At the same time Kreacher was at the Draco Constellation Base, the wizard who had saved Minerva McGonagall arrived at her side.
Seen from a distance, the chaotic magic above Hogwarts Castle had formed an eerie magical cloud.
The glow of spells painted the night sky like a canvas, staining it with all kinds of colors.
Anyone who noticed the scene would surely be drawn in by such a wondrous sight, yet they would also feel an indescribable fear from it.
Beautiful and dangerous.
That was the charm of magic, and its destructive power.
But Minerva McGonagall, who was standing in the middle of the battlefield, had no time to pay attention to such a sight.
She had only just narrowly survived a brush with death.
After taking a deep breath and steadying her chaotic magic, Minerva McGonagall kept her eyes fixed on Bellatrix before her. Only then did she glance from the corner of her eye at the wizard beside her who had just saved her. "...Lucius!?"
As the newcomer removed his hood, what appeared before everyone was that pale blond hair so iconic in the magical world, along with those gray-white eyes possessed only by members of the Malfoy family.
The foremost of the Sacred Twenty-Eight, the current head of the Malfoy family, and, after Dumbledore's death, the leader of the only wizarding alliance with enough weight to oppose the Dark Lord.
Lucius Malfoy!
...
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!
Boom, boom, boom!
Magic tore through the night sky.
The instant Lucius Malfoy revealed his identity, spells suddenly shot in from behind, blasting those dark creatures into chaos.
This sudden support gave the Hogwarts professors, who had only just been barely holding on, a little room to breathe.
No...
With the arrival of these elites from the wizarding alliance, the dark creatures, whose only real advantage had been their numbers, were simply no match for these wizards.
If not for the Death Eaters and the fact that their trump card had yet to be revealed, then the moment Lucius and the others appeared, victory in this magical war might already have been assured.
After all, these noble wizards from various sides were no worse than the Death Eaters when it came to mastery of dark magic. In fact, many of them were far beyond them.
Yet in such an obvious situation, one anyone could see was problematic, Bellatrix, who stood before Lucius Malfoy, still wore a relaxed, natural expression. She showed no change at all because of the Giants' deaths.
Let alone helping them, her cold attitude made it impossible to see that they were supposed to be allies.
Just as Minerva McGonagall watched her warily, Bellatrix suddenly flicked the wand in her hand. "It's been a long time... Lucius."
"Yes. I didn't expect that when we met again, it would be like this."
"Why..."
"..."
"Why did you betray the Master, Lucius!"
One moment ago, she had looked as delighted as if she were greeting an old friend. In the next, Bellatrix's twisted expression made one wonder whether this woman had some kind of madness.
How could her attitude change so drastically?
Just as Minerva McGonagall thought this, Lucius's voice reached her ear.
"Leave this to me. You have something more important to do, don't you? Hogwarts'... Deputy Headmistress."
"..."
Watching Lucius Malfoy walk toward Bellatrix, the thought she had just had of helping him vanished instantly because of those words.
Just as Lucius Malfoy had said.
Compared with charging into the front lines, there was indeed somewhere she was needed more.