In the shadows at the street corner, Lucius and Jacob both stood with their heads lowered, lost in thought. Beneath their cloak hoods, their faces wore identical looks of hesitation.
They desperately wanted to know what had happened at the other end of the street.
That was a Muggle street!
Wizards were fighting openly on a Muggle street, and judging by the magical fluctuations, the battle was extremely fierce.
Normally, they would not have given something like this a second thought. They would not even have been interested in watching.
The Ministry of Magic would deal with any violation of the International Statute of Secrecy. If the offense was serious enough, those involved might even be locked up in Azkaban.
But right now, both Lucius and Jacob had their concerns-
They did not think this was a coincidence!
Nine pure-blood families had joined forces to complete an ancient magic ritual not long ago. The other seven representatives had only just left, yet moments later, wizards had begun fighting at the end of the street.
They had reason to suspect that one of the combatants was a representative of a pure-blood family who had just departed.
"Jacob, do you think-could there be an informer among us?" Lucius asked, his voice low and grave. Jacob gritted his teeth. "Only if those people have gone mad!"
"Don't forget Travers!" Lucius cut straight to the point.
Jacob fell silent. The pure-blood families were not a united whole. Vaughn had already succeeded in dividing them from within, and now only their nine families still maintained a united front.
But who could say for certain that there was no traitor among those nine pure-blood families?
Still, something felt wrong to Jacob. If there was an informer, why had they not tipped off Weasley and the Ministry