Hogwarts: Dumbledore reigned over the wizarding world.

Chapter 344 Ron: I was looked down upon by a cat!

Turning his head, Ron, who had also seen the scene, looked over as well.

"Was that a Fox?"

"Is there another phoenix at Hogwarts?" Harry asked rhetorically, glancing again in the direction Fawkes had landed.

There was only the pavilion where Vaughn was thinking.

"It's clutching a letter, probably from Dumbledore to Vaughn." He hesitated for a moment, then suggested, "Should we go take a look?"

He hadn't seen Dumbledore for a while and missed that crazy old man.

Of course, more importantly, a lot has happened in the castle these days: the school board's affairs, Snape's problems—Harry has never longed as much as he has recently for the day when he wakes up to see Dumbledore smiling in front of him.

Although Deng Xiaoping's eccentricities can be unbearable at times, his presence always provides a sense of security.

Ron wasn't too willing. He was afraid Vaughn would laugh at him for handing over his hard-earned allowance of a year to Percy, only for Percy to give it to the twins to spend with his girlfriend, making it all go down the drain.

Even Ron himself felt stupid, let alone someone as awful as Vaughn.

How stupid of her to actually believe her own brothers!

Aside from Bill and Charlie, which of the Weasleys above me is a good guy?

but----

Seeing Harry gazing into the distance, Ron pursed his lips and stood up: "Let's go—consider it my return gift."

.

His ears turned red, feeling that he had taken advantage of the situation.

Harry sighed, "—I told you, I don't want your gift. You know I'm not short of money, and the most important thing between us isn't material things."

'

'

Damn it, I wish I could have such a nonchalant expression and pretend to say, "I don't need the money!"

Ron clutched his chest, feeling an intense, agonizing discomfort.

He decided to give Harry the cold shoulder for 10 minutes to avoid being provoked by the guy again; 10 minutes would be enough for them to get to the gazebo where Vaughn was.

The two crunched through the snow as they reached the pavilion. From afar, they saw Fox squatting on the eaves, looking like a cat that had eaten catnip, drinking a bottle of pink glowing potion with rapt attention, drooling.

Beside them, a real cat—Guoguocha—was staring intently at Fox, one paw holding a crystal bottle to catch Fox's drool.

With its other paw, it fiddled with Fox's body, quickly plucking a few feathers and stuffing them into its pocket.

Harry and Ron swear this is the most agile cat they've ever seen in terms of forelimbs!

Inside the pavilion, Vaughn held a jar of magic fire, gazing at the Forbidden Forest above, lost in thought.

Beside him, Hermione, also holding a pot of magic fire, read aloud from a letter in her hand: "—Decades of isolation have had very serious consequences. We are currently lacking almost everything here: herbs, magical materials, potions, alchemy tools—In this era of globalization and national specialization, it is very difficult for a country of our size, even China, to make up for the productivity gap left by the Wizarding Federation's departure with the strength of a single nation."

"Moreover, while you are trying to catch up, others are also making progress. Over a period of decades, the gap between them is significant. From what I have observed, China's modern spell system, potion science, and alchemy are far behind. They are completely lacking in new magic, new prescriptions, and new alchemical theories of the past few decades."

"Just like the magical spells I described to you, I can assure you that even after decades of hardship, their power has not diminished. Although compared to modern spells, 'Summon Loong' has the drawback of a much longer casting time, its power is terrifying—"

"Nature is the greatest magic and the most terrifying monster in the world. If the Qi cultivators can fully utilize the awakened mountains and make them obey commands like tamed magical animals—and the so-called Loong's duties, the Loong of Laojun Mountain can summon the morning clouds, then, are there other clouds as well?"

Hermione paused at this point, glancing at Harry and Ron, who were slowly walking towards her. The two looked bewildered, but were also engrossed in listening.

She didn't care about the two "eavesdropping" because, with Vaughn's magic, if he didn't want others to hear, he would simply cast a spell.

She looked at Vaughn: "What did Dumbledore mean by 'other clouds'?"

Vaughn, who had been gazing at the Forbidden Forest, turned to Hermione and smiled. "Clouds can be captured and ridden, so can they fall to the ground and become a dense fog? Can we capture rain clouds and turn the earth into a swamp? Can we capture thunderclouds and turn the entire city into a thunderous inferno?"

