The Potter Twins and the Order of the Phoenix {5}

31. Firenze and Fudge

"In the eye of the hurricane there is quiet for just a moment, a yellow sky" ~ Hurricane, Lin-Manuel Miranda

"I'll bet you wish you hadn't given up Divination now, don't you, Hermione?" asks Parvati, smirking.

It is breakfast time, two days after the sacking of Professor Trelawney, and Parvati is curling her eyelashes around her wand and examining the effect in the back of her spoon. We're to have our first lesson with Firenze this morning.

"Not really," says Hermione indifferently, who is reading the Daily Prophet. "I've never really liked horses."

She turns a page of the newspaper and scans its columns.

"He's not a horse, he's a centaur!" says Lavender, sounding shocked.

"A gorgeous centaur..." sighs Parvati.

"Well, surely that's all kinds of illegal," Riley murmurs, making Tay and I snigger into our breakfast plates. 

"Either way, he's still got four legs," says Hermione coolly. "Anyway, I thought you two were all upset that Trelawney had gone?"

"We are!" Lavender assures 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?" asks Harry.

"Not very good, poor thing," says Lavender sympathetically. "She was crying and saying she'd rather leave the castle forever 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," says Hermione darkly.

"Impossible," says Ron, who is 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," says Hermione, closing the newspaper. "Especially another part-human. You saw the look on her face when she saw Firenze."

After breakfast, Hermione departs for her Arithmancy class, and once I've met up with Tessa, the Harry, Ron, and I follow Parvati and Lavender to Divination. 

"Aren't we going up to North Tower?" asks Ron, looking puzzled, as Parvati bypasses the marble staircase.

Parvati looks 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 is on the ground floor along the corridor leading off the Entrance Hall from the opposite side to the Great Hall. I can tell that it's one of those classrooms that are never used regularly, and therefore it has the slightly neglected feeling of a cupboard or storeroom. When I enter it right behind Ron and Harry, I find himself in the middle of a forest clearing, and for a few moments, I'm stunned. 

"Whoa..."

The classroom floor has become springily mossy and trees are growing out of it; their leafy branches fan across the ceiling and windows, so that the room is full of slanting shafts of soft, dappled, green light. The students who have already arrived are 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 are no trees, stands Firenze.

"Harry and Haylee Potter," he says, holding out a hand when Harry and I enter. 

"Er--hi," says Harry, as we shake hands with the centaur, who is surveying unblinkingly through those astonishingly blue eyes but does not smile. "Er--good to see you."

"And you," says the centaur, inclining his white-blond head. "It was foretold that we would meet again."

"Yes, yes, you're right," I say quietly, slowly remembering our first meeting. 

I notice that there is the shadow of a hoof-shaped bruise on Firenze's chest. As we turn to join the rest of the class on the ground, I see that they're all looking at us in awe, apparently deeply impressed that we are on speaking terms with Firenze. Whom they seem to find intimidating.