The rain had not stopped since morning. It had continued until now and showed signs of growing even heavier. The streets outside were already beginning to flood.
Hermione sat alone in the room by the entrance, reading the newspaper by candlelight. From time to time, she looked outside, seemingly hoping to spot someone on the street.
"Is this the price of exposing false lies?"
As she flipped through the latest issue of the Daily Prophet, she found no news whatsoever about yesterday's public execution. Instead, it was filled with reports of wizards being ruthlessly arrested.
After yesterday's events, the Death Eaters had gone off like explosives. They had launched overnight raids on the homes of Order of the Phoenix members, intending to make them pay.
Fortunately, Fred had brought a warning in time, allowing some Order members who did not live at headquarters to escape disaster.
Having found nothing, the Death Eaters had brutally burned down Kingsley's house to vent their anger.
Yet neither Voldemort nor Yaxley would leave it at that. Several wizarding families connected to the Order of the Phoenix had been raided by Death Eaters.
If they could not find members of the Order, they would seize people connected to them instead, using them as leverage to drive a wedge between them. Then they would see who still dared associate with the Order of the Phoenix.
They had barely had time to celebrate Hagrid's rescue before receiving a flood of terrible news.
For a time, no one knew what to do. The Death Eaters' fierce response had clearly exceeded everyone's expectations.
No one had expected the Death Eaters to go mad and drag so many other people into it.
After racking their brains without finding a good solution, they placed their hopes on Albert, who was coming