The Centaur Clan

Fourteen- Put To Sleep

"This is not the way of the centaurs. We are noble creatures, and yet this wizard has us carting prisoners to him like the common pack mule." A voice says.

"You do well to keep your mouth shut." Another says. "Alexio is on pins and needles, and if he hears of what we're saying-"

"He won't." The same voice responds coolly. "And besides, I doubt the man will disagree with us- we all know how reluctant he is to follow Rodolphus's orders."

"He has to. Sibelius is his brother, and on top of that, a member of this clan. We do not abandon our brethren- especially not our leader."

* * *

Harry stirs awake, and the first thing he remembers is the feeling of betrayal. He'd misplaced his trust, and now he and Hermione were paying the price for it. Hermione, the brilliant witch she was, had seen the flaws in trusting Firenze, and yet Harry had pushed her, and now they were stuck in this mess.

Hermione.

Sitting up in a single movement, Harry clutches his head, which was throbbing terribly. His eyes fall on Hermione, who was sitting up against the bars of her own cage, her eyes closed and her face pointed towards the sun. Her forehead was bruised, and a single stream of blood ran down onto her nose.

"It doesn't hurt." Hermione says, and Harry feels relieved to see that she was awake- and for the moment, she was okay. "It's a head injury, so it bled a little more, but the swelling went down, and now it's just the inside of my head that hurts."

"What did you do?" Harry asks, wrapping his fingers around the bars of his cage and pulling himself closer to hers. She doesn't move to get up- but he doesn't blame her in the slightest. She looked tired.

She shrugs. "Well, apparently I have quite the temper, so they did a little Crucio to try to wear me down, and when that didn't work, they used Imperio to make me knock myself out." She trails her fingers lazily up one of the bars. "They lifted the Imperio, but they say I smashed my head against the bars. Which sounds bloody painful."

Harry sighs, sinking back against the bars of his own cage. He glances down- he and Hermione's cages were on a cart that was rolling steadily down a path, and was being pulled by two centaurs. "How did we get in here? What happened?"

Hermione shakes her head. "I don't know everything, but I've been up for a good hour, so I've gathered as much as I can. Rodolphus wanted us caged up and weak when we were delivered to him- probably because his weak, cowardly excuse for a human being is too scared to take either one of us on when we're at full strength- or even half strength. So, Firenze tricked us in exchange for his acceptance to the clan, and gave us potions that would weaken us so that we could be put in cages." She gestures around them. "I figure they're taking us to Rodolphus."

A feeling of hopelessness washes over Harry, and he feels pathetic to have lost hope already. He'd defeated Voldemort, and yet he was about to be killed by one of his little minions? He felt pathetic, but at the same time, no one could ever say that the Death Eaters, or former Death Eaters, weren't cunning. "Hermione, how can you be some calm about this? Who knows what will happen to me, but you... Alexio himself said that Rodolphus plans to kill you."

Hermione gives him a sad smile. "How about we cross that bridge when we get there?"

"Cross the- Hermione, we aren't going to cross that bloody bridge when we get there. This is death, Hermione. There's no coming back from that- you'll be gone. You'll never come back."