Hogwarts: Dumbledore reigned over the wizarding world

Chapter 164 A Letter to Dumbledore

The Purgers are different from other forces in America. No matter what their ultimate demands are, those wizarding forces would never dare to offend the Federation.

After all, everyone knows that the federation's management covets the major powers and tries to provoke them whenever they have an excuse.

If you harm the members of the Federation, aren't you just handing them the excuse to use force?

Regardless of whether one is pure-blooded, mixed-race, or of Muggle origin, no matter how loudly the slogans of revenge and equality are shouted, in essence, it is just about vying for the right to speak.

Nobody wants to accidentally bring in a tiger while they're fighting.

That's not good for anyone!

However, those who purge are different.

In the eyes of the Purgers, purebloods, mixed-races, Muggles, American wizards, European wizards, the Federation... they don't exist. In their eyes, there are only two kinds of people: wizards and non-wizards!

Those guys who once wreaked havoc on the American continent don't care which country or faction you come from. If you know magic, you are their enemy and their prey.

To be honest, Vaughn hadn't expected that the Purge, who were rumored to have disappeared long ago, would not only resurface but also be so powerful...

While he was pondering, the man in black robes beside him was still providing other information:

"...Judging from the current situation, purebloods have probably long since completely controlled the Magical Congress. In recent years, they have been stirring up class conflict and creating hate incidents. Until last year, a witch whose child was kidnapped attacked Woolworth Building and was killed on the spot by the Aurors."

"There are many ways to handle this kind of thing, and there's no need to use such drastic measures. But it's clear that Woolworth Building has no intention of downplaying the conflict; what they want is to escalate it!"

"...The areas that the Magic Congress can still fully control are mainly concentrated in coastal cities on the East Coast, such as New York. These are basically the best areas of America, with large populations and strong forces. It's hard to say whether they were prepared for this day long ago."

"Be wary of any hybrid forces. Their behavior is very strange. Rather than rebels, their actions are more like terrorism. We suspect that some of these organizations may have been supported by the Woolworth Building. After all, it was they who issued death threats to purebloods and attacked them last year, causing the situation to deteriorate completely. They were also the ones who incited hatred."

“…The wizarding organizations from Muggle origins are relatively pure, but their territories are too scattered. They’re in every state, west and north, a disorganized mess. And I also don’t recommend getting involved with them. How so?” The man in black thought for a moment and sighed, “Many wizards have lost their Muggle family members this year.”

"Pure-blood retaliation, inexplicable attacks, and arrests supposedly by the Muggle government... there's too much to it. Now, many Muggle-born wizards have no room for anything else in their eyes or minds but revenge!"

"They don't want to think about anything else, they just want to kill all those who have caused them pain, whether they are old people or children... In short, they are insane."

The intelligence report concluded with a simple statement.

As he spoke the last paragraph, the man in the black robe seemed to recall the "wizards he knew," and his mood became somewhat somber.

I'm also very pessimistic.

He looked at Vaughn: "Mr. Weasley, although I shouldn't say this in my position, I would still like to suggest that you leave here after picking up your friend!"

"This place is beyond saving. The skies over the entire North American continent are filled with hatred and bloodshed. Your choice to develop WAC here will only make things worse and will not bring any good results."

These were his last words.

On the other side, after Lupin finished handing over the fire dragon, he mounted his broom and left without looking back.

Vaughn stood on the ship's railing, watching their figures disappear into the undulating shadows of the distant continent, and then into the dark sea.

No one knows what he's thinking or whether he's heeded the advice.

Even the old fox Akinbad didn't know!
He left too, to go back and carefully analyze that memory in order to compile a report on the Purgers and submit it to the Federation.

On the way back, Vaughn was still pondering the information brought by the man in black.

Especially that memory.

Although it wasn't outwardly apparent, those purges did indeed have some unexpected impact on Vaughn.

"They are not wizards!"

Akinbad's words echoed in my ears once again.

