abcnovels
Chapter 724
Chapter 724
Chapter 724: Floating (2 in 1)
In front of the harbour, Felix pulled out a silver pocket watch from his jacket and popped open the top cover to check the time.
“Horace, have your men arrange the transfer as soon as possible, to be honest, I’m not sure if a big guy is going to appear over our heads in a few moments, it’s hard to figure out what those folks are thinking … Seriously, I don’t like politics.” He paused, “I could probably make a warning a minute earlier if there would be a real danger.”
Horace Grimsditch nodded with understanding, one minute is plenty of time to do a lot of things.
A suitcase materialized in the air, and Felix handed it to Grimsditch. The latter looked surprised and asked tentatively, “I have heard that Mr. … Scamander had a suitcase that could hold a remarkable amount of things when he was young?”
“Ah, it’s based on the same principle, I asked Mr. Scamander for advice.”
Horace Grimsditch’s face suddenly revealed a look of reminiscence – after Seraphina Picquery, every president of the Magical Congress of the United States of America since the beginning of their term was told to be wary of magical zoologists who travelled around with suitcases.
He made his way to the outskirts of the harbour in a rather mixed mood and fired off a safety signal with his wand. The Aurors and staff of the Magical Congress of the United States of America were the first to arrive, with incredulous expressions on their faces, as if they hadn’t yet woken up. They looked around in amazement as a young Auror stretched out his hand, and his fingers passed through the middle of the black and white lines of varying shades, unhindered by the old red fire hydrant that originally should have been in that spot, which still had a rat standing on it.
“I’ve only seen a similar sight in comic books.” The Auror said, in a state of fascination.
Another male wizard in bell-bottoms cautiously looked in Felix’s direction and whispered with a look of awe, “What do you think – what does the world look like to Mr. Hap?”
There was a short silence.
“A book, perhaps?” The young Auror chattered away, “And still a comic book. Ugh – it’s terrible, it’s hard to imagine how he did it.”
“Mr. Hap should be able to beat Grindelwald, right?”
“I think it’s feasible! At least Grindelwald couldn’t possibly do something like this.” The young Auror said excitedly, looking around with frenzied and idolizing eyes.
“But both of them are considered as Archmage.” Another man said hesitantly.
“There will always be a difference between the strong and the weak …”
At that moment Horace Grimsditch who walked over with a suitcase glanced at the speaker and said, “Archmages cannot be classified on the basis of strength or weakness, they are all outstanding figures who are far beyond their wizard contemporaries in one or more fields at the very least. Well, get to work.”
One after another, wizards descended from the sky. These people brought their families with them, carrying large bags of luggage. Horace Grimsditch’s mood became as heavy as that of the Aurors present, but he could not say anything to stop them – they all basically brought their children with them.
The situation of the American wizard might not continue to deteriorate after today, but there are no signs of improvements visible either. The bloody scars don’t heal that quickly, and the barrier between the two is like a chasm, so they will continue to conceal their identities for a good while.
“President Grimsditch, all the members of the Revolutionary Society support your decision.” Jura said in a quiet but firm voice, “We are the chosen generation.”
Horace Grimsditch opened the suitcase and several Aurors leaned to look down at the long staircase and wizards who had arrived from all over the country silently lined up in order to move to their new residences, which would be arranged by the Confederation and the Pan-Magical Alliance, with the first choice being the countries that had currently signed a peace treaty with wizards.
Horace Grimsditch repeatedly told the families of wizards who went past him, “There’s plenty of food and water inside, with different scenery to see … It’s like a train ride, nothing to worry about.” As the daylight gradually brightened, the long line became thinner, and finally, only the staff members remained. Felix kept standing at a distance, pretending to look over the abstracted city, because when he glanced at the rest of the people, they immediately showed smiling and docile expressions. This struck him as odd. The bottom of the sea is visible at first glance, seaweed and algae remain floating in the waves, and schools of fish sketched by simple lines look like they are flying in the sky and lifelike – except that they are magically frozen.
Finally, Horace Grimsditch approached and handed the suitcase to Felix.
“This contains over a thousand wizard families.” He said cautiously.
