Chapter 779: Unsportsmanlike Conduct
Chapter 779: Unsportsmanlike Conduct
The appearance of Kyle and his companions took the Death Eaters by surprise. Perhaps, in their opinion, it was impossible for Aurors to arrive so soon, so they never expected reinforcements to arrive so quickly.
Taking advantage of their distraction, some shop owners reacted swiftly, turning the tables and launching their own attacks against the Death Eaters.
The situation was reversed in an instant.
"Stunned!" Kyle shouted as he knocked another Death Eater off their feet. Just as he was about to switch opponents, he suddenly noticed a strange-colored smoke wafting towards them.
At the same time, an indescribable stench assaulted his nostrils, piercing straight to his brain as if the whole world had become transparent!
"Ugh..."
Kyle barely held back his dinner, immediately abandoning the idea of continuing the fight. Instead, he cast a Bubble-Head Charm on himself.
Only after taking these measures did he dare to breathe deeply, instantly feeling much more comfortable.
"Fred! George!" Kyle's voice sounded a bit muffled due to the layer of bubbles, but his anger was evident. "Can't you use some more conventional methods?"
"This is perfectly normal!" Fred blinked innocently through the mist. "As owners of a joke shop, what's wrong with using a few magical props in battle? It's good publicity for our shop."
"And it's a great way to advertise!" George added, unaffected by the smell as well. "You know times are tough, and we haven't had customers in a while."
With that, the twins waved at Kyle and dashed towards the area with the highest concentration of Death Eaters, pulling out more Stink Pellets.
Seeing this, Kyle could only hurry over to Mr. Weasley, who hadn't yet realized what was happening, and remind him to cast a Bubble-Head Charm for protection.
As more and more Stink Pellets exploded, the foul smell began to permeate Diagon Alley. Fred and George, the instigators of this stinky situation, instantly became the most unpopular people around, causing others to avoid them like the plague.
Not just the Death Eaters, but even the shop owners who had been working with them subconsciously ran in the opposite direction to get as far away as possible.
It was unbearable—the smell was just too overwhelming.
...
Due to Fred and George's unsportsmanlike conduct, the battle ended in a dramatic fashion.
Out of the thirty-three Death Eaters, not a single one escaped. They were all bound and tossed to the side.
It wasn't that they had a sense of honor and chose not to flee; they simply had no choice.
The putrid smell spread too quickly, carried by the wind until it filled the entire street, leaving no place to hide.
More importantly, the average wizard found it incredibly difficult to concentrate under the influence of such a powerful stench. Unless one possessed tremendous willpower and self-control, it was impossible to Apparate.
And none of the people present had that level of self-control.
As a result, the combat effectiveness of the Death Eaters decreased by half, if not more, and they were swiftly taken down one by one by Kyle and Mr. Weasley.
A few individuals who attempted to flee also ended up leaving something behind... whether it was a leg or an arm.
One unfortunate soul left their head behind as their body fled. Since Kyle didn't know their destination, he couldn't even help reattach their head if he wanted to.
Of course, he didn't particularly want to. If he remembered correctly, this particular individual had been the most raucous during the attack on the shop owners, clearly enjoying the mayhem.
This outcome wasn't necessarily bad. If their body managed to return before the protective magic of their Disapparition wore off, there was still a chance to reattach their head.
But if they didn't make it back... well, that would be a gory scene.
Kyle surveyed the area, disappointed that none of the captured Death Eaters were familiar faces. Neither Bartemius Crouch Jr. nor Bellatrix Lestrange was among them.
It seemed that the Death Eaters weren't acting as a unified group. After leaving the Ministry of Magic, the elite Death Eaters had disappeared, leaving only this group of numerous but unskilled individuals to attract the attention of most of the Order members.
The likely reason for this diversion was to hide something—perhaps to divert attention from the injured Voldemort.
Kyle had suspected this ever since he saw Dumbledore.
What he could confirm now was that Dumbledore had indeed been injured, and the injury was severe. His entire arm had almost been ruined, and only Voldemort could have inflicted such a wound.
But Voldemort would have also taken damage in return. Like two evenly matched Quidditch teams, neither side could expect to win without paying a price.
The most probable scenario was that Voldemort and Dumbledore had fought each other to a standstill in Austria.
