Previous Chapters:
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Tags:
@Bellatrisblack @CatsAndRoblox @Rose.gold.kiisses @MeowTasticCat @Jellybean Jade @Missy Clara Oswald @Teddy.J.B
(Before I start I just want to say in this chapter the rest of Harry's close friends learn to cast their patronuses, one off which will stand out. I just want to say to choose each character's patronus I answered a spirit animal quiz as that character would and then checked to see is there were any canonical Patronuses of that animal. There is no extra meaning in my choices)
Chapter Twenty-Nine: Lessons and the Leek
‘So Harry,’ said Allison at breakfast the following Wednesday, a mischievous grin on her face, ‘You didn’t mention the centaur that saved you was an absolute stud.’
They were to have their first lesson with Firenze that morning, but Harry didn’t quite know how to answer that question.
‘Wait, what? I was eleven and we were all kind of focused on the Philosopher’s Stone immediately afterwards,’ he said while staring at her. ‘Also, no matter how handsome he is, his bottom half is still an animal and—‘
But he was cut off by both Tracey and Allison bursting into a fit of giggles.
‘She was just messing with you Harry,’ said Tracey while trying to catch her breath. ‘Lighten the mood after what happened to Trelawney.’
‘How is she?’ asked Theodore. ‘I haven’t really seen her since that night.’
‘Terry told me he had gone up to her office and that she isn’t doing very well,’ said Allison, now back to her stoic self. ‘She apparently could give Cho a run for her money from the amount of crying she’s doing and he told me that she said she doesn’t really want to be here if Umbridge is still teaching.’
‘That evil Hag has truly damaged her, hasn’t she?’ said Tracey.
‘And I sadly have a feeling that Umbridge isn’t even at her peak potential for nastiness,’ said Theodore darkly.
‘Are you sure?’ said Harry, as he took a small bite of toast with some scrambled egg on it. ‘I can barely imagine her getting any worse.’
‘We shall see. I get the feeling that Dumbledore hiring a non human has really sent her over the edge, you’ve seen how she treats Hagrid and Canini, so I think she is going to try her best to get revenge somehow,’ said Theodore.
After breakfast Allison departed for her Study of Ancient Runes class and Harry followed Tracey and Theodore into the entrance hall, heading for Divination.
‘Where are you going, Theo? We need to head to class,’ said Harry looking puzzled, as Theodore bypassed the marble staircase.
Theodore turned around dramatically.
‘Firenze isn’t bipedal, how did you expect him to climb the ladder to the old classroom. We are now in classroom eleven. You two should get into the habit of reading the notice board.’
Classroom eleven was situated in the ground-floor corridor leading off the entrance hall on the opposite side to the Great Hall. Harry knew it to be one of those classrooms that were never used regularly, and that it therefore had the slightly neglected feeling of a cupboard or storeroom. When he entered it right behind Theodore, and found himself right 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, looking rather nervous. In the middle of the room, 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 that there was the shadow of a hoof-shaped bruise on Firenze’s chest. As he turned to join the rest of the class upon the floor, he saw that they were all looking at him with 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 upon 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 this is not possible.’
‘Um—sir—if it is ok to ask—‘ said Terry Boot breathlessly, raising his hand, ‘why can’t we learn in the forest? We have had lessons in there before, we are not scared.’
‘It is not a question of your bravery,’ said Firenze, ‘but of my position. I can no longer return to the forest. My herd has banished me.’
‘Herd?’ said Sue Li in a confused voice, and Harry knew she
was thinking of cows. ‘I don’t und—oh!’ Comprehension dawned on her face. ‘There are more centaurs in the forest?’ she said, stunned.
‘Has Hagrid been breeding you, like he did with the thestrals?’ asked Daphne eagerly.
Firenze turned his head very slowly to face Daphne, who seemed to realize at once that she had said something very offensive.
‘That’s not what I—I didn’t mean—I am so sorry,’ she finished in a hushed voice.
‘Centaurs are not the servants or playthings of humans,’ said Firenze quietly. There was a pause, then Terry raised his hand again.
‘Please, sir…why were you banished by the centaurs?’
‘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 upon his back, calling 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 toward 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 emerged upon the ceiling. There were oohs and gasps, and Theodore said audibly, ‘Goodness!’
‘Lie back upon 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 upward 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 unraveled the mysteries of these movements over centuries. Our findings teach us that the future may be glimpsed in the sky above us…’
‘Our previous teacher, Professor Trelawney taught Astrology to us!’ said Terry excitedly, raising his hand in front of him so that it stuck up in the air as he lay on his back. ‘The planet Mars foretells accidents and burns, and when it is at an angle with Saturn’—he drew a right angle in the air above him—‘it means that people need to be cautious while handling hot objects—‘
‘That,’ said Firenze calmly, ‘is human nonsense.’
