Professor Malfoy, recognizing an emergency when it body slammed her, reached down and began stroking the boy's back. "There, there. They aren't ordinary, they're yours. That makes them special. You know they always loved you. All I did was a targeted Obliviate. Albus could have done as well." She shot Dumbledore a glance that was hard to interpret.
Soothing Neville for a few more moments and receiving his oft-repeated thanks, she then shooed him off to his business and moved out of the Hospital Wing, collecting a dozen girls on her way, who all followed in her wake.
Soon they were out on the school lawn, heading out toward the Forbidden Forest. The girls in the new group, Kodachi excepted, grew increasingly nervous as they drew close, but they stopped well short of that leafy barricade.
Nodoka turned to address the assembled girls. "Alright, before we go any further I believe that you need to know what is going on. I didn't want to discuss this in the castle for fear of being overheard, which always happens if there is a painting or a ghost nearby, Professor Dumbledore follows after his predecessors in using them as scouts and spies. Plus he has his own tricks, don't meet his eyes and he can't use most of them. But I digress. I asked my daughter to do as I had done and start on all the electives in her first year. That gives you two extra years to master them, and is a great advantage later in life. More important still, some opportunities only come once, and if you aren't active you'll miss them. Also, there is the small but considerable advantage that tests come comparatively late for you, and you will be more relaxed and score higher when OWL and NEWT examinations come."
At this point in the little speech Hermione was glittering, hugging her schoolbooks tightly in inquisitive wonder, and you'd have to use wild horses to drag her away.
"It is a burden starting so early," Nodoka warned, her mannerisms advising caution. "But not one that I think is beyond anyone who really tries. If any of you wish to coast through your schooling, however, this is not the path to take as it requires effort and attention. So if any of you want to back out, now is a good time. Not the only time, but a good one."
Hermione was, if anything, even more enthusiastic about this and couldn't wait to start. The others, from the Patils to those hangers-on following Kodachi or Hermione out of curiosity, were less sure. Two factors kept them hanging around. One was they were embarrassed and no one wanted to be the first to leave. But also they'd already had Professor Malfoy's class earlier that day and admired her as an instructor. There was a little of the temptation of advantage involved as well. Fifth year students were already moaning and groaning about their upcoming OWLs. Besides, most of them were Gryffindors, too brave to be scared of a little extra work, and the others were all Ravenclaws, too thirsty for knowledge to turn this opportunity down.
Ranko and her two friends from Nerima had already bought into this program long ago, and so after a moment when no one turned her down, Nodoka turned around and motioned for them to follow her into the Forbidden Forest.
They stopped a short way in at a clearing, just inside of the cover of the trees. Professor Malfoy again turned about and began distributing soft candies with a waxy texture and dark brown color, with a band of irregular white on one end. "Okay dears, from this point on humans aren't really welcome. Go ahead and take these, I'll talk while you're chewing."
Nodoka took her own candy, turned her back and snarfed it down real fast trying hard not to sound deplorable as she briefly used one of Genma's eating techniques. That done, she swiveled back to address this impromptu class. "Very well, the Forbidden Forest is actually forbidden for two reasons. Who can tell me the first?"
Hermione's hand shot into the air, though her reply was somewhat garbled as she tried to speak around the excessively chewy candy and the mouthful of slobber it produced. "The Forbidden Forest is home to many dark and fearsome creatures, Professor."
"Very well, take five points for Gryffindor. And before you ask, I'll award them to Ravenclaw this evening when you get your dual-house status. I have no doubt you'll do it, dear, unlike Albus who hasn't taken a measure of you yet. He'll be flattering enough once he's seen you can be of use to him. Bear that in mind when his eyes start twinkling. But true enough, this forest is home to many a dark creature. The dark creatures accumulated here, however, after this forest had been forbidden. They found it a refuge from hunting wizards, and so they remained. The wizards did not venture here for another reason, and that is that pre-Roman civilizations had left behind artifacts of great power located here, most of which are broken, and the rest are ill-understood, with great difficulty telling between those two. The intent was to keep the curious or ill-prepared away while experts went it and studied those ruins for the betterment of magic-kind. Unfortunately that didn't happen for any number of reasons, and people just fell into the habit of avoiding this place. The curious really shouldn't be in this place, as the standard five year course in Ancient Runes barely conveys the beginning of what you need to know in order to study some of these ruins safely. In all honestly, I myself don't know half of what I need to to understand how they work. But the centaurs, who live here, have found out how to operate one or two just by centuries of opportunity to study what they could read on those stones, and a little trial and error. One of the things we are going to try to do here is befriend them so I may learn what they know. Look at your feet."
The girls all did, and every one of them was a horse from the waist down. Different colors and different markings, but each girl had become a centaur. Nodoka, who had a beautiful red color to her horse half, handed out a rough dozen soft leather tops. "Put these on dears, the people we are going to meet don't like humans, and Hogwarts robes would be a dead give away. And I'm afraid those dresses aren't suitable, either. You can put them in this bag that I've enchanted to keep clothes unwrinkled and fresh for when I travel."
Nodoka held open a satchel. Glad they had privacy, the girls changed.
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(Posted Fri, 12 Aug 2005 04:16)
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