A certain Hogwarts professor of runes

Chapter 693 A Monumental Lie

Finally, Felix realized that Dumbledore had come up with another backup plan.

Of the three Deathly Hallows, besides Harry's Invisibility Cloak, Dumbledore possessed the other two in the last years of his life. Felix originally thought that with the loss of the Resurrection Stone, the Deathly Hallows could never be reassembled, and the Elder Wand had lost its meaning with Dumbledore's undefeated death.

"Dumbledore asked you to give it to me?" Felix asked softly, wanting to find out Dumbledore's true thoughts.

"He told me to decide for myself." Snape's eyes showed some struggle. "He said he would prefer to see the ownership of the Elder Wand remain a permanent mystery, but he was also worried about major changes in the wizarding world in the future... and that seems to be the case now."

Felix scrutinized Snape's face. "I don't think it's the right time," he said. Snape's expression froze.

"The situation isn't that bad—the window for dialogue has been opened, and we can remain optimistic to a limited extent. Compared to the sporadic riots that have occurred in some places abroad, things are relatively stable here—oh, by the way, Future World Company has opened two more branches."

Snape looked stunned.

"Dumbledore couldn't foresee what would happen after him, so he needed a pair of eyes—I think he must trust you a lot," Felix said with a sigh. "You could have observed him for a few more years; surely you have more than one candidate in mind?"

Snape stared at him for a long while, then slowly said, "You're the one ahead of me, and after that is... Potter," he paused, "I've also considered Minerva and Amelia Burns."

Felix offered his analysis with interest. "Dumbledore knows I don't lack wands. Remember that ebony wand? I've discovered I can incorporate runes into wands, and I recently acquired a decent one. As for Harry—well, he still has potential, and the Elder Wand could take him even further, but you two don't get along, so you're probably not keen on giving it to him. Minerva… well, she's not young anymore. Amelia may have been very strong, but now as Minister for Magic, she has neither the time nor the inclination to study magic. She's probably the unluckiest Minister for Magic ever."

"So don't make decisions lightly. There should be good candidates for the next generation, or the generation after that, the key is that they can perfectly match your preferences," he concluded.

Snape took a deep breath, his gaunt face contorted with anger.

"What do you think this is? This is the greatest crisis in the history of the wizarding world, and Grindelwald is stirring up trouble everywhere—"

"Do you know what Grindelwald did?"

"I saw the news, Felix Heap!" Snape gasped. "The report says he's in the Chaos Lands. He's put forward the Ten Laws of Wizardry. One is reciprocal retaliation—wizards are not weak creatures; another calls for wizards to unite and not allow any theft of wizarding power; and yet another is that magic belongs to magic… These theories are quite popular."

"So what do you think of these laws?" Felix asked calmly.

Snape's eyebrows furrowed.

"That's too radical."

"But it sounds like something Grindelwald would say, doesn't it? Anyway, it can be changed, and the relevant laws are currently a blank slate—" Felix said calmly, and Snape looked over with a start.

"Oh, I mean, Grindelwald can only talk the talk, we're the ones who really have the right to negotiate," Felix said. "By the way, I actually have something more important to say."

"What is it?" Snape asked sternly.

"If the negotiations go smoothly, there will inevitably be trade between the two sides, and potions are an important part of that. But you should know that some potions are only effective on wizards—"

"Lupin told me that," Snape interrupted.

"Yes, in the future, someone will need to work on potion recipes, laws, and standards for ordinary people."

"So you thought of me?"

"That's right."

"Slughorn is more suitable than me."

“He’s better suited to dealing with government departments; he’s very adept at networking and he’s happy with that… I need someone who can focus on research,” Felix said. “And obviously, I trust you more.”

……

The next day, at the Ministry of Magic.

"Grindelwald has indeed made his move," Mrs. Burns said solemnly, spreading a newspaper on the table. Felix, senior officials of the Ministry of Magic, and several members of the Order of the Phoenix stared intently at the magical photograph of Grindelwald being attacked by flames and cannon fire, while the woman next to him was ignored by everyone.

"What's going on?" Arthur Weasley gasped in shock. "The war has begun?" He wasn't exactly a high-ranking official yet, but as the former head of the Office of Muggle Misuse, he was exceptionally allowed to attend the meeting.

"Not yet, he's still bound by his oath," Ms. Burns said thankfully. "He did it to save lives."

"Saving people?" Ludo Bagman's round eyes widened as he pointed to the ruins in the photo. "He was saving people? Then who did this?"

"Of course it's the other person in the photo," Burns said, his face grim. "Unfortunately, I'm telling the truth; he didn't attack anyone. The Muggle television station got some footage, more complete than the photo—Percy went to get the equipment."

The office door was pushed open from the outside, and Percy walked in, followed by a projection system.

