A certain Hogwarts professor of runes.

A young witch, with the help of staff, donned an emerald crown, eliciting gasps of amazement from the crowd. She shone with a crimson light, her hair turning a pale white, interwoven with magical radiance that flowed down her neck. Amidst the envious gazes of all, she donned a light pink princess dress, with vibrant flowers blooming along the hem.

"How much is this! I want this!" the witch cried. She now looked like a princess, every inch of her skin shimmering with a dazzling glow.

"This is not for sale; we are still testing its effectiveness..." the staff member had to explain with difficulty.

Twenty or thirty feet away, a little boy with curly, purplish-red hair blew a bright blue bubble, enveloping his one-year-old brother inside. The bubble looked incredibly sturdy, carrying the baby a few feet above the ground. The baby sat inside, reaching out his chubby little hand towards a clivia bud, only to be blocked by the bubble. As the blue bubble landed on the clivia bud, the petals slowly unfurled, projecting a thumb-sized flower fairy from the bright yellow stamen, which shimmered rapidly around the baby, eliciting a series of giggles.

Their parents carefully stayed by their side, repeatedly checking to make sure everything was alright...

Felix continued upstairs, asking, "How's Percy's work at the Ministry of Magic?"

“Him?” Penelope sighed. “He’s too busy, really eager to make a name for himself, and it just so happens that his boss, Mr. Crouch, is on a long vacation, so instructions can only be given through owls. This gives him a lot of autonomy, and he can decide many small things on his own… He’s obsessed with it…”

She said with some dissatisfaction, "He told me he wanted to live in the ministry, but I stopped him."

Felix stopped. His impression of Percy came from his diligent study habits, his rigid and stubborn daily routine, and his extreme lack of humor. Although he himself didn't like telling jokes, at least Felix could recognize them and was willing to applaud, but these behaviors were nowhere to be seen in Percy.

In Mrs. Weasley's own words, "Once he made a decision, not even ten oxen could pull him back."

Felix looked at Penelope thoughtfully.

"Can you persuade him?"

“Normally… yes.” Penelope replied, somewhat puzzled.

“Hmm.” Felix nodded.

They went up to the third floor, pushed open a double solid wood door, and entered a spacious room where Lupin and several others stood together, talking earnestly.

In the center of the room stood a huge, sage-colored canvas, resembling a portrait, upon which moved images were displayed—

Two exquisitely crafted magical puppets were engaged in a duel, blue lightning and orange flames clashing against each other. The puppets were clearly controlled, using the terrain to dodge attacks at the last second, their movements fluid and natural. The researchers below watched intently, occasionally letting out a gasp of surprise, or gasping in unison at the intense action.

Felix keenly realized that this was not a spell-casting painting, but some form of live broadcast, because he saw Kremi Vera and Arik McKee surrounded by a crowd—they were directing puppets below a canvas screen, with a huge camera-like device pointing at the 'battlefield' in the middle of them.

Seeing Felix approach, Lupin quickly came over. He said with a hint of complaint, "If it weren't for the constant stream of letters delivered by owls, I would have thought you'd disappeared."

“Haven’t I been here before?” Felix said somewhat awkwardly.

“Indeed,” Lupin nodded gently. “Let me think. If my memory hasn’t been altered, I saw you last week—no, through a telepathic device, the week before last? It was your guardian angel—who delivered two alchemical recipes. Or the week before that? I’m mistaken, it was actually Dobby…”

"Ahem!" Felix's eyes darted around as he changed the subject, saying, "That's the space capsule I told you about? How interesting..."

They all stared at the other side of the spacious room, where a young researcher took a capsule from a flat metal box, threw it on the ground, and it exploded with a "bang" into a cloud of white smoke, throwing out various odds and ends: pieces of canvas, a kettle, clothes, and even a few pieces of firewood...

The researcher let out a disappointed groan, "Oh~ it still doesn't work..."

When the conversation turned to business, Lupin became serious. He looked away and said to Felix, "The Ministry of Magic is still not backing down. You know, they have a lot of control over the Unseen Stretch Charm."

“You don’t need to worry about obstacles from the Ministry of Magic,” Felix said.

Lupin stared at him, "That's not what the Bureau of Magical Item Control said."

“Don’t worry, Remus,” Felix reassured him. “As long as they still allow the public sale of magical items that carry the Unseen Stretching Charm, whether it’s a tent or anything else… even just one, Future World Corporation can get the rights.”

