Hogwarts: Harry Returns from Azeroth

Chapter 67 66. Hermione's Questions and Harry's Speech

The storm element frantically struck the earth element with lightning. The web-like tangled electric current turned into a whip and lashed the surface of the earth element, blowing up the soil and rocks, or tearing the body of the earth element with wild wind, causing smoke and dust to explode.

There is no clear opponent between the four elements. They attack each other. It seems that two elements are working together to suppress one element in the previous second, but in the next second, the two elements start fighting each other again.

For the students, this could be said to be a magical battle that they had never imagined. Especially for those students who came from the Muggle world, this was simply a feast that far exceeded the expression of the movie.

Four elements that were so tall that they seemed to block out the sun in the sky were fighting with each other, but no one could completely defeat the other. The best case scenario was that one element could be suppressed temporarily, but as long as there was a slight gap in the other elements, the suppressed element would get the space it deserved.

Through the evolution of the struggle between the elements, Harry was able to show the students what the state of the elements was like.

At the last moment, the four elements, as if they had made an appointment, all released their power towards the center of the venue. This power exploded in the sky and scattered like meteors, and they themselves disappeared without a trace at the same time. Only the body of the earth element was left, no longer floating in the air, but scattered on the ground.

Miraculously, while the students were still staring at the scene, a rainbow appeared dimly in the vapor-filled sky.

There was dead silence, and no one even dared to breathe loudly. Many people had been holding their breath from just now until now, and remained silent for a long time, as if they were still shocked by what they had just seen.

"...So much like you." Dumbledore couldn't help but whispered to Professor McGonagall when the final element exploded.

But this time Professor McGonagall did not glare at him again. Instead, she pursed her lips slightly, as if she was smiling.

"This is the responsibility of the shaman." Staring at the place where the four elements disappeared, Harry bowed slightly and said, "We don't simply believe in the power of the elements and regard the words of the elements as orders that cannot be violated. We communicate with the elements on an equal footing. We are the balancers and coordinators of the elements. We also need to quell the struggles between them and guide people so that they can have a suitable living environment."

Hermione raised her hand again, and Harry motioned for her to speak directly.

"If elements really have their own will, and they fight each other and have conspiracies, then shouldn't they be evil? Why do we need to, uh, balance them?" The question Hermione asked was actually the question that most students wanted to ask.

And more than that, Hermione hesitated for a moment, but still gritted her teeth and continued to ask: "I mean, is the existence of elements really necessary? Because I have heard you say, professor, that the elemental forces in the world we live in are actually dormant. They have not shown their existence for so many years, and we live normally without any problems."

"Well, according to you, Professor, elements also have their own desires, right?" Hermione had to clarify her doubts. "If their existence brings us war, then it's not a good thing, right?"

"And most importantly, if coordinating the balance of elements is the only way for us to have a suitable living environment, then why have wizards never discovered the existence of elements before?"

He is indeed a child with a very quick mind and the ability to draw inferences from one instance. Some students had not even thought of the questions Hermione mentioned. They just thought that what Harry had just done was so cool, while other students only thought of part of it.

To be honest, they were tough questions, so tough that they didn't seem like questions Hermione would ask, but questions that a Slytherin would ask - questions that Harry's enemies would ask, questions that wanted to bring him down to his core.

To the point that Hermione herself felt a little guilty, but Harry waved his hand to signal her not to worry.

There is really no need to worry about it, because in Harry's opinion, as long as he wants to promote shamanism in this world, he will inevitably face such doubts, it is just a matter of sooner or later.

"That's a good question," Harry first affirmed Hermione, and then continued, "But I'm afraid I need to correct a misunderstanding you have due to your lack of understanding. That is, although the elements have never shown their existence, we still live normally."

"Elements are everywhere, just like we use fire when cooking, crops need to grow on the land, rain and snow fall from the sky, there will be wind, rain, thunder and lightning - all natural phenomena are the breath of elements, their existence is closely related to us and affects our lives."

Harry gave an example.

"The disappearance of the earth element will cause the land to become barren, and plants will not be able to grow healthily. The lack of the water element will make an area extremely dry, and the rivers will dry up. The lack of the wind element will make the air dead, and the atmosphere will no longer flow. The disappearance of the fire element will cause everything to decay, and cold and nothingness will submerge the entire world."

