Easter holidays came. You'd generally get a 1 week holiday during this time but most students stay at school to prepare for the coming exams.

Magnus, Ragnar and Severus though didn't have any studying to do because they were brilliant in their studies. However, even they didn't go home and decided to further their studies in school.

Everything was going smoothly during this time. The Pure-bloods had stooped coming after him and the Death Eaters had gone silent for a while now.

Magnus was praying that this peace lasts forever in his life. Maybe his killing 4 death eaters was a big loss for them.

And now Magnus was trying to put a nail in the coffin. He now knows that at least Rudolphus Lestrange was a Death Eater, along with Mulciber and a few others. He was making their bounty posters now.

Magnus knew that such a thing was very backwards but that was in the modern world, Wizarding world was still living in the mentality of the wild west, so he was going to treat it like the wild west.

"Ah, what do you think of my drawing skills?" Magnus asked as he finished drawing the last poster.

Ragnar and Severus looked at them with focus. The faces on the posters were clear as day.

"You know, you're getting 'pretty' good at it." Ragnar praised.

"Hehe, of course, I practice drawing runes all the time. No wonder Merlin was able to draw talking portraits for himself and Arthur." Magnus proudly boasted.

"BLOODY HELL... Will you really pay 100,000 Galleons for the bounty?" Ragnar suddenly exclaimed as he saw a poster of Rudolphus.

"Of course, besides, this one's special, as I want him alive. If someone can catch him alive, then they deserve that money. I also got so much money, so no problem." Magnus revealed.

Severus agreed with his actions, "Indeed, if you want people to seriously pursue the bounty, it must be high enough to lure powerful people."

"Where will you publish it?" Ragnar inquired.

"Nowhere, our little Summer will throw them around the Diagon Alley. The money reward will be awarded from an anonymous account.

"Hooorrr..." Summer cutely voiced, telling all that she can do it.

Summer was not so little now though, because she was having a diet full of meat and various strength potions that Severus and Ragnar fed her.

Now, she looked more like an eagle but still as cute as she always used to be, so she was a big fluff ball now.

"Hehe, she's excited. Okay, I will get more copies. Once it reaches the public eye, everyone will start talking about it. Free publicity." Magnus decided and busied himself.

...

Nearly at the same time, four boys from Gryffindor were on a secret trip to have some fun. They had decided to get out of the school from a secret passage and explore the forbidden forest.

"Are you sure you want to do this? I mean... we can get expelled for doing this." Remus tried to talk them out of it.

"Oh come on, Remus, nobody will know, it's dark outside, also, don't you want to meet the Centaurs? You told me you wanted to talk to them about astrology." James smartly made Remus interested now. Sirius was already onboard with the plan, meanwhile, Peter was silently following them. He rarely spoke and had a habit of just laughing even when he was being made fun of.

In most people's eyes, Peter wasn't really a part of this friend's group, because most of the time he was getting bullied. He was like an easy target for James and Sirius to make fun of to avoid boredom.

But, Magnus though, was the only person who didn't treat Peter badly, and he did not exploit Peter like a cannon fodder kid who lacked self-confidence.

Soon, they were able to get out of the school unnoticed, they were used to this much by now as they used to stroll around in the school during night hours, while hiding from Filch.

They headed towards the dark forest firmly with confidence and excitement on their faces.

They entered the path Hagrid used to ramble about. This was Hagrid's problem, he only realises he wasn't supposed to say something after saying something.

They followed the trail in the forest, with their wands illuminating their pathway.

Soon, noises started coming from nearby bushes. The next thing they knew, 4 consecutive arrow shots came and struck their wands, making the wands fall from their hands.

They scrambled to get a hold of the wands in a hurry knowing there was danger. James, being a quidditch player with fast reflexes, caught it first.

"LUMOS" He cast it loudly to at least see what they were up against.

Then, finally, they saw the silhouette of a few Centaurs. They all couldn't be seen properly. All of them were pointing bows at them though.

