Originally, Draco and the others were supposed to be the ones looking for Ginny Weasley.
Unexpectedly, she came to them first, and it seemed to have something to do with Ron Weasley...
"What happened, Ginny?"
Hermione asked while pushing a bowl of steaming pumpkin soup toward her.
The answer to that question mattered a great deal to Hermione and the others, and even Draco looked over.
Compared with Pansy and the others, however, Draco had a vague guess about why she had come...
Sure enough.
In the next second, Draco heard a certain name leave Ginny's mouth.
"Ron, he..."
"What happened to him? He didn't bully you, did he?"
"No..."
"What? Someone like that won't even spare his own sister?!"
"..."
Ginny did not know what to say. She had thought Hermione and the others merely disliked Ron a little.
But judging from their expressions and tone, this was no longer a simple dislike. It had already reached the level of intense disgust...
"Uh... stop talking, Parkinson."
"Why... Fine, I won't say anything."
Only when Hermione noticed that Ginny's expression seemed off did she belatedly nudge Pansy beside her with her elbow.
Pansy realized it too and swallowed the words that had nearly slipped out.
She had almost forgotten.
Ron was still Ginny's brother...
...
Just as Ginny was about to say something, Ron Weasley, who had just walked into the Great Hall, noticed what was happening on their side.
In that instant, an extremely frightening expression appeared on his face, making the companions who had entered with him wonder if they had imagined it.
"Ron? What's wrong?"
"Nothing... I just saw something I don't want to believe, but don't find surprising either."
Ron Weasley had no intention of answering properly. After tossing out a perfunctory reply, he headed straight for the Gryffindor table.
His unwillingness to say more made the companions behind him exchange glances.
Although he had indeed disappeared for a while, the Ron Weasley in front of them now seemed like a completely different person, someone deeply unfamiliar...
Among them, Neville Longbottom, who was worried about Harry Potter, seemed not to notice at all. He sat directly beside Ron and began asking about the situation outside.
Scratching his head, Neville whispered his question. "Ron, how are things outside right now? Is Dumbledore really..."
"Ah, it's just as you all know. Dumbledore is dead. As for the safety issue you're worried about... as long as you behave yourselves, I don't think you need to worry about your safety."
"...Ron, you?"
Those words left Neville stunned, and the other little lions secretly listening nearby also showed looks of confusion and anger.
The disdainful tone he had used toward Dumbledore just now might have been their imagination.
But the words that followed truly made them furious.
Neville's confusion, however, made the other wizards who had nearly acted on impulse calm down for the moment...
"Ron, what do you mean? Behave ourselves? With those Death Eaters? That doesn't sound like something you would say at all... Ron."
"..."
The clink of knife and fork.
The scrape of a blade cutting through meat.
Ron Weasley, focused on the steak in front of him, did not even glance in Neville Longbottom's direction. He only said flatly, "So you want to resist those Dark Wizards? Using the dark magic you learned from them?"
"..."
Biting hard into the steak still streaked with blood, Ron Weasley turned his head and gave everyone beside him a cold smile. "Even Dumbledore is dead. What can you do? Don't be stupid."
The surrounding young wizards stared blankly at Ron Weasley as he smiled coldly at them.
They all instinctively avoided those eyes that seemed to be glowing green.
And the blood and scraps of meat still caught between his teeth...
...
"Ron has changed. He's changed so much I don't even recognize him anymore."
Ginny's words made Pansy and the others exchange glances.
To be honest, they did not care at all what had happened to Ron, so naturally, they could not understand or empathize with Ginny's feelings.
Still, they finally understood why Ginny looked so wronged...
"Did Ron say something to you?"
"So that bastard did bully you, didn't he?"
"Don't talk, Parkinson."
"Hah? Why shouldn't I talk? Is it because you're jealous of me?"
"What would I have to be jealous of..."
Halfway through, she saw Pansy deliberately puff out her chest as she spoke.
She looked at Pansy.
Then she lowered her head and looked at herself.
In that instant, she understood everything!
A vein bulged on her forehead.
Hermione gritted her teeth. "...Wizard duel, Pansy Parkinson!"
"Hmph, you think I'm afraid of you?"
Looking at Pansy and Hermione with their foreheads pressed together, Ginny, who completely failed to understand why things had turned into this again, looked blankly toward Draco.
As for Draco.
Elegantly enjoying his black tea, he somehow brought the conversation back to the previous topic.
"About that, there's something I want you to investigate. Ron Weasley. Why did he return to Hogwarts?"
"I can, but..."
But are you not going to stop those two?
They are about to have a wizard duel...