Fear the Power of the Uchiha, You Trash!

"Then the Uchiha Clan made a high-profile appearance and naturally took over quite a few things." Hagrid continued, his tone carrying a mixture of disbelief and faint fear.

"After that, the Uchiha Clan stepped into the spotlight and took over those people's businesses and resources, announcing the Flamel-Uchiha alliance. The Ministry of Magic wanted to interfere at the time, but the Uchiha had come prepared..."

Hagrid spread his fan-sized hands, his expression full of helplessness. "The contract documents they threw out were thick enough to knock out an owl! They were all inheritance papers that complied with ancient magical contracts, completely airtight!"

"And they had Gringotts' most troublesome goblin lawyers backing them up, picking apart every single word. There wasn't a single legal flaw to be found! But that wasn't even the worst part..."

He paused, seeming to recall those unsettling rumors. "The worst part was that the 'muscle' they showed was too damn strong! It wasn't just money. I heard—just heard—that their family used an extremely ancient, extremely violent kind of fire magic. It was terrifyingly powerful."

"And they didn't seem to rely much on wands. They moved so fast it was frightening—they could be right in front of you in a flash! Firebombing from a distance, close-quarters fighting up close... combined together... bloody hell, it makes my scalp crawl just thinking about it!"

"What about the Ministry's Aurors? Didn't they do anything?" Hermione asked Hagrid intently. Everything she had learned emphasized the Ministry of Magic's authority.

At that, Hagrid let out a heavy sigh and pressed his thick fingers hard against his temple. "Aurors? It's not like the Ministry never sent Aurors to 'ask questions.' And what happened? Several skilled ones, well... supposedly tried to 'inquire' about something, but before they could even raise their wand tips, they were pinned down!"

Hagrid picked up a damp towel and wiped the cold sweat that had somehow appeared on his forehead again. "After that, the Ministry's attitude toward the Uchiha became... well... much more cautious. Minister Fudge just wanted everyone to live in peace, terrified that if something went wrong..." He did not finish, but the heavy silence and the way he kept glancing toward the window said everything.

This was an overwhelming amount of information, leaving Harry, Ron, and Hermione stunned.

They imagined wizards who combined fire magic with hand-to-hand combat. The image was both unfamiliar and oppressive.

Revenge, an ancient family, bloody incidents, formidable strength, the Ministry's wariness...

Together, it formed a dark and dangerous side of the magical world, completely different from the Hogwarts, Quidditch, and ordinary wizarding exams they knew.

"So, that red-eyed boy..." Hermione said quietly, her clever mind already connecting the clues. "He's an important member of the Uchiha Clan?"

Hagrid rubbed his huge, hairy face hard, as if trying to dispel some invisible unease.

He lifted the bucket-sized cup and took another huge gulp of iced sour plum juice, his Adam's apple bobbing sharply.

His bell-sized eyes swept over the three children. Seeing how seriously they were listening, he gathered his thoughts. "I've heard plenty of talk about them at the Three Broomsticks and the Hog's Head in Hogsmeade."

Hagrid shrugged, his expression complicated. "Ordinary wizards... they talk a lot in private. When they mention the name 'Uchiha,' some are afraid, some are curious, and some don't like them. I reckon their reactions have something else mixed in too..."

"What else?" Ron asked curiously, temporarily forgetting about his ice cream.

"Wariness, Ron. And... probably prejudice."

Hagrid spoke bluntly. "They came from the Far East, and their way of doing things is completely different from British wizards. They don't play by the usual rules, and their methods... well, they're very direct."

"Madam Rosmerta, the landlady of the Three Broomsticks, was chatting with some regulars once. I happened to be nearby, adding firewood to the hearth. She said that about half a year ago, several drunk Selwyn family branch members were loudly mouthing off in the bar, calling them 'upstarts from the East' and 'Nifflers with eyes as red as fever.' They said some really nasty things."