Of course, these were all just Kyle's speculations. It was also possible that the elite Death Eaters were operating elsewhere.
After all, Britain was a large country, and Diagon Alley wasn't the only well-known location.
Similarly, this was also the reason why the battle had ended so quickly. To be fair, aside from their numbers, the Death Eaters' combat abilities were lacking. Even without Fred and George's secret weapon, Kyle was confident he could have handled them within half an hour.
"Thank you for your support..."
"The Ministry of Magic is so unreliable. It's been so long, and no one from the Ministry has come to help. Are Fudge and Scrimgeour having a candlelit dinner or something?"
After the last Death Eater was thrown out, the shop owners expressed their gratitude. However, as the news had not yet spread, they were unaware of the changes in the Ministry of Magic and complained about the Aurors' and Hit Wizards' inaction.
Once Mr. Weasley explained the situation at the Ministry, the surroundings fell silent.
They may not have liked Fudge, and perhaps only a handful of people favored the indecisive minister. But upon hearing that he had been killed by Death Eaters, everyone felt a mix of discomfort and unease.
Even the Minister of Magic had been slain by Death Eaters... How were ordinary wizards supposed to protect themselves?
No one spoke, and the atmosphere turned as cold as frost, rendering the lingering foul stench in the air almost insignificant.
Mr. Weasley tried to offer some encouraging words, but to little avail.
This was the Death Eaters' intention—to disrupt the Ministry's plans against them by killing the Minister, establish their dominance, and severely demoralize their opponents. It was a multi-pronged strategy that proved highly effective.
As things stood, the Death Eaters had achieved their goals, and while everyone was aware of their intentions, no one had an effective countermeasure.
The only thing everyone could do now was to salvage the situation... choose a new minister as soon as possible and get the Ministry functioning again, but that would take time.
...
After a while, Fred and George couldn't bear the gloomy atmosphere any longer, and with their minds on their shop, they exchanged a few words with Mr. Weasley before dashing off.
Their actions brought a few shop owners back to their senses.
Kyle hesitated for a moment before following suit. Florrin Fuscow, the owner of the ice cream parlor, watched their departing figures, seemingly wanting to say something, but after a moment's hesitation, he sighed and remained silent.
He approached Kyle and said, "Thank you. You saved me again."
"It's nothing," Kyle shook his head. "If you really want to thank me, treat me to some ice cream."
"Of course, no problem," Florrin Fuscow assured him, patting his chest. "You can come anytime and eat for free. This offer stands forever!"
"That's fantastic," Kyle's eyes lit up, and he became even more determined to open a shop in Diagon Alley.
As for what kind of shop... Instinctively, he turned to look at the owner of the Quidditch Supplies Shop, but the man promptly averted his gaze.
Jokingly, he thought, "Stingy." Kyle couldn't help but pout, temporarily abandoning the idea of opening another Quidditch Supplies Shop.
"Ahh!"
Suddenly, a scream from Fred and George rang out in the distance, prompting Kyle to instinctively reach for his wand.
"Don't worry," Florrin Fuscow said, "I think their scream has nothing to do with the Death Eaters. They probably just reached their shop."
"What do you mean?" Kyle asked.
"Well..." Florrin Fuscow's gaze shifted to Mr. Weasley, and his eyes darted about uncertainly. "The extent of the damage to their shop, the Weasley Wizard Wheezes, might be a tad severe."
Driven by curiosity, Kyle immediately ran over to see for himself.
The Weasley Wizard Wheezes was still some distance from the entrance of Diagon Alley. Before Kyle could reach it, he heard the brothers' piercing screams again, one after the other.
The screams were truly dreadful, as if someone had robbed them of all their Galleons.
And they weren't far from the truth.
Their shop was gone.
As Kyle turned the corner, his field of vision abruptly widened, and among the previously neatly arranged shops, there was now a conspicuous gap.
The missing shop was none other than Fred and George's.
It seemed that the Death Eaters had specifically targeted it, as the Weasley Wizard Wheezes was by far the most severely damaged store in all of Diagon Alley.
The front door and the statue of the Weasley family, which served as their sign, had been blown to smithereens, with fragments scattered randomly on the ground. Even the walls and windows hadn't been spared.