"But look around. The land we live in hasn't become that tragic. The soil is fertile, and there is plenty of rain and snow... To be honest, it's getting colder and the wind is getting stronger."

Harry's words caused laughter.

"Elements have never left us. Whether we are Muggles or wizards, the environment we live in is always closely related to the elements. They were just sleeping before and didn't communicate with people, but they really affect us." Harry didn't mean to hide anything. He said calmly: "And this is why I set up a shaman club in Hogwarts."

"I want to revive the existence of elements, but this world is so big that even if I want to walk all over the land on foot, I will probably have to spend my whole life to reach this goal. I can't achieve this goal alone." Harry joked, "That's why I want to train some like-minded helpers for myself."

"But before that, I think I have to answer another question Hermione just asked - do we really need elemental revival?"

Dumbledore's eyes flickered slightly. To be honest, even though he had seen those shadows of the past in Harry several times, no matter how many times, this frank and upright attitude made Dumbledore... choose to be patient and observe.

To be honest, time is indeed a slow knife that can make a determined person become hesitant. Dumbledore is indeed too old.

And Harry's words continued.

"...Yes, although the elements are still in a large-scale dormancy, even so, there has never been any problem with the environment we live in - the crops are good, it rains when it is supposed to rain, it blows when it is supposed to blow, the air is sweet, and the seasons change as usual, without any discord."

"So do we really need to revive the elements?" Harry repeated Hermione's initial question, which was also the biggest question in the minds of the students in front of him at the moment. "After all, as I said just now, elements do not mean kindness, but some elements are indeed kind."

"They will help those they like and let them use their power to protect the world, or restore water to the dry land, restore fertility to the barren land, and give food to the hungry people - but that is only part of the elements." "Another part of the elements is not like this. They are not kind and benevolent, but chaotic and disorderly. They have their own schemes and will attack each other because of this, or train their favorite people to attack each other."

"This means that when the elements revive, conflicts and disputes will inevitably arise. Do we really need such a revival of elements? They will bring new conflicts, new wars... and even death."

Harry was so frank that he had nothing to hide. In the first shaman class, he did not avoid any questions and even took the initiative to tear the problems apart and present them to everyone.

"I don't really like Professor Binns," Harry said in a shocking way, bluntly expressing his dislike for a professor at Hogwarts who was on the job but not paid, "because he turned a course that was supposed to allow students to study hard and learn from history into a boring course that makes people sleepy, so that most students can't learn anything useful from it at all."

"Those who ignore history will eventually repeat it," Harry shook his head slightly and said, "If you look closely at wizard history, you'll find that the entire wizarding society is actually in a state of shrinking."

"It's not because there are more and more Muggles or the Statute of Secrecy requires us not to be discovered by Muggles. For wizards who master spells such as the Traceless Extension Charm, living space is actually the least thing to worry about." Harry said seriously: "The most important and most dangerous thing is that there are fewer and fewer wizards."

"Do you know how many new students Hogwarts had every year two hundred years ago?" Harry looked at Dumbledore and continued, "The answer is three hundred and fourteen - the number of first-year students alone exceeded the number of students in the entire Hogwarts school today, and only two hundred years have passed."

"I have sufficient evidence to prove that the population of the entire wizarding world is shrinking. According to statistics from the Ministry of Magic, the number of wizards in the entire UK is currently around 3,000. Only 3,000."

"The closer we get to modern times, the more this number shrinks. Even if we include students born in Muggle families, there are only 40 new students enrolling at Hogwarts this year. I think you should understand the seriousness of the whole matter." Harry stared at the serious faces in front of him and said, "You can go back home and ask your parents to hear what changes have taken place between the Muggles of 20 years ago and London today, even if it's just the Muggle street in front of the Leaky Cauldron."

"For most wizards, their understanding of Muggles is that they can't use magic and there are a lot of them, but they don't understand what this means." Harry sighed slightly and gave a direct answer: "This means that Muggles can directly use the number of 3,000 as a basis to concentrate their wisdom to solve a certain problem and develop their technology. The number of people that Muggles can easily come up with is already impossible for the wizarding society to do."

