Chapter 699: On the Right Track
The last Saturday of July.
In a spacious courtyard inside the Houses of Parliament, the Prime Minister and several ministers stood far away in a long corridor, silently watching a short, thin man dangling in mid-air. The man held a small, long-handled hammer in his hand, and all eyes converged on the blackened head of the hammer as they watched it approach the crystal vase.
For several days scientists used various methods to try to figure out the inner mechanism of the vase without destroying it, but in the end, it was found that observation with the naked eye was the most reliable, because the more precise the measuring instrument, the more likely it tended to be significantly out of whack.
Today is the deadline given for releasing the landscape in the vase, and the person responsible for the daily maintenance of the building’s interior has bravely taken on the task of breaking the vase.
Drops of sweat rolled down his cheeks and into his neck. The short man stared straight at the ground, mentally gauging the distance. “Stop!” He suddenly shouted, the ropes around his body abruptly halted, and his body swayed slightly, but the man’s eyes were only on the crystal vase.
The man swallowed and quietly cheered himself up. The crystal vase had a metal base specifically designed to hold it in place at the bottom, to keep it from being blown over by the wind and to prevent accidents, and the only thing he had to do was to crack the outer shell of the vase as he had rehearsed.
The metal hammer head fell as a crisp shattering sound silenced the courtyard.
“Pull me up quickly!” The man shouted, he was the closest and had the clearest view at the moment – if you didn’t count the small and large cameras around him – and as he watched, the crystal vase was first spread with spider webs like fine lines and then white light began to blossom from each one of the lines.
The workers at the edge of the courtyard reacted and hastily pulled the ropes tighter, and the short man was pulled back by the ropes, but the man’s eyes stared straight into the centre of the field, the crystal fragments scattering into light, his pupils reflecting a palm-sized, life-like garden, which began to stretch out, first the soft, tender green grass, expanding outwards like a rising tide, faster than he was able to retreat, the glowing green colour seemed to spread and touch his raising ankles in the blink of an eye, and his feet were already on the soft grass when he took off the ground.
Saplings rose from the ground, from far and near, and time seemed to lose its meaning, as it took only a dozen seconds for them to lush up, with branches growing off the saplings, and the man was lost in thought as he grabbed a leaf and stuffed it carelessly into his mouth, his eyes widening as the fresh sap and bitterness continued to hit his taste buds.
After half a minute, peace returned.
The Prime Minister and the ministers drew closer, and a few of the workers bravely approached, no one stopped them, all of them looked at the golden fountain in front of them with fascination, the sound of gurgling water seemed to fill their ears, and in the centre of the fountain, several ice sculptures stood, or perhaps crystal sculptures? They weren’t sure, but they could feel a faint coolness as they approached, and even their breath seemed to become damp. A few birds flew into the azure sky.
Everyone was silent, staring at the courtyard for a few moments, before the Prime Minister finally said, “Call a press conference.”
The next morning, Ms. Bones led a dozen or so delegates from various sectors of the magical community into the Houses of Parliament, which not surprisingly included several humanoid magical races, and the guards at the gate tried their best not to look surprised, as if half-human tall goblins and four-legged centaurs were normal and not worth the fuss (thank goodness there were no trolls in the group). Felix watched them enter and the gates slowly closed. Meanwhile, the dozen or so Muggles hiding around the perimeter suddenly remembered their priorities and drove home in a hurry, clutching banners, shotguns, and the like, without making a ripple.
A quarter of an hour later, Felix walked through the iron gates, stopping for a moment at the magical fountain as well, then made his way along the corridor to the left, where a flag flew high at the top of Victoria Tower, he made his way up the stone steps of the building where the important documents of the Council were kept, and as he walked his ears were greeted by the sound of voices.
“We welcome the joint representatives from the Pan-Magical Alliance’s British Branch, and the Ministry of Magic – Ms. Amelia Bones to the meeting …”
Felix smiled faintly. The Pan-Magical Alliance came ahead, and the ‘British Branch’ implied even more significance, although at the moment there was only one ‘branch’, without even a glimpse of the General Council, but that didn’t matter, what mattered was that wizards had a reason to remain truly independent and free from the jurisdiction of non-magical regimes.
