Chapter 682: The End and Beginning of the Era (2 in 1)
The funeral was arranged in the Black Lake near the forbidden forest, where hundreds of chairs were lined up in the vacant space, but more and more people came, and the professors temporarily added more nearby, all of them facing a clean white stone table. The sky drizzled sparsely.
The chairs were almost full, and people continued to arrive, standing solemnly in the back rows.
Grindelwald did not appear till the funeral began, and Felix pushed down his doubts and sat quietly in his seat waiting for the ceremony to begin.
The crowd heard music that sounded like music from heaven.
Near the surface of the clear green lake, a choir of merpeople sang, their pale faces filled with emotion, and they expressed their grief in the language of the merpeople; Felix looked up to see a phoenix hovering high in the clear sky, and a mournful and moving song came out of its mouth. Amidst the mournful chorus of mermaid and phoenix song, Hagrid appeared, carrying Dumbledore’s body through the gap between the seats towards the front row, big drops of tears falling through his beard onto the purple velvet with gold stars that wrapped around the body.
With a very gentle movement, Hagrid placed the purple velvet fabric warped body on the white stone table and remained frozen for a few seconds, his hand still clasping something. Then he returned to the back and walked over to little Grawp ( there was a large empty space around him), his giant half-brother, wearing a huge jacket and tent-like trousers, his expression was meek, and he patted Hagrid’s head heavily as if comforting him.
The music stops and the merpeople dove under the water, their blurred faces disappeared completely. Only the phoenix remained gliding across the sky. A short man with thick hair and black wizard’s robes stood up, walked over to the stone table, and turned to face the crowd in a solemn manner. He cleared his throat.
Just then, the unexpected happened.
A silver lynx landed lightly in front of Felix and the group, lifting its head gracefully, and from its mouth came the voice of Kingsley: “Grindelwald is here! With a number of men, so you better – oh, dear! There are too many people coming!” His voice at the end had become so panicked that he could not sound composed as usual.
The first few rows of wizards looked at each other in disbelief.
Babajide Akingbade, Supreme Mugwump of the International Confederation of Wizards, frowned and said, ” He has brought all those acolytes with him? Is it a show of force or a precaution to keep us from using force?” No one responded to him, and Felix’s eyes flashed with a silvery glint, his eyes widened abruptly.
He stood up swiftly, and before anyone could react, he turned to Professor McGonagall and the three Heads of House and said, “I’ll go over first. There shouldn’t be a fight, but-” “Of course, there won’t be a fight! He took a vow not to initiate a wizard’s war!” Akingbade said as he held up an arm where there the skin had some strange lines. Without looking at him, Felix continued calmly, “But I would advise preparing the students – at least the underclassmen – to evacuate at any moment and head to the Chamber of Secrets.”
Professor McGonagall’s body shook, and her face turned white as she grabbed her chest collar and asked for some confirmation, “There’s a lot of people arriving?”
Felix said briefly, “Far more than one can imagine.” With that, he disappeared from the sight of the crowd like a drop of water blending into the air. The people who had come to the funeral burst into a flurry of chatter, and Akingbade opened his mouth to say something, but before that Professor McGonagall walked past the crowd, raised her arm to signal everyone to quieten down, and said in a loud voice.
“… Hogwarts will keep all guests safe and in the event of danger, we will stand in the way and buy you time to evacuate. Mr. Filch and Madam Pomfrey will be in charge of the evacuation. The Head of Grade and the Professors will maintain order and wait for the signal. Evacuation location – Potter? Harry Potter?” She shouted.
Harry stumbled over to her, his face lingering with heavy surprise.
“You know the place -” Professor McGonagall whispered, “in the Chamber of Secrets, inside the statue of the man, there are fireplaces for evacuation. It can be opened using the Parseltongue.” With that, she hurried towards the main entrance of the school. But within a few steps, she stopped in shock.