There was confusion, bewilderment, and worry in his tone.

Judging from their appearance alone, those people use wands and cast spells, how could they not be wizards?

But in other words... does a being who can use a wand and spells qualify as a wizard?

Elves can use wands and do magic; are they considered wizards?
There are also fairies, giants, Veela... these humanoid creatures all possess magic and can use wands, so they are definitely not wizards!
Akimbard's statement wasn't about debating whether the Purgers were wizards or not, but rather about expressing his subjective feeling—that they reminded him of elves, fairies, or Veela!

It's chilling to think about...

"President? President!"

Lupin's call brought Vaughn back to his senses.

Turning around, I saw Lupin carrying a suitcase containing a fire dragon, his melancholy face appearing even more worried.

"Sorry, Remus, I was a little distracted. What's up?"

“We’ve arrived at your suite, Mr. Chairman.” Lupin hesitated for a moment, then asked, “What did that man in black say to you? You and Akinbad don’t seem to be in good condition.”

Vaughn didn't hide anything and replied, "Ah, some bad news, Remus."

"...How bad is it?"

This left Vaughn unsure how to respond. He paused for a moment, then went inside and gestured for Lupin to come in as well.

Lupin walked into the suite with a puzzled look and closed the door.

Vaughn's eyes gleamed with a deep blue light.

Capture the mind and seize thoughts!

The familiar light made Lupin instinctively reach for his waist and grasp his wand.

He then realized that Vaughn was taking him into the spiritual world to see something.

Otherwise, given Vaughn's mastery of memory magic, if someone really wanted to attack him, he might not even have time to realize it before being hit!
He withdrew his wand, looked into Vaughn's deep blue eyes, and let his consciousness be drawn into the light, "loosening" and "falling" into another world with a dark and tranquil background.

Vaughn's inner world!
Falling from reality into illusion, this strange yet familiar experience left Lupin somewhat dazed—he had once practiced memory magic for a while, encouraged by a dark-haired, bespectacled friend:

"If one day we're all gone, even if you can't make it in the wizarding world because you have memory magic, at least you can still find a way to make a living in Muggle society, hahahaha..."

A hearty, teasing laugh suddenly echoed in my ears from the depths of my memory.

Lupin was surprised to find that this conversation from more than 10 years ago was still so clear in his memory.

Then he heard Vaughn's voice teasing him: "Control yourself, Remus. Are you underestimating me by thinking such nonsense in my mind?"

Lupin immediately became alert.

How could I possibly recall things from the past for no reason?
He looked at Vaughn's figure, which had suddenly appeared not far away, with a troubled expression: "President, you..."

"I'm sorry, ever since I learned memory magic, I've added a lot of defenses to my mental world... too many, sometimes I can't even remember which ones will automatically take effect."

Vaughn offered a half-hearted apology, then his thoughts shifted, and a huge phantom rose from the bottom of this dark mental world, from the ground that resembled a clear lake.

Envelop the two of them.

The scene changed in an instant. Lupin felt a blur before his eyes and found himself and Vaughn in a scene that was almost real.

This is a scene from a memory that has been processed by Vaughn.

In the dead of night, in a Muggle neighborhood, apartment buildings stand side by side.

There were also fireballs falling from the sky and violent explosions.

Although he had expected that Vaughn's so-called "bad news" would be more shocking, Lupin still gasped when he saw with his own eyes the densely packed black-robed wizards emerge from the darkness, surround the apartment building, and ruthlessly annihilate all the wizards like machines.

"What...are these?"

"The purge!"

Snapped!
Vaughn snapped his fingers, and as if time had stopped, everything in the scene froze.

He walked up to a black-robed wizard and lifted the hood off the wizard's head.

There was nothing under the hood!

This is because the provider of the memory did not see whether these black-robed wizards were male or female, or what they looked like. After all, no matter how the memory is processed, it is still based on information collected by the senses, and it cannot go beyond that.

