"First of all, I want to thank Dumbledore for kindly preparing this classroom for me, and also Professor Sprout for providing the plants."
Firenze said with a smile after everyone had settled down. "According to my habits, I prefer to teach you in the Forbidden Forest. Unfortunately, it's still too cold there right now. Well, too cold for you, at least."
As soon as he said this, excitement finally spread across the faces of the surrounding students.
Going into the Forbidden Forest wasn't actually anything rare for Gryffindor students, or even for students from other houses, excluding Hufflepuff.
Even without Hagrid's Care of Magical Creatures class, they had gone there plenty of times on their own.
But being led into the Forbidden Forest by a centaur was a completely different experience.
Who knew what strange and unusual things Firenze, as a centaur, might show them in addition to teaching?
Just as everyone was excitedly looking forward to warmer weather, a weak voice suddenly sounded from the crowd, "B-But… my grandma said the Forbidden Forest is extremely dangerous…"
Everyone turned in unison toward the source of the voice, and immediately the classroom filled with snickering and whispered mockery.
"It's Neville again," Ron said, covering his face in pain. "He's always like this, like a kid who never grows up, always 'grandma, grandma.' It's so embarrassing for Gryffindor!"
Harry pressed his lips together and said nothing, but it was obvious that the other Gryffindors felt the same way. Quite a few of them shot angry looks at Neville.
This made Neville lower his head even more, his body trembling slightly.
"There's no need to worry, my child."
Firenze walked over to Neville on his four long legs and spoke gently. "We won't go too deep, and while I'm teaching, my kin will also be keeping watch throughout the surrounding forest. That will be more than enough to ensure our safety."
Neville stared blankly at Firenze with red, watery eyes, clearly not expecting such a response.
Beside him, Lavender couldn't wait to ask, "You mean there are more people like you? Then did Hagrid raise you, like he raised those Thestrals?"
Hearing this, Firenze slowly turned his head to look at Lavender. Lavender quickly realized she had asked a very rude question and immediately began apologizing repeatedly.
"Centaurs are not servants or playthings of humans," Firenze said calmly.
He seemed as though he wanted to continue, but when the words reached his lips, he stopped, only shaking his head with a complicated expression.
"Let us begin properly."
As he spoke, Firenze swished his white-brown tail a few times, lifted his head toward the leaves above, then slowly lowered it again.
This series of movements seemed to trigger some kind of mechanism. The light in the room grew dimmer, making it look as though they were sitting in a forest clearing at dawn.
And at that moment, stars appeared on the ceiling.
"Merlin!"
Ron was stunned by the sight and couldn't help exclaiming out loud.
Normally, such behavior would be rude in class, but no one bothered to scold Ron now.
Because everyone looked even more overwhelmed than he did, the entire classroom was filled with gasps and sounds of awe.
"Lie down on the ground," Firenze said quietly. "Observe the sky. For those who have the ability, our destinies are written here."
Harry and Ron obediently lay flat on their backs, pressing themselves against the floor, and stared up at the ceiling.
A star shining with a flickering, blood-red light was blinking at Harry directly above his head.
But strangely, while this planet blazed brilliantly, it seemed to completely absorb the light of all the surrounding stars.
As a result, in that entire stretch of sky, only this single star could be seen.
"Is he trying to teach us astrology?" Ron said, still riding the excitement from before. "Trelawney taught us this stuff too, said Mars brings accidents or destruction and all that."
"Basically, there's never anything good in astrology. Every time I finished her class, I was afraid to look up at the night sky."
"I was terrified I'd see something about the end of the world!"
After saying this, perhaps finding it amusing himself, Ron couldn't help laughing.
Just then, Firenze's voice sounded above their heads, "All of that is nonsense people tell themselves."
Harry and Ron both jumped in fright.
Ron especially, speaking casually in class wasn't allowed, and he was afraid Firenze might deduct points from him.
It wasn't that he cared about Gryffindor losing points; it was just that becoming the first student to lose points in a new professor's class would be humiliating.
What's more, he was a Gryffindor prefect.
