𝐑𝐀𝐘𝐀 𝐒𝐍𝐀𝐏𝐏𝐄𝐃 𝐇𝐄𝐑 𝐇𝐄𝐀𝐃 𝐓𝐎𝐖𝐀𝐑𝐃𝐒 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐒𝐎𝐔𝐍𝐃 𝐎𝐅 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐒𝐂𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐌.

For half a second, she thought she was imagining it, but Nathaniel looked up as well, furrowing his brows. A moment later, all of Raya's friends had craned their necks towards the sound, trying to hear what was  happening.

It was dinnertime, and they were all gathered in the hall to eat. Halfway through the conversation, a woman's screams began to sound, stopping all activity in the hall.

"What the hell is that?" Raya muttered, getting up and following the noise.

She reached the Entrance Hall, her friends right behind her, only to see a massive frizz of hair standing near the Castle doors.

The Entrance Hall immediately became packed with all the students who were eating dinner. Some had actually climbed the marble staircases because there was no space in the Hall.

Professor Trelawney — the Divination Teacher — was standing in the middle of the entrance hall with her wand in one hand and an empty sherry bottle in the other, looking utterly mad. Her hair was sticking up on end, her glasses were lopsided so that one eye was magnified more than the other; her innumerable shawls and scarves were trailing haphazardly from her shoulders, giving the impression that she was falling apart at the seams. Two large trunks lay on the floor beside her, one of them upside down; it looked very much as though it had been thrown down the stairs after her. 

Raya followed Professor Trelawney's gaze, clenching her jaw at the sight of Dolores Umbridge.

"She's kicking her out," Raya muttered.

Around her, her friends and all the other students looked terrified.

"No!" Professor Trelawney shrieked. "NO! This cannot be happening... It cannot... I refuse to accept it!"

"You didn't realize this was coming?" said Dumbridge, sounding callously amused. "Incapable though you are of predicting even tomorrow's weather, you must surely have realized that your pitiful performance during my inspections, and lack of any improvement, would make it inevitable you would be sacked?"

"You c-can't!" howled Professor Trelawney, tears streaming down her face from behind her enormous lenses, "you c-can't sack me! I've b-been here sixteen years! H-Hogwarts is m-my h-home!"

"It was your home," said Professor Umbridge, and Raya was revolted to see the enjoyment stretching her toadlike face as she watched Professor Trelawney sink, sobbing uncontrollably, onto one of her trunks, "until an hour ago, when the Minister of Magic counter signed the order for your dismissal. Now kindly remove yourself from this hall. You are embarrassing us."

But she stood and watched, with an expression of gloating enjoyment, as Professor Trelawney shuddered and moaned, rocking backward and forward on her trunk in paroxysms of grief. 

A few of the students were actually crying as they watched the scene unfold.

Professor McGonagall had broken away from the spectators, marched straight up to Professor Trelawney and was patting her firmly on the back while withdrawing a large handkerchief from within her robes.

"There, there, Sibyll ... Calm down... Blow your nose on this... It's not as bad as you think, now...  You are not going to have to leave Hogwarts..."

"Oh really, Professor McGonagall?" said Dumbridge in a deadly voice, taking a few steps forward. "And your authority for that statement is...?"

"That would be mine," said a deep voice.

The oak front doors had swung open. Students beside them scuttled out of the way as Dumbledore appeared in the entrance. What he had been doing out in the grounds Raya could not imagine, but there was something eerie about the sight of him framed in the doorway against an oddly misty night. Leaving the doors wide behind him, he strode forward through the circle of onlookers toward the place where Professor Trelawney sat, tearstained and trembling, upon her trunk, Professor McGonagall alongside her.

"Yours, Professor Dumbledore?" said Umbridge with a singularly unpleasant little laugh. "I'm afraid you do not understand the position. I have here," she pulled a parchment scroll from within her robes, "an Order of Dismissal signed by myself and the Minister of Magic. Under the terms of Educational Decree Number Twenty-three, the High Inquisitor of Hogwarts has the power to inspect, place upon probation, and sack any teacher she — that is to say, I — feel is not performing up to the standard required by the Ministry of Magic. I have decided that Professor Trelawney is not up to scratch. I have dismissed her."

Raya raised a brow as Dumbledore continued to smile. He looked down at Professor Trelawney, who was still sobbing and choking on her trunk, and said, "You are quite right, of course, Professor Umbridge. As High Inquisitor you have every right to dismiss my teachers. You do not, however, have the authority to send them away from the castle. I am afraid," he went on, with a courteous little bow, "that the power to do that still resides with the headmaster, and it is my wish that Professor Trelawney continue to live at Hogwarts."

