Harry Potter: A Certain Ancient Rune Professor of Hogwarts (TL)

Chapter 583: Voldemort’s Adventure (2 in 1)

When he returned to school in the evening, Felix was in a very good mood.

That afternoon he and Winnie went to the law firm where she worked to take on a legal consultation service as her friend. Winnie’s boss – a middle-aged man in his early forties – readily agreed to assign this business to Winnie, who is still a practice assistant, after learning that the consultation fee would not be discounted.

“The work is not that much of a challenge, but it’s a bit of a menial job, and it takes time to travel around.” Winnie’s boss stated in a low voice, “I’ll check your progress regularly.”

“Understood.” Winnie said with a nervous look on her tense face.

She knew that her boss was concerned that she would casually muddle through with her work due to the fact that she had found this job from a friend. But the truth is that he had completely missed the mark – there is much more to do than what was laid out in plain sight. In addition to the legal issues of several gold and silver handicraft shops, she also has a secret task on her plate: analyse the wizarding social system through the lens of a modern social system.

Winnie could literally go on for three days and nights explaining the differences between the two, but Felix dismissed the angle of dissection she proposed.

“The law-”

“No need for you to worry about it, a small society of tens of thousands of people doesn’t need to have it all figured out.”

“Finance -”

“No need for you to worry about that either.”

“Then what did you ask me to do?” Winnie looked at him with exasperation.

Right now they were in the café downstairs from the law firm, Felix was scooping up ice cream with a small metal spoon, Valen preferred strawberry flavour, and she was sitting proudly at the table by the window, where pedestrians walked up and down the block but none of them seems to have noticed her.

“Use your head, Miss Valentine. You have had a complete and comprehensive higher education, there are very few people among the Squib who have had similar experiences to you, you are a rare talent that has a whole complete social system at your back. By the way, you’ve dealt with quite a few companies, haven’t you?”

“It’s all the cases that the firm takes on,” Winnie said under her breath, “and I’m responsible for gathering information and sometimes writing a report that is presentable, as per the requirements.”

“That’s it.” Felix nodded, waving the small spoon in his hand. “A word of advice: you can think of the Wizarding Community as a large corporation that is actively seeking to transform itself and just happens to have found you.”

Winnie stared at him, intrigued by the analogy, but she held a different opinion.

“We’re talking about serious topics, aren’t we?” Winnie looked at Felix for confirmation, and he nodded before she continued, “If that’s the case, using the company as an analogy would seem inappropriate. As far as I can see, the various systems in the wizarding community are still stuck centuries ago. The Statute of Secrecy may be the main reason for this, but you can’t deny that wizards can’t act like a real corporation: with clear goals and unified operations.”

“… If it had to be compared to a company, it would be a loosely structured one, full of internal and external issues, with absolutely no future prospects.”

Winnie finished in one breath, her mood inexplicably bright, and she felt like she had gotten her revenge. Who had made the wizarding community abandon her back then! Felix smiled at her, ” I have no say in what you are thinking, but right now this futureless company employs you, and you need to come up with a solution.”

Winnie’s hand that holding the spoon froze, and she tossed her ponytail in annoyance.

“I can’t think of one – just tell me.”

“Internal and external problems? Someone will naturally take care of that; loose structure? No need for you to think about that either.” Felix stated softly, “What I want you to do is consider it from your own perspective, what is there in the wizarding world that is attractive enough to form a new industry? Simply put, if I wanted to integrate the wizarding community into Muggle society, like a set of gears, what are the possible points of interconnection? Forestry, industry, agriculture, livestock, fishing, science …”

“Why would you want to do that?” Winnie said holding her breath, “Do you know any insider information that the wizarding community is planning to reform …”

“You could interpret it as a kind of reserve for future scenarios, a preplanning for the future.”

Winnie looked at him in bewilderment.

“There’s no major war at the moment, but have humans given up developing weapons? The Wizarding Community has no intention of amending the Statute of Secrecy for the time being, but in the long run, change is essential … You know about mobile phones, don’t you?”

Winnie nodded.

“What about cameras?”

Winnie nodded again.

“And have you seen a product that combines the two together?”

Winnie nodded at first, then shook her head rapidly.

“Never seen one at all.”

“Then you can look forward to its appearance in a little while, I expect something similar will be created in a few years.” Felix said, “Try to imagine if in the future everyone had a mobile phone in their hands that could take pictures, would wizards still be as well hidden as they are now?”

Not to mention the internet. But Felix didn’t mention that line of thing.

“You think wizards will be exposed to the general public at large?” Winnie couldn’t help but ask. She felt a little horrified inside.

“It’s just a matter of odds and time. The Ministry of Magic deals with more accidental disclosures every year as technology advances. They are facing a new test.” Felix said, “I judge that there are two possibilities for the future: either the Ministry of Magic gets tired and has to start working more closely with the Muggle government where more people – or at least some of the government workers – will be aware of the existence of wizards.”

