It was followed by a long list of ‘for example’.
Felix reckoned that anyone in their right mind would be tempted by one or two of the contents mentioned on it, provided it actually worked out.
At the bottom of the flyer, there is a crude map.
Felix’s curiosity got heavier. The person who handed him the flyer was obviously an ordinary person but was it a mere coincidence that he got approached straight away? He thought it is probably some dark wizards who fishing for a suitable target – like occult nerds – in the name of magic. And to find out what exactly they are doing, he decided to visit them.
Felix followed the directions on the flyer through the out-of-the-way streets. The hand-drawn map featured a lot of cryptic signposts drawn on the corners of each street, which required a bit of thought.
Felix stood in front of a wall, staring at the graffiti on it, gauging it for a while with the help of dim street lights, and then he turned to the left, following the directions of the large rat holding a vertical sign on the graffiti.
There are no more lights here, the stores on both sides of the street are dilapidated, there is lots of discarded rubbish piled up on the corner, the only light left on kept flickering, combined with the whimpering cold wind, it felt like a horror film shooting spot.
But if Felix wanted to, he could construct the most realistic horror there is or the opposite of that as well.
‘Along the way, there were three people sizing me up in the shadows, no signs of magic, and the malice in their emotions wasn’t really strong … just figuring out my worth?’ Felix walked slowly, since it had nothing to do with magic, nor a certain dark wizard fishing, his interest at the end of the path quickly diminished, so he occasionally paused to admire the graffiti on the walls along the way.
If he had to describe it, he would say that this place is a dead part of the City of London, forgotten by the City Hall, ignored during several city planning cycles, and finally become a paradise for feral cats and dogs, as well as a favourite place for those ‘rebellious teenagers’.
A few minutes later.
Felix pushed open a dilapidated door and walked in with confidence, the rudimentary map on the flyer had long since lost its usefulness, the reason why he could find this place, one because of the movement of people here, and the second because of the entrance is painted with a magic array that looks quite exquisite.
Looking at the windows and the mottled signboard at the entrance, this should have been a clothing store before. But the signboard with graffiti-style font reads ‘House of Magic’.
Felix was 99% convinced that no wizard group would do this kind of thing, this place looked more like a place that was created based on some occult enthusiasts’ imagination of how a hidden wizard society would look like.
No wonder he was tricked …
At that moment, two sturdy, burly men approached him, and at a glance, he was sure that they were the type of men who are more adept at communicating with their fists. Felix sighed, and a silver glint flashed in his eyes then followed, “Bang!” “Bang!” Two sounds, they fell to the ground without saying a word.
After a few minutes, the few people who had rushed over to help also failed to get away.
Felix searched the abandoned shack, and the thick layer of dust that had accumulated inside indicated that the original owner had left the premises for quite a while. His expression turned into one of disappointment.
“A robbery gang … Oh, Kidnapping and Blackmail to boot?”
This was the information Felix had gotten from the minds of these men, and it was a double blow, especially when he learned that the flyers had come from a nearby dumpster.
The truth of the situation goes off the rails –
This had been the secret base for a society of occult enthusiasts, and probably due to the approaching winter, or other reasons they had disbanded, the leaflets were casually thrown into a nearby dumpster, which happened to be utilized by these passing mugging mobs: they found familiar words on the leaflets (faint, giddy, waking up not knowing where they were… …) and agreed that the description fit the effects of a certain ‘good stuff’, so they highlighted the phrase as an unspoken code word on the street to attract people in need.
This includes the hint that Felix got when he talked to the crackhead. Unfortunately, Felix wasn’t someone that got attracted to ‘good stuff’, instead he just got drawn by the word ‘magic’ on the flyer, so the gang ran out of luck.
“Thanks to this, and the two occult symbols at the door, I got a little excited for a moment.” Felix said with discontent, feeling like he had wasted his time completely when he should have been in the warmth of his office at Hogwarts right now.
“What’s the emergency alert number again …999?”
Felix suddenly heard footsteps appear from a distance, which stopped just outside the door.
