Luck of Nines

52

    (An: short chapter that's mostly authors note that went on too long, so early update.)

        With the others distracted by their game, he quickly snuck out and began making his way to the forest. Just hearing the bickering between the rotund man- who he discovered was named Dodge- and the older Malfoy, the Pro and anti Dumbledore sides of the board respectively had sent his annoyance shooting up through the roof.

      He shifted the moment he knew he was out of sight of all those watchful eyes and then they were bolting down the steps and through the halls and out of the castle, Chipper a whisker ahead of Chipped Fang.  The latter paused, tail flicking before they pounced, springing on the nearest wildflower that grew above Hogwarts grass, rolling down the green in amusement, the torn flower clutched between two forepaws, before Chipped Fang was charging at Chip- Harry's flank. 

     The two rolling in the grass for awhile as they collided, playfully fighting in celebration of a whole day spent free of the dramatics the wizarding folk liked to bring into play. You-Know-Who this. He-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named that. Giant attacks verse goblin wars. The plague of 1720 or the scourge of 1630. He didn't much care for keeping the dark lords or the magical wars straight in his head.

      He wasn't even sure why Theo was so insistant he learn about these things anyway, since they were in the past, it's not like they had a history class. 

     So he let all those useless facts and information fall to the side as he let Chipped Fang bowl him over. Chipped Fang still looked small next to his slightly enlarged cat size given his surrounding pillow of fur which somehow succeeded in sticking out in every which way even flattened while Chipped Fang had a much thinner coat.

      They rolled around some more, carelessly tumbling over and lunging at each other as they slowly made their way back into the forest. With classes cancelled and the sun only recently having risen, they had hours before anyone who might notice they had disappeared would do something. It was only Theo and Malfoy who shared his dorm with him now, given Crabbe and Goyle seemingly had left he could only wonder if it was only as a bargaining chip that the elder Malfoy kept his son in attendance.

      Either way, it suited him that neither would rush to inform others that he was missing- hopefully, at least.

       Hours later, he and Chipped Fang had made it deep into the forest, returning to what had become his usual hunting grounds, the trees just the right distance apart to allow warm streams of sunlight perfect for basking in, and a trickle of water that ran off from a further away stream offered a nice place to get a sip of water which posed no threat to Chipped Fang who retained a dislike of larger sources.

      Not to mention the animals in the vicinity were fairly plentiful. Unlike other places where Centaurs camped,  giant spiders spun dangerously thick webs, or the openings in the forest where herds of dark carnivorous horses habited, there weren't many larger creatures which made it a perfect place for many smaller creatures and for the occasional hunter like Ch-Harry and Chipped Fang were.

      This time was different though, both he and Chipped Fang fell silent at the loud crunching noises of heavy footsteps. A large herd of the centaurs had wandered into the area, while one or two wasn't unusual, all of the larger predators knew of the the spot and frequented it when they were hungry and out of lucky in their usual places, he had yet to ever even see more than three or so traveling together outside their camps, and yet there were almost a dozen of them here, stiff hooves denting the earth and snapping branches clearly announcing their presence. Although usually quieter than the average person in the forest- even while alone- stealthy, they were not.

     Heavy footsteps accompanied the arrival of two more, as Harry inches closer to get a better view, Hagrid, the steps were too big and heavy to be anyone else, and the earthy smell of the groundskeeper was rather unique among the wizards.

     The group seemed to be centered around his last kill, blood flecked the ground and surrounding roots about the large puddle, a small trail of blood leading through.  The mouse that had originally been caught left discarded in the face of the disruption which had interrupted the last hunt they had done, Chipped Fang dealing the final blow and was moving to take a bite while Harry moved to explore a nearby hole in a tree.

     It wasn't a surprise, the horse charging through, blood leaking from its flank, the other predator at its heels, but they had taken it as a sign to call it quits, stomachs already full from the bird they had caught before, when the creature had attacked them instead of its chosen prey as easier targets- whatever it was, Harry hadn't seen it before so it was likely one of the rarer creatures of the forest some of which he had only glimpsed once or twice before and it was nimble, clawing at him with a loud, victorious screech before it met its quick end at Chipper's newly transformed claws and fangs.

      He watched as the centaurs paced and stomped nervously, all guarding the scene from animals that might be looking for an easy meal, talking in the unusual, technical way they did about darkness approaching the forest and Mars rising.  At the approach of Hagrid and their fellows, they all looked over and Harry, payed closer attention as Hagrid and the Centaurs he was with argued about bringing more humans into the forest and potential threats given this incident, a run in the Weasley twins had with an unusual creature, and an ongoing problem involving something hunting something called a unicorn.

       That was all he had to know, Harry made a face, turning to quickly leave the area in search of a new hunting grounds, the area would be much busier than he cared for and he would much rather worry about filling his belly than what a unicorn was or why these three things mattered to the centaurs enough to even bother informing Hagrid.

        Chipped Fang tailed after him sulkily as they headed out. It really was a shame to lose such a perfect spot for both hunting and relaxing in the sun.

So, for those who are curious about the earlier history comment; you may be wondering, what about Binns? Oh he still exists, Harry just didn't attend the first week due to the chaos that it was, like he didn't for Defense class. He didn't read much of the schedule since he's a very slow reader with a limited written vocabulary, and thus isn't even aware the class exists since no one told him off for it.

Those wondering about why more people haven't informed him about the boy who lived stuff after the Quirrel talk awhile back- oh they have, he just is listening to other conversations and/or doesn't care.

Basically the past few months in everyone else's eyes, is like trying to get a cat to listen to you, it's just annoyance as Harry chases after butterflies while they try and get him to do homework, frustration as they try and teach some bit of history and he's listening to the hufflepuff/literally anything else gossip, and grief/horror as people around them die.

One day it might be entertaining to do a short story from the people around him's perspective.

      Anyway, that's all for now, I know it's short, I'm pretty excited about the upcoming parts as most of the stuff that were sort of loose ends earlier are going to be finally brought forward and I've been leaving a bunch of foreshadowing at what's planned throughout all this but I don't think anyones guessed it yet.

     However, I'm not sure yet if I just want to cut this short at the dramatic conclusion-y point (since it'll be approaching like 60-70 or so chapters by then which is pretty long) or if I want to do the time skip I've been thinking about since I've got some pretty fun ideas for that. From experience if I do a separate book, which is also tempting for me, I'll just... procrastinate. So I'm hesitant to do that.

   Any, anyways, this has gotten to be a longer note/rant than intended, especially for such a short chapter, I'm just excited; see you around.

Always,

     -A.