Forest Dwellers

Hagrid strode towards his cabin's door, Fang following him. Buckbeak continued to snooze in front of the fire. Celena went after Hagrid and Fang, out of the cabin and towards the dark shadow of the Forbidden Forest.
- Are we going in there? – She asked with a hint of trepidation in her voice.
- Yeah, - said Hagrid, - aren't afraid, are yeh?
- Oh, not at all, - said Celena, thinking privately it will be all right as long as they stay away from gremlins and acromantula that, as she heard, were lurking somewhere in the depths of the Forest.
They followed a winding path under the dark shadows of ancient trees, their wands alight. The path looked as though it was made recently by a large animal that fought its way through thick bushes.
- Is it far yet? – Celena asked, panting and drawing her cloak tighter around her shoulders. She liked forests, but this one seemed very eerie. She thought she could hear two pine trees behind them bending closer and whispering to each other, but thought it would be best not to mention it.
And then, there was a sound of hooves and a very strange being stepped into the clearing from between two trees. He had a lean, muscular torso of a man and a palomino body of a horse. There was a bow and quiverful of arrows attached to one of his shoulders.
- Hullo, Firenze, - said Hagrid. The centaur inclined his magnificent golden head in welcome. Indeed, it was Firenze, who after the final battle with Voldemort was mercifully forgiven by his herd for "meddling in affairs of humans" and allowed to return to the Forest.
Celena looked at him in awe. She had never seen a centaur before, but of course she knew all about them. She approached and stretched out a hand. Firenze took it, and two pairs of equally dazzling blue eyes met.
- Tha's Celena Costello, Firenze, - said Hagrid. – She's a teacher at the school, on'y just started.
Firenze continued looking intently at Celena, with his sparkling, penetrating gaze, as if he could see something no one else could. He seemed to find her just as interesting as she found him.
- The stars have spoken, Hagrid. – He said finally, after a long pause. – Wizardkind will have to follow, yet again, a dark and twisting road, although the danger isn't quite like it was last time – not yet, at least.
- If there's one thing I wish, - interrupted Hagrid, looking unimpressed, - an' I mean, on'y one thing – it's that the stars'd be more specific when they speak. He Who Must Not Be Named is gone –
- Past and future, blended together, - continued Firenze, paying little attention to Hagrid's words. – A great opportunity and a great peril. The humans might not have noticed it yet, but every single tree in this Forest speaks about it in the rustle of its leaves.
He looked directly at Celena when he said this, and she looked back and gave the tiniest of nods.
She was wondering if the whole point of going this deep into the Forest was to meet Firenze, who was of course fascinating, but provided no explanation to why Snape had a disagreement with Professor McGonagall. But then Hagrid cleared his throat and asked:
- Anyway, Firenze, we were going ter go a bit further in. I hope somebody's there?
- They woke at dusk and went hunting, - replied Firenze, - I think Ronan and Magorian went to show them our best spots. I believe I heard Goliath come back a little while ago, though.
After saying this phrase, of which Celena understood very little, he raised a hand in goodbye and disappeared once more into the trees.
Celena decided not to ask anything, and they went on along the winding path. After a few minutes, she thought she saw a flickering light, and then they stepped onto another clearing, much larger than the one where they met Firenze. There was a bright fire burning in the middle of it, and someone sat in front of it, devouring something raw and bloody Celena didn't wish to examine from a closer distance. She turned to Hagrid and opened her mouth only to find out speech has temporarily left her. She looked instead at the creature that now got up and approached to greet them.
It was clear he wasn't a man, although his face was almost human, with a broad jaw and a wide, low forehead. As tall and wide as Hagrid, wearing nothing but a loincloth held by a thick leather belt, he looked somewhat frightening. Celena saw now that what was wrapped around his shoulders was not a cloak, but his own enormous, bat-like wings. His long, neatly braided hair fell almost to his waist.
There was something definitely reptilian about him; his lavender skin was scaly, and Celena noticed with a jolt he had a mighty lizardish tail. At the same time, there was something feline about his hands and feet with sharp, tiger-like talons.
- Hello, Hagrid, - he said in a deep, booming voice. – Good to meet you again. I see you brought a friend along?
- Yeah, - Hagrid said casually, as if they were talking over drinks at a cocktail party, and shook one of the enormous taloned hands. – I thought she's like ter meet yeh. Celena, tha's Goliath.
Celena was never prejudiced against different races, but Goliath, whatever he was, looked positively wild. She thought she was starting to understand what the conflict between Professors Snape and McGonagall was about. She resisted, however, the temptation to round on Hagrid and ask, "What is he?" – Instead, she turned to the lavender, scaly creature and asked:
- Who are you?
