Scum of the Scum

"Wood?"

Murphy was a little surprised. This guy had actually learned how to use a telephone?

"What is it?"

"I, I think..." Wood's voice sounded a little nervous. "I ran into a bit of a problem."

"Hm? Someone robbed you?"

Murphy immediately thought of the warning he had given him before.

Could this guy really be that unlucky? He had only gone out to buy materials a few times, and he had already been robbed?

"Are you all right? How much money did you lose?" Murphy asked.

"N-no, I'm fine. I didn't lose any money, and I wasn't robbed," Wood said.

Murphy was puzzled. If nothing was wrong, why call me? Did he just want to test how the telephone worked?

"Then why are you calling me?"

"It's the potion. The Beauty Potion. I want to see you and talk to you about it."

The Beauty Potion!

Murphy immediately perked up. Whether he could make money faster in the future and then get the research institute built sooner all depended on it.

Could this kid have made some discovery or breakthrough after brewing potions for a few days?

"All right. Where are you, the barn? I'll come find you now."

A few days ago, Murphy had had the Muggles install a landline telephone in the barn precisely so Wood could contact him more easily.

Alex was probably using a piece of Muggle technology for the first time and was so nervous he could barely speak coherently. If Murphy asked him to explain over the phone, there was an eighty percent chance he would not make it clear. He might as well go over and take a look.

"O-okay. Come quickly."

After hanging up, Murphy Apparated to the barn.

But the moment he stepped through the door, his expression darkened.

A bald man in black wizard robes was sitting on a small mountain of burlap sacks piled up in the barn, while Alex Wood lay on the ground, unconscious or dead.

"You made Wood make that call?"

Murphy immediately guessed roughly what had happened. No wonder Wood had been stammering and hemming and hawing on the phone. So someone had forced him to make the call.

"Who are you?"

Murphy drew his wand, killing intent already spreading through his heart.

The things in this barn were something he absolutely did not want other wizards to see. If people found out he was selling potions to Muggles, the lightest outcome would be that they forcibly stopped his business. They might even lock him up in Azkaban.

"Peter Parker?" The bald wizard looked at him, seeming to want to confirm his identity. "Never heard that surname. Are you Muggle-born?"

Murphy froze for a moment, then understood. "Wood told you my name?"

The bald man snorted. "Spineless bastard. A couple rounds of the Cruciatus Curse and he spilled everything."

"How did you find this place? What do you want?"

Murphy asked.

He had to determine how much information the other side knew about him, and whether there were any other people involved.

"Let me put it this way, Mr. Peter Parker. You've provoked someone you shouldn't have," the bald man said. "You had this guy disguise himself to buy potion ingredients, right? Let me guess, where did all those ingredients go? Sold to Knockturn Alley, or smuggled abroad?"

Murphy frowned, but inwardly he relaxed slightly.

This guy didn't know I was selling potions to Muggles.

He thinks I'm selling potions to dark wizards?

At the same time, he understood the reason behind all this.

Someone—a big shot, as the bald man put it—had noticed him buying large quantities of potion ingredients, then sent the bald man to follow Wood. Wood used a Portkey to go back and forth, and the bald man only had to grab the hem of his clothes to come along, arriving here at the barn.

Then he probably did not know much about him.

After all, even Alex Wood himself only knew Murphy by a false name.

"Who I sell potions to has nothing to do with you," Murphy said.

"Of course it has nothing to do with me. I'm just an errand boy." The bald man wore a cynical look as he jumped down from the burlap sacks. "But you've gotten in someone's way. A big shot asked me to bring you a message."

"Two choices. Either he buys in and you work together, and everyone makes money together. Or he'll have the Aurors chase you until you have nowhere to run and nowhere to hide, and sooner or later he'll get you thrown into Azkaban to keep those monsters company."

"So, Mr. Peter Parker, a very simple multiple-choice question, isn't it?"

Hearing this, Murphy calmed down completely.

That's it?

And here I thought you people had gotten some huge leverage over me!

I overestimated wizard intelligence.

He had more or less reconstructed the truth of the matter. Most likely, someone had observed him buying up large quantities of potion ingredients, yet no large quantity of potions had appeared on the market, so that "big shot" suspected he had sold the potions to dark wizards or smuggled them abroad, and so on.

The other man had probably never even considered the possibility of "selling potions to Muggles."

After all, to most wizards, Muggles were like another species living in a parallel world. They might not even see one a few times in a year, and the idea of doing business with Muggles had already been screened out of their minds.

"It's certainly a very simple choice," Murphy said. "But I have a question."

"What question?"

"That big shot—what makes him think a guy like you could threaten me?"

"What?"

The instant the bald wizard froze, Murphy launched his attack. "Petrificus Totalus!"

"Protego!" The bald man reacted fairly quickly, immediately casting a Shield Charm to block the attack.

But Murphy gave him no chance to breathe. "Leviosa!"

The shortened Levitation Charm was not a standard spell and could not maintain continuous control, but it would cause objects to keep floating upward until the spell's effect ended.

What made it even more interesting was that this was not a single-target directional spell, but an AOE spell aimed at an area, capable of affecting every object within that range. Even objects not directly struck by the spell's ray would float up all the same.

And Protego could only defend against the spell's ray.

Therefore, this simplified Levitation Charm could bypass the Shield Charm's defense and make an enemy float upward, causing them to lose balance and flounder in panic.

This move had made Murphy almost undefeated in wizard duels back at school.

In his panic, the bald man could no longer maintain his Shield Charm, and it failed.

Murphy immediately followed up with a Disarming Charm, seizing the other man's wand, then added a Petrification Spell to prevent him from having a backup wand.

Watching the bald man crash heavily down from the air, Murphy mercilessly planted a foot on the man's face, which was streaming blood from his smashed nose.

"Crucio!"

The torture lasted a full five minutes.

Only then did Murphy lift the Petrification Spell on him.

The bald man was drenched in sweat, his face pale, and he could barely speak.

Murphy curled his lip, showing sympathy, then followed up with a Sectumsempra, stabbing several holes into his stomach.

He had to admit, both spells Mr. Snape had invented were extremely good. Levicorpus was powerful control, and Sectumsempra dealt efficient damage. Murphy liked using them very much.

"What's your name?" Murphy asked.

The bald man's face was full of terror. He opened his mouth several times, but somehow failed to get the words out.

"Forget it. I'll do it myself. Legilimency!"

A moment later, Murphy smacked his lips. "Draco Malfoy?"

So Slug and Jiggers Apothecary was his business.

"That idiot Lucius thinks he can steal my business?" Murphy let out a scornful laugh, his mockery reaching the extreme.

Little Malfoy was trash, and Lucius was trash among trash.

That coward thought he could threaten him?

Got a little money and started floating, huh?

Murphy no longer paid attention to the half-dead bald man and instead went over to Wood to check on him. Fortunately, he had only fainted.

He was just about to undo the spell on Wood when, from the corner of his eye, he saw the bald man trembling as he took something like a badge from his robes.

"You... you'll regret this! Mr. Malfoy will... make you pay!"

After the bald man finished speaking, he suddenly twisted and disappeared.

Murphy paused. "A Portkey for escaping?"

"These dark wizards aren't completely lacking in creativity after all."