Year 6 chapter 3

                                    

                                          
July13th 1996
Still the weasley wizenward store (that's literally their base now)
Harry woke up to yelling and things being thrown, did he mention how fluffy draco's hair was? He got off their shared bed, he just wanted to sleep in with Draco and touch his fluffy hair what was going on down there?
He opened the door and peeked outside, groaning at the familiar red hair. He looked sideways to find Theo munching away on a chocolate frog while looking through the book of gluttony. 
"What's going on?"
Theo looked up confused before spotting Harry and waving him over. Bewildered, Harry followed along, sliding onto the couch as Theo closed the book and conjured it away. 
"So the weasley family had found out where Frederick and George were and now there's an argument as apparently they also caught wind of them getting married to "filthy evil Slytherins."
Harry nodded, now the quarrel down there made sense.
"FRED GEORGE! I RAISED YOU TO BE BETTER THAN THIS!"
"MUM COME ON SLYTHERINS ARE JUST AS HUMAN AS THE REST OF US!"
"YEAH! ITS NOT LIKE THEYRE REPTILES OR SOMETHING!"
Harry looked over the banister, it was a really heated argument, Percy had taken the twin's side, and surprise surprise even Charlie and bill weasley were here, though they didn't seem to be taking part in the conversation. 
"Harry."
He looked back when his name was called, catching the port key that was thrown at him. 
Theo grabbed Uma who had slithered out sleepily and threw her at harry, Uma almost sailing off the railing if Harry hadn't grabbed her tail and slung the snake round his neck.
"You need to meet the centaurs right? We'll hold the fort here, go ahead."
Harry smiled and nodded, taking one last look at the arguing family before he activated the port key and teleported to the forbidden forest.
Forbidden Forest
"What in Merlin..."
"This is horrible."
They were greeted with the sight of a battlefield, the trees looked like a large bulldozer ran through them, the area was rampaged, and it seemed like a giant just crashed through them. Not to mention the very suspicious burns on the trunk of the trees. Harry let Uma down, bending down to pick up the ash of the leaves while she slithered off to find the centaurs. He sniffed it, sneezing when a bit went into his nose, it was dry and crusty with a slight scent of what seemed to be pig blood, a Chinese fireball? Harry stood up, casting a appare vestigium, however there were no traces of magic at all, other than the norm from the magical creatures that resided here. 
"MASTER HADRIAN!"
Harry jerked at uma's loud hiss and immediately dashed towards the direction of her shouting. He put a hand against the tree to steady himself and when he comprehended exactly what he was looking at, no words could describe his horror. The centaurs were in various stages of dying, some had already passed on. Firenze groaned from his spot opposite Harry, multiple arrows sticking out of his torso making him look like a porcupine. 
"Firenze!"
He darted over, smoothly stepping over the corpses as he slid next to the lead centaur, frantically checking his wounds. 
"W...what happened? Wait never mind, Uma go back to the store and get the healing potions!"
"Already there master!"
Uma was one step ahead of Harry's orders and was already wrapped around the portkey, Harry heard the familiar whoosh and she disappeared from sight. 
He whipped out his wand but Firenze put a hand on his, shaking his head. 
"T...treat my comrades first."
Harry sighed, but followed along anyway, casting a long line of vulnera sanenturs on all the centaurs that were still breathing. Uma returned, this time with shinsei and Theo, and with the added help they got the rest of the centaurs healed and the corpses buried. Harry and Theo stood by silently, Uma wisely keeping her mouth shut as Firenze, and the half of his group that were still living recited what sounded like a poem in their native language which was unfortunately not one of the languages Harry was very fluent in. He managed to catch a few words like revenge and peace but that was it. 
He jolted a bit when Theo elbowed him, and Firenze clopped over, bowing his head at the duo. Uma had excused herself to go to shinsei as the cat was forlornly staring at the makeshift grave.
"You have our gratitude hadrian, we will forever be indepted to you for saving our herd."
"Anything for a friend Firenze. However, May I ask exactly what occurred here?"
Firenze sighed a weary sigh, looking back at his comrades who were mourning and he showed Harry a piece of cloth. Harry gently took it from his fingers and passed it to Theo who cast a series of parseltongue spells on it.
"We had gone to the outskirts of the forest to meet you hadrian, however we were ambushed by mysterious forces, of which there was a giant, a Chinese fireball and a wizard."
Harry frowned, there was a wizard but appare vestigium hadn't picked up any signs of magic usage, an untraceable wand? Or an extremely powerful one.
"Within minutes, my herd was overwhelmed with our weapons turned against us and thus the sorry state you found us in."
Harry bit his lip, if he hadn't asked to meet with them firenze's herd wouldn't have been ambushed and had half of them killed. 
Firenze wore a sad smile as he lightly placed his hand on Harry's shoulder.
"None of this is your fault hadrian, for even if we did not go to the outskirts, we would still have been attacked. The priority now is to exact revenge on the perpetrators. Hadrian do you have any ideas on who it could be?"
The answer was already clear, it was most likely Dumbledore, there were few wizards with enough power to vanquish a herd of centaurs even with the help of a dragon and a giant and who knows what else overnight much less over a few minutes. However until the answer was guaranteed he did not want to put the centaurs through unnecessary danger.
"I am not sure Firenze, however, I believe that you should find another shelter soon. We would be glad to take you in, and so would Voldemort."
Firenze stared at Harry as if he were reading deep into his soul before smiling.
"There is no need to trouble yourself hadrian, our forces may be halved however we are still more than capable of building another nest far away. However, I am grateful for your offer."
Harry decided now would probably not be the best time to talk about what he originally wanted to discuss with Firenze and he put it aside for a later date. They bowed to each other and Firenze galloped away, the rest of the centaurs following suit. 
Shinsei looked pleadingly at Harry and he nodded, the cat rushing off after the herd of centaurs.
She was pretty much a member of their herd now, it was obvious there was mutual care and trust between the centaurs and the hybrid. 
"Master, shinsei said that there was a familiar smell here, said it was like that stumblegate."
Theo looked up and made eye contact with Harry, nodding his head as he passed Harry back the cloth. It looked like it was torn from a robe, a robe that he had seen before, dumbledore's silver robes. 
"So it was Dumbledore."
"But why would he sabotage his relationship with the centaurs, there's no hostility between them."
"Ohhh he was scared of them teaming up with master and he knew they were meeting up!"
" unlikely."
Uma groaned at her idea being shot down immediately and sulked while Harry scratched his head,discombobulated by this situation.
"Centaurs are loyal and hold grudges for very long, by doing such a thing he basically turned the entire race against him, it won't help him in the long run."
Harry's head bobbed up and down, theo's idea had merit, but it felt like there was still a missing piece to the puzzle. 
What was Dumbledore's benefit in attacking the centaurs, and what was his true goal?