Although no one knew exactly what had happened in the room at the very top, in a daze, it almost seemed as if pink bubbles were drifting out through the crack beneath the door.
Besides that, when Hermione appeared in front of everyone again, her slightly disheveled robes and inexplicably swollen lips were even more obvious.
After noticing that little detail, Pansy spent the entire day pouting.
The only thing that stopped Pansy from completely exploding was that at least Hermione's walking posture did not seem strange.
It seemed things had not reached that point yet...
In any case.
Faced with Pansy's resentful gaze and Astoria's faint, knowing smile, Draco, who had no way to explain himself, coughed hard. "I plan to meet Snape tonight."
"You've decided?"
"Yes. We can't keep waiting like this. At the very least, we need to confirm what these Death Eaters are really after."
Hearing Draco's decision, Pansy looked suspiciously toward Hermione. "By yourself?"
"Hermione will come with me."
"..."
Pansy, wearing an expression that said she knew it, glared hard at Hermione, whose small face still carried a strange flush.
That dissatisfied look seemed to be questioning Hermione for secretly getting a head start.
But before Pansy could ask anything, Draco cut her off. "Then, let's talk about our progress first."
Pansy knew this was serious business, so she said nothing more. She only hugged Draco's arm tightly and listened as Astoria began her report.
Astoria stepped forward. "Recently, many people have joined our branch. Among them, the majority are students, mm... students from Gryffindor."
"That's not too surprising. After all, almost everyone who was given detention was from Gryffindor."
Speaking of that, there was an interesting and reasonable phenomenon.
The students who had been given detention by the professors were almost all from Gryffindor, while the fewest came from Slytherin.
Should it be said that Slytherin truly lived up to its reputation for knowing when to read the room and endure?
In any case.
Because of this, the Gryffindor students who were dissatisfied with the current situation had begun joining Draco's branch one after another.
Otherwise, things would not have gone so smoothly for Ginny and the others.
After all, changing their impression of Slytherin in a short time was not that simple.
This was probably what people called shifting the conflict.
After finishing her report on that matter, Astoria, acting as Draco's Chief Steward, continued.
"At present, our branch has 105 members. But there is one problem. Lower-year students make up almost half of them."
"Mm... Is it because compared with the upper-year students, who think more, these younger wizards are easier to fool... more hot-blooded?"
Hearing this, Hermione, who was twirling the ends of her hair around her finger, immediately understood the reason.
What was somewhat surprising, however, was that there were already this many people.
Leaving aside Goyle and Crabbe, in such a short period of time, more than seventy students had been added to this space.
It was hard to say whether they were lucky, or whether these little lions really were full of courage...
...
It had to be said.
As the person managing logistics for Draco's team, Astoria was indeed doing a good job.
Not only was everything handled in an orderly manner, there had been no major problems. In fact, she had even exceeded Draco's expectations.
At least in certain aspects of the work, only Astoria could have done it.
For example.
When it came to things that could help Draco, Pansy would indeed devote her full effort to completing them. But because her eyes were always fixed on Draco, she was destined not to pay much attention to others and would instead overlook certain small details.
As for Hermione, even though she was meticulous, capable, and possessed a very clever mind, her Muggle-born background meant she naturally lacked a slight advantage.
So Astoria, who had both of their strengths without any particularly obvious flaws, was the one who could sit in this position.
And just as Draco looked somewhat surprised, Astoria suddenly turned her gaze toward Hermione, who seemed a little distracted.
"As for food and drinking water, with the help of those House-elves, we don't need to worry. However..."
"However?" Everyone looked over in confusion.
"However, I must ask our adviser... adviser..."
"Chief of Staff."
"Yes, Chief of Staff Hermione Granger, please stop disturbing the House-elves' work."
Astoria's words made Draco look over curiously.
What annoyed Hermione was that Pansy, who was hugging Draco's arm tightly, did not forget to give her a look that clearly said she was in the wrong.
Feeling as if she had been targeted, Hermione crossed her arms and explained unhappily, "How exactly did I disturb their work? I only wanted to improve the House-elves' treatment."
"But the problem is, the things you said about giving them fixed wages and even allowing them holidays frightened those House-elves so much that they lost the mood to work. More importantly, we don't have any money right now."
"..."
"..."
So that was it.
That really was very Granger...