A certain Hogwarts professor of runes.

Chapter 343 Reactions from All Parties

Felix waved to a few Ministry of Magic staff members nearby, one of whom ran over excitedly. "Hello, Mr. Hyp! It's incredible that you actually stopped the riot head-on..." He looked young, and the pimples on his face were shining with excitement.

Felix said calmly, "These...shouldn't they be your responsibility?"

"Don't worry! Leave it to us." The wizard patted his chest, pulled a whistle from his pocket, and started whistling. After whistling for a while, no one came. He said dejectedly, "My colleagues must have all been knocked unconscious..."

Felix pointed in the direction he had come from. "I found some people and settled them in that direction."

"Moore! Keane! Follow me!" the wizard shouted, and before leaving, he couldn't help but say, "It's an honor to fight alongside you, Mr. Hyp."

“We’re going to help put out the fire,” Mr. Weasley said, calling Bill and Charlie away. Sirius thought for a moment, then said to Felix, “I’ll go find Harry and the others.”

Felix nodded to him, circled the area around the camp, rescued some of the wounded, and used his Patronus to notify Lupin and Kremy. The group rushed over, along with the mother and child.

"Thank you, thank you—" the young mother kept thanking her.

When they returned to the battlefield, hundreds of wizards from the Ministry of Magic were already gathered there, systematically sorting and taking away the rioters.

Fudge kept wiping the sweat from his brow, his face a mixture of fear and disgust. "Take them all away! Find out their nationalities and identities, and report them to their Ministry of Magic! And these, these..."

He hesitated, looking at the hooded wizard lying on the ground, unable to make a decision. He had just seen these people's faces, and the familiar faces made his stomach churn.

"Reporting to the Minister, these hooded men are the ringleaders of this riot. They even dragged the Roberts family out of their house. They were severely traumatized and are currently undergoing memory therapy..."

Fudge's lips trembled, his heart filled with hesitation. Most of these hooded men were purebloods. If they were all judged as the masterminds, they would be imprisoned in Azkaban for at least three to five months, and he would never be able to gain their support again.

"Snap!" "Snap!"

The sound of camera shutters clicking rang out, and wisps of purple smoke drifted in the air.

Rita Skeeter excitedly directed her assistant, “Here, here, and over there… What do I see? Losing fans at the Quidditch World Cup are leading a riot, bullying Muggles for fun…” Her mouth was practically crooked from laughing.

"Was the photo of Mr. Hep standing in the crowd taken?" she asked with great interest.

“Only her back is visible,” her photographer said.

"That works too. We can do a series of reports on it—"

Fudge's fingers trembled. "When did they arrive? Get rid of them! No, wait—" He rolled his eyes and whispered to his secretary, "Confiscate their photos, don't destroy them, keep them secretly."

Walsh Cedric from the Minister of Magic's advisory office nodded and walked towards Rita Skeeter. "Madam, the matter is still under investigation, and the photos you took will serve as important evidence..."

Rita Skeeter's voice rang out, but Walsh Cedric said something to her, "...Pureblood, you don't want to anger them, do you?"

Rita Skeeter blinked, thought for a moment, and said, “Okay, you owe me a favor.” With her back to Walsh Sidrick, she beckoned to the photographer, secretly leaving behind a stack of negatives and replacing the remaining roll with a brand new one. She turned around and waved the negatives in her hand at Walsh Sidrick, who was about to reach for them when the negatives turned to ashes.

“Skeet, you—” Walsh Sidderick was furious.

Rita Skeeter said slyly, “I have to make them owe me a favor, don’t you think, Mr. Sidrick?”

At the edge of the woods, Harry, Ginny, and the Weasley twins met up and hurried over. They squeezed into the crowd of onlookers, searching for Mr. Weasley, Bill, Charlie, and Sirius, who had gone to help maintain order.

But the people from the Ministry of Magic lined up, separating the scene inside, so the crowd couldn't see very clearly and had to stand on tiptoe to try and catch a glimpse.

Hermione asked in a low voice, "Have you seen Professor Hyp?"

“He should have left,” Harry said. “I watched him leave, and he didn’t look hurt.”

“That’s cool!” Ron exclaimed. “He took down a whole group of them all by himself. Those wizards were like headless flies or thornless Billywig bugs in front of him, posing no threat whatsoever.”

Hermione said seriously, "That's because the professor used more than one kind of ancient magic. See that golden shield? It blocked hundreds of spells. After that, he kept using Apparition to dodge. It was really too dangerous..."

Harry said, "It's not about hiding, it's about finding an opportunity. It's a tactic I tried to replicate when I played dueling games with Sirius during the summer holidays, but unfortunately—"

Hermione disagreed, saying, "That's dangerous, Harry. Apparition is difficult to cast consecutively, let alone quickly."