Luckily, Firenze didn't do that. He simply said calmly, "Compared to the stars, humans are far too insignificant. Therefore, the trivial little things humans do have no influence on the movement of the stars at all."
He swished his tail and walked elsewhere. "Whether Trelawney truly saw anything, I do not know. But according to the star-lore my people have studied for thousands of years, that is complete nonsense."
"We observe the sky only to seek signs of great evil or great change."
"Only events vast enough to alter the world will trigger warnings from the stars."
"Over the past ten years, the signs in the sky have merely indicated that wizards were in a brief period of calm between two wars. Beyond that, they held no other meaning."
"But now, Mars, the star of war, shines brightly above us. This suggests that war will once again ignite in the near future."
As Firenze spoke, the classroom quickly fell silent.
Everyone understood what he was referring to, and one by one they covered their mouths in fear.
"But war is not without a solution! The rise of Mars has also caused the Morning Star to shine!"
Firenze raised his voice and pointed toward the other side of the sky.
Everyone followed his gesture and indeed saw a star shining with bright white light, noticeably larger than the others.
But unlike Mars, this Morning Star, though brilliant, did not steal the light of the surrounding stars.
Instead, under its illumination, those stars seemed to grow several times brighter.
"The Morning Star will lead the countless stars and shatter the terror brought by Mars! This is what we centaurs see in the starry sky."
Firenze continued, "Achieving this will not be easy. The Morning Star is currently far dimmer than Mars and is no match for it at all."
"But this is only temporary."
"The Morning Star is different from the greedy Mars."
"It allows other stars to shine with their own light."
"It even shares its own light with them."
"And with the support of the countless stars, the light of Mars will be overwhelmed!"
As Firenze finished speaking, the sea of stars on the ceiling, led by the Morning Star, suddenly blazed with light. The radiance was so dazzling that it completely drowned out the red glow of Mars.
———
The class bell rang.
Everyone lined up and walked out of the classroom.
Unlike a normal dismissal, no one looked cheerful or excited. Instead, they all seemed dazed and at a loss.
Firenze had revealed far too much information in class.
The Mars that sought to ignite war could only be referring to Voldemort.
Everyone was absolutely certain of this.
Thanks to Link's persistent publicity, almost everyone at Hogwarts, aside from a very small number of people with skewed loyalties, had already accepted the fact that Voldemort had returned.
But the question was, who was the Morning Star that would lead the other stars in resistance against Mars?
Dumbledore?
Or the Ministry of Magic?
Both seemed plausible, yet both also felt somehow off.
"The Morning Star is obviously Link!"
At that moment, a Gryffindor boy with a gold coin hanging on his chest suddenly shouted.
Everyone immediately turned to look at him.
Being stared at by so many people made him seem a little nervous, but he stubbornly lifted his chin and said, "Honestly, I can't think of anyone besides Link who deserves the title of Morning Star!"
"You all saw it before, didn't you?"
"When Professor Firenze first came to Hogwarts, he addressed Link as 'Lord Morning Star'!"
"That means the centaur race has already acknowledged that Link is the Morning Star!"
"And besides, look at everything Link has done this year. He founded factories, gave us extra income, and has been working constantly to improve our strength!"
"Hah!"
Another girl suddenly snorted in disdain. "He only set up those factories to squeeze the last bit of value out of you! How pitiful, you're even speaking up for him!"
"And you say he's working to improve your strength? I haven't seen him do anything like that."
"And even if he did all of those things, so what?"
"That makes him the Morning Star? How ridiculous!"
As soon as she finished speaking, many people around her glared angrily.
Including the boy who spoke first, and many others as well, several people even pulled out their wands.
Seeing this group of wand-holding, fierce-looking students slowly closing in on her, the girl's face changed dramatically. Muttering "Link Flamel's lackeys," she hurriedly fled, causing a burst of laughter from the crowd behind her.
Harry and Ron laughed happily too.
They both recognized the boy who had spoken first as a standard D.A. member. The D.A. gold coin hanging on his chest already proved his identity.
Not just him.
The people who stepped forward afterward were all D.A. members as well.
Harry had seen all of their faces in the Room of Requirement.