The sky at the school gates suddenly glowed with a blinding white light, the eyes of the wizard who looked past her stung and every cell in Harry’s body sent an alarm to him, immediately afterward the sky darkened, no, Harry squinted through his tears as an illusory Hogwarts castle appeared in the sky, enveloping the white light completely.
The black castle seemed to be illuminated by the white light, those rays were like tiny knives, leaving countless deep scratches on the walls in the blink of an eye, the walls cracked like bags of water and seemed to be unable to hold up in the next second, Felix flipped through a page of the Book of Rune and tiny rune symbols flashed up on the surface of the walls – the cracks disappeared instantly, and the castle walls strengthen up.
Grindelwald waved his wand and all the light disappeared.
Felix looked up, and the castle lines were hidden from normal eyes.
“Dumbledore’s final move,” Grindelwald marvelled, “impressed me back in the day, but after all these years, I’m not a bad imitator.” The two men stood about two hundred feet apart, and in the open space behind Grindelwald stood a large, dark, silent crowd, almost a few thousand in number, which matched none of the information Felix had received.
A thought crossed his mind: most of these people had been brought in by Grindelwald to make up the numbers.
Kingsley stated somewhat disturbed from the side, “There are people on other sides of the school too, they’ve got the school surrounded, but those people have no intention of attacking now.” Felix’s eyes looked past Grindelwald towards the distance, where some people pointing at them.
Further away, a steady stream of wizards arrived, the crackle of Apparition continued to sound, and those who arrived later crowded together, looking up as if they are attending a rally, or watching a game. Felix could not detect the scent of a great battle.
Grindelwald waved at him.
“We haven’t had a proper fight yet, there’s a bit of time before Akingbade gets here, might as well take this opportunity to-”
Felix’s eyes suddenly peered into the crowd, and he used Legilimency to look through their minds, then a spell shot over from in front of him, and a tall, lanky armour leaped out of the Book of Runes at the same time, the spell bouncing off instantly. Felix withdrew his gaze, his mind clouded with more doubt; these men seemed to have come with a mission, ready to stir up chaos all over the world.
But unless Akingbade and those ministers of magic were blind and had allowed Grindelwald to make a false vow. Such a thing could not possibly happen.
“Then I’ll satisfy your request.” Felix said calmly as the Book of Runes began to turn pages with a clatter and a bolt of black lightning shot towards Grindelwald, whose eyes widened, and his wand let out a shrill whistle as black lightning flashed in front of him.
It became obvious at this point who among the crowd behind him is elite and who is rabble, some stepped forward and joined forces to hold up protective magic, but a greater number of wizards retreated in quick succession, in chaotic disarray. Felix’s brow loosened but then tightened again.
“Stand back.” Grindelwald shouted with what seemed to be suppressed anger.
He raised his wand and a silvery, firebird with a body covered in blue flames burst from its tip. The firebird’s two eyes are replaced by crystalline flames.
‘A Patronus?’ Felix thought to himself, he saw it in the newspaper and was not entirely sure, but now that he had seen it in person he finally made an accurate judgement.
The castle conjured in the air using ancient runes and memory magic shifted from lines to solidity, trapping the strange Patronus within. Grindelwald waved his wand and the firebird swelled hundreds of times at once, rampaging across the sky, while at the same time blue and white flowers fell from the sky, they stuck on the walls of the castle Felix had conjured, and in the blink of an eye, the battlefield between the two turned into a sea of fire.
Professor McGonagall, Sprout, Snape, Bones, and Akingbade rushed to the scene first, followed by a dozen other Ministers of Magic from other countries and their accompanying Aurors, all of whom opened their mouths wide in surprise.
Akingbade’s eyes showed incredulity, and unlike the shock and awe of the rest, there was more than a little doubt and disbelief in his eyes as he rolled down his sleeve and stared at the pattern on his wrist in disbelief. The unbreakable vow didn’t work, so neither man took it seriously? Or did one-on-one does not count as starting a wizard war?
