Harry Potter: A Certain Ancient Rune Professor of Hogwarts (TL)

Chapter 268

Rufus Scrimgeour is leading the way, and he’s moving ahead with a rush, “We need to hurry up, Minister Fudge is a little impatient.”

Felix said, “I didn’t know we have to meet with him.”

“It’s impromptu, Minister Fudge has a full schedule, originally he wouldn’t have paid attention to these little events, but – here we are.”

He pushed open a heavy door and a simple and formal parlour appeared in front of him.

The parlour is furnished much like the one Felix had visited before, meeting room number three, with more than a dozen rows of black shiny chairs and a small podium in the front.

“This way–” Felix is led through a curtain down the side of the podium, past a small, inconspicuous door to a more private room.

Fudge is reading a newspaper with his head buried, with a thick stack of newspaper clippings beside him. At the sound of a noise, he looked up and smiled warmly, “Felix Hap, good to see you.”

“Minister Fudge, I don’t think this is the first time we’ve met, what did you want to see me about?”

“Ah, of course … Dorothea wrote to me and I realized that I had missed a distinguished person–” He patted his bulging stomach, the shiny copper-colored buttons struggling to maintain the dark red vest from popping open, “Professor of ancient runes, an expert in muggle studies, and a deep-rooted master of memory damage therapy – look at that, I’m a little envious of you.”

Felix understood, it looked like the news of his cure of the Longbottoms had finally reached the minister’s ears, and it should be Lady Dorothea Bonham who told him.

“… Old Bernie in the Wizengamot office has submitted the proposal, and now we are waiting for the results of the verification from St. Mungo’s, and if there is no problem, the second class medal – that’s the minimum; the first-class medal is not without hope. ”

“Sounds good,” Felix said patiently.

” Well, you know, I need to convince some people, use some contacts …” Fudge said, his fat fingers interlocked, “I like to trade.”

“Like what?” Felix asked curiously, wondering what Fudge had in mind.

“Dolores is in some trouble and I want her to take over the deputy minister position, but she’s not senior enough right now and needs an undeniable merit, like – capturing Sirius Black, under my leadership, of course.” Fudge said, fiddling with the quill in his hand.

Felix asked patiently, “It’s not like I can help you catch him; the Ministry of Magic has plenty of Auror and Hit Wizard.”

“Actually, I mean – if you can convince Dumbledore to let Dolores bring some people into Hogwarts … trust me, I’m doing what’s best for the students inside, Black is a vicious criminal to the core, he’ll do many vicious things he’s capable of.” Fudge said with righteous indignation.

Felix gave him a deep look, “I’ll think about it, Minister Fudge.” He looked at the clock, “The speech is about to start, I need to take a few minutes to prepare.”

Fudge, obviously, did not expect him to simply refuse and froze for a moment, “I’ll wait to hear back from you, and I’ll have Dolores find you.”

“I may not have time in the near future-” Felix said, “Perhaps, I’ll make an appointment for you with Dumbledore?”

” Well, you know – actually -” Fudge stammered, his tone became slightly embarrassed: “It won’t be necessary… . Well, I’ll talk with Dumbledore about it then.”

Felix came out of the room, shaking his head, he is a little uncertain whether Fudge really happened to hear the news of his arrival, and tried incidentally; or had a plan, but from the emotions perceived from his mind, Fudge is not as passive as they make it out.

He couldn’t help but think: this minister really trusts that Dolores Umbridge, doesn’t he know that this woman’s popularity is quite bad? As Felix stood on the small podium in meeting room two, looking down at the mass of people dressed in black, he suddenly thought of something.

Maybe it is because of Umbridge’s terrible popularity that she is being used by Fudge. At least in the eyes of outsiders, If she did anything bad it isn’t unexpected, the fire will not burn Fudge’s head entirely.

He remembered the relationship between Kings and sycophants, sycophants do many hateful deeds, how much is it authorized by the king himself?

Felix’s eyes passed over the crowd, and he formally started his speech.

“Some of you may know me, or have heard of me, but many others are not sure what I do, so far I have written a total of three books related to muggles and am barely an expert on this field.” He held up his wand and let his name appear in the air.

Felix quickly skipped over the self-introduction part and got to the topic of the day.