At this, Professor Trelawney gave a wild little laugh in which a hiccup was barely hidden.

"No — no, I'll g-go, Dumbledore! I sh-shall l-leave Hogwarts and s-seek my fortune elsewhere—"

"No," said Dumbledore sharply. "It is my wish that you remain, Sibyll." He turned to Professor McGonagall. "Might I ask you to escort Sibyll back upstairs, Professor McGonagall?"

Raya tried to think of why Dumbledore wanted Professor Trelawney to stay so bad. For some reason, she couldn't believe it was 'out of the goodness of his heart'.

"Of course," said McGonagall. "Up you get, Sibyll..."

Professor Sprout came hurrying forward out of the crowd and grabbed Professor Trelawney's other arm. Together they guided her past Umbridge and up the marble stairs. Professor Flitwick went scurrying after them, his wand held out before him; he squeaked, "Locomotor trunks!" and Professor Trelawney's luggage rose into the air and proceeded up the staircase after her, Professor Flitwick bringing up the rear.

Dumbridge was standing stock-still, staring at Dumbledore, who continued to smile benignly.

"And what," she said in a whisper that nevertheless carried all around the entrance hall, "are you going to do with her once I appoint a new Divination teacher who needs her lodgings?"

"Oh, that won't be a problem," said Dumbledore pleasantly. "You see, I have already found us a new Divination teacher, and he will prefer lodgings on the ground floor."

"You've found—" said Umbridge shrilly. "You've found? Might I remind you, Dumbledore, that under Educational Decree Twenty two—"

"—the Ministry has the right to appoint a suitable candidate if — and only if — the headmaster is unable to find one," said Dumbledore. "And I am happy to say that on this occasion I have succeeded. May I introduce you?"

He turned to face the open front doors, through which night mist was now drifting. Raya heard the sound enough times thanks to Chiron to recognize it.

"Hooves," she muttered in realization.

There was a shocked murmur around the hall and those nearest the doors hastily moved even farther backward, some of them tripping over in their haste to clear a path for the newcomer.

Through the mist came a face Raya had never seen before. But his stature, his build: Raya was more than familiar with his kind. He came forth with white-blond hair and astonishingly blue eyes, the head and torso of a man joined to the palomino body of a horse.

A centaur.

"This is Firenze," said Dumbledore happily to a thunderstruck Umbridge. "I think you'll find him suitable."

"I wish I took Divination," Elias muttered. "It would be so cool to be taught by a horse-man."

"Centaur," Raya corrected offhandedly.

Truth be told, after being taught by Chiron for so many years, she didn't see the appeal in having another centaur teacher. For her, Chiron was the only one she needed.

"I don't know," Nathaniel muttered. "He creeps me out a little bit."

"His eyes are way too blue," Cierra agreed.

The four of them sat together in the Great Hall, waiting for Thomas to come back with the muffins they were giving out today. 

It was meant to be a calm day for Raya today, with only Muggle Studies and Astronomy. Raya was planning on spending the time between the two classes to practice Quidditch, but with Dumbridge being more up everyone's asses than usual, Raya wasn't willing to risk it. She wasn't interested in getting a lifelong ban from Quidditch.

"I've got muffins!" Thomas announced as greeting, dropping a muffin in front of each of his friends. He took a seat, "So, what are we talking about today?"

"How that Firenze dude has really blue eyes," Raya answered, taking a bite of her muffin. "He's creepy."

"Agreed," Thomas nodded.

They passed the rest of breakfast talking about everything except Firenze, considering he was beginning to creep them all out.

"What's your dad been up to during retirement?" Elias asked. "He easily had a few more years in him."

"Yeah, but he was tired, I guess," Raya shrugged. "Lots of injuries, travelling, it's not all that great. But he's been pretty good. Just got back from a trip a week ago and is now chilling back home."

Alphanso Newbrooke made it back from his mission for the Order in one piece a little over a week ago. Raya had been so excited, she wanted to fly out on her Firebolt to see him. 

Instead, she contented herself with talking to him through an Iris-Message.

"Aight, time to head to Muggle Studies," Raya said, getting up and crumpling her muffin wrapper. She turned to Cierra, "Can you grab a can of cat food for Loki from the kitchens? I forgot to stock up last time we went Hogsmeade."

"Got it," Cierra nodded, throwing her a thumbs up.