Outside the pavilion, Harry and Ron were somewhat confused. One had dropped out of primary school, and the other had never attended primary school at all. They had little ability to imagine the hypothesis proposed by Vaughn.

But Hermione is different.

Almost the instant Vaughn assumed the exit, she understood.

Yes, what would happen if rain clouds and thunderstorm clouds could be captured and manipulated by wizards to fall into Muggle cities?

Rain clouds contain a huge amount of water vapor, which condenses into water droplets in a very short time when they land due to changes in air content, impurities and air pressure.

Imagine hundreds of thousands of tons of water suddenly crashing down.

It is likely that even the most extreme heavy rainfall in human history cannot compare to such a disaster, since the water droplets no longer fall in batches from the clouds, but rather "pour" down all at once, as if a flood had broken its banks.

Thunderstorms are even more terrifying. In addition to the same massive amount of water vapor, thunderstorms also accumulate terrifying positive and negative charges and updraft potential energy. Once they fall into cities, especially modern cities where there are conductors everywhere (building metal materials, cables, pipes, etc.), the instantaneous release of massive charges will create thousands of lightning strikes. The collapse of the updraft at the top of the cloud will lead to terrifying downbursts!

Lightning, electromagnetic pulses, fires, buildings stripped bare like paper by the terrifying torrents —

Imagining that scene, Hermione's face turned pale.

"Vorn————"

"Don't worry, these are just Dumbledore's guesses." Vaughn smiled and reassured Hermione, but he knew that there was probably a reason why Dumbledore brought up such a hypothesis.

He took the letter from Hermione and glanced at it.

Sure enough, at the end of the letter, before Hermione could see it, Dumbledore described how, after "catching the clouds," he, under the guise of curiosity, personally experienced the so-called cloud chariot: "—Li Nanyu said that the clouds they caught weren't from the sky, but after experiencing it myself, I discovered that those clouds caught by Loong..."

The summoned clouds are remarkably similar in nature to real clouds, which means that these "clouds" may also possess the characteristics of real clouds, although they are much smaller.

"But I don't understand alchemy," I said, "I can't say for sure that the worst-case scenario won't occur. Who knows if these Easterners have a way to turn that cotton ball under their buttocks back into a devastating disaster?"

"At least, I feel that the Easterners allowed me to observe their cloud-making and chariot-building practices not to demonstrate how peaceful their methods were."

Harmless. Sigh, I always hope there is more love and less hatred and violence in the world, but I also know clearly that this world is a dog-eat-dog world. In nature, when an animal shows you its muscles, it is usually not for beauty, but to flaunt its strength and intimidation.

Vaughn silently gazed at the beautiful cursive handwriting on the letter.

He could see the entanglement, anxiety, and confusion contained in Dumbledore's writing—hence the slightly messy handwriting and rambling words.

Vaughn knew that Dumbledore didn't want the current magical world order to change, which was understandable. After all, he was born in the last century, and during his childhood, the conflict between wizards and Muggles was still very sharp. He personally experienced the tragedy caused by the conflict between the two groups.

Worst of all, Old Dumbledore is still the "smart man" he always talks about, smart enough to understand that behind those contradictions and tragedies, it's not because Muggles are ignorant, not because Muggles are hopelessly stupid, but because the upper echelons of the wizarding world are pursuing politics and power.

Whether it's the harmed wizards or the perpetrators of the harm, they are all just pawns in the hands of ambitious people.

The strong draw their swords against the stronger, and the weak draw their swords against the weaker.

Although Dumbledore had probably never heard this quote, his views were similar, which is why he so vehemently opposed the wave of change that Grindelwald led the saints to initiate.

It is precisely because Grindelwald's reforms turned the knife on the weaker Muggles!

Enslaving the weak does not solve the fundamental problem, and it is not guaranteed to succeed.

But if the knife is pointed at the source of the problem, will those "stronger" ones succeed?

Nobody knows the answer.

Dumbledore lived for over a hundred years, and what he saw was that the upper echelons of the wizarding world were firmly controlled by those who had benefited from pushing for the Statute of Secrets.

