Hagrid was clearly trying to learn something from the centaur named Ronan, but the centaur gave vague answers. When pressed, all he would say was that Mars was bright tonight, which left Hagrid looking very unhappy.
Then another centaur, a black one named Bane, appeared. He was a little bigger, but like Ronan, he spoke vaguely too.
Don't ask. If you did, the answer was that Mars was bright tonight.
Hagrid and Harry both felt helpless. They simply stopped bothering with them and split up, heading into the forest along two separate paths.
Before they parted, Hagrid reminded Harry and Draco again: they must not leave the path, and if they discovered anything, they were to set off the fireworks immediately.
Harry and Draco walked single file along the forest path.
It was called a path, but to Harry, it looked like nothing more than a trail worn down by the enormous Hagrid walking back and forth.
Draco seemed carefree at first. Clearly, encountering a relatively peaceful creature like a centaur as the first living thing upon entering the forest had made him considerably more cocky. Seeing Harry carefully searching their surroundings, he even mocked him.
But an owl suddenly darted out of the woods with a hoot, frightening him into a scream. This earned him some truly vicious mockery from Harry.
"Seriously, Mama's Boy? We see owls delivering letters and parcels every day, and you actually got scared by one? Are you even a wizard?" Harry's mockery skill was maxed out.
Draco gaped, momentarily at a loss for words. A wizard frightened by an owl-wouldn't half of Hogwarts laugh themselves to death if word got out? Even if Slytherin wasn't known for courage, Draco still felt ashamed, so much so that he behaved himself considerably better afterward.
If a