For some time after the gathering, Lucius began travelling around on his son's behalf, while Malfoy stayed at home and enjoyed a relatively peaceful period.
The final hearing was scheduled for Friday.
There would be no public hearing.
The news had been kept under tight control. Thanks to Umbridge's "advice" and methods, the trial had been confined to a small circle, with the results to be announced to the public only afterward.
With the help of The Daily Prophet, public opinion would likely be turned around soon.
The Malfoy family arrived at the Ministry of Magic early that morning. Compared with the previous time, when Lucius had been anxious and helpless during his lawsuit against Dumbledore, they were much more relaxed this time.
Lucius, in particular, was extremely confident.
Narcissa had even fought for her son's special privilege of not being handcuffed, ensuring that the chains attached to the armrests of the chair would not be used to maliciously restrain him during the trial.
They had arrived very early.
Malfoy sat in the chair at the centre of the courtroom, staring blankly at the rows of empty benches rising before him.
He wasn't worried about the outcome of the trial.
It had already been decided.
Then the door opened, and a faint light illuminated the dim courtroom. People entered one after another and took their seats, relying on the weak torchlight—which was better than nothing.
A middle-aged man with long strides, his long robes trailing behind him, walked to the front row and sat beside Lucius.
"Lucius, I hope this trial will give my daughter a pleasant surprise. Your son has to do his part."
Hector Parkinson said this with a frown, affectionately patting Lucius on the shoulder.
It was essentially a disguised form of encouragement.
"We'll see."
Lucius nodded reservedly and leaned his cane against the chair.
Dozens of jurors dressed in crimson robes began entering the courtroom.
Just as they had taken their seats, ten resounding chimes echoed overhead. Their powerful sound penetrated the stone walls and reached every corner of the chamber.
The time had come.
"If everyone is here…"
"I think we can begin now, shall we?" Umbridge said in her sweet, coquettish voice.
It had to be said that Umbridge, when she was your boss and constantly exploiting and controlling you, could be extremely irritating.
But the benefits she could obtain when she tried to please someone were beyond imagination.
For example, Malfoy now saw most of the jury members giving him friendly smiles and nodding at him.
Umbridge deserved a large share of the credit for that.
Of course, his father had contributed considerably as well.
Offering people benefits was enough to sway many neutral parties to their side.
There were a few exceptions, however. Their gazes toward Malfoy were filled with hostility and suspicion.
A man sitting in the front row had brown hair resembling a lion's mane—thick, bushy, and untidy. A deep furrow between his brows made him look rather intimidating.
Rufus Scrimgeour stared straight ahead, his eyes wide open, exuding an imposing aura without needing to show anger.
As one of the strongest contenders to become the next Minister for Magic, he was deeply dissatisfied with Umbridge's almost inactive strategy.
Especially now, with Dumbledore dead, the situation had become even worse. In his view, a more radical figure needed to step forward and take control of the current situation.
To him, Malfoy was highly suspicious and deserved to be thoroughly interrogated.
Umbridge, however, had stood up for him and had even extended her influence into the Wizengamot, persuading many people to support her.
The impact of Dumbledore's death extended far beyond Hogwarts.
Just look at the situation now.
Many people who had wholeheartedly agreed with Dumbledore's speech not long ago, when he had accused his students, had already changed their minds.
A person's position could change remarkably easily.
Percy Weasley stood respectfully behind Umbridge, scribbling something onto a piece of parchment with his quill. He soon stopped and waited for the trial to begin.
Malfoy's gaze swept across the courtroom, eventually landing on Professor McGonagall, whom he had encountered not long ago.
Her eagle-sharp eyes gleamed in the darkness of the courtroom as she stared at him without blinking.
It was a purely scrutinising gaze.
Of course, she had no idea that the Hogwarts disturbance not long ago had been caused by Malfoy.
And then the matter had simply fizzled out.
After all, it seemed that nothing had been lost and no one had been seriously injured.
Of course, Ron's injured nose hardly counted. Madam Pomfrey had treated it, and it had healed completely overnight.
The only other unusual thing was that Pansy had seemed distracted throughout the entire day.
But surely nobody would connect that to the disturbance, would they?
Who would care about the feelings of a female student?
At that age, emotional fluctuations were perfectly normal.
The school subsequently gave the students another day off to calm the situation, with classes scheduled to resume the day after the funeral.
On the evening before classes resumed, McGonagall was preparing to fulfil her new duties as Headmistress and begin her work when an owl carrying a red envelope suddenly crashed through the glass window and into her office.
She tore open the envelope and read the contents through the thin lenses of her spectacles.
It was yet another request from the Ministry of Magic to attend a class inspection.
And so she had come here that morning.
Looking at Malfoy on the platform, she felt a strange sense of sadness.
The last time she had stood in this courtroom, Dumbledore had been standing in the same place, facing questioning.
But now everything had changed.
She still hoped that the student was innocent and that he could be persuaded to change his ways.
It came from a teacher's perspective.
No normal teacher wanted to see their students go astray, especially a somewhat old-fashioned and stubborn witch like herself.
"All right."
Umbridge cleared her throat and tapped the small gavel on the table in front of her.
Two sharp thump-thump sounds immediately drew everyone's attention.
"To save everyone's time, how about we skip the charges against Mr Draco Malfoy? After all, everyone already knows what happened to him during the previous hearing."
The jurors began whispering among themselves, seemingly recalling the events of the previous trial.
Almost no one raised an objection.
Most people had already decided where they stood before the trial had even begun.
During the previous hearing, Dumbledore had been eloquent, and his arguments had cornered Lucius. If he had not left at the last moment because of the situation in Azkaban, the verdict might already have been finalised.
However, with his "death", the situation had completely reversed.
The victim and witness, Barty Crouch, was also absent from this new hearing for reasons unknown.
Almost all the factors that had previously been unfavourable to Malfoy had now been reduced, while the favourable ones had taken centre stage.
Under Umbridge's deliberate guidance, everything was moving in a positive direction.
Under the pressure of power and the lure of wealth, whitewashing a person's reputation did not seem nearly as difficult as one might imagine.