With Umbridge keeping an eye on Lupin, Hogwarts seemed to have briefly returned to its former calm. Beyond Hogwarts, the entire Wizarding World also seemed to be settling down. Everyone appeared to have forgotten the Dark Wizard attack on the Ministry of Magic.
Public opinion in the Wizarding World had gradually quieted, too. The claims that Dumbledore was an ambitious schemer and Harry Potter his little puppet had faded, as had the criticism of Umbridge for using extrajudicial punishment.
In the Potions market, Asian potion ingredients had become stable again, as though the turmoil had never happened...
Peace reigned across the Wizarding World, at least on the surface.
But who knew how many undercurrents ran beneath that placid surface? Who knew how many secrets flowed through the seemingly peaceful Wizarding World?
Whatever those secrets were, time marched on. Halloween 1995 drew closer.
Will was reading in the Slytherin Common Room—not because he wanted to be there, but because Snape had asked him to supervise the Halloween decorations. Snape seemed to have something else to attend to and was away from school that day.
Embarrassingly, Will had only just learned that the Halloween and Christmas decorations were not solely the product of the House-elves' tireless work. Students helped, too.
Snape had asked Will to keep watch in the Common Room so the students would not cause trouble or get hurt—by getting carried away while fooling around, for instance, and killing someone with a minor Jinx.
There was precedent for it. About forty years earlier, several young Wizards had been roughhousing in a Common Room during a holiday. One unlucky child had been hit with a Leg-Locker Curse but kept hopping down the stairs. He had pitched forward, broken his neck, and died.
It was only a flight of four steps, but