- Rating:
- PG-13
- House:
- The Dark Arts
- Ships:
- Firenze/Other Magical Creature
- Characters:
- Firenze
- Genres:
- Drama Slash
- Era:
- The Harry Potter at Hogwarts Years
- Spoilers:
- Order of the Phoenix
- Stats:
-
Published: 09/24/2004Updated: 09/24/2004Words: 830Chapters: 1Hits: 513
- Posted:
- 09/24/2004
- Hits:
- 513
- Author's Note:
- The sentence 'Mars is bright tonight' was just too cliched NOT to be used.
‘Am I to understand
that you intend on leaving the herd to join the humans?'The Forest stood suddenly still, as if holding its breath, and Bane knew that the Ancient Ones were right when they said it was alive, with a mind of its own hidden in the depths of infinite-old wood. He locked eyes with the younger centaur and wondered what Firenze had
thought when Bane invited him for a talk. The shock in the impossibly blue eyes told Bane that this had not been it. Still, Bane waited for an answer, and the Forest waited with him.'Dumbledore asked me to help him, to teach his students.'
'And because he asked you, you obliged,' Bane stated coldly.
'Is that what you want? To come whenever a human calls? Like a common mule? Have you forgotten all that I taught you?''There’s a war coming, Bane, you told me so yourself. Every help in teaching new warriors is required.'
'The war is a human affair, not ours to meddle with. It is born in them; mingled in their blood, from the lack of understanding they have in the world they live in.' He paused. 'We are centaurs, you and I, Firenze. We understand. We are above war.'
Firenze sighed. 'If Voldemort rises to power neither we, nor the humans, nor anything else will be above him. Dumbledore says…'
'Look at you!' Bane snapped. 'Look at you, you fool, quoting what a human says. You lost your pride; you’re nothing better than that stupid half-giant. Always "Dumbledore says, Dumbledore says".'
Firenze blinked for a moment, and then gave a mirthless laugh.
'Is that what all of this is about?' he asked.
'What do you mean?'
'I’m not betraying our kind, am I? I’m looking up to another.' A pause. 'You! You, who claim yourself to be above the humans, need me, a foolish youth, to take your word as my dogma.'
'Insolent!' With this Bane turned around and kicked Firenze with his back-legs squarely in the chest, making him tumble backwards and fall breathlessly.
~~~~~~~~~
In August the grounds of Hogwarts are deserted, a limitless territory to the creatures of the Forest. Firenze is barely of age and Bane takes it upon himself to introduce him to the knowledge of their kind. One arm around the younger centaur’s shoulders, the other pointing at the sky.
'Look. See? That’s Perseus. A long time, in the dawn of our kind, a comet went by in its direction. Every year, around this time, the remains of its wake, the Pleiades, shoot from Perseus into the night-sky.'
'What happens if they don’t appear?' Firenze asks softly.
Bane is suddenly very aware of curious fingers finding their way among the black hairs in his back, from his horse coat to his human skin, and fresh breath on his neck.
'Mars is looking particularly bright tonight,' he says, not answering Firenze’s question.
'I was born with Mars in my first house,' Firenze whispers in his ear.
'I know.'
Bane turns his head and their lips meet, and teeth, and tongue, breath, chest, skin, and stars colliding by chance in the infinite of the universe.
Later he has both his arms around Firenze, who is looking at the sky above, his back against Bane’s chest.
'Look!' he says in awe, a reminder of his youth.
Three shooting stars cross the sky coming from Perseus, leaving parallel tracks, bright claw-marks scaring the dark.
'Ah, the Pleiades, as I told you. Make a wish,' Bane adds, as an afterthought.
'No…'
'Why not? You saw them first.'
'I have no need for it.'
~~~~~~~~~~
Firenze got back on his four legs, gasping for air, an angry bruise with the shape of a hoof marring his chest. Around them noise aroused; not the breath of the Forest but instead the breath of other centaurs lurking in the shadows, readying to attack the traitor. One of them, Ronan, stepped forward and approached. Firenze tried to lock eyes with Bane.
'I still look up to you, Bane, I always have and always will. But I don’t agree with you.'
'You better leave now, Firenze,' said Ronan, seizing the young centaur carefully by the arm.
Firenze touched his lips to Bane’s, but the other didn’t acknowledge him.
'Leave. Now.' Ronan was more forceful the second time.
Firenze turned around hastily and trotted away, disappearing in the shadows. The Forest held its breath again, waiting, until Ronan broke the silence.
'Is he really as young and foolish as you as you insist he is?'
'Yes,' Bane answered. 'But he’ll see. When that mark in his chest starts hurting more than a simple bruise should, he’ll be asking to return to us, to the safety of our herd.'
'So I hope.'
'You do?'
'Yes, Bane. I hope that’s all he’ll ever need to be safe. I hope that’s all we’ll ever need.' Ronan paused and looked up. 'There are no stars in the sky tonight.'