At this moment, the cohesion of the D.A. was on full display.
And as a member of the D.A., Harry felt incredibly proud.
"Link is indeed the Morning Star! But even the Morning Star needs the help of the other stars in the sky!"
The Gryffindor boy continued. "So let's do our best, everyone! As the stars surrounding the Morning Star, we must also strive to shine with our own light!"
"This is to repay Link's efforts! To save this world! And even more, for ourselves!"
As his words ended, an unbroken wave of cheers erupted around them.
Harry felt as though a flame was burning fiercely in his chest.
This flame burned away his previous resentment toward Dumbledore, and burned away his unease and self-pity as well.
And reborn from the flames was an incomparably blazing passion.
At the same time, Firenze was quietly watching all of this through the high classroom window.
Looking at these students, stirred into fervent zeal by a single lesson, so full of fighting spirit that they seemed ready to sacrifice themselves on the spot, Firenze's expression was incredibly complicated.
His lips moved slightly, again and again as if he wanted to say something.
But in the end, he only pulled out a photograph from his robes with difficulty.
It showed a large group of centaurs holding various Muggle machines, smiling brightly.
Under the influence of those smiling faces, all the words he never spoke ultimately turned into a long, heavy sigh.
"Ron, now's the time, let's go!"
In the corridor on the other side, Harry shouted as he grabbed Ron's hand and ran desperately toward the exit.
Ron looked completely bewildered, clearly unable to process Harry's sudden transformation.
It wasn't until they reached the library that Ron, panting heavily, shook off Harry's grip and looked at him in confusion as Harry pulled out paper and pen and began writing furiously.
"Harry, what are you doing?"
"Writing lesson plans!"
Harry replied without looking up. Then, thinking Ron might not understand, he added, "Lesson plans for the Patronus Charm!"
Ron was even more confused and shook his head.
"What are you doing that for?"
"To teach the Patronus Charm to others, of course!" Harry said without hesitation.
"Link already told everyone that he hopes people will teach the spells they're good at to other partners so we can all improve together."
"I was so annoyed by Occlumency and Dumbledore and all that before that I never got around to it. Now I've got to make it up!"
"So you're finally planning to start attending the meetings again?"
Hermione's slightly delighted voice suddenly rang out. "You've missed several sessions in a row. Everyone's been worried about you! It's really great that you've figured it out on your own!"
As soon as Hermione appeared, Ron immediately puffed out his cheeks and fell silent.
Harry didn't mind him. He just scratched his head awkwardly and said, "Sorry for making you all worry. But I'm fine now. I'll work extra hard, I hope I can still catch up with everyone's progress."
Hermione hugged a thick book to her chest and smiled happily.
"Ever since Dumbledore came back, Umbridge hasn't dared to be so arrogant anymore."
"And because of that, Link has basically been holding meetings every day!"
"So as long as you're willing, you'll definitely be able to catch up!"
Harry nodded seriously.
Umbridge's recent cautious, miserable state was truly satisfying to watch.
And all of it was because of Dumbledore's return.
Now everything was moving in a good direction. After shifting his perspective, Harry suddenly realized that the future was actually incredibly bright.
So bright that even Voldemort, at this moment, didn't seem quite so terrifying anymore.
"But I'm still a little curious," Hermione said again. "How did you suddenly figure it out? We were only apart for a few hours."
"That's all thanks to Professor Firenze!"
Ron finally couldn't help but say. "You really should regret not taking his Divination class!"
Hearing this, Hermione immediately shot Ron another sharp glare, her expression dark, she thought Ron was making another dirty joke.
Seeing this, Ron angrily turned his head away, unwilling to pay Hermione any more attention.
Watching this, Harry could only smile bitterly.
He clearly remembered someone saying not long ago that he was going to ignore Hermione for a full two days.
And Hermione too, Ron had already lowered his head and apologized…
Shaking his head, Harry lowered his gaze and began seriously writing the lesson plans for the Patronus Charm.
After all, this wasn't the first time Ron and Hermione had argued. They always made up eventually.
The evening meeting was what really mattered.