Felix watched as Ginny and Luna left the classroom together holding the replica of the Goblet of Fire, which, to be honest, isn’t really light, but he also sensibly didn’t suggest that they could use magic.
They were both smart enough to think that, so they probably just didn’t want to, rather than not really realizing that they could use a Levitation Charm to reduce the weight …, right?
…
The next morning, it is another weekend, and he pacified the sleepy Niffler as he walked through the office fireplace to Diagon Alley.
Felix walked down a long cobblestone road lined with crowded stores and eateries, huge sunshades stretched in front of some stores, and the sign of Florean Fortescue’s Ice Cream Parlour shone with warm yellow light.
He could tell, just by looking, that ‘Future World’ company is doing well – he often saw magic lamps, large and small, through the store windows along the way, and they blended into the heart of London’s wizarding community like a drop of water.
In front of the headquarters of the Future World Company, he was surprised to see a large crowd of people crowded at the entrance, noisy and lively. At the same time, people were talking and laughing as they walked out from inside.
Two staff members at the door calmed the crowd, “Ladies and gentlemen, don’t crowd, everyone will have a turn.” Every now and then he let one or two people in.
What’s going on here?
Felix stood staring from the side for a moment, and when he stepped forward, the crowd automatically parted, “Wait, Mr. … you are, Mr. Hap?” The staff member who is blocking the front asked in surprise, then looked at him with adoring eyes as he led him into the vertical castle building.
“Mr. Hap, please go in, I still have to maintain order.” The staff member said respectfully.
Felix nodded and climbed up the stairs, looking around the interior of the building.
The whole environment had changed.
He remembered how empty it had been, now the floor tiled with dark tiles, the chandelier at the top visible from the center of the hall, and the circular steps at the side connected each floor of the castle.
Felix remembered most vividly that he, Snape, and Lupin had fought here, and later discussed the company’s development plans together.
But the main lobby in front of him looked like a magnificent museum, filled with people.
Young witches gestured at a dozen exhibits that should be newly developed products by the company’s researchers, while several staff member in uniform introduced it to them.
“Professor Hap.” A girl with long, curly hair said.
“Clearwater,” Felix addressed the person next to him, “the company has changed so much, that I hardly recognize it.”
“It’s the result of everyone’s efforts.” Penelope smiled as they walked up the circular staircase toward the second floor at that moment. As she walked, she introduced, “Clammy suggested that we opened the lobby on the first floor, and we put some of the products that weren’t fully finalized on display for outsiders to visit and try out periodically, as they will suggest some helpful modifications for the products.”
“I see, you all did a good job.” Felix nodded slightly and said emotionally, “Maybe I should give you guys a pay raise.”
He stood at the second-floor railing and looked down from above.
A young witch put on an emerald crown with the help of the staff, followed by a gasp from the crowd, as her whole body glowed with a kind of scarlet light, her hair turned into a pale snow-white colour, with a magical glow intertwining and stretching down along her neck, a pale toffee-coloured princess dress donned over her, with a flamboyant flower blooming on the edge of the hem, while everyone looked at her with admiration.
“How much is this! I want this one!” The witch shouted. She now looked like a princess, every inch of her skin shining with a dazzling lustre.
“It’s not for sale, we are still trialling its effects …” the staff had to explain with difficulty.
Twenty or thirty feet away, a curly-haired boy with vivid purple hair blew a sea-blue bubble with force, wrapping his younger brother, who had just turned one year old, inside. The bubble looked so resilient that it floated with the baby inside at a height of two or three feet. The baby sat in the bubble and reached out his chubby little hand towards a budding Grandiflora, only to be blocked by the bubble. Then, when the aquamarine bubble landed on the bud of the Grandiflora, the petals bloomed a little, and a thumb-sized flower fairy emerged from the bright yellow pistils, flying around the baby in a flash, causing a burst of “giggling” laughter.
Their parents stayed behind them cautiously, double-checking that there were no problems …
As Felix walked upstairs, he asked, “How is Percy doing in the Ministry of Magic?”
“Him?” Penelope sighed, “He’s too busy, especially eager to achieve something, and coincidentally his boss, Mr. Crouch, is on a long holiday, so he can only give instructions through the owl, which leaves him full autonomy to decide many small things completely on his own … He’s addicted to it …”
She said with some frustration, “He mentioned to me that he wanted to live in the Ministry, but I stopped him.”
Felix paused, his impression of Percy stemmed from his hard work in his studies combined with his rigid stubbornness in his daily life; Oh, there’s also his extreme lack of a sense of humour. Although he himself is not a big fan of jokes, at least he can understand them, and he is also willing to cheer them up and laugh along, but these behaviours are not seen in Percy’s case.
According to Mrs. Weasley, “If he made a decision, not even 10 dragons could pull it back.”
Felix looked at Penelope thoughtfully.
“You can convince him?”
“Usually … yes.” Penelope was a bit puzzled, but she answered anyway.
“Hmm.” Felix nodded.
They reached the third floor as they pushed open a pair of solid wood doors, and inside there is a spacious room where Lupin and several people are standing and engaged in serious conversation.
