Slytherin had essentially locked in the Quidditch championship this year.
Last Saturday, Slytherin defeated their final opponent, Hufflepuff.
An undefeated season firmly established Malfoy's position as the new team captain.
At the Slytherin table, Malfoy sat together with Astoria.
Daphne, like John used to, was holding The Daily Prophet and reading it.
Some people guessed she was doing it simply to keep unpleasant things out of sight and out of mind.
Malfoy said with a smug, performative sigh, "Tsk, how boring. This whole year, there wasn't a single team worth fighting."
His arrogant attitude drew furious glares from several Hufflepuff students passing by.
Slytherin's team had shown no sense of fair play. In last Saturday's match, Goyle's Beater's bat had "accidentally" slipped from his hands and struck Hufflepuff's main Chaser.
As a result, Hufflepuff lost in an extremely humiliating scoreline.
It was said that Ernie Macmillan had repeatedly applied to his Head of House for permission to challenge Malfoy to a proper man-to-man duel.
Even the gossipmongers couldn't stand it anymore, let alone everyone else.
Whenever Hufflepuff students passed the Slytherin table, they would leave behind a cold snort.
Malfoy didn't care in the slightest. Seeing Daphne reading the paper, he lowered his voice and asked, "So? What is it?"
"Another wizard has gone missing," Daphne said, putting down the newspaper. She kicked Crabbe away as he roughhoused nearby and continued, "People have been disappearing everywhere these past few days. There have even been werewolf attacks."
"Attacks?" Malfoy froze. "Who got hit?"
"A boy was attacked. His throat was torn open, and he died."
Daphne's tone was heavy. "The Ministry of Magic is investigating the incident. There have been protests against the werewolf community, with people claiming they've brought danger into everyday life."
"Bullshit," Malfoy said angrily. "The werewolf community is all registered. The ones hurting people are some stray werewolves from who-knows-where."
"Or it could be someone deliberately stirring up conflict," Astoria said thoughtfully. "Father mentioned that werewolves now hold a fair amount of influence within the Ministry."
Mr. Greengrass was an outstanding wizard, and an equally capable businessman.
Astoria had inherited her father's keen insight, seeing more clearly than most what this implied.
In recent days, Voldemort had been carrying out attacks everywhere, like drawing lots between life and death.
With society forced into a state of constant tension, the werewolf attack became an outlet for that pent-up anger.
Wizards had killed dozens without much reaction, but a single attack by an unknown werewolf was enough to turn an entire group into targets of public outrage.
That was reality.
The weak raised their knives against those even weaker.
Overwhelming coverage threatened to drown the werewolf community completely.
Students from several different Hogwarts Houses were also deeply worried.
They were Old Jack's children, and clearly they too had heard the news of the werewolf community being vilified.
But there was nothing they could do to help.
Daphne folded up the newspaper as an owl flew overhead and dropped a fresh copy onto the table.
This was today's paper. Daphne picked it up and glanced through it.
On the front page was the volcanic eruption.
"Johnny Silverhand appears at a magical institute, missing after the eruption?"
She stared blankly at the paper. The moving images showed the eruption in progress.
The sheer scale of it had been felt across the entire country.
Astoria noticed something was off with her sister and hurriedly took the paper to read it herself.
After that, Astoria looked at Daphne with clear concern.
"What's wrong, Asto?" Malfoy saw that both sisters looked strange and directly snatched the newspaper from Goyle's hands.
When he read the headline, Malfoy laughed.
"Oh, come on. That's John," Malfoy said with complete confidence. "There's no way anything happened to him. I'm not falling for it a second time."
In Malfoy's view, this was just another one of John's tricks.
The same move wouldn't work twice on Saint Malfoy.
"He can even die in front of me for all I care, haha! I know he'll come back! Hey! Not that I want him to die or anything, you know? HAHAHA~~"
Daphne just wanted some peace and quiet, but Malfoy was like three hundred ducks quacking at once.
A dangerous glint flashed in her eyes.
…
Malfoy headed for the Constellation Society, because he'd received a notice—Astoria had told him about it.
After all, he'd managed to lose his own badge.
"Draco, what happened to your hair?"
Percy, who had just come into the Constellation Society through the fireplace, froze when he saw Malfoy's head. His hair was standing straight up, each strand like a steel needle.
"This is a new hairstyle. Do you even understand fashion, you bumpkin?" Malfoy never missed a chance to insult others and make them suffer internally.
Percy took a deep breath. If he ever bothered to care about this kid again, he might as well be a dog.