“They will not be harmed in any way.” Felix assured him, “There will be a chance to return later.” He added reassuringly.
“I know.” Horace Grimsditch murmured to himself saying that just because a wizard’s identity information is not in the hands of the Muggle government does not mean that wizards can just relocate at will. If they have a choice, they would still prefer to stay in familiar surroundings unless they are forced to do otherwise – there was a massive migration of wizards in the British magical community back when Voldemort had been most brazen.
After handing over the suitcase, Horace Grimsditch sighed with relief, as if the constant pressure had disappeared at once. For him, the next priority was to keep the rest of the wizards as concealed as possible, and he was even in the mood to joke.
“I thought you would create a huge flying carpet; and never anticipated that you would use a suitcase.”
“Pretty much,” Felix said with a straight face, “I said before when I spoke to the press that I would let them leave honourably, and now it’s only half done.”
“What’s the other half?” Horace Grimsditch asked curiously, and he suddenly glanced behind Felix, suspecting that something else might be hidden there, such as – as he put it – a flying carpet that could accommodate several thousand people?
…
A few dozen miles away from the harbour and the coastline, Felix, Grimsditch, Jura and a few curious Aurors who had followed them stood in the sky, mentally marvelling at the sight. Beneath their feet lay a ground half the size of a Quidditch pitch, and – it really seemed to be a pitch – they tilted their heads, quite sure they saw poles with circular rings in the thin air fifty feet above them, sort of like the little plastic sticks children used when blowing soap bubbles.
“The Hogwarts Quidditch pitch.” Jura whispered, and it dawned on the others that this could be part of the same magic that had enveloped New York Harbor: the first part turned physical objects into vague virtual things, and right now it happened to be the exact opposite – bringing virtual things from memory to reality.
Horace Grimsditch remained engrossed in great stupefaction.
An island, floating island – not to mention the huge amount of magic needed for this kind of magic (after the earlier scene, he thought it might be nothing for Hap), just considering how to maintain the effect of magic for a long time is a big problem. In his own visualization, if the entire Magical Congress of the United States of America worked around the clock and cast thousands of levitation charms together, it would indeed be possible to pull up an artificial island several kilometers in circumference, but such a huge spectacle would last at most a week or two, which seemed somewhat superfluous to him …
Perhaps this is Hap’s purpose?
Horace Grimsditch pondered, crossing a sea before the magic expires as a way to demonstrate the power of wizards, doing so is indeed very meaningful. Felix’s body flickered and appeared in the distance. His eyes glittered with a silvery hue, rune symbols dotted around his pupils, and his pupils reflected the shadow of the profoundly shaded Book of Runes…
He opened his mouth slowly and recited an incantation in a low voice.
In an instant, the daylight behind him seemed to be gradually swallowed up, breaking open a large dark green hole, as if someone had torn off the bright blue background while shooting a film, revealing the messy dark green curtain behind. Felix’s entire being then exudes an air of mystery and elusiveness. Lightning-like fine lines streaked across the background behind him, and then whether it was the dark green background or lightning traces, they all began to dent and distort, its shape became clearer and clearer – it was a giant serpent, with dark green representing the colour of its body and lightning representing the folds of its scales – after staying on the edge of the black lake for half a month, Felix’s new Patronus appeared before the eyes of the world for the first time. It measured a staggering thousand feet in size, and it is far from its limit.
Felix never found himself as powerful and close to the essence of magic as he is at this moment, so close to the core.
He is still an Archmage, and he didn’t feel that his understanding of magic surpassed Dumbledore’s, but every cell in his body is conveying one thought to him – even if all of the Archmages in history came together in one package, they couldn’t beat him at this moment. Just by virtue of the fact that he had brought together most of the magic power accumulated in eleven of the world’s top magic schools, which happened to be collected into the Book of Runes and released via the brand-new Patronus.
Patronus …
Felix felt it a bit of bullying to call it Patronus anymore, as this magic had completely changed under his constant improvements, and if one researched it carefully, they would definitely smack their lips at the knowledge this magic contained: the memory nodes of Rowena Ravenclaw- the Memory Magic; Emotion Magic- the branch of Memory Magic; Ancient Runes; and the technique of constructing stable magic channels that he had mastered not long ago …
The giant serpent blended into the sea like a swimming fish, without making a single ripple. But Felix knew that it is ‘drawing’ nourishment from the sea – melting the rocks underneath the reef and the soft seawater deposits into its body and strengthening itself.