The right-wing conservative factions within pure-blood wizarding families in various countries, and the International Wizarding Federation—although they have conflicts and fluctuating fortunes among themselves, their overall strength is gradually increasing.

Dumbledore couldn't imagine what the consequences would be if he provoked these superstructures; it might succeed, or it might fail like Grindelwald's.

He dares not gamble!

Therefore, the stronger and more potential China shows, the more worried he becomes.

After all, Vaughn, who was becoming increasingly open about his intention to break the Secret Code, wanted to collude with China from the very beginning. On the other hand, China not only had a grudge against the Federation, but also against the old order of the international magical community, and actively responded to Vaughn's advances.

From their standpoints, the two are a perfect match.

Perhaps in Deng Xiaoping's eyes, this "perfect match" was the beginning of a new disaster, so how could he not be worried?

Thinking about it, Vaughn's lips curled into a cryptic smile.

To be honest, when Vaughn initially used trade intelligence to "force" Dumbledore to contact China, he was just trying to complete the system's mission.

Because at that time, he was not very familiar with the current state of the magic world in China.

Until the negotiations for the Potions event began, Dumbledore kept sending back relevant details.

More recently, Fudge used his power to instruct the Daily Prophet to publish extensive reports on potion exchange activities. At the same time, in order to expand and promote his own achievements, he used his pen to give the English wizarding community a thorough introduction to China's past glory and the reasons for its decline.

Vaughn finally saw through the fog before him.

"Vaughn?"

After an unknown amount of time, his consciousness, which had long since drifted into the distance, was brought back by Hermione.

Seeing Hermione's questioning gaze, Vaughn subtly changed the subject: "Harry and Ron are here. Are you going back with them?"

"Uh, we're not here to see Hermione."

Before Hermione could speak, Harry, who was standing outside the pavilion, quickly said, "We saw Fawkes flying this way and wanted to ask you, uh, when will Dumbledore be back?"

"What's up?" Vaughn asked as he put the letter away.

Harry stared blankly as the thick letter slipped into Vaughn's robe sleeve, nervously rubbing his trouser leg, stammering, "It's something—well, not really—something, I guess—"

'

""

Ron cautiously peeked out from behind Harry: "Harry has some questions he wants to ask Dumbledore—only Dumbledore can help him!"

He deliberately emphasized the second half of the sentence, seemingly afraid that Vaughn would offer to "help".

Vaughn squinted at his beloved younger brother, Ron, who quickly shrank back.

But Vaughn clearly wouldn't let him off the hook.

"Fruit tea?" Vaughn exclaimed.

With a "meow" from above the pavilion, Guoguocha's huge cat head peeked out.

Vaughn smiled. "I seem to remember someone didn't send me a gift this Christmas. You were the one who compiled the gift list this year. Where is that person?"

"Meow!"

"Oh, you mean he's there?"

"Meow!"

"Don't do that, Fruit Tea. Although I gave him a rare Quidditch autographed set—from the Irish team—I'm not one to ask for anything in return. I'd almost forgotten about it. Oh, right, who was that guy again?"

"Meow!"

Guoguocha turned to look at Ron, his round eyes narrowed to slits, giving the impression of contempt and disdain.

I was looked down upon by a cat.

Ron's pale face, covered with faint freckles, instantly turned bright red, all the way down to his ears.

He shouldn't have come!

He knew that his wicked older brother would definitely seize on his embarrassing moments and psychologically torture him, making him so ashamed that he couldn't lift his head!

Damn it! Damn it!

Overwhelmed by shame, Ron completely forgot he was speaking up for Harry. He felt all the blood rushing to his head, his reason almost completely gone. He stammered, "I didn't mean not to reply, it was because of Percy—"

Vaughn looked surprised: "Oh? Were you the one who didn't return the gift, Ron?"

"Then why did you entrust things to Percy? Is it because he's the most reliable person in your eyes compared to us? Well, you really chose the right person!"

, "

Ron felt a sharp pain in his heart, and he couldn't hold back any longer. He yelled, "It's just a Christmas present! You keep saying you'll pay me back next year, ten times the amount! I swear to Merlin, okay?"