So Vaughn wasn't disappointed; a hood can cover the face, but it can't hide the material itself.

He took off his hood and tossed it aside. The hood broke apart in the air into countless fine threads, which were countless weaving lines.

Lupin was puzzled by Vaughn's actions: "Chairman, what are you doing?"

Vaughn didn't answer him, but instead asked, "Remus, what's your intuition after seeing these black-robed wizards fighting?"

"Intuition?" Lupin was taken aback.

"Yes, for example, do you feel they are like wizards?"

“It doesn’t seem like it!” Lupin said decisively, almost without hesitation.

"Oh why?"

Lupin hesitated for a moment: "They don't have the aura of wizards... something like that. I can't describe it clearly, but I know that they give me a completely different feeling from wizards."

"Ah!"

Vaughn neither agreed nor disagreed, but simply chuckled: "Back to the previous question, I want to find out the identities of these people."

As he spoke, he gently waved his hands.

As he moved, the braided threads swayed like seaweed, constantly unraveling.

Looking at this scene, Lupin's eyes were full of doubt, as if he did not understand the meaning of doing so.

Noticing his expression, Vaughn smiled and said, "In this memory, there is almost no other information to prove where these black-robed wizards came from or what group they belong to. I can only use the existing conditions to analyze them, such as analyzing the material of their clothing from the perspective of light!"

As they spoke, the braided threads had been completely broken down into individual fibers.

They were like fluffy hair, covering the sky above this stagnant scene.

But unlike their normal state, in this world of memories, under Vaughn's magical manipulation, they emit a soft glow.

With a gentle touch of his fingers along a wisp of luminous fiber, Vaughn slowly explained:

"It's not that they themselves are emitting light, but rather that the material absorbs and reflects light waves from the diffuse reflection of lights in the night sky or from the firelight of an explosion... According to Muggle science, what human vision sees is not the matter itself, but the light reflected by the matter."

"Light is captured by the visual system, forming the outline information of matter, which is then transcribed into memory by the brain. What I am doing is reversing this process and then analyzing what materials it is made of through the light waves reflected by these fibers."

Lupin felt his brain wasn't working properly.

He knew the meaning of each word individually, but when put together, the meaning was so obscure that he couldn't understand it at all.

He couldn't help but ask, "If you want to know what it's made of, wouldn't it be clear if you just touched it?"

“My dear Remus, you not only need to learn more about Muggle knowledge, but you should also study memory magic more…” Vaughn said patiently, “This is not reality, it is just a memory. Its information is incomplete. The memory provider has not touched these black robes, so his memory naturally does not contain relevant tactile information. So how can I know what it is through touch?”

"..."

Lupin shut his mouth in shame.

On the other side, the fibers that were glowing under Vaughn's magic grew brighter and brighter, until at one point, their entire form collapsed.

They transformed into countless points of light, suspended in this stagnant space.

Vaughn stretched out his hand, and the points of light flew into his palm automatically.

He closed his eyes for a moment, then opened them again, and without any surprise, said softly, "Polyester..."

"...Mr. Chairman, what did you say?"

Vaughn glanced at Lupin: "Polyester, also known as polyester fiber, is a synthetic fiber that only Muggles can produce. It's a chemical fabric!"

Lupin was taken aback. He didn't know what polyester was, nor did he need to know. He had already understood Vaughn's subtext.

Wizards cannot use Muggle-made chemical fabrics.

Thanks to the convenience of modern spell systems, wizards have always been in a state of overproduction, and biological fabrics such as cotton, wool, and velvet are their first choice.

He opened his mouth, wanting to say something, but felt as if his throat was blocked.

After a long silence, he finally asked in a hoarse voice, "You mean... these black-robed figures with wands who can use magic are Muggles?"

“Yes,” Vaughn replied. Seeing Lupin’s shocked, confused, and incredulous gaze, he paused for a moment, then expressed himself more precisely: “To be precise, it’s a new breed of Muggle capable of using magic!”

