The Butcher of Hogsmeade

"You guys go back and support Sirius, I'll take care of that split guy," Gideon said.

"Why waste the potion when we can just leave him there?" When facing the enemy, Shen Hou is as ruthless as a harsh winter, and he strictly adheres to the old man's teaching of "If you're going to do something, do it right."

As Gideon pulled out his medicine, he pointed helplessly to the last dark wizard struck down by the stun spell: "Unless we kill him to silence him."

"Or you could use the Oblivion Spell," Fabian added.

Shen Hou was at his wit's end. He might have a tiny chance of persuading the Prewitt brothers to stand by and watch them die, but he couldn't convince the two Aurors to kill them to cover their tracks. However, he didn't forget to remind them, "Fabian must stay here. We just heard that Lucius Malfoy is hiding in the park across the street. If he's not one of those three, he must still be lurking in the shadows. You can't keep an eye on three prisoners and deal with the enemy in the dark all by yourself."

"Alright, just remember to reunite with Sirius and the others first, and also, don't let them escalate the situation further," Gideon urged repeatedly.

In fact, Gideon's worries were unfounded. Before Shen Hou could even reach the backyard of McKinnon's house, the battle there had already ended, but the scene was horrific; a large hole had been blown open in the back door of the house, all the windows in the back wall had been shattered, and the ground was a mess.

Two Death Eaters, dressed in black robes and wearing masks, lay on the back door steps and the backyard lawn, their fates unknown. Stoddair and Emily were binding them with binding charms. As for Sirius, he was being held—or rather, being held by Marlene. Marlene McKinnon was in a terrible state, her hair disheveled, wearing only one shoe, her right foot bare on the lawn, whimpering in fear as she held Sirius.

"Is this all done?" Shen Hou ignored the signals from Sidoji and Aimee Lin and deliberately walked forward to spoil the mood.

Hearing the voice so close by, the embracing couple separated at lightning speed, as if electrocuted. Marlene's eyes were red, and her cheeks instantly turned even redder. Sirius covered his mouth with his hand, letting out two "strategic coughs," and then said, "Unfortunately, two Death Eaters still got away; the two we caught were only because Marlene injured them first… Yes, Marlene deserves the most credit…"

"Oh~" Shen Hou pretended to suddenly understand. Marlene walked up and hugged him tightly, whispering in his ear, "Thank you. If your battle at the front gate hadn't scared the Death Eaters, I wouldn't have had a chance to fight back. My dad, mom, and I were all under their control at the time."

"You should thank Gideon. He discovered the Death Eaters' plot and guessed you were in danger." Shen Hou became much more obedient after being hugged by a beautiful girl his age. He didn't dare to move his hands and was frozen in place. Only his mouth continued to utter strange words, "Um, can you let me go now? I feel like Sirius wants to eat me."

Marlin's face turned even redder. After letting go of Shen Hou, she didn't even dare to look back at Sirius. She left with the words, "I'm going to see my dad and mom," and ran into the house through the back door without looking back.

Shen Hou shrugged at Sirius: "Are you going to keep glaring at me, or go help Gideon and Fabian up ahead? They've caught three over there, and your cousin-in-law, Mr. Malfoy, might be one of them."

"If that's true, I'll be so happy." Sirius turned and left.

Stolgi and Emily had already dealt with the two prisoners and were now watching the commotion with their hands on their hips. Shen Hou quietly pointed to Sirius's back and the broken back door, and cautiously asked, "Did we all find out at the same time, or was I the last one to know?"

"You're the last to know, but we just confirmed it ourselves," Emily said.

Stolgi gave a strange laugh: "I think even Sirius himself probably only found out recently?"

The three of them looked at each other for a moment, then, without anyone noticing, they all burst out laughing at the same time.

"The most important thing is that Marlene is alright, and then..." Emily sighed, "These may be the only two pieces of good news we have today."

"This is where the trouble begins." Stöger looked around and saw that many residents from the same neighborhood had already mustered their courage and moved closer. They could be heard talking about it.

"What's going on? Is this McKinley Farm?"

"It's like a huge explosion."

"Explosion! My God, it's Irish?"

"I don't know, it might just be a gas explosion, an accident."

Shen Hou and the others exchanged glances, suddenly feeling overwhelmed. Before the Muggles could get close, Stodgi transformed the two bound Death Eaters into two Labrador Retrievers, then quickly put away his wand, signaling Shen Hou to join him. Each of them picked up one dog and carried it through the back door. Amelie Vance followed closely behind, disappearing into the room.

"Aren't we going to ignore what those people are saying?" Shen Hou asked.

Stodgi, clearly experienced in concealing the truth, shook his head and cautioned, "No matter what, don't say anything. Leave it to the Muggle Problem Mediation Committee; they'll come up with a suitable excuse. If we speak out in advance, it will only cause unnecessary trouble."

"I understand." Shen Hou felt relieved, then weighed the "dog" in his hand. A new question arose in his mind: "A person weighing over a hundred pounds has turned into a thirty-pound dog?"

"Transfiguration is a very dangerous spell. I wouldn't do it if I had a choice." Although Stöger said he was unwilling, he was actually quite proud of his spellcasting ability.

However, Shen Hou's attention wasn't on that. His question was: "It's so much lighter, where did the lost mass go?"

"Huh? What do you mean?" Stöger asked, puzzled.

Shen Hou tossed the "dog" onto the back porch floor, kicked it, and repeated the question: "The missing weight... turning from a human into a dog, losing nearly a hundred pounds of weight out of thin air, where did that weight go?"

"What... what kind of question is this? That's how Transfiguration works. When you turn from a human into a dog, your weight naturally changes, right?" Stogee was completely baffled by the question.

Shen Hou scrutinized Stoj's expression, then looked at Emily Vance, and saw that the witch also had the same confused look, neither of them seemed to be faking it, so he suddenly realized.

He unintentionally triggered a clash between two different worldviews.

Magic can essentially be considered a kind of idealistic power, capable of making things bigger or smaller, different or lighter, at will; however, on the level of materialistic natural science, "mass equals energy," which is an ironclad rule.

It's only been two or three years since he left school, not enough time for Shen Hou to forget some basic physics principles, such as... the mass-energy equivalence formula.

The disappearance and reappearance of over a hundred pounds of mass involves enough energy to destroy a city.