Harry Potter seemed perfectly familiar with how to use the Pensieve. He must have done something like this before.
After all, the way he swirled the Pensieve made it obvious he knew the proper method. A wizard who had never used one before would never know to do that.
In fact, swirling the Pensieve was not some meaningless gesture. It was part of the process of searching for and confirming the specific memory fragment you wanted to see.
What surprised Draco was that Harry did not spend long on it at all. It was almost as if someone had already told him where the memory was stored....
"You found it that fast?"
Watching Harry Potter skillfully bend over the Pensieve and plunge his entire face into the icy memories within, Draco leaned forward a little, curious.
From where he was standing, there was naturally no way for Draco to tell what memory Harry Potter was trying to view.
He could only stand there in silence, watching Harry hold that bent posture and remain completely motionless until he finally pulled himself back out of the memory.
Clearly, Harry's consciousness had already entered the cold memories inside the Pensieve...
After waiting for a while, Draco slowly stepped over to Harry's side.
With all of his awareness immersed in the Pensieve, Harry now found it difficult to notice anything happening outside, let alone realize that someone had suddenly come up beside him.
Seeing how utterly unguarded Harry was, Draco's expression turned strange. Is he trying to make sure no one misses the fact that he's sneaking around doing something shady?
Was he really that confident no one would see him?
Or was he so sure that even if someone did see him, even if Horace Slughorn himself found out, nothing would happen to him?
Surely he had not gone into this without thinking at all.
Although Draco had long known how reckless this person could be, he still ruled out that possibility...
...
Since the Pensieve was already in use, Draco could not use it himself to view the memory he wanted to see.
But while Harry Potter remained temporarily unaware of the outside world, Draco turned his gaze toward the sheet of parchment Harry had placed on Horace's desk.
It was the magical map from earlier.
Cautious as ever, Draco did not touch it right away. Instead, he narrowed his eyes and studied the parchment, which was completely blank.
So that phrase really was the key to opening this map.
Rubbing his chin, Draco formed a rough guess.
It was not so much that Draco was especially clever, it was that Harry had practically given everything away just now.
In any case.
Since there was nothing else he could do, Draco could only redirect his curiosity to the map...
After glancing at Harry Potter, who still had not moved or reacted at all, Draco finally spoke in a low voice. "That phrase was... I solemnly swear that I am up to no good."
Ink lines.
The map, blank only a moment ago, now looked as though an invisible hand had begun drawing across the parchment.
Starting from the center, lines of ink spread toward all four corners of the parchment, rapidly forming a complete map.
Draco recognized what was on it at once. It was a map of Hogwarts... and not only that, even the hidden secret passages were marked on it.
Having lived here for several years, Draco was naturally very familiar with the places shown on the map.
What interested him was that only now did he discover there was actually a secret passage near the Slytherin common room, though he had no idea where it led.
This magical map was so detailed it was almost astonishing, and Draco immediately realized just how important and valuable it was.
Not to mention, it seemed to have the ability to show the location of every person inside Hogwarts...
Just as Draco was considering whether he ought to take the map with him, he noticed something on it. "This is..."
The moment the ink lines reached the lower right corner of the parchment, several intriguing names appeared there at once.
They were Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs.
Rather than names, they looked more like code names.
Draco blinked. "So these four wizards are the creators of this magical map?"
And just as Draco was wondering who those people were, Harry Potter, who had been standing there like a wooden statue a moment ago, suddenly showed signs of movement...