"WIZARDS? WHAT ARE YOU DOING IN OUR TERRITORY? Hogwarts recognised our rights over this land." The leading Centaur asked loudly.

"Heh, it's a jungle... Nobody owns it." Sirius scoffed, he wasn't too smart to know when to keep his mouth shut.

"Are you saying we have no right over this land our generations have lived on? Indeed, ancestors say the truth... Humans are untrustworthy beings. We will now ransom you with Hogwarts, if they want you back, they must pay. We're being gracious by just not killing you because you're kids. Brothers, tie them up." The Centaur commanded his tribesmen.

James was no match, being the only one with a wand. He was immediately disarmed, then all of them were tied with some kind of a vine.

"Untie me..." Sirius protested.

"Shut up, Sirius, don't make them angrier," James told his friend.

Remus was also very calm, Peter though was unconscious due to fear.

They were tied to long vines like a sack of rice and brought to the large camp by being dragged. It was very well lit and lots of activity was going on there. It was as if some kind of a festival was going on there.

"Woah, are they eating acromantula?" James said in astonishment, not bothered by being dragged and caught yet.

"Aren't acromantula their enemies? This is brutal." Sirius added.

*THUD*

After a few more steps they were harshly left on the ground.

"The Chief will decide your fate. You're lucky today as he's very happy right now, with the return of an ally. You 'may' get to live." The Centaur told them and left.

Sirius, James and Remus tried to get out of the hold. They tried to move left and right but couldn't.

*Sigh* "You two are such dummies. Just don't try to fight it and it'll loosen a little." Remus quickly spoke.

It was indeed right and they got free. But, only one was left now.

"What do we do with Peter?" James asked.

Sirius shrugged, "Leave him be, he's a wuss and will pass out again if something shocking happens. Now... LET'S JOIN THE PARTYYYY!"

"WHAT? Did you forget we're hostages here?" Remus asked him.

"Of course I do, but it's not like we can run away, this is where they live, so might as well just join them." Sirius reasoned and happily walked away towards where the noise was coming from.

They walked around, shocking lots of Centaurs, they also picked food from here and there and ate it merrily.

"Hmm, they're pretty good at cooking." Sirius praised with his mouth stuffed with food, but nobody knew what meat it was.

"THERE YOU ARE, LITTLE RUNTS. CHIEF WILL PUNISH YOU NOW. FOLLOW ME."

A Centaur came and dragged them to the centre of the camp.

Sirius, Remus and James were slightly nervous now. Their wands were confiscated and they were as good as any muggle.

They were brought to the biggest bonfire there, around which some old Centaurs were resting.

The oldest and the biggest one was the chief.

"Wizards, what brought you to our territories?" The old chief asked.

"Umm... It was Remus, he wanted to learn about plants and astrology from you." James quickly threw Remus under the bus.

"Oh, really? Do you think you can make us teach you our precious knowledge just like that? Do you think we are subservient to you Wizards?

"DO YOU THINK WE'RE YOUR SERVANTS? LIKE WHAT YOU DID WITH THE ELFS?" the old Centaurs sounded very angry at this point.

Sirius, Remus and James lost colour from their faces. Till now, they thought that Hogwarts and most of the beings in the forbidden forest were most likely in an understanding that they'd not harm each other.

But, now they were having doubts that they might not be able to stay alive for long here.

"Ah... We made a mistake... We'll go back," Remus tried to persuade.

"SILENCE... ARROGANT, FOOLISH AND IGNORANT, THAT'S WHAT YOU WIZARDS ARE. YOU WILL GO BACK, BUT NOT WITH YOUR HEADS ON YOUR SHOULDER!"

[You can see the Centaurs on my Discord - https://discord.gg/DgHkrAn OR see them on Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/mister_immortal_novel]

______________________

You can read 20 advance chapters or my Naruto fic on -patreon.com/misterimmortal.

Special thanks to *Douglas Flower* *Umar Latif* *Julian Rocamora* *Darrien Steely* *Franklin Walley*

Thank you for your support!