"How many years has it been since the wizarding community heard of the emergence of new epoch-making magic?" Harry asked loudly to everyone, "Students from Muggle families already knew before they entered Hogwarts that in 1969, Muggles used rockets and spaceships to send themselves to the moon that we can see every night. That is a space that no wizard has ever reached, and they left a flag on the moon. This year is already 1991, and a full years have passed."

As Harry spoke, those students who came from Muggle families or were half-blood students also testified in a low voice, which further added to Harry's persuasiveness. Unlike the little wizards who lived completely in the magical world, they had attended Muggle primary schools and read natural science books before entering Hogwarts.

"From the history of magic, we can see that ancient wizards were actually able to do many things that modern wizards cannot even imagine. However, modern wizards are unable to do the same thing and can only read fragments of recorded fantasies."

“Wizards are becoming weaker and weaker. Even after experiencing the rampages of the international Dark Lord Grindelwald and the British Dark Lord Voldemort, the overall strength of wizards has not become stronger because of the war. In fact, they have become weaker. This is in stark contrast to the Muggles who experienced the First World War and the Second World War.”

"I would like to ask Headmaster Dumbledore to answer a question for me," Harry suddenly asked Dumbledore, "When you were still young and almost just entered Hogwarts, how strong were the graduates of that year? How do they compare to today's graduates?"

Everyone's eyes turned to Dumbledore, and he stood up, looked at the students behind him, and then cast an amplification spell on himself.

"I must make it clear first, children," Dumbledore said helplessly, "the era a hundred years ago was very chaotic, and many places were unsafe."

"So, Professor! How strong were the graduates from a hundred years ago!" Fred suddenly stood up and shouted, skipping Dumbledore's words.

"I have no intention of lying, and certainly no intention of hurting my students," Dumbledore sighed, "but as far as I know, there was a senior who had just graduated the year I entered school. In his fifth year, he had defeated the Fire Ash Snakes and poachers around the school, and even put down a large-scale rebellion of goblins."

Dumbledore's words immediately caused an uproar among the students. They talked loudly and couldn't help shouting out their thoughts.

Although they didn't know what the Ash Snakes did, they were very aware of the existence of poachers. They were all dark wizards with bad character but very powerful. Once they were caught, they would be sent directly to Azkaban - not to mention the goblin rebellion.

The fact that the goblins have rebelled so many times but are still able to take charge of Gringotts, an institution closely related to the wizarding economy, is already a testament to the strength of the goblins.

But the fifth grade - so strong, too strong, so strong that these students were even excited and unbelievable, and this fact came from Dumbledore's own mouth.

Harry had to make several sharp cracks from his wand before he could finally quiet the students.

"In fact, if you go to the library and look up the history of goblin rebellions, you can see the name of that senior in the records of the most recent rebellion," Harry added, "I have to admit that he was indeed a prominent figure. He can be seen in many records about that period."

"Thank you very much for your explanation, Headmaster Dumbledore," Harry nodded to Dumbledore and said, "But there is one thing I don't agree with, which is that society was very chaotic a hundred years ago. Has the wizarding society been peaceful in the past hundred years? It has only been eleven years since the last wizarding war."

Many parents of the young wizards present were actually victims of the war that year, and they knew more or less about it.

They looked at Harry, because Harry himself was the embodiment of the tragedy of that war, and the shadow left behind even to this day still shrouded the British wizarding world - even though Voldemort had been dead for eleven years, people still fearfully called him the You-Know-Who.

"The population of the entire magical world is also decreasing. Even if we add in the new little wizards from Muggle families that appear every year, the number is also decreasing rapidly. I don't know where the future of wizards will go. After all, I am just the director of the Shaman Club, and this is just my first class."

Harry continued to recount his findings and conclusions.

"I also don't know how the wizarding civilization and culture will be passed on when the population of the entire wizarding society decreases to a certain level, one thousand? Five hundred? Or even three hundred. That is something that Headmaster Dumbledore or the Minister of Magic should consider."

Harry knew very well how important population was - the Tauren of Azeroth were driven out of their homeland by the Centaur precisely because of insufficient population, starting a tribal wandering that lasted for a thousand years.

(End of this chapter)