Winnie imagined that scenario: an ordinary person spotted a wizard, casually pulled out a phone to take a picture, and then reported the news to the TV station … Faced with this situation, it would indeed be difficult for the wizards to completely block out the news, and in time it would probably end up like the way Mr. Hap had described it, that the wizards would have to make a compromise and rely on the more well-staffed government agencies.

But she soon realized a problem; this approach would treat the symptoms but not the root cause.

“As you probably realized, there is more than one Ministry of Magic and more than one Muggle government in the world, and when the day truly comes when both societies must work together to keep secrets, it is only normal for mistakes to occur.” Felix said to himself, “Not to mention …”

He didn’t go on, but Winnie followed his train of thought: not to mention that it is highly unlikely for all countries to be willing to cooperate, and as soon as there is an accident in one of the middle links and the talks fall apart … the result is that the whole secret will be broken.

“That’s why you need to make an advance plan?” Winnie more or less understood Felix’s train of thoughts, the whole thing is indeed essential. She just didn’t think she would have the opportunity to be involved in such a big affair, but she was somewhat relieved when she thought about Mr. Hap’s status in the wizarding community.

“That’s right.” Felix said briefly.

This is one of the reasons why he wants the war to end as soon as possible: the Ministry of Magic is having a hard time just keeping things running right now, and if they are kept getting sidetracked by other matters, especially big ones that concern the future fate of the wizarding community, he thinks Ms. Bones will probably explode from sheer frustration.

But it is the Ministry’s responsibility to safeguard the entire wizarding community from being discovered in the first place.

Felix had spent the last few years gaining fame so that one day, when he formally raise this serious issue, everyone – including foreign wizards – would have to take it seriously and not dismiss the words as some foolish mumbo-jumbo.

He did not want to do all the work alone, even with the ‘future world’ at hand, the force he could wield is still too small.

Winnie asked quietly, “The wizarding community has been monitoring the technological advances? I knew about the communication mirror, and watched people use it, and at that time I just thought the magic was magical, but now that I think about it, it’s simply the direction the future mobile phone is heading: small and convenient, with the ability to transmit images in addition to calls, just with a distance limit.”

“The distance restriction is already improving.” Felix said. “There are actually readily available alternatives available, such as a Two-way mirror, but it’s a bit complex to manufacture and not suitable for mass production. We’re considering making a magic photo instead.”

“Can you be more specific?” Winnie asked with interest, it is a knowledge that is completely inaccessible to her normally.

Felix moved his fingers, and the two roses in the café in response jumped down and transformed into two photographs, and Winnie stared at her own face in the picture, and then at Felix Hap in the other one, mentally marvelling in wonder.

” You must be no stranger to seeing pictures that move in the newspapers … There exists a more advanced type of magical portrait in the wizarding community that not only can converse with a person, but also retains some of the wisdom of the portrait’s owner when he was alive, depending on how much memory the owner has given it. This is where the inspiration for what I said came from.”

“If you want to see each other, the easiest way is not to transmit a real-time image, but to hold each other’s pictures and through enchantment replicate your current actions on your own picture. Just like this.”

Felix waved his hand, and the image in his photo followed suit.

“This method is relatively simple, but it also requires customization, and currently only the inventors of the Couple’s Mirror, the predecessor of the Communication Mirror, Fred and George Weasley, are accepting this type of order, tailoring it specifically how the couple wants it”

Winnie’s head was spinning, and she is feeling very conflicted right now. On the one hand, she knew that the wizarding community is lagging behind the real world in many areas, and can even be said to be centuries behind; but on the other hand, the wizarding community is practically predicting the future direction of technology.

Not only this one product, but many of Future World’s products also had a vague shadow of something familiar.

She tried to attribute this phenomenon to the peculiarities of magic, but the reasoning didn’t make sense, and she stared at Felix again as a realization dawned on her.

“In a magic society where there are too many old-fashioned creators, you’re the best inventor of this era, Mr. Hap.”

Felix waved his hand, ” Well, I wouldn’t presume myself as such.”

He is not brushing it off to be polite, on the contrary, the more he delves into magic, the more he understands one thing: any master of magic is a potential inventor.

If the Weasley twins could make a couple’s mirror, then why Dumbledore could not be able to do so?

As far as he knew, Dumbledore had been able to exchange alchemy ideas with Nicolas Flamel when he was young, and he had made some useful magical tools himself, but Dumbledore had never thought of starting a company or converting his intelligence into money.

Dumbledore’s approach is actually quite a typical representative of those brilliant wizards throughout history.