Malfoy, whose hair still wouldn't come down thanks to the Hair-Raising Hex, walked over and sat in his seat.
The fireplace flared again, and Fleur stepped out of the flames.
"Astor—I knew you'd join the Constellation Society," Fleur said as she pulled Astoria into a hug, kissing her smooth cheek with a smile. "Gabrielle misses you so much."
Astoria hugged Fleur back. "I miss Gabrielle too."
They had kept in touch by letter ever since the Quidditch World Cup, and their friendship hadn't faded with distance.
Malfoy said sourly from the side, "I'm the one who can call her by a nickname."
Fleur rolled her eyes at him, then boldly took Astor's hand and pulled her to sit beside her.
That posture clearly said: I'm the queen here, you little skunk.
Neville walked in and took a seat, only to see Malfoy wearing a dark expression.
"Oh, right, Draco—Cedric sent you something."
Fleur tossed an item toward Malfoy. With the confidence of a Seeker, Malfoy reached out, relying on his sharp eyesight and precision, and caught it.
"Pff—"
The object exploded, bursting into a huge cloud of sand and dust.
Malfoy was left covered in dust from head to toe.
Before he could even get angry, the sand began to move on its own, without any wind.
Right in front of everyone's eyes, the sand gathered and formed a humanoid outline.
As facial features emerged, a sand-made version of Cedric was born.
The moment this sand Cedric appeared, it lunged straight at Malfoy.
"Draco, you bastard, you skunk!"
Malfoy didn't dodge in time and was knocked over together with his chair. Cedric's furious roars poured nonstop from the sand figure's mouth.
"For bullying Cho! For mocking her! For catching the Golden Snitch! 'Weak-Chang?' were you out of your mind! Take this!"
"Awoo!! What the hell is this thing?" Malfoy tried to kick the sand figure away, but his foot sank straight into it.
Sand-Cedric kept hammering Malfoy with fists of sand.
The damage wasn't serious, but the clouds of dust left Malfoy coughing nonstop.
"Let me see," Fleur said, taking out the letter that had been sent along with the sand figure and opening it.
"This is a type of cursed sand from the Egyptian pyramids. Magic has been used on it. It attacks according to the sender's intent and also carries a message."
Percy drew a conclusion. "It's basically an Egyptian Howler."
"Hey—don't crawl into my trouser leg—!"
Malfoy let out a scream.
The harsh reality was that everyone else was just watching the spectacle. No one stepped in to help.
After all, winning was one thing—but making someone's girlfriend cry on top of that?
This time it was cursed sand. What if next time a cursed scarab got mailed over?
In the end, Malfoy was beaten by the sand man for a full ten minutes, while Cedric cursed him out nonstop for ten minutes straight.
It was almost enough to make people want to applaud. The sheer power of that mockery—to make Cedric, once hailed as the perfect student council heartthrob, curse continuously for ten whole minutes.
If it were anyone else, it probably would've gone on for at least half an hour.
Malfoy finally struggled back to his feet, covered in dust.
Astoria used magic to clean him up.
"Alright, that's enough," Percy said once it finally stopped, having everyone take their seats.
In addition to Cedric, Kim was also present.
Seven of them sat around the round table.
"John…"
Daphne was about to ask about John, but Percy raised a hand to stop her.
Percy looked at Kim and said, "You can speak now."
Kim nodded, glanced around at everyone, and said in a low voice, "War is coming."
War—not some small-scale skirmish.
This wouldn't be like the last clash at the Ministry, where both sides numbered only a few dozen.
Everyone's expressions hardened as Kim continued, "Cedric is on his way back. This time, it will be brutal. The pressure we face won't come only from Voldemort, but also from the dark creatures he's drawn to his side."
"On top of that, we need to protect Hogwarts." Kim removed his Constellation badge and placed it on the table. "If Hogwarts can't hold, we'll have to activate the Constellation Society."
"John set permissions on every badge. Once five are gathered, the Constellation Society can be activated."
"But this is a last-resort measure. Once the Constellation Society appears, its immense magic also comes with risks."
Everyone removed their badges and nodded. Malfoy glanced at his empty robes.
It was I, Malfoy, who isolated myself from all of you!
"There's one more thing," Kim said. "John has already identified the traitor. But he hopes you won't act yet, to avoid alerting the enemy."
"It's not really Theodore, is it?" Malfoy asked.
Kim slowly nodded.
The Slytherins fell silent.
Pansy—well played.
~~~
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