An Unnecessary Decision?

Diagon Alley had become even more desolate than it had been the year before.

After Hogwarts let out, this place should have been entering its busiest two months of the year. Yet there was not a single person on the streets, and nearly every shop had closed its doors.

Throughout Diagon Alley, only Gringotts and the Leaky Cauldron seemed to be barely staying open.

None of this affected Ollivanders Wand Shop much. Even during busy times, it did not get much business. Only after Hogwarts sent out its new school year acceptance letters would customers start coming in.

After returning home, Silvan spent another entire night engraving all the necessary magical runes onto Slytherin's Locket.

The next day, Silvan slept until noon. After waking, he wrote Dumbledore a letter as they had agreed, telling him that his side of things was finished. He then casually placed the Sword of Gryffindor on top of the cabinet beside him.

But sending the letter gave Silvan a headache.

The situation outside was becoming more dangerous by the day. Death Eaters could jump out from any corner at any moment and kill those who had not joined them.

Under such circumstances, even the number of owls in the sky had dropped sharply. Occasionally, one or two would pass overhead, only to hurriedly fly off the next second.

Even more troublesome, the owl post office had closed down as well.

It was said that several days earlier, the clerks at Diagon Alley's post office had been killed inside the shop for resisting the Death Eaters. The terrifying Dark Mark had hovered above the post office for three days before slowly fading away.

After that, no one had been willing to take over the mess.

Silvan ran through half of Diagon Alley with the letter in