abcnovels
Chapter 663
Chapter 663
Chapter 663: Easter Holiday
For Felix, he has to take care of a few things during the Easter holidays.
After the war, the Future World Company has grown once again and now more than a third of the staff are new faces, and he is going to use this holiday to get to know the new employees, in which there are a considerable number of humanoid magical races.
“As you requested, we have recruited half a dozen employees in each group from the Veela, vampire, werewolf, goblin … and even two trolls, though no one is happy to spend time with them,” Lupin said, his eyes carrying two dark circles beneath them, but he is in a very good mood. “Most of them are half-bloods, able to use wands and communicate easily, and I’ve given them the task of suggesting modifications to existing products, as well as travelling to their different gathering places to promote our products – mainly through bartering.”
Felix nodded.
“What about the Centaur and Merpeople?”
“Well, it’s moving in slow progress, the Centaurs are quite xenophobic, and the merpeople, it’s very rare for them to have any mixed blood with wizards, and if they do, they don’t want to walk around the wizarding world.” Lupin said.
“Oh, well, any interesting reports?”
“The werewolves adore you.” When he saw Felix’s somewhat surprised expression, Lupin flashed him a smile, “Didn’t you once recruit some werewolves over at Hogsmeade? They saw your transformation and were greatly amazed, and now the news has spread.”
“… They don’t think I’m a werewolf too, do they?”
“A small group of werewolves did think so,” Lupin said with an odd expression, “but after the conference, such rumours were not that marketable. Quite a few foreign experts in the field of potions stayed in England, and they assembled a few loose circles of their own and began to study the werewolves’ magical structure map. There are also healers – they suspect that many incurable diseases are related to mutations in one’s magic power in the body. A lot of conjectures have been raised accordingly.”
“Very energetic.” Felix said with satisfaction.
He had spent a week in Sword Castle, going from room to room, and had been warmly welcomed by the house elves, who, by the looks of things, enjoyed their working environment and liked living in groups. He also saw Dobby, and although Dobby is the house elf closest to him as far as Felix is concerned, Dobby is still very much involved in the actual work, unlike the wizards, it is generally considered disgraceful for house elves not to work.
Even Dobby was only asking for a modest salary and didn’t try to avoid work.
“Sir, we have a present for you.” Dobby said in a pointed voice as the little ones stepped aside to reveal a huge Easter egg that Felix reckoned would allow an elf to inhabit and live in, the name of each house elf carved in chocolate on every part of the eggshell.
Felix expressed his thanks again and again.
“I have gifts for you too.” He said, and out of his ring flew hundreds of round chestnut wood sheets, shimmering with gilded writing, engraved with each house elf’s name and a sentence similar to ‘Excellent Staff’, and on the back of which was a relief design of a sword castle.
…
Harry and Ron had completed the first step in their Animagus preparations a few days before the holiday, hiding the little crystal vials at the edge of the Forbidden Forest, after which they recited the spell in the morning and evening without fail.
Word spread among the students about how well Animagus boosted Transfiguration progress, and they gradually came to a consensus that if they wanted to learn Animagus, they had to learn Patronus first.
The professor of the charms class went along with this idea and covered this part of the lesson in the last class before the holidays.
“I heard that Professor Flitwick intended to include Patronus charm within the scope of the spells taught in class.” Ron said.
“It’s not an easy spell to practice.” Harry said, thinking of how he had practiced the Patronus Charm, even if he didn’t include himself, the others had practiced it off and on for a good six months, but in the end, he could count on two hands the number of those who had mastered the spell.
“There’s always a way.” Ron responded optimistically instead.
“Where’s Hermione?”
“Probably gone to see Valen? With the Professor not around, Valen is even more out of control, alas, if we wander around the outskirts of the castle, we might be able to stumble upon a Niffler and a Beaver …”
“Or we could go and watch some cartoons, the one I told you about last time!”
“Never mind, I’ll just work on the Quidditch tactics, since you guys spent two weeks freely because I was stuck in the hospital wing, we lost one game, the score was tight, and the last few games are crucial.” Harry said thoughtfully.
“Won’t Dumbledore use this holiday to give you lessons?”
Harry shook his head.
“Headmaster Dumbledore said he has some family business to take care of.”
” Family business!” Ron’s eyes widened, “Doesn’t he have only one family member left?”
