The rain had not stopped since morning and had continued until now, even showing signs of growing heavier. The streets outside were beginning to flood.
Hermione sat alone in the room by the entrance, reading the newspaper in her hands by candlelight. From time to time, she looked outside, as though expecting to see someone on the street.
"Is this the price of exposing their lies?"
As she flipped through the latest issue of the Daily Prophet, she found no news at all about yesterday's Public Execution. Instead, it was filled with reports of wizards being ruthlessly arrested.
Since yesterday's incident, the Death Eaters had acted as though they had swallowed explosives. They had launched overnight raids on the homes of Order of the Phoenix members, determined to make them pay.
Fortunately, Fred had brought a warning in time, allowing some Order of the Phoenix members who did not live at headquarters to escape disaster.
Having found nothing, the Death Eaters brutally burned down Kingsley's house to vent their anger.
However, neither Voldemort nor Yaxley would let the matter rest over that. Several wizarding families connected to the Order of the Phoenix had already been raided by Death Eaters.
If they could not find the Order's people, they would seize those associated with them instead, using them as leverage to drive a wedge between them and see who would still dare maintain ties with the Order of the Phoenix.
Having only just rescued Hagrid, everyone had not even had time to celebrate before receiving a flood of terrible news.
For a time, they were completely at a loss. The Death Eaters' fierce reaction had clearly exceeded everyone's expectations.
No one had expected the Death Eaters to go mad and drag so many innocent people into it.
After racking their brains