“You’re out of road, Yule!” A broad-shouldered man with a thick black beard stepped out from the line of Aurors blocking the path ahead.
Now that Yule had finally stopped running—especially with a child beside him—the man raised a hand, signalling the surrounding Aurors not to rush in.
Their target had nowhere left to go.
There was no point turning a guaranteed arrest into an incident with Durmstrang.
The boy was still wearing his school uniform, after all.
“Surely we can talk this through?” The bearded Auror spread his hands.
He twirled his wand once between his fingers before casually slipping it into his pocket.
“Give it up, Yule.
The boy’s innocent.
You don’t really want your nephew watching us drag you away in chains, do you?” David glanced at the Aurors ahead of them, then at the figures closing in from behind.
This time… They really did seem trapped.
A moment later, several Durmstrang professors emerged from the trees, furious expressions on their faces.
“Fisher!” Headmaster Karkaroff stormed towards them.
“I don’t care how important your mission is.
You will not run wild on my grounds!” “My apologies, Headmaster Karkaroff.” The black-bearded Auror—Fisher—spread his hands innocently, then gestured towards Yule.
“But he is Yule Rowle, an internationally wanted fugitive of the Wizengamot.
We came here because we were pursuing him.” Karkaroff entered the encirclement with several professors at his side.
Deputy Headmaster Gilbert was among them.
So was Professor William.
Every one of them had a wand in hand.
Karkaroff first looked at Yule.
Then his gaze shifted to David.
He had wanted this troublesome student out of Durmstrang for quite some time.
Just not like this.
David gave him an innocent shrug.
He was still trying to work out what exactly his family had done this time.
“I’m not interested in your excuses, Fisher.” Karkaroff glared at the Auror.
“You will not lay a hand on one of my students.” “Listen to me, Headmaster.” Fisher clearly had no desire to antagonise Karkaroff.
He raised both hands placatingly.
“Our target is Yule.
The boy has nothing to do with this.” He even motioned towards David, making it clear that he was free to leave.
Karkaroff and the professors immediately looked at David as well.
Come here.
Their meaning was obvious.
Even on Durmstrang grounds, they had no legitimate reason to stop Aurors from arresting a wanted criminal.
“Woof!
Woof!” The hunting dogs strained against their leads.
Little sunlight reached this part of the forest, and the stand-off had turned the shadowed clearing oppressively tense.
The hounds had apparently had enough waiting.
They barked furiously at Yule and David, saliva flying from their jaws.
Fisher looked back at Yule.
The man still showed no sign of surrendering.
“You’re not getting away this time.
Give yourself up while you still have some dignity left.” David glanced at Karkaroff.
Then at the professors.
Finally, he looked up at his uncle.
Yule had been strangely quiet through the entire confrontation.
More strangely still, he didn’t look nervous.
Not even slightly.
If anything, he had the relaxed expression of a man watching someone else’s problem unfold.
Once everyone’s attention had settled on them, Yule finally shrugged.
Then he looked down at David, winked, and grinned.
“Want to see something fun?” David stared at him.
Could you please be serious for once?
They were surrounded by Aurors.
They had not, contrary to Yule’s apparent understanding of the situation, surrounded the Aurors.
“What kind of fun?” David asked flatly.
“The kind where we get ourselves killed?” “You ready?” Ignoring the sarcasm, Yule slowly reached inside his coat.
Every Auror tensed.
Several wands snapped upwards.
Then Yule pulled out— Bags.
More than a dozen small bags.
He hurled them into the air.
For one baffling second, the Aurors hesitated.
They had expected a wand.
A cursed object.
Perhaps even a weapon.
Instead… Had he just thrown gift bags at them?
Training overruled confusion.
Several Aurors instantly fired their strongest spells at the objects flying overhead.
“STOP!” “DON’T!” “YOU IDIOTS—!” Fisher, Karkaroff, and several professors realised what those bags were a fraction too late.
Spells struck them in mid-air.
And Pandora’s box opened.
Deputy Headmaster Gilbert’s eyes widened in horror.
“You wouldn’t dare—!” David had already anticipated the incoming fury.
He raised both hands.
Nothing to do with him.
Completely innocent.
Then the bags burst apart.
Magical creatures exploded into the clearing.
Not one.
Not ten.
Dozens.
They poured into the forest in a shrieking, flapping, snarling tide.
Diricawls.
Jobberknolls.
Fwoopers.
Nogtails— And those were only the less dangerous ones.
David’s eyes widened as he spotted a Snallygaster among the chaos.
Then a Mountain Troll crashed into view.
He stared.
How in Merlin’s name had Yule even managed to fit all of those creatures inside those tiny bags?
The clearing descended into absolute madness.
And David had to admit… It was magnificent.
Naturally, Yule wasn’t satisfied with merely releasing enough magical creatures to turn Durmstrang’s grounds into a disaster zone.
Apparently, things still weren’t chaotic enough for him.
He reached into another pocket and shoved several round objects into David’s hands.
They looked disturbingly like oversized Dungbombs.
Yule pointed at a small mechanism on one of them.
Then motioned for David to arm them and throw.
David looked from the spheres to his uncle.
Seriously?
Was all this really necessary?
Yule’s expression said yes.
Of course it did.
With a sigh, David activated one and hurled it.
Then another.
The situation immediately became worse.
BOOM!
BOOM!
BOOM!
The explosions shook the forest.
Even David—the one who had thrown them—froze.
His mouth twitched as he slowly turned towards Yule, who was happily flinging more alchemical bombs in every direction.
“Why do these seem… stronger than before?” “Oh.
Forgot to mention that.” Yule tossed another bomb, then flashed him a wicked grin.
“These are your mother’s upgraded Thunderbolt III bombs.” He paused.
“First time I’ve used them too.” David stared at him.
That was information he might have appreciated before throwing one.
Yule promptly snatched the last two bombs from David’s hands and hurled them towards the thinnest section of smoke.
Alchemical explosives were something of a Rowle family tradition.
David’s mother, Mary, had merely taken that tradition and elevated it into an art form.
David had used Thunderbolt IIs before.
They definitely had not been this loud.
And the smoke had never covered this much ground.
The first Thunderbolt III explosion alone had sent half the Aurors diving flat onto the earth.
Understandable, really.
Six hundred Galleons a month wasn’t enough money to die for.
They had families.
Lives.
Mortgages, probably.
They were already struggling to deal with the magical creatures Yule had unleashed.
Getting blown apart by experimental Rowle-family explosives on top of that?
Absolutely not worth it.
The Durmstrang professors were even angrier.
Magical creatures tore through the trees around them.
Smoke thick enough to resist magical dispersal blanketed the clearing.
After today, the forest behind the school might genuinely deserve to be called a Forbidden Forest.
“GET UP!” Fisher, Head of the Auror Office, roared at his colleagues.
“MOVE!
FIND THEM!” He charged through the smoke himself, determined to seize Yule before the man could escape.
But when the haze finally began to thin, the magical creatures had already scattered into the surrounding forest.
And the centre of the encirclement was empty.
Yule was gone.
So was David.
All they had left behind were several smoking craters… …and the bodies of magical creatures the Aurors had killed in the chaos.
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