As the saying went, enemies' eyes turned red the moment they met.
Just like Remus Lupin and Fenrir Greyback below. The two of them were locked in a bloody fight, as if only one of them would be leaving alive.
Though Draco had long since stopped paying attention to them...
Compared with Lucius Malfoy and Arthur Weasley meeting in the sky, though, the atmosphere was different.
Their positions were opposed, they had always disliked each other, and even their children had clashed countless times, yet at this moment neither of them showed any intention of making a move. They simply remained locked in a standoff.
The reason neither side attacked right away was probably because Draco and Ginny were together.
Until the situation was clear, both sides were wary of acting rashly...
So whether it was Draco or Ginny and Luna seated behind him, all of them could clearly feel that everyone's eyes were on them.
Like they were the center of the stage.
Draco, however, did not care in the least. You could even say he felt nothing at all, because he was already used to being watched.
Ginny Weasley, on the other hand, sitting behind him, seemed a little at a loss. Maybe it was her first time being in this kind of situation.
Or maybe it was because of the wary, suspicious looks Pansy and Astoria were sending her. Her face stiffened slightly, and she instinctively glared back.
Especially after Pansy voiced the question everyone was wondering about, Ginny suddenly looked a little guilty.
Pansy parted her lips in flustered disbelief, her eyes darting between the two of them.
"Draco, you would not happen to..."
"..."
"..."
To be fair, that strange pause, combined with the odd silence around them, was more than enough to make people misunderstand.
Sure enough, Ginny noticed the disbelief on her brothers' and parents' faces, along with a kind of suspicious look that made her feel embarrassed and irritated for no reason.
What exactly were they suspecting?
Things were not like that at all!!
And with Pansy looking so shocked, as if to say I knew it, anyone who did not know better would really think Ginny had done something.
At that, Draco waved a hand at Pansy in annoyance.
No one knew what that little gesture meant, but Pansy clearly did. She immediately ducked her head and obediently shut her constantly muttering mouth...
Lucius, meanwhile, ignored the little exchange between Draco and the girls. The moment he confirmed Draco was unhurt, he shifted his attention to Arthur Weasley in front of him.
"It seems your side is not in very good shape."
It was obvious that Arthur Weasley and the other wizards looked exhausted from overusing their magic. Some of their robes were even torn to shreds, exposing wounds left behind by magical attacks.
Clearly, Arthur Weasley and the others had just gone through a hard battle...
"Lucius... what are you here for?"
"I do not believe I am obligated to answer that. Rather than that, are you not going down there to help?"
"Hmph. That is none of your concern. Until I know what you are after, I will keep my eyes on you."
Neither side had attacked, and the other wizards were also keeping themselves in check, but the tone of their voices and the wariness in their expressions were full of tension, along with a hint that they were itching to make a move.
In this kind of atmosphere, it would not have been surprising if either side attacked in the next second.
But compared with Lucius's relatively calm tone, Arthur Weasley's every move seemed restless.
After all, their companions below were still fighting the enemy...
He wanted badly to go down and help, but facing Lucius, a man who could be called his lifelong rival, Arthur Weasley could not let down his guard. Especially when they still had a person in the other side's hands.
Yes, a hostage.
His concern had clearly thrown him off. He had misunderstood something.
Forcing himself to pull his gaze away from the battlefield below, Arthur Weasley narrowed his eyes at Lucius Malfoy across from him.
"Tell me what you want."
"Oh."
Realizing the other man seemed to have gotten the wrong idea, Lucius suddenly turned his head to look at his troublesome son.
To be honest, when he had first seen Draco together with Ginny Weasley, even Lucius had been stunned by the scene.
After all, that combination was even more shocking than that Muggle-born girl appearing out of nowhere and knowing Draco.
The Weasleys, after all, were a fallen family. Poor, and having abandoned pure-blood pride...
As if he had read the meaning in his father's eyes, Draco raised a fist to his mouth and coughed lightly.
"Ahem. Pansy, give your Broomstick to the Weasley behind me."
"Huh? Oh. Got it."
Pansy froze for a moment when he called her name, then her face lit up as she flew toward Draco.
Strangely, Ginny Weasley, who should have been happy to get away from Draco's side, did not look pleased at all. Instead, the moment she saw Pansy approaching, a faint trace of hostility flashed across her face.
Ginny herself did not notice that reaction, but the surrounding wizards saw it very clearly...
Seeing that, Lucius frowned deeply, but in the end he said nothing to stop it.
Worth mentioning was that Narcissa, standing nearby, seemed oddly excited for some reason. It was as if she had just witnessed something amusing, and a mischievous smile appeared on her face.
Arthur Weasley, on the other hand, did not think too much about it. He only let out a huge sigh of relief, then watched expectantly as Ginny, looking very unwilling, swapped the Broomstick beneath her with Pansy Parkinson.
At this point, any clever wizard had already realized that the situation had not gotten so bad that it would lead to an all out fight...
And that was exactly what Draco wanted.
Staying silent and letting everyone believe he was holding Ginny and the others hostage really could have brought some useful advantages, but Draco did not think now was a good time to make an enemy of Dumbledore's side.
And since Lucius had not stopped him, he was clearly accepting the way things were developing.
That said, once this was over, as Draco's father, Lucius would definitely be having a proper talk with him about all this.
Especially about why Draco was here in the first place, and why he was flying around in the sky with two young witches behind him...