It was breakfast time, two days after the sacking of Professor Trelawney, and Parvati was curling her eyelashes around her wand and examining the effect in the back of her spoon. They were to have their first lesson with Firenze that morning.
‘Not really,’ said Hermione indifferently, who was reading the Daily Prophet. ‘I’ve never really liked horses.’
She turned a page of the newspaper and scanned its columns.
‘He’s not a horse, he’s a centaur!’ said Lavender, sounding shocked.
‘A gorgeous centaur …’ sighed Parvati.
‘Either way, he’s still got four legs,’ said Hermione coolly. ‘Anyway, I thought you two were all upset that Trelawney had gone?’
‘We are!’ Lavender assured her. ‘We went up to her office to see her; we took her some daffodils – not the honking ones that Sprout’s got, nice ones.’
‘How is she?’ asked Harry.
‘Not very good, poor thing,’ said Lavender sympathetically. ‘She was crying and saying she’d rather leave the castle for ever than stay here where Umbridge is, and I don’t blame her, Umbridge was horrible to her, wasn’t she?’
‘I’ve got a feeling Umbridge has only just started being horrible,’ said Hermione darkly.
‘Impossible,’ said Ron, who was tucking into a large plate of eggs and bacon. ‘She can’t get any worse than she’s been already.’
‘You mark my words, she’s going to want revenge on Dumbledore for appointing a new teacher without consulting her,’ said Hermione, closing the newspaper. ‘Especially another part-human. You saw the look on her face when she saw Firenze.’
After breakfast Hermione departed for her Arithmancy class as Harry and Ron followed Parvati and Lavender into the Entrance Hall, heading for Divination.
‘Aren’t we going up to North Tower?’ asked Ron, looking puzzled, as Parvati bypassed the marble staircase.
Parvati looked at him scornfully over her shoulder.
‘How d’you expect Firenze to climb that ladder? We’re in classroom eleven now, it was on the noticeboard yesterday.’
Classroom eleven was on the ground floor along the corridor leading off the Entrance Hall from the opposite side to the Great Hall. Harry knew it was one of those classrooms that were never used regularly, and therefore had the slightly neglected feeling of a cupboard or storeroom. When he entered it right behind Ron, and found himself in the middle of a forest clearing, he was therefore momentarily stunned.
‘What the –?’
The classroom floor had become springily mossy and trees were growing out of it; their leafy branches fanned across the ceiling and windows, so that the room was full of slanting shafts of soft, dappled, green light. The students who had already arrived were sitting on the earthy floor with their backs resting against tree trunks or boulders, arms wrapped around their knees or folded tightly across their chests, and all looking rather nervous. In the middle of the clearing, where there were no trees, stood Firenze.
‘Harry Potter,’ he said, holding out a hand when Harry entered.
‘Er – hi,’ said Harry, shaking hands with the centaur, who surveyed him unblinkingly through those astonishingly blue eyes but did not smile. ‘Er – good to see you.’
‘And you,’ said the centaur, inclining his white-blond head. ‘It was foretold that we would meet again.’
Harry noticed there was the shadow of a hoof-shaped bruise on Firenze’s chest. As he turned to join the rest of the class on the ground, he saw they were all looking at him in awe, apparently deeply impressed that he was on speaking terms with Firenze, whom they seemed to find intimidating.
When the door was closed and the last student had sat down on a tree stump beside the wastepaper basket, Firenze gestured around the room.
‘Professor Dumbledore has kindly arranged this classroom for us,’ said Firenze, when everyone had settled down, ‘in imitation of my natural habitat. I would have preferred to teach you in the Forbidden Forest, which was – until Monday – my home … but that is no longer possible.’
‘Please – er – sir –’ said Parvati breathlessly, raising her hand, ‘– why not? We’ve been in there with Hagrid, we’re not frightened!’
‘It is not a question of your bravery,’ said Firenze, ‘but of my position. I cannot return to the Forest. My herd has banished me.’
‘Herd?’ said Lavender in a confused voice, and Harry knew she was thinking of cows. ‘What – oh!’
Comprehension dawned on her face. ‘There are more of you?’ she said, stunned.
