InsaneJournal

WHO. Charlie Weasley & lo, a centaur
WHERE. The Forbidden Forest; Hogwarts
WHEN. Early morning.
WHAT. Charlie meets some of the Forest's inhabitants
RATING. G
STATUS. Complete; narrative


***

"There is magic far wilder than you find encased in wand wood, Charlie Weasley."

These words, once uttered, had their own soporific effect. There was a leaden weight to the blood in his veins; a drawing-away which labeled him Other, interloper, foreign. And he was foreign. He was a man who built himself on taming that which ought not to have been tamed, bridling and gentling the world's most fearsome creatures. Perhaps it was what the centaur saw when looking upon him, all of these insecurities wrapped into a very tightly-wound knot of muscle and sinew, but the stamp of its hoof and the swish of its tail was not necessarily malevolent.

No, it seemed to simply tolerate him selfishly breathing and taking up space in a world which was not to be his own. In a world which, he supposed, could never give him back the power inherent in making his mind match a dragon's.

His lip curled into a crooked, and somehow still timorous, smile.

"Teach me. I want to learn."