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

Chapter 694: Counterfeiting (2 in 1)

A wizard is preparing to go to the moon!

A wizard claims that the moon contains the relics of an ancient wizard!

A wizard is preparing to search for the relics!

As soon as these three bombshells of news spread, they instantly blew everyone off their feet like a whirlwind.

The wizards were sceptical, and The Quibbler was the first to appreciate the idea; Xenophilius Lovegood, who is editor-in-chief of that magazine, had long published a similar article on the subject, about a wizard who claimed to have flown to the moon on a Cleansweep six broomstick and brought back a bag of moon frogs as evidence.

But no one believed this story at the time, and they didn’t expect him to bring it back up as evidence again. Perhaps the description of the moon frogs will also appear in the Muggle newspapers sometime in the future; after all, Luna has gained a number of loyal readers with her unique style of writing.

Unlike the buzz in the wizarding newspapers, there was a rare collective silence from the non-magical community, no mockery was thrown at the idea – that a wizard actually wanted to go to the moon on his personal power, and his claim that it had already been done by someone before!

Come on, how much effort did scientists put in to get to the moon? The sweat of an entire generation, plus it became the final nail in the coffin that weighed down a superpower nation.

Two days ago, this whimsical idea would have been met with countless jeers and ridicule, dismissed as proof of Wizard’s backwardness and arrogance.

But things are different now, and the impact of the Wizards’ first visit to the British Houses of Parliament is spreading little by little.

They are being reminded at length in newspapers, television programmes, and in a series of broadcasts that it is not a dream. The trend has naturally turned to the fact that if wizards can change the weather of a country in an instant, why can’t they travel to the moon?

The effect of the illumination cast by thousands of wizards working together was earth-shattering.

Ordinary people were still feeling a sense of disbelief and awe at such a spectacular sight, while those organisations and government agencies that had taken wizards as their imaginary enemies were completely sleepless.

The wizards have demonstrated their ability to ‘manipulate the weather’, but the government bureaucrats and think-tanks don’t think that’s all they can do, they feel a strong sense of threat, whether the massive light bulb that has been lit above their heads today will turn into something else if negotiations break down tomorrow.

Such fears are not unfounded, because wizards do have a class of spells – a category of wide-rang spells that they named Weather-Modifying Charms …

There were some dissenting voices from MPs and public figures in the first two weeks of the exposure, expressing their concern directly or tactfully about wizards being outside the control of the law, but now those voices have all disappeared, and those MPs who were banking on gaining the support of voters in their wards by hyping the wizard threat have been given a stern warning by their respective parties: shut the fuck up or go home!

At such a time, Rita Skeeter, who had the insider’s information, published an article based on the idea that ‘magic is the science of wizards’, and the way she talked about herself was a big turn-off. But it didn’t prevent it from attracting eyeballs. Various media outlets have reprinted and extracted parts of that article, in which several passages are repeatedly quoted.

“I was given the opportunity that countless journalists have dreamed of, to dance with Mr. Felix Hap at the Queen’s social ball.” Skeeter said with a big smile, “He danced so well, it was quite a wonderful experience, and I’m sure he trained hard behind the scenes.”

And so the unknown number of people in the world either read her lengthy, ambiguous description of the ball with patience or interest before she got to the point.

“Yes, I without a doubt questioned him, as it’s the instinct of a seasoned journalist. Needless to say, there wasn’t much time on the floor for you to polish your thoughts, and the opportunity was hard to come by – I asked a seemingly vague, but straight-to-the-point question: what is the biggest difference between a wizard and a normal person in their upbringing? You know I’m not referring to magic …”

“As a professor at the only school of magic in the UK, Mr. Hap was quite vocal on this matter, and he happened to use science as an example.”

“We were swaying around on the dance floor limberly, and in that ambiguous atmosphere he spoke out his answer close to my ear: about the importance of imagination. He further explained that many great wizards had created practical spells that were good enough to pass on to future generations based on instinct alone; they might have been working on something for a long time and had a burning desire in their hearts, or they might simply have been lying in a rocking chair on a pleasant afternoon and had a sudden flash of inspiration. In this whole process, the wizard’s keen instinct for magic plays a huge part.”

Rita Skeeter is outspoken and much bolder. She uses suggestive and provocative language to make people think, but when other journalists asked for more details, she kept her mouth shut. She feared Hap would come to her door in the middle of the night and burn her to a crisp. Then, she went on to share the insights she had heard –

“Magic is the transformation of the impossible into the possible, a combination of imagination and magic.”

“Successive Hogwarts Headmasters have basically followed a principle of never trying to stifle the imagination and creativity of young wizards. A certain Headmaster unknowingly made a mistake in this regard by setting up strict rules in the school, and he alone created over a thousand bans, so he became the most unpopular Headmaster in history.”