“Is someone here?” A young voice asked.
Felix blinked, as he pulled the door open a little, and lowered his head, as he met a pair of gray eyes. The owner of the eyes stared at him blankly, holding a flyer in one hand and a wooden cane in the other.
Judging simply by his clothes, Felix reckoned that this man is not part of the gang from before – and probably he is the one who looks scarier to the other side, as evidenced by the constantly shaking hand.
“Is something wrong?” Felix grunted from the back of his throat.
He wanted to get rid of the man in front of him as soon as possible and make an anonymous police call … Well, maybe he could put it off until tomorrow morning, he heard that sleeping on the floor is good for your back.
“Hello, is this the House of Magic?” The visitor asked cautiously, the trembling hand raised the leaflet in his hand, and when Felix shifted his eyes from the leaflet to the wooden cane, the hand holding the cane immediately disappeared in front of him, and unless Felix poked his head out, it certainly would not be visible through the wall.
The visitor smiled awkwardly.
“What’s your problem?” Felix asked again with a sour look on his face as he raised his volume.
“I, uh … I came across the flyer that said you will be able to grant my wish …”
Felix froze, looked back at the ruins of the house and the outlaws who were sleeping like dead pigs on the floor, and said back sincerely, “You’re lucky.”
“So, it’s true?” The voice asked excitedly
Felix saw a pair of hopeful eyes, so he smacked his lips and his attitude became slightly more serious: “So? I suggest you finish your sentence all at once …”
A trembling hand was held in front of him. “I … I am Pianist– was a, because of the accident my hand was injured, I wish I could play the piano again.”
Felix sized up the uninvited guest in front of him, In this era, this is sentenced as impossible by science, so he sought the help of, or hoped that the occult could help?
Honestly, he didn’t think it would be a smart thing to do. Most wizards consciously abide by the Statute of Secrecy and seldom deal with ordinary people. The few exceptions won’t have any scruples, as dark wizards accounted for the majority of them.
But this sudden visitor in front of him made things intriguing, and perhaps it would become a memorable day. Felix thought.
So he said, “Your wish isn’t impossible … but this magic stuff, as you can guess, is expensive …” he said in a deliberately overtly mercenary tone.
“I brought money,” the man said hastily, adding cautiously to avoid making himself look like an easy target, “I only brought a third of it, and if you really can fulfil my … wish, I’ll pay you the rest .”
“Money is useless to me, for wizards, there are many things you have worth more than money–” Felix said in a low voice.
“You want my eyes!?”
Felix rolled his eyes, “I hate these kinds of horror plots, full of unwarranted assumptions … I have my own, with one more than you.” He grinned abruptly while pointing toward his forehead, a blue light bloomed from the middle of his forehead, and in the layer of blue light, an eye slowly opened.
“Ah…!”
To Felix’s surprise, after screaming, the uninvited guest’s eyes widened, and instead of fleeing halfway, he excitedly kept asking: “What price do I have to pay, soul? Health? Looks? Life expectancy?”
“I’m not acquainted with demons.” Felix muttered, and after a moment’s hesitation he said, “Come in.”
When he turned around, an eerie silver glow silently covered the entire room. The ruins of the room, piles of outlaws disappeared before his eyes, the dusty floor turned new with a red carpet, broken stones and glass shards flew to the ceiling and turned into small orange chandeliers, the outlaws turned into green potted plants and got dumped in the corner.
The tattered chairs turned new, the backs of the chairs kept lengthening and raising, two pieces of clothes quickly wrapped around the chairs, turning them into two armrests, and several clothes hangers propped together to create a semicircular, dark-coloured item…
When the strange visitor came in, he saw a small recital hall with a piano standing in the center. On the opposite side of the piano is an audience space with only one seat, occupying the best position.
“Is this, uh, a wizard who also likes to listen to music?”
“Haha!” Felix laughed and sat down in that chair – a black cloak abruptly draped over him, the room lit up, but his face remained elusive, with only two silver glows emanating from his hood, as Felix said in a low, raspy voice: “Ready to make a deal with a wizard? ”
“What do you need, Mr. Wizard?”
