When the door was closed and the last student had sat down on a tree stump beside the wastepaper basket, Firenze gestured around the room.

“Professor Dumbledore has kindly arranged this classroom for us,” said Firenze, when everyone had settled down, “in imitation of my natural habitat. I would have preferred to teach you in the Forbidden Forest, which was—until Monday—my home… but that is no longer possible.”

“Please—er—sir—” said Parvati breathlessly, raising her hand, “—why not? We’ve been in there with Hagrid, we’re not frightened!”

“It is not a question of your bravery,” said Firenze, “but of my position. I cannot return to the Forest. My herd has banished me.”

“Herd?” said Lavender in a confused voice, and Harry knew she was thinking of cows. “What—oh!”

Comprehension dawned on her face. “There are more of you?” she said, stunned.

“Did Hagrid breed you, like the Thestrals?” asked Dean eagerly.

Firenze turned his head very slowly to face Dean, who seemed to realise at once that he had said something very offensive.

“I didn’t—I meant—sorry,” he finished in a hushed voice.

“Centaurs are not the servants or playthings of humans,” said Firenze quietly.

There was a pause, then Parvati raised her hand again.

“Please, sir… why have the other centaurs banished you?”

“Because I have agreed to work for Professor Dumbledore,” said Firenze. “They see this as a betrayal of our kind.”

Harry remembered how, nearly four years ago, the centaur Bane had shouted at Firenze for allowing Harry to ride to safety on his back; he had called him a “common mule.” He wondered whether it had been Bane who had kicked Firenze in the chest.

“Let us begin,” said Firenze. He swished his long palomino tail, raised his hand towards the leafy canopy overhead, then lowered it slowly, and as he did so, the light in the room dimmed, so that they now seemed to be sitting in a forest clearing by twilight, and stars appeared on the ceiling. There were oohs and gasps and Ron said audibly, “Blimey!”

“Lie back on the floor,” said Firenze in his calm voice, “and observe the heavens. Here is written, for those who can see, the fortune of our races.”

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<== попередня сторінка	\|	наступна сторінка ==>
She turned a page of the newspaper and scanned its columns.	\|	Harry stretched out on his back and gazed upwards at the ceiling. A twinkling red star winked at him from overhead.

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