"This, how is this possible?"

"How is it impossible?"

“Magic!” Lupin exclaimed urgently. “Muggles have no magic!”

Compared to Lupin's eagerness, shock, and subtle rejection, Vaughn remained as calm and composed as ever: "Is there a necessary connection between not having magic and being able to use magic?"

Lupin found it outrageous. His eyes widened. "How can you use magic without magic power?"

Vaughn said matter-of-factly, "They can borrow from other wizards!"

"...?"

“That’s right. Magic is invisible. To date, no one in the magical world has been able to develop a device that can store magic. But if we think about it from another perspective, magic must be an objective entity. It may be a kind of matter or a kind of energy.”

"Since it is real matter or energy, it must follow the fundamental laws governing matter, such as interaction!"

"With interaction, there is the possibility of observation and utilization. Dark matter can be observed through gravity, let alone magic? Observing it is much simpler than observing dark matter. At least wizards can actually come into contact with and actually utilize magic."

Vaughn was in high spirits.

Lupin, however, was completely bewildered. Dark matter, gravity—he understood nothing of it. All he knew was that his beliefs were crumbling, and even now, he couldn't believe the possibility Vaughn had revealed.

Muggles can use magic?

but……

Thinking back to his first instinct upon seeing those black-robed wizards, Lupin had a growing feeling that Vaughn's speculation might actually be true...

……

Lupin left.

He was in a daze when he left, and you could tell he was afraid—his beliefs were being challenged, and he was afraid of the unknown.

It's fair to say that any wizard would react similarly upon hearing Vaughn's speculation.

This is also why Vaughn did not demonstrate his analytical abilities in front of Akinbad.

To avoid startling the over 80-year-old sorcerer into something terrible.

Just like Dumbledore always said he loved Muggles, but in his eyes, Muggles were more like pets.

Regardless of how these wizards proclaim themselves, one undeniable fact is that all wizards have a sense of superiority to varying degrees when facing Muggles.

This is a mentality that inevitably arises when a group's power is attributed to itself, and it has nothing to do with morality or character.

Therefore, when this sense of superiority is likely to be shattered, it is only natural that thoughts and behaviors such as fear, rejection, resistance, and hostility will arise.

But Vaughn is different from them.

After seeing Lupin off, Vaughn returned to his inner world, reliving that memory again and again, even breaking it down into countless seemingly chaotic but actually profound states of information, and conducting a more detailed analysis.

Lupin felt fear upon hearing that Muggles used magic, while Vaughn was more pragmatic—how did they do it?
"Human modification? Genetic engineering?"

Looking at the blurry patches of color and light in front of him, Vaughn's thoughts began to wander.

In fact, from the moment he transmigrated to this world and first personally experienced the burst of magical power caused by early development, Vaughn developed a great interest in studying magic.

What is it?
Can it be extracted?
Can it be stored? Is there anything that can speed up its growth or recovery?

However, the topic of magic was too vast and profound, far beyond what he should have been involved in at that time. Even now, Vaughn has never considered researching magic.

He considered himself to be still very shallow in his understanding of magic, lacking sufficient knowledge to study such fundamental issues.

In the real world, the more fundamental the problem, the more complex it is!

According to Vaughn's plan, research into magic and the nature of magic will probably not begin for several years.

But life is full of surprises; the research he didn't want to pursue for the time being appeared before him in this unexpected way!

As soon as Vaughn had a change of heart, the blurry patches of color and light in front of him immediately recombine, and the scene from his memory resurfaced.

Looking at the densely packed black-robed wizards in the scene, Vaughn's eyes seemed to be shining.

These people are hardly the terrifying purgers.
Those are ten, dozens, or even hundreds of living research subjects across the entire United States!

For the first time, Vaughn felt that Isabella's disappearance might not be such a bad thing.

If it weren't for saving her, how could I have come to America? And if I hadn't come to America, how could I have made such a significant discovery?
"We need to speed things up..."

