Moonlight spilled freely through the gaps between the trees, leaving mottled shadows and illuminating the half of a body that emerged from them.
The crisscrossing scars on that face looked especially sinister and terrifying.
Professor Moody? No, Barty Crouch. What was he doing here?!
When the other three centaurs present saw Fake Moody's face clearly, they instinctively reached for their bows, their faces guarded and their hooves stamping uneasily on the ground.
"Who are you?" Starlight glittered in the lead centaur's eyes. "Why have you trespassed into the Forbidden Forest in the dead of night?"
"Alastor Moody." The blue magical eye in Fake Moody's socket swiveled left and right, then fixed motionlessly on the spot where Su Er was hiding.
Su Er felt an icy gaze on him and swallowed.
Fuck! Could that eye see him?
"I'm Hogwarts' Professor of Defense Against the Dark Arts this year." Fake Moody seemed not to have noticed the unusual behavior of his other eye and instead announced his identity in a gruff voice.
"A Hogwarts professor?" the lead centaur asked in puzzlement. His grip on his bow loosened slightly, and his arrow dipped. "What have you come to the Forbidden Forest for?"
"That's none of your business, centaur," Fake Moody said nastily.
"Under our tribe's agreement with Dumbledore, we have the right to question the purpose of any wizard who enters the Forbidden Forest without cause." The lead centaur's expression darkened, and he raised the bow he had lowered.
"State your purpose, wizard!"
The other two centaurs behind him both drew arrows and pulled their bows to full draw, seemingly waiting only for their leader's command before their poison-coated arrows shot out like lightning to teach the intruder a harsh lesson.
Another centaur placed a hand at his waist, where a hook-shaped horn