The Shopkeeper of All Worlds in the British Wizarding World

Chapter 701 Past and Present
Under the dim light from the fluorescent spell on the wand, Ryan and the others left the building with the book and restored everything to its original state. Then the two of them walked towards the exit of the town on the thick snow under the light.

"I wonder how the Christmas Eve dinner in our manor is prepared today?" Ryan said after taking a look at the brightly lit Weasley's house. The Weasleys got a string of magic colored lights from somewhere and hung them on their house. There was also a small Christmas tree in the small yard. Although it was a bit simple, it was full of a warm atmosphere.

The Weasleys were not an exception. Warm light shone through all the rooms where people lived on the street. At the same time, the aroma of various delicacies wafted through the street, and a warm feeling filled everyone's heart.

"I think those handy gentlemen should be able to give us a surprise." After sniffing the fragrance in the air, Hermione took the initiative to reach out and hold Ryan's arm. "Although we can't spend Christmas with our parents this year, it's happy enough for the six of us to hold a small Christmas Eve dinner together."

After registering at the town gate, Ryan and his companions left Hogsmeade. When they walked along the path to a place where the townspeople could not see them, Ryan returned to his manor through teleportation.

Walking into the hall of the manor, Ryan found that several skilled craftsmen had decorated the room with a festive atmosphere. The ceiling of the hall was hung with colorful strips and mistletoe, with palm-sized lanterns shining in the middle. Four Christmas trees were also placed in the four corners of the house, and each Christmas tree was hung with a lot of decorations.

The large dining table in front of the fireplace is now covered with a new snow-white linen tablecloth. Six sets of pure gold tableware, five large and one small, are placed in front of the corresponding chairs. There are also several exquisite handicrafts in the middle of the table.

"Master, can we start now?" After changing his clothes, a handy man floated in and asked Ryan. "Everyone is almost ready, and the banquet can be held at any time."

Soon, everyone in the family sat down on their chairs. At the same time, the three skilled hands brought in the delicious food they had prepared and placed it on the table. The plate contained a plump and shiny roast goose, various roast meats neatly arranged on the plate, and a variety of sauces placed on a small silver plate next to it, as well as a very fresh-looking vegetable salad on a crystal plate.

"May the war end soon and our future be better and better." Ryan, as the host, raised a glass of Elf fruit wine and said, after the toast, everyone began to enjoy this sumptuous Christmas dinner. Everyone took turns telling a relaxing and interesting story, which swept away the unpleasantness caused by the previous tense situation.

Ryan also received good news at the dinner table. That was that the two wand-making masters could confirm that their relatives were now hiding in a safe place where Voldemort could not find them. Receiving the news that relatives were safe during the holidays was worth celebrating anyway.

So when they left the table, the two wand-making masters seemed a little shaky because they drank a little too much. Ryan specially called two robots to take care of the two old people.

After getting drunk, the two wand masters told Ryan a lot about the past, the most important of which was how the You-Know-Who and the Death Eaters rose to power. As people who had personally experienced the last war, their narration allowed Ryan to further understand many things about the last war. And some of the information has a certain guiding role in the current war.

At the beginning of the last war, Voldemort used his eloquence and appeal to spread anti-Muggle ideas through relatively peaceful means, while ostracizing those Muggle wizards. Although everyone was vigilant at this time, because there was no violence and ethnic conflicts within the wizarding world at that time, no one stopped Voldemort's actions except Dumbledore who loudly urged everyone to be vigilant.

When Voldemort gathered enough followers, they were no longer satisfied with just propaganda or legal means to achieve their goals. Soon, various violent incidents began to emerge one after another, and the war really broke out.

At the beginning, the Ministry of Magic even had a lot of initiative. Even though many Death Eaters were born in pure-blood families and had received complete magical combat training, they were still inferior to the professional armed personnel trained by the Ministry of Magic.

But Voldemort's power eliminated all the differences. As long as he appeared on the battlefield, both Aurors and strikers would collapse at the first blow. No matter how many advantages these professional armed personnel of the Ministry of Magic had, they could not hinder Voldemort's attack. After each victory, Voldemort would kill those captives who refused to surrender, and at the same time, he and his subordinates would kill their relatives. By creating such a terrifying atmosphere, Voldemort's side could easily coerce more people to join the ranks of collaborators.

Later, as their power snowballed, the Death Eaters became more daring, such as casting the Imperius Curse directly on people or recruiting various dark creatures. At the same time, the Aurors and strikers of the Ministry of Magic were also shocked by Voldemort's cruel war tactics. They fell into a semi-paralyzed state and basically did not dare to fight against the Death Eaters.

In this situation, even Professor Dumbledore could not turn the tide of the battle, because as the only wizard in Britain who could confront Voldemort head-on, he had too many places and people to protect, which not only distracted his attention, but also made it impossible for him to arrive at the scene in time every time Voldemort attacked.

Fortunately, Voldemort made the wrong choice to murder Harry, who was still a baby, causing the killing curse to rebound on himself. His temporary death also caused the huge criminal organization that was built on his strength to be destroyed in a very short time.

The same is true for this war. After the war began, Voldemort used the same old tricks again, attacking everywhere in an attempt to awaken people's memories of the horrific history. However, Ryan's appearance changed everything.

Unlike Dumbledore, who was born in the wizarding world a hundred years ago and insisted on the fighting habits between wizards and procedural justice, Ryan, as a person who grew up in the modern ordinary world in two lives, has the same understanding of war as ordinary people. Therefore, at the beginning of the war, Ryan took the destruction of the enemy's living force and war potential as the only guide for action.

Therefore, his actions are very different from those of Dumbledore. He will try his best to kill more enemies in battle and destroy more of the enemy's resources instead of using limited force tactics like Dumbledore. In particular, Dumbledore tended to capture his enemies alive and put them on trial, and this practice of tying his own hands and feet often led to the enemy's escape.

At the same time, the act of sparing innocent people out of humanitarianism in previous actions also created a group of burdens for Voldemort's side that only consumed resources but could not provide any help, further weakening Voldemort's war potential.

In a way, what Ryan is doing now is very similar to what Voldemort did back then, except that the subject of fear has changed. And Voldemort is not willing to risk his life to protect his own personnel and property like Dumbledore, which makes Ryan spread fear among the Death Eaters much faster than these Death Eaters spread fear in the wizarding world back then.

And Ryan's strength made Voldemort dare not take the initiative to change the situation of the war like he did in the last war, because he knew that if he was delayed for a little while for Ryan and Dumbledore to reunite, he would pay a huge price even if he did not die.

So after the outbreak of the full-scale war, Voldemort chose to hide and try to use his absolute advantage to slowly destroy his resistance. On the one hand, this approach made it impossible for Dumbledore and Ryan to lock his position and kill him. After all, it is difficult to catch a wizard of this level if he deliberately avoids fighting.

But on the other hand, Voldemort's avoidance of war made many people realize his decline, and the morale of both sides began to slowly change.

Ryan and his people no longer thought that Voldemort was an invincible demon as they did in the past, and although the Death Eaters were frightened by Voldemort's brutality and still obeyed his orders, the subjective initiative of most people had greatly decreased. The previous behavior of taking the initiative to go around basically no longer appeared.

Therefore, three months after the war broke out, that is, after Ryan and his men had fully joined the war, the number of missing persons and casualties was much less than before. Ryan could proudly say that they had brought everyone a peaceful Christmas through their bloody battles, and all the hardships and killings before were worth it.

(End of this chapter)