Professor McGonagall and Ms. Bones looked worried as Felix seemed to fall at disadvantage – the whole castle was enveloped in Fiendfyre, and a dozen firebirds poked their heads out of the towers, growing larger than dragons and coiled high up to spit flames around.
At that moment, Felix threw the Book of Runes up high, which turned into a haze of light and merged into the castle.
The castle instantly expanded a dozen times, almost exactly the same size as a real Hogwarts castle, with rune symbols shimmering on every brick.
A chorus of shouts came as if from a distant place.
A number of figures stepped out of the thin air with uniform strides – they appeared to be Hogwarts students and professors, and they held their wands in their hands, moving in neat, uniform movements as they recited incantations, and in a flash, hundreds of golden-red bolts of spells pierced through the air. The flames from Grindelwald were forced to split apart, and then an exaggeratedly sized rune creature appeared, fearlessly charging straight into the flames. A few seconds later every single firebird was crushed and reduced to shards of embers, just in time for the spells of the students and professors below to obliterate the embers.
As if the castle projection served as a battleground, and Felix already started to regain the lost territory.
Grindelwald waved his wand with a stony face, and the two seemed to have reached a tacit agreement not to use new magic, but to compete with each other using their understanding of the same spell. New firebirds continued to split and flaming petals rained down from the sky, but all became useless, and the students and professors in the castle – who are merely fabricated figments of Felix’s mind, that he created to save himself the trouble – are essentially no different from the magical creatures that rampage across the battleground, and they wouldn’t die, so they are more powerful than the magical creatures.
“Is that him?” An old, wrinkled wizard in the crowd behind Grindelwald asked.
“That’s right, satisfied?” Vinda Rosier asked. The old wizard coughed twice.
The last stray wisp of flame went out, and the only thing left in the castle was the firebird Patronus from the beginning. Felix weighed in his mind that if Grindelwald only had the strength he displayed at the moment, he could still easily handle him even while protecting Hogwarts…
Grindelwald already lowered his wand.
“Stop -” Akingbade shouted at that precise moment, stepping forward, raising his arm, and gritting his teeth, “Grindelwald, do you wish to renege on your vow? Do you wish to start a war?”
“Just passing the time,” Grindelwald kindly laughed, as he followed Akingbade’s gaze and looked behind him, “Oh, they are the people I brought to see the funeral, I was afraid it wouldn’t be grand enough – that would make me, an old friend of Dumbledore to feel disappointed.”
Akingbade’s expression stiffened, and he couldn’t help but lower his voice and yell, “Grindelwald, you’re breaking the rules. If you still intend to discuss, let them leave.”
Grindelwald gave him a sidelong glance, and Felix had expected him to refuse, after all the fuss he had made, but Grindelwald surprisingly compromised.
“As you have heard, you are free to leave and do what you want.” Grindelwald whispered with his wand pointed at his throat, his voice carried clearly to the ears of everyone present. Then, one by one, they left using Apparition.
Grindelwald put away his wand, spread his palms, and asked. “Now that I’m alone, are you all relieved?”
Akingbade and the professors breathed a visible sigh of relief. They had been surrounded by thousands of wizards before, and the dark mass of heads in a row would have made anyone tremble inside. Not to mention the thousands of students in the school and those who had travelled thousands of miles to attend the funeral.
It looked like Grindelwald simply wanted to demonstrate to them – the International Confederation of Wizards and the Ministries of Magic – and it must be said that he had achieved his goal, it had only been a few days and Grindelwald had silently gathered so many people, even if most of them were – according to Grindelwald’s own words – here to see the fun, but the gathering power is enough to make them not dare to make any small move while their heart ringing with alarm bells.
Grindelwald came over and held out his hand towards Felix. Felix hesitated for a moment and grabbed the hand that was offered to him.
The two men felt the charm in each other’s arms. As well as something else.
“I know what you’re going to do! You’ll be the public enemy of all wizards and muggles.” Felix whispered, his eyes dead set on Grindelwald, whose body is riddled with holes. No wonder he is in such a hurry!
Grindelwald was stunned. A slight bow followed.
