"This is..."
Neville looked curiously at Malfoy on the other side of the dueling platform. He tentatively reached out a hand—yep, he wasn't seeing things. There was an invisible barrier in front of him, visible only as a slight distortion in the air when looked at closely.
Just like the ones around the arena.
"...What should we do? We have to help Neville!"
Ron looked a bit anxious. Although he didn't know why the two on the platform hadn't made a move yet, he instinctively turned to Harry, hoping for a constructive suggestion. But his expectations weren't met. After tapping on the barrier, Harry decisively stepped back two paces—
"No, I believe Neville can win..."
As he spoke, Harry's gaze lingered on Neville's left hand inside his pocket, which was bulging slightly. Harry could guess what was in there... Thinking of this, he unconsciously glanced at Malfoy on the opposite side with an expression as if looking at a fool...
After all, Neville had spent a whole day and night preparing and filling in the gaps...
"So... we just watch?"
Ron paused. A few minutes ago, he recalled Neville's fight with the statue, and his anxiety suddenly subsided—he realized that even though it had only been half a year, Neville's change, Harry's change, Hermione's change...
The entire atmosphere at Hogwarts seemed to have shifted too quickly?
"No, of course not..."
Harry paused again and stepped back two more paces. After confirming that his actions didn't attract attention, he shifted his gaze to Goyle and Crabbe, who were crowding around Malfoy—notably Goyle, who was holding a deep blue flaming ring in his hand, still faintly glowing.
Heh heh, Harry subconsciously chuckled. "The rules never said you couldn't steal a ring, right?"
His voice was low as he said this, audible only to Ron and himself. Hearing this, Ron was taken aback, and then his expression became serious, staring at Harry, "No kidding, did William really say that rule? Was I... half a minute late to sleep compared to you guys?"
...
While Harry and Ron were conspiring in whispers, Goyle and Crabbe were crowded around Malfoy, pretending to pat the barrier. Their gestures seemed like they were trying to mimic pre-match preparations like massaging Malfoy's shoulders. Then Goyle, stood on tiptoe—
"Boss, are you really confident?"
But clearly, the barrier was soundproof. Watching Goyle's pudgy face trying hard to mouth words close to the barrier, Malfoy couldn't help but sneer, he made a gesture, pointing at his ear to indicate he couldn't hear, then turned his gaze towards Neville on the other side of the dueling platform—
"If you don't want to suffer, I can barely accept your surrender now—"
"..."
...What the hell is this guy doing?
Watching Malfoy, constantly moving his lips as if saying something, Neville squinted his eyes with difficulty—but unfortunately, he couldn't read lips at all.
"..."
After talking for a long time, a parched Malfoy looked at Neville, who seemed unmoved, and gritted his teeth in anger (it seemed every time he looked up, he forgot the barrier was soundproof... or perhaps he didn't even know there was a barrier?). Malfoy certainly knew about the changes in Longbottom last semester—
William and Flitwick weren't the type like Snape who preferred to employ suppressive teaching methods, nor was their personality as stern as Professor Meow. So in the previous duel club, progress led to awards and praise, while falling behind led to "punishment."
Neville, being one of the top Gryffindor House students in the second and third year, with a well-known dueling route amongst duel club members, had persisted despite it being critiqued by Professor Flitwick and possibly rejected by the Great Britain's Wizard Dueling Competition committee—but clearly, Neville didn't practice dueling just for competitions.
In such circumstances, apart from being still incredibly forgetful, Neville had become much brighter. His eyes sparkled, his walk had become confident, and he even spoke to girls, other than Hermione, without stuttering—
He seemed like a completely different person.
And though Malfoy hadn't crossed wands with Neville, he knew that Neville's plant-and-herb dueling approach was considered to be... a version menace. In the second and third-year scenarios, due to age issues, most students' magical charm accuracy was problematic, not to mention their potency—
But he! Malfoy! Was different!
While last semester might not have been the case, after what happened in July, his performance before the "Dark Lord" made Lucius Malfoy take notice and, despite Narcissa's objections, he helped Draco find a somewhat familiar Auror to serve as a dueling coach for over a month—he was a changed man.
Knowing his transformation, Malfoy was fearless. Once certain that Neville wasn't interested in exchanging banter, Malfoy stopped talking, swiping his neck in a wizard-muggle universal gesture of threat, before raising his magic wand before him.
Seeing Malfoy finally cut the chatter and take action, Neville followed suit, moving his wand into position. Before they could count down, a white number appeared before them, Three, Two, One—