While Jane Yu was watching Harry and Snape engage in yet another verbal battle—
Over in the Great Hall, students were enjoying their feast.
Just like every previous start-of-term banquet, the hall buzzed with laughter and chatter, the clatter of cutlery mixing with animated conversation.
Hogwarts felt like a sanctuary, sheltered from the storm outside. With powerful professors and the headmaster protecting them, students could momentarily forget the dangers lurking beyond these walls.
But beneath this year's festivities lay something subtly different.
Under the cheerful surface, every house table carried an undercurrent of suppressed tension.
After the St. Mungo's attack and the string of Muggle incidents, everyone knew the Death Eaters were slowly regaining their strength.
Students at the other three tables kept glancing toward the Slytherin table, nervousness flickering in their eyes. As time passed, those emotions accumulated, transforming into genuine fear.
"Jane Yu didn't come to school! She must be staying home, or Headmaster Dumbledore sent her abroad!"
A loud cry suddenly erupted from the Gryffindor table—Seamus Finnigan, looking like he was having a panic attack:
"She didn't even come to school—what does that tell us? The school isn't safe anymore! I should've listened to my mum—I never should've come!"
The Great Hall immediately erupted into chaos. Ron, sitting across from him, clamped his hand over Seamus' mouth:
"Bro, you'd better watch your words and stop projecting your paranoid fantasies onto others, yeah?"
"Otherwise I might have to exercise my prefect privileges and send you to Snape for detention!"
Hermione and Ginny gripped their wands, glaring daggers at Seamus as if ready to knock his teeth out should he dare utter another disrespectful word about Jane Yu.
"Harry didn't come to school either!" Seamus broke free from Ron's grip, cold sweat pouring down his face. "Neither he nor Jane Yu are here! How can you all just sit here calmly? I heard Patil's parents are considering taking her home, Eloise is preparing to withdraw—haven't you noticed how many students are missing?"
"Shut up!" Hermione shot to her feet. "Let me tell you, they're nothing like a coward such as yourself—Yu and Harry came to school with us!"
"Then where are they?" Seamus pressed on. "You and Ron are both prefects—did you see Yu in your compartment? Maybe she jumped off the train and ran away! And Harry—I walked the entire train and never saw him once!"
This made both Hermione and Ron immediately anxious.
Though they couldn't reveal anything due to secrecy, the same worry flashed through both their minds: "What if they were captured by Death Eaters on the way?"
But Ginny didn't care about any of that. She whipped out her wand and hit Seamus' nose with a Bat-Bogey Hex!
His snot immediately transformed into large black bats that burst from his nostrils and flew throughout the Great Hall!
The bats swooped over the dining tables, and as the spell's power gradually weakened, they dove headfirst into the dishes—pumpkin porridge, thick soups—flapping weakly before drowning motionless in the cauldrons and bowls.
The bat droppings they produced, or rather the replicated snot, added quite unique "seasoning" to those dishes.
But Ginny couldn't care less about the complaints from students now facing "enhanced" meals. She snarled:
"They're far braver than someone like you who scurries around like a rat, spying on everyone else!"
Her face burned redder than a tomato, wand tip aimed straight at Seamus' nose as she snapped viciously:
"While Yu was busy fighting Dark wizards, you were probably still crying in your mummy's arms, Finnigan!"
Professor McGonagall at the staff table gasped and hurried down to rescue Seamus from his bat-and-snot predicament.
With her cries of "Miss Weasley! No hexing your classmates!" and "Twenty points from Gryffindor"—
It was as if some collectively maintained veil had suddenly been torn away. The Great Hall grew even more chaotic, every table erupting in heated discussion as everyone questioned each other about Jane Yu and Harry's whereabouts, casting worried glances at the Slytherin table and the empty seats where Headmaster Dumbledore and Professor Snape should be.
At the Slytherin table, the seating arrangement had undergone subtle but significant changes.
The prime positions at the head of the table were now occupied by Goyle and Crabbe.
Both wore arrogant expressions, deliberately making their cutlery clatter as if the utensils were fascinating novelties.
Clearly, with their fathers newly promoted and favored by Voldemort, they couldn't wait to return to school and flaunt their newfound authority, intimidating classmates and pressuring those families still refusing to choose sides.
Across from them sat a vacant-eyed, feigning-madness Draco and an expressionless Theodore, lost in thought. Pansy and Millicent sat just below them, faces showing fear and desperate flattery as the six of them crowded one end of the table.