Vaughn thought he needed to complete the system's side quests as soon as possible to obtain the spell development module.

With it, he has a much faster chance to explore those human treasures!
The wizards in the visiting group all felt that Lupin had suddenly become very strange.

With the esteemed Chairman, Vaughn Weasley, engrossed in his research and detached from worldly affairs, Lupin, as the de facto steward of the delegation, was the one who interacted most with the committee members.

However, in the two days since arriving in the waters off the Americas, this head butler has been inattentive all day long, and his service has not been as attentive as before.

Early in the morning, Matthew, as always, carried the latest issue of "Extraordinary Potions" magazine to the rooftop terrace, ready to continue reading "President Weasley's" masterpiece.

Then I heard two committee members complaining:
"...Merlin's socks, he's locked himself in his room all day now. Yesterday I went to ask him what we should do, since we're arriving in Boston Harbor today... It's important, right? But he just gave me a piece of his mind!"

"God..."

"Not only that, I heard that he went around borrowing medical journals from Muggles. Just yesterday, when I was in his room, I heard him tell the owl to fly back to England and bring over all the medical journals he had ordered."

“That’s insane,” another wizard agreed, then asked疑惑地, “But why would he be interested in Muggle medicine?”

“Who knows? Penny said she heard Remus muttering something about Muggle science, about Muggles creating life and stuff like that… Hahaha, Muggles? Creating life?”

The other wizard laughed too.

He does not mean that.

Recently, Matthew has been cramming on various materials, especially in order to understand Vaughn. He has read many of Vaughn's papers. He opened his copy of "Extraordinary Potions" and searched through his memory for a while. He found a little-known paper that, even though it was labeled with the name "Vaughn Weasley," was still placed in a corner by the editor.

There's a reason it's unpopular.

The paper has nothing to do with magic potions; it is a "popular science" article introducing Muggle life sciences and molecular biology.

To many wizards, this was undoubtedly meaningless fluff—who would care what progress those weak Muggles had made?
Even Matthew noticed it, not because he thought it had any value, but because he believed that the paper reflected some of Vaughn Weasley's pro-Muggle ideas.

He wanted to understand why the other party valued Muggles so that he could "have something in common with the leader"!
Frankly, if Matthew hadn't had the misfortune of meeting Greyback on his graduation trip and had grown up normally, he would most likely have become a competent Ministry of Magic bureaucrat, or even a politician!

At least after he decided to join Vaughn, he not only immediately began to change his actions, but also tried to emulate his leader's thinking.

Matthew found the line he had drawn yesterday on that paper:

[...Muggle science is exploring the mysteries of the essence of life. From the smallest unit of the human body as understood by wizards—what Muggles call a cell—they have isolated a microscopic substance, a long, double-helix polymer composed of organic compounds. It records the genetic information of life and is the basic blueprint for your skin, hair color, appearance, height, mental state, and other external and internal factors...]

In the article, Vaughn devoted a large portion to explaining what deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) is, what a base pair is, and why it has a double helix structure.

To be honest, Matthew didn't quite understand it. His first impression was the same as the editor's note at the end of the paper:
"A very interesting little story about Muggles!"

This issue of the magazine was released yesterday. "Extraordinary Potions" is a highly influential publication worldwide and an authoritative magazine on potions, with a very large circulation that is not limited to England.

They naturally have a well-established international distribution system, and even on the Royal Mary while it is in motion, freshly printed papers can be seen.

The paper was written recently.

Matthew deduced that it must have happened after he left the suitcase space. The reason for this deduction was that during that period, Vaughn's research was still relatively "magical".

Yes, this is not the only paper Vaughn has produced recently.

Several other articles were quite "important," not only being placed in the most prominent position in "Extraordinary Potions," but also receiving a large number of reprints, citations, and discussions.

The titles of those papers were the kind that would command respect from someone like Matthew, who was terrible at potions.

