The brighter the sun, the wider the shadows it could cast.
Just like Draco at this moment, his every move was drawing everyone's eyes and attention.
Because of that, certain people's actions were hidden beneath Draco's radiance.
At the edge of the battlefield, Lockhart strolled along and glanced at Kreacher by his feet. "That locket, if I remember correctly..."
"Kreacher gave it to the new master. Kreacher's former master gave it to Kreacher."
"...A contingency plan, then. I really would have liked to meet that other Black~"
Although Kreacher's words sounded rather awkward, Lockhart, who had grasped quite a bit of information, understood what had happened right away.
In fact, Lockhart and the other wizards knew that Dumbledore had fallen into Voldemort's trap.
But most wizards probably did not know that Dumbledore had actually gone through two crises.
One was naturally Marvolo Gaunt's ring, which had injured Dumbledore's hand.
The second was the Salazar Slytherin's locket Lockhart had just mentioned.
Voldemort had used a fake locket, causing the already injured Dumbledore to suffer another blow, one that even became the final straw before Dumbledore's death.
However, when it came to the fake locket, even Voldemort himself did not know the truth. The Death Eater who had hidden the Horcrux for him had betrayed him and handed the real locket to a trusted House-elf.
That was right. The House-elf who gave the real locket to Draco was none other than Kreacher!
And the wizard who realized that Voldemort was no longer the Tom Riddle of the past, and chose to pass hope and the future onward, was the other Black whom Lockhart wanted to meet.
Regulus Arcturus Black!
...
After sighing over the fact that he could never cross paths with such a clever, learned, and brave wizard, Lockhart finally turned his gaze to the target before him.
To be precise, to the snake and dragon locked in a standoff.
Yes.
Norberta, who had also vanished from the battlefield, was now flying in the sky, staring fixedly at the giant snake below and refusing to leave.
However, no matter how one looked at it, Norberta, as a Dragon, should have held the upper hand. Yet in reality, this snake and dragon had somehow reached a strange stalemate, neither able to do anything to the other.
It was only when Lockhart appeared that the frozen tension was broken.
"Found you, cute little snake. No, perhaps I should call you... Nagini~"
"Hiss, hiss, hiss!"
The snake's body rose upright.
Its pupils narrowed sharply.
The instant it saw Lockhart appear, this giant snake named Nagini actually revealed a human-like expression.
As if she possessed human intelligence.
But perhaps it was precisely because she was such an extraordinary creature that Lockhart and the others, Draco included, had chosen her as their target.
And perhaps it was also because she possessed this indescribable special quality that Voldemort's enormous secret had been exposed.