Raya, Elias and Thomas began their walk to Muggle Studies, stopping as Firenze stood in the hallway outside of his class.

He stared at each of them, his eyes stopping on Raya.

"Raya Newbrooke," he said, motioning to the door of his class. "A word, please."

"We're getting late for class," Thomas said quickly, trying to move past Firenze. "We really should get going. You can talk to Raya another time."

"Your Professor will understand," Firenze said, fixing his cold blue eyes on Thomas. He turned back to Raya, "Please step in my class."

"Tell Arif I'll be a little late," Raya said, trying not to sound as worried as she felt.

Her friends exchanged concerned glances, but moved along. Raya entered Firenze's classroom, momentarily stunned.

The classroom floor had become springily mossy and trees were growing out of it; their leafy branches fanned across the ceiling and windows, so that the room was full of slanting shafts of soft, dappled, green light. There was a clearing in the middle of the classroom where there were no trees, and Raya had to actively stop herself from thinking about Zeus' Fist (AKA the Pile of Poop).

"You wanted to talk to me?" she began when Firenze didn't speak.

"Yes," he agreed, walking towards her.

Having been around Chiron most of her life, Raya managed not to stumble backwards as Firenze approached.

"You must learn the truth," he told her, still advancing. "You are the poisoned daughter, but you are not venomous. You do not strike. Instead, you must lure your enemies, make them take a bite of you, if you want them to fall. You must accept yourself. Uncover the truth and you will succeed."

"That's just a bunch of nonsense," Raya muttered. "You want to talk to me, but you tell me a bunch of veiled advice that doesn't even make sense. Why talk to me in the first place?"

"I am a centaur," Firenze announced, almost as if he thought Raya didn't notice. "It is in my nature to help demigods, like yourself, when we come across them. The stars do not allow me to reveal much, but they do not let me continue on this hidden path. You must make yourself known if you want to win."

"Win what?"

There was a pause as Firenze seemed to be thinking of how to put this lightly, but realized that there was no way to.

"The Wars."

Raya looked at the silver wisp of magic extruding from her wand. Slowly but surely, the wisps of silver began forming themselves into a shape, finally settling on a fox.

All around the Room of Requirement, silver wisps of magic began forming into shapes and animals, representing the members of the D.A. It was the last lesson before Easter, and everyone was beyond excited because they were continuing patronuses.

"Hey!" Raya complained as Kayse's eagle flew close to Raya's fox, bothering it.

Raya's fox raised its paw in the air, trying to swat his eagle away.

"It's not like I can control it," Kayse argued. "I just make it and then it does whatever it wants to."

Raya laughed as her fox begrudgingly let Kayse's eagle sit on her head. All around them, the other patronuses swirled, but they didn't pay any mind to them.

"Producing a patronus in a brightly lit classroom is very different than producing it in the case of a threat," Harry reminded them all for the fourteenth time that day.

"Oh, don't be such a killjoy," said Cho brightly, watching her silvery swan-shaped Patronus soar around the Room of Requirement. "They're so pretty!"

"They're not supposed to be pretty, they're supposed to protect you," said Harry patiently. "What we really need is a boggart or something; that's how I learned, I had to conjure a Patronus while the boggart was pretending to be a dementor—"

"But that would be really scary!" said Lavender, who was shooting puffs of silver vapor out of the end of her wand. "And I still — can't — do it!" she added angrily.

Neville was having trouble too. His face was screwed up in concentration, but only feeble wisps of silver smoke issued from his wand tip.

"You've got to think of something happy," Raya reminded him.

"I'm trying," said Neville miserably, who was trying so hard his round face was actually shining with sweat.

"Oh! Look at that!" Elias grinned, watching as silver wisps of magic turned into a raven — his patronus.

"Harry, I think I'm doing it!" yelled Seamus, a Gryffindor kid who had been brought along to his first ever D.A. meeting by Dean. "Look — ah — it's gone... But it was definitely something hairy, Harry!"

Hermione's Patronus, a shining silver otter, was gamboling around her.

"They are sort of nice, aren't they?" she said, looking at it fondly.

"They're very nice," Cierra corrected, watching her own otter run around the class.

The door of the Room of Requirement opened and then closed again. Raya looked around to see who had entered, but there did not seem to be anybody there. It was a few moments before she realized that the people close to the door had fallen silent. 

She watched as Dobby the house-elf, decked out in eight different hats, tugged on Harry's robes.

"Hi, Dobby!" Harry said. "What are you — what's wrong?"

