The Four Swords of Hogwarts

Chapter 29: A Trial of Truth

Draco tried to quell his anxiety as they officially entered the Forbidden Forest. Anytime he'd been in the forest, it had not been a good experience. Not to mention, this trek was for him to retrieve the Sword of Ravenclaw, but what if he couldn't do it? What if it was all wrong and he wasn't a hero? What if he was actually the terrible person he'd been for the last five years? What if he was just like Lucius?

His heart sped up when the invisibility cloak he'd borrowed from Potter tugged suddenly, threatening to slip off. He spun sharply in his panic to see what was attacking him only to find a little bush that had caught the edge of the cloak. He huffed at himself, frustrated and embarrassed about his obviously ridiculous panic. He pulled at the fabric to release the bush's hold and continued following Snape deeper into the forest.

"You can remove the cloak now," Snape said, pausing the both of them.

Draco hesitated, looking around. He couldn't see where they'd entered, where, to anyone watching, it had looked like Snape was off on his own to gather potions ingredients. Eventually, he sighed and pulled the cloak off, bunching it in his hands.

"The clearing is just up ahead, but we have to deal with the centaurs first," Snape said.

"Centaurs that hate humans," Draco said pointedly.

"Centaurs that hate Dumbledore," Snape corrected and he held out his hand.

Draco handed over the cloak, watching as it was shrunk and tucked into one of Snape's deep robe pockets. The man gestured for them to continue and they did, going deeper and deeper until they climbed over a hill into a surprisingly familiar clearing. He remembered this place, remembered the thing drinking the dead unicorn and coming after them, after Potter. He'd run then, a cowardly child put in his place. Only, his memory wasn't completely true. It hadn't been a thing, an inhuman monster that had attacked them. No, it had been Dumbledore creating an illusion and then attacking them.

He frowned at himself, hating how much he didn't know. What was real?

"What business do wizards have here?"

Draco's head flew up at the voice, finding a familiar centaur had approached them.

"Firenze," Snape said, bowing his head. "You were welcomed back to your clan?"

"I was never banished," Firenze said. "A ploy to fool Dumbledore, to allow centaur eyes inside the school and on the heroes."

The centaur's dark eyes slid to Draco who did his best not to tense, fighting through the 'lessons' on 'half-breeds' from his father.

"Firenze?" another voice called out and a second centaur stepped up beside Firenze, this one much larger, clearly the leader. His eyes slid over both Snape and Draco as well, scrutinizing them, before bowing his head, a hand going over his heart. "Heroes. We have been waiting for many cycles of the seasons."

"It seems things must always become worse before they can get better," Snape said.

"Indeed," the second centaur said.

"The nature of the universe," Firenze said, "of fate."

"You allowed Dumbledore into the mausoleum with a sword," Snape said. "Why?"

Draco looked at the centaurs, curious. It didn't seem like they'd been under the Mind Magic like the school, so why had they seemingly helped the headmaster?

"The stars told us what to do," Firenze said. "They told us the plight of Hogwarts, the fight that would one day take place here."

"We allowed a sword into the mausoleum to keep it close," the leader said. "Had we not, there is no telling where it may have ended up."