To Ivan's surprise, however, Walker's mood did not improve.
After a moment of hesitation, Walker spoke.
"I'm so sorry… Hals!"
"What's wrong?" Yvonne asked, puzzled by Walker's comment.
Walker glanced at the black-robed wizard lying on the ground and said apologetically, "After all you've done for us werewolves, these guys are still after the wolfsbane potion…"
At this point, Walker felt guilty. As a werewolf, he simply could not understand how these people could have done such a thing, and he did not want Ivan to misunderstand them as werewolves.
"They're them… and what does that have to do with you?" Yvonne asked, amused.
"But…"
Walker started to protest, but Ivan waved him off.
"There are good people and bad people in every group! Besides, many wizards and witches in Knockturn Alley discriminate against werewolves. Do you want me to apologize to you on behalf of every single one of them just because I live in Knockturn Alley?" Yvonne said.
Walker thought about it and agreed. He scratched his head and smiled sheepishly.
Ever since his mother's death, he lived directly with Fran and the others, experiencing how discriminated against werewolves were in the wizarding world.
As such, there was a time when Walker was hostile to all non-werewolf wizards.
Now it seemed that, as Ivan had said, there were good and bad people in every group, and they could not be generalised.
Ivan was relieved when he learned that Walker was not going to pursue the matter any further, and was not at all surprised by the ungrateful werewolf wizards.
In fact, werewolves like Furlen, Walker, and Lupin, who did not steal or rob and worked hard to support themselves, were among the minority.
Due to the circumstances of their lives, more werewolves survived only by stealing and killing, eventually degenerating into evil Dark Wizards who took their suffering out on other innocent people and caused widespread panic.
This only served to heighten the wizarding boycott of werewolves…
Therefore, even with the Wolf Venom Potion, it would take an extremely long time for werewolves to be accepted by the public!
Ivan looked at the unconscious black-robed werewolf and sighed. He turned to the young witch and spoke gently.
"Can you close your eyes for a moment? Hermione!"
Closing his eyes? Why?
Hermione looked at Ivan with her brown eyes, nonplussed…
But Ivan just looked at her without speaking.
Hermione hesitated for a moment, then nodded out of trust in Ivan, and nervously closed her eyes, her mind running wild with images she had seen on television during the summer holidays.
A moment later, she heard Ivan's voice in her ear,
"Shadowless Blade!"
This was followed by the tearing sound of a sharp blade piercing flesh and a cry of pain,
Hermione's train of thought broke off, and then, with a pang of fear, she realised what Ivan was doing…
Murder!
Kill the black-robed wizard he had just knocked out…
Hermione opened her eyes, and sure enough, the black-robed wizard's chest had been pierced through, and his black robes were stained red with blood.
Despite having seen much worse, Hermione was still taken aback, and then glared angrily at Ivan, realising that he had asked her to close her eyes in order to prevent her seeing a murder…
Hermione, however, said nothing, more annoyed at her own weakness than anything else.
"Let's go!" Yvonne said, taking Hermione's hand and pulling her away. She could feel Hermione's wrist trembling. It was hard for a thirteen-year-old witch to go through so much murder in such a short time.
In the ensuing silence, the trio returned to the drawing room.
Everyone except them was already there. Flan was carrying Burke, who was unconscious, and Alicia was holding some well-preserved dark magic objects, which she seemed to be planning to study.
"Now that we're all here, let's get out of here. The Aurors will be here soon!" said Doggett, looking out of the window.
Ivan nodded. Unlike his family's shop, Borgin and Burkes was too close to Diagon Alley. Someone might alert the Ministry of the danger of accidentally running into an Auror!
"What about the bodies? Don't they need to be dealt with?" Ivan asked, looking around at the damaged wizarding shop and the bodies of the dead black-robed wizards.
Given the number of detective shows he had watched in his previous life, Ivan feared that the Ministry would follow the trail back to him.
"Don't worry, they're wanted by the Ministry themselves. If they die, so be it. This is Knockturn Alley, and the Aurors will only be notified to go through the motions," said Doggett disdainfully, shaking his head. He then threw the ledgers he had taken from Burke to one side.
Burke had been running this shop for a long time, so it was only natural that he had his own stash of illegal items, such as this one.
Some of these buyers and sellers were wealthy and powerful pure-blood families, and no matter what the Ministry did with the books, they would inevitably be taken out of the equation…and there would be no time for them.
Ivan was relieved to hear this, and left with Hermione, Alicia, and the others.
It was two o'clock in the morning when they arrived at a mansion in the northwest.
After the battle, everyone was suddenly able to relax, and they all looked tired. After locking Burke up, they were assigned rooms to rest.
It was a good thing that Doggett's friend had a large enough house for all of them.
Ivan lay on the bed and pulled out the Time-Turner from around his neck. The funnel in the middle of the golden ring glowed faintly, and the gravel flowed slowly from one side of the funnel to the other. It was still cold and showed no signs of heating up.
This meant he would be able to stay for a while longer.
Ivan, however, no longer cared. Having dealt with Burke, the real murderer of the attack, and having seen a perfectly safe and sound Alicia, it did not matter when he went back…