The Butcher of Hogsmeade

Chapter 140 An Invitation from Molly Weasley

After returning, Shen Hou repeatedly recalled Professor Kroc's reaction during the conversation, and compared it with what the mysterious voice in his dream had said. Finally, he focused his attention on the phrase "collective consciousness."

He remembered clearly that the first abnormality occurred when Dumbledore cast the Faithful Charm: could the people in the room at that time be considered as having formed a small-scale collective consciousness due to the spell? After all, the prerequisite for casting a spell is to first reach a consensus on the confidential content.

So, that small-scale collective consciousness was like a fuse, or a key, that opened up and even strengthened the connection between himself and the brain in the vat.

Is the Brain in a Vat a larger collective consciousness? Is it capable of connecting the consciousness of all wizards, and even—

Including all humans, including Muggles?

"Damn it, did they dig that brain out from under Professor X's skull?" Shen Hou muttered to himself; the more information he received, the more confused he felt.

The next morning, Professor Kroc sent Shen Hou a paper airplane as promised, informing him to pick up the report from the Department of Mysteries. However, when Shen Hou excitedly arrived at the eighth floor, he was greeted by a silent stranger who handed him a copy of Professor Kroc's report, leaving Shen Hou with nothing but the words he had prepared all night.

Back in his Auror office, Shen Hou opened the report and began to read it with difficulty.

Although wizards and Muggles have always maintained economic ties, they have had little contact beyond basic trade, and have drifted further apart over the centuries in terms of politics, culture, and customs.

The most direct manifestation of this cultural gap lies in language and writing: over the centuries, each group has developed numerous proprietary and neologisms that are incomprehensible to the other. This is only the difficulty in daily communication; if a professional academic research report were presented to another group, it would be essentially equivalent to asking an illiterate person to appreciate a fourteen-line poem.

A poem in the form of a verse.

Just like Shen Hou now, holding Professor Kroc's report, the more he reads it, the more he feels like an illiterate person.

"Are there any reference books like dictionaries in the magical world?" Shen Hou turned to ask Fabian, who was sitting at the next desk.

"Of course there are, but—well, you'll have to ask in another office." Fabian turned around, looked around, and shrugged helplessly. "Or you could go to Flourish and Blotts in Diagon Alley; that might be faster. What's wrong? Is there something you don't understand?"

"Professor Crocker's report, shh, don't let anyone hear. This is classified as top secret by the Minister of Magic. I wasn't supposed to see it, but Professor Dumbledore gave me permission privately." Shen Hou looked around nervously, thankfully no one noticed them.

Upon hearing the words "top secret," Fabian could no longer contain himself. He practically snatched the report away, but after flipping through a few pages, he gave up in despair and threw the report back.

"This thing is so demoralizing! I almost wanted to go back to Hogwarts and repeat seven years. How could you stand it?"

That's why I asked you for a dictionary.

"Not only are there many Latin loanwords in it, but also a lot of ancient spelling." Fabian looked at the report cover as if he were looking at a devil. "You need more than just a Latin dictionary; you also need a complete textbook on ancient spelling."

"A book. No wonder Professor Dumbledore allowed you to read it!"

"What do you mean?"

"Unless you take Ancient Runes at Hogwarts and get at least an E on your final exams for five consecutive years, you simply won't understand it."

Hearing what Fabian said, Shen Hou was also despairing and wanted to give up. But after thinking about it, he was unwilling to give up, so he picked up the report and flipped through it until he reached the conclusion, where he finally found something he could understand. This part consisted mostly of declarative sentences and commonly used English vocabulary.

"By the way, are you free tomorrow?" Fabian suddenly asked.

"I'll be free tomorrow if I don't have any missions. Anything up?" Shen Hou replied casually.

"Arthur wants to invite you to the Weasleys' birthday party," Fabian said. "He asked me to sound him out first. If you don't refuse, he'll come over to pick you up in person after get off work tonight."

"So formal?" Hearing Fei Bian's solemn tone, Shen Hou looked away from the report.

"Of course, because it was Molly's idea." Fabian said in a matter-of-fact tone, inadvertently revealing his brother-in-law's status in the family. "She's wanted to invite you for a long time, you know, ever since that incident in Diagon Alley, but she just hasn't had the chance."

"Perfect timing, tomorrow is my two nephews Fred and George's birthday, and she's preparing a birthday dinner."

"Oh, I'm honored." Although Shen Hou considered himself a mild case of social anxiety, an invitation from a good friend couldn't be treated the same as one from a stranger. However, he also had his share of headaches. "By the way, what kind of birthday celebrations do wizards usually prepare for children?"

Gift?"

"I'm having a headache too!" Fabian said with a pained expression. "It's five times a year, and it will become six times after this year. The preferences of different age groups are also different. Fortunately, one of them is a pair of twins, so we can buy two at once, which saves us at least one trouble."

"Let's buy the gift together," Shen Hou earnestly requested.

"Of course, of course," Fabian readily agreed.

"Speaking of which, the Weasleys must be very lively. Six children, and soon there will be a seventh. In the future, someone will have a birthday celebration every two months on average. And that only counts the children, not Arthur and Molly, the parents."

"That's right. The Arthur family is one of the few families in the wizarding world that is so large. If you don't have to consider the financial pressure, it's really enviable," Fabian said. "Actually, someone has a birthday on the 1st of this month. Their youngest son, Ronald, will have his first birthday on March 1st. Unfortunately, that was the busiest time for us. We were chasing giants on the desert island, so Ronald's birthday party was just his family."

"Yeah, I remember we've been working overtime every weekend for the past three weeks. Last weekend the giants calmed down, but the trolls rioted again." Shen Hou shook his head and sighed. He never imagined that he could live off his parents and be a lazy bum in 2026, but in 1981 he was treated like a beast of burden, even more so than the 996 work schedule.

"So, is that settled then? I'll go tell Arthur."

"Of course, it's a deal." Shen Hou readily agreed, turning his gaze back to the Silent Man's report; the report's conclusions contained many familiar phrases, some of which Shen Hou had personally provided to Professor Crocker.

"Are forces reciprocal?"

"The possibility that time travelers' journeys are themselves part of history cannot be ruled out."

"He may represent some kind of corrective force of time, just as the series of chaos caused by the Heloise Minttab incident in 1899 can also be seen as a process of self-correction by the forces of time."

"We still cannot accurately understand time, and even describing it accurately is extremely difficult —"