Dudley watched the dreamlike, fairy-tale stage on the screen as lilting music drifted out of it.
In the living room, the woman was still draped over the man, sobbing quietly. Blood flowed across the floor.
"All right, get moving. Leave the cleanup to the others."
The hooded man operating the Magical Projection patted Dudley on the shoulder and said approvingly,
"New recruit? It's rare to see someone so composed on their first operation."
Dudley looked up blankly. His first instinct was to ask why they were doing this, but just as the words reached his lips, he inexplicably asked something entirely unrelated instead.
"Won't those wizards take revenge?"
"Revenge?" The man seemed to have heard a hilarious joke and chuckled several times. "You really are new. Hasn't your teacher Edward taught you about this yet?"
He jerked his thumb upstairs and said casually, "Don't worry. Ossis came specifically to erase our traces. He can guarantee those wizards won't find any sign of us, no matter what tricks they use.
"The dedicated cleanup squad will remove all the other evidence here, too. Don't worry. Go home."
Dudley silently committed all of this to memory, then glanced at the Magical Projection again.
The party there was still going on.
The atmosphere on the dance floor grew livelier and livelier. Starting with the third-place school, the remaining schools all poured onto the floor together.
For a while, all manner of formal attire swayed and blossomed across the floor, while laughter and delighted cries rose one after another.
Dumbledore chuckled merrily. Suddenly, he waved his wand and conjured another tall stage against the right-hand wall, furnished with a drum kit, several guitars, a lute, a cello, and several organs.
Then the Weird Sisters surged onto the stage together, and the audience erupted into