Percy slipped a tape into the projector, then expertly pressed the button. Moments later, moving images were projected onto the wall. Everyone stared, mesmerized. The footage shakiened, but still captured the surrounding scenery.

The place looked like a chemical plant; the surrounding area was somewhat desolate, with high walls covered in barbed wire and the gate tightly shut. The helicopter's rotors were making a deafening noise. A hand appeared in the frame and then disappeared, accompanied by a hurried and excited voice: "Over there!"

The camera then pans to a corner of the factory.

Black flames soared into the air, pouring out from a row of windows and gaps in a huge, flat building resembling a workshop. These black flames seemed to come from hell, with huge tongues of fire twisting like the hands of giants. Now the hands closed, engulfing anything flammable within sight into the sea of ​​fire.

"This is—Fiercefire?" Mr. Weasley said weakly.

The window suddenly burst open, and a figure tumbled out—a woman dressed entirely in black, her hands and face scraped, her hair a tangled mess, looking utterly disheveled. But she laughed maniacally. Those present recognized her as the woman standing with Grindelwald in the newspaper.

Everyone watched in shock as the woman frantically waved her wand, the flames leaping high at her command and threatening to spread outwards. From above, it looked like an ink bottle shattering on the ground. A gasp could be heard from the reporter on screen.

"Edith Pandorane," Ms. Burns began, "is a message from the Magical Congress of America. Her daughter mysteriously disappeared not long ago. She sought help from the Congress, but the Congress has already made a decision to completely hide her and naturally won't change it for her. She disappeared for several days, and no one knows what happened during that time. All that is known is that at five o'clock this morning, she suddenly appeared here and unleashed terrifying Fiendfire."

"Her daughter...is dead?" Sirius asked, his eyes wide.

"It's unclear at the moment."

"Don't try to fool me!"

“I really don’t know,” Ms. Burns sighed, “but that—” she pointed to the massive factory building, “was a secret laboratory, probably built for wizards, so her daughter most likely didn’t survive, otherwise she wouldn’t have…”

The office was silent and still; the atmosphere seemed frozen. Everyone stared at the screen in quiet contemplation.

Edith Pandora waved her wand with wide, sweeping motions, conveying her emotions despite her small size in the frame. Fiendfyre seemed to come alive, gradually changing shape as it was tossed about, scorching the ground and nearly hitting her, but she made no attempt to dodge, instead manipulating the flames to make them grow larger.

"She wants to destroy this place," a high-ranking official from the Ministry of Magic noticed.

"She can't do it! Her magic isn't skilled enough," someone said.

"Unless she's got a death wish," another person shouted.

"Where did she learn this magic?"

"The investigation shows—" Ms. Burns said with a stern face and an unpleasant expression, "Edith Pandora has never studied Fiendfire before. The Magical Congress of the United States of America's investigation found that she is just an ordinary wizard, whose forte is housework magic."

"Could it be that Grindelwald helped her?" someone asked, thinking of the two people in the photo together.

"There's no answer to that question either, but—well, Grindelwald didn't show up immediately; he seems to have seen it on live TV as well. You guys keep watching."

A swarm the size of ants surged out from the edge of the frame, and a barrage of gunfire erupted. Edith Pandora turned to fight back, but she was quickly wounded and took cover behind a gray metal canister. Someone in the special operations team shouted, but they were met with a series of red flashes. The team then spread out in an orderly fashion, surrounding her from all sides.

A sandstorm swept through the air.

Edith Pandora's Box appeared to unleash an immature hurricane spell; a whirlwind thirty to forty feet high radiated outwards from the gray metal canister. The onslaught slowed, and the woman was temporarily out of sight. Suddenly, a hurried voice came from near the camera: "It's a military helicopter! Great!"

Two helicopters flew past them, broadcasting a warning to the reporters to evacuate immediately, but the reporters ignored it. "They didn't even have serial numbers," one reporter remarked. The two armed helicopters swooped down on their target, their fuselages laden with missiles. Then, two machine guns emerged from the cockpits, spitting out dense streams of fire. For a moment, everyone thought Edith Pandora was finished.

As the smoke cleared, she was unharmed, but now there was someone beside her—Grindelwald. Grindelwald raised a massive shield, deflecting all the attacks. But he didn't continue fighting; instead, he lowered his head and spoke to the woman.

The scene in the magic photo perfectly matches what's happening now.

"Pull in! Zoom in!" the reporter shouted, the camera jolted, and then Edith Pandora's despairing face appeared, but the despair was immediately replaced by joy, and then turned ferocious. Unless you were in the thick of it, you couldn't understand these changes. She pointed at the factory and spoke vehemently.

Grindelwald slowly shook his head, held up his palm for her to see, then looked at the black flames, his lips moving. They seemed to have reached an agreement.

