Aftermath

All the innocent people had been released, but Arthur Weasley had stayed behind. There was not really much left to do, but the Ministry of Magic was terrified and had no choice but to summon everyone it could.

Before the newspapers could even report it, an enormous uproar had already swept through the public. Faced with such a shocking story, the media could hardly serve its intended purpose of spreading the news; it seemed somewhat redundant.

Fudge and the Ministry officials had never found the Daily Prophet so redundant before, and that included the third-rate publication The Quibbler.

A hundred thousand wizards from every continent and country had attended the Quidditch World Cup. In Britain, the host nation especially, nearly every wizarding family had sent at least one person.

So when those hundred thousand people escaped, the news spread with them. The Ministry did not need to waste any effort trying to suppress it.

Those whose family members had returned safely, or suffered only minor injuries, could only sigh in relief after the fright. In the days to come, they would occasionally recall it and boast about how they had fought their way out.

But among those hundred thousand people, there had always been some visited by the Death God.

Burned to death, cursed to death, crushed by falls, trampled to death... Nearly every manner of death in human history had gathered at that single match.

Some people dragged their broken bodies home, and their families wept and raged, demanding that the Ministry give them back a whole family member.

Some people never returned, and there were still people left to mourn them bitterly. Others had left their families forever.

"Tragic" was no longer enough to describe this attack. For Britain's wizards, they had already begun to doubt whether their