Time slipped by, and the end of May quietly arrived as summer stole softly onto the grounds surrounding the castle. The sky and lake mirrored each other, both turning a pale blue tinged with violet, like something out of a dream.
Meanwhile, in the Hospital Wing, all the students who had been attacked and petrified by the basilisk had now awakened and were steadily recovering, thanks to the miraculous juice extracted from the mandrakes Professor Sprout had carefully cultivated in the greenhouses.
"Harry, have you two seen Hermione?"
The moment Neville entered Hogwarts' Great Hall, he sensed the tension. Harry and Ron looked furious, their eyes fixed on Malfoy and his two cronies, Goyle and Crabbe.
"Malfoy, you should count yourself lucky your father Lucius was only kicked off Hogwarts' board of governors instead of being thrown into Azkaban!" Harry said, his voice dripping with mockery as he faced the glowering Malfoy.
If Lucius had not slipped Voldemort's Diary among Ginny's textbooks, Hogwarts might have been spared all this trouble and the upheaval that followed. Fortunately, no one had died. Even Ginny, who had been controlled by Voldemort, had quickly recovered and returned to her lively, cheerful self.
Ever since Draco Malfoy's father Lucius had been implicated in the affair involving Voldemort's Diary and expelled from the school's board of governors, however, Draco had lost his former swagger.
"Potter, don't think this is over! We still have years left at Hogwarts! You'd better pray you and your Mudblood friends never fall into my hands—and that damned house-elf Dobby, too!" Thoroughly enraged by Harry's words, Malfoy roared at him, his unblinking stare filled with venom and hatred.
Yet as soon as he finished his threat, Malfoy caught the strange looks people were giving him and immediately realized he had lost