“A memory, your best, fondest memory.”
The man froze and said hesitantly, “I don’t even know what my best memory myself is, it’s nothing but pain for the past six months …”
“It’s okay, your heart will tell me the answer. So … The deal is made?” Felix asked, he inwardly felt he should have prepared a pair of bat wings and arrow-shaped tail in advance for this kind of situation.
But when he thought of the wings …
Felix’s mind wandered off abruptly, and he thought of a great idea, maybe he could create a whole new flight-type runic artefact, in the form of flying wings. He always felt a little silly about sitting on a broom, well, no need to rush for now, let’s go back and think about it before sharing it with Remus.
“… Mr. Wizard? Do I need to sign something?”
“What do you mean?”
“Some kind of contract or something, the kind that demons … I mean, wizards and ordinary people sign.”
“No need, do you think I need to worry about you reneging?” Felix leaned back in his chair and said carelessly.
…
A crystal clear piano sound resounded, the first few notes were somewhat raw, an effect of the injured hand, but soon the tune became coherent and melodious, and Felix half-squinted his eyes, tapping the beat gently. It didn’t take him long to frown, the style of the tune in front of him changed completely at once, the song which felt like a calm and lonely moonlight suddenly became a high-pitched and rousing battle tune, after just listening to two lines, the next second it became a surging stream, a low and solemn cry…
This is no longer music, but noise.
Then the ‘client’ began to play some happy tunes, especially after realizing what his happiest memory is, he has begun to put his whole heart and soul into the music because after tonight this happiness will be lost forever …
Felix felt a pure radiant joy, from the ability he learned from the dementor, he could easily detect and distinguish these emotions, a golden vortex seems to have formed in the room, constantly expanding outward. Felix drew his wand out, twirling it gently, to collect the overflowing emotions in the room.
As the magic mixed with this precious emotion, a drop of golden liquid was formed.
His fingertips pulsed to the beat of the keys until the moon was covered by clouds and the whistling wind interrupted the sound of the instrument.
“Have a cup of tea, your hands are starting to shake from the cold.” Felix said as a cup floated slowly to the piano, the liquid in it formed a golden ripple.
“It’s not shaking due to cold, it was because of … What kind of tea is this? It tastes strange…”
Felix stood up and straightened his back, “Your music is unforgettable, I hope to have the opportunity to listen to your official performance. So … the House of Magic is going to say goodbye to you, have a good day.” He waved his hand, and the person opposite to him flew out of the room as if he had no weight.
“Bang”, the door closed tightly.
“Oh, Mr. Wizard, you know that’s not possible … Mr. Wizard? You haven’t cured me yet, where can I find you … Oh my God, the shop is gone! Did you do it, Mr. Wizard …”
Early in the next morning.
The shack, which had been full of miracles at night, got mobbed by water, as the two policemen led a group of outlaws, who had been floating on the cold water throughout the night, their faces looked sickly.
In the crowd, a figure kept bouncing to look inside.
“What’s going on there? Did he get arrested, is that wizard in the front – Huh? Who are they!”
A person who came early said, “It is said to be a very cunning group of outlaws, previously they have been roaming around Surrey committing crimes, and I heard that they were spotted by a young man who came to graffiti early in the morning, so he secretly reported it to the police.”
“Is that so …” the man remained silent for a moment, then he abruptly raised his hand and constantly showed it off to that man, “Uncle, look at my hand, is it shaking or not?”
“Are you making fun of me!?”
“Oh, sorry, I’m just too happy!”
…
In Hogwarts, the ancient runes’ office, Felix is talking with Lupin through the communication mirror.
“Just these two things, one is the flying wings; Flying wings or name it however you want, I will make a prototype in the near future, you guys need to find out how to improve and simplify it.”
“The second thing is the study of secularization of potions, this is not urgent, just compile a list of potions that you think is possible for the time being.”
“Secularization?”
“It is about making magical potions that can be used even by ordinary people.”
————
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