Helga felt that although the destruction of the Underworld seal was certainly a troublesome matter, everyone was still alive.
They could hardly abandon everything else because of it.
In other words, life still had to go on.
For someone like Hufflepuff, who cared greatly about ordinary daily life, the Global Youth Wizarding Tournament really was a top priority.
Even if there had been a few unexpected incidents along the way, the competition still had to continue.
Voldemort and the Society's attack had indeed interrupted the tournament, but that was no reason to cancel it.
Hogwarts had merely been attacked.
It had not been occupied!
Now that everything had been settled, of course the tournament should continue.
Bones and Dumbledore exchanged a glance, then realised that continuing the competition would be an extremely effective way to reassure everyone, far more useful than holding a hundred press conferences.
"All right. I'll arrange it immediately. How does tomorrow sound?"
Bones was decisive and efficient. Once she had made up her mind, she intended to act at once.
Dumbledore also agreed.
As for the two Headmasters who had sided with the Society, the British Ministry of Magic would not show them any mercy.
They would face trial before the Wizengamot and imprisonment in Azkaban.
Considering the severity of their crimes, there was a very high chance that they would receive life sentences.
The students from their two schools, however, had not been involved.
Apart from the missing Hide Yamashita, they were all innocent.
One of Uagadou's contestants in the final sixteen had even fought alongside Daphne and the others.
When she learned that her own Headmaster had taken part in the plan to invade Hogwarts, she felt as though the sky was collapsing.
Fortunately, the suspicion surrounding her was quickly cleared.
After Dumbledore and the other two held a brief meeting, they established the basic principles everyone would follow from then on.
Then came the post-battle cleanup and recovery.
The survivors did not immediately wake the students who had fallen asleep because of Uagadou's incense.
Waking them now would only create more trouble.
First, the injured were brought to the duelling platform for basic preliminary treatment.
Madam Pomfrey would then provide more thorough care.
Personnel from St Mungo's were already on their way, and the severely wounded would be transferred to the magical hospital.
The bodies of the Society's Mages who had been killed during the battle were piled together in the faculty stands.
They would be registered and processed by Ministry specialists before being buried collectively.
Those who had surrendered after seeing the situation turn against them, as well as those who had been knocked unconscious during the battle, were gathered together and placed under guard.
Once the Ministry's Aurors and Hit Wizards arrived, the prisoners were handed over to them.
What awaited them next was interrogation by the Ministry of Magic.
The Ministry needed to use them to identify the locations of the Society's headquarters and various branches before taking targeted action.
Professors White and Arius of Hogwarts stated that they were willing to assist the Ministry free of charge in eliminating the remaining members of the Society.
Minister Bones agreed.
When Helga learned that Rowena was also willing to travel around the world to eliminate the Society's remnants, she was somewhat surprised.
It did not really fit Rowena's usual style.
"I didn't expect you to actually be willing to..."
"They've repeatedly dared to launch attacks against Hogwarts. The Society is no longer just an ordinary group of Dark Wizards. They have to pay the price," Rowena declared righteously.
Helga kept feeling that something was slightly off, but she could not quite put her finger on it.
She decided to return to the alchemical world later and ask Salazar about it.
And just like that, a catastrophe was quietly brought to an end.
As for its lingering consequences, those would only reveal themselves little by little with time.
When the sleeping students were finally awakened, they were completely stunned.
They could hardly believe what they were hearing.
You-Know-Who had returned.
The Society had invaded.
A massive battle had broken out at Hogwarts...
It sounded like some prank story Fred and George had made up.
But after seeing the scarred and damaged stadium, the corpses piled on the stands, and the injured being transported away in batches by St Mungo's personnel, they had no choice but to believe that the disaster had truly happened.
Still, the special edition of the Daily Prophet, the announcement that the tournament would resume the next day, and the seemingly ever-present figure of Headmaster Dumbledore helped settle their unease.
The invasion did not plunge Hogwarts into fear.
Instead, it injected a strange excitement into the school.
Young wizards were always fascinated by things that were dangerous but did not actually threaten their own safety.
That was precisely why the Shrieking Shack could become a tourist attraction, while no one had ever willingly gone to Azkaban just to take a look.
The danger of the Shrieking Shack existed only in stories.
The danger of Azkaban, on the other hand, was very real.
Once order had been restored, the young wizards eagerly began asking around for every scrap of information related to the battle.
Students like Cedric, who had genuinely participated in the fighting, were surrounded by crowds.
"It really wasn't much. Things were pretty dangerous at the time, and I was mostly just protecting myself. The ones who truly contributed were Headmaster Dumbledore, Professor Aries, and the others..."
Faced with the eager looks of her classmates, Astoria tried her best to remain low-key.
Unfortunately, several students from other schools had also taken part in the battle, so there was no hiding the impressive performances of Astoria and Daphne.
"Those two silver-haired girls from your school are incredibly strong!" Pearl, the Uagadou contestant, answered almost every question people asked in order to prove that she really had participated in the battle and clear herself of suspicion.
"One of them can just go whoosh and pull all the blood straight out of an enemy's body, then use that blood to attack and defend! The other can control magma! Just imagine getting your chest punched through by fists made of molten rock! The number of enemies they defeated was definitely in the double digits!"
With Pearl enthusiastically spreading the story, Daphne and Astoria had no chance of staying low-key anymore.
People even gave them nicknames.
One became "Flame Fist," while the other became "Blood Witch."
Daphne thought "Flame Fist" actually sounded pretty good.
It did not seem inferior at all to the title Dragonheart once held by her ancestor.
Astoria, meanwhile, was simply relieved that her nickname had not ended up being something like "Bloody Hell."
If it had, she really might have lost her mind.
"It's a shame Rhys wasn't here. If he had been, he could've dealt with Voldemort by himself," Daphne sighed.
She remembered the requirement Rhys had once given her: before graduation, she had to become capable of defeating Voldemort alone.
At the time, she had thought the task sounded completely impossible.
But now it seemed the difficult part might not actually be defeating Voldemort.
It might be whether Voldemort would still exist by then.
Astoria, on the other hand, looked thoughtful.
She had a feeling that Rhys had probably participated in the battle.
After all, she had noticed that several corpses had been reduced to dried husks, and she certainly had not killed those people herself.
So who else in the world possessed the ability to manipulate blood and would also have taken part in the Battle of Hogwarts?
What an incredibly difficult question to guess!
Of course, she did not tell anyone else about this.
She felt that Rhys probably had his own reasons for keeping his involvement hidden.
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12 Chaps ahead at Patreon.com/HornyFBI