It's OK To Not Be Ok...Right?

104. Better Together

"I think I might be sick," Hermione said quietly as Harry was rubbing circles on her back. She had one hand clutching his shirt and the other gripped tightly in Sloane's free hand.

Everyone was standing in the little security room once again, looking up at the screens. It was no surprise, which picture they were all now watching intently. Euan was on screen, surrounded by various animals. There was three cats, a dog that Harry thought resembled Sirius animagious, several owls, six house elf's (Pippin being one of them) and two centaur men. There was no sound but it was obvious that Euan was talking with the creatures. He was also passing around Hermione's knitted blanket and Sloane's hoodie which each creature look a long sniff of before passing it on. The same decaying corpse was lying on the floor and there were now several gargoyles.

"So he has help now," Blaise said before sighing heavily. "Well isn't that something. Bastard has made friends."

"The cats and dogs and things I understand but how did he manage to get Centaurs to do his bidding?" Luna asked. "Centaurs are very proud creatures and they usually pride themselves on taking orders from no one. Unless those two happen to be rogues."

"Rogues?" Ron was confused.

"Centaurs usually stay in herds," Newt explained. "There is one alpha male who leads the group and the rest follow. In the Forbidden Forest there is only one herd. However there are always a few members who do not want to listen to authority. They want to be free to do as they please. Once a centaur moves away from the herd or breaks out on their own, they are seen as rogues. Belonging to no pack. Being free is not all it's cracked up to be. For one there is safety in numbers. A pack offers security. If these two were rogues, they would have been easy to pick off." He frowned. Newt was worried for the animals on the screen.

Luna sighed. "Or they could be adolescents who simply wandered too far. Poor things. We have to rescue them!"

Ron patted her arm. "We will love, we will."

"We need to go down now," Jack said banging his fist on the desk he was leaning against. "We are no closer to figuring out a plan than we were weeks ago. We are wasting time and -"

"It's not safe," Tina snapped and used her hand to sweep her shoulder length hair out of her face. "You go down there unprepared and you will not see the light of day again."

Jack snorted. "Listen lady, you don't know what I am capable of and -"

"I know exactly what you're capable of. I was just like you when I first finished Auror training. So desperate to get stuck in that I put not only my life at risk, but my teammates lives at risk." Tina felt her palm twitch. He wanted to slap the smirk off this boys face.

"I am not like you. I will be -"

"You will be going nowhere unless I give the go ahead," Kingsley roared. "And when I am not about, Bill is in charge. You are a cadet. You take orders you don't give them." Jack folded his arms and moved to sit next to Arabelle who didn't look any less sour at the situation.

Sloane had yet to take her eyes off the screen. They knew that Euan had a small army working for him. They had seen the body/corpse thing for themselves. But this was so much more.

"What's the next step?" Harry asked, filled with rage at the fact that his girlfriend's scent was being passed around.

"Have you had any luck with the Blessed Fire?" Bill asked, a slight desperation to his voice. Narcissa was the one to reply.

"We've all tried ourselves and we have been to the Ministry records to see if there is anyone who may be known to the Ministry but so far we've had no luck." She sighed as she looked to Draco and Sloane. She hated that this was happening to them.