Self-reproach.
Regret.
And... misdirected resentment.
In the other person's eyes, Draco saw emotions so intense they were almost tangible.
Lacking crucial pieces of the story, he had no way of understanding that kind of emotion, or that hostility.
Perhaps it was precisely because he did not understand it that, even after so long, that look still remained so vivid in his memory...
"So what exactly happened for him to harbor that much hostility?"
Thinking back to his recent encounter with Harry Potter, Draco's gaze grew distant.
Crackle.
That was the sound of firewood burning.
At that moment, Draco was sitting in front of the fireplace in the Room of Requirement, the warmth pushing back the winter cold as the firelight flickered across the room.
Naturally, the girls nearby, who had been paying close attention to him, noticed at once that something was off...
"Draco, are you even listening to us?"
"You're not sick, are you...? It's not like I can't spare a little time to take you to the infirmary."
"....."
Hermione's textbook tsundere way of putting it made everyone, Draco included, roll their eyes at her. The tiny, obvious gesture immediately made Hermione flush red with embarrassment.
She gave an exaggerated cough.
As if trying to cover something up, Hermione picked up the topic they had been discussing earlier. "The news has already spread. The Dark Lord's target is the prophecy orbs in the Department of Mysteries."
"Apparently, those prophecy orbs can only be opened and heard by the people the prophecies are about."
"And from the look of it, there's definitely something inside them that the Dark Lord wants."
What Hermione was saying was no longer any kind of secret.
Ever since Voldemort's break-in at the Ministry of Magic had been exposed, Cornelius Fudge seemed to have lost all ability to keep everything covered up.
Of course, it was also entirely possible that some wizard was stirring things up behind the scenes, deliberately creating more chaos in order to profit from it.
If that were the case, the most suspicious group would probably be the people in Lucius Malfoy's camp...
Leaving aside whether the wizard spreading this information was Lucius or not, Goyle and Crabbe gathered around all nodded in agreement.
Come to think of it, this was the first time they had all come together to discuss something this important. It was also the first time Draco had allowed these followers into a meeting like this.
Seeing Hermione in the spotlight, Pansy was unwilling to be outdone and stood up to speak as well. "Not only that, but both the Ministry of Magic and Dumbledore's side must place enormous importance on that prophecy. Otherwise, Dumbledore would never have shown up there in person."
"Couldn't we even suspect that Dumbledore appeared there to seize that prophecy orb himself?"
"That... actually doesn't sound impossible."
"Yeah, that might really be it."
"And... have you considered that the wizard who can open that prophecy orb might be one of them?"
As expected, many minds were better than one. That did not mean everyone else's guesses were right, but it did give Draco a few new lines of thought.
Looking at it from another angle.
What if the wizard truly after the prophecy orb was not Voldemort at all?
...
While everyone else was still discussing the subject, Hermione quietly edged over to Draco's side.
Pretending not to mean anything by it, Hermione brushed back her long brown hair, now silky from careful upkeep. "What's wrong? Did you run into some kind of problem? If I happen to go to the library one of these days, maybe I could look something up for you while I'm there."
Draco glanced at her delicate face.
Anyone could see that, judging by the seriousness in her expression, that so-called "while I'm there" was anything but casual.
Draco, however, had no intention of exposing the girl's little thoughts. Meeting Hermione's eyes, he said, "It's not really a problem. I just learned something that's been bothering me a little."
"...Is that so? Is it something you can't tell us?" Hermione asked softly, the tips of her ears turning faintly red after being the first to lose the staring contest.
"It's not that. You remember Sirius Black, don't you?"
"Sirius...? The wizard who escaped from Azkaban back then? Of course I remember."
Of course she did.
How could Hermione possibly forget what had happened that day?
Back then, she had traveled through time and seen with her own eyes Sirius Black's vulnerability and frailty under dark magic, as well as the wonder and uniqueness of Transfiguration.
It was also the first time she had truly understood just how powerful and dangerous dark magic could be...
What Hermione had not expected, though, was to hear his name brought up here.
"I looked into Sirius Black a bit. You should know that my family has some history with the Black family, so finding information on him wasn't particularly difficult."
Noticing how serious Draco looked, Hermione abruptly tensed and listened even more closely.
At that moment, even she was not sure whether what concerned her was Sirius Black himself, or the fact that this seemed to involve Draco's family...
"And while I was investigating Sirius Black, I found that there was one wizard the Black family had forgotten. Or rather, it felt more like they had deliberately hidden him."
"That person..."
"He's dead. He was Sirius's younger brother, and he was once a Hogwarts student too. It took me quite a bit of time before I managed to learn anything at all about him from the House-elves."
"So that's why you went to the Hogwarts kitchen?"
Now that it clicked for her, Hermione also found herself wondering why Draco had gone to such lengths in the first place.
No matter how she looked at it, this did not seem like someone worth specifically investigating, much less someone who had been dead for who knew how long...
Seeming to notice the confusion in Hermione's eyes, Draco spread his hands. "Maybe it's just intuition. I keep feeling like this isn't as simple as it looks."
"Intuition...?"
Thinking he had to be joking, Hermione rolled her eyes at him.
Draco only chuckled and said nothing about the real reason...
The wizards of the Black family all possessed a certain kind of obsession.
Bellatrix Lestrange used it to gain power. Narcissa Malfoy used it to protect her family. Sirius used it to prove his longing for freedom.
And Regulus Black?
What was the obsession in his heart...?