Harry and the others were a little puzzled to hear that Dumbledore had important information to share.
But when they arrived, every one of them immediately turned to look at Hermione.
Because inside Dumbledore's office, besides Dumbledore and several of the school's professors, there was another familiar face: Jacob Covenas.
The moment Jacob saw Hermione, he broke into a radiant smile, but then the corner of his mouth twitched and his brow creased slightly. A moment later, however, he smiled again and nodded at Hermione. "Hi, Hermione."
This fairly obvious change in expression naturally did not escape Harry and the others, whose eyes had settled on him as soon as they entered. They all studied Jacob with a hint of surprise, then immediately noticed that many parts of his body looked rather unnatural.
They could even see at his collar that he seemed to have quite a few bandages wrapped around him.
"You're hurt?" Hermione was the quickest to react, frowning at once.
"Yes, Mr. Corvinus is injured," Dumbledore said with a nod, his expression somewhat grave. He was not the only one looking grave; the other professors in the room did not look happy either.
"What happened, Professor?" Harry asked, rather confused about what was going on.
Still, they could set aside their earlier worries about something happening to Jacob for the moment.
Although Jacob certainly did not look to be in very good shape, at least things had not reached the worst-case scenario they had imagined earlier.
Ron had even speculated at one point that Jacob had already been killed by the Death Eaters.
"Let's wait a little. Some more people will be coming shortly," Dumbledore said, pointing to the fireplace beside him.
Harry and the others also noticed that, despite it already being late May, the fireplace