The sound of neat leather boots striking stone paving rang through the streets of Diagon Alley. Uniform steps, heavy boots, and straight-backed silhouettes had become the signature of this arrest squad made up jointly of Armed Aurors and Hit Wizards. The moment they heard that sound and saw that scene, the owners and clerks in the shops hurried back inside. No one knew which shop these Aurors would storm into, and no one knew who would be the next to be arrested.
But no one wanted to hide in advance. After all, if they fled by Apparition now, or transferred away through Floo Powder, the Aurors monitoring them would instead take it as a guilty conscience, bringing trouble down on people who had originally done nothing wrong. After that, they would inevitably be taken away for investigation.
So after these shop assistants withdrew, aside from leaving one employee to watch the storefront, most of the others hid in the storeroom or the inner areas on the second floor to secretly observe the situation. The Armed Aurors would not arrest everyone at once, but so far, none of those arrested had been released. This sense of insecurity had made business in Diagon Alley even worse lately.
The leading Auror stopped not far from the Leaky Cauldron, making even the neutral-leaning families who knew they had committed no crimes breathe a sigh of relief. Quite a few had been afraid that Harris had received news of their gathering and, with no regard for wizardly decency, would arrest these few of them as well.
The Auror in the lead raised his wand and pointed it at the glass display window, marking it with a Dark Mark drawn with an X over it. This indicated that the shop had been proven to be suspected