“I am deeply honoured.” He said, “Oh, by the way-” his hands suddenly grew hot, “I’m sorry about ruining your and Dumbledore’s plans. But Dumbledore overestimated his own name, how can a good man be more intimidating than an outright bad man?”
After he finished, he walked towards Akingbade.
“Grindelwald!” Felix called out to him, “Will innocent people die today?”
Grindelwald stopped dead in his tracks.
“Innocent people? I don’t think … they will.” He said without looking back.
Felix stayed where he was, and Professor McGonagall called out to him as he raised his feet to follow. He opened the hand he had just shaken and stared at the palm of his own hand, where a single flower with petals of solidified blue flame lay still, and Felix silently crushed the flower as a spell came to his mind.
It is a spell to summon the Acolyte.
Felix let out a lengthy breath.
The alarm was lifted and there was one more person attending the funeral. Apart from the uncomfortable look on the faces of the Hogwarts students who had spent a year with Grindelwald, the others did not show much difference. Neville did want to stand up and question the trick within that sneakoscope but was pulled back by the weight of Seamus and Dean at his side.
“Don’t be impulsive, Neville.” Harry whispered, though his feelings are also very mixed.
Akingbade spoke briefly, saying that Grindelwald had been invited over by himself and that when the funeral is over, they would start further negotiations and peace would be within reach by then. The expression on Grindelwald, who was standing next to him, was non-committal.
The funeral proceeded. When Akingbade returned to his seat in the first row, Grindelwald did not follow him over, he approached the small man with thick hair and black wizard’s robes, and asked courteously, “Excuse me, is it time to recount the life of the deceased?”
“Yes, yes.” The small man stammered.
Grindelwald grinned.
“Then leave it to me, I’m sure there is no one in the world more familiar with Dumbledore’s strengths and weaknesses than I am.”
The small man’s expression froze, and he looked for help at the front row of wizards, where a row of great men sat. But no one said a word. The small man moved awkwardly out of the way. Grindelwald glanced at the body on the white stone table, where Dumbledore seemed quietly asleep.
He turned and said slowly.
“Dumbledore and I met far earlier than you think, when Dumbledore had just graduated, and I had been expelled from school for studying dark magic, fate brought two bitter young men together in Godric’s Hollow. We hit it off instantly and soon became closer than blood brothers, for brothers are only connected by blood – think of how many broken family ties there are out there in reality – and we were incredibly compatible with each other based on our philosophies… …”
He had barely said the beginning of the story when it drew no small amount of commotion. But Harry knew it was all true.
“Dumbledore had many virtues and made many achievements, but all that tedious academic research aside, his most celebrated contribution was his firm commitment to defend the rights of Muggles and wizards from Muggle families. Sadly, he himself was a victim of Muggles, oh poor Albus, whose family became torn apart by a few Muggles, of course, it was fuelled up by our law enforcement agencies and the Statute of Secrecy.”
Professor McGonagall fidgeted, she tried to stand up but was held down by Felix.
“Let him speak.” Felix said calmly, his expression looked like he was looking at a dead man.
“… The victim is supposed to have the right to take revenge on the perpetrator – in any way imaginable – but Dumbledore abandoned it. I am certain that this experience must have caused some people to see Dumbledore as a tragic hero, making them hail him as a person with great kindness and compassion, instead of undermining Dumbledore’s greatness. But I could only see his weakness and cowardice.”
The crowd murmured.
“At one point we had nothing to talk about, so I knew Dumbledore’s little buried secret, his desire for wizards and muggles to coexist in harmony and be close as a family, what a noble ideal! Unfortunately, he only wants the results, as he cowered after realizing the price he had to pay to achieve it …”
“… Because of his cowardice, he ended up on the opposite side of the fence from me. He turned his back on his ideals, our ideals! For the rest of his life, he was afraid to take a step forward, and even when he finally died he could only hold on to the hope with caution.” The expressions on the faces of the crowd grew angry, and Grindelwald looked around without a hint of fear: “This is Dumbledore, and perhaps you and I do not see him in the same way, but one thing is clear: Dumbledore represented an era, and with his departure, an era has come to an end.”