Terry’s hand fell limply to his 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 Terry, 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 Terry. He looked very offended, as did several of the people surrounding him.
‘Sibyll 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 that Wizard-kind 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 break out again soon. 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 never says if something is for certain, does he?’ said Tracey in a low voice, as they put out their mallowsweet fire. ‘Like, it would be useful to us and the Order to know some details of the war that is coming.’
The bell rang right outside the classroom door and everyone jumped; Harry had completely forgotten that they were still inside the castle, quite convinced that he was really in the forest. The class filed out, looking slightly perplexed; Harry, Theodore, and Tracey were on the point of following them when Firenze called, ‘Harry Potter, a word, please.’
Harry turned. The centaur advanced a little toward him. Harry’s friends hesitated.
‘You may stay,’ Firenze told them. ‘But close the door, please.’
Theodore 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 had lost his copy of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them and doubling back after class one day. When he 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—‘
‘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 Theodore 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 a Herbology and sobbed that she was too stupid to take exams and wanted to leave school now.
If it had not been for the D.A. lessons, Harry thought he would have been extremely unhappy. He sometimes felt that 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 D.A. members and saw how far they had come. Indeed, Harry sometimes wondered how Umbridge was going to react when all the members of the D.A. received “Outstanding” in their Defense Against the Dark Arts O.W.L.s.
They had finally started work on Patronuses, which everybody had been very keen to practice, 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 to 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—‘
‘Even without the threat of a dementor I still can’t seem to do it,’ said Neville, 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, look! I think I’m doing it!’ yelled Terence excitedly, and sure enough a silvery sparrow hawk materialized and took flight. Tracey cast her monarch butterfly and the two Patronuses flew together around the ceiling.
The next of Harry’s friends to cast a full Patronus was Theodore, a shiny grass snake slithered out of his wand. Theodore looked at it with pride and amazement. Harry gave him a pat on his back.
After a couple failed attempts Canini managed to cast a small hummingbird that flew around her head, making her giggle.
‘I did it big bro, look!’ she exclaimed.
‘I’m very proud of you Cani!’ said Harry genuinely.
Finally Allison managed to cast hers, and from her wand shot a large silvery doe.
She looked at hers like no one else had, she was staring at her Patronus with amazement, but also seemingly shock and an expression of embarrassment Harry could not explain. And while the others were still focused on their own Patronuses or others, Tracey’s had disappeared as she was now looking at Allison with a dumbfounded expression on her own face.
Before Harry could inquire about why the two girls were acting so odd the door of the Room of Requirement opened and then closed again; Harry looked around to see who had entered, but there did not seem to be anybody there. It was a few moments before he realized 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 hats.
‘Hi, Dobby!’ he said. ‘What are you—what’s wrong?’
For the elf’s eyes were wide with terror and he was shaking. The members of the D.A. closest to Harry had fallen silent now: 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 headfirst 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.
Canini, Hermione Granger, 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 the 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 off Harry’s knees; Harry held him at bay.
‘What about her? Dobby—she hasn’t found out about this—about us—about the D.A.?’
He read the answer in the elf’s stricken face. His hands held fast by Harry, the elf tried to kick himself and fell to the floor.
‘Is she coming?’ Harry asked quietly.
Dobby let out a howl, and began beating his bare feet hard on the floor. ‘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 toward 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! We have to go!’ shrieked Canini from the center 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 slamming 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 that 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—
‘Brachiabindo!’
‘AAARGH!’
Something caught him around his legs and he fell spectacularly, skidding along on his front for six feet before coming to a halt. Someone behind him was laughing. He rolled over onto his back and saw Pansy Parkinson concealed in a niche beneath an ugly dragon-shaped vase.
‘Binding Jinx, Potter!’ she said. ‘Hey, Professor—Ms Umbridge! PROFESSOR! I’ve got the big one!’
Umbridge came bustling around the far corner, breathless but wearing a delighted smile.
‘It’s him!’ she said jubilantly at the sight of Harry on the floor. ‘Excellent, Pansy, excellent, oh, very good—bonus credit for my class! I’ll take him from here…Stand up, Potter!’
Harry got to his feet as Pansy had lifted her jinx, glaring at the pair of them. He had never seen Umbridge looking so happy. She seized his arm in a vicelike grip and turned, beaming broadly, to Pansy. ‘You hop along and see if you can round up anymore of them, Miss Parkinson,’ she said. ‘Tell the others to look in the library—anybody out of breath—check the bathrooms, Mr Zabini can do the boys’ ones—off you go—and you,’ she added in her softest, most dangerous voice, as Pansy walked away. ‘You can come with me to the headmaster’s office, Potter.’
They were at the stone gargoyle within minutes. Harry wondered how many of the others had been caught. He thought of Theodore—who would be mortified if he was expelled—and of Canini, who Umbridge was just looking for an excuse to punish harshly…and Neville had been getting so good…