“I know, but once you learn it…” Harry didn’t finish his sentence, but instead looked meaningfully at the scene. Through the gaps between the Ministry of Magic staff, he could see hundreds of wizards lying crookedly on the ground.

it is more than words.

Meanwhile, the team that reversed accidental magical events arrived. Based on the various "damaged limbs" left at the scene, they located those who had failed to Apparate and were pinned to the spot.

Ron peered out, trying to make out what was there: "Arms, thighs, what's that... bloody!" Suddenly, someone patted him on the head from behind. It was Mr. Weasley, who had rushed over. Behind him were Bill and Charlie, while Sirius stood on the other side, smiling at Harry.

“Don’t look around, or you’ll have nightmares,” Mr. Weasley said, noting that they were filthy and had burn marks from being burned.

“I’m just curious, what if they stayed behind—” Ron started to say, then stopped, as if drawn by something. He looked at Charlie, his mouth slowly opening, and pointed at Charlie: “Eyes, eyes—they can move!”

"What?" Charlie looked at him, puzzled. Weasley glanced at Charlie and quickly pulled him aside.

Above Charlie's head, a brown eye darted around in terror. A space suddenly cleared around him, and Harry's heart pounded. Mr. Weasley shouted, "Arnold! There's another one over here! Apparate has split!"

A burly wizard ran over, glanced at him, and grinned. "It still has some blood vessels... If we leave it alone..." He gestured to his eyes as if 'gushing'.

Mr. Weasley frowned. "There are children here."

"Oh, sorry—come here, two people!" the wizard named Arnold called out as he turned around. Soon, two people came over and surrounded the eyeball, pointing at it with their wands. "I'll go over there," Arnold said. Under the horrified gazes of the crowd, he grabbed the eyeball and squeezed it as if he wanted to crush it.

"boom!"

He disappeared along with his eyeballs.

"Just wait, he'll be back in a bit," the wizard next to him said casually, letting out a heavy yawn. "Another day of overtime."

Ron swallowed hard, feeling nauseous as if he had swallowed something slippery. He couldn't help but gag. Harry and Hermione also looked uncomfortable.

The twins shared a similar sentiment; Ron had previously shown off his clumsy Apparition skills in front of them, and they were planning to learn it in advance.

On the other side, a heavyweight figure appeared.

Barty Crouch said coldly, "Excuse me, make way." He pushed through the crowd, squeezing into the circle formed by the Ministry of Magic like a stone.

"Crouch?" Fudge was furious when he saw him. He had originally wanted to ask him about his strange behavior, but after such a big accident, he had long forgotten about it.

"I put you in charge of security for the Quidditch World Cup, where have you been?!"

“Go track down those masked men,” Crouch said curtly.

Harry stared at the back of Barty Crouch's head, not only to check if the scar on his forehead still hurt, but also to see if he could catch a glimpse of an ugly face belonging to Voldemort.

Sirius looked at him with a questioning gaze. The godfather and godson stared at each other for a long time. Harry shook his head at Sirius, this time without any reaction.

Chapter 344 The Shadow Approaches

The sky gradually brightened, turning into a deep blue, with a faint white appearing from the horizon.

Felix stood in the crowd and began to understand why Fudge was so wary of Barty Crouch. Crouch was stern and had an old-fashioned, rigid style. While Fudge was still struggling with how to deal with the hooded men, Crouch had already been issuing orders in an orderly manner.

“Take these thugs away,” he said sternly. “They will be interrogated until someone reveals who was instigated this terrorist attack.”

Fudge wiped his sweat. "Crouch... Buddy, you're exaggerating... They were just drunk and causing a ruckus, nothing serious happened... I wouldn't agree to define it as terrorism... If it weren't for the Muggles involved, it would only be a fine."

“Oh, really? I’ll take the interrogation results as the priority,” Crouch said, his eyes fixed on the hooded men who had removed their masks. “Some of them look very familiar to me, quite familiar…”

Fudge cleared his throat. "Alright, let's talk about some things back at the department—Walsh!" He turned and looked around. Walsh Cedric strode over.

“I’m handing some people over to you. You stay here to handle the follow-up… uh, the appeasement work. I need to go back to the department to deal with more difficult problems.”

Ministry of Magic staff urgently produced a batch of Portkeys and used them to take the person lying on the ground away.

Walsh Sidderick directed the remaining men to extinguish the fire and calm the crowd. Many families were separated from their loved ones, and the Ministry of Magic staff, empowered by their powerful voices, shouted themselves hoarse through the crowd.