Raya noticed the elf's eyes were wide with terror and he was shaking. The members of the D.A. closest to Harry had fallen silent now: Everybody in the room was watching Dobby. The few Patronuses people had managed to conjure faded away into silver mist, leaving the room looking much darker than before.

"Harry Potter, sir..." squeaked the elf, trembling from head to foot, "Harry Potter, sir... Dobby has come to warn you... but the house-elves have been warned not to tell..."

He ran headfirst at the wall. Harry moved to grab him, but Dobby merely bounced off the stone, cushioned by his eight hats. 

"What's happened, Dobby?" Harry asked, grabbing the elf's tiny arm and holding him away from anything with which he might seek to hurt himself.

"Harry Potter... she... she..."

Dobby hit himself hard on the nose with his free fist. Harry seized that too.

"Who's 'she,' Dobby?" he asked.

But of course, there was only one 'she' who could induce such fear in anyone — house-elves included.

"Dumbitch," Raya muttered in realization.

Dobby nodded, then tried to bang his head off Harry's knees. Harry held him at bay.

Harry looked Dobby in the eyes, "What about her? Dobby — she hasn't found out about this — about us — about the D.A.?"

Raya read the answer in the elf's stricken face. His hands held fast by Harry, the elf tried to kick himself and fell to the floor.

"Is she coming?" Harry asked quietly.

Dobby let out a howl, and began beating his bare feet hard on the floor. "Yes, Harry Potter, yes!"

Harry straightened up and looked around at the motionless, terrified people gazing at the thrashing elf.

"WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?" Harry bellowed. "RUN!"

They all pelted toward the exit at once, forming a scrum at the door, then people burst through. Raya grabbed Kayse's hand, and the two of them barreled out the door.

"Split up," she said to all the kids. "Owlery, library, Great Hall, move it!"

The kids ran away with their friends, all seeking refuge in different parts of the school. Curfew hadn't hit yet, so they had a chance to hide in places that wasn't their dormitory. They probably wouldn't make it back there anyways.

Raya and Kayse jogged down one of the halls, freezing at the dead end.

"Stupid castle that keeps changing its stupid layout," Raya groaned, banging her fist against the wall.

This was what the students called a 'trick hall', where the walls and doors changed often, never staying the same for longer than a week. Most people tried to avoid going through it.

"Let's go back, see if we can make it to the library," Kayse suggested.

They made to go out, freezing at the sound of footsteps nearby. Someone — most likely one of Dumbridge's cronies — was coming.

"Fuck it," Kayse muttered, grabbing Raya's chin and kissing her.

Raya responded, her hands going up to wrap around his neck as Kayse backed her up. She stiffened at the coolness of the castle wall behind her. Kayse deepened the kiss, lifting one of Raya's legs off the ground and caressing the back of her thigh. Her mind went blank, her thoughts consumed by Kayse, and his lips, and his hands.

Despite the coolness of the castle wall behind her, Raya was beginning to feel very hot.

Raya snapped back to reality as there was a slight crash near the end of the hall, but Kayse pulled away slowly, glaring at the intruder.

Draco Malfoy stood, trying to fix the sword display he'd just walked into.

"Can't a guy get some privacy anymore?" Kayse muttered. He narrowed his eyes at Draco, "Just leave it and get lost."

"Yeah, yes," Draco stepped back hurriedly, running away without looking back.

"Either he's a prude or a perve, I can't figure it out," Raya said, watching him run away.

"Definitely a perve," Kayse answered. "He was here for a little while, and then stumbled back into the display."

"Ew," Raya muttered.

She dropped her leg from Kayse's hand, readjusting her clothes. Kayse grinned as he held his arm out for her, "Shall I drop the fair damsel off to her tower? I've heard there are a few perves walking around this castle."

Raya grinned back, taking his arm, "Please do. I'd rather be found with you than one of them."

Kayse laughed, pressing a kiss to her hand as he dropped her back to her dorm. If only Raya knew what was to come tomorrow... maybe she would've fought harder that night.

REY WRITES!

thanks for reading!!

random little rant: one of my biggest pet 
peeves is when people don't vote or comment
or even add to a reading list, and then pm me to
say they love the book. like... thank you, but honey,
i'd be happier if you voted. maybe commented instead
of messaging me directly... OR when they comment
only to point out mistakes. i'm sorry i love all of you guys
but i read 99% of comments and respond to most of them
so like i notice allat and i needed to just say it

also, my summer semester started, i'm not excited!

thoughts?

comments?

headcanons?

theories?