Chapter 727: True Nobility, the Platinum Dragon Wizard Mountain streams and flowing water.Birdsong and the scent of flowers.Clearly, this magical space already had its ow |
Aside from the four great founders, no wizard would dare claim to know everything hidden within Hogwarts.
There were all kinds of secret passages and rooms, some that could be used and some that could not, as well as the Room of Requirement and Slytherin’s Chamber of Secrets, which could only be opened through special methods.
All of these were secrets hidden inside Hogwarts, unknown to most people.
And now, one of those secret rooms had appeared right before Ginny Weasley’s eyes.
...
This was the fifth floor of Hogwarts Castle.
Not far away were the Restricted Section and an abandoned room. According to those in the know, someone had once seen a strange mirror inside that abandoned room.
There was nothing unusual about the room itself. What truly mattered was the full-length mirror that looked ordinary, but was anything but.
That mirror did not seem to be a normal mirror. More precisely, it could not do what a normal mirror was supposed to do, because all anyone could see in it were strange images.
It could grant your wishes.
No one knew who had first spread the rumor, but supposedly, if you stood in front of that mirror, you could see your future self, or even have your wish granted.
But whenever young wizards heard the rumor and tried to investigate, they could never find that special mirror again.
And so, it became an interesting little legend.
In short.
The Restricted Section.
An abandoned room.
From that alone, one could see that they shared a similar feature. Almost no one ever appeared in either place.
In other words, unless something major happened, hardly anyone would come to the fifth floor.
That was why Pansy and the others had chosen this place.
Remote.
Low-profile.
Hidden.
Just as Draco and the others had not seen a single person on their way here.
At least, on the surface, they had indeed not encountered a single wizard.
...
As Hermione reached out and touched the hilt of the sword held by the knight statue, the statue, which had originally stood perfectly straight as if guarding something, suddenly seemed to come alive and began to move.
Rumble, rumble.
Under Ginny’s astonished gaze, the knight statue slowly knelt on one knee, revealing a hidden door behind it.
The stone sword held diagonally before it looked almost as if it were submitting to some unfamiliar king.
“How did you find this place?!”
Born into a wizarding family, Ginny was not curious about why the knight statue could move. Instead, she was shocked that Draco and the others had known there was such a place hidden inside Hogwarts Castle.
She even suspected that Dumbledore, who had already gone to meet Merlin, had never known about this place.
“Can we explain that after we go inside? I don’t think you’d want anyone to see us.”
“...I know.”
Seeing Draco enter the hidden door without the slightest hesitation, Ginny pressed her lips together, then bent down and slipped through the opened passage as well.
She did it so decisively that she did not seem at all worried this might be a trap Draco had prepared in advance.
It was worth mentioning that Ginny seemed to have forgotten Luna, who had come with her.
“Miss Lovegood, stop spacing out. Go in.”
“...Mm.”
Unlike the reckless Ginny, Luna had long since noticed the parchment in Hermione’s hand.
Unless she was mistaken, along the way, and even just now, Hermione had been glancing at the parchment in her hand every so often, as if confirming something.
That curious little habit made Luna feel that the parchment was the key to everything.
However, Luna, who had always preferred to observe things from the sidelines, did not ask about it. Instead, she lifted her foot and followed Ginny, who was about to vanish from sight.
Because she knew.
Once she walked in, she would get the perfect answer.
...
Although the hidden door required them to bend down to pass through, once they made it inside, they discovered a whole other world beyond it, one far larger than anyone had imagined.
Even Ginny, who knew that the Undetectable Extension Charm existed in the wizarding world, was stunned by the scene before her at first glance.
The sun hung high in the sky.
Faint hills could be seen in the distance.
She could even hear the soft sound of flowing water.
This was Hogwarts?!
No. Had they left Hogwarts?
A Portkey?
A teleportation spell?
Ginny’s body stiffened slightly as she looked up at Draco standing in front of her.
Perhaps it was coincidence.
At that moment, the clouds drifting across the sky happened to cover the sunlight pouring down.
The staggered light and shadow bathed half of Draco’s body in sunlight while leaving the other half hidden in darkness, making the expression on his face seem to flicker with an almost fantastical uncertainty.
It was as though Draco were standing at the boundary between light and darkness.
That extraordinary sight around Draco left Ginny frozen in place for a moment after witnessing it.
Even when Draco came to stand in front of her, she still had not recovered from what she had just seen.
Not until Draco’s voice sounded.
“Welcome to my organization, Draco Constellation!”
...
Mountain streams and flowing water.
Birdsong and the scent of flowers.
Clearly, this magical space already had its own small ecosystem.
If this scene had been found anywhere else, it would not have been especially strange. It might even have seemed ordinary and familiar.
But if someone told you this place was actually somewhere inside Hogwarts Castle, at the very end of a certain floor, then it became astonishing.
The difficulty of this magic was not something an ordinary Undetectable Extension Charm could create.