“That’s right,” Harry said softly, “Aberforth Dumbledore of The Hog’s Head Inn.”
“That’s a pretty bad place for him to spend this holiday.” Ron said with a shake of his head and feigned a sigh.
…
Felix had also made a trip to the Ministry of Magic during the holiday, and Ms. Bones, who was intrigued by the recent rumours, lifted her monocle from a stack of documents.
So Felix transformed his arm into a werewolf arm and grabbed and shattered a glass right in front of her.
“That’s my favourite water glass!” Ms. Bones said with a raised eyebrow.
Felix shrugged and recovered the arm along with the glass, his eyes settled on a puzzle hanging on the wall, and he asked in a lazy teasing tone, “I thought you liked this one best.” He ended up being chased out because he had told the truth.
Before he left, Ms. Bones told him something.
“Akingbade would like to see you for a moment.”
“The new Supreme Mugwump of the International Confederation of Wizards?”
Ms. Bones gave an affirmative look and handed him a business card, a faint trace of magic circulating through the card.
A hint of interest passed through Felix.
“I see, but not now. Probably in the summer.”
“Suit yourself, everyone’s pretty busy,” she said, glaring at Felix with no small amount of jealousy, “Maybe I could consider teaching at Hogwarts for a few years after I retire, at least you have some time to do research … ”
Felix wasn’t too happy to hear that, he retracted his right hand that was gripping the door handle and decided to let this woman know how much work he is truly doing. The reason he looked so laid back is entirely due to the time he scrambled and squeezed out for himself.
So when Tonks knocked on the door, she saw their minister, engulfed within a thick pile of parchments, rubbing her forehead in pain as Felix grinned and whispered encouragement holding his teacup, giving occasional comments on the results of her work.
“Efficiency, Amelia, efficiency! You’ve only finished grading a hundred and three assignments, and by the time you leave the office -” he glanced at the clock – “you’ll probably be able to finish two hundred.” For some reason, the nostrils on Ms. Bones’ expressionless face kept flaring and puffing out ragged breaths.
“Tonks!” Ms. Bones jumped up and asked with a serious, solemn voice, “Come on, what’s the situation now?”
Tonks looked at her superior blankly.
What did she mean? She had nothing to report, she just wanted to take a leave of absence, there is nothing much going on these days, and she wanted to go back to the world of the couple as early as possible.
Ms. Bones’ sharp eyes looked at Tonks through her monocle like a hawk.
“I think … it’s probably a bit serious?” Tonks said slowly, her tone taking several turns in the middle. A small smile appeared at the corner of Ms. Bones’ mouth before it quickly retracted, “I see,” she said solemnly, “I’ll be right over to take care of it.”
She left with a steady step, her gaze firm and strong, with a hint of decisive determination.
Tonks was frozen in place, a bunch of questions running through her head. When she turned back, she found Felix had packed up the students’ assignments and was standing in the fireplace, letting the turquoise flames climb up his cheeks.
Felix waved at her with a victorious look, “I don’t mind Remus skipping work once in a while.” And disappeared. Leaving Tonks dazed. Now that everyone has left, who’s going to approve her leave slip then?
Halfway through the Easter holiday, Felix finally returned to school.
After some thought, he appeared straight into the chamber below the castle, which remained in a poor state, dimly lit, with a faint smell of decay and stench in the air, and traces of his magic practice littered all over the floor. Felix muttered something in a Parseltongue and the mouth of the statue of Salazar Slytherin slowly opened to reveal the space within.
Tens and hundreds of creatures that existed only in fantasy stepped out of it.
Felix surveyed them, these ‘Rune creatures’ are not truly living creatures, at least not in Felix’s opinion in comparison to the intelligence of the Sorting Hat, he wanted to create real living beings that did not have to live in the special environment he had painstakingly made for them.
As the Thinking Room magic slowly radiated from his body, the rune creatures, which were not quite attuned to their surroundings, became animated, and Felix reached out his hand. A Rainbird with golden-red flames burning on its body landed in his hand, dancing around in his palm.
Felix rubbed his chin.
“Ancient rune as a carrier, memory nodes to lock memory fragments, tsk, this is the low-grade wizard body and wizard soul, but it’s just a little bit short of each …”
The flames suddenly flared in front of Felix’s body, the flames churning into a swirl of golden red flames, Felix stared at the flashes of memories in the flames, or ‘record’ would be a more accurate word, the Rainbird itself lacked emotion, it reacted as Felix expected.
