We arrived at the castle and, after escorting the others to their respective homes, Hagrid and I made our way to the Headmaster's office. We don't wait long, it seems that Dumbledore isn't sleeping, and we go inside.
I exchanged glances with the old man for a few seconds before I was asked to wait off to the side while they talked. I walked over to where Fawkes was and played with him for a while until Dumbledore told Hagrid that he could go, he would speak to me.
There was silence in the room again, we were sitting across from each other without saying anything, so I decided to speed things up.
"Is there a problem with me staying in the forest?"
"No. What you're doing is a good thing, and you won't be able to cause much trouble in the centaur camp... I hope" He emphasized that 'I hope' "Besides no one will notice considering he's just one of 'you' "
"Hmm, I guess I can get on with my stuff then," I said as I got up to leave.
"Your life doesn't get shorter with each death of your clones, does it?" Dumbledore asked without showing much emotion, he was just leaning back in his chair, looking at me with narrowed eyes.
"People don't need to know how my ability works, it's less dangerous that way"
...
Harry, Hermione, and Neville entered the Gryffindor common room, where they found Ron asleep on the couch. Parvati and Lavender were also hidden to one side waiting for Hermione to arrive and when they saw her, went to the bedroom to wait for her.
Ron was woken up, and Hermione recounted what happened in the forest again for Harry to explain what he learned from the Centaurs. Now they knew that the one who wanted the stone was really the dark lord.
Harry told them that the centaurs had predicted that he would be attacked by the one who gave him the scar and that their meeting would be inevitable. That meeting would happen shortly, but he couldn't know much more, there was another prediction that worried the centaurs more.
They connected the ends, and now they knew that 'Snape' was looking for the stone for Voldemort and that when he got it, he would come back to finish what was left pending.
The children parted ways, with their own worries going to their bedrooms. Hermione knew there were two people waiting for her, but she felt weariness consuming her.
As she entered the bedroom, she saw how both girls were sitting on her bed, waiting for her, Lavender with her notes next to her. Hermione wanted to please them, but knowing that she would have to repeat the story tomorrow and that was exhausted, she asked if they could leave the gossip for later.
Seeing Hermione's fatigued look, both girls decided not to push and let her sleep, they just asked her some simple questions.
But even though Hermione wanted to rest more than anything, that night was not as easy as she wanted. Nightmares of seeing her friend exploding in front of her made her wake up screaming, completely sweaty.
Lavander and Parvati quickly went to her and, after knowing that it was a nightmare and seeing the panic on her friend's face, they both decided to accompany her, more curious than what she saw in the forest. That night, the three girls slept together in the same bed to keep each other company and calm Hermione down.
...
After following the centaurs for a long way, in my opinion, we arrived at what would be their camp. One of the centaurs from the group of 5 we met had gone ahead to report the situation, so the sentinels didn't stop us.
It was a peculiar place, with an ancient tribal feel. Centaur houses were mostly hemispherical leather tents, or so they appeared. The interior of the camp was almost completely clear of trees, and the footsteps of the centaurs seemed to have made some trails.
When we entered, I could see how several centaurs of different aspects and sizes came out to see us. I saw foals next to their parents, leaning out to watch us. Among the looks of the population, I could see curiosity, vigilance, and fear.
We went to one of the tents in the center of the camp, it wasn't as big as the others I saw, but it wasn't small either. It was almost completely empty inside, with just some fur or straw on the floor and some decorations hanging from the ceiling.
The 4 centaurs carrying the stretcher, along with others who came to help, took it upon themselves to lower the unicorn and then left, closing the leather door behind them. I could hear them talking outside the tent, but I couldn't quite understand what they were saying, so I focused on healing my patient.
It will have been an hour or so before someone entered. She was a female centaur and by the looks of her she was quite old, with gray hair and wrinkles on her face, but she still had an abundant vitality about her. Something that stood out about her appearance was some ornaments that she had in some strands of her hair.
"Greetings, young wizard" she greeted me politely.
"Hello..."
"Marill" Introduced herself.
"Red"
"Like the rivers of life" She said as approached and crouched down to see the unconscious unicorn "A beautiful creature destined for a horrible end. What you do is noble but not necessarily correct" Said while performing a kind of medical review.
"Could be, but I'm still going to try. I can learn some things, I can make up for some of the bad things I did or will do... there will be those who are happy that I do it and if I'm lucky I might end up having a good relationship with a unicorn. I have friends who would love to see a unicorn and I think, if I can save him, will have no problem letting themselves be petted for a while"
"Save her" she corrected me.
Listening to the centaurides, I turned my head to get a better look at the unicorn's body and noticed that things were missing.
"Ohhh, my mistake" I said, realizing the gender confusion, produced by the habit of not looking at the genitalia of animals if possible. This applied equally to the centaurs I met, but for them, it was easier to distinguish their gender.
