Diagon Alley Melee

It turned out that people everywhere loved watching a spectacle, whether in the East or the West, whether Muggles or wizards.

Onlookers had blocked the entire street. You couldn't even see where the people fighting were, only faintly hear the commotion.

Anyone who didn't know better would have thought it was a celebrity meet-and-greet.

William also spotted several reporters hovering in the air on broomsticks, hurriedly setting up their cameras while constantly egging the fighters on. "Come on, hurry up and fight!"

Sure enough, Western reporters were quick on their feet, and they flew just as fast!

William and Cedric were both short, so they easily squeezed through the gaps in the crowd.

In the middle of the street, two groups were facing off.

Pale blond hair shimmering in the glow of the setting sun versus brilliantly vivid red hair.

The redheads, however, clearly had more people on their side.

The man at the front was tall and thin, with glasses and somewhat sparse red hair, with a bald patch on top.

Behind the man stood a boy with a broad face so covered in freckles that it looked almost brownish-black.

He had rolled up his old wizard's robe to expose his arms, revealing bulging muscles. One look told you he had trained, at the very least lifting weights regularly for years.

The boy, named Charlie Weasley, had apparently just been about to hit someone, but his father had grabbed him by the collar and held him firmly back.

Behind them were two more children about William's age, with the same brilliant red hair and freckles. Most remarkably, the two looked exactly alike.

They were twins!

Each twin held a toy shaped something like a pistol.

There were far fewer people on the pale-blond side, only two: a middle-aged man and his son, who was about ten.

Though outnumbered, they had a surprisingly imposing presence-or rather, they were even more overbearing.

Father and son both raised their chins arrogantly, their eyes full of disdain. Anyone who didn't know better would have thought their family owned the entire street!

The pale-blond man at the front held a wand in his left hand. It was decorated with an enormous emerald-cut diamond, as big as a pigeon's egg.

He patted his fine robes and fixed his icy gray-blue eyes on the red-haired man.

"Well, well, Arthur Weasley, your son isn't very well brought up. He nearly got my robes dirty just now.

"This fabric was bought in France. I very much doubt you could afford to pay for it."

Lucius's pigeon egg glittered in the sunset as he glanced contemptuously at the wand in Charlie's hand.

The boy's wand was already quite battered, with some of it peeling away and unicorn hair poking out of one end.

"Tsk, tsk, how shabby." Lucius dragged out the words in an unpleasant drawl as he sneered, "Weasley, you don't even have the money to replace your own son's wand... It seems the Ministry of Magic doesn't pay you enough to support that whole family of yours."

"That's none of your concern, Lucius Malfoy," Arthur said coldly. "You'd better think about how you're going to deal with Alastor. He's very eager to have a heart-to-heart with you."

At the mention of Mad-Eye, Lucius was like a rooster being strangled, a hint of red appearing on his pale face.

"Hmph, no need to concern yourself. I'll deal with him sooner or later! As for you, you'd better hurry to a secondhand shop and scrounge up some old textbooks. Go too late, and there might not be any left!"

Lucius turned his gaze to Charlie and the twin brothers. "Isn't that right? Weasleys, breeding as fast as Mudbloods..."

Before Lucius could finish, he came under attack-not from Arthur, but from the twins.

Their toy guns had fired some kind of milky-white, sticky, unidentified liquid.

The liquid didn't hit Lucius's expensive robes. It went straight into his face.

Enraged, Lucius raised his wand and brought the pigeon-egg end down hard on Arthur's head.

A large lump immediately rose on Arthur's head, but he wasn't about to back down. He swung a beautiful right hook straight at Lucius.

Lucius unleashed the ultimate technique of repeatedly hopping from side to side, attempting a tactical dodge.

But all that fancy footwork was no damn use. Arthur's fist struck him squarely on the nose.

Blood came gushing out, and his wand went flying, rolling across the ground.

William had always doubted whether that pigeon egg was real. Now he could proudly announce that it was!

Ignoring the blood pouring from his nose, Lucius lunged after it, shouting all the while, "Whoever dares snatch my Star of Sierra Leone, I, the Malfoy family, swear to kill him!"

Arthur was clearly a seasoned fighter and had an excellent grasp of the situation.

He kicked Lucius in the backside, sending him into a buttocks-backward, flat-sand-falling-wild-goose pose.

But Lucius was no pushover either. Before he fell, he pulled out a supreme Quidditch defensive technique that had been lost for a hundred years-the Scorpion Kick.

He snapped both feet together and kicked out quickly, tripping Arthur and sending him tumbling as well.

Arthur fell on top of Lucius, who let out a pained "Ow!" before it quickly turned into a muffled whimper.

Arthur clamped an arm around Lucius's neck to keep him from getting his wand.

But Lucius was still desperately reaching for it... In fact, he only wanted his pigeon egg!

It was as though endless strength surged through Lucius. He actually crawled forward, dragging Arthur along, while roaring, "You're putting me in a chokehold, aren't you? Aren't you?!"

Two old men,

in the middle of Diagon Alley,

in the way of men,

frantically touching, rubbing, and roaring,

fighting to the bitter end...

For a moment, applause and cheers rang out nonstop as the onlookers all shouted various words of encouragement.

"Good, good, hit him just like that!"

"Hey, redhead, how could you grab his balls in a fight? Come on, have you eaten? Put some strength into it!"

The most excited of all were the dedicated reporters. Cameras in hand, they frantically snapped pictures, ready to publish them in tomorrow's Daily Prophet.

William and Cedric kept moving forward with the crowd.

Cedric was extremely anxious. William glanced at him and asked, "What, do you know them?"

"Yeah." Cedric nodded. "The redheaded twins are the Weasley brothers. They're good friends of mine, and Mr. Weasley is my dad's colleague."

"Then what are we waiting for? Let's go help," William said as though it were obvious.

"Huh?" Cedric had trouble following William's train of thought. "You mean help them fight, not go break it up?"

Cedric, a good kid, had never been in a fight before.

"Break it up?" William suddenly understood and gave him a thumbs-up. "Right, right, that pale-blond guy looks tough to deal with... We can pretend to break it up while secretly getting in a few cheap shots. He won't be able to trace it back to us afterward.

"You're really something, Cedric."

"..." Cedric felt that wasn't what he'd meant at all!

"That kid's actually trying to ambush him! Shameless!" William shouted.

Out of the corner of his eye, he had spotted the pale-blond boy preparing to throw the glass bottle in his hand.

A glass bottle half full of chilled cola... Good grief, imagine getting hit on the head with that.

William raised his arm and cast a spell.

It was also the first spell of his wizarding career.

"Wingardium Leviosa."

Very good,

very wonderful.

William once again felt what he had felt in Ollivander's shop.

Holding his wand was like holding the whole world. The magic that had once been impossible to grasp now seemed entirely under his control, docile as a lamb.

William knew the spell had succeeded, because his intuition was never wrong.

Cedric was astonished.

The spell wasn't difficult, but young wizards normally didn't learn it until two months after starting school. William had only just got his wand, yet he'd succeeded on his first try.

William, however, was mortified.

His spell had succeeded, but his aim was off. A flash of light struck the large ice cream in Draco's right hand.

The ice cream wobbled into the air, then, with a splat, smeared itself all over Draco's face!

William: "..."

Cedric: "..."

The Weasley brothers: "Nice!"

(P.S. Want to earn the Malfoy family's friendship? Draco sincerely invites you to cast a recommendation vote, and offers you a pigeon egg.)