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seconds, the sound faded away. |
"I knew it, " he murmured. "There's summat in here that shouldn' be." |
"A werewolf?" Harry suggested. |
"That wasn' no werewolf an' it wasn' no unicorn, neither," said Hagrid |
grimly. "Right, follow me, but careful, now." |
They walked more slowly, ears straining for the faintest sound. |
Suddenly, in a clearing ahead, something definitely moved. |
"Who's there?" Hagrid called. "Show yerself -- I'm armed!" |
And into the clearing came -- was it a man, or a horse? To the waist, a |
man, with red hair and beard, but below that was a horse's gleaming |
chestnut body with a long, reddish tail. Harry and Hermione's jaws |
dropped. |
"Oh, it's you, Ronan," said Hagrid in relief. "How are yeh?" |
He walked forward and shook the centaur's hand. |
"Good evening to you, Hagrid," said Ronan. He had a deep, sorrowful |
voice. "Were you going to shoot me?" |
"Can't be too careful, Ronan," said Hagrid, patting his crossbow. |
"There's summat bad loose in this forest. This is Harry Potter an' |
Hermione Granger, by the way. Students up at the school. An' this is |
Ronan, you two. He's a centaur.)) |
"We'd noticed," said Hermione faintly. |
"Good evening," said Ronan. "Students, are you? And do you learn much, |
up at the school?" |
"Erm --" |
"A bit," said Hermione timidly. |
"A bit. Well, that's something." Ronan sighed. He flung back his head |
and stared at the sky. "Mars is bright tonight." |
"Yeah," said Hagrid, glancing up, too. "Listen, I'm glad we've run inter |
yeh, Ronan, 'cause there's a unicorn bin hurt -- you seen anythin'?" |
Ronan didn't answer immediately. He stared unblinkingly upward, then |
sighed again. |
"Always the innocent are the first victims," he said. "So it has been |
for ages past, so it is now." |
"Yeah," said Hagrid, "but have yeh seen anythin', Ronan? Anythin' |
unusual?" |
"Mars is bright tonight," Ronan repeated, while Hagrid watched him |
impatiently. "Unusually bright." |
"Yeah, but I was meanin' anythin' unusual a bit nearer home, said |
Hagrid. "So yeh haven't noticed anythin' strange?" |
Yet again, Ronan took a while to answer. At last, he said, "The forest |
hides many secrets." |
A movement in the trees behind Ronan made Hagrid raise his bow again, |
but it was only a second centaur, black-haired and -bodied and |
wilder-looking than Ronan. |
"Hullo, Bane," said Hagrid. "All right?" |
"Good evening, Hagrid, I hope you are well?" |
"Well enough. Look, I've jus' bin askin' Ronan, you seen anythin' odd in |
here lately? There's a unicorn bin injured -- would yeh know anythin' |
about it?" |
Bane walked over to stand next to Ronan. He looked skyward. "Mars is |
bright tonight," he said simply. |
"We've heard," said Hagrid grumpily. "Well, if either of you do see |
anythin', let me know, won't yeh? We'll be off, then." |
Harry and Hermione followed him out of the clearing, staring over their |
shoulders at Ronan and Bane until the trees blocked their view. |
"Never," said Hagrid irritably, "try an' get a straight answer out of a |
centaur. Ruddy stargazers. Not interested in anythin' closer'n the |
moon." |
"Are there many of them in here?" asked Hermione. |
"Oh, a fair few... Keep themselves to themselves mostly, but they're |
good enough about turnin' up if ever I want a word. They're deep, mind, |
centaurs... they know things... jus' don' let on much." |
"D'you think that was a centaur we heard earlier?" said Harry. |
"Did that sound like hooves to you? Nah, if yeh ask me, that was what's |
bin killin' the unicorns -- never heard anythin' like it before." |
They walked on through the dense, dark trees. Harry kept looking |
nervously over his shoulder. He had the nasty feeling they were being |
watched. He was very glad they had Hagrid and his crossbow with them. |
They had just passed a bend in the path when Hermione grabbed Hagrid's |
arm. |
"Hagrid! Look! Red sparks, the others are in trouble!" |
"You two wait here!" Hagrid shouted. "Stay on the path, I'll come back |
for yeh!" |
They heard him crashing away through the undergrowth and stood looking |
at each other, very scared, until they couldn't hear anything but the |
rustling of leaves around them. |
"You don't think they've been hurt, do you?" whispered Hermione. |
"I don't care if Malfoy has, but if something's got Neville... it's our |
fault he's here in the first place." |
The minutes dragged by. Their ears seemed sharper than usual. Harry's |
seemed to be picking up every sigh of the wind, every cracking twig. |
What was going on? Where were the others? |
At last, a great crunching noise announced Hagrid's return. Malfoy, |
Neville, and Fang were with him. Hagrid was fuming. Malfoy, it seemed, |
had sneaked up behind Neville and grabbed him as a joke. Neville had |
panicked and sent up the sparks. |
"We'll be lucky ter catch anythin' now, with the racket you two were |
makin'. Right, we're changin' groups -- Neville, you stay with me an' |
Hermione, Harry, you go with Fang an' this idiot. I'm sorry," Hagrid |
added in a whisper to Harry, "but he'll have a harder time frightenin' |
you, an' we've gotta get this done." |
So Harry set off into the heart of the forest with Malfoy and Fang. They |
walked for nearly half an hour, deeper and deeper into the forest, until |
the path became almost impossible to follow because the trees were so |
thick. Harry thought the blood seemed to be getting thicker. There were |
splashes on the roots of a tree, as though the poor creature had been |
thrashing around in pain close by. Harry could see a clearing ahead, |
through the tangled branches of an ancient oak. |
"Look --" he murmured, holding out his arm to stop Malfoy. |
Something bright white was gleaming on the ground. They inched closer. |
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