But before he could alert the Aurors, Hogsmeade erupted into chaos.
No one knew which Dark Wizard cast the Exploding Charm, but it blew the roof clean off a cottage.
Then lights came on in Hogsmeade's windows, one after another.
Cries of alarm, curses, and children's screams mingled together. Someone leaned out of a second-story window, still unsure what had happened, trying to get a look.
The Wizard who had gone to find the Aurors did not get far before someone stopped him.
A man in a black robe and hood dropped from the sky. Half a pale face showed beneath the hood, and he was laughing wildly.
"You," the man said haltingly in English with a thick Eastern European accent. "Where are you trying to run?"
He raised his wand and spoke an incantation in a language nothing like English. Red light shot out. The unfortunate Wizard screamed, collapsed, and writhed on the ground.
His eyes burned as if someone had jabbed them hard, and his ears rang so fiercely that he could hear nothing else.
More black-robed figures descended from the sky. One even kicked the poor man, now deaf and blind.
"Quick work, Jakub, but you broke the rules. The competition hasn't started yet." (In Czech.)
"Then that one doesn't count." Jakub licked his lips. "But I'll still take down more Wizards today than you!" (In Czech.)
"We'll see about that!" (In Czech.)
"Stop chatting and get started," a man with a German accent said haltingly. "How we perform tonight will decide whether we can join the Death Eaters!"
These people were not Death Eaters. They were not even Wizards from England.
They had come from across Europe—Bulgaria, Romania, Czechia, Germany, Spain, Greece, Sweden...
Some had come from even farther away. They were Dark Wizards who longed