In the center of the room, there is a huge portrait-like canvas in the colour of wormwood hovering above with video playing on it-
In the video – two delicate golems are dueling, blue lightning and orange fire are intertwined. The golems are obviously being manipulated, often using the terrain to avoid attacks at the last minute, moving naturally and smoothly. The few researchers on the floor watched unblinkingly, occasionally letting out a gasp of surprise, or inhaling in unison from the intense action scenes.
Felix recognized astutely that this is not a magical painting under a spell, but some form of live broadcast, as he saw Clammy Vera and Eric McKee, who is surrounded by the crowd – as they’re controlling the golem at the bottom of the canvas screen, and a huge camera-like object is pointing at the middle of their ‘battlefield’.
Seeing Felix approaching, Lupin quickly walked over. He said grumblingly, “If I hadn’t been getting letters from the owls, I would have thought you gone missing.”
“Didn’t I visit before?” Felix asked with some embarrassment.
“Indeed,” Lupin nodded and said mildly, “Let me think when it was, if my memory hasn’t been altered, I saw you last week, no, that was through the Communication Mirror (*something like Two-way mirror*), what about a week before that? It was through your Patronus – sending me two recipes for alchemical materials. Oh, what about the week before that week? Again I recalled it incorrectly, it was actually Dobby …”
“Ahem!” Felix rolled his eyes lightly as he quickly changed the subject, “Is that the space capsule I told you about? How interesting …”
They looked together at the other side of the spacious room, a young researcher took out a capsule from a flat metal box and threw it to the floor, which exploded with a ” bang ” as a cloud of white smoke spread, from which all sorts of miscellaneous objects were thrown out, canvas pieces, kettles, clothes, and even a few pieces of firewood… …
The researcher let out a disappointed groan, “Oh ~ it still doesn’t work …”
When it came to the business, Lupin became serious. He withdrew his gaze and said to Felix, “The Ministry of Magic still refuses to budge, you know, they have a very tight grip on the Undetectable Extension Charm.”
“You don’t have to worry about the obstruction from the Ministry of Magic.” Felix said.
Lupin stared at him, “That’s not what the people from the Department of Magical Equipment Control have been telling us.”
“Don’t worry, Remus.” Felix reassured him, “As long as they still allow magical items with Undetectable Extension Charm to be sold publicly, whether it’s a tent or something else … even if there’s a single item available, Future World Company will also be able to get permission.”
“The only thing that you need to pay attention to is to do a good job on the anti-tampering part so that the product usage will never change.” Felix stared at the young wizard experimenting in the distance and said, “No living things, especially people, are allowed to be carried.” He thoughtfully added: “It is best to urge the Ministry of Magic to improve this part of the law and make clear regulations on the size of the space allowed for expansion …”
” You’re talking as if the Ministry of Magic is your home, I am not as confident as you.” Lupin mumbled, but Felix pretended not to be able to hear him. He took Lupin by the shoulders and led him to a huge workbench with various scattered items on the table.
Thermostatic lockets, Magic Lamps, Communication Mirrors, Emerald Crowns … were all over the place, and it looked dazzling.
“Well, you can give me an introduction, what are the new products, and how the company has been developing recently?”
“At present, we have seventeen products, but twelve are still being perfected, including those in the lobby … leaving only five, plus the Weasley twin brothers’ couple’s mirror – we renamed it into Communication Mirror when we sold it to the public. For now, it can’t do long-distance image transmission because that technology isn’t perfect yet – every available product is already on sale in seven branches.”
“Not counting the orders from abroad …”
Lupin showed an expression of recognition, “The Quidditch World Cup light show was very successful, we have received a large number of orders one after another, and our manpower is completely insufficient, so we had to cooperate with the owl post service company.”
As he spoke, a teal owl flew in through the castle window. It circled around Lupin twice and dropped a letter.
He hastily opened the letter as he glanced at it, and explained while reading it, “It’s an inquiry about product launch time. Your strategy worked well, we enclosed a list of products ready to be launched along with the magic lamp in the mail … quite a few people have written to enquire.”
He concluded, “Counting those from abroad, ‘Future World’ company already has more than a hundred employees. Even the Daily Prophet doesn’t have that many people.”
Felix, however, didn’t feel it would be enough, “Keep expanding. If we don’t have enough people, just continue to recruit.”
Lupin looked at him hesitantly, ” Currently there is barely enough, although recently it is rather busy, but this is only because the company is still in the pioneering period, when the operation is smooth in the future, there will be no need for so many people.”
The magic world’s companies are actually quite a few. Primarily because there are only 20,000 to 30,000 wizards in the entire United Kingdom, plus with the convenience of magic, only a few skilled employees are needed.
Besides, the companies usually belong to a certain family, and they only recruit people every ten years or so. In a way, his ‘Future World’ company is something special – at the current momentum, if the brakes were not applied, it might only take two or three years to overtake the Ministry of Magic in terms of number of employees.
Felix looked at Lupin, his light blue eyes locked with his, and he said calmly.
“For the next good long while, I want the company to be in a pioneering period, as for smooth running … it will probably have to wait until you retire.”
————-
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