For ordinary wizards, limited by their horizons and life experience, it was actually very hard to imagine just how terrifying the foundations of the Sacred Twenty-Eight really were.
Especially after their defeat in the First Wizarding War. Those defeated families only needed a few years of recuperation before they were able to claim a place for themselves in the magical world once again.
Even though Dumbledore joined forces with Fudge and made all kinds of arrangements, it still seemed impossible to stop those noble families from rising again.
Perhaps even Dumbledore himself knew it could not be stopped...
In any case.
You could already see some of that in Lucius Malfoy, and from the place Draco and the others had now arrived at, it was not hard to understand why Lucius and his faction had the right to stand in the war between the Dark Lord and Dumbledore.
Perhaps Lucius and the others did not possess a monstrous top tier fighter like Dumbledore, but their logistical strength and their number of mid to high level fighters were not to be underestimated. If anything, they held the greater advantage there.
And that was exactly where their confidence came from...
...
An unknown building.
After leaving the valley that had only served as a temporary resting place, Draco and the others followed Lucius and the rest, and in what felt like the blink of an eye, they arrived at this heavily guarded place.
The moment they stepped inside, they saw a magnificent hall so beautiful that its ceiling was almost impossible to make out.
Several wizards stood ahead to receive them. Even with Lucius himself present, they did not lower their guard in the slightest. Only after confirming everyone's identity did they finally lower their wands.
And after passing through that hall, they could see busy wizards hurrying past them one after another.
Voices speaking.
Voices giving orders.
If Lucius had not been the one who brought them here, Pansy and the others might have thought they had somehow arrived at the Ministry of Magic or somewhere like it...
"So this is the headquarters Father and the others use to fight the Dark Lord, Draco?"
"This is my first time seeing it too, but I think so."
Compared to the former Ministry of Magic, this place felt much more severe. More precisely, everyone here seemed to move with a much clearer purpose.
After all, they had not gathered here to make money, work, and support their families, but for a greater goal and even greater interests.
More than that, Draco also noticed that there seemed to be wizards here from many different countries.
Skin color, styles of dress, and wands.
Whether the differences were subtle or obvious, all of them pointed to one thing. Some of these wizards clearly did not come from the British magical world.
That discovery made Draco realize something, and he stared hard at the figure walking ahead of him.
The surprise in Draco's eyes naturally was not because he thought Lucius had sold out the interests of the British magical world in exchange for help from foreign wizards.
Doing that would completely go against the interests of the nobility, and it was not the kind of choice his proud father would ever make.
What shocked Draco was the terrifying network and influence revealed by that decision...
...
Unlike the Ministry of Magic, which chose to hide everything underground, Lucius Malfoy and the others had gone with a much simpler and rougher solution.
They had gone directly outside Britain.
This was an old castle.
Draco did not know exactly where they were, but judging by everything he had seen and heard along the way, they were probably still somewhere in Europe.
More than that, based on the food, the surroundings, and the castle beneath his feet, Draco had roughly concluded that this was very likely that magical country which not only did not shy away from dark magic, but actually regarded it quite highly...
Thinking about all that, Draco continued walking through the castle.
Probably because he carried the Malfoy name, Draco could move through this castle almost completely unhindered.
Every guard he met on the way only glanced at his unmistakable pale blond hair, then withdrew their wary gaze.
Worth mentioning was that quite a few of those guards were the elders or parents of one or another of his followers...
In any case.
At this moment, Draco was wandering through the castle alone in a seemingly aimless stroll.
One hand at his chin, he murmured,
"So that is how it is. Unlike the Ministry of Magic, which has to consider relations between nations, and unlike Dumbledore, who carries too many burdens on his name, we are much less restricted. That is why we can do something like this."
"That is why we can settle down so easily in another country, and even recruit so many wizards from abroad. If it were anyone else, they would have been driven out long ago."
"...I underestimated Father and the others."
Only when you saw it with your own eyes could you clearly recognize your own ignorance and shortcomings.
Even Voldemort probably had not imagined that his former subordinates could actually reach this level.
Slytherin wizards were not only cunning, they also knew how to endure.
Even before Voldemort became tyrannical, Lucius and the others had not revealed all their cards.
Not until Draco and the others were truly threatened...
"So, this should be their trump card."
Draco's tone carried a trace of uncertainty.
...
Ever since arriving here, Draco and the others had almost felt forgotten.
No one had called them over for a scolding as expected, nor dragged them away to question them in detail about everything that had happened that day.
Instead, Pansy and the others spent every day following Draco around. Aside from not being able to leave the castle, their footprints had ended up in almost every room here...
"Come to think of it, Draco, are you looking for someone?"
"Now that you mention it, we really have been running all over the place these past few days. Is there some wizard here you want to find?"
After Astoria spoke, Pansy chimed in as well. The difference was that Astoria sounded genuinely puzzled, while Pansy was more simply curious.
Either way, they had both pointed out Draco's odd behavior.
Draco did not think there was anything he could not tell them.
The only reason he had not mentioned it before was simply that he was used to thinking things through on his own.
"Kreacher."
"Huh? Who was that again? That sounds familiar somehow."
"That House-elf?"
Unlike Pansy, who cared about little besides Draco, Astoria, with her better memory, immediately recalled that odd House-elf.
But why him?
That was right.
Pansy and the others still did not know about the connection between Kreacher and Lockhart.
And they had no idea who it was that had personally sent Draco onto that battlefield...