Even a wizard would find it hard to believe what they were seeing, much less that all of it had come from the hands of an underage wizard who had not even graduated yet.
Not far away, Ginny even saw several neat rows of finished wooden cottages, along with figures moving in and out, busy with who knew what.
If she had not known she had just been inside Hogwarts moments ago, she might have thought she had arrived at a small village, and that those figures were natives from some remote corner of the world.
Turning her stiff neck, Ginny stared in astonishment at Draco, who had just walked up beside her. “Where is this? We haven’t left Hogwarts, have we?!”
Even as she said it, she already knew the answer.
As a witch, Ginny could clearly sense that when they passed through that hidden door, there had been no magical fluctuation at all. It certainly had not been a spatial spell capable of transporting wizards over long distances.
Besides, that kind of spell could not be used inside Hogwarts in the first place.
In other words, they were definitely still inside Hogwarts.
Seeing Ginny Weasley so frightened, Draco was not surprised in the slightest. He simply shrugged.
“Left Hogwarts? No, no, no. You haven’t left the school. This is only a place prepared in advance.”
“...Prepared for what?”
“The Dark Lord’s invasion of Hogwarts, of course.”
“........”
Ginny stared at Draco in shock, completely unprepared to hear those words.
But the serious, earnest look in his eyes made it clear that Draco had not been joking. Ginny realized she seemed to have been pulled into something terribly serious.
Frowning, Ginny slowly asked, “Why are you telling me this? Aren’t you worried...?”
“There’s nothing to worry about. In fact, this is something everyone at Hogwarts will find out sooner or later, and I don’t plan to hide it from the wizards I can trust.”
“So this is what you meant by uniting every force you can use?”
“You’ll know later.”
Draco did not answer the question directly. He simply walked toward the cluster of buildings by the lake.
...
Magic truly was extraordinary.
With only their own power, wizards could construct massive projects that would take Muggles countless tools, manpower, and time to complete.
Compared with Ginny, who was still dazed and uncertain, Hermione, who had been involved in this operation almost the entire time, could accept the changes before her more easily. Even so, for a moment, her entire worldview was overturned once again.
Looking up at the towering building before her, Hermione wore a conflicted expression. “Honestly, every time I see this, I start doubting the life I lived before.”
“That’s why it’s honestly hard to imagine how you Muggles managed to survive, Granger.”
“...I’ll admit magic is extremely convenient, but don’t get too arrogant. It’ll cloud your judgment, Parkinson.”
“Are you lecturing me?!”
“If that’s how you understand it, then I’m glad to see you’ve gotten a little smarter.”
“Granger!”
“Parkinson!”
Thud.
Thud.
After Draco violently suppressed them, the two girls who had just been arguing finally quieted down. The little farce also helped calm Ginny, whose thoughts had been in turmoil.
It gave her the presence of mind to observe everything around her. Only after they walked closer did Ginny and Luna finally see who the busy figures were.
They were all wizards, and Slytherin snakes at that.
To be precise, these wizards were all Draco’s followers. Among them, Goyle and Crabbe were leading the construction work.
That explained why Goyle and Crabbe had barely been seen around school lately.
It seemed they had spent all this time here.
In any case.
After following Draco into one of the buildings, Hermione could no longer hold back the question she had wanted to ask for a long time. “Although I’ve already guessed part of it, Draco, you should tell us what you’re really thinking now.”
Hearing Hermione’s question, and seeing the expectant looks from the girls, Draco finally stopped hiding his plan and explained everything he had in mind.
That was when Pansy and Hermione, who had been busy with these preparations recently, finally understood the purpose behind it all.
“We need a safe place to rest and regroup, and when the right moment comes, we’ll deal our enemies a heavy blow.”
“You mean...”
“To keep the British wizarding world from spiraling out of control, even a mad Dark Lord has to consider whether other wizarding worlds might intervene. Unless he wants to fight the entire wizarding world.”
While the girls digested that information, Draco pulled open the window.
“In other words, the coming war will be confined within a certain range. As for the battlefield...”
The girls seemed to understand what Draco was about to say, and they looked with difficulty at the figure bathed in sunlight.
“I think I know what you mean...”
“So that’s what you meant by confrontation?”
“Is Hogwarts going to become the next battlefield?”
The clever girls said the answer aloud themselves.
Draco was not surprised at all. He paused briefly, then continued.
“Leaving would certainly be the safest choice, but it wouldn’t be the best decision.”
“So you want to unite the wizards from the other houses and fight the Dark Lord together?”
“But is that even possible? After all...”
Although the words were left unfinished, everyone present understood the problem between the four houses all too well.
Pure-bloods and half-bloods.
Faced with their confusion and doubt, Draco tugged lightly at his robe and gave them a soft laugh.
His elegant, confident demeanor left Pansy and the others staring in a daze.
“True nobility does not come from inherited bloodlines. It comes from noble conduct and a noble soul.”
“I, Draco Malfoy, will show these people what true nobility really is!”