“I’m assuming that you’ve come here today out of pure interest or a willingness to receive some fresh insight because of your work …”

“From the list of listeners, you would be the most connected group of people with the ordinary people. In a way, I’m in line with you guys, being the eyes of a wizard who sees the outside world.”

“But how many of you realize that?”

The crowd stirred a little, and while Newt Scamander in the corner looked at the gap in the wall, his ears perked up.

A tall, well-built wizard with a thinned lip and moustache said in a hard, cold tone, “Why should we be concerned about some Lowlife?”

“This wizard, your name?” Felix asked calmly.

“You may call me Macnair.” he said with a Grin, “Mr. Hap, do you find my words problematic?” Next to him, Chryston Avery pulled his arm, but he still locked eyes with Felix.

“Lowlife …,” Felix chewed on the word, “you have to give me a specific reason, Mr. Macnair, you were just stating your emotions– -you’re just letting us know that you really, really hate muggles, but that is never the reason.”

Macnair’s expression changed, and he said nastily, “Foolish, ignorant, powerless, confused … need to say more?”

” Huh,” Felix looked to the others, “Anyone else holds the same opinion, let me see.”

No one took a stand in support, instead, some people were very unhappy with Macnair’s statement, most of them were half-blood wizards and muggle-born wizards.

Felix waited quietly for a few seconds, leaving the crowd time to think. The air became noisy, but there is not a single audible voice made, it is like listening to a tape with the voice cleaned out.

Felix spoke up and said, “I will answer your questions at the end of my speech, Mr. Macnair.”

He waved his wand, spilling a bright silver light, and soon, the silver glow filled the entire second meeting room like a cloud of smoke. He flicked his finger and the smoke disappeared instantly.

With the help of the blank memory fragments, Felix can already temporarily make the thinking room appear in reality.

“Today I would like to introduce something very simple, about people who can’t do magic, about their clothing, food, housing, and transportation …”

“The signing of the International Statute of Wizarding Secrecy was an important milestone for us, and since then, our knowledge of the outside world has seemed to have stagnated forever, and even if fresh blood has been added to the wizarding community every year after that, the situation hasn’t changed much.” Felix seemed to speak with emotion.

“Back to the topic, the medieval clothes are relatively monotonous with colour and material, the colour is mainly black, white, gray, brown; the material is mainly linen, wool, and leather; style is somewhat similar to the close-fitting wizard’s robe, some nobles or high-class people of the outside world at that time will also wear a cloak, gentlemen, does it sound familiar?”

In the parlour, illusory figures appeared in the air, their faces were blurred, but the clothes on their bodies were particularly clear, and a wizard could not help but reach out to touch them, but his fingers passed through the virtual figures.

“After a few centuries, more elements were added, large cloaks, embroidery, appliquéing …” Felix said, while in the air many corresponding clothing styles rapidly assembled, sophisticated and exquisite clothes caught many witches’ attention.

“Fourteenth to the seventeenth century, people concerned about curvy beauty for a while and a kind of morbid, skirt straps, corseted waist, a dozen inches high shoes -” Felix waved his wand and let the corresponding images appear one by one, “and then came ribbons, lacy lapels, long-buttoned jackets, feathered hats, puffy skirts …”

“I also have to mention some tiny decorations such as ties, floral decorations, lace, etc.”

The discussion in the seating area continued with a lot of chatter.

“In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, people by and large admired nature, simplicity and removed the embellishments,” Felix said while the clothes of that period appeared, many clothes close to the modern aesthetic appeared, petticoats, shawls, suits, tuxedos …

“As for after that, there are too many kinds, you can see for yourselves.” Felix curled his lips, he reached out and pushed, hundreds of different shaped clothes appeared and flew towards the wizards on the stage, many of them leaned back subconsciously in shock, until the images of these clothes passed across the meeting room, they only then reacted to the fact that it is all an illusion.

“It’s just too real.” Someone said admiringly.

Felix continued, “One phenomenon I often see in the newspapers is that whenever a muggle expert introduces something new and exciting, there are always particularly stubborn people who refuse to admit it and claim it’s all made up. Do any of the people here think that what I just showed is made up?”

