Although they had learned from Lockhart that the Ministry of Magic had already fallen, what puzzled Pansy and the others was that no news of the Ministry being captured by the Dark Lord had spread through the British wizarding world.
To be precise, the British Ministry of Magic was still operating as usual. At the very least, no one could tell that it had already come under the Dark Lord's control.
However, before long, The Daily Prophet, the Ministry's mouthpiece, did publish a surprising piece of news.
Namely...
Cornelius Fudge, the Minister of Magic, had abruptly announced that he would no longer continue serving as Minister.
"Due to my own lack of ability and the numerous mistaken decisions I have made, I will be stepping down from the position of Minister of Magic as of today and handing it over to Pius Thicknesse... Cornelius Fudge!?"
As she read the words The Daily Prophet claimed had come from Cornelius Fudge himself, Hermione's face filled with disbelief and confusion.
If this "former" Minister of Magic had run away out of fear, Hermione would have found that far more likely and reasonable.
But voluntarily giving up the position of Minister of Magic?
For Cornelius Fudge, who clung so desperately to power, that was simply impossible.
Aside from him being threatened or controlled, Hermione truly could not think of any other possibility.
In other words...
"So the intelligence Lockhart gave us was real?"
"It looks that way. But who is this Pius Thicknesse? Do any of you know?"
Although Hermione addressed everyone present, her gaze immediately landed on Draco.
It was as if she had assumed from the start that Draco would know of this wizard's existence and his true background.
And in fact, Draco did know who he was.
Rather, since they were their allies, Draco naturally had to figure out which important figures existed among them.
And this Pius Thicknesse had naturally fallen within the scope of his investigation.
"Mm. Before this, he should have been the Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement."
To be honest, there was nothing wrong with that position. The problem was that, with his qualifications and connections, there was no way he could have risen straight to the position of Minister of Magic in a single step.
Clearly...
"It seems this man is the Dark Lord's hidden pawn inside the Ministry of Magic."
There was no need to think too hard to understand why Voldemort would push this wizard into the position of Minister of Magic.
To put it simply, he was definitely one of the Dark Lord's people. Or rather, he was most likely...
A Death Eater!
Draco drew his gaze away from The Daily Prophet as unease began to stir in his heart.
And apart from this terrible news, contact with Dobby seemed to have been abruptly cut off as well. Even now, he still had no idea what had happened.
The only people he could reach at the moment were Fleur and her group, whom his father had arranged to stay in Hogsmeade.
...
Almost a week had passed since Dumbledore's death.
And during that week, to say no one had noticed the changes in the outside world or inside Hogwarts would be nothing more than self-deception.
The first and most obvious change was the large-scale resignation of Hogwarts professors.
In fact, even if Dumbledore had never meant for it to be that way, once these people accepted his invitation and entered Hogwarts as professors, they were almost automatically marked as part of Dumbledore's camp.
When Dumbledore was still alive, that mark had not been a problem. They had even felt a faint sense of pride and satisfaction because of it.
But now that Dumbledore was dead, and they had lost Dumbledore's protection, everything had changed drastically.
The most obvious result was that several professors who were neither especially powerful nor especially strong-willed could not help beginning to worry about their own safety.
After all, you could not expect every wizard to stand up and resist the Dark Lord, nor did every wizard have the courage to face such a powerful Dark Lord head-on.
And once Horace took the lead in proposing that he leave Hogwarts, everything erupted at once.
"Who is it this time?"
"Looks like the Muggle Studies professor."
"..."
"Ugh... How many does that make now? Don't tell me even the Heads of House are planning to leave in the end."
"Forget the professors. My parents don't plan on letting me keep coming to Hogwarts either."
"They say it isn't safe here anymore."
"..."
The moment Draco entered the Great Hall, he heard countless discussions rising around him.
And this was not the first time it had happened.
At first, professors would still step forward to stop it, but as time passed and the changes became increasingly obvious, no professor did so anymore.
As for Minerva McGonagall, who would have done something about it, no one knew what she had been busy with lately. She had not appeared for quite some time.
In truth, Hogwarts was now almost no different from being at a standstill. It made the young wizards extremely uneasy, and the things they talked about were drifting further and further in a bad direction.
But when even the professors had no attention to spare, these young wizards naturally could not change anything.
Just as Draco was about to eat, two figures who should not have appeared here came to stand beside him.
The two small figures were Ginny Weasley, who had not known how to face Draco since what happened in Hogsmeade that day, and Luna Lovegood, who always seemed to be drifting off into her own world.
"Um..."
Draco looked up at the sound and only then noticed the conflicted, nervous look on Ginny's face.
Perhaps it was because Hermione was not there, or perhaps because she did not know where to begin, but she was hesitating badly. She did not seem like her usual self at all.
Still, even though Ginny had not said anything yet, Draco already had some idea why she had come to him.
"You want to know what's happening in the wizarding world right now?"
"That's right... We can still learn a few things from The Daily Prophet, but you and I both know very well that it isn't the truth."
"So what do you want to know? Or rather, what you want to ask is... whether Potter really is wanted?"
"..."
Yes.
After Pius Thicknesse took office, the first arrangement he made was to issue a Britain-wide warrant for the missing Harry Potter.
Mm... and it was the sort where dead or alive made no difference.