Chapter 334: 1974, A New Year Begins [bonus]
Today was January 1st, 1974. Just like that, 1973 was gone.
The British didn't make much of New Year's Day. Muggle or wizard, the first of January wasn't any kind of occasion.
Wizarding holidays followed the magical calendar. New Year's was just a tick mark on the Muggle one, and most Pure-blood wizards couldn't be bothered to remember the date.
Regulus remembered, but not because of the holiday. There was a clock running in his head.
Next year. 1975. Voldemort and his Death Eaters would step out of the shadows and into the open.
The Daily Prophet's front page would start printing the name "Death Eaters" instead of vague references to "certain extremists" or "unidentified dark wizards."
Disappearances would go from scattered to systematic. The Auror Office would shift from routine patrols to a wartime footing.
After that came war. The covert infiltration of the present would become the past, replaced by open wizarding conflict spanning all of Britain. Public. Escalating.
Roughly a year from now. A little more. And then the magical world would change.