It is true that those people did not have much business thinking in their heads and were bound by the traditional ideas of wizardry, but they were also not short of money in the first place, so it was enough for them if they could satisfy their own needs and those around them.

Another example is the pure-blood families who would rather hold on to their ancestors’ magical notes and let them rot and be lost than willingly let any of those knowledges pass on to the outside world.

…

After Valentine’s Day, Felix returned to school as usual.

In the Ancient Rune classroom –

“Welcome back, everyone,” Felix said unhurriedly as he walked around the classroom, “I trust you had a good weekend, and yes, the Valentine’s Day package at Madam Puddifoot’s Tea Shop was a good deal, and the collapsed mountain in the outskirts was enough of an eye-catcher, I… even heard that a quick visit to the Hog’s Head Inn had become a new trend?”

The students exchanged glances with each other for a moment, and Harry saw Hermione quietly mouthing: bollocks. He grinned.

“But I want you all to take it easy.”

” There are less than two months till Easter, and you’ll be receiving career advice after the holiday, but it might actually be a bit late at that point.”

In the middle of his sentence, Felix trailed off as the students stared at him as he pulled a small slip of paper from his pocket, “Erm, let’s see, what’s next is the important and significant things about O.W.Ls exams, and revision plans … these things can be a real headache.”

He dryly dropped the small piece of paper, turning it into a paper plane before it made its way to the floor.

The students stared with strained necks at the paper plane as it flew out of the window.

“Okay, that is what I recorded during the professor’s meeting, I was simply trying to show you how bored I was …” Felix strides back to the podium and addressed the jaw-dropped students at the bottom, “Let’s talk about something practical.”

“If you are going to enter sixth grade, what kind of things will be taught in the Advanced Ancient Rune class?”

The students listened intently to the professor’s explanation.

“Firstly, the content of the course is not fixed. The subject is currently changing day by day and new things are constantly being presented. If you are interested you can go through the magazine ‘New Solutions to Rune’ from cover to back, there are many articles that are either cutting edge or interesting, many of which you have also written and published yourselves …

I intend to spend a couple of years to sort out a clear context for it, but in any case, the advanced class will focus on the teaching of practical runes, there is no doubt about that.”

“I’d like to say something in addition. In fifth grade, and especially after the Career Advice, you will have to think carefully about your future.”

“I can bring you into the thinking classroom and let you learn hundreds of translational runes in one lesson, so logically each of you can get a distinction on the O.W.Ls …” Felix said calmly, ” Yes, I can do that.”

“Grades aren’t the issue, interest is the key.”

“In the Advanced Class, the demands I place on you will become higher and higher as the Ancient Rune subject continues to improve, and the content of the teaching will vary from person to person. You will spend a lot of time on more advanced topics of study, and the process can be very torturous if you are not really interested.”

“So think carefully and clearly: what does this course really mean to you, and perhaps your thinking today will lead to the birth of new fields of cross-discipline of rune …”

Throughout the month of March, students are kept busy.

But outside of campus, or rather outside of the United Kingdom, the very order of the international magical community was turned upside down by Voldemort alone.

In the period between Valentine’s Day and the beginning of March, Felix and Lucius met a few times and found that Voldemort seemed to have completely disappeared, and Felix could only assume that he is preparing for his duel with Dumbledore.

But Voldemort had proved that it is difficult for him to settle down.

On 12 March, a letter arrived that caught Felix’s attention. Enclosed with the letter was a clipping from a foreign newspaper, which mentioned that Voldemort had broken into a foreign auction house and snatched a valuable magical cloak.

But according to the security staff, he took it, said “rubbish”, and disappeared.

On 17 March, he showed up in the underground vault of the Gringotts’ French branch and took a rather famous goblin sword with him.

On 25 March, Voldemort broke into a ruin of an ancient wizard that was being excavated in Brazil, where he pried open a coffin and threw its contents to the ground as if they were rubbish, and the lifelike body of the ancient wizard had decayed rapidly.

During that period of time, a hunting party composed of Aurors from several countries was formed.

They were ordered to capture Voldemort, but for the better part of a month they ended up with no results. The newspapers were full of reports and the Minister of Magic of a small country made a public announcement, claiming that Voldemort was a dancing jester who could only hide from everyone.

The very next day Voldemort broke into that country’s Ministry of Magic and slaughtered over fifty wizards. He then showed up at the premises of that wildly pieced-together hunting party and killed the flies that had been following his arse all this time.

For a period of time, no one dared to speak out.

Even Britain itself was looked at very negatively, the pages of the newspapers seemed to have been dominated by Voldemort alone, many old people were forced to recall the horrific war more than a decade ago and the tension continued to build up until just before Easter.

The Ministry of Magic finally finalized and announced to the public the time for the Dark Wizard’s trial.

At the same time, Felix received a letter from the High Court of Wizards – Wizengamot.

————

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