Following Ravenclaw and the others from a distance through the corridor, the atmosphere among the Gryffindor group became heavier and heavier.
The mockery and contempt from the Ravenclaws earlier were understandable, but everyone still had a fire burning inside them.
They wished they could rush onto the battlefield right now, prove themselves, and slap those people hard in the face.
As they moved forward, the bloodstains in the corridor became more and more numerous, and faint shouts and explosions could be heard from the distance.
Not only that, but when they reached the latter half of the corridor, a large amount of damage appeared throughout the passage, as if someone had unleashed extremely powerful offensive spells there.
The ground was covered with scorched marks. Large patches of black and yellow residue were stuck tightly to the floor, and around them lay many stone limbs and fragments of armor.
These were the remains of Hogwarts' magical armor and golems.
Both creations had been built and left behind by the Four Founders during Hogwarts' earliest days, and later generations of headmasters had tirelessly maintained and improved them.
By now, their raw strength and magical resistance had reached a terrifying level. They were Hogwarts' eternal and steadfast guardians.
Their appearance made Neville, Ron, and the others all breathe a sigh of relief.
They had been wondering how the Ravenclaws had managed to chase those two hooded figures so easily and even kill no fewer than three others in the corridors. Earlier, they had paid a heavy price just to deal with that fat hooded man.
Now, the answer had been revealed.
With the help of magical armor and golems, battles really did become much easier.
This discovery restored the Gryffindors' confidence.
The gap between them and the Ravenclaws was not as large as they had imagined.
With the same support, they could do what the Ravenclaws had done.
Or even better.
Thinking this, Neville and Ron exchanged glances.
Smiles appeared on the faces of the two of them and the Gryffindors behind them.
The Gryffindors had long had their own image of what war looked like.
Countless stories had already proven that the battlefield was the best stage for displaying courage. Therefore, the Gryffindors, whose reputation was built on bravery, were not very afraid of war.
Instead, they looked forward to it.
Every Gryffindor boy had imagined himself riding a Pegasus across the battlefield with a wand in hand.
Even Neville, who had once been timid and insecure, was no exception.
In fact, the battlefield in Neville's imagination was even richer and more realistic.
Because Neville was one of the few people willing to seriously attend History of Magic classes.
Through those dull lectures and texts, Neville could almost personally experience the magnificent scenes of magical and artillery fire roaring together on the battlefields of extraordinary creatures, with giants and dragons fighting side by side.
But even so, when he turned a corner and officially entered the huge staircase shaft where the magical spiral stairs were located, his entire body suddenly froze.
At the top of the massive Hogwarts staircase shaft, dozens of French wizards wearing hooded cloaks were desperately waving their wands.
Blocking them were endless streams of golems and magical armor pouring out from the various passages surrounding the shaft.
Empowered by Hogwarts' overall magical strength, these puppets glowed with blue magical light and charged fearlessly into the green magical barrage.
Below the shaft, much closer to Neville and the others, stood the entire teaching staff, including Professor McGonagall, Professor Flitwick, and the other top professors. Even the newly arrived Divination professor, the centaur Firenze, was struggling to draw his bow.
Neville also saw many students from the other houses.
Among them, Hufflepuff and Slytherin had the largest numbers.
Under John's and Draco's leadership, they had formed dense formations and were rhythmically launching spells upward.
Not only that, but in the passages around the shaft where the golems and magical armor emerged, many upper-year students wearing Hogwarts uniforms were stationed. Using the puppets and walls as cover, they occasionally fired spells.
Though their numbers were small, their results were actually on par with the formal formation below.
As for the magical staircases that had once moved in fixed patterns within the shaft, they had long since vanished.
In their place were roaring flames, magical lights, flying stone fragments, and scorched pieces of flesh raining down.
Looking at this real battlefield before him, Neville felt as though a bucket of cold water had been poured over his head.
The hot blood in his chest instantly cooled, and even his hands and feet turned cold.
"What are you standing around for? Hurry up and help!"
A roar suddenly rang out, waking Neville and the others.
He blankly looked toward the source of the voice and discovered that the Ravenclaws who had led them there had already joined the battle. They had formed their own group beside the Hufflepuff and Slytherin formations.
Their numbers were much smaller than the other two houses, leaving many gaps in their formation.
And those gaps seemed to have been left specifically for the Gryffindors.
"Oh! Oh! Got it!", Neville shouted.
Without hesitating any longer, he led the Gryffindors to quickly fill the empty spaces and begin firing upward together.
Large-scale spell battles were not chaotic free-for-alls.
Different groups had to take turns with their attacks in an organized pattern to ensure that their side's firepower would not leave openings because of spellcasting and magical preparation.
And to prevent enemies from becoming familiar with their attack rhythm, the entire group's timing had to be changed from time to time.
Neville, Ron, and the other Gryffindors had already learned these techniques systematically during the D.A. Army.
But actually putting them into practice still felt awkward.
Fortunately, Professor McGonagall and Professor Flitwick had already noticed the arrival of the Gryffindors and Ravenclaws.
The moment Neville's formation took shape, the two professors stepped to the front and used their own attacks to guide everyone's firing rhythm.
And only after truly joining the battle instead of watching from the sidelines did Neville and the others realize the pressure the Hogwarts allied forces were under.
The enemies above were simply too powerful.
Although they lacked Hogwarts' level of coordination and fought more like unfamiliar temporary teams, their rich combat experience, overwhelming individual strength, and advantageous terrain still gave them absolute superiority.