No one doubts that things like clothes are obvious to everyone at first glance, and even the most uneducated would not think that Felix himself has made up thousands of different kinds of clothes of different shapes.

“From the simplest clothes, we can get a lot of interesting conclusions, for example, they are always evolving, always creating something new …” Felix lightly nodded, without going deeper, he changed the subject and asked a question. “Has anyone ever wondered how these clothes are made?”

“Hand-sewn?” Someone joked, “It can’t be by magic, can it?”

But no one laughed.

Except for Felix, who smiled and said, ” I explained the answer to this question in more detail in my new book, Muggle World’Magic’, for those who are interested, and if I were to tell it, I probably couldn’t tell it clearly in three days and nights. Let’s continue-”

the content of his speech quietly accelerated: “developments in food-” he waved his wand and numerous dishes from different periods appeared, becoming more and more exquisite and tempting the closer they came to the present time

“Housing -” various styles of architecture, home furnishings popping up one by one.

“And transportation -” transportation in the sky, sea, and land revealed one by one.

With the previous content as a base, no one questioned the authenticity of his last three aspects, but most people entered a state of bewilderment because they received too much information at once.

After a few minutes, the crowd came back to their senses one after another.

Felix once again posed a question, “Why am I talking about this, gentlemen?”

His gaze became extremely sharp, staring at everyone in the room, who subconsciously looked at Felix for an answer.

“Change, the only thing I want to tell you is change.”

His eyes fell on Macnair, a male wizard with thin lips and moustache, not knowing what he’s thinking, Felix said to him: “As for the question you just mentioned, Mr. Macnair, why should we look at the outside world?”

He took a step over and stood in front of the male wizard –

“Because the world never stands still because of a particular person, a particular group, and if you don’t perceive this change, the Words foolishness, ignorance, powerlessness, and confusion… can be used perfectly well for you, too. Now do you understand, Mr. Macnair?”

Macnair’s face turned red, and for a moment, his expression turned fierce as he jerked his wand and tried to put it against Felix’s neck.

“Macnair, stop it!” Rufus Scrimgeour shouted from a few feet across Rufus Scrimgeour, he could not allow this lecture to become a fight, especially if the young professor he had invited got hurt, it would become a scandal for the Ministry of Magic.

But Macnair’s eyes already turned red, the tip of his wand flashed with sparks, and what angered him the most is that the man opposite to him still had a sneering smile on his face.

He even reached out his hand slowly, did he want to take away his wand? Damn, what did he think he is doing, performance? I followed the Dark Lord while he still didn’t know what part of the world he is in.

Macnair decided to teach this overly young Muggle studies expert a lesson, there are a lot of people here, So no Unforgivable Curses, and no Dark Magic, so how about a Bombarda?

He subconsciously licked his lips, but found he couldn’t move.

Macnair watched as the man named “Felix Hap” gently withdrew his hand with his wand and heard him saying in a gentle tone, “You see, even your most persuasive powers are worthless in front of some people, so does that mean… -according to your reasoning, I can despise you? Or, at will, fiddle with you?”

Macnair’s heart went cold, as if he had fallen into an ice cave, and he couldn’t stop shivering — a similar feeling he had felt a decade ago, from the Dark Lord.

Rufus Scrimgeour had to step forward and whispered, “Mr. Hap, you can’t …”

Felix smiled at him, “Mr. Scrimgeour, this is part of the speech, an example of my careful preparation, you see, I didn’t even take out my wand – Mr. Macnair is cooperating with me.”

Macnair suddenly found himself able to move, and Felix handed him his wand back, “Take your wand, it’s the greatest pride you will ever have.”

Macnair froze in place, if the wand is pride, then what is he, If one took it away?

Felix returned to the small podium, ready to end the day’s speech.

“As I said, time keeps moving forward, and change follows close behind, that’s the big picture. It’s like a wave crashing towards you, the best response would be moving forward with the wave.”

A young wizard raised his hand as if it’s a classroom, “But, Mr. Hap, what do we do?”

A strong emotion welled up in Felix’s heart, and he wanted to spill the beans, speak up, or even put his ideas right into their heads, but he did none of that but said calmly, “That may be a question that needs to be explored by our generation together.”

———-

This is 2 in one chapter so tomorrow I will only update 1 chapter.

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