“The only thing we need to be careful about is ensuring the parts are tamper-proof; the product's intended use absolutely cannot be changed.” Felix said, watching the young wizard conducting the experiment in the distance. “Living creatures, especially people, are not allowed.” He thought for a moment and added, “It would be best to urge the Ministry of Magic to improve this part of the law, making clear regulations on the permissible size of the expanded space…”

“You’re talking like you own the Ministry of Magic. I don’t have as much confidence in you as you do,” Lupin muttered, but Felix pretended not to hear him. He put his arm around Lupin’s shoulder and led him to a huge workbench with various scattered items on it.

Temperature-controlled pendant boxes, magic lamps, sound transmission mirrors, jade crowns... the variety is dazzling.

"Okay, can you give me a brief introduction? What new products do you have? And how is the company doing recently?"

"We currently have seventeen products, but twelve of them are still being improved, including those in the lobby... The remaining five, plus the Weasley twins' couple mirrors—which we renamed the sound transmission mirrors when we sold them to the public because they can't transmit images over long distances yet—are already being sold in seven branches."

"And that doesn't even include overseas orders..."

Lupin showed an appreciative expression, "The Quidditch World Cup light show was a great success. We received a lot of orders and we were completely short-handed, so we had to cooperate with the Owl Post Office."

As they were talking, a tan owl flew in through the castle window. It circled Lupin twice and dropped a letter.

He quickly opened the letter and glanced at it, explaining as he read, "It's an inquiry about the product launch date. Your strategy is very effective; when we sent out the Magic Lamp product, we also included a list of products we're preparing to launch... Quite a few people have written to ask about it."

He concluded by saying, "Including those overseas, 'Future World' has over a hundred employees. Even the Daily Prophet doesn't have that many."

Felix, however, felt it wasn't enough. "Keep expanding. If we don't have enough manpower, keep hiring."

Lu Ping looked at him hesitantly, "It's barely enough for now. Although we've been quite busy lately, it's because the company is still in its development phase. Once things stabilize, we won't need so many people."

Companies in the wizarding world actually have quite a few employees. This is mainly because there are only about 20,000 to 30,000 wizards in the entire UK, and given the convenience of magic, only a few skilled employees are needed.

These small companies often become family businesses, only hiring every ten years or so. In some ways, his 'Future World' company is an anomaly—if it continues at its current pace and doesn't slow down, it might surpass the Ministry of Magic in terms of headcount in just two or three years.

Felix looked at Lupin, his light blue eyes meeting his, and said calmly:

"For a long time to come, I hope the company will be in a period of expansion. As for stable operation... perhaps that will have to wait until after you retire."

Chapter 406 Variables

"How is Harry? There's not much news about him in the newspapers..."

"He's fine, probably sleeping with the dragon egg in his arms."

At this moment, they were sitting in Lupin's office. Felix was drinking tea and looking around at the furnishings. "Tsk! The colors you chose are a bit old-fashioned. You're not even forty yet."

Lupin shrugged. "He's not young anymore."

“You have plenty of time to spare,” Felix said, and the two drank tea for a while before getting down to business.

"How are the sales of the magic rune cards?"

"It's not bad. If it weren't for those engraving machines, we might not be able to meet the demand. Some overseas businesses have also taken the initiative to seek cooperation. These are all channels we accumulated when we were selling magic lamps before."

Felix nodded in satisfaction.

“I think Ludo Bagman’s suggestion is good. The projection screen can be used for the second and third projects, but it might be a bit of a hassle for you to make a trip. Of course, the most important thing is that we can record the competition and make it into a video... We can’t just rely on a weird sister duo to promote the magic phonograph, can we?”

For wizards, the difference between storing sound and storing images is negligible. Similarly, comparing two-dimensional images to 3D projections is not a pipe dream.

Lupin lowered his head to think, and after a while, he tilted his head slightly toward Felix.

"It's not that I disagree, it's just that there are still a few problems, unless you're willing to help—the next project is in February?"

February 24th.

“That should be enough time,” Lupin said thoughtfully, looking at Felix. “Everyone in the company admires you, even the newcomers are talking about you… You know, you didn’t stay long during the summer, but you solved most of the problems. And when you left, our research progress slowed down all of a sudden.”

“Okay, I’ll stay at the company this weekend,” Felix said helplessly.

……

With his involvement, the research progress accelerated at a visible pace. Often, researchers would raise questions, he would quickly simulate them in the thinking booth, and a theoretically supported solution would be provided within minutes.

From newcomers to veterans, everyone in the company was being bossed around by him, but everyone looked excited.

"Is this the level of our boss?" a redneck Irish wizard whispered. He had been recently recruited into the company and was a master of the cutting spell, as well as a very good polymorph.