What used to be a quaint two-story building was now reduced to a pile of rubble about half a meter high.
The once neatly displayed merchandise was strewn everywhere—on the street, on the ground, on the opposite wall, anywhere but the shelves.
To put it bluntly, if not for knowing that a shop used to be there, Kyle might have thought someone had dumped construction waste in that spot.
But it wasn't difficult to understand...
Fred and George had been poking fun at Voldemort for quite some time, and they still hadn't taken down the "Constipato" ad. Moreover, they had posted satirical portraits of famous Death Eaters.
Kyle had seen many students sneaking this type of hat into the castle during his time at school. They would pair this inconspicuous-looking hat with their school uniforms to evade Filch's inspections.
Once they had it in their possession, they would pretend to nonchalantly use it on others or themselves, then proceed to showcase their bald heads everywhere they went.
It seemed that wizards without hair loss issues found this to be a rather amusing activity and indulged in it frequently.
By the way, it was said that the inspiration for this hat came from Mr. Weasley. However, up to this point, Mr. Weasley himself was still unaware of this fact, and Fred and George had tight lips, insisting that they got the idea from seeing Professor Slughorn of Hogwarts.
But that wasn't important.
In any case, Fred and George had been using Death Eaters and Voldemort to promote their new products, and while this approach was satisfying, it also carried significant risks.
For instance, now that Death Eaters had shown up in Diagon Alley to cause trouble, they naturally wouldn't let such "blasphemous" behavior slide.
And so, Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes was demolished, and thoroughly so.
"My shop!" Fred and George's anguished cries echoed through the night sky of the early morning.
"I'll kill them... kill them all!" George's eyes turned red, and he pulled out all the dungbombs he had on him, intending to teach those Death Eaters a lesson they would never forget.
For instance, he wanted to stuff dungbombs into their mouths and then stuff them into an even bigger dungbomb.
"Don't be impulsive, Mr. Weasley is questioning them right now. It won't hurt to teach them a lesson after he's done," Kyle stopped him in time.
When he had arrived earlier, Mr. Weasley had been interrogating those Death Eaters about the mysterious man's plan and the whereabouts of the other Death Eaters. If those captured individuals knew anything, Fred and George's outburst would only hinder the interrogation.
"But my shop... it's our heart and soul..." George struggled fiercely, his words becoming incoherent.
"I know, but have you forgotten that you're a wizard?" Kyle said helplessly, "Do you remember what Professor Flitwick said? You're a wizard, not a stick-wielding baboon."
He waved his wand, and the stones on the ground immediately reassembled themselves, returning to their original positions.
Fred and George froze for a moment, then realized... that's right, how could they have forgotten the Repairing Charm?
So, the two of them immediately abandoned the idea of going after the Death Eaters and turned their attention to repairing the shop instead.
First, they fixed the walls, then the shattered glass windows, which returned to their intact state and floated back into the window frames...
"You should really be thankful that the Death Eaters used the Fire Spell and not the Blasting Curse," Kyle said as he restored a blackened statue fragment to its original state. "Otherwise, no matter how proficient you are with the Repairing Charm, it would have been useless."
"Then they're dead to me!" Fred said through gritted teeth.
"But I don't think they would dare to use the Blasting Curse either," the now-calmed George said. "That spell is hard to control, and it can easily affect your allies. There were quite a few Death Eaters here, and unless they wanted to harm their own people, they wouldn't use it."
As he spoke, he glanced meaningfully at Kyle.
So far, the only wizard he had seen who could use the Blasting Curse as if it were a regular Fire Spell was Kyle.
Dumbledore and Voldemort probably could as well, but he hadn't seen them do it.
With the combined efforts of the three of them, it only took five minutes to rebuild Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes.
Next were the magical props, which were much more challenging to deal with than repairing the shop. Many of these props were single-use consumables, like maps and various potions, and once broken, they were beyond repair, with the Repairing Charm proving useless.
There were also some more complex items that couldn't be fixed quickly.
They did a quick inventory and found that more than half of their stock was gone.
Looking at the empty counters and shelves, Fred and George's faces turned purple. Those were their Galleons, just gone like that!
At that moment, their hatred for the Death Eaters and Voldemort peaked, and they wished they could tear them limb from limb and display them on their shelves.
...
(End of Chapter)
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