To catch prey, you did not always have to keep your eyes fixed on the target itself.
A skilled, experienced hunter would sometimes watch the prey's natural enemies instead, then follow their trail to find the prey he wanted.
And for Draco, the Death Eaters trying to find Harry Potter were the opening that could lead him straight to his target.
Of course, all of this depended on whether Draco's guess was right.
As he walked through the corridor, Draco murmured softly to himself, "I can't find Potter, but finding traces of those Death Eaters? That's simple enough."
Compared with the tiny chance of opening a classroom door and happening to run into Harry Potter, Draco had far more confidence in the chance that a Death Eater would accidentally reveal their movements to him.
Sure enough, not much time had passed before Draco saw several Death Eaters rush past him, looking so frantic they might as well have been hurrying off to their next life.
Draco avoided them and looked up. He noticed the obvious excitement on their faces, while their low conversation made his gaze sharpen.
"Weren't we supposed to be watching those professors? Why are we suddenly being reassigned?"
"No idea. Seems like they're short on people."
"Anyway, compared with finding those hiding rats or standing around keeping watch, I'd much rather kill a few wizards. That would be far more interesting."
"Exactly. My Killing Curse is almost getting rusty."
"Stop complaining. You all heard the Master's voice, didn't you? The day we rule the wizarding world can't be far off. When that time comes, we can do whatever we like."
"So did they really find a clue about Potter?"
"Who knows? But Lord Carrow must know something. Otherwise, he wouldn't have gathered us."
As those figures disappeared around the corner, Draco followed at an unhurried pace.
From those few short sentences alone, he could roughly tell that these Death Eaters must have learned Harry Potter's location through some channel.
At the very least, they had probably narrowed it down to a certain area.
Just as Draco was thinking, his raised foot suddenly froze in midair and did not come down for a long while.
His body went rigid, and he did not dare move.
Because in his line of sight, a very familiar figure had appeared by accident.
And this person was, of course, not Harry Potter, whom everyone was searching for, nor Voldemort, who was watching hungrily from outside.
It was Draco's godfather.
Severus Snape!
...
Hm?
Compared with those Death Eaters, Draco did not think his Disillusionment Charm could fully deceive Snape.
But what made Draco raise an eyebrow slightly was that he truly had not been exposed.
Was Snape deliberately pretending not to see him, or had he really not noticed?
In truth, if Snape had not been so weighed down with his own thoughts, Draco might not have escaped his senses even if he stood perfectly still.
But interestingly enough, Snape just so happened not to notice Draco hiding nearby. He also had no idea that, while he had originally been following the Death Eaters, he had picked up a little tail along the way.
I should have thought of this sooner. Other than me, there's someone else who cares even more about Potter.
Just as Draco thought, if one were to ask who in Hogwarts was most worried about Harry Potter's safety right now, Snape's name would certainly be among them.
And from the look of it, they had both thought of the same thing.
Was this what one would call Slytherin tacit understanding?
In any case, as the sounds of explosions grew clearer and Death Eaters began appearing more and more frequently, it meant Draco was getting closer to his target.
Snape's footsteps also quickened.
Boom, boom!
Explosions rang out.
Draco slipped behind a wall and looked toward the scene ahead.
Green and red light crossed through the air.
Broken windows. Shattered stone. This corridor, divided between two opposing sides, had become a brutal battlefield.
"Kill them!"
"No one can defy the great Master!"
"Hold back these damned dark wizards!"
"We have to stop them here!"
Death Eaters.
And wizards from an unknown faction.
The two sides were clashing in this short corridor, a small-scale battle erupting within the narrow space.
Seeing this, Draco frowned slightly. "Death Eaters... and wizards from some unknown faction?"
The Death Eaters were not hard to recognize, but the wizards fighting them were unfamiliar to Draco.
They were not any of the professors Draco knew.
Until a hoarse voice rang out.
"Don't stick your heads out carelessly, and don't attack at random. Save your magic. Remember, our goal is to buy time for Lupin!"
The wizard speaking was Alastor Moody, whom Draco had met once before.
That distinctive wooden leg and that unsettling magical eye made his identity unmistakable.
At this moment, he was like an old general on a battlefield, calmly directing the forces under him.
"Members of the Order of the Phoenix... Of course. Potter is their important charge, after all."
Draco had never believed he was omnipotent, nor did he think he was the only one capable of sneaking into Hogwarts without a sound.
So when he saw members of the Order of the Phoenix here, Draco was not surprised in the slightest.
Rather, this was only natural.
Unless Harry Potter was not actually an important banner in their eyes.
...
In any case, because both sides had their attention focused entirely on each other, they had not noticed Draco's presence for the time being.
But if he wanted to keep moving forward and cross this battlefield without being discovered, then honestly, that was simply impossible.
The Disillusionment Charm could achieve the effect of invisibility, but it did not send him into another dimension. He could still be noticed.
Go around?
No, impossible. If going around were that easy, these Death Eaters would not be locked in a fight with Alastor Moody here.
So... Potter is on this floor?
As the battle reached its fiercest point, the broken walls and ceiling made the wizards standing in the corridor feel the beat of the sudden rainstorm.
The smell of blood in the air was nauseating, and casualties were beginning to appear clearly on both sides.
Whether it was the already fanatical Death Eaters or the elite members of the Order of the Phoenix, death had driven them into a frenzy, and their attacks became more and more ruthless.
However, because Apparition could not be used here, although the Order of the Phoenix had fewer people, they were relying on the terrain to hold back enemies several times their number with surprising ease.
And so, even though the battle was fierce, the front line remained strangely deadlocked here.
At that moment, Draco saw an evil blaze suddenly erupt at the end of the corridor, beginning to devour everything in its path.
Draco was far from unfamiliar with those flames.
Because that was...
The Fiendfyre Curse?
What idiot used such a dangerous Charm in a cramped space like this?
...
Draco Constellation Base.
After Draco disappeared into the secret passage, Pansy and the others did not seem to have any intention of immediately turning and leaving.
Whether it was some unspoken understanding between girls or not, without exchanging a single word, they all remained standing where they were.
A subtle atmosphere filled the air.
Goyle and Crabbe, who had already been hiding far away, sensed that something was wrong and turned away even more decisively.
If they had not been afraid of getting themselves dragged into trouble, they might have fled the place in the very next second.
As the oldest among them, Fleur was the first to speak, breaking the strange silence. "You all heard what was said just now, didn't you?"
At Fleur's words, all the girls present nodded.
That meant the words they had just heard were not an illusion or something they had imagined.
Likewise, none of them were stupid. From the content alone, they had immediately guessed the identity of that voice.
"What are you thinking right now?"
"Thinking..."
Faced with Hermione's question, the girls exchanged glances, as if trying to read something from one another's eyes, though no one knew exactly what they were hesitating over.
"I think... Draco probably needs our help."
"But don't forget what Draco said just now. Besides, can Draco Constellation afford to have us leave?"
"At the very least, we should check the situation."
"...I abstain. I'll leave the decision to all of you."
That was what everyone said, but their eyes still fell on Hermione.
Although Pansy was the Deputy Minister of Draco Constellation, compared with Hermione, who was calm and managed many affairs, most people still trusted the Hermione Granger before them more.
Pansy herself had not even realized this. She, too, looked expectantly at Hermione, her friend and rival.
Facing everyone's gaze, Hermione pressed her lips together. "...Trust Draco, just as he trusts us."
As Hermione's words fell, Pansy and the others no longer hesitated. After nodding, they headed toward their own posts.
Just as Hermione had said.
Trust Draco, just as Draco trusted them.