‘Did Hagrid breed you, like the Thestrals?’ asked Dean eagerly.
Firenze turned his head very slowly to face Dean, who seemed to realise at once that he had said something very offensive.
‘I didn’t – I meant – sorry,’ he finished in a hushed voice.
‘Centaurs are not the servants or playthings of humans,’ said Firenze quietly. There was a pause, then Parvati raised her hand again.
‘Please, sir … why have the other centaurs banished you?’
‘Because I have agreed to work for Professor Dumbledore,’ said Firenze. ‘They see this as a betrayal of our kind.’
Harry remembered how, nearly four years ago, the centaur Bane had shouted at Firenze for allowing Harry to ride to safety on his back; he had called him a ‘common mule’. He wondered whether it had been Bane who had kicked Firenze in the chest.
‘Let us begin,’ said Firenze. He swished his long palomino tail, raised his hand towards the leafy canopy overhead, then lowered it slowly, and as he did so, the light in the room dimmed, so that they now seemed to be sitting in a forest clearing by twilight, and stars appeared on the ceiling. There were oohs and gasps and Ron said audibly, ‘Blimey!’
‘Lie back on the floor,’ said Firenze in his calm voice, ‘and observe the heavens. Here is written, for those who can see, the fortune of our races.’
Harry stretched out on his back and gazed upwards at the ceiling. A twinkling red star winked at him from overhead.
‘I know that you have learned the names of the planets and their moons in Astronomy,’ said Firenze’s calm voice, ‘and that you have mapped the stars’ progress through the heavens. Centaurs have unravelled the mysteries of these movements over centuries. Our findings teach us that the future may be glimpsed in the sky above us –’
‘Professor Trelawney did astrology with us!’ said Parvati excitedly, raising her hand in front of her so that it stuck up in the air as she lay on her back. ‘Mars causes accidents and burns and things like that, and when it makes an angle to Saturn, like now –’ she drew a right-angle in the air above her ‘– that means people need to be extra careful when handling hot things –’
‘That,’ said Firenze calmly, ‘is human nonsense.’
Parvati’s hand fell limply to her side.
‘Trivial hurts, tiny human accidents,’ said Firenze, as his hooves thudded over the mossy floor. ‘These are of no more significance than the scurryings of ants to the wide universe, and are unaffected by planetary movements.’
‘Professor Trelawney –’ began Parvati, in a hurt and indignant voice.
‘– is a human,’ said Firenze simply. ‘And is therefore blinkered and fettered by the limitations of your kind.’
Harry turned his head very slightly to look at Parvati. She looked very offended, as did several of the people surrounding her.
‘Sybill Trelawney may have Seen, I do not know,’ continued Firenze, and Harry heard the swishing of his tail again as he walked up and down before them, ‘but she wastes her time, in the main, on the self-flattering nonsense humans call fortune-telling. I, however, am here to explain the wisdom of centaurs, which is impersonal and impartial. We watch the skies for the great tides of evil or change that are sometimes marked there. It may take ten years to be sure of what we are seeing.’
Firenze pointed to the red star directly above Harry.
‘In the past decade, the indications have been th
at wizardkind is living through nothing more than a brief calm between two wars. Mars, bringer of battle, shines brightly above us, suggesting that the fight must soon break out again. How soon, centaurs may attempt to divine by the burning of certain herbs and leaves, by the observation of fume and flame …’
It was the most unusual lesson Harry had ever attended. They did indeed burn sage and mallowsweet there on the classroom floor, and Firenze told them to look for certain shapes and symbols in the pungent fumes, but he seemed perfectly unconcerned that not one of them could see any of the signs he described, telling them that humans were hardly ever good at this, that it took centaurs years and years to become competent, and finished by telling them that it was foolish to put too much faith in such things, anyway, because even centaurs sometimes read them wrongly. He was nothing like any human teacher Harry had ever had. His priority did not seem to be to teach them what he knew, but rather to impress upon them that nothing, not even centaurs’ knowledge, was foolproof.