Ignoring the threat from behind, the woman once again commanded Fiendfire with her wand. Everyone could see that she had no ability to control the magic; she was merely piling up flames with resentment. This was bound to get out of control, but with Grindelwald present, they were unsure of the outcome.

The machine gun fire briefly ceased due to Grindelwald's sudden appearance, then resumed. Two flashes of light suddenly erupted below the helicopter; Grindelwald glanced back, waved his wand, and missiles exploded in mid-air.

Then, tiny blue lights, like liquid flames or burning water, emanated from the tip of his wand. The blue light flew a foot from the tip and vanished into thin air, seemingly transported elsewhere. No one knew what magic Grindelwald had used.

But the people in the conference room witnessed its effect in the next second.

Missiles were launched one after another, and they suddenly exploded automatically when they were hundreds of feet away from the two of them, as if they had hit an invisible wall—"There must be an invisible magical barrier in the air!" Sirius exclaimed excitedly.

For the next half minute, missiles exploded around the two men, but none of them could break through the barrier.

Grindelwald seemed to act impulsively, turning his attention to Edith Pandora after confirming that the helicopters and ground troops couldn't interfere with them. Fueled by extreme emotions, Fiendfire reached a peak, transforming into a monster composed of black flames.

These monsters also inherited their master's mindset; they appeared frenzied and brutal, desperately trampling the earth and charging in all directions—Edith Pandorani lay on the ground, watching all of this with glee.

The people at the Ministry of Magic realized that the spell had gone out of control.

As expected, the fiery monster lunged at the only two living beings in the field, relentlessly charging at them, but was blocked by an invisible force.

Grindelwald pulled the woman to her feet, raised his wand level, and instantly gained control of Fiendfyre. The black flames became incredibly docile in his hands, the fire creatures were reassembled into a ball, and like a ferocious monster, they occupied the place where the factory had once stood.

Then he suddenly waved his wand, and a hurricane a hundred times more powerful than the one Edith Pandora had used before appeared out of thin air. This whirlwind seemed to connect with the clouds in the sky, and the black Fiendfire was also torn and deformed by the gale, condensing into a stream that surged toward them.

The flames merged with the hurricane, then rapidly expanded. Helicopters in the sky scrambled to avoid them, but the flames weren't targeting them. The entire factory was engulfed and burned to the ground. Grindelwald stared at the camera amidst the raging inferno. Then, the vortex of flames suddenly contracted, and the factory was wiped off the ground, along with Grindelwald and Edith Pandora.

As the helicopter slowly approached, a huge crater appeared on the spot.

The video ended there. A long silence fell over the conference room.

"Both the International Confederation of Wizards and the Magical Congress of the United States have assigned personnel to search for the two men, but to no avail. They are worried that this matter will lead to greater confrontation and conflict," Ms. Burns said dryly.

"Then let them go find Grindelwald," Felix said uninterestedly.

……

The burning of the laboratory sparked considerable global reactions. The footage they witnessed at the Ministry of Magic was analyzed frame by frame by relevant departments in various countries, clearly showing that Grindelwald hadn't used his full strength. Nevertheless, the conclusions reached were still chilling.

"If this magic were to appear in a city, it could destroy dozens of city blocks."

Grindelwald's past was no longer a secret, and was repeatedly reported by journalists and the media. Correspondingly, the unbreakable oath and the Ten Laws of Wizardry also appeared openly in Muggle newspapers, attracting wave after wave of heated discussions and condemnations.

Several more newspapers received the "student letters." Two newspapers remained neutral, while the rest heavily criticized the letters, perhaps hoping to provoke protests from disgruntled wizards. Naturally, they received no follow-up letters.

But these are all minor matters.

After selecting the students to participate in the special afternoon tea, Felix immediately began special training for them. The Ministry of Magic also sent specialists to train them in etiquette and eloquence, on what questions they could ask, what questions they couldn't ask, and how to deal with provocations, etc.

The students noticed that Professor Hyp seemed to have developed a new habit: he would often look up at the moon, appearing lost in thought. Hermione, of course, saw this as a dangerous sign.

"Professor, you're not thinking of going to the moon again, are you?"

"Miss Granger, do you think there are any traces of ancient wizards on the moon?"

"Hmm, that's unlikely, isn't it? If ancient wizards really did live on the moon, they would definitely have left behind some architectural remains that would have been discovered by modern telescopes..."

"What if they use magic to conceal their existence?"

"Professor, words alone are not enough!"

"Okay, actually I saw it in an ancient document..."

"Professor, your tone is strange. What's the name of the paper? May I take a look?"

"...I won't show you. You'll believe me when I bring back a few antiques from the moon."

Felix is ​​preparing to tell a colossal lie—or perhaps more than one.

(End of this chapter)