The next day, Felix showed up at the Ministry of Magic on time, and the elevator disguised as a red phone booth stopped at the dark-tinted Ministry of Magic’s lobby, “The Ministry of Magic wishes you a good day.” The voice of the cold woman was heard in the elevator.
Then the door of the phone booth slammed open, probably because of the Easter holiday, the gleaming hall appeared very silent as it is empty. Felix caught a glimpse of the person waiting a short distance away – Tonks.
With her violet hair on top and her nose considerably pastel than before, the Metamorphmagus … are truly magical, thought Felix, it would be nice if I could study them.
But he would not say this out loud.
“Mr. Hap, I took this job from Kingsley.” Tonks said cheerfully, looking him up and down as she walked toward him, “You simply dropped by like this?”
“Or else?” Felix asked.
“I thought you would bring some teaching aids, Remus mentioned to me that you always have a lot of interesting inventions and whims.”
“I did bring them, and will bring them out when the time is right.” Felix smiled faintly and walked with her in the direction of the elevator, “You are still in touch with Remus?”
“Oh yes,” Tonks said, “I like to hang out at Sword Castle during the days it’s open when I’m not doing anything. Remus has given me quite a bit of advice, and he’s still feeling sorry about knocking me out, but he didn’t mean to, didn’t he … We’re going to the second floor, and Scrimgeour is waiting.”
“Sword Castle?”
“It’s the headquarters of the ‘Future World’ company, it looks like a long sword stuck in Diagon Alley, that’s what we call it,” Tonks said, fiddling with the elevator button as it jerked and started descending.
Felix suddenly realized that he has always learned information about his company from others that he didn’t know, and he thought it felt pretty nice, giving him an inkling that his company is growing rapidly and spreading its influence. Aside from that, Tonks pulled the conversation back on track, “I’ve been saving up for the Emerald Crown lately, but I’ve always been a spendthrift …”
“It’s really popular with the girls.” Felix said understandingly.
“Oh, uh,” Tonks looked a little flustered as she hastily explained, “I’m not trying to wear a princess dress or two, I mean, while it’s really pretty … it comes in six styles, and they also accept custom orders, don’t you think it goes well with my ability?” She pointed to her face, her pastel nose quickly becoming angular, making her face look more refined as well as stern.
“Ding!” The second level arrived.
Felix pretended to be convinced, and they went to the Auror office, an open space divided into several cubicles, each belonging to an Auror. Although it is a holiday period, the seats inside are still mostly full.
The Aurors conversed in twos and threes, and when Tonks led Felix in, they turned their eyes in unison. Felix caught a whiff of different emotions, curiosity, admiration, scepticism, scrutiny, and one or two malicious ones.
“That’s my seat.” Tonks said, pointing to a small cubicle with some stickers on the wooden panels and a few pending documents scattered on the table along with a mug with a discount coupon from the ‘Future World’ company pressed under it.
“Good work, Tonks,” Kingsley interrupted, “I’ll take care of the rest.”
Felix felt like a piece of cargo, briefly in Tonks’ hands for transit before being taken over by someone more professional, and Kingsley led him to the inner side of the open space where a heavy oak door with a gilded wooden plaque bearing Scrimgeour’s name and job title hung.
“Hello, Mr. Hap.” Scrimgeour said as he stood up in the office. Instead of using the cane hanging on the shelf, he limped out from behind the solid wood desk, looking much more enthusiastic than last time, his lion’s mane-like hair on his head shaking as he shook Felix’s hand, “The Ministry has been buzzing about you lately, and Griselda thinks very highly of you.”
Felix thought he was talking about the reframing of the ancient rune curriculum, “I hope everything is going well.”
“Indeed,” Scrimgeour said, “you have a good chance of making the cut, she picked a clever time to do so, and it must be admitted that Griselda is well-connected as a senior member of the Wizengamot, so her recommendation carries a lot of weight.”
Felix felt a little puzzled as they didn’t seem to be talking about the same thing. Without waiting for him to ask, Scrimgeour had already walked out of the office and shouted at the Aurors, who stood up in unison and headed toward the door.
“Let’s go to the training room.” Scrimgeour said to him.