- I am the leader of this clan, - he said, - residing now in this forest with the kind permission of Professor McGonagall, the Headmistress of Hogwarts.
- Oh, - she was unable to say anything else. Goliath looked, in fact, quite friendly if she ignored his menacing, powerful tail that swished from side to side, his sharp talons and his love for raw meat, but she could privately understand why Snape wasn't exactly eager to have an entire clan – she wondered how numerous – of huge lizard-like men prowling the school grounds.
She looked at him, trying to figure out where she might have seen something like him before, having a weird feeling it was something very basic and obvious she was failing to recognize.
- Goliath's a gargoyle, Celena, - Hagrid finally said, peering at her face and seeing no comprehension.
- Oh! – Celena exclaimed, taking a step back and looking at the lavender giant's face. – Of course!
She knew now. She must have head of these creatures, if not seen them, at least once. But where? And then, she remembered - Fleur and Bill's wedding, over a year ago, a freckly, good-natured face, hands covered with burns and scratches…
- You don't happen to know Charlie Weasley, do you? – She asked tentatively.
To her surprise, Goliath gave her what was undoubtedly a wide smile. She noticed with a shudder his mouth was full of long, sharp, pearly-white teeth that were now covered with blood from his interrupted meal. She felt her knees weaken but pulled herself together. Goliath seemed to have noticed it too, because she licked his teeth with a flexible, cat-like tongue.
- I met and befriended Charles Weasley years ago, when I wasn't a leader of this clan yet. – He said, staring absent-mindedly at Fang, who was now devouring what remained of his dinner. – He gathered knowledge and researched different creatures that can be found in Wyvern Wood, where we resided until recently. I helped him. He is a good man, and it was him I turned to when I realized our clan needs a new place to stay in.
- What happened, then? – Celena asked. Hagrid looked like he was already familiar with the story.
- There were attacks. – Goliath replied darkly. – One of our numbers was killed, and two were kidnapped. We never found them or the attacker.
- But who could?! – Celena was puzzled. Who in their right mind would risk attacking the likes of Goliath, who not only were armed with steely talons, fangs and muscles, but who could also fly? And the scaly skin, she figured, would probably provide protection against most spells and jinxes. Well, a dragon could beat them, she supposed, but that wouldn't be so hard to figure out…
- Could have been the supporters of He Who Must Not Be Named, - said Goliath, patting Fang, who was now sniffing hopefully at his heels. – They knew we were not on their side during the two Wars. We fought against them. They might have come to seek revenge. But that's just one suggestion – we never found out, because it happened during daytime.
- Yeh see, Celena, the special thing abou' gargoyles's that they freeze ter stone with the firs' ray o' sunshine an' stay that way 'til sunset, - explained Hagrid, seeing the puzzled expression on her face.
- Oh! – Celena nodded in comprehension, - I understand, then – but it leaves you in a very vulnerable position, doesn't it?
- Indeed, - Goliath inclined his head in agreement. – Unless we have something or someone to protect us during daytime, we choose the darkest, deepest, most secret hiding places. What happened was a blow, but we didn't lose hope. We didn't want to leave Wyvern Wood, where our ancestors, hunters and warriors, led happy lives for centuries. We went into the very depths of the forest and lived there for a while longer. We were very careful. We spread around for our day hibernation, in twos and threes, so that the enemy, if he reached us again, wouldn't at least find all of us at once.
- But then something else happened, right? – Celena asked, her attention involuntarily captured by the story. – Because eventually you left Wyvern, right?
- The enemy, whoever he was, found our rookery. One night, there were three eggs – the other night, they were gone.
Celena opened her mouth to ask, but then thought it makes sense, considering their reptilian appearance, that gargoyles lay eggs, like dragons or salamanders.
- So I knew it was not a time for pride, - continued Goliath. – I contacted Charles Weasley. I flew to Wales to see him and he promised to help us. He mobilized a few of his friends, to protect us during daytime, while he was negotiating and making arrangements with the Headmistress of Hogwarts to allow us to live here. Minerva McGonagall met me and told me we may live here, if we treat the other creatures of this forest with kindness and respect. In return, we patrol the Forest, the school grounds, and Hogsmeade. We miss Wyvern Wood, but it's not bad here. The centaurs have been generous enough to share their hunting places with us. And hopefully, more eggs will soon appear in our new rookery…
Goliath was interrupted by a group of his fellow gargoyles, who emerged into the clearing carrying deer, birds and even snakes – apparently, tonight's hunt was profitable.
