Centaurs

"You must be the students here to help me." A deep, muffled voice came from nearby, and Moriarty and the others saw a towering figure emerge from the woods.

He was a hulking giant of a man. His face was almost completely hidden beneath wild long hair and a thick, tangled beard. He wore a large brown coat and carried two bundles of hay in his hands.

"I'm Rubeus Hagrid. Mr. Filch told me about you. Um... Slytherin House. All right, all right, follow me. Fang, come on!"

Hagrid seemed rather distant as he headed toward another part of the forest. Larpo and Keith were clearly dissatisfied with his attitude and reluctantly followed behind Moriarty.

Along the way, Jericho asked, "Mr. Hagrid, what exactly do we need to do?"

"Good question, I almost forgot to tell you." Hagrid stopped, released his hands, and the two bundles of hay fell to the ground. Pointing at them, he said, "The one on my left is sage, and the one on my right is musk mallow. You need to collect a large amount of sage and musk mallow in this forest, then bring it to me. It's that simple."

"That simple?" Larpo said lightly. "If it's so simple, why can't you collect it yourself?"

Hagrid glanced at him, then quickly looked away with obvious disdain.

"Musk mallow grows underground, and sage isn't easy to pull out. If the demand weren't so great, I'd still have some in stock. But the Centaurs need far too much this time, and they asked me for help... Oh!"

Hagrid covered his mouth. He had let something slip.

The Little Wizards all laughed. Jericho nodded. "Aha, so the Centaurs are involved."

Moriarty picked up a stalk of sage, and a faint fragrance drifted into his nose. He said to Hagrid, "Centaurs are skilled at stargazing. To further interpret the results of their observations, they usually burn sage and musk mallow."

"So the Centaurs must have encountered some complicated, incomprehensible change in the stars, right, Hagrid?"

Hagrid shook his head. "I don't know. Firenze only asked me to find this hay. Get moving. Oh, right, we'd better split into two groups."

Jericho, Percy, and the others all stood behind Moriarty. Hagrid awkwardly pursed his lips, while Fang stood by his feet.

"Marcus, you're with Mr. Hagrid." Moriarty gave his follower a meaningful look. "Help Mr. Hagrid collect musk mallow. We'll gather the sage."

Marcus nodded in understanding. Once everyone had formed their teams, the two groups headed off in different directions.

Moriarty heard Marcus say to Hagrid in a somewhat unpracticed tone, "Mr. Hagrid, I heard there's a group of Hippogriffs in the Forbidden Forest. Those big fellows are really lovable. I mean, I like them. Yes, and I'm planning to take Care of Magical Creatures class next year."

Jericho heard it too and whistled. "Since when did Marcus become interested in Magical Creatures?"

"I suggested he study Magical Creatures. At least then he might learn something." Moriarty brushed the matter aside casually.

As they ventured deeper into the forest, they saw clusters upon clusters of sage. Moriarty tapped the ground beneath his feet with the Slytherin staff, and the sage that was difficult to pull out flew from the soil on its own.

Keith grinned. "This really is too easy. Professor Dumbledore was right—traveling with Mr. Moriarty is like going on an outing."

More and more sage piled up on the ground, forming a mound. Moriarty said, "I think this should be enough."

"No, child, it isn't enough." A gentle voice came from the nearby woods, followed by a rustling sound. A Centaur emerged from the shadows.

Jericho and the others drew their Wands. The Centaur had spoken those words, and though his voice was gentle, he held a bow and arrow.

Moriarty walked a few steps toward the Centaur. "We're students from Hogwarts. We're searching for sage with Hagrid for your divination."

The Centaur's remarkably blue eyes examined Moriarty without blinking. "I know. The stars told me you might come these past few days, so I often came out looking for you. I am Firenze. I mean you no harm. It is a pleasure to meet you, Slytherin."

"Did the stars tell you my name as well?" Moriarty looked at Firenze.

The Centaur had platinum-blond hair, but from the waist down, he had a gleaming reddish-brown horse's body, trailing a long silver-white tail behind him.

