As the saying goes, general against general, king against king.
While Snape and the others held Voldemort in check, the other wizards each found opponents of their own.
The fiercest fighting was undoubtedly between the Werewolf leader Fenrir Greyback and Professor Remus Lupin.
With nothing but vengeance in his eyes, Remus Lupin raised his wand the instant the battle began and lunged straight at Fenrir Greyback, who was watching him with a cold smirk.
As for that,
the other members of the Order of the Phoenix had no intention of stopping Lupin.
They understood all too well how important it was for Lupin to kill Greyback with his own hands, and that this was an opportunity he could not afford to miss.
In the depths of countless midnight dreams, this very chance had appeared before him again and again.
Compared with Remus Lupin, whose twisted expression and bloodshot eyes made him look more like the villain, the Werewolf leader Greyback bared his fangs with far greater composure, even with a faint hint of mockery.
It seemed
he did not take the frenzied Lupin seriously at all.
Or perhaps, as someone who believed werewolves were the strongest beings in the world, he simply did not think much of wizards.
Even Voldemort, who stood not far away, might not inspire the slightest reverence in this Werewolf leader.
...
Apart from several major battlefields,
the most eye-catching sight was probably the combat unit organized by Draco.
Although this combat unit was made up entirely of underage young wizards, the fighting power they displayed astonished everyone.
Draco in particular, riding a fire-breathing Dragon and using hit-and-run tactics, was nothing short of a nightmare for the dark creatures stuck on the ground with no way to defend against attacks from the air.
Each time he charged into the battlefield, he instantly cleared out an entire stretch of ground, leaving behind only charred corpses swept over by dragon's breath.
It was precisely because Draco and Norberta were there that the gap left by Lucius and the others, who had to keep Voldemort occupied, was held steady, preventing the original front line from collapsing outright.
As time passed, they even began showing signs of pushing the enemy back.
After driving off the Death Eaters who had charged at them again, the Weasleys looked toward Ginny's position in surprise.
"Is that... dear?"
"That's Ginny, all right. Thank goodness."
"She really is safe. And she's already become such an excellent witch."
Because they had received no news of Ginny all this time, the Weasleys had been deeply worried for her safety. Only now did they finally breathe a true sigh of relief, and at the same time, they felt proud of how much she had grown.
Beside them, Nymphadora Tonks, who had just driven back a Werewolf, looked up at the dragon's shadow diving down from high above. "It's because of... Draco, isn't it?"
"He really has done something incredible."
Compared with the slightly relieved Hogwarts side, the dark creatures, who had been thrown into chaos by the Centaurs' rain of arrows and scorched raw by the fire-breathing Dragon overhead, were gradually losing patience.
Especially Barty Crouch Jr. and the other Death Eaters.
If they allowed Draco to keep acting without restraint, then setting aside how much fighting strength they would have left even if they won this war, facing Voldemort's wrath alone would be more than they could bear.
So,
to prevent that from happening, and to avoid disappointing the Great Dark Lord, Voldemort's most loyal servant, Barty Crouch Jr., fixed his gaze on Draco.
He would be the one to snuff out Hogwarts' hope.