The Centaur Clan

Five- The Cave

They had been walking for a good twenty minutes when Hermione stopped, squeezing Harry's hand as she did so. When she squeezed his hand, Harry felt her engagement ring, and felt an odd prick of irritation at the thought of the silver band on her finger. But he pushed the thought away and shakes his head immediately- he had worn his engagement ring too.

"What's wrong?" He whispers.

She answers him softly, her eyes trained on a spot in the distance. "I heard something. A twig snapping. Over there." She points. "You keep your wand lit, I'm going to diminish mine so that I'm ready for whatever comes, alright?"

He nods, and hears her whisper "Nox," and her wand loses it's glow. She raises her wand, and when another snapping sound comes from the same place, she lets out a burst of red light form her wand that Harry knows instantly that she had sent out a stunning spell.

There is a quick rustle of what sounds like- no. Could that be hooves? Hermione seemed to be thinking the same thing as he, for she looked at Harry with confusion written all over her face. Had they found the centaurs already?

And indeed they had. A broad chested and smiling centaur appears, his hair a chestnut brown to match his steed-half. "Hello." He says to them kindly. "My name is Alexio, and my brethren and I couldn't be more delighted to see you."

*  *  *

Hermione and Harry followed Alexio and a few other centaurs deeper into the woods, Alexio talking to them the entire way. At some point, Harry noticed that there were more leaves on the ground here than there had been before. He kicks a few of them.

"There's a lot of leaves in this area, aren't there?" He says, kicking up a large clump of leaves, exposing a patch of dirt. When he kicks up another clump, he reveals a bit of rope, and he bends down. "Look, Hermione, I found some rope." He tugs on it, and then it happens.

Out of the corner of his eye he sees another centaur tug hard on a piece of rope the was looped around the tree, and then he and Hermione are lifted off of the ground into a huge, tightly woven net. Hermione makes a surprised noise, and falls onto Harry.

The two of them lie in the air inside of the net, the thick cords of rope cutting into their skin. Hermione and Harry's arms were both pinned, and in a matter of seconds, both of their wands are taken from their hands.

Hermione had hit her face on the rope, and her top lip was bleeding and beginning to look puffy. Harry had a burn on his hand from sliding down on the side of the net, and yet both of the two glared at the centaurs. "Give me back my wand, you foul-" Hermione starts, but Alexio cuts her off, twirling both of their wands in his fingertips.

"You really have to control your mouth, Miss Granger. Someday, someone is going to have enough of it and do away with you."

But Hermione had already started to scale the side of the long net, which was bunched together at the top and looped around a thick tree limb. She links her fingers into the holes, and pushes her boots into the bottom ones, making her way to the top.

"What is she doing?" Alexio asks in disbelief. "Is she actually climbing the rope?"

Harry, on the one hand, had never heard a centaur surprised before, and he preferred their surprise rather than the smug attitude that they always kept- as if they knew something that you didn't. But Harry also knew that, though Hermione was desperate and just trying to get out, they were going to do something to harm her so that she doesn't. Perhaps hit her over the head.