The two hooded men were still struggling and screaming on the ground.
But everyone's attention was now focused on the approaching footsteps below.
Neville reacted first. He frantically made tactical hand signals, ordering everyone back to their positions to hide, while he himself stood on the stairs with his wand raised, staring downward.
As the footsteps drew closer and closer, Neville felt his heart beating faster and faster. Nervousness slowly seeped into every part of his body, causing his muscles to tense up more and more.
Someone who could take down those two hooded men in one strike, just how terrifying would they be?
If they really were enemies, could they fight them?
All of this put tremendous pressure on Neville.
But he still chose to stay, because there was a guess he wanted to confirm.
Finally, more than ten figures slowly emerged from below the stairs.
Neville was almost unable to hold back another attack.
But the next moment, when he saw who they were, he suddenly let out a sigh of relief and turned to signal Ron and the others to stop attacking.
Because all of the people who had appeared were wearing Ravenclaw uniforms.
Among them were even several familiar faces Neville had seen at D.A. meetings.
"Arthur, so it's you guys!"
Neville led Ron and the others out from the shadows and greeted the Ravenclaw leading the group with a smile.
But Arthur showed no sign of smiling.
His gaze swept over Neville and the others before finally stopping on Ron. He said coldly, "I think I just heard someone saying Ravenclaws are cowards?"
Ron froze. He wanted to argue, but no words came out. He could only lower his head unhappily.
Because he had already noticed that although the Ravenclaws weren't many, many of them were stained with blood and had bandages over their injuries.
This showed that they had joined the battle to protect Hogwarts earlier than the Gryffindors and had already been fighting for quite some time.
If they really counted it, they themselves were the late-coming cowards.
"At a time like this, we're all comrades, we're all on the same side. Stop arguing. If you ask me, we should deal with these two hooded men first."
Neville stepped forward and stood between Arthur and Ron, smiling as he tried to mediate.
Only, his smile was somewhat forced.
Because Ron and Arthur had always been enemies.
Back when the D.A. had first been established, the two of them would fight every few days, and things only got worse later.
As for the reason, Neville felt it was probably because Arthur shared the exact same name as Ron's father and because Arthur himself liked showing off.
Fortunately, Arthur knew what was important. After hearing Neville's advice, he only glared at Ron one last time before walking toward the two hooded men.
Neville let out a sigh of relief.
Several other Gryffindors scratched their heads and stepped forward to help.
Controlling these two hooded men according to the methods taught by the D.A. wasn't easy. Having more people would make things easier.
But to their surprise, Arthur, who was leading the Ravenclaws, only waved his hand at their offer to help.
Then everyone saw two senior Ravenclaw boys behind Arthur casually pull out their wands and point them at the hooded men.
Puff! Puff!
Two iron spikes appeared out of nowhere and violently pierced through the hooded men's brains.
Seeing this, nearly all the Gryffindors froze, their faces filled with disbelief.
Just like Slytherins were called little Death Eaters, Hufflepuffs were called idiots, and Gryffindors were called brainless brutes.
Ravenclaw naturally had its own insulting nickname among the other three houses.
Bookworms.
And yet these bookworms had just killed two people right in front of them without even blinking.
How strange was that?
Among everyone present, only wizards like Neville, who came from traditional pure-blood families, could barely remain calm.
Because only they had learned through family education what Ravenclaws were really like.
Ravenclaws were nowhere near as harmless as they appeared.
Back in the day, not all Death Eaters had come from Slytherin.
A large number of them had been Ravenclaws.
And these Ravenclaws held very high positions within the Death Eaters and used extremely cruel methods.
Their exceptional intelligence gave them greater power and made it easier for them to see through the truth of the world, making them more rational and colder.
Without proper guidance, they would become the most terrifying demons.
Meanwhile, seeing the Gryffindors' reactions, Arthur curled his lips and said, "Don't tell me you still wanted to leave them to the Department of Magical Law Enforcement for trial? Come on, what's the value in keeping trash like this alive? They'll die after being judged anyway, so why not kill them now? It'll save some oxygen and food."
Arthur's words were full of contempt for the Gryffindors, but this time Ron wasn't angry. Instead, he said with a complicated expression, "But private executions are illegal. Aren't you afraid of being held responsible and ruining your futures?"
As soon as those words came out, the atmosphere in the stairwell instantly became heavy.
The Ravenclaws stared expressionlessly at the Gryffindors. After a long while, the two Ravenclaws who had just killed the hooded men snorted.
"Future? Who cares about that?!"
After being hit with that reply, Ron and the other Gryffindors were speechless.
Who in this world didn't care about their future?
But looking at the bloodstains and bandages on the Ravenclaws, Ron soon showed a thoughtful expression.
He thought of Wade, who had just died, and the tortured Lani and Joseph.
These Ravenclaws must have witnessed the deaths of their companions too.
That was why they were so angry.
"Enough nonsense, Ron and Neville. You Gryffindors came out too late. The battle started long ago. I'll explain the current situation."
Arthur stopped the two Ravenclaws from saying more and stepped forward.
Neville and the Gryffindors immediately straightened up.
