"It must be Malfoy who kidnapped Hermione. This isn't the first time he's done something like this, taking hostages!"
"That's a conspiracy by the mysterious man. He's using Hermione to blackmail us!"
Ron angrily hacked at the weeds around the field fence with his scythe, venting his rage.
"Professor McGonagall finally had a moment to regain her senses, and then she fainted again after hearing this news," Harry said angrily, hacking at the swaying weeds with his scythe just as hard as Ron.
Harry and Ron had now met Hagrid, who had planted many strange-looking plants around his house. These plants had sharp, serrated edges that could easily cut your hand if you weren't careful. In addition, they had another obvious characteristic: they grew extremely fast.
They were currently helping Hagrid weed them out. These strange weeds had some very peculiar characteristics. They were crooked and twisted like seaweed, and if magic was used to deal with them, they would grow wildly.
"The thought of eating this stuff every day makes me feel nauseous."
"It's even worse than what I got at my aunt's house." Harry forced a joke, giving a stiff laugh.
"All right, that's about it, Harry, Ron." Hagrid walked up behind them, a wooden barrel slung over his broad shoulders and a bow and arrows strapped to his back.
The wooden barrel was almost empty, but it still emitted a sweet, fishy smell. This was Hagrid's special feed, which he had just used to feed his little darlings.
As Voldemort's influence expanded, Hogwarts became increasingly difficult to operate.
They even had to find their own food.
There were no readily available ingredients such as beef, chicken, or flour, so they had to raise or grow everything themselves.
Of course, if the breeding cycle were the same as that of Muggles, Voldemort might have soon been looking at the corpses of a group of starving wizards.
Hagrid collaborated with Professor Sprout, who taught Herbology, to find solutions to the current food shortage and discover alternatives that could provide sustenance.
"Come in and sit down. It's cold now." Hagrid waved to the two of them as he walked up the steps and pushed open the wooden door to his house.
A gust of cold wind rushed in all at once.
Harry and Ron shivered.
After crossing the threshold, Harry carried over a stool and sat down beside the charcoal fire. He hadn't noticed the cold while moving around, but once he stopped, the chill became much more apparent.
"Close the door quickly," Hagrid waved his hand.
"Come on, warm yourselves by the fire."
"Don't worry, Hermione will be all right," Hagrid said, sitting on his bed and holding his hands in front of the embers.
They sat around the fire, reminiscing about the moment they discovered Hermione's disappearance.
At first, the students in the classroom had simply assumed that the teacher was late. But later, they realized something was wrong, and as time went on…
A class, half a day, a day, a week…
News of the two missing people spread quickly.
The answer was becoming increasingly clear, like the tip of an iceberg gradually emerging from the water.
Someone had betrayed them again and even kidnapped Hermione.
It was possible that Hermione had simply stumbled upon his actions, or perhaps he was carrying out one of Voldemort's schemes. They had even considered the worst-case scenario.
Compared with those possibilities, being kidnapped was almost a good outcome.
They didn't want to think about anything worse.
The atmosphere at Hogwarts grew increasingly sombre.
During this period, even Luna's usual carefree attitude became somewhat restrained.
Of course, she was the most relaxed of them all. After all, she knew that Dumbledore was still alive, and that was her greatest source of confidence.
However, her concern for Hermione involuntarily took over.
But her intuition told her that she had probably done a good deed.
Luna's intuition was never wrong.
That was how confident the girl was. Her predictions were far more accurate than Trelawney's.
The impact on the other students was even more obvious.
For example, the food in the Great Hall was getting worse and worse.
No matter how skilled the house-elves were, they couldn't change the pitiful quality of the meat produced under these conditions, nor could they do much about Hagrid's cold salads.
It was another ordinary morning, and the students were forcing themselves to eat the unpalatable dishes.
Suddenly, many owls flew into the Great Hall.
They had black feathers and powerful wings, beating them rapidly as they swept across the hall. The students stared in astonishment at the scene before them.
Hogwarts hadn't received any mail for many days because the school was completely cut off.
The owls loosened their talons, scattering hundreds of letters into the air.
"Don't touch them!" Ron stood up, along with several Prefects.
He saw some younger students trying to touch the envelopes and quickly stopped them.
Suddenly, the envelopes exploded, and dark-green smoke rose from them, twisting and converging in the centre of the Great Hall.
"Your only two choices are loyal submission or a grotesque death."
—Voldemort.
The smoke coalesced into a commanding message.
"Now cover your mouths!"
An aged yet dignified voice suddenly came from the staff table.
"Professor McGonagall?" The students' gazes froze on one spot.
The old witch was wearing black robes and a dark-green pointed hat, her expression solemn.
"Whirlwind Sweep!"
She raised her wand high and cast the spell in a cold, sharp voice.
With a shout, the smoke was swept out of the Great Hall through the doors.
Professor McGonagall walked to the staff table and looked at the students present. Her expression remained indifferent, but her eyes were filled with affection.
She cleared her throat and placed her wand on the wooden table in front of her.
"The Dark Lord has officially declared war on us."
Professor McGonagall's voice was extremely serious, and the wrinkles at the corners of her eyes deepened.
"I know you will be nervous and scared, and so will I."
"There is nothing to be ashamed of."
"But what I know even more is that you can overcome this. You are students of Hogwarts, and you will not bring shame to the school. Instead, you will make us proud."
"In addition…" Professor McGonagall changed the subject.
"In a way, we should thank him. You all escaped the final examinations, didn't you?"
"You all got full marks this semester."
Professor McGonagall began to applaud, and the students soon joined in.
She gave a slight smile, using humour to ease the fear that had settled over the Great Hall.
But as she slowly stepped down from the staff table and turned toward a small room on the side, facing the dark stone wall, Professor McGonagall's eyes became moist.
She wiped the corner of her eye with her withered, wrinkled right hand.
She didn't know how many people would die in the future.
Just now, she had been holding herself together with all her strength, trying to boost everyone's morale.
Otherwise, if she had fallen into a deep sleep again, it would have dealt a tremendous blow to everyone's morale.