abcnovels
Chapter 603
Chapter 603
Chapter 603: News Spread
At the beginning of the holiday, Felix disappeared for two weeks.
He only communicated with the outside world via owl or communicating mirror, and each time he wrote back he was very brief, and usually ended his letters with the words ” I am concentrating on my research, please do not disturb me if it is not necessary”, which reduced his social activities by 90%, and all sorts of smart people who caught a hint of something kept their mouths shut, especially those who wanted to invest in the ‘Future World’ company by flaunting Gringotts Gold-Galleon.
It wasn’t that Felix spent all his time behind closed doors, holed up in classroom seven in the company of some guy with no hair.
He always believed that a good mood would boost productivity.
So during these times, he visited the Grand Canyon to see the Red River, went to the bottom of the sea to see the coral and, of course, suddenly appeared at his friend’s doorstep. The number of wizards is not that high, but it is not that low either. Take the United Kingdom for example, there are more than 20,000 wizards living among a population of nearly 60 million people, which would approximately equate to a total of two million wizards in the world; there may be errors in the figures, but the volume is practically unchanged.
It is only because they are scattered around the world that they become relatively rare.
The wizarding community is also not without its own famous attractions, such as the Forest of Ghosts, the Ghost Town, the Vampire Community, and other magical places of considerable distinction. They are like the black markets of different countries, with their own odd rules and regulations. If you want to have a good time, you have to follow them.
For example, one vampire community that was open to the public had a requirement to ‘smile without showing your teeth’, and it was difficult for wizarding families to find out if the vendor who was claiming to sell authentic ‘vampire food’ was actually a vampire, which Felix seriously suspected was an ordinary wizard in disguise…
“Blood roses, with a mellow flavour in every bite!” A pale, pimple-faced male wizard shouted vigorously, his eyes lit up at the sight of Felix, ” Gentleman, you have a good eye – no lady would turn down – uh –”
He lowered his head and looked at Valen, who was wearing a lady’s hat and coughed intensely.
“A question,” Felix’s fingertips bounced a gold galleon, “do vampires have pimples?”
“We do!” The peddler shouted, “You can’t discriminate against us, there’s something special about our physiology, but-”
Felix pointed to his flattened teeth that were exposed due to him being agitated and the vendor rushed to cover his mouth.
“Fifty percent off for all merchandise, plus a ticket for a tour to the Vampire Duke’s castle,” the vendor said as he looked around and brought his head closer to lower his voice, “I’m told this event is very popular among muggles.”
“… deal.”
Two minutes later, Felix and Valen each wore a pair of vampire masks, neither of them brave enough to try the supposedly ‘mellow tasting’ blood roses, but it looked good as an adornment to keep in their dress or hat.
They also wore a silver cross on their chests with a tortured, fanged vampire tied on it – some guy who was supposedly famous for inventing a substitute for human blood – the same product the vendor had lovingly recommended.
“It goes perfectly with your masks!”
In contrast, Voldemort’s life is not quite satisfactory – if he is conscious enough. Apart from the daily recurring nightmares that go along with the various emotional tests, he would also occasionally be subjected to a Niffler snooping around …
Unfortunately, Voldemort’s will is far firmer than he had expected and his research is currently progressing rather slowly with very little success. Felix had to be careful to keep him alive – Dumbledore had gone to a meeting with the International Confederation of Wizards and until he returns, Felix had to keep Voldemort in one piece.
So those ‘destructive tests’ couldn’t be done.
In a recent letter, Felix urged Dumbledore to return as soon as possible.
He rehashed his old ideas and wished to stuff Voldemort’s brain with a lot of penitence. But this matter actually came with certain risks, because they faced a dilemma that had not been solved: how can they ensure that separating the soul fragment from Harry would not harm him?
After all, they only had two intact Horcruxes left in their possession – Hufflepuff’s golden cup and Slytherin’s locket – which meant that even if they managed to figure out how to do it, they would only have two chances for trial and error.
…
During the time that Felix was isolated from the outside world, the others were not idle either.
The Aurors and Hit Wizards were deployed by Ms. Bones to scatter around and launch a widespread ‘sweep’ operation, which was aided by the members of the Order of the Phoenix due to a shortage of manpower. They were experienced temporary external officers who were a cut above the new recruits that the Ministry of Magic had recruited in the past two years in terms of combat prowess and experience.
In addition to Death Eaters, spies deployed by Voldemort, dark wizards, as well as some forgotten elements, have been caught up in this operation.
In the north of England, on high ground.