“The training room?” Felix looked confused for a moment, then quickly realized how could Aurors couldn’t possibly have their own training ground.
“The Department of Magical Law Enforcement is the largest department in the Ministry.” Scrimgeour laughed out loud, “That statement reflects many things, the number of people, the space, and of course the expenditures.” They walked out the doorway and headed in the opposite direction from the elevator, walking down some aisles before turning a corner at the Misuse of Muggle Artefacts Office ahead of them, and then turning into a dark, well-worn corridor.
The corridor seemed deliberately placed this way, and Felix sensed traces of heavy magic. After walking for a few minutes, they finally reached the end of the corridor – which seemed to be a dead end. Felix saw a huge wall with an illustrated portrait of an equivocal male wizard with a scholarly face sitting in the frame, with a thick book in his hand, as he read it with great interest.
“Justus Pilliwickle, a former Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, constructed this training room during his tenure.” Scrimgeour said.
Felix shot a few glances at the portrait, “I’ve seen him, on the Chocolate Frog card.” The male wizard in the portrait locked eyes with him, took off his hat with a slight bow, and asked, “Which do you think is more important, making laws or enforcing them?”
“The latter,” Felix said, “Laws are always good in their original intent, but even the best laws need to be enforced and interpreted by people.”
“Interpreting the law is an art.” The male wizard in the portrait said approvingly, and he whirled to move out of the way, revealing a large, dark hole.
A dozen steps or so into the hole revealed a clear, brightly lit area ahead. Felix squinted, his eyes skimming over the underground space, which is larger than Hogwarts’ great hall. There are nearly a hundred people much more than he had seen in the Auror’s office inside, and Felix estimated that many of these people should be Hit Wizards.
“There were only thirty-seven people in the profile.” He said mildly.
“That’s right, and you only need to consider those people,” Scrimgeour said, “The others are here to see the event, they will remain for maybe an hour or two before leaving, they have their own assignments.”
After introducing Felix to the crowd in the training room and arranging for Kingsley to be his assistant, he hurriedly left.
…
Felix stood quietly, his eyes sliding over each and every one of them. He saw a handful of familiar faces, but plenty more are strangers.
At that moment, Kingsley came over from the corner of the field, followed by several human targets and soft pads that had been retrieved from a row of wooden crates in the corner.
“Thanks, Shacklebolt.” Felix said, as he turned his wrist and his inky wand abruptly appeared in his hand, a gesture that drew some stares, and then he spoke calmly.
“If nothing else, I will be spending the next little more than two weeks with you all.”
“I will show you some of the mysteries of ancient runes, time is limited, I can only pick the parts that are most important to you, I think you should have read about it in the newspaper recently. That’s right, the part about the combination of ancient rune and modern magic.”
“Before we officially begin – before I ask anything from you – I would prefer that you see what skills you are going to master, I think it will help us to get along for the rest of the time without some mishap… …”
He flicked his wand quickly and a flame flared.
“Boom!”
A golden ball of fire blasted on the human-shaped target, the sticky flame clinging to the mutilated limbs, with a continuous ” crackling ” popping sound. Standing in the front row, Tonks felt the shockwave of the spell sweep over her head, a wave of heat whizzed her hair, she could not help but smack her lips.
” ‘Flame’ Rune with Fire-Making Spell,” Felix explained, “this power can pretty much break the average level Shield Charm.”
The crowd in the room murmured.
“In addition, ‘Flow’ Rune with Shield Charm,” Felix waved his wand again, a magic barrier appeared in front of him, it looked like a new type of Shield Charm, it is no longer colorless and transparent, with the surface swirled with a greenish light, like flowing blue waves, or fettered wind.
“… hold on longer and better than the normal charm.” Felix said, “Anyone wants to give it a try?”
“Anyone wants to give it a try?” When he asked for the second time, Kingsley stepped forward, as an assistant this is when he comes in handy. “We will mimic the state of combat to complete a round of offence and defense, in which you will need to disrupt my defense as much as possible.”
Kingsley nodded in silence as the crowd spread outward, leaving enough room for the two.