Almost a few minutes later, the entire surface of the sea began to shudder and bubble, water splashing, and swirling like overlapping nesting dolls, the eyes of those present fixed on the shadow beneath the surface of the sea, the huge black shadow approaching them. Finally, the black shadow poked its head out, they looked at the huge serpent head in terror and speechlessness, it grew several circles bigger out of thin air, and unlike its previous elegant head, its head is now covered by thick reefs and solid submarine rocks, the rough surface looks hideous, and from the holes between the rocks, rune symbols can be seen blooming!
The giant serpent leaped out of the water, as a small piece of land abruptly rose. Even hundreds of meters of sea waves were insignificant in front of it, only compared to the rough scales of its huge body.
It is difficult to imagine the impact that this giant serpent will bring. At least, it won’t just be Grimsditch and the surrounding Aurors going to be shaken up. When they came back to their senses, the giant serpent had already coiled itself into a rough circular-shaped figure, with its huge head hanging down and its tail sticking upwards, with its head and tail connected.
“Rolled up into an ice cream roll.” A female Auror stared wide-eyed, “Or a rolled ice cream with a bite taken out of it.” The people around her couldn’t help but suck in their breath, and a bearded Auror growled at her in exasperation, “Nonsense, it’s obviously an Ouroboros Snake, although it looks a bit strange, like it has been pumped up …”
The others murmured in agreement, they were aware from the news that the Archmage had once chosen the Ouroboros Snake as a symbol of his identity, such unique symbols were not uncommon in the history of wizards, and if later that wizard became sufficiently famous, the symbol he had chosen in his youth would probably become a family crest.
Moreover, there is one thing they did not say, the name Ouroboros Snake is much better than rolled ice cream, even if the latter is more fitting based on its shape … Felix did not hear this inspiring discussion, he did not intend to do that, in order to make the magic channel flow through unobstructed, this is the most effort-saving way.
The men quickly approached, and only when they boarded the floating island that had appeared almost out of thin air with the help of flying broomsticks and Apparitions were they surprised to find something unusual – the ground reeked with the smell of salty seawater, the terrain rippled and began to crumble and disintegrate visibly to the naked eye, a deep crack stretching backward from under Felix Hap’s feet and spread all around with a haunting “clicking” sounds.
Everyone could see that something might have gone wrong with the magic. It was true too, the giant serpent had ‘eaten’ too many underwater rocks and now had some indigestion …
Felix is standing on a raised platform, probably the flattest piece of diamond-shaped scale on the serpent’s head, the edge of which is about ten feet long. He stood motionless with his hand aloft.
“Mr. Hap!” Horace Grimsditch shouted urgently, and the next second a deep voice suddenly rang in their ears, “Leave him alone.” Horace Grimsditch was startled, he would never forget the owner of this voice – the one who had single-handedly caused the wizard’s exposure crisis, who had signed an unbreakable vow with Akingbade, who had toyed with everyone –
“Grindelwald!” He shouted out of breath.
He raised his wand subconsciously, his heart twisting and pounding, and the first thought that loomed through his mind was: It’s over, Grindelwald has spotted the opportunity and decided to strike Mr. Hap!
“Don’t worry,” Grindelwald said with a wide grin, “I’m here to help.”
The rest of the dozen or so wizards in the area gathered around, and they heard Horace Grimsditch ask warily, “How can I trust you?” For a moment, the situation became unclear. Grindelwald said nothing, other than raising his empty hand, and it became clear to everyone.
If Grindelwald had been hostile, he would not have bothered to explain to them. Horace Grimsditch hesitated slightly and moved out of the way. ‘Grindelwald’ walked unhurriedly towards Felix, and Grimsditch shouted at his back: “Mr. Grindelwald …, don’t forget, we are wizards.”
‘Grindelwald’ paused slightly and repeated, “You’re right, we’re wizards.”
