Rats in the Gutter

Whoosh!

Malfoy landed first.

But the three people flying in after him forced him to dodge before he had time to look around.

Once the three had found their footing, they looked up together—and froze.

People.

People as numerous as grains of sand.

They stood atop a small hill.

Yet as far as the eye could see, there were living people everywhere—before them, behind them, to either side—seemingly without end.

They all wore the same bewildered expressions, and the noise they made alone rumbled like thunder.

"Look up!"

At Ron's shout, the other three raised their heads.

A light-brown earthen wall stretched overhead, with an unbroken line of fluorescent lights fixed to it, illuminating the entire expanse below.

Wait!

They were underground?!

The four stared in horror.

To carve out such a vast space beneath the earth without anyone knowing...

Both the magical power and the secrecy involved were beyond comprehension.

Ron swallowed. "I have a bad feeling about this."

"I just want to get out of here," Malfoy said grimly. "But Apparition is forbidden here."

The people below were all harmless Muggles, yet they filled him with a suffocating sense of dread.

The four wore tense expressions as they discreetly hid their wands up their sleeves, ready to draw them at any moment.

Just then.

A figure suddenly appeared in the air.

The moment Harry saw him, his vigilance shot to its peak.

The man was tall and lean. A dark-red robe concealed his face, but the poplar wand loosely held in his right hand gleamed beneath the fluorescent lights.

With a casual wave, several hundred identical figures appeared, evenly distributed above the crowd.

The miraculous sight silenced the people below for an instant before they erupted once more.

Everyone's attention was drawn to the man.

Then, he reached