Marill left shortly after, leaving us alone once more. She told me a few things before she left, but it was just some advice or something.
Being alone, I got a bit bored, the night was passing and the only thing I could do was keep my hands on the body of the unicorn. If it wasn't for the fact that this is just one clone and I have many others doing different things, this would be torture. Luckily, I have the [Music] skill.
...
The next day, in the Lair, a separate group of girls has generated again who were telling stories. All the girls were there, only the red-haired boy wasn't with them, no one saw him all morning.
Hermione was in the middle recounting what happened in the forest, adding the part that Harry told her. They were all nervous listening to her, and Lavander did not stop writing down some of the things he heard.
And although it could be said that everyone was entertained listening to Hermione's new adventure, none of them could help but freeze when they heard her talk about my fight and the consequences of my clones dying.
Quite a few were startled and worried, some more than others. The speculations about that did not stop, and they tried to guess how much that reduction was.
"Two died, but if he knows that's what happens, maybe he already lost another clone before, so we should consider him a total of 3 at least"(Padma)
"But what if instead of subtracting years, his life is divided?" (Millicent)
"Yes, but if it were like that, the important thing would be to know how much it is divided by. The worst thing would be if it were divided in half" (Hannah)
"Let's see... suppose he could live 100 years, divide 1 time would be 50, then 25... then..." Tracey was counting on her fingers "Like 12 years!!! He's dying! He's going to die next year!" She was startled by the number she got.
"Calm down, we don't know if it splits in half" (Cho)
"Yeah, besides, I don't think we should be like that. Red never said anything and from what Hermione said, he didn't seem worried. Maybe the problem isn't that big" (Penelope)
"But it's Red! He always treats the most important things like they're nothing and the less important things like they're the big news."(Parvati)
"..." At that statement, even Penelope couldn't help showing a tinge of concern.
"What if he's already showing symptoms? What if the reason she didn't show up all day is that he's already dead?!"(Tracey)
"Calm down Tracey. You can't get upset like that, you're worrying the others" Daphne tried to appease her friend who was making everyone nervous, especially Pansy who was frozen next to her.
"Do we have to go find him?" (Susan)
"Find who?"
All the girls turned around in an instant, so they could see the person they were talking about, and who they couldn't perceive approaching due to how concentrated they were.
"Red!" x11(more or less)
"Yes...?" I answered doubtfully because of the surprised expression they showed.
For a moment I felt that I was facing a Tsunami, the wave had come towards and dragged me. The girls grabbed me from various places and carried me, quickly but carefully, to one of the vibrating chairs that I used to use.
Once seated everything was silent, none wanted to be the first to speak, but everyone wanted to.
"Red..."
"Hermione told us about the forest..."
"It's a lie! Everything she told you is a lie" I answered quickly upon hearing it.
"..." Everyone was shocked by my reaction and then looked at Hermione, who was also stunned.
"I didn't do anything to her in the forest and if she says otherwise, she's lying" I continued.
"..." they were silent again.
They were confused but understood that there was a lack of synchronization, and we were talking about 2 completely different things.
"No... not that, we're talking about the fight"
"Ohh, let's just say it ended in a draw"(Red)
"We are talking about your clones, you lost 2"
"Yes, but I can make them back"(Red)
"But with that... you..."
"You are dying!"
"Oh... Is that what you're worried about?" I asked, receiving the nod of almost everyone at the same time but at different speeds "You don't have to worry, it's nothing important"
"Those words coming from you don't give us peace of mind" They answered and a tumult of voices began. They had all begun to argue and speak at the same time, which made understanding very difficult.
"Silence!" I yelled making everyone quiet "Look, I may not usually do things the right way, but trust me this time. I have a lot of things to do and as you can see, I'm not in a hurry to complete them. I'll still live long enough, so you can calm down, I won't go yet"
After saying those words I was finally able to put an end to this matter. It seems that if they had been scared enough, Susan even came to me later to say 'don't die, please'.
That problem was solved, but even so, I felt that they looked at me strangely or treated me with more delicate as if I was going to break at any moment. Pansy even held back a lot of her teasing while she was talking to me, which was unusual.
Putting aside their new care for me, which Lavender was once again the main source of overprotection, I had to tell my version of events and the rest of the unicorn story that the others didn't know.
They were all very interested, one of my clones being in the forbidden forest after fighting a mysterious figure, in the centaur camp, healing a unicorn... it all seemed like an epic story.
When we finally parted ways, Lavander came to me to make sure I was okay, as well as to ask me if some of the things I wrote are real, since I remembered that at one point the protagonist suffered from a curse that would shorten his life every time he released his power.
I had to explain to her that any resemblance to reality was purely coincidental, and after that, she cooked me a 'nutritious' breakfast to make up for my health. I was forced to tell her the story of last night one more time but had to answer her questions about every detail, so she could write them down later.