“Of course, I don’t mean that wizards are a bunch of crazy, forward-talking, unorganised guys; everyone is different, what I mean is their attitude towards magic. In the crown of science, mathematics and logic are undoubtedly an extremely bright jewel, but as far as I know, many scientists have weird quirks …”

“Scientists, through learning knowledge, construct a sound and vast system in their minds and use this system to research all sorts of breathtaking results; while wizards learn and digest knowledge as a process of stimulating their own potential, they themselves are shaped by magical knowledge.”

“To sum up, scientists serve as carriers of scientific knowledge and wizards are the products of magical knowledge.”

From birth, a wizard has the most essential power of the magical world at hand – magic – after which the rest of his life is nothing more than learning how to harness it. Theoretically, every wizard has the hope of becoming Felix Hap, of becoming Dumbledore, Grindelwald …

…

The moon was fading in and out of the drifting clouds, it is still a few days away from a full moon, so it is not so round. A crowd of wizards stood in the courtyard, looking at Felix in the centre.

“Are you sure?” Ms. Bones confirmed again and again, “The Muggle government has provided data to simulate the space environment …”

“Don’t worry, I made ample preparations.” Felix said calmly, “If there is anyone in the wizarding world who can do this, I am sure that I have the most hope.” As he said this, his face overlaid with patterns of fine runes.

Hermione, Harry, and Ron were reminded of the night of Voldemort’s return: the first time Professor Hap had demonstrated his ability to transform into a rune. They gained a little more confidence out of nowhere.

But this ability is in fact so consuming that Felix tries not to use it if he doesn’t have to.

Dumbledore was good at a lot of magic, but naturally, his best was Transfiguration; he could even transfigure into all sorts of magical creatures in his human body, which would appear very implausible to other wizards, but it was nothing more than ‘tricks’ to him; in its extreme, Dumbledore’s Transfiguration allowed him to return to the peak of his strength, to the point where he could even transform and strengthen tiny parts of his body like cells with the help of his transfiguration ability.

Felix had learned about it from Harry, and so far he did not feel he could conquer Dumbledore in that state.

Felix’s best skill is undoubtedly the Ancient Runes.

And the ‘Incarnation of Rune’ is a perfect display of the limits of his abilities and what he has learned in this field. Even just by transforming his skin into Ancient Rune, he could survive far longer than the average wizard in space, not to mention the other magic he had.

With his Thinking Room, Ancient Runes, and Level 7 Shield Charm all appearing at once, Felix looked like a big, colourful butterfly to the others.

He tossed Hermione a silver pocket watch, as it would be his first attempt, there is no way he could take Valen with him, he would find it easier on his own, and when he explored the effects of the space and lunar environment on wizards, he would be perfectly able to develop a series of targeted spells – just like he had done with transforming different emotions into Patronus.

“A quarter of an hour.” Ms. Bones said, somewhat nervously, “In a quarter of an hour we will activate the Portkey on you, which you can cancel if you succeed in landing on the moon; the Portkey works both ways.”

Felix nodded. The atmosphere became serious and everyone knew it was time, Felix glanced towards the crowd and disappeared from their sight with a twist of his body. Everyone knew that a major magical experiment had begun.

And they would have to stay in the yard of Hogwarts and wait for the results.

“This isn’t the Professor’s style, if he was really ready for this he would have probably been to the moon several times by the time he announced the results, but apparently today is the first time he’s actually done it.” Hermione huffed.

“Muggle and wizard negotiations are about to begin.” Ms. Bones said hesitantly.

“We have to trust Felix, he has performed many miracles.” Professor McGonagall said in a lowered reassuring voice.

…

High in the sky.

Felix floated, he glanced behind him, thick clouds obscuring his vision, he checked the magic on his body one last time and then took a deep breath. When he opened his eyes, he found himself in the middle of a vast, vast starry sky.

“How does it feel?” It was empty around him, but a voice passed through his consciousness into his mind.

Felix was not surprised, obviously already aware of this. He experimentally moved his arms and legs, then carefully sensed his body, “It’s cold, very windy, and something else is dulling the magic barrier, I think it is cosmic rays … but it’s not a big problem, it’s not touching my skin.”

This is another trump card, one of Felix’s sources of strength.

His doppelganger magic.

This magic that he had learned from the Arctic magical creatures was different from the usual illusions used by wizards – Felix divided in two, and as long as the magic remained in operation, they could be considered as two entities. Felix transformed one of his entities into a virtual figure in the thinking room, just like how he had transformed the pots and soil of mandrake planted in the school greenhouse into simple lines.

In case a problem occurs, and conventional magic fails to help him survive in space, and even ancient runes fail to help, he can still ‘waste’ a body and travel through space without a care in the world, simply by manifesting the virtual figure hidden in the thinking room at the last second and cancelling the division magic to act as a substitution.

The magical nature of the magic became apparent.

