Because Kreacher had defected to their side, Draco actually knew a little about the Black family's current situation.
With Sirius Black dead, and with the family already so thinly populated because of its obsession with preserving blood purity, the Black family could now be said to exist in name only.
Otherwise, Kreacher would never have chosen to serve Narcissa, a witch who had once belonged to the Black family...
At that thought, Draco's gaze fell on the pieces of silverware scattered across the snow, each of them looking distinctly valuable.
"So this counts as looting a burning house?"
He studied Mundungus with an odd look. The man seemed nervous, like someone caught red-handed after doing something shameful.
At that point, Draco finally understood why Harry Potter looked so furious.
After all, Kreacher seemed to have mentioned before that Sirius Black had become Potter's godfather...
At the same time, Draco could not help wondering yet again whether this Mundungus, who was plainly stealing, was really a member of the Order of the Phoenix.
If nothing unexpected had happened, Sirius Black should have been their companion too.
So how could someone with character like this possibly have been accepted by Lupin and the others?
Just as Draco was frowning and wondering what kind of redeeming quality Mundungus could possibly have for Dumbledore to accept a wizard who was not exactly "righteous," Harry Potter's furious scream carried through the swirling wind and snow...
"You're selling these things?!"
"You stole them from Sirius's house!"
"They've got the Black family crest on them. Don't try to fool me!!"
"What did you do? The night he died, you went and stripped the place clean!!"
"How dare you!!"
On top of Harry Potter's increasingly uncontrolled shouting, the savior who had clearly lost his cool grabbed Mundungus by the throat with one hand and pressed his wand against the man's neck.
That string of actions made Draco raise his brows.
To be honest, he had expected Harry Potter to react strongly, but a response that looked as though he wanted to kill the man was something Draco had not seen coming.
That kind of loss of control was something that had almost never appeared in the Harry Potter of the past...
"Ah! He's going to kill someone!"
"Harry?!"
"Stop right now!"
Even with the wind and snow badly obstructing people's view, Harry Potter's savage actions still caught the attention of the people out on the street.
Screams.
Shouts to stop him.
Those voices made Harry Potter, who had been consumed by rage, recover a little of his senses, and his hand hesitated for just a moment.
And in that instant of hesitation, the short, squat Mundungus bent over, snatched up the box from the ground, and then, with a crack, vanished into thin air.
That sly-looking wizard disappeared just like that, right before everyone's eyes...
Naturally, Draco, leaning lightly against the wall, could already see the look of helpless fury on Harry Potter's face. It was enough to make the nearby wizards, who had been thinking of stepping forward, quickly keep their distance from him.
There was no schadenfreude on Draco's face, though. Instead, he looked thoughtful.
Was this really just a chance encounter?
Or had some wizard arranged it?
Looking at Harry Potter standing there in the snow with his head lowered, Draco could not help suspecting as much...
...
Once Mundungus had disappeared, no one paid Harry Potter any more attention.
And because he stood there without moving at all, snow quickly began to pile over him. In only a short while, if you did not look carefully, you might not even notice there was a living person standing there.
Obviously, from where Draco was, he could not see Harry Potter's expression, much less tell what he was thinking.
As time passed, Draco's initial curiosity faded...
Just as he was starting to feel bored, a puzzled voice suddenly sounded by his ear.
"What are you doing standing here? Where's Hermione? Wasn't she supposed to come with you?"
That rapid-fire stream of questions, delivered so fast that no one else could interrupt, immediately gave away the newcomer's identity and brisk temperament.
Sure enough.
When Draco turned his head, the first thing he saw was that fiery red hair, which somehow still seemed warm even in the freezing weather.
The one who had appeared was naturally Ginny Weasley, who was still staying at Hogwarts.
It was worth mentioning that Luna was also standing behind Ginny, looking this way.
Draco first glanced at Luna, who was quietly standing to one side, before finally looking properly at Ginny Weasley, who had appeared behind him at some point...
Was she a little too enthusiastic?
Or maybe, because they had gone through danger together, she simply did not think there was anything strange about acting like this. Ginny Weasley leaned in beside Draco, her face full of curiosity.
At the end of the day, Draco did not think he was particularly close to her.
"What are you standing here all sneaky for..."
Draco was nothing like what Ginny described. If anything, his calm, open manner had absolutely nothing to do with being sneaky, yet that was still how she chose to put it.
But when Ginny followed the direction Draco was facing, a clear flash of surprise appeared on her face.
"Huh? Is that Harry?"
"Did something happen?"
She had no idea what had happened, but Harry Potter's strange behavior, just standing there in the snow, was enough to show that something was wrong with him.
It was almost like... a wounded beast.
Only, Ginny herself probably had not noticed that she did not seem nearly as worried about Harry as she thought she was.
Otherwise, she would have gone over to check on him at once instead of staying where she was and asking Draco for answers.
"You... I mean, what's wrong with Harry?"
Draco lowered his eyes to look at Ginny and curled his lip indifferently.
"Who knows. Maybe someone stole his Galleons."
"I see."
"Don't just believe that, Luna! Hogsmeade's security isn't that bad."
Seeing that Luna had accepted it without any suspicion at all, Ginny shot back at her irritably.
What she did not know was that, in a sense, things really were exactly as Draco had said...