Wizards were not in the habit of gathering to watch street fights. Instead, they chose to leave quickly when a confrontation broke out, for a simple reason-just as Muggles would not cheerfully approach the sound of a gun being cocked, wizards worried about getting caught in the crossfire.
By the time Lucius and Mr. Arthur had raised their voices, nearly all the wizards along the street had fled. Now, the stretch of street around Brian's group held only a few passersby determined to leave without looking back, and one elderly wizard whose legs had gone numb from sitting cross-legged reading a newspaper, leaving him unable to run fast.
After asking his question, Mr. Granger noticed another problem. As though to avoid waking the soundly sleeping Lucius Malfoy, the scene was unexpectedly quiet. No one spoke-mainly because Lucius looked as though he had stopped breathing.
Sirius's face lit up. "Is he dead?"
Brian gave him a rather speechless look, crouched down, and checked Lucius's breathing. He sighed in relief. "He's very much alive,
"apart from the extra fist mark on his face-"
"Good thing he's not dead..." Despite saying that, Sirius looked thoroughly disappointed.
Actually, the fist mark was not the only problem-the back of Lucius's skull seemed to have caved in a little, so there was a good chance he would forget a few things when he woke up.
So Brian simply got ahead of things and repeated his old trick, wiping away all of Lucius's memories of that day.
Good. That completely eliminated the possibility of Lucius making trouble for Mr. and Mrs. Granger-though Lucius himself did not know that Mr. Granger had knocked him out anyway.
During his tirade, Lucius had paid Mr. and Mrs. Granger no attention whatsoever, as though the couple were a pair of flying