Diagon Alley, the Watchmen Wizard Security Store.
The staff had all been sent home a day earlier. Although some of the Aurors had been very keen to arrest them all, Crouch's reputation had already taken quite a hit, and he had not dared do something certain to draw widespread criticism.
Now the security store's doors were locked tight, with wanted posters for Murphy plastered across them and the walls on either side.
This lent the area a bleak, forbidding air, even causing business at the neighboring shops to drop considerably.
Yet a careful observer would have noticed plenty of eyes secretly watching the place.
In the café opposite, the ice cream shop farther away, the broom shop, and other stores, there were always one or two customers who lingered. They seemed to be browsing, but their eyes kept flicking toward the security store.
Beyond their notice, however, hundreds upon hundreds of eyes were watching them in turn.
On Charing Cross Road in London, Murphy strolled down the street in a cap and a loose jacket, looking like any ordinary young Muggle.
He wore a patch over his right eye and casually tossed a gold coin in his left hand. A very unusual, coin-shaped stud was attached to his right ear.
"On the right, second floor of the café. The man in green robes, and the woman reading a newspaper one person over from him..."
"On the left, on the roof of Eeylops Owl Emporium. This one's using a Disillusionment Charm. Beside the red flag. See the flag that isn't moving in the wind? Someone's holding it..."
"In the alley south of the ice cream shop. The old flower seller. His wand is hidden in the flower basket on his right..."
"Have they all been marked?"
A voice came from the