While the battle below raged in full force, Draco and the others up in the sky seemed to belong to an entirely different world.
Draco had not quite gone so far as to pick a good spot in full view of everyone, sit down, and leisurely drink tea with dessert, but his complete indifference was still enough to leave people speechless.
Anyone who did not know better might have thought he was just passing by...
Strictly speaking, everything happening below right now, who won, who lost, how it all ended, even what became of Harry Potter, had nothing to do with Draco at all.
From his position, the fiercer the fight between Voldemort and Dumbledore's two factions, the better. Ideally, both sides would end up badly wounded.
That way, his father could sit back and reap the benefits without lifting a finger...
In any case, Draco had already more or less lost interest in the battle and was now thinking about how to leave.
Even with Alastor Moody and the other high level fighters about to enter the fray, Draco did not particularly care.
If there was anything left worth his attention, it was probably only Xenophilius, whose whereabouts were still unknown.
After all, he had fulfilled his side of the promise. What came next was the other party honoring the agreement...
Whether Draco's intentions were too obvious or girls were simply more perceptive, Ginny seemed to notice what he was thinking.
The next second, she leaned forward suspiciously and asked, "You're not thinking of running off, are you?"
If it had been some other hot blooded wizard who cared a great deal about pride, that word, run, might really have provoked him.
Unfortunately, the person in front of Ginny was Draco.
He glanced at her. "I was thinking about where to drop you off."
That flat tone, along with the attitude that made it sound as though she were baggage, instantly made Ginny glare at the back of his head.
Not even sure what exactly she was angry about, Ginny casually pointed somewhere. "Then there is fine. Anyway, it is not like you care whether Luna and I live or die."
"Huh? Ginny, did you just mention me?"
"....."
Luna's blank expression made Ginny freeze, and all at once she did not know what to say. Only then did she realize what she had just blurted out.
Fortunately, what happened next pulled their attention away...
An angry voice suddenly rang out.
"Why are you with this Death Eater, Ginny?!"
The speaker had the same red hair.
It was Ron Weasley, also on a Broomstick, glaring at Draco and the others with a dark expression.
You could see that Ron Weasley, now in front of Draco, was not just pale faced. His eyes looked as though they might pop out of their sockets the next second.
What confused Ginny most was that when Ron confronted her like that, the first thing that actually flashed through her heart was a trace of guilt.
What exactly did she have to feel guilty about?
Very quickly, though, Ron Weasley's accusing tone made her furious.
The way he was looking at her made Ginny feel as though she had done something truly vile...
...
Come to think of it, after separating from Harry Potter, Ron Weasley had originally planned to stay hidden in the sky and decide whether to act based on the situation.
But now, instead of going down to help or taking Harry Potter away from the battlefield, Ron Weasley, who was supposed to be coordinating with Harry Potter, had come out to question what he was seeing here.
On the surface, it looked like he was worried about Ginny.
But everyone knew the real reason.
It was simply because the person involved was Draco...
"Ron! Why are you here? Did George come too?"
Ginny's guess was right. If she looked toward Harry Potter now, she would definitely see George standing with Fred, looking after Harry Potter, who was in so much pain he was practically about to pass out.
And yet Ron Weasley, Harry Potter's friend, had completely ignored Harry Potter's condition and come straight to Draco to question his own sister...
"That is what I should be asking. Why are you with this Death Eater, Ginny, and... why are you hugging him!"
"Who... who is hugging him?!"
Maybe it was because of the distance and angle, but Ginny did not notice the anger on Ron's face. Instead, what he said made her cheeks flush red.
The hand she had resting at Draco's waist jerked back as if shocked.
But that guilty looking reaction only made Ron, who had witnessed everything, even angrier.
Hatred did not just blind people. It also made them ignore the feelings of everyone around them.
"Aren't you afraid Harry will be angry if you do this?"
"Huh? Why would Harry be angry? And can you calm down? I will explain when we get back."
"What is there to explain? I am very calm right now. Besides, I know, you like Harry, don't you?"
The moment he said that, even Luna, who usually paid little attention to the siblings, looked at Ron Weasley with a strange expression.
Had he even thought before saying that?
She had no idea whether it was true or not, but that kind of disrespectful behavior was enough to make even Luna, who normally did not care much about anything, feel angry for her friend.
Ginny, as the person directly involved, felt it even more sharply.
The faint flush on Ginny's face vanished at once, turning pale before reddening all over again.
It was the reaction of being hurt by her own brother, and also the anger brought on by how completely he had disrespected her...
But Ron, whose heart was already clouded by hatred, did not realize what he had just done. He only continued glaring furiously at Draco Malfoy, who had ignored him from beginning to end.
"You are with them after all, aren't you? Just as I thought. You got some kind of information, captured Ginny and the others, and now you want to use them to threaten us!"
"...."
"I am not going to let you get away with it!"
Watching Ron Weasley grow excited as though he had uncovered some vicious plot, Draco merely frowned in silence.
He stayed silent because he could not be bothered to respond to such clownish behavior.
As for the frown, that was because the little witch behind him was tugging at his robe a bit too hard.
At that moment, Ginny's trembling apology reached his ears.
"I am sorry. I did not know Ron would..."
Draco was the one who had saved her, yet Ron, her own family, refused to hear her explanation and was even acting as though he meant to attack him. The shame of it made Ginny want the ground to swallow her whole.
Hearing that, Draco turned his head and glanced at Ginny, who did not dare meet his eyes, then looked toward Ron Weasley, who actually dared to point a wand at him.
Draco had not intended to start trouble.
But at that moment, a dangerous gleam flashed through his eyes...
...
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