The Butcher of Hogsmeade

"Hey, you guys are here!" Frank Longbottom crossed the street and strode towards the entrance of the ice cream shop, waving to the three men a few steps away.

"I've been waiting for you, Frank, why are you so late?" Sirius complained, half-jokingly.

Frank said in a serious tone, "I'm pretty sure I'm not late. There are still two minutes left before our agreed time." As he spoke, he deliberately took out a gold pocket watch and pretended to look at it.

Sirius reached out and deftly "helped" Longbottom stuff the pocket watch back into his pocket, urging repeatedly, "Come on, let's go. Did you bring the door key?"

"Of course, let's go find a quiet place."

Shen Hou got up and was about to reach for the unfinished ice cream when he noticed that the beetle he had chased away had somehow returned and was now perched on the edge of the round table, just a hand's breadth away from the ice cream.

"Beetles are so active in the British winter?" he said, lashing the rolled-up newspaper at the beetle. The beetle tried the same trick again, flapping its wings to fly away, but it didn't expect that Shen Hou's physical abilities were so different from those of ordinary wizards. With the senses and reaction speed of a witcher, the first time he missed because he was careless, but this time he deliberately lashed it out with all his might, fast and fierce.

With a "snap," the beetle, before its wings could even open, was struck squarely by the newspaper and swept away by a gust of wind into the crack of a roadside sewer.

Sirius gave a loud whistle and exclaimed, "Beautiful shot! You should try your hand at Quidditch and be a hitter; I mean, after the war, of course."

"Quidditch? You mean a bunch of people risking their necks to fly around on broomsticks and play ball?" Shen Hou, a complete shut-in, politely declined. "Sorry, I cherish the life my parents gave me. I don't even do rafting or bungee jumping."

"ha?"

"Muggle sports are incredibly noisy and utterly boring."

The group walked and talked, following Longbottom into the distance. After a while, a sewer opening in a corner of Diagon Alley suddenly burst open from below, and a young witch covered in mud and reeking of stench from head to toe struggled to crawl out of the sewage; her wavy hair was disheveled by the sewage, hanging down in clumps, looking like unsoaked instant noodles upside down on her head, and her face, now ruined by makeup, was filled with a look of both anger and lingering fear.

"I almost drowned in the sewers, that damned butcher..." the witch muttered, her mind replaying the young wizard's words.

How tolerant are the readers?

Collective social sentiment?

Out of step with the times?

Find the right opportunity?

That sounds like it makes a lot of sense.

Soon, the sound of explosions and the stench of sewage attracted a lot of footsteps, waking the witch from her "morning enlightenment" state. She looked at herself with disgust and horror, then jumped into the air and disappeared. In the air, a dirty and smelly beetle appeared, circled twice, and flew towards the headquarters of the Daily Prophet.

Unlike the shapeshifting witch, Shen Hou experienced a terrible long-distance teleportation; it was his first time using a Portkey, and it was much more uncomfortable than when Dumbledore took him on Apparitions, even causing him to experience motion sickness-like symptoms.

Thank God, apart from the first time he returned to his hometown as a child and was so well-behaved by the winding mountain roads, Shen Hou never expected to have a second chance to experience what motion sickness is like.

"Are you alright?" Sirius's greeting seemed concerned, but it was more like schadenfreude. "It's normal for this to happen the first time you use a door key. You'll get used to it."

Frank Longbottom, however, was more compassionate. He waited by Shen Hou's side for a while until he recovered before opening the next door.

A long vine bridge that looked very familiar rose up among the trees, but Shen Hou was 100% certain that this was not the outskirts of Hogsmeade, nor was it the grove of trees where he had seen the vine bridge last time.

After crossing the vine bridge, the wooden cabin in the woods came into view. However, this time Shen Hou wouldn't be startled.

The area in front of the wooden house was bustling with activity. The small open space from the door to the bridge was almost completely crowded with people, and some were going in and out of the door. Shen Hou recognized many of them, but there were others he had never seen before.

Naturally, Sirius went straight to James after arriving, and also pulled Shen Hou along with him.

James was surrounded by five young people, three men and two women. Shen Hou recognized four of them: the oldest was James's older brother, Stogwie Podmore, and the others were roughly the same age, including Remus Lupin, Peter Petelou, and Marlene McKinnon—all of whom Shen Hou had met before. The only one he hadn't met was a beautiful woman with long, dark red hair, but he guessed her identity.

She must be James's wife, Lily Evans; in Shen Hou's eyes, her beauty had already been flaunted by James many times.

"James, you'd never guess what happened this morning. When Shen went to Ollivander's to buy a wand..." Before any pleasantries or introductions could be given, Sirius's loud voice had already started shouting, so in the end, Marlene had to take James's place and introduce Shen Hou and Lily.

"I've heard of you before, Mr. Shen; you saved James's life from the clutches of a werewolf on your very first day in England." Lily's voice was cheerful and gentle, making it easy to win people's hearts.

"On the contrary, madam, it's James who protects me more often. He's saved me more than once, but he doesn't seem to tell you much about it..."

The conversation was going well when Sirius interrupted them again: "Shen, hurry up and take out your wand to show them. I bet every single person here has never seen a wand made of fire dragon bone spikes."

After Sirius Black recounted Shen Hou's "adventures" as his own, Shen Hou finally found a chance to slip away. Gideon then introduced him to the other members of the Order of the Phoenix: there was Alice Longbottom, Frank Longbottom's wife, a short-haired, capable woman who had met Shen Hou before but hadn't spoken to him; like her husband, she was also an Auror; there was Rubeus Hagrid, whose enormous size made him seem inhuman, exceeding three meters in height, which Shen Hou found hard to believe was human; and there was another Hogwarts professor besides Dumbledore, Minerva McGonagall, the school's vice-principal, a dignified-looking middle-aged witch.

In addition, Shen Hou learned many other names: such as Dedalo Dego, Edgar Borns, Caladok Dearborn, Dorcas Meadows, and so on.

However, what embarrassed Shen Hou the most was that he ran into another old acquaintance—the owner of Pig Head Bar…

When Shen Hou recognized the old man, he stood there frozen, as if his feet were rooted to the spot. The old man opposite him snorted coldly, turned around and walked away, clearly having no intention of exchanging pleasantries with him.

Gideon, who was about to introduce the two, was stuck in the middle, caught in a dilemma.

"Is he also from the Phoenix Society?" Shen Hou asked.

Gideon's eyes were complicated as he looked at Shen Hou and nodded.

Why didn't you remind me back then?

"I've hinted to you several times already, don't go looking for trouble with Pighead Bar."

Shen Hou was greatly dissatisfied; "What's the use of hints? You should just say it clearly."

"You weren't even a member of the Order of the Phoenix back then!" Gideon retorted confidently.