Firenze hesitated. "Um... the stars always tell us many things..."

Then he adopted a solemn tone. "Centaurs have spent centuries uncovering the mysteries of the movements of the stars in the universe. Our research tells us that from the sky above our heads, we may be able to glimpse the future.

—This differs from the future you imagine. What will I eat tomorrow morning? Will I earn extra points in class the day after tomorrow? How many Outstanding grades will I get in my final exams? Those are not the future. Perhaps that is fate...

"And we observe the stars, recording the significant movements of disasters and upheavals from an objective and impartial perspective. It may take more than ten years to prove that we were right."

Moriarty understood, and his curiosity only deepened. He vaguely remembered that Firenze was close to Harry Potter, and that the Centaurs had also foretold Voldemort starting the Second Wizarding War.

But what did that have to do with Moriarty?

Firenze seemed to see Moriarty's confusion. He gently raised his head. "Have you noticed? There is no moon tonight."

"So what?" Jericho still had not lowered his Wand; instead, he gripped it even tighter. "No moon? What does that prove? If you ask me, this so-called future and fate are nothing but pretentious tricks!"

Firenze ignored Jericho. From the beginning, his eyes had been fixed only on Moriarty.

"One day in December 1987, the moon suddenly vanished. It did not appear even at night. We recorded that from that day onward, moonless nights occasionally began to appear," Firenze said calmly.

Percy gasped as if he had remembered something, then shouted, "December 1987? Charlie told me during the summer break that the ghosts were gathering, Peeves was laughing, and murals were dancing... What did they call that day again? The Great Hogwarts Riot?"

Firenze gave Percy a proper look. "It is an obvious sign. Perhaps the Great Hogwarts Riot you mentioned and that moonless night occurred on the same day."

"Wait, are you saying that the so-called Great Hogwarts Riot affected the stars?" Moriarty was no stranger to the "Great Riot," because he had read the entire year's worth of The Daily Prophet from 1987.

It recorded that the so-called Great Riot had merely been a group of ghosts, murals, suits of armor, and stone statues coming out to have fun. Not a single wizard had taken part.

Moriarty had thought it was just another publicity stunt.

Firenze did not give a definite answer. He merely evaded the question ambiguously, and Moriarty strongly suspected that he did not know either.

Moriarty had no choice but to ask differently. "Mr. Firenze, do you believe the Great Hogwarts Riot, the moonless nights, and I are connected?"

Facing Moriarty's bright gaze, Firenze slowly nodded. "Yes, Slytherin. You may not know this, but years ago, we observed the stars and foretold that Britain's magical world would face a Wizarding War within the next decade or so. The course of that war would be tied to two people."

Moriarty knew he meant Harry Potter and Voldemort.

"But—" Firenze continued, "since the first moonless night, the stars have changed. Their paths, their speed of movement, the connections between planets and stars... all of it changed. So we began divining again..."

"So that is why you need such a large amount of sage and musk mallow." Moriarty understood.

"Exactly." Firenze circled Moriarty. "Then September came, and you arrived. Slytherin, Slytherin!"

"This surname means you are destined to be extraordinary. Our ancestors have never been able to divine any information about the Four Founders or their descendants through the stars. The same is true for you. But I do not think this is a coincidence."

A wind suddenly rose, and everyone felt a chill. Moriarty's voice sounded especially deep within the wind. "I do not think it is a coincidence either!"

Firenze held out a hand. "I am glad you agree with me. Among our people, there are disagreements over the new divination. They forbade me from revealing it to you in advance."

"Then what is this new divination?" Moriarty extended his hand and lightly shook his.

Hesitation and alarm flashed across Firenze's face. After a long time, he finally said, "It is a state of chaos. There is not only war, but change as well. There is fear, and there is also something—I do not know what it is, but it seems like an opportunity? Or perhaps... a choice?"

I didn't make it into the second round of recommendations. Thank you all for your support. I'll put even more care into my writing from here on.