Barty Crouch's death had suddenly brought Hogwarts, which had grown rather quiet over the holidays, back to life.
People from the Ministry of Magic came no fewer than a dozen times, but in the end, the matter seemed to come to nothing. Murders in the wizard world were difficult to solve, because they rarely left any concrete clues.
Besides, wizards were clearly not very good at deduction or solving crimes.
It was clearly a major incident, yet gradually, people simply stopped discussing it.
This made Harry very uncomfortable, but the young wizards around him did not seem particularly affected.
Someone dying was nothing particularly unusual in the wizard world. That was what Parvati said when Harry expressed his bewilderment in the Common Room at how calmly everyone was reacting.
Harry and Hermione were utterly astonished, but Ron and Neville nodded in firm agreement. Though they had never said it aloud, they had long thought that way.
Unable to understand, Harry and Hermione pressed them for answers, and what they heard struck them both as rather unbelievable.
In the wizarding world, people went missing in every country, every year. Sometimes it was two or three, sometimes five or six. Even a dozen or so people suddenly disappearing from sight was nothing particularly strange.
Wizards were not a particularly sociable group.
Many wizards simply kept to their own little patch of land and lived their own lives. Those who devoted themselves to research were even more reclusive, hiding away wherever they conducted their studies and sometimes not seeing another person for months.
It was perfectly normal for these wizards to suddenly stop appearing one day and never be seen again.
In fact, a witch had gone missing late last year, and there was still no news of her. But she had only