There was a faint rattling sound heard from outside the cave. The skinny, scrawny male wizard pricked up his ears and did not dare to move his body. After a long absence of movement, he swallowed hard and thought it might be a mouse. He leaned his head on the shabby woollen mat, with a dull gaze –
“Boom!” The stone at the mouth of the cave was blown away and a blinding beam of daylight was poured over him.
“Igor Karkaroff!?” A malevolent voice exclaimed, and Karkaroff jolted, desperately trying to block in front of him with his hands, his courage drained by a long life of isolation, and he shivered as he said, “Don’t, don’t kill me!”
Rough jeers rang out from outside.
After a few seconds, Karkaroff opened his eyes, having spent too long hiding in the gloom of his lair day and night, he was not quite used to the bright light. But still, he sensed with what was left of his senses that something was wrong – if it had been one of his former dangerous and evil companions, this would have been a time when they would have dragged him out of the cave like a dead dog, or simply given him a bone-chilling Cruciatus Curse.
Outside the cave, there were shadows of people.
After trying hard to see through the light, Karkaroff saw a hideous, scarred face with an iconic eye that he would never forget in his life. ” Mad-Eye Moody?” Karkaroff was filled with a mixture of anguish and joy that after more than a decade he had once again fallen into the hands of this old Auror.
Moody didn’t bother talking to him and yanked him out roughly by his collar.
“All of you come and see what I’ve found!” Moody said, partly in disgust, and partly in surprise, “You’ll never guess-” Seven or eight men gathered round, exchanging pleasantries with each other. “The former headmaster of Durmstrang?” “But is he not dead?” “How long has he been hiding, what a smell …?” “Nearly a year now, and the rapid downfall of the Dark Lord has allowed him to escape.”
Karkaroff grabbed the last person who had spoken and shouted with two bulging eyes, “What did you say? The Dark Lord – the Dark Lord has fallen? He, he’s dead?”
Frank Longbottom pulled Karkaroff’s hand away with one finger at a time.
“Rejoice, even a scumbag like you can share this joy.” He said calmly, “I have heard that you have abandoned your students and fled alone? A word of advice to you never go back to …”
Karkaroff didn’t hear the words that followed as he stumbled out of the way with a few steps, staring at his trembling, skeleton-like hands, and muttered, “Dead, he’s dead?” He suddenly howled, “Voldemort is dead! Voldemort! Voldemort! He’s dead! Voldemort! That bastard! Bastard! You’ve made me so miserable – woo-hoo.”
“He’s not crazy, is he?”
“Who cares?” Moody spat on the ground. “There are six more suspected coiled dark wizards, try to sweep them out today. Remember-”
“Constant vigilance.” A young voice said.
Moody’s false eyes fixed on the interjected rookie female Auror, and he said with a seeping smile, “You’re a quick learner, Collins, and I hope there’s more than just words.” Collins Foley flinched and stopped talking, Professor Moody is still so intimidating. Frank Longbottom flashed a friendly smile at her.
Later that evening there was a huge celebration within the Ministry of Magic.
The news of Voldemort’s downfall went out in a rather more private manner. That evening, the owls flew into a thousand wizards’ homes with the big news. The express post took off near dusk, and they became part of the holiday celebrations that were celebrated throughout the United Kingdom over the next few days.
Outside the Ottery St. Catchpole in Devon, the Diggory family is having dinner.
The deep female voice on the magic radio was singing in overlapping chords, as the song approached its end, the food and drink satiated, Mr. Diggory picked up the conversation.
“Your girlfriend, Cho, her parents also work at the Ministry. I mean – if you’re not interested in dealing with magical creatures, you could give it a try over there and get the feel of things first -”
“Oh, Dad, we’ve had this conversation many times.” Cedric muttered.
“But things have changed, the You-Know-Who is dead Ced, and I want you to realize that: the Ministry is no longer a Monster den where you have to worry about being attacked at any moment, and look! It’s back to being a place where good boys should go. …”
Mrs. Diggory gave her husband a quick glance from the side. Mr. Diggory shrugged, “Well, let’s change the subject – talk about that Almanac, what did they call it, The Magic Dollmaker … is that some sort of nickname?”
“It’s the name I’ve chosen for my future career.” Cedric protested with slight displeasure.
“That’s funny, Ced, you’ve discovered a latent quality in the Diggory family, a sense of humour …” Mr. Diggory couldn’t go on as Mrs. Diggory was grinding his toes hard, “Hiss –would you like me to keep you company?”
“I’ve got an appointment with Cho.” Cedric whispered.
