Owen, too, stroked the stubble that had already grown in along his chin with some surprise. The uproarious scene before him, and the excited reactions of these young wizards, really had not been arranged by him—but after recognizing the man who had thrown the punch, the Minister of Magic could not help wanting to laugh.
The Aurors maintaining order were nothing like their usual well-trained selves. Only after a while did they stroll over unhurriedly and pull the two men apart. Dempster Wiggleswade rose dizzily to his feet, shook his head, and had already cast a healing charm on himself. The moment he recovered his senses, anger flaring in his heart, he roared irritably, "Harris, you people are... uh..." He had meant to use this incident to attack Harris for directing this thug to assault him, but after clearly seeing the other man's face, the accusation he wanted to make stuck in his throat.
Wiggleswade recognized the stubbly middle-aged wizard as Gerard Butler, a columnist for Outsmarting Dark Magic. In the industry, Butler was famous for his extreme language and booming voice. During the Triwizard Tournament in the Triwizard Cup period, he had been the one who viciously attacked Allen Harris for using dark magic in the competition, even comparing Allen to a third Dark Lord. Afterward, he had also published repeated articles criticizing Allen Harris's permissive attitude toward Ancient Magic. And today, the reason he had beaten Wiggleswade and begun supporting Harris on this matter was undoubtedly because he was just a middle-aged hothead, roused to nationalist fervor by Harris like many younger wizards.
"This isn't your Scotland! I'll sue you!" Wiggleswade spat out several angry lines to vent his fury, but he knew he could no longer use this incident to attack Harris, because no one would believe