The entire Ministry Atrium fell silent; everyone seemed unable to believe the words they were hearing.
The Hogwarts Floo Network... has been severed?!
Fudge stood up abruptly, his already pale face turning deathly white.
"What did you say? The Floo Network was cut off? What do you mean it was all cut off?!"
Hector pushed aside two onlookers blocking his way and staggered to the edge of the guest area. "Our Floo Network monitoring nodes all went down five minutes ago."
"All nodes are blocked simultaneously; every fireplace from the first floor of Hogwarts to the top of the tower is broken."
"All fireplace signals from the Hogwarts direction have disappeared, and not just from the main network."
"Now, Floo Powder can no longer be used to pass through the entire castle or the outside world."
"Who did this?" Amelia had already stood up and asked calmly.
Hector wiped the sweat from his brow. "According to the Floo Network Office, to achieve this level of disruption... someone definitely acted from within."
"And it should be said that it was a premeditated attack, otherwise it wouldn't have been possible to act so quickly..."
These words were like a stone thrown into frozen water, and the silence in the main hall suddenly erupted into a chaotic murmur of discussion.
Dumbledore stood up, his blue eyes devoid of any smile.
"Internal..." he repeated the word.
Professor McGonagall also stood up from the guest area, her face serious. "How many faculty and staff are left in the castle?" she asked.
"Today is inquiry day." Flitwick leaned halfway out from behind, speaking much faster than usual. "I remember that besides a few of us, only Professor Sprout stayed at the university; she's in charge of looking after the greenhouse."
"Oh right, and Filch and Madam Pomfrey too."
" Hagrid is here too," Snape suddenly spoke up. "He said this morning he was going to the edge of the Forbidden Forest to repair the fence. He can't be unaware of the commotion in the castle."
Dumbledore nodded and turned to McGonagall: "We're going back immediately, by any means necessary."
" The Floo Network is down," Flitwick reminded him. "We can't go directly through the fireplace."
"Furthermore, the Anti-Apparition Jinx around the castle will prevent us from landing directly inside Hogsmeade! The border area is at least four kilometers from the castle!"
"Then Apparition to the vicinity of Hogsmeade, and then ride over on flying broomsticks," McGonagall decided immediately. "If we're fast enough, we should be there in about ten minutes."
After she finished speaking, she looked at Dumbledore, as if waiting for final confirmation.
Dumbledore nodded and drew his wand.
The reporters all stood up, their Quick-Quotes Quill quills hovering in mid-air as they scribbled rapidly.
The female reporter in the round hat stood on tiptoe to watch Rita's Quick-Quotes Quill dancing wildly on the paper.
She vaguely saw the words spelling out. "... Dumbledore once said...' Hogwarts is not without its defenses'... However..."
The female reporter in the round hat's eyes lit up; she suddenly had a new idea.
Meanwhile, several newspaper editors in the front row were already squeezing towards the back door, clearly intending to send the news of " Hogwarts' Floo Network being cut off" back to the newspaper office as soon as possible.
Fudge remained standing there, mouth agape like a fish pulled ashore, his mind a complete mess.
Hector's implication is that someone attacked Hogwarts from within, possibly standing in one of the castle's corridors.
He shuddered as he recalled Dumbledore's words on the stage, " Voldemort is not truly dead."
"Minister," Dumbledore approached him, his tone serious, "I must take men back to Hogwarts now. You stay here and stabilize the situation at the Ministry of Magic."
"If anything really happens at Hogwarts, I'll have someone send a message immediately."
Fudge opened his mouth, as if to say something, but in the end only managed to squeeze out a dry, "You... you make sure those children are alright."
Dumbledore glanced at him, then turned and strode quickly toward the side door.
McGonagall, Flitwick, Snape, and several other members of the Order of the Phoenix who had come with them followed closely behind.
They walked through the side corridor, pushed open the door leading to the emergency exit outside the Ministry of Magic, and were greeted by a blast of cold wind from the street.
Without pausing, McGonagall vanished from the spot using Apparition.
Before Dumbledore caught up with her, he turned his head and whispered an instruction, " Severus, once you get to Hogsmeade, go around to the back of the castle and enter through the secret passage in the kitchen."
Snape nodded, flipped his black robes, and disappeared.
The chaos in the Ministry Atrium did not subside with Dumbledore's departure; instead, it surged outwards like a pot of boiling water with its lid lifted.
People in the audience jostled and pushed each other toward the exit, and the crowd instantly descended into chaos.
Fudge stood in the center of the guest area, his left hand gripping his sleeve. His lips moved several times before he finally managed to squeeze out, "Go check! Move all usable brooms, Thestral, and Portkey towards Hogsmeade! Immediately!"
Several Ministry of Magic officials scrambled toward the fireplaces on either side of the corridor, only to find that the fireboxes were full of ashes and couldn't even produce a single green flame.
Someone grabbed a handful of Floo Powder and threw it in, but the powder just sank into the ash heap without reacting.
At this point, some people finally started running out of the main hall, preparing to use the most inefficient method—crossing London —to get to Hogsmeade.
Meanwhile, breakfast was still in progress in the Great Hall of Hogwarts.
On the long table were honey-smoked toast, perfectly fried sausages, and steaming Pumpkin Juice.
A few owls flapped their wings on the beams near the dome, and occasionally a letter would fall into someone's cereal bowl with a muffled thud.
Harry sat in the middle of the Gryffindor Table, his fork poking at a fried egg, but he didn't put it in his mouth.
He was locked in the dungeon by Filch until midnight last night, and after returning to bed he could barely sleep, his mind filled with Trelawney's fragmented sentences.
" Harry? Why aren't you eating?" Ron mumbled from the side, his mouth stuffed with a whole piece of toast.
Harry hesitated for a moment, wanting to tell him about Trelawney's Prophecy.
But when he thought of Filch's confident assertion last night that Trelawney's Prophecy was completely inaccurate, he began to doubt Trelawney's Prophecy again.
Moreover, how could Hogwarts, such an ancient magic school, be so easily invaded?
Harry didn't tell Ron in the end, but just shook his head to indicate that he was fine.
Meanwhile, inside Hogwarts Castle, a dozen or so figures in black robes were advancing along the corridor.
As they rounded the last bend, the leader in black robes raised his hand, signaling everyone to stop.
The Great Hall doors were just ahead; the two heavy oak doors were tightly shut, but through the cracks, you could see warm yellow candlelight shining through and faintly hear the buzzing of students talking.
"I'll count to three," the leader of the black-robed figures said in a low voice, as he pulled his wand from his robes.
The Death Eaters behind him also raised their wands in unison.
"One..."
"Two..."
"Three!"