‘He’s not very definite on anything, is he?’ said Ron in a low voice, as they put out their mallowsweet fire. ‘I mean, I could do with a few more details about this war we’re about to have, couldn’t you?’
The bell rang right outside the classroom door and everyone jumped; Harry had completely forgotten they were still inside the castle, and quite convinced that he was really in the Forest. The class filed out, looking slightly perplexed.
Harry and Ron were on the point of following them when Firenze called, ‘Harry Potter, a word, please.’
Harry turned. The centaur advanced a little towards him. Ron hesitated.
‘You may stay,’ Firenze told him. ‘But close the door, please.’
Ron hastened to obey.
‘Harry Potter, you are a friend of Hagrid’s, are you not?’ said the centaur.
‘Yes,’ said Harry.
‘Then give him a warning from me. His attempt is not working. He would do better to abandon it.’
‘His attempt is not working?’ Harry repeated blankly.
‘And he would do better to abandon it,’ said Firenze, nodding. ‘I would warn Hagrid myself, but I am banished – it would be unwise for me to go too near the Forest now – Hagrid has troubles enough, without a centaurs’ battle.’
‘But – what’s Hagrid attempting to do?’ said Harry nervously.
Firenze looked at Harry impassively.
‘Hagrid has recently rendered me a great service,’ said Firenze, ‘and he has long since earned my respect for the care he shows all living creatures. I shall not betray his secret. But he must be brought to his senses. The attempt is not working. Tell him, Harry Potter. Good-day to you.’
*
The happiness Harry had felt in the aftermath of The Quibbler interview had long since evaporated. As a dull March blurred into a squally April, his life seemed to have become one long series of worries and problems again.
Umbridge had continued attending all Care of Magical Creatures lessons, so it had been very difficult to deliver Firenze’s warning to Hagrid. At last, Harry had managed it by pretending he’d lost his copy of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, and doubling back after class one day. When he’d passed on Firenze’s message, Hagrid gazed at him for a moment through his puffy, blackened eyes, apparently taken aback. Then he seemed to pull himself together.
‘Nice bloke, Firenze,’ he said gruffly, ‘but he don’ know what he’s talkin’ abou’ on this. The attemp’s comin’ on fine.’
‘Hagrid, what’re you up to?’ asked Harry seriously. ‘Because you’ve got to be careful, Umbridge has already sacked Trelawney and, if you ask me, she’s on a roll. If you’re doing anything you shouldn’t be, you’ll be –’
‘There’s things more importan’ than keepin’ a job,’ said Hagrid, though his hands shook slightly as he said this and a basin full of Knarl droppings crashed to the floor. ‘Don’ worry abou’ me, Harry, jus’ get along now, there’s a good lad.’
Harry had no choice but to leave Hagrid mopping up the dung all over his floor, but he felt thoroughly dispirited as he trudged back up to the castle.
Meanwhile, as the teachers and Hermione persisted in reminding them, the O.W.L.s were drawing ever nearer. All the fifth-years were suffering from stress to some degree, but Hannah Abbott became the first to receive a Calming Draught from Madam Pomfrey after she burst into tears during Herbology and sobbed that she was too stupid to take exams and wanted to leave school now.
If it had not been for the DA lessons, Harry thought he would have been extremely unhappy. He sometimes felt he was living for the hours he spent in the Room of Requirement, working hard but thoroughly enjoying himself at the same time, swelling with pride as he looked around at his fellow DA members and saw how far they had come. Indeed, Harry sometimes wondered how Umbridge was going to react when all the members of the DA received ‘Outstanding’ in their Defence Against the Dark Arts O.W.L.s.
They had finally started work on Patronuses, which everybody had been very keen to practise, though, as Harry kept reminding them, producing a Patronus in the middle of a brightly lit classroom when they were not under threat was very different from producing it when confronted by something like a Dementor.
‘Oh, don’t be such a killjoy,’ said Cho brightly, watching her silvery swan-shaped Patronus soar around the Room of Requirement during their last lesson before Easter. ‘They’re so pretty!’