Felix began to travel through the starry sky, casting Apparition one after another. Unlike in battle, where he disappeared almost instantly, he needed a little time to cast this magic on his journey, perhaps it only took a few seconds for each casting, but when the number accumulated to two or three hundred, it still inevitably became a lot.

Almost ten minutes had passed. Felix looked back as he sat in space, the Earth in the distance turning into a tiny one, like a black glass ball with a pattern, floating through a starry sky with a pale white glow. When he looked up the moon was close at hand.

After another half minute, Felix stood on the surface of the moon.

“It’s like being under a levitation charm.” Felix muttered wordlessly. He didn’t rush to explore, as he tried out some of the regular spells on the spot, and the effect remained largely the same. Then the blue pin at his chest lit up.

It was Ms. Bones who had activated the Portkey.

Felix casually extinguished the glow of the Portkey and fell into deep thought. He had spent about twelve minutes on the journey, counting the time delayed by the testing he had done along the way, this time could be compressed further once he became skilled in the process, which he estimated to be around seven or eight minutes.

If he could travel more widely with his Apparition, it might only take three or four minutes … This is certainly good news. Felix began to cast his magic – a huge Bubble-Head Charm.

The Bubble-Head Charm shattered as soon as it appeared like an upside-down fishbowl.

“Tch, I knew it wouldn’t be smooth sailing.” Without surprise, Felix flipped through the Book of Runes, and soon a runic spell modelled after the Bubble-Head Charm appeared. Two years had passed since that metamorphosis, and Felix felt significant improvement every so often, but the key thing was that the ancient runes showed great adaptability.

“Maybe Grindelwald can do it too.” Felix mused about the different areas of study of different people, even if they were the same Archmage. Grindelwald was particularly adept at dealing with the minute changes in magic, and he would be able to combine the properties of the Bubble-Head Charm with other magic to create a living environment in space atmosphere.

It took him some time to complete a hemispherical magical barrier. He added a variety of protective magic, while simultaneously balancing the right temperature, light, and pressure … Finally, Felix drew a large amount of air from his emerald ring, and a temporary shelter was built.

Felix released the magic from his body and took a deep breath as the orb of illumination shed a soft glow.

He slowly closed his eyes and pretended like he was a wizard from hundreds of years ago – it was easy, he had visited many famous wizarding destinations and the pace of wizard life had always been slow, with too many buildings still retaining traces of hundreds, if not thousands of years ago, dating back as far as the days when the Herpo the Foul was active.

The light-coloured moon soil on the surface tumbled up, dark soil and various tiny particles of glass and rocky debris solidified into various shapes, pale earthy yellow rocks clumped together and burned, melted and shaped by the flames, and after a few minutes, Felix realised there wasn’t quite enough oxygen.

“… It’s normal, ancient wizards couldn’t have brought everything with them.”

Felix carefully examined the loose ruins of the building in front of him and gained some insight into how to build a house on the moon. He took vegetables out of his ring again and crushed them up and mixed them with the moon soil.

Finally, he held the soil mixed with the vegetable leaves and two vessels he had just crafted – one resembling a flower pot and one resembling a dish with an ancient pattern carved into it.

“The next step is the most crucial one.”

Felix’s expression was solemn as a cloud of time energy floated out of his ring and wrapped around the floating moon soil and containers … This time energy came from the Ministry of Magic’s Department of Mysteries, after solving Miss Granger’s long-distance time travel drawback, there was still some left to spare. It looked like it had been meant to be used for this current occasion.

The colour of the soil and container gradually became deeper and more ancient, and Felix smiled in satisfaction.

“What is false and what is true? When I stand here, it will be true.”

He counted the big lies he had lately spread, borrowing Grindelwald’s special identity counted as one, ‘lighting up’ Britain with illumination could only count as half due to the perfect timing, but right now it definitely qualified as another flat-out lie, and he was so bold that he wanted to create a history out of thin air.

Felix had no intention of forcibly creating a big gap between wizards and non-wizards, it wasn’t practical, and it wasn’t necessary. His idea was to get wizards (and non-wizards too) to turn their eyes to the vast expanse of the stars. If wizards had lived on the moon, what about further away? Like Mars?

At least Felix wouldn’t stop exploring.

At Hogwarts, the crowd waited anxiously as two hours passed, the expressions on their faces changing from calm, to worried, solemn, anxious, desperate, and finally just a little bit hopeful.

Harry thought to himself that he is lucky to have Hermione here, to constantly reassure the students who were as agitated as he was around them.

There was a sudden soft thud in the air.

Felix appeared intact, smiling slightly as he glanced around, flicking the dust from his clothes and saying calmly and unhurriedly, “There was a shift in the landing point on the way back, and I had to-”

A figure rushed by, and he was about to dodge, but after seeing who it was he mentally hesitated and stayed where he was.

It was Hermione. She held on to his shoulder and kept sobbing on his chest.

“Next time, next time please take me with you.” She said in a shaky voice.

Felix’s expression went dazed.

————–

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