The battlefield, which had been filled with continuous roars, immediately fell into an eerie silence.
Everyone stared at the pale, frail Slytherin girl, unable to hide their astonishment.
Even the Slytherins could hardly believe that Astoria had emerged completely unscathed from Neville's devastating attack.
No, Astoria had been injured.
The sleeve on her left arm had been completely torn away, exposing an arm as fair as jade. The bloody gash on it had stopped bleeding, but the torn sleeve was already soaked through with blood!
Seeing the girl holding her wand as she breathed softly, everyone present was moved.
"Astoria!"
Draco finally snapped out of it. He cried out and ran toward Astoria, while Pansy, Blaise, and Nott also rushed to her side without prior agreement.
Even Neville and the others who had just been confronting the Slytherins hesitated and chose not to stop them.
The four Slytherins gathered around Astoria. Draco took a close look at the wound on her arm, then turned to glare at Neville with a savage expression.
"You should have stayed down, Astoria."
Nott gave Neville a sinister look as well before saying stiffly.
"Just flesh wounds. It's nothing."
Astoria shook her head lightly.
"My Protego blocked most of the spell's damage. I wasn't actually knocked unconscious. I was only pretending."
"Pretending?"
Parkinson tore her gaze away from Astoria's wound and stared wide-eyed at the younger girl, whom she had never liked much because of how close she was to Draco.
"I had planned to wait for a good opportunity—"
Astoria nodded.
"To wait for a good opportunity, one where I could at least take one of them down. But they were all too vigilant. I wasn't absolutely certain... and I couldn't keep pretending any longer—"
Astoria pointed toward Fleur, whose teammates were all gone