Most of the volleys from the Hogwarts side were easily dodged or blocked.
Only a few unlucky enemies entangled by the puppets were struck by the allied spells and turned into scorched chunks of flesh that drifted downward.
On the other hand, for the Hogwarts alliance...
Even with the puppets blocking the enemy and the professors using their shields with all their strength, green Killing Curse beams would occasionally shoot into the students' formations from strange angles.
And every flash of green meant the disappearance of a life.
The casualty ratio between Hogwarts and the hooded figures had reached a shocking ten to one.
It could almost be called a massacre.
Such tremendous pressure made Ron and Neville struggle to breathe.
But they still persevered, waving their wands while slowly making their way toward Professor McGonagall.
Professor McGonagall's face was already pale to the extreme, and her thin lips trembled tightly together.
This was a sign that she was furious.
Students from every house kept dying as green lights flashed around her.
Scene after scene made Professor McGonagall want to throw herself forward and take their place.
But reason kept her where she was, forcing her to cooperate with Professor Flitwick to cast even stronger protective spells.
At that moment, she also noticed Ron and Neville struggling to squeeze their way toward her.
Her expression sharpened, and she roared, "Get back! It's too dangerous here! And where are the younger students? How are they doing?"
As soon as McGonagall finished speaking, a Killing Curse struck beside her at lightning speed, burning a large black scar into the ground.
Ron and Neville both shrank back in fright.
But they did not retreat. They continued moving forward and shouted, "Professor McGonagall, don't worry! They've all been placed in the Gryffindor common room."
"Hermione and the others are protecting them! But... but Joseph and Wade are dead, and Lani... Lani is badly injured!"
By the end, both Neville's and Ron's voices were trembling.
Hearing this, a dark color appeared on Professor McGonagall's pale face.
As Head of Gryffindor House, she knew every student in the house, and naturally she knew the three names Ron and Neville had mentioned.
She could even recall all the things those three children had done that had made people laugh and cry.
And now they were dead...
The overwhelming anger caused her spellcasting to pause for a moment.
But the next second, her towering rage transformed into power.
Magic surged out and formed a semi-transparent pillar of light that shot into the sky.
Like a giant eraser, it directly wiped away everything covered by the beam, including two hooded figures, turning them into nothingness.
The Vanishing Spell.
An advanced Transfiguration spell.
And also one of the hardest subjects in the O.W.L. exams.
Neville and Ron both recognized the spell.
Precisely because they recognized it, they were so shocked they nearly lost the ability to speak.
Even in their wildest dreams, they had never imagined the Vanishing Spell could be used like this.
It was simply too difficult.
The Transfiguration skill and magical power required were beyond what humans should be capable of.
And correspondingly, such difficulty brought terrifying destructive power.
Finally, Ron recovered from his shock first.
Anxiously, he fired a Disarming Charm into the air and shouted again, "Professor McGonagall, have you seen Harry?"
"Harry?"
Having just recovered from the backlash of the giant Vanishing Spell, Professor McGonagall looked at Ron in surprise.
"What happened to Harry?"
"He's missing! He was still sleeping in the dormitory with us last night, but when we woke up, he was gone! What, he's not here either?"
Ron sounded bitter.
He had originally guessed that Harry had discovered the attack while wandering at night and had come here to fight.
But seeing Professor McGonagall's expression, that hope had clearly been crushed.
'Then where could Harry have gone?
Had he hidden somewhere else?
Or had he already...
Ron's eyes reddened, and he did not dare think further.
But the turmoil in Professor McGonagall's heart was no less than Ron's.
As the Head of Gryffindor and Dumbledore's longtime colleague, she had noticed some of Dumbledore's plans.
Especially the relationships and conflicts among Snape, Harry, and Dumbledore.
She knew more than most people.
And now Harry was missing.
Coincidentally, the Slytherin students had previously reported that their Head of House, Snape, had also disappeared.
But was it really just a coincidence?
Professor McGonagall forcibly suppressed her chaotic thoughts and increasingly heavy breathing.
She raised her head and looked at the shaft, which looked like hell under the flashes of explosions and spells, and unconsciously called Dumbledore's name in her heart.
She believed she was not the only one doing so.
Because now, the only person who could save Hogwarts was Dumbledore.
But another serious problem remained.
These hooded figures had suddenly poured in from the eighth floor, where the headmaster's office was located.
This gave McGonagall a bad feeling.
'Albus, could it be that you have already...'
BOOM!
As if answering the question in her heart, an explosion louder than anything before suddenly rang out.
The blue stone wall at the edge of the shaft, reinforced by magic, was blasted open with a huge hole.
Flying rocks crushed many people into pulp.
But no one cared about such small matters anymore.
Because through the breach in the shaft wall, everyone could clearly see Dumbledore floating in the sky and fighting back and forth with a young man holding a sword.
Dumbledore had almost become a blazing sun.
The fierce golden-white holy light filled the sky, and the massive spheres of light it created mercilessly smashed the young man and his blood-red aura into the ground again and again.
It was as though Dumbledore was venting his anger over the damage the young man had done to Hogwarts' outer walls.
As the blood-red light and golden-white holy radiance clashed, powerful shockwaves mixed with magic spread outward.
Under the effect of those shockwaves, giant waves rose across the surface of the Black Lake, and the Forbidden Forest in the distance swayed continuously.
In the nearest areas, even fine cracks in space had appeared.
This was a battle at the legendary level!
Witnessing this scene with their own eyes, both sides inside the castle shaft stood there in a daze and forgot to attack.