Although he did not believe Albus Dumbledore and Lucius Malfoy could sit down and have a proper talk, much less reach the kind of temporary cooperation Ginny had suggested, Draco had no intention of continuing to hide behind a girl.
Besides, Draco had already realized that the Mr. Potter in front of him had clearly set his sights on him. In fact, the wand in Harry Potter's hand was indeed angled faintly in his direction.
Ginny had simply been unlucky enough to become Harry Potter's outlet for anger.
For all Draco knew, Harry Potter might have been targeting him from the very beginning...
Still, there was one thing Draco could not quite understand.
Who exactly had given Harry Potter the courage to raise his wand and act like this?
Even if Harry Potter was not entirely rational right now, he should not have done something this reckless. The sense of déjà vu reminded Draco of Ron Weasley back then.
He did not know whether it was only his imagination, but the two of them seemed to share a certain resemblance.
And once Draco realized that, his vigilance rose as well instead of continuing to dismiss Harry Potter...
In any case, Draco could not quite tell what Harry Potter was thinking right now.
Was he really going to choose a moment like this to attack him?
Unless Harry Potter no longer cared whether he could graduate from Hogwarts safely.
And not only that, Draco could even see that strange smile on Harry Potter's face, as if this were exactly the scene he had been waiting for all along.
...
Whether Harry Potter was acting on impulse or not, Draco's strength was beyond question. That was not the sort of fact Harry Potter could simply deny away.
In truth, even Harry Potter himself knew perfectly well that he could not beat the Draco standing in front of him.
Especially after seeing with his own eyes how Draco had dealt with those Death Eaters, Harry Potter had long since felt hopeless about ever catching up to him.
But... that was the Harry Potter of the past.
He quietly flexed his somewhat stiff body, and now, beneath that furious expression, there was even a trace of excitement and eagerness on Harry Potter's face...
On the surface, Harry Potter looked as though he had lost his mind in humiliation and rage, but only he himself knew just how calm he really was now.
Silently recalling everything written in that book, Harry Potter kept encouraging himself in his heart.
You can do this!!
Haven't you succeeded so many times already?!
I've earned praise from plenty of professors because of it. Even Granger lost to me.
Even this guy in front of me, I can defeat him with the powerful spells I learned!
That kind of self-encouragement seemed to work very well.
And it also proved that Harry Potter's actions right now were not entirely the mindless recklessness of someone blinded by anger.
He had his own plan.
You could see confidence gradually filling Harry Potter's eyes again, the confidence he had once lost, and the wand pointed at Draco became noticeably steadier.
It was as if, in his mind, victory in this clash was already certain.
He was no longer the person he used to be.
This was a brand-new Harry Potter.
And the source of that confidence seemed to be the old book he had gotten in Potions class. It had even given him the courage to stand against Draco...
...
In the air, the surge of magic suddenly blew the surrounding snowflakes upward.
That display alone was enough to show why Dumbledore valued Harry Potter so highly.
Perhaps if a monster of a wizard like Draco had never appeared, Harry Potter might have drawn even more attention and basked fully in the glorious halo of the savior.
Feeling the pain from the scar on his forehead, Harry Potter still did not forget, before making his move, to tell Ginny and the others to get away from Draco.
"I'll say it again. Get away from him!"
That lofty, overbearing tone made Ginny let out a disappointed sigh.
She could not understand why Harry Potter had become so unfamiliar, just like Ron...
Sure enough, Ginny refused Harry Potter yet again.
"No! I'm going to tell everyone about this! Especially Dumbledore. He would never want to see you like this."
"Dumbledore would definitely agree with me, because this is justice!!"
The hand gripping his wand was clenched so hard the knuckles had gone pale, showing that Harry Potter was already on the verge of exploding.
The hesitation that had still lingered in his heart was steadily hardening under Ginny's repeated defiance.
He would make Ginny understand that Draco was absolutely not the person she thought he was.
Absolutely!!
...
Across from him, Draco, who had not stopped Ginny from staying, focused his attention on the surrounding situation.
Despite all the commotion here, and despite the magical power bursting out of Harry Potter being as obvious as sunrise itself, Draco still had not seen a single other student appear, much less any local wizard stepping in to stop them.
It was as if everything had been arranged in advance.
Thinking of something, Draco quickly shot a glance toward Honeydukes, which had suddenly gone silent.
"So that's it... a wide-area Disillusionment Charm, plus Muffliato?"
Only a layered combination of large-scale spells that could affect a wizard's senses could hide everything happening here so quietly.
But what was the purpose of doing this?
Feeling as though he had fallen into someone else's scheme, Draco frowned hard.
And just as Draco noticed that something was wrong, Harry Potter on the other side had already stopped caring about the consequences.
The restless magic abruptly calmed, and Harry Potter's wand traced an arc that made Draco freeze for a moment...
Though it was a Nonverbal Spell, Draco still recognized it instantly.
Right before their eyes, the snow-covered ground suddenly split apart, sliced open by something invisible.
Faced with the churning wind and snow, Ginny and Luna both showed shocked expressions.
The familiar disturbance made even Ginny, who was not especially afraid, cry out.
"Isn't that your..."
Before she could finish, the invisible blade was already upon Draco and the others.
In response, Draco stepped forward and drew the wand hidden inside his snake-headed cane.
It was also a Nonverbal Spell.
The difference was that Draco's spell spread out into a translucent barrier that enveloped all three of them...