The traditional seating by year and friendship had quietly shifted to an arrangement by blood status and family standing—pure-bloods and half-bloods in descending order, while the far end was left to the few students from Muggle and Squib families.
Their faces showed discontent, but they dared not speak out, their eyes searching the table for any sign of Jane Yu.
Daphne and Blaise had also been pushed from the head of the table to nearly the middle.
Crabbe and Goyle, acting as if they'd never seen such a feast at the Slytherin table, craned their necks and bossed others around, demanding all the best dishes be brought to them until the food piled higher than their heads.
With both the headmaster and head of house absent—
The two forcibly redistributed the food, creating a dramatic imbalance across the table: those at the front enjoyed a lavish banquet, with portions and quality decreasing by seat, while Mafalda and others at the back were left with thin gruel.
"You! Do my summer homework!" Goyle barked orders at the younger Slytherins. "Write a Potions essay and you get a steak! Otherwise, forget about eating!"
Blaise frowned, wanting to object. He made a soft "tsk" sound but forced himself to swallow his criticism.
"You have no right to do this! You can't stop everyone from eating!" Mafalda's face flushed as she stared at her empty plate, furious.
This immediately drew Crabbe and Goyle's attention. They smiled with sinister satisfaction:
"A Muggle-born and Squib's daughter—instead of worrying about dinner, you'd better worry about keeping your head on your shoulders—"
"You'd better learn to control your attention-seeking habits. When the Dark Lord rises to power, the first to be eliminated will be Mudbloods like you!"
Mafalda's face went deathly pale. She said nothing more, quietly returning to her seat at the end.
The Slytherin table fell into deathly silence.
Some faces showed envy, but most displayed discontent, panic, anxiety, and anger.
Crabbe, satisfied with everyone's reaction, smiled again. His eyes rolled around maliciously before settling on Daphne, who was glaring at him:
"Greengrass—yes, you, big Greengrass—hand over your Black Forest cake."
Daphne scowled, her hand frozen. She wanted nothing more than to stab her fork into Crabbe's face.
Her sister Astoria also frowned, glaring at Crabbe. Even her usual good temper had vanished—she wanted to smash the cake into his head.
"And your steaks too—yes, little Greengrass, we want the tenderest filet."
Goyle wore a disgusting expression of arrogance—
Perhaps what intoxicated them wasn't gathering food, but the unrestrained use of power and the pleasure of dominating others.
Seeing the sisters' lack of response and feeling their authority challenged, both launched their attack:
"If I were you, I'd carefully consider my behavior and position, and think about how to treat us, Greengrass. I heard your family's attitude toward the Dark Lord over the holidays was quite... intriguing."
"Only two years left until graduation—you can't stay at Hogwarts forever, can you? You should think about yourself and your family, about where the Greengrass family should pledge its loyalty to avoid losing your lives in your prime."
Crabbe and Goyle's alternating words carried barely concealed threats.
Drunk on their newfound power and ability to hold others' lives in their hands, they'd completely lost their minds.
"Come on, Greengrass."
Pansy chimed in, her eyes practically rolling back in smugness as she placed a pudding on Crabbe and Goyle's plates, fawning desperately.
Convinced she'd finally won their years-long struggle, she couldn't hide her glee:
"Join our side and you'll have food and drink. If you perform well, I might even give you a position serving me."
Daphne had never wished for Jane Yu's presence more desperately!
She could feel the entire table's eyes burning into her like fire:
On the left, the silent hope and pleading of the half-blood Slytherins; on the right, the sugar-coated bullets and undisguised malice from former friends whose families had fully aligned with the Dark Lord; and around her, the probing gazes of other neutral families.
She understood what those looks meant:
As Jane Yu's only roommate, the person closest to her in the entire school—
Her stance represented many things: the Greengrass family's choice, the standard by which neutral families judged Jane Yu's capabilities...
"Yu won't ignore this," Daphne glared back coldly. "When she gets here, you'll be in trouble!"
"Really?" Pansy swept her gaze across everyone at the table, smiling slightly. "Haven't you realized that Jane Yu—the person you think can protect you—is already too scared to show her face at school? You're a smart girl, Greengrass. You know what you should do."
Though only seconds passed in reality, Daphne's mind raced through thoughts and images as if centuries had gone by.
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