There is more than one group of species, so why should they be subject to the bidding of the Muggle government? The arrogance and intractability of the goblins came in handy in the next few days that followed, and this time they were on the side of the wizards.
Why all the trouble? Why facilitate the integration of wizards and non-wizards while trying to keep wizards relatively independent?
There are too many reasons for that, and the fact that wizards won’t tolerate a strong and controlling government over their heads alone is worth the trouble, and it’s better to spend months on negotiations than on the battlefield. For wizards, even the most loosest Muggle governments were more binding on the population than the wizarding community. Felix had seen bits of the former senior official Umbridge’s vision for the Ministry of Magic and wondered if the non-magical community had inspired her to pursue a result strikingly similar to that of the outside world.
In other words, for the wizarding community with simple social structures, every Muggle government out there could be comparable to Umbridge ruling them.
The differences in terms of understanding and requirements for rulers between wizards and non-wizards are so great beyond belief that forcing them together is bound to produce problems. The current situation, which has turned into the one before us in less than a month, has proceeded very smoothly. But what appears to be smooth sailing is actually the result of Felix’s active avoidance of most of the options with pitfalls.
Most hidden problems began in the smallest detail. Felix spotted them in advance, and made arrangements early on, before reaching out and giving them a push when he met the right person who was willing to solve the problem. The rest was just a matter of quiet observation, and as long as things didn’t get off track, the question of who would do the job was just a matter of circumstance; it was not a personal problem of Felix’s, it was a problem of the entire wizarding community.
Did Dumbledore ever publicly been much active during the First Wizarding War? No, he stayed in school. But out of the public eye, he secretly established the Order of the Phoenix and secretly fought against Voldemort to keep him from storming into the Ministry of Magic and going on a killing spree, and that was enough, was he expected to stand guard like an ordinary Auror on duty?
Felix had stopped some of the conflicts from happening, and he wasn’t going to publicise his actions, he had more important things to do.
A little time passed and Felix emerged from a stone room with a thoughtful expression on his face.
Yesterday afternoon the Prime Minister held a press conference at which he mentioned two important pieces of information, one naturally being the announcement to the public about the timing of the negotiations and the other was a response to the rumours about the discovery of ancient relics on the moon by wizards, which he had confirmed as truth.
The latter rumour went viral for some period of time.
The moon landing was considered highly incredible to those who did not know magic, and for ordinary wizards, it was considered a mythical achievement – when this news was announced, various Ministries of Magic delegates inquired about the truth of the matter but were brushed off by Ms. Bones until Felix’s successful return from the moon, when the news was transmitted by spies to all the countries.
The British wizarding newspapers were among the first to receive the news, with journalists talking about it in a tone of awe, and even Rita Skeeter took half a day off to publish a passionate article in the Daily Prophet, which made Felix feel odd, but Ms. Bones was very happy. “The people are confident that we can tide over the difficulties.”
Felix smacked his lips and said nothing, but then he turned his head and made the most of his excellent Slytherin graduate nature by gathering the members of the pureblood family who had nominally defected to him. Felix had almost forgotten about them.
In the last part of the war, these guys were terrified, no one knew how far the purge would go, and Amelia Bones’ attitude looked as if she intended to uproot some of the stubborn Purebloods (although she never intended to do so). At that time, Lucius, who was unwilling to be reduced to a marginal family, and Selwyn, who had managed to avoid retribution by betraying his fellow Death Eaters (he is now known as ‘Mean Selwyn’, according to some gossips), brought together a group of out of favour Purebloods and came forward to offer their loyalty to Felix, who in turn offered a promise not to implicate the innocent and protect their Family members.
Now is the time to use them.
At Malfoy Manor, Felix met these men. The atmosphere was awkward because he had dragged Snape along with him, and in the living room where the Death Eaters had met, Felix sat in the chair where Voldemort had originally sat, with the dim light of the fireplace blazing behind him, as if Voldemort had returned. Some of the people who had arrived later entered the room slightly out of breath, almost blurting out their greetings to the Dark Lord.