On the Feasibility and Manifestation of Various Magical Ritual Methods in "Cellular" Observation

Thoughts on Improving the Magic Extraction Method

"Basic Classification and Definition of Characteristics: Where Does the Mystery Come From?"

Of course, because many professionals participated in the analysis of these major works, Matthew didn't pay much attention to them.

After all, his original plan was simply to find out what hobbies and thoughts the powerful figure he was trying to curry favor with had.

However, the conversation between the two men made him realize that the obscure paper he was most interested in might be more important than he thought.

Because he lived with Lupin.

He remembered clearly that Lupin had been in a bad mental state after accompanying Chairman Weasley on a task the night before last.

"What exactly happened that prompted President Weasley to publish what he calls a popular science article about Muggle technology in Extraordinary Potions?"

"And Lupin, what kind of shock made this usually very responsible person abandon the management of the delegation and frantically search for Muggle knowledge everywhere?"

Matthew was very confused.

Meanwhile, Vaughn, one of the parties involved who caused his confusion, was writing letters to some "old friends" and people who cared about him to explain his little act of willfulness.

For example, Dumbledore.

The warm morning sunlight streamed in through the viewing window. Vaughn lay on the table, his shadow swaying and shifting with the slow movement of the cruise ship.

The rustling sound of a quill pen gliding across parchment had a strange sense of peace to it.

[Dear Albus... that科普 article wasn't a show to express my pro-Muggle sentiments; on the contrary, it represented my concern about something that could potentially jeopardize the wizarding world.]

The magical world has been closed off for far too long, so long that wizards have no idea what's really happening in the world... Those Purgers are likely products of Muggle genetic engineering. I suggest you read this letter again after finishing the popular science article; that will help you understand the many Muggle terms I've used.

Only then will you understand the astonishing truth hidden behind those seemingly difficult-to-pronounce terms... When I received the relevant intelligence, Akinbad was also present. If nothing unexpected happens, he should also submit a report on the Purgers to the Federation soon. You can compare what I said with his report...

Your loyal friend, Vaughn Weasley

After finishing the letter, I gently blew on it, and a faint, magically created breeze swept by, instantly drying the ink.

Vaughn folded it up, put it in a thick parchment envelope, sealed it, and then tied it together with several other letters.

Then he whistled.

The room was instantly illuminated by a blazing fire.

Before long, Fox appeared on the desk, its wings scorched, like a large piece of smoldering red sandalwood.

"Darling, thank you for taking these letters back. The top one is for Albus, and I'd like Albus to mail the rest for me."

As he gave the instructions, Vaughn took out a bottle of potion and handed it to Fox as a reward for its hard work.

This poor phoenix, who had been with a master whose potion-making skills were mediocre and had never eaten anything good in its life, couldn't wait to pick up the stack of letters, snatch the potion that Vaughn handed over, and then look longingly at the open suitcase next to it.

It smelled food!
Phoenixes like to eat things rich in magic. Herbs and magic potions are like snacks—delicious, but not enough in large quantities.

In nature, they have their own diet, for example, fire dragons!
Vaughn concealed its longing gaze: "I'm sorry, those are all my experimental subjects, you can't eat them yet."

Fox was a little disappointed when he heard the first half of the sentence, but the second half made his eyes light up again, like two red-hot copper beans!

Can I eat it after the experiment?

"...How long have you been starving?!"

Vaughn's rant.

In the end, he couldn't resist Fox's pleading eyes and promised it that if there were any edible parts left after the experiment, he would save them for it, and that was how he finally got rid of it.

After finishing his personal matters, Vaughn stretched his body a little in the morning sunlight before crawling back into his briefcase.

Compared to a few days ago, the suitcase is now quite cramped.

The space, which is 1 mile on each side, seems vast, but its new occupants are also quite large.

The werewolves' living conditions "deteriorated" further. They no longer had exclusive access to the open plains near the oak tree, but instead had six enormous, ferocious-looking behemoths!

Fire dragon!

(End of this chapter)