After a few moments, the flames gradually receded, coalescing in front of him as a wizard’s chess piece with a lingering warmth.
Time passed and Felix started to transform the chamber into a playground, the memories were all readily available, it is the materials that caused the difficulty, with the hint of a hidden desire, he did not make a big show of it but went out of his way to visit a dozen places.
In the middle of it, he even made a trip to Newt’s house to learn how to blend different environments into one.
So by the end of the holiday, the chamber had expanded a thousandfold, being divided into a dozen different terrains and entertainments. The ceiling had also been raised, and Felix sat on a pair of swings perched on a cloud, observing the natural landscape below from a high viewpoint.
A meandering river runs through all the different terrains, starting from the snowy mountain, to a plain a thousand feet below, surrounded by vast forests, swamps, deserts, stone groves, lakes …
The only pity is that there is a lack of real life here.
But Felix could create rune creatures, and after having done so, Felix looked contentedly at the rune creatures running across the earth beneath his feet, and in the lower left corner of his vision, there’s a vacant area remained, bare, with a stone floor clearly separated from the grass that bordered it only by a line.
The intended entertainment there would be the valley of flight with zero gravitational field, and he guessed he wouldn’t be able to fetch the material for it, for the time being. But at least it looked eight or nine shades closer to what he imagined, and the rest could be slowly perfected.
On the last day of the holiday, Felix sat on the stone steps in front of the castle and stared up at the moon.
There was a rustle of noise around him, and he grinned.
“Valen, Miss Granger?”
Two heads poked out of the grass, one belonging to Niffler and the other to Beaver, which immediately ducked its head back. A witch appeared in the same spot and Hermione walked forward with heavy feet, waving quietly at Valen as she did so.
Valen pulled a wand out of her pocket and handed it to her.
“Er … Professor? What are you doing?” Hermione decided to skip over a certain topic that made her feel embarrassed and snatched the lead.
Felix stared at the moon, “I’m thinking about finding some building materials … never mind, it feels a bit risky.”
“Building materials?” Hermione looked at him in confusion and then followed his line of sight to the sky, her expression turned to one of half clarity and half incredulity, “You want to go to the moon? That’s, that’s too-” She found herself completely lost in the professor’s train of thought.
“It’s always okay to think about it.” Felix suddenly showed interest and asked in his usual tone of discussing magic, “Do you think there’s hope?”
Hermione fell silent when she heard that.
Valen tilted her head and looked around, then jumped onto the steps to stare at the bright moon with immense curiosity. She had followed the Great Demon King to quite a few places, but hadn’t been to the moon yet, but the moon is only that big, what’s so pretty about it?
“Professor, what’s the longest distance you can Apparate?” Hermione asked nonchalantly.
“I never tried to check it out… maybe a few thousand kilometres.” Felix said, the longer the distance of the Apparition the more dangerous it would be, and he didn’t think twice about it, but it would be basically no problem to go from one country to another; it only took one Apparition to travel from England to France, and two or three transits to the United States in turn.
“If that’s the case,” Hermione took a deep breath, “it is indeed possible to make it happen. I remember that the distance from Earth to the Moon is about 380,000 kilometres, and if we could guarantee survival in a vacuum, it would only take two or three hundred Apparitions – do you know about vacuum, Professor? And cosmic radiations?”
“Yes.” Felix glanced at Hermione.
“Well then, if you do plan to … land on the moon, Professor, make sure you’re prepared for everything.” Hermione said with a squirm, not sure why she was discussing an outrageous topic so seriously, maybe because it is actually possible for him to do it.
“I remember that Muggles have special books describing the outer atmosphere and this must be done step by step, any reckless and rash actions could have serious consequences. Professor – I would never want your name to be recorded with some strange aberration, like that idiot who flew to the moon on his flying broom -” her tone grew more anxious and stern.
“Got it, got it.” Felix said in a perfunctory manner.
“This is no joke!”
“Ah, it’s my life issue, I assure you, I’m just thinking about it and have no plans for a long trip at the moment.”
“Professor, please swear!”
“Well … it’s not a magic pact, is it? That wouldn’t do …”
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