Snape took a seat to the immediate right of Felix, making it easier to communicate through the Thinking Room, which led to some sneaky eye contact in turn. Then Felix learned Snape’s position as a Death Eater, and he couldn’t help thinking that Voldemort must have hated his misjudgement before he died.
Anyway, the meeting proceeded rather poorly, with Snape glancing at him as if he was worried that his next words would be an order to take over the Ministry of Magic, but the result was favourable, as the purebloods showed their family heritage by presenting their pacts with other magical races without any hesitation.
These pacts, which date back centuries, are still in effect and played a huge part in persuading the different magical races in Britain to join the Pan-Magical Alliance.
There was an interlude during the meeting. A pure-blooded wizard addressed him warily as His Excellency and asked him about the truth of the moon landing, and upon receiving an affirmative answer, he suddenly filled with enthusiasm and suggested for Felix to establish a wizard base on the moon.
“Our cause would be unbreakable at that time!” He said excitedly, to which there were many echoes.
Cause? What cause? Felix was puzzled, but he considered the proposal seriously. Although relations between wizards and muggles aren’t bad enough for them to settle on the moon, the idea of a moon base suited his taste, for example, he could easily build a secret chamber several kilometres under the school castle, which would make a great shelter, and the magic required for it didn’t seem that great.
It really wouldn’t be difficult, Felix had given it some serious thought. Creating dozens of expanded spaces like the basement in Mr. Scamander’s house, combined with the farming magic Professor Burbage had developed, would be more than adequate for 20,000 to 30,000 wizards to wander the cosmos for quite a number of years.
The only thing it needed would be regular maintenance.
But again, for the same reason – situations weren’t that bad; Felix preferred to never resort to using it.
…
The feat of landing on the moon was widely circulated on the radio by Ms. Bones in Britain, and those who were close enough to Felix asked him personally, but those wizards abroad were simply dumbstruck by the news.
Even with all the incredible things Felix had done previously, the ministries of magic remained sceptical. Felix in fact could have done the same thing that the young Dumbledore had done, turning all doubts into incredulity through letters, academic publications, and meetings with wizards from all over the world to prove it, but Felix didn’t have that much time to spare.
Felix’s next focus will turn towards foreign countries, and he will then confront even more difficult problems, ranging from prime ministers, government officials, the public, public opinion, the deterrence of force, and the lure of profit. … Many countries’ ministries of magic have not solved even a single problem. The International Confederation of Wizards is on the verge of collapse.
The only commendable thing was that these ministries of magic had long been bound by the Statute of Secrecy, so their instinctive reaction made them keep the entire wizarding population hidden, and from Vinda Rosier’s mouth, Felix was able to learn more valuable information – information that was not made public by the ministries of magic. Some things were more serious than they appeared.
Although the wizards choose to remain hidden, skirmishes happen every day.
Different strategies are required to face different circumstances. Once the results of the negotiations on this side were finalised, and if things proceeded smoothly, the ministers of magic from various countries would be the first to rush to inquire about the details, and then it would be time to begin the second step.
As Felix wandered through the sea of documents and files in Victoria Tower, he recognized the issues that would be the focus of the negotiations between the two sides in his mind: autonomy for wizards, joint wizard and muggle law enforcement, areas of cooperation between magic and science, trade exchanges, exchanges and mutual travel between civil groups …
A file caught his attention.
It was glued with newspaper clippings and analysis reports, large and small, including letters previously sent by Hogwarts students, the most recent flood of magical events occurring around the world, such as the activity patterns of Grindelwald. Felix blinked and unexpectedly spotted two half-familiar faces on it –
The girl who had shown him directions in Paris; the pianist with the damaged fingers. From the analysis above, it seemed that they had recognised him, and actively mentioned the incident to someone close to them, and thus it was brought to the attention of government agencies.
Felix made note of their addresses – they were both surprisingly in England at the moment, perhaps to get closer to magic? Or simply visiting? It did seem quite lively recently … but it also gave Felix a heads-up about the fact that he still had some non-wizard friends, like Jim and Rebecca, and he might better ask them to keep their relationship hidden using magic if he didn’t want them to be followed around.
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