The whole crowd watched as Grindelwald and Felix stood side by side, he slightly turned his head sideways, and it seemed like they were whispering with each other, although they couldn’t hear what the two of them were talking about, the crack under Mr. Hap’s feet stopped expanding. They felt very mixed emotions.
“Grindelwald …” the crowd murmured the name.
This drama is of course created by Felix. He had indeed gotten into trouble earlier – but not because of a lack of magic power, which he now had in terrifying abundance – but rather on how to divide his attention between the two tasks of maintaining the massive size of the floating island from collapsing while still building a solid magic channel, both of them equally tedious and important. But the solution is also very simple, splitting another thought to divide the work into two, which will dramatically reduce the difficulty.
But when Felix was about to do so, he suddenly thought that he could take this opportunity to solve the problem of the merger of African magical communities that he had not been able to deal with before.
At that moment, Felix and his other self looked at each other face to face.
“What are we going to talk about?”
“God knows, just act a bit friendly.”
“And ah, anyway, it is to show the outside world that the two sides have reached a reconciliation, and in the process, let’s give Grindelwald a positive reputation, this old man may have done a lifetime of bad things, but the recent ones have nothing to do with him …”
A silence followed for a moment.
“Have you thought it over? This face no longer could be used to do bad deeds …” ‘Grindelwald’ asked seriously.
“I thought it over, I can afford it.”
The sun was high in the sky, and the golden light shone on the sea. Grindelwald’s figure had disappeared, and Felix remained alone. He hesitantly looked over the sea, the distant stirred-up water mists refracted the sunlight to create a rainbow, which looked beautiful.
After a difficult labour, the earth beneath his feet has shrunk by a circle, while the reef and submarine rocks are more closely connected to each other, so it is no longer scattered, and truly bears the outline of an island. Plus the most basic magic channel construction is now complete, and based on the magic he invested, the island can stay afloat for several years.
Moreover, there will certainly be many wizards living on this island in the future, and their escaping magic will be collected – like the ancient defense system of Hogwarts – and used to maintain the existence of the floating island itself, forming a virtuous circle.
The Sorting Hat was a great help … Felix sighed in his heart, but would the future wizards living on the island be considered his subjects? It should not be regarded as that, at best he has the ownership. Felix felt extremely reluctant to think of himself piloting the floating island for the next few years, like a scavenger salvaging the right size reefs from the ocean to expand the landscape.
Actually, there is no need to do it alone, this will become a real window of integration between the two societies … Felix thought to himself as he watched Horace Grimsditch walking towards him, and with a smile on the corner of his mouth, he whispered. “A place where magic and technology can integrate.”
“What did you say, Felix?” Horace Grimsditch asked, having vaguely overheard.
“I was thinking about the future of this island beneath our feet.” Felix said with a straight face, his mind continuing to wander, the wizard – ahem, he is actually capable of creating an underwater city in the depths of the ocean, but after this idea circled in his mind for a moment, he shelved it for later – for reasons similar to not constructing wizards village on the moon. Both methods would alienate wizards from ordinary people and would defeat his original purpose.
But it would be nice to secretly create a private holiday spot in the Marianas Trench …
Felix suddenly frowned and took the communication mirror out of his ring, where Akingbade was pounding the frame of his mirror desperately.
“Babajide?”
“Felix? Thank goodness we finally got through to you!”
“What’s happened?” Felix asked calmly, then he thought of the other man’s current situation, “Didn’t we discuss the whole plan? You, as a representative of the Confederation, need to participate in the live TV broadcast and objectively explain from the standpoint of a wizard-”
“The problem is, there are rumours going around that you are planning to create a big meteor and destroy the entire American continent!” Akingbade’s face got slightly distorted in the communication mirror.
Felix listened in disbelief.
“Who started this rumour, huh?” He resisted the urge to roll his eyes, there are still hundreds of satellites overhead gazing at him. After thinking about it, he casually found a reason: “Let’s say – well, the International Confederation of Wizards and the Pan-Magic Alliance are planning to hold a Christmas bonfire to celebrate the departure of the American wizards from evil clutches.”
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#Book Two, Thanks for all your love and support.
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