tasteless! Nothing but sweetness!" Marcus huffed, "May I have a fresh bowl?"
"It can't be that bad." Titania said, glaring at him, "Stop being so rude! Here, I'll have it." she took the bowl from her brother and had a large mouthful, "It is… interesting. We know where to gather honey from, we shall give you some. I'm sure this will still be useful for healing."
"You can use honey for medicine?" Cho asked, scattering a handful of blackberries onto her porridge.
Pansy nodded, "Yeah it was in one of the books. It's anti-microbial, meaning it stops infections."
Titania and Marcus nodded.
"We use it all the time." Marcus told them, "And my sister is correct, your 'honey' can still be used for healing, even if it tastes of nothing."
They finished breakfast and did the dishes, leaving the porridge pan to soak as always. Marcus wondered up and down the tree line with a ball of string, Titania following with a bag filled with short, wooden pegs.
"This is the plan." Marcus said, "You will have as many houses as you do tents now and the fire can live in the main hall, that way it shall warm you during the darkness months."
"How long do you think it will take to get all set up?" William asked, looking over the floor plan they'd not even realised Marcus was laying out.
"A month or so?" Marcus shrugged, "I think it will mostly depend on how many we have to help, and that will depend on the stars."
He used a sharp knife he carried at his hip to cut the string, making Pansy, William and Cho all flinch.
A cold wind blew over them, somehow they were sure that wasn't the thread being cut in the forest that the centaurs had been talking about.