‘They’re not supposed to be pretty, they’re supposed to protect you,’ said Harry patiently. ‘What we really need is a Boggart or something; that’s how I learned, I had to conjure a Patronus while the Boggart was pretending to be a Dementor –’
‘But that would be really scary!’ said Lavender, who was shooting puffs of silver vapour out of the end of her wand. ‘And I still – can’t – do it!’ she added angrily.
Neville was having trouble, too. His face was screwed up in concentration, but only feeble wisps of silver smoke issued from his wand-tip.
‘You’ve got to think of something happy,’ Harry reminded him.
‘I’m trying,’ said Neville miserably, who was trying so hard his round face was actually shining with sweat.
‘Harry, I think I’m doing it!’ yelled Seamus, who had been brought along to his first ever DA meeting by Dean. ‘Look – ah – it’s gone … but it was definitely something hairy, Harry!’
Hermione’s Patronus, a shining silver otter, was gambolling around her.
‘They are sort of nice, aren’t they?’ she said, looking at it fondly.
The door of the Room of Requirement opened, and closed. Harry looked round to see who had entered, but there did not seem to be anybody there. It was a few moments before he realised that the people close to the door had fallen silent. Next thing he knew, something was tugging at his robes somewhere near the knee. He looked down and saw, to his very great astonishment, Dobby the house-elf peering up at him from beneath his usual eight woolly hats.
‘Hi, Dobby!’ he said. ‘What are you – What’s wrong?’
The elf’s eyes were wide with terror and he was shaking. The members of the DA closest to Harry had fallen silent; everybody in the room was watching Dobby. The few Patronuses people had managed to conjure faded away into silver mist, leaving the room looking much darker than before.
‘Harry Potter, sir …’ squeaked the elf, trembling from head to foot, ‘Harry Potter, sir … Dobby has come to warn you … but the house-elves have been warned not to tell …’
He ran head-first at the wall. Harry, who had some experience of Dobby’s habits of self-punishment, made to seize him, but Dobby merely bounced off the stone, cushioned by his eight hats. Hermione and a few of the other girls let out squeaks of fear and sympathy.
‘What’s happened, Dobby?’ Harry asked, grabbing the elf’s tiny arm and holding him away from anything with which he might seek to hurt himself.
‘Harry Potter … she … she …’
Dobby hit himself hard on t
he nose with his free fist. Harry seized that, too.
‘Who’s “she”, Dobby?’
But he thought he knew; surely only one ‘she’ could induce such fear in Dobby? The elf looked up at him, slightly cross-eyed, and mouthed wordlessly.
‘Umbridge?’ asked Harry, horrified.
Dobby nodded, then tried to bang his head on Harry’s knees. Harry held him at arm’s length.
‘What about her? Dobby – she hasn’t found out about this – about us – about the DA?’
He read the answer in the elf’s stricken face. His hands held fast by Harry, Dobby tried to kick himself and sank to his knees.
‘Is she coming?’ Harry asked quietly.
Dobby let out a howl.
‘Yes, Harry Potter, yes!’
Harry straightened up and looked around at the motionless, terrified people gazing at the thrashing elf.
‘WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?’ Harry bellowed. ‘RUN!’
They all pelted towards the exit at once, forming a scrum at the door, then people burst through. Harry could hear them sprinting along the corridors and hoped they had the sense not to try and make it all the way to their dormitories. It was only ten to nine; if they just took refuge in the library or the Owlery, which were both nearer –
‘Harry, come on!’ shrieked Hermione from the centre of the knot of people now fighting to get out.
He scooped up Dobby, who was still attempting to do himself serious injury, and ran with the elf in his arms to join the back of the queue.
‘Dobby – this is an order – get back down to the kitchen with the other elves and, if she asks you whether you warned me, lie and say no!’ said Harry. ‘And I forbid you to hurt yourself!’ he added, dropping the elf as he made it over the threshold at last and slammed the door behind him.
‘Thank you, Harry Potter!’ squeaked Dobby, and he streaked off. Harry glanced left and right, the others were all moving so fast he caught only glimpses of flying heels at either end of the corridor before they vanished; he started to run right; there was a boys’ bathroom up ahead, he could pretend he’d been in there all the time if he could just reach it –
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