There were also claims, complaints, and grievances—a chaotic jumble of demands. Walsh displayed excellent work ethic, accepting it all without question, then casually telling them to go back and compile a list of their losses; as for whether or not they would be compensated, that was another matter.

“We definitely won’t lose money; we’ll just have to accept our bad luck,” Sirius said with great experience. Harry wanted to laugh but couldn’t, so he could only grin in agreement.

“Alright, children,” Mr. Weasley said, “you all go back to your tents and get some sleep. There are only a few hours until dawn, and you’ll have to wait in line for the keys during the day.”

Barty Crouch stayed behind and found Felix.

“I have something to say to you, Mr. Heap,” Crouch said sternly. “Let’s find a place to talk this over, what do you think?”

“Of course,” Felix smiled slightly, “Why don’t you come to my tent? It’s perfectly fine there.”

They returned to the Futureworld Corporation's tent, which was quite spacious. In one corner were stacks of empty boxes and two large magic lamps shaped like fire dragons. Crouch glanced at Kremy and Lupin but said nothing.

The two sat down, and Felix brought over a pitcher of lemonade.

“Thank you,” Crouch said politely, his face stern. He couldn’t wait to get to the point. “Mr. Hyp, I want to thank you for stopping the riot in time and preventing more serious consequences.”

"More serious consequences?"

“Yes, even more serious consequences,” Crouch repeated, his sharp gaze fixed on Felix. “You haven’t experienced it, but I know what kind of people they are. To be honest, under normal circumstances, that Muggle family wouldn’t have survived.”

“Normal procedure…” Felix raised an eyebrow. “Could it be what I’m thinking?”

“Death Eaters,” Crouch said coldly. “They take pleasure in killing Muggles. Back when I was the Director of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, I handled a number of shocking cases. So I ordered my Aurors to retaliate in kind.”

Felix fiddled with his wine glass, lost in thought, when just then, the tent flap was lifted. "Barty, I heard you were here... Ah, I knew it."

Ludo Bagman said breathlessly, his face glistening with sweat.

He pulled up a chair and sat between the two, poured himself a glass of lemonade, downed it in one gulp, and let out a long sigh: "What a tumultuous day, those fans—"

“They’re thugs, Ludo,” Crouch interrupted him, correcting him.

“Uh, okay, thugs…” Bagman asked, “What are you guys talking about?”

But that was just a starting point. He immediately launched into a long speech, looking at Felix with a broad smile: "It's a real shame I missed the show. While you were putting on a spectacular performance, I was settling my bets with Roddy. He had placed a huge bet that Bulgaria would score the first goal, and as you all saw... I knew all along that the Bulgarian team was no good, so I offered very high odds!"

"And then there's little Agatha, she staked half the eel farm, which is a bit crazy... but it just so happens to have helped me pay off a debt I borrowed from the fairy..."

“Nobody wants to hear your business talk,” Crouch said impatiently. “We’re talking business, if you can realize you’re one of the camp leaders.”

Ludo Bagman looked at him uneasily. "But isn't it all over? The troublemakers have all been taken back to the department, and Walsh is in the camp. He did a much better job than I did..."

Felix smiled and said, "Mr. Bagman, we were just discussing the Death Eaters."

“Death Eaters…what? Death Eaters…” Bagman’s round face began to sweat. “I…I don’t quite understand.”

Felix and Crouch ignored him. Felix wanted to know why Crouch had approached him, so he continued the conversation that had been interrupted, "Mr. Crouch, you just said that the Death Eaters take pleasure in killing Muggles. Do you think they were behind today's farce?"

“I can’t think of anyone else,” Crouch said, emphasizing each word. “Only they need to hide their identities, concealing their cowardice and meanness, while reminiscing about their past glories. Years after the Mystic’s fall from power, they’re reminding us in this way that they’re doing well.”

His toothbrush-like mustache trembled, and his eyes bulged out, making him look extremely ferocious. Felix even suspected that if a Death Eater stood in front of him, he could bite their throat open with his teeth.

Bagman recalled his trial at the end of the war, and Crouch's expression now was exactly the same as it had been back then, filling him with dread. From this perspective, Fudge's plan had failed. Bagman lacked the courage to oppose Crouch; the seeds of fear had been sown during his trial years ago, which was why he had maintained a close relationship with Crouch all these years.

"Barty, maybe, maybe..." He was terrified and mumbled for a long time without being able to say a complete sentence.

Felix had a similar guess, and nodded, saying, "So there's actually one thing missing today: the Black Magic Mark."

Crouch gave a dismissive look: "They wouldn't dare do that."

Just before the conversation ended, Barty Crouch seemed to reveal his true purpose: "Wessengamo is considering accepting you as one of them, and you might be able to attend the trial soon. We need to be tough on these scum."