The news of Dumbledore's death had an enormous impact.
Putting aside whether Dumbledore's death had broken the fragile balance the wizarding world had struggled to maintain, within Hogwarts alone, there was already a heavy, storm-is-coming atmosphere.
Throughout the entire morning's classes, not only were the students distracted, even the professors at the front of the classroom were completely out of sorts. Either they lost focus and stared into space, or their lessons were full of mistakes and omissions.
Simply put, whether they were the students attending class or the professors teaching it, every single one of them looked weighed down by worry.
In fact, even Draco seemed a little off...
After the only class that could still be considered normal, History of Magic, ended, Hermione walked out of the classroom with him and immediately tugged at the corner of Draco's robes.
"What are you worrying about? You've looked lost in thought all morning."
"Yeah, I noticed it too. You're a little different today."
Pansy, standing beside them, also said what she had sensed.
Faced with the girls' concern, Draco finally told them what he had been thinking about all morning.
After glancing around to make sure no one else was paying attention to them, Draco said, "This is only my guess, but Hogwarts may not be very peaceful in the near future."
"What do you mean?"
"Don't you think there's something suspicious about Dumbledore's death?"
"Are you saying Dumbledore might not be dead?"
Pansy's words made Draco roll his eyes. "Of course not. I can't think of any reason Dumbledore would fake his own death."
He paused.
"Don't you think it's strange? Why are Dumbledore's people, the Order of the Phoenix, protecting Harry Potter and keeping him from returning to Hogwarts?"
"Isn't it because they need to confirm the truth from him, so he can't come back for now?"
"...Look at this. This is important information Delacour gave me not long ago."
As Draco spoke, he took a small slip of paper from his robes.
There was not much written on it, only a few short lines.
The note read...
[Harry Potter is under the protection of the Order of the Phoenix]
...
Although it was not clear when or how that half-blood Veela had contacted Draco, this sentence made one thing very clear. Hogwarts was not as safe as they had imagined.
Otherwise, the Order of the Phoenix would not have had to go to such unnecessary lengths...
However, that was not the reason Draco was so certain.
The real reason was Snape's warning glance.
Their eyes had met for less than a second, but Draco had instantly understood what Snape wanted to convey.
Although Draco was very reluctant to admit it, perhaps that was the tacit understanding between them?
The only question was, what was he supposed to be careful of?
Aside from the Dark Lord, Draco truly could not think of any other threat serious enough for Snape to care about...
At that moment, Draco suddenly realized that a magical item he had forgotten about for a long time had begun to grow hot.
After freezing for a moment, Draco immediately grabbed Pansy and Hermione by the hand and led them around the corner, disappearing from sight.
"Draco?"
"Where are you taking us?"
"Don't talk. Just come with me."
It was the first time Pansy and the others had seen Draco like this, so they had no choice but to stop asking questions and obediently follow him. Even the easily embarrassed Hermione temporarily forgot about the fact that they were holding hands.
Though it was also possible she had simply gotten used to it.
In any case, after turning through a series of corridors, Draco relied on his memory and eventually found a hidden place nearby.
It was an unused room. If not for the Marauder's Map, Draco and the others might not have entered it once in all seven years...
It was empty, with almost no furnishings.
From the thick layer of accumulated dust, it was clear that not only had no wizards used this room, even the House-elves had never come here.
Although he did not know why, Draco had no attention to spare for that right now.
After closing the door, Pansy and the others were just about to question Draco when he took a familiar object out of his robes.
It was a small mirror.
More precisely, it was a magical mirror that was growing hot...
"Isn't this the one from back then?!"
"It's the magical mirror!"
As for the magical mirror in Draco's hand, Pansy and Hermione did not know that this was not the first time Draco had used it.
He had used it once before, on the top floor of Luna's house.
The main reason Draco had not mentioned it was that the fewer people who knew about this, the better.
After all, although Draco did not know where Lockhart's information came from, there were only so many possibilities.
And most of those methods were extremely dangerous.
Because of that, even though their relationship had not reached that point, and neither side had made any formal agreement in writing, Draco still did not want this source of information to be cut off by some accident...
At that moment, as Draco lifted the magical mirror, a familiar face gradually appeared in it.
It was...
"Professor Lockhart!?"