“You haven’t seen how spectacular he is at the Quidditch World Cup!” a young researcher said.

“I was abroad before…” the redneck wizard muttered. Although he said that, he couldn’t help but feel a deep sense of admiration when he looked at his boss. He knew so much.

Felix was methodically assigning tasks: "This time we'll try two new approaches—the first group will use a long-distance teleportation spell, the second group will use synchronization magic in conjunction with polymorph. Hmm, this one's a bit more complicated, I'll handle it myself..."

A dozen minutes later, a thick golden fog, like liquid gold, flowed quietly around, and above the fog, light refracted continuously, forming blurry images.

"There's a problem... Should we bind the fog and try a containment spell? Or a smoke-locking spell? A spell circuit?"

Felix kept thinking, while Kremi quickly jotted down his words and the results of the experiment. By the end of the afternoon, most of the troubles that had been hindering them had been resolved.

As evening fell, people in the company said goodbye to him one by one, their faces full of heartfelt agreement.

“You see, you’re the boss of this company,” Lu Ping said with a smile.

Felix rubbed his forehead. Using his mental acceleration at such a high intensity wasn't easy for him, especially after all, especially after persisting for so long. Now, he didn't want to think about anything and lazily lay on the sofa in Lupin's office.

“Don’t think I don’t know what you’re thinking,” Felix said with half-closed eyes. “I just don’t want the company to always rely on me. It’s fine now; I can handle the problems we encounter, but in the future—”

He suddenly stopped.

"What happened next?" Lupin looked at Felix curiously.

But to his dismay, Felix started humming again, slowly sipping a cup of tea, "From now on, of course I'll just sit back and wait to collect the money. I don't want to work hard."

“I remember you didn’t say that before,” Lupin said. “Including the ‘Future World’ you registered with the Muggle government, I always felt…” He looked at Felix carefully, choosing his words carefully, and said softly, “You seem to anticipate some kind of change in the future, such as the complete invalidation of the Secrets Act?”

"Felix, are you preparing for this?"

Even Lupin himself was startled when he said those words. His mind went slower than usual; the usually quick-witted man spent several mental repetitions before arriving at a terrifying conclusion. He exclaimed in shock:

"Are you going to follow Grindelwald's example and forcibly abolish the secrecy laws?"

“How could that be?” Felix laughed, opening his eyes. “I can’t think that far into the future, nor do I want to be Don Quixote, rushing headlong into a windmill…”

"Huh?" He rubbed his chin, thinking, "Thinking about it carefully, I actually have the ability to cut down windmills."

Seeing Lupin's increasingly serious expression, he muttered, "You're just like Percy, you have absolutely no sense of humor..."

Lu Ping gave a weak laugh: "This is a serious matter that can't be taken lightly, especially since you're the one saying it. So, what are you thinking? You've handed the company over to me, so I'm definitely going to manage it according to your ideas."

"My idea is very simple."

Felix held up a finger: "First, we need to gradually make wizards aware of the development of ordinary people. As pioneers, we bear the responsibility of combining the wisdom of both and demonstrating it to one side. Obviously, we have no other choice for the time being; our clients can only be wizards..."

But the future is uncertain.

"Second, to prevent Voldemort's return."

In other words, it is about gathering a crowd.

"Voldemort?" Lupin looked at him in surprise, his expression first one of disbelief, then clearly realizing something, and becoming worried.

"Has anyone told you about this?" Felix asked curiously.

“It’s Sirius,” Lupin frowned, took a bottle of eggnog from the cabinet behind his chair, poured himself a glass, and said, “Would you like some?”

Felix shook his head slightly.

Lupin took a large gulp and said, "He didn't tell me the details; it seems to involve a big secret that Headmaster Dumbledore forbade him from revealing to anyone else… But he told me not to fall behind in training; the war from over a decade ago is far from over—"

"All hatred will be put to rest in the future." He gripped his knee tightly with one hand.

Felix looked at Lupin, knowing that Lupin had an enemy who had been roaming freely.

He said softly, "You guessed right, Sirius is right. Nobody knows what the future holds. Hogwarts' Defense Against the Dark Arts has been rather weak for the past few decades. In addition, the people in the Ministry of Magic after the war have not had much of a sense of crisis. Apart from the Aurors, the others can barely cast a complete Ironclad Charm."

"It's only in recent years that dueling clubs have become commonplace, and this year they've even become an elective course. They've partially replaced the function of Defense Against the Dark Arts, giving graduates basic defensive capabilities. But if they neglect training, they'll forget everything they've learned in just a few years... Have you ever thought about what you can expect them to do if war really comes?"