Brickwork and shards of wood rained throughout The Leaky Cauldron as a massive forelimb slammed through the back wall. In an instant chaos spread to the patrons, all running and ducking for cover. In particular a certain young girl rolled, dodging a sizable chunk of masonry that had tried to land right where her table was, making it into the aisle as the stone landed, shattering the furniture she'd occupied mere moments before.
As the giant, metallic claw broke the wall, struggling to find something it could stand on the wizards in the bar panicked. Most disapperated with a varying 'pop' sound, while others sought cover. Eudora was the first to reach the pub's front door, pushing through before she could be overrun by the crowd of scared witches and wizards behind her. In her panic she didn't notice how the door neatly flew off its hinges, accidental magic from herself and dozens of others sending it out into the street.
Her feet carried her out into the wider muggle inhabited parts of London, onto strange streets filled with the many non-magical folk of the city. Cars sped down the center of the street while pedestrians trotted off to the side, people going about their daily business. That day was coming to an end though, and none of them knew it.
A solid smack into something slightly cushy nearly knocked Eudora from her feet as the turned around, trying to see what was happening.
"Excuse you!" A seemingly outraged woman said, reaching down to grab at the child who'd nearly bowled her over.
"What's wrong with you? Run!" Eudora screamed, dodging the hand lithely and continuing her flight.
The reason was clear to any who looked behind her. A dragon, a massive Ukrainian Ironbelly to be exact, had gotten tired of pushing and simply crawled over the building in its way. It was plain to see that the beast was injured, one wing hanging a bit oddly to the side as it made its way into the road and oncoming traffic. A long, broken chain trailed behind it, one end affixed to a collar of sorts around its neck.
A bus careened towards the beast, honking its horn as it tried and failed to break before it could close on the great magical creature. While the driver was simply trying his best in his panic to keep his passengers safe the wyrm seemed to view the honking sound as a form of challenge. In response it roared in rage and loosed its breath upon the muggle vehicle. The tires exploded from the blast of heat, and several of the windows shattered.
Eudora felt the wave of hot air on her back and dove behind a nearby shop corner for cover. The building was some plaster or faux stone muggle concoction and wouldn't stand up to a direct attack, but it might just buy her a few seconds of time. When she realized that the dragon was otherwise busy she popped her head carefully round the corner.
What she saw sent a chill down her spine. A pair of muggles in some kind of uniform had arrived, and must have been in nearly the exact location the dragon had emerged. The man and woman pulled some kind of long devices from the back of a car and fired upon the dragon. Little handheld items that spat fire and noise, leaving a trail of visible impacts on the huge beast's skin, but it was hard to say if they were even penetrating the armored scales. The dragon turned in anger and spat fire down upon them. There was only a moment of screaming before the two were reduced to little more than char.
The smarter of the people on the street were now in full flight, running, driving, and taking any other mode they could as fast as they could to safety. A great number didn't though, instead pulling up small black rectangles and pointing them at the beast while goggling at the clear display of power. It was like they'd lost all sense of self-preservation while seeing something so different to what they were used to.
Eudora hesitated. She didn't like muggles on the whole, but that didn't mean she wanted a bunch of innocents to die. Her heart pounded in her chest as her brain worked in overdrive to find something, anything that she could do to minimize the carnage. None of the spells she knew were likely to harm a dragon, or even slow it down very much, but there had to be something.
A wave of inspiration hit and she drew her wand, pointing it at the long steel chain. She couldn't stop this creature, but perhaps she could slow it down a little.
"Wingardium Leviosa" she chanted, swishing and flicking at the trailing end of the leash.
The chain slowly floated upwards and with a lot of effort began to twist. With agonizingly unhurried movements the length began to wrap around the now abandoned police car. This simple spell was in no way designed with this use in mind, and to make it do her bidding Eudora had to concentrate with all her worth, biting her lip so hard it drew blood. The dragon was luckily distracted by everything going on around it and so didn't notice as a simple knot formed, adding a weight that might restrain the destruction if only by a little bit.
Stanley
Stanley slowly counted down with his fingers, 3, 2, 1, and then pointed at the attractive young woman before him holding the microphone. His new job was excellent, and over the past few weeks he felt like he'd done more and frankly better work than he'd done in the last year of his career. News was important, and while being the cameraman for small stories wasn't glamorous, it was something he liked well enough.
"Thank you Sean, we're here live at the Dominion Theatre where..." The presenter, Kendra was interrupted by an impossibly loud roar. "Stanley get eyes on this, now!"
The cameraman turned and caught sight of something he'd never believed in his wildest dreams he'd see roaming a London street. A dragon, an honest to goodness dragon towered there, ripping its way past several buildings and spitting fire. A bus caught a full blast, but somehow seemed mostly intact, seconds later a pair of officers took another, and were not so lucky. The monster seemed enraged, striking at everything around it in uncontrolled fury.
A girl he couldn't forget for her strange dress and even stranger manners popped out from behind a building and raised a little stick, pointing it at the beast. She muttered something under her breath then grimaced in effort as she pointed her stick at the dragon, turning her hand this way and that in a slow spinning motion.
In Stanley's ear a producer, never one to be surprised by anything was screaming for someone, anyone, to get a helicopter in the air and eyes on the scene. Stanley for his part was trying to get the best view he could of the spectacle, knowing that this was his chance to be part of something massive.
After a few moments the dragon tried to move forward, only to find itself held by its chain. It raged and screamed, blanketing whole sections of the road with fire and flames. The girl rapidly ducked back around the wall she was using for cover as a gout of blazing gas got sent her way. The building blocked most of it, but a few streams of it bounced off what looked like a faint bubble surrounding her.
While the news crew was still trying to process what was going on there was a series of cracks and people appeared all over the street. More than a dozen men and women sprang into existence before them, all raising wands and issuing streams of red energy at the dragon. Seconds later they were joined by more just like them, then more. Soon the street was crawling with people in multicolored robes and strange hats.
As the dragon fell before their onslaught of... magic? Everyone was stunned. It only took a few moments for the presenter to recover though, and motion her cameraman forward after her as she ran towards the nearest of the newcomers.
"Excuse me, sir! Sir, one moment if you please. Could you explain to us what's happening? Who are you? Where did this creature come from? Why was it here in the first place?" Kendra rattled off her questions in rapid succession, hoping for some answers, any answers as the sound of helicopter blades thudded in the distance.
The man in his pointy hat turned around at the oncoming crowd and their questions. "Hm? What's this... oh. Yes, one moment and I'm sure everything will be clear." He raised his wand up to where they could all see it. "Obliviate."
Back in the newsroom there was stunned confusion as the man spoke to the camera and then turned away. Both of the main presenters were looking at one another, and the image of the now glassy-eyed Kendra.
"Um... Kendra, could you tell us what's happening? Is everything all right on your end?" After a few seconds of no response and the strange people moving around in the background the man got nervous, looking to his co-host. "Everyone, it seems something... very disturbing is happening, we're going to go to the live aerial feed while we try to work things out. It is clear that there has been some form of large disturbance and we advise that citizens avoid the area around Charing Cross Road for the time being, thank you."
Over a hundred thousand people all across the UK watched in shock, not knowing that they'd just seen the longstanding Statute of Secrecy shattered into a million pieces.