“And a new era is about to dawn.”
Grindelwald said, not looking at the others and turning his head to stare at the stone table. Dazzling white flames crept up the equally white and flawless stone table, the flames rose higher and higher, a sad phoenix cry sounded from the sky, the flames abruptly disappeared, and a white stone tomb appeared in its place – Dumbledore’s body and the table encased inside the stone tomb.
The funeral was over.
Halfway through the day, the sounds of voices grew louder and louder in the venue, Grindelwald was silent for a moment, staring at Felix, who met his gaze and nodded unnoticeably, then he turned towards the Forbidden Forest, not responding to Akingbade’s shouts behind him.
Akingbade and several other Ministers of Magic stood up and stared blankly at Grindelwald’s back, “I can’t believe he just Apparated! Doesn’t he want to negotiate anymore?”
Felix stared up at the sky, the Phoenix had disappeared at some point and would probably never appear again. Another familiar person left for good, and he would next – in someone’s words – welcome the dawn of a new era.
“Professor Hap?” A soft, cautious voice said.
“Oh, Miss Granger,” Felix glanced to the side, “and Potter, Weasley, Longbottom. Please be seated. When does the train leave from school?”
“In an hour.” Hermione said, glancing at Felix as if something was brewing in her mind, “That Supreme Mugwump of the International Confederation of Wizards seems to have come to some sort of agreement with Grindelwald …”
“You mean – they both made an ‘unbreakable vow’ in the presence of a dozen Ministers of Magic?”
Several people who came with Harry were startled, they were completely unaware of this news. Hermione thought for a moment and said, “Oh – I guess it’s really quite demoralizing, and you can tell by the way that he behaved today that he’s not the one to listen to the rules … Although we can all realise the risks, there’s nothing that can be done because any opposition would mean standing against those who-”
“What are you trying to say, Granger?”
“Oh,” Hermione whispered, “I was going to say that, well, anyone in this situation would feel powerless …”
Felix smiled, he seemed to perk up and then again he seemed not.
“It’s not Grindelwald that makes me feel powerless, it’s the whole world that is about to be turned upside down. I, both long for it and dread its arrival. There is no experience to refer to.”
“Professor,” Harry said, “we are definitely standing with you, no matter what changes happen.” Ron and Neville nodded in agreement.
Felix straightened up and looked them over one by one with a critical eye, “Alright, I’ll take that seriously. From now on, then, stay with me and look at the sky while we wait for word from the outside world. I hope that doesn’t scare you guys – if I’m not mistaken.” He muttered.
The group looked at each other.
A little time passed, in fact, it was less than five minutes when Amelia Bones came over with a pale face, stumbling as if she might fall at any moment. The look in her eyes is one of undisguised panic.
Harry had never seen her look like this before.
“Ms. Bones?” Akingbade inquired, he was discussing the situation with his secretary and the other high officials of the Ministry of Magic. Grindelwald’s sudden departure had caught them off guard.
With a flushed face, Ms. Bones stammered, “Mr. Akingbade, and everyone else, Grindelwald – he, he -”
“Have you found a trace of him?”
“Not yet,” she looked shaky as a number of the wizards who remained present focused their eyes on her, “but we confirmed the location of all those people Grindelwald brought with him.”
“Where did they go? We can’t have a mass gathering of them, the information Brerio brought said Grindelwald had gathered nearly five thousand people right now, even if it was a demonstration it was too much.”
“All over the world.” Ms. Bones said weakly.
“What?”
“All over the world!” She shouted at the top of her lungs, “Those people, led by six or seven hundred core acolytes, publicly exposed themselves as wizards! Rough estimates suggest they’ve popped up in over two thousand Muggle cities using Apparition to travel. They cast their magic without fear and fluttered over the cities – Mr. Akingbade, the magical community is completely and irrevocably exposed!”
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