“Yeah, well, it’s so unlikely — well, I mean it’s so nice … at least I don’t have to worry about the Diggory family inheritance.” Mr. Diggory said, gesturing to the radio, “I don’t know how many purebloods have been called in for questioning in the last few days, they weren’t thriving to begin with, and now this …”
“It’s news time next, celebrations are taking place all over the country in unison, on behalf of the Ministry of Magic staff this segment would like to remind you to keep secrecy, the staff would appreciate it if you could reschedule your firework displays later at night and leave quickly before the muggles notice anything unusual, otherwise you may receive a fine amounting to thirty galleons …”
The same voice echoed in the Burrow not far from there.
“Are there really a lot of people getting into trouble?” Ron asked.
“Yeah, the Ministry of Magic’s work has multiplied tenfold all of a sudden,” Mr. Weasley said with a tired look on his face, his fingers pinching the bridge of his nose, “people tend to get carried away when they get excited and throw around newspapers they’ve read, snacks they’ve half-eaten, and there were a few muggles in Cornwall who went camping in the wilderness and accidentally picked up half a box of fruit candies that could make people float. … All in all, everyone’s working their socks off.”
“Well, there’s something good about this,” Mrs. Weasley said sternly, “your father’s been working overtime these past few days.”
Fred and George looked at each other.
“We’ve opened a new shop in Diagon Alley.” Fred whispered and Mrs. Weasley placed her hands on her hips and glared at the brothers for a moment before she reluctantly said, “Well, if you have to … can’t you wait until the results are issued to decide?” She added in frustration.
Fred and George shrugged their shoulders.
“Mum, time is running out, the Hogsmeade recipients are too small, there are still a lot of potentials needed to be tapped in our Dark Lord series of goods!”
“Yeah, we’re going to create a ‘Joke Festival’ to soothe the hearts of those who have been hurt in battle with some products that will make them laugh.” George’s voice got lower and lower as Mrs. Weasley’s face quickly clouded over, but he managed to whisper the most important words, “So we’re going to move out for a while.”
“Bang!”
A large pot of bacon slammed on the table.
The children at the table leaned back in unison as Mr. Weasley put on his glasses and said gently, “Molly, the boys have grown up, they have a life of their own.”
“I know, I just-” Mrs. Weasley huffed and cried, Mr. Weasley, rushed to his feet and hugged her, only for her to become even more agitated, “The family is shrinking every year… …I was so sad when Bill and Charlie left, Percy doesn’t often come home these days, and now even Fred and George are moving out …”
Fred and George, who had been named, fidgeted in their chairs as if they were sitting on a prickly cushion with a lame transfiguration spell cast on them.
Fred rushed to explain, “Mum, we will come back to stay, we’ve just been a bit busy lately …” He winked desperately at Ron and Ginny, but they were both scowling at the twins in unison!
He resolutely shifted the problem, “If you think there are fewer people – Mum, there’s something you should better know, Our Ginny got a boyfriend -”
“Ah-” Ginny yelped.
“- it’s Harry.” George finally found a chance to complete the sentence.
Mr. Weasley and Mrs. Weasley stayed woodenly in place for a few moments stiffly before turning their heads to look at Fred and George, “If this is a joke or some prank of yours, I swear-” Mrs. Weasley stammered.
“Absolutely not.” Fred said seriously.
Then all eyes were fixed on Ginny, whose face immediately flushed as red as her hair, and she squealed and scurried away.
The house went silent, with only the radio at the kitchen sink still dutifully broadcasting the news.
“-The Ministry of Magic has not disclosed any further information at this moment. All that is known is that Albus Dumbledore and Felix Hap are suspected to be involved in the sudden fall of the You-Know-Who, and many speculate that the two most powerful individuals of the current time joined hands to deliver a fatal blow to the You-Know-Who. But the portrait of Mr. Hap hanging in St Mungo’s denies this claim, confessing that he had only played a supporting role …”
“Harry was involved.” Ron said, breaking the silence in the kitchen. “Does anyone want to hear me say it again? I mean, in a way, I’m one of the few people who were there when it all happened. If any journalist wants to document this history in the future, there’s absolutely no way they can move around me …”
At this moment, the two people mentioned in this conversation – Felix was visiting his Muggle friends Jim and Rebecca’s house, while Harry, was lazily eating dinner with the Dursley family, the boring dinner turned even more boring due to the emotionless newscast on the television and the stuffy July atmosphere.
“… The dangerous Tom Riddle has recently been arrested and brought to justice, the public does not need to panic, he will be faced with a fair trial under the law …”
Harry raised his head with a start.
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