Celena was relieved to see that Goliath was easily the largest of them. No one else was quite as tall and broad, although most of the gargoyles were taller and clearly stronger than humans. There were many of them, males and females, elders and hatchlings, with different colors of skin and hair. Celena also noticed that not all of them looked as human-like as Goliath. Many had beak-like faces or horns.
The clearing was now very crowded; the gargoyles spoke to each other (with strong Scottish accent), examining each other's prey and glancing curiously at Hagrid, Celena, Fang and Goliath. Three of the gargoyles approached them. Two of them were clearly siblings, a male and a female with delicately blue skin, ruby-red hair and of a fair, light complexion, much shorter and smaller than Goliath. The third was a young female who was built along the same lines as the first two, but actually resembled the gargoyle leader with her lavender skin and a long, wild mane of black hair. Celena noticed that despite the variety of sizes and colors, all the gargoyles had the same slanted, black eyes. The blue, red-haired male looked the friendliest of the lot, and somehow the most civilized, although just like the rest, he wore only a loincloth on his hips (the females also wore something like a halter-top), and was carrying several large chunks of raw meat spiked on a sharp stick. He stretched out a hand and Hagrid shook it.
- Hello, Korian, - he said.
- We are one clan, - said Goliath, - but that is my closest family. Here's my wife, Demona, - he gestured towards the female with blue skin and red hair, who was holding what looked like a sack of dead birds, - my daughter, Angela, - the young female gave Celena a friendly nod, - and my wife's blood brother, Korian.
- Humans, - hissed Demona, looking up at her husband and leader and ignoring the rest of them, the end of her long, flexible tail twitching. – Humans were the ones who forced us into hiding, yet you, Goliath, still seek the protection of humans and insist on inviting them here, into our midst…
- You must remember Hagrid, my heart, - said Goliath, all of a sudden not looking that big anymore.
- I remember him, - said Demona, shooting a nasty glance at Hagrid. – But not her. Who is this human female? – She asked, glaring openly at Celena.
Celena was forcefully reminded of the welcome she received from Snape.
- That's Celena Costello, Demona, - said Hagrid, looking rather taken aback. – She's a teacher up at the school…
But he stopped, because he saw Demona was staring at Goliath, and he was glaring back.
- I thought it was discussed by all of us, - said Goliath, towering over his wife, who drew herself to her full height but still looked tiny next to him, - and I thought we all agreed that humans and gargoyles, despite stupid old-age misunderstandings, are natural allies!
- We didn't all agree with that, oh no, - said Demona, baring her teeth, he eyes flashing dangerously. Angela and Korian wisely retreated.
- And I thought, - Goliath spoke louder, - that Professor McGonagall and her fellows, who offer us shelter, are our friends with whom we are linked by bonds of mutual protection, not intruders who –
- Um, well, now yeh've met Celena an' all, - said Hagrid, who was clearly starting to feel uncomfortable, - an' we'll drop by sometimes… so… bye for now, Goliath.
But the pair of gargoyles paid no attention to him. Goliath and Demona were deeply in what looked like one of many rows, hissing and spitting like a pair of angry cats. Demona actually looked more like a feline than a reptile. Her skin didn't resemble dragon hide so much, and her movements were graceful. She would be quite pretty for a gargoyle, Celena thought, if not that contorted, Snape-ish expression, and those sharp, bared teeth.
They left the clearing unnoticed and went back by the narrow, winding path, Fang at their heels.
- So, how'd' yeh find them? – Hagrid asked, looking rather pleased with himself now that they have left the scene of fight.
- Um, alright, I mean, Goliath is just fine, Korian and Angela seemed quite nice too…
- Demona's a bit rough, - he admitted, - yeh see, one o' the eggs that have bin stolen was theirs, Goliath told me, an' she took it pretty hard –
- Understandable, - Celena nodded.
- Yeah, an' she's mad at Goliath fer not makin' her his Second, an' she's prejudiced agains' humans jus' like some o' us wizards are against them gargoyles. Some make a link between them an' vampires, just because gargoyles hunt at night…
As she wished Hagrid goodnight at the doors of his cabin and walked through the dark, cold grounds and upstairs to her office, Celena thought it was very unlikely she would ever visit the gargoyles on her own. True, Goliath seemed somewhat like Hagrid - big and mean-looking, but of a much kinder nature than you could think – Demona, however, was not someone you'd like to corner in the darkness.
It was very late already – the stroll took more time than she thought it would – but she didn't go to bed right away. Instead, she sat down at her desk, lost in thought. She left the window open before she left, but no sign of Wilbert's visit could be seen. He didn't come. There was still no word from Timothy. Disturbed, her head heavy, she finally went off to bed.