At that moment, Kingsley suddenly leaned down, drew his wand, and recited the spell, the whole process was done in a single breath, Felix moved a step to the side, hiding behind the green magic barrier, “snort” a little sound rang, the spell grazed the shield charm and deflected.
The spell flew out swiftly as Kingsley stepped forward. Felix slightly adjusted the direction of the shield charm to make sure the spell didn’t land on the same spot, and as everyone watched, the green glow of the magic barrier pulsed violently, with layers of ripples on its surface, and the originally broken and cracked spell smoothed out by an invisible hand.
Onlookers counted silently until the fifth spell slammed head-on into the shield charm when it flickered and disappeared.
Quite a few people-especially Hit wizards-stared hard at the two, a good portion of them even had difficulty using a complete shield charm. It wasn’t that they couldn’t use it, but it would be difficult to use it in actual combat, which related to the law enforcement scenario they had to face.
Hit Wizards are like cops in the secular world who deal with routine law enforcement tasks rather than a SWAT. In other words, they confront the law-breaking wizard populace who actually found it hard to muster the courage to confront the Ministry of Magic instead of terrorists.
The true Dark Wizards are scarce and are generally assigned to the more well-rounded Auror. The wizarding community is ultimately dominated by peace and order, rather than being filled with chaos and disorder, which is what the Hit Wizards have been experiencing all these years, but recently, for reasons unknown, Scrimgeour convinced Amelia Bones and Pius Thicknesse, who are also high ranking officials of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement to put forward higher requirements for the Hit Wizards and Aurors, in which an article has liberalized the channel for the promotion to Aurors from the Hit Wizards.
It is an accepted fact that the treatment of Aurors far exceeds that of Hit Wizards. Many people are trying to work their way up to that.
“Profe-essor …?” A young voice broke the silence.
Felix looked at the young man and smiled, “Abbott Balk?” His eyes fell on a bearded wizard, if he remembered correctly, Balk mentioned that he had an Auror uncle, and he happened to have read about an Auror named “David Balk” in his profile.
“It’s me,” the young Balk said, the pimples that had plagued his face when he was in school finally fading, which made him look a lot more refined. Still, his immaturity is revealed when he speaks: “I’ve learned there are many spells that are more advanced than the Shield Charm, so why don’t we learn those spells?”
His uncle stared at him, his thick fingers rubbing repeatedly as if he wanted to teach his nephew a lesson.
Abbott Balk couldn’t help but shrink his neck.
“Oh, Balk,” Felix said gently, “it’s true that there are many advanced spells, but advanced means complicated, and complicated means a high probability of error … The most intolerable thing in the combat zone is unnecessary mistakes. You will find that there is a general understanding about avoiding unskilled spells, and those who go against it will surely pay the price.”
Abbott Balk flinched and retreated back into the crowd.
Felix continued, “Gentlemen, I will next focus on the most valuable spells; the Runic Fire-Making spell and the Runic Shield Charm were hand-picked by me, and these two spells will serve as your first priorities to master. Other than that, if some of you are quick enough to learn, I don’t mind giving additional instructions.”
“Well, back to the topic. I had someone forward a copy of this information almost half a month ago. I would appreciate it if you have practiced it in your spare time through the rune cards, and now I would like to ask those who have mastered Flame Rune and Flow Rune to come forward …”
Tonks happily took a step forward and looked left and right excitedly. Felix likewise watched in silence, it would be quite cumbersome for him to test the combat power of these Aurors one by one, but many things would reveal itself in detail with time, such as the degree of self-discipline, such as the ability to execute, just like now, the vast majority of the twenty or so people who came forward are familiar faces that he had seen in the profile.
Perhaps there is a discrepancy in the figures, but the elite fighting force that the Ministry of Magic can deploy is almost this.
No wonder Scrimgeour was so anxious, Felix thought without making a sound. Although he does not know the exact number, but the number of Death Eaters during the last wizard war is nearly one to two hundred, and every one of them is hand-picked by Voldemort, plus the followers who have not been branded as Death Eaters, as well as the dark creatures that Voldemort solicited, their strength has exceeded that of the Ministry of Magic, who has been at peace for more than ten years at this moment.
‘The Ministry of Magic can’t be relied upon.’ This thought flashed through Felix’s mind.
————
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