"The enemies we're facing tonight are all wizards from France. We don't know how they infiltrated Hogwarts, but there's no doubt that every single one of them possesses strength comparable to Aurors, or even top-class Aurors. They must not be underestimated!", Arthur widened his eyes as he spoke.
"At present, the main force of the French wizards has been blocked by the professors in the magical staircase passage above the castle's main entrance hall. Hufflepuffs and Slytherins are also providing support there."
"We Ravenclaws were ordered to patrol and search the entire Hogwarts castle, both to protect the younger students still in their common rooms and to notify you Gryffindors."
"Now, the message has been delivered! Since you've already assembled your own team, according to the orders of the D.A. Student Self-Government Committee, you are to immediately follow us to the entrance hall passage and provide support!"
"Yes, sir!"
Neville, Ron, and the others almost instinctively shouted respectfully.
At that moment, the object of their respect was not Arthur standing before them, but the order he had conveyed.
Likewise, Arthur and the Ravenclaws all wore solemn and sacred expressions.
Of course, this serious atmosphere didn't last long.
More accurately, it disappeared when the Gryffindors actually began following the Ravenclaws downstairs.
The atmosphere between the two groups returned to normal.
Aside from Neville and the unconvinced Ron, the other Gryffindors even deliberately kept some distance from the Ravenclaws.
After all, they had just seen them kill people.
During this time, Arthur was also observing the number of Gryffindors.
This should have been done immediately upon meeting them, but because he trusted the bravery of Gryffindor too much, he had delayed it until now.
And when he finally counted the Gryffindors and found there were fewer than thirty, his expression completely changed.
"Why are there so few of you? Where are the rest of the students?", Arthur asked anxiously.
Hearing the concern in his tone, Neville said, "We sent the rest back. Don't worry, most of them are fine."
"Are you sure they were sent back and didn't run away?"
"What do you mean by that?"
"I mean exactly what I said. They didn't lose their nerve and flee, did they?"
Neville's face darkened, and he stared into Arthur's eyes.
"I won't allow you to slander them like that. I demand an apology!"
"Why should I apologize? Hogwarts is facing life and death right now..."
"Of course we know that, which is why we left the common room. We came to protect Hogwarts!"
"But only this many of you came!" Arthur roared. "The situation is this severe, yet only this many of you showed up. Isn't that a fact?"
"And how many of you came?" Ron finally snapped. "From what I can see, there are even fewer Ravenclaws than Gryffindors!"
As soon as Ron said that, Neville noticed that the already strange looks from the Ravenclaws immediately became much more hostile.
He hurriedly stepped between them again.
"Ron, shut up and get to the back! And Arthur, I think you should understand our side too. In fact, before meeting you, we also fought an encounter battle."
"One companion sacrificed himself to save a girl, and the rest were escorting them back to the common room!"
"You don't need to explain, Neville. To me, these all sound like excuses. Do you think we made it here without fighting? Without losing companions? Believe me, what we've gone through has been far more dangerous than you can imagine!"
As he spoke, Arthur turned to Ron.
"You asked me how many Ravenclaws came. I can tell you clearly. Every Ravenclaw student from fifth year and above who passed their O.W.L.s has thrown themselves into this war!"
"As for the numbers from Slytherin and Hufflepuff, I suggest you count them yourself when we get there. I guarantee you'll be so ashamed you'll want to die! Brave Gryffindors!"
"You..."
Ron was furious and wanted to rush forward and fight Arthur, but Neville held him back.
Arthur led the Ravenclaws farther away, deliberately putting distance between them and the Gryffindors, staying ahead only to guide the way.
"Neville, why did you stop me? Didn't you hear what they said? Those damn bookworms!"
Ron was still shouting angrily, and the Gryffindors behind him all looked equally indignant.
If not for the urgency of Hogwarts' situation, they would have already fought the Ravenclaws.
Seeing this, Neville first wiped the spit Ron had sprayed onto his face and then pointed bitterly toward a corner of the corridor.
Following his finger, everyone discovered the corpse of a hooded man.
Not far from it was a large pool of dark blood.
There was so much blood that it clearly wasn't splashed there during battle.
It looked more like an injured person, or a corpse, had lain there with open wounds for a long time.
And there were many similar bloodstains along the entire long corridor.
Everyone present was shaken.
Because those Ravenclaws had just come through this corridor.
Which meant that this blood either belonged to the hooded men or to the Ravenclaws.
Between those two choices, the latter was obviously more likely.
Because from the corpse before them and the two hooded men killed earlier, it was clear that the Ravenclaws had no intention of dealing with enemy bodies.
Ron turned to look at the Ravenclaws' retreating backs.
The anger on his face gradually gave way to guilt.
When he first saw the bloodstains on them, he had guessed they might have witnessed the deaths of their teammates.
But he hadn't expected reality to be so cruel.
At this moment, Ron felt that he was beginning to understand Arthur and the others.
These Ravenclaws had truly given everything for Hogwarts.
Their sacrifices were even greater than he had imagined.
Putting himself in Arthur's place, Ron felt that if he had been Arthur, he might have cursed even more harshly.
"Hoo..."
Ron took a deep breath and patted Neville's arm, signaling him to let go.
Then, with a serious expression, he said to everyone behind him, "Let's go. It's time for us to do what we should do. We absolutely can't let others look down on us!"