Amid the groans, Manus made no further move. He turned back to the stained-glass window and quietly waited for a professor to arrive.
Hm?
A few seconds later, as most of Manus's attention returned to Hogsmeade Village, he felt a flicker of surprise.
It wasn't because he had lost track of Hogsmeade Village and was startled by a change there. With Mechanized Mind, what he had just done had required very little attention.
What surprised Manus was McGonagall's appearance in Hogsmeade Village. As he recalled, Dumbledore would never let the Hogwarts professors truly join the fight against Voldemort.
Then again, that might have changed. Voldemort had broken their unspoken understanding first. Staky hadn't died, but Voldemort had tried to kill her. He simply hadn't succeeded.
McGonagall hadn't shown herself to intervene, either. Manus had noticed her only because she had arrived in her Animagus form and found Dumbledore...
Manus didn't have to keep most of his attention on Hogsmeade Village for long. Slughorn arrived.
Broad and heavyset, the professor was always late to clashes between Gryffindor and Slytherin. This time, he moved with astonishing speed, arriving even before Flitwick.
Perhaps his longer stride helped...
In any case, the professor arrived quickly, his face full of worry and urgency. But when he saw the scene behind the Great Hall, both gave way to shock.
"What...?"
To someone who knew nothing of what had happened, the scene looked like hell itself. The Slytherin students scattered across the ground barely had the strength to cry out anymore.
Once the initial rush of adrenaline wore off, blood loss and intense pain left them either moaning weakly on the ground or lying completely still. They looked dead.
"Horace, why are you standing there? I'm telling you, if any of my—Merlin!"
Slughorn was blocking the way