"Then the next day, someone saw those Selwyns lying battered and bruised in the snow outside Hogsmeade. Their wands were broken, but they didn't have any serious magical injuries. They were just frozen stiff. When people asked what had happened, they stammered and avoided eye contact, finally only mumbling that they'd 'taken a fall.'" Hagrid paused, a complicated look flashing through his eyes.

"But Rosmerta told me privately that after closing that night, she saw two people in black high-collared coats pass by the bar entrance. One of them had scarlet eyes. They didn't even look inside the bar, but after that, no one from the Selwyn family dared talk about the Uchiha in public again."

Hermione sucked in a sharp breath. "That's an outright threat! The Ministry didn't do anything about that either?"

"No evidence, Hermione." Hagrid shook his head. "There wasn't any magical conflict, no property damage, not even a proper curse involved. The Selwyn family wouldn't report it themselves, so what could the Ministry do?"

"But after word got around, everyone understood: the Uchiha Clan had sharp ears and even sharper hands. They held grudges over every slight. The key was that when they took revenge... they left you with nothing you could pin on them."

Harry frowned deeply as he listened. This was not quite how he understood the rules of the magical world.

"And that's not all," Hagrid continued. Since he had already started, he might as well tell them everything.

"The news coming out of Knockturn Alley was even scarier. A few people who specialized in dealing dark magical items, the sort with terrible reputations, suddenly 'washed their hands of it' recently and left Britain overnight."

"There were rumors that it was because they had once set their sights on some of Flamel's inheritance, or said things they shouldn't have."

Hagrid lowered his voice further, almost to a whisper. "There was an old drunk who hung around near Borgin and Burke's. One time, after he got drunk, he shouted that he'd personally seen a 'red-eyed wizard'—his exact words—in the depths of Knockturn Alley, when a wizard threw a curse at him... he used some kind of..."

As he spoke, Hagrid swallowed unconsciously. "Some invisible spell to trap him... then burned him alive into charcoal. Of course, nobody believed a drunkard, but a black-market middleman named Karak really did disappear afterward. He'd been asking around about Flamel's information before that."

These scattered, dark rumors were like pieces of an icy puzzle.

In Harry, Ron, and Hermione's minds, they gradually assembled a chilling image: a powerful, mysterious family from a foreign land, unpredictable in its methods and ruthless in its actions.

And the boy their own age whom they had just met, with those scarlet eyes, was undoubtedly the clearest and most dangerous representative of that family.

"So, that boy..." Harry said hesitantly. "Is he the especially powerful one in this generation of the Uchiha Clan?"

"Definitely!" Hagrid said without hesitation. "Even if I don't know his name, I can feel it! Those witnesses from the Auror Office said ordinary Uchiha family members might only have eyes a little redder than normal, or their eyes only changed color when they used magic."

"But that kid... his eyes were red as blood, and it looked like there was something spinning inside them! Just looking at him made your skin crawl."

"The few people in black robes following him didn't show their faces, but they felt even more alert than Gringotts guards. They couldn't hide the fluctuations of their magic at all."

Still shaken, Hagrid touched his chest. "I'd bet Fang on it: that kid's status in the Uchiha Clan is definitely not low, and he's... an absolute genius, or a monster—call him whatever you like. Either way, stay far away from him!"

Ron muttered quietly, "He sounds even scarier than Snape..."

"Completely different, Ron!" Hagrid corrected him seriously. "Professor Snape just has a bad temper and a nasty tongue. But that Red-Eyed Kid... the feeling he gave me was that he didn't have the concept of a 'temper' at all. The way he looked at us... it was like how you look at an anthill. Would you get angry at ants? You'd only decide, depending on your mood, whether to walk around it or crush it with one foot."

That comparison made all three children shudder.

[The holiday is finally here. Little Mouse has time to sort out the drafts and will keep updating more than ten thousand words a day. Please keep following, dear wizards—Little Mouse wants the joy of 500 update reminders too.]