"Hello? Long time no see, Mr. Malfoy, the robber?"
The girl patted her long robe, embroidered with bronze and blue patterns, then slowly stood up and greeted him cheerfully, waving as she did so.
She was none other than Luna Lovegood, whom Malfoy had inexplicably thought of earlier.
"Looks like you're the one who caused all this trouble outside?" Luna asked tentatively. She seemed completely unconcerned by Malfoy's status as a "fugitive," as though she were simply catching up with an old friend.
Without waiting for Malfoy's reply, she walked around him again, slowly approached the door, raised her slender arm, and knocked and patted the inside of the door.
"Could you help me stop them? Here's a difficult question: I want to chat with this classmate. We haven't seen each other in a long time," she said cheerfully to the Ravenclaw door.
Luna seemed to have no hostility toward Malfoy at all. She was even kindly offering to help him.
It was as if he were not a fugitive robber, but merely a classmate she was close to.
"My questions are always difficult!" The gentle voice that had just asked the riddle seemed offended and replied irritably.
As a door, it seemed to lack the ability to distinguish between "good" and "evil."
After instructing Malfoy on how to knock on the door, Luna turned around and met Malfoy's gaze with her slightly misty eyes, idly fiddling with the carrot earring hanging from her earlobe.
"Thank you. Also… it's been a long time," Malfoy said softly.
His brows furrowed slightly, and there was a hint of suspicion in his eyes as he considered Luna's actions.
"Long time no see. Did you enjoy your trip with Miss Delacour?"
The girl's voice drifted over, sounding as though it came from a great distance, even though she was standing so close.
It had to be said that this was a question that sounded deliberately teasing, especially when Luna asked it in such a lighthearted tone, as though the two of them had really just gone on a trip together.
"It's hard to say," Malfoy replied, shaking his head.
"They all seem to be attending a funeral. Aren't you going?"
He walked over to a round, high table, found a soft chair with a blue-patterned cushion, sat down, and slowly asked Luna, changing the subject.
Since Luna did not seem to harbor any hostility toward him, he did not want to deal with the current situation unpleasantly either.
Judging from Luna's behavior, she seemed to have no particular opinion of him at all, as though the Christmas dance had only just ended.
In any case, this was better than hostility.
At this moment, Luna was the only person in the Ravenclaw common room.
All the other students had gone to the Great Hall to attend the memorial service and funeral, their hearts filled with sorrow.
"Professor Dumbledore isn't dead, so why should I attend his funeral?" Luna said lightly.
She seemed completely unaware of how shocking her words were.
Malfoy raised an eyebrow. His light-grey pupils contracted sharply before he narrowed his eyes and stared at the girl before him, who had just uttered such a startling statement.
Her words made him somewhat nervous.
"You don't believe me? I think you should know. Of course, this is only my intuition."
Luna circled the chair, pursed her lips, and tossed her slightly frilly, light-blonde hair as she scrutinized her long-lost former dance partner.
"Professor Dumbledore's pet at the time—Fawkes—began to sing a mournful song for him, but I could tell that its voice wasn't as sorrowful as I thought," Luna continued in her light, ethereal voice.
"That shouldn't be the sound of someone who has lost their owner."
"This counts as evidence," Luna said confidently.
"Listen. Fawkes is singing so loudly now. Doesn't her song sound sad at all?"
The melodious, moving song had become extremely penetrating by now, spreading throughout almost the entirety of Hogwarts and even passing through layers of stone walls to reach the Ravenclaw common room.
By this time, the funeral was actually over.
Fawkes was gone; what remained was merely the lingering echo of magic.
Unfortunately, Malfoy could not hear the artificial emotion in Fawkes's singing that Luna had mentioned.
No matter how he listened, the song inexplicably evoked a deep sense of sorrow.
A sudden feeling of helplessness welled up inside him.
Because he lacked the ability to discern the subtle emotional nuances in a song, he was even more impressed by Luna's keen perception.
Perhaps only this girl could have noticed it.
"This won't convince anyone," Malfoy said, shaking his head slightly. "At least, it won't convince me."
"Of course. If I say that, everyone will definitely think I'm still that crazy girl, right?"
Luna looked up at the boy in front of her.
"But there's one more thing," Luna added as Malfoy nodded slightly.
"The students who watched the duel at the Ministry of Magic still couldn't see Thestrals after they returned to school."
"On our way back to school, we passed by the area where the Thestrals are kept. I saw them migrating in large numbers, but my companions didn't react at all," Luna said softly.
"Only those who have witnessed death can see them. I don't know if those professors have ever witnessed death, but I'm sure I have."
Luna's voice was ethereal, yet tinged with a faint sadness.
Perhaps she was thinking of her mother, who had died in a magical accident.
"Professor Grubbly-Plank, who teaches Care of Magical Creatures, originally planned to cover Thestrals, but decided to skip them because most students couldn't see them," Luna continued.
So even now, most people still did not know that Thestrals were the creatures pulling the carriages at Hogwarts. Those who had never witnessed death still believed that some simple magic provided power to the carriages.
This was a stroke of luck resulting from Dumbledore's slight oversight.
If Hagrid were still teaching, he probably would not have considered all these details.
Malfoy breathed a sigh of relief, but frowned at the same time.
"Then why didn't you tell them?" he asked immediately.
It was an oversight he had never anticipated.
Ultimately, Dumbledore had not expected so many people to attend this funeral—his students, and even Professor McGonagall, had led the way.
And, of course, there was Luna, the greatest variable of all.
"If Professor Dumbledore wanted us to know that he wasn't dead, he would definitely show up. But even though so many people are grieving for him, he still hasn't appeared. There must be a reason for that."
"A crazy girl isn't a stupid girl. And I think I'm pretty smart, aren't I?"
Luna rambled on, saying, "I was tricked into crying quite a lot when I was there."
She rubbed the corner of her eye.