Chapter 679

“Everyone use the Bubble-Head Charm, the Supersensory Charm, and the Levitation Rune circuit in quick succession, it might be a few kilometres, I haven’t tried this method, but it should work …” Harry said with uncertainty, “It was Hermione’s idea. ”

As he spoke, a transparent, pearly white ghost sized him up curiously.

“I never thought this would happen.” Myrtle said happily, and from the way she was beaming, it looked as if the New Year had come early.

“Believe me, I didn’t think I’d be leading a group of people here either.” Harry squeezed the words out of his teeth as Myrtle let out a trail of giggles and twirled in the air in a quick circle, the eyes of the members of the Frontline Lookout Club staring blankly at the scene.

“I swear she wasn’t this happy even when Peeves was being fanned all over the castle by Fred and George on an exhibition.” Ron whispered to Neville on the side, “Or even if you add the time when she found out that Hermione’s face was covered in cat fur-”

Hermione gave him a stern cross look.

“I didn’t expect you and Myrtle to have such a good relationship.” Luna commented out of the blue, her tone filled with envy.

Ron glared at her.

“Okay, you guys!” Harry said, “Everyone move – I’m not sure if Professor Hap has conveyed this to the other professors in case we get caught …” he said uneasily, not half quite happy with them laughing and giggling without any vigilance, he felt annoyed.

Myrtle’s laughter was also a little jarring, but there was nothing else he could do about it but pretend he couldn’t hear it, who made this abandoned girls’ lavatory, Myrtle’s territory? He could only send a silent urging with his eyes.

The students finally got serious and cast spells on themselves one by one. Pretty soon Harry regretted it – twenty or thirty people crowding into a common lavatory made the scene quite noisy whenever one of them said a word. The scene looked both comical and chaotic, especially when some of the students who seemed over-excited began to float in mid-air without significant weight, dancing and shouting with excitement.

Dean was casting a bubble-head charm on himself and the spell had barely taken shape when a foot fell from the sky.

“Ouch! Who stepped on my head?”

“Oh, sorry, didn’t mean to, I couldn’t control myself!” Seamus stifled a laugh as he acted as if nothing was his fault and said with a straight face, “Please pull me down-” before he could finish his sentence he let out a scream as Dean retaliated by grabbing his ankle and throwing him out with all his might.

Seamus crashed towards the wall like a wingless bird.

“A good shot.” Katie Bell, the Quidditch player, commented.

Dean straightened his collar, “Thanks, I always knew I had the hidden talent to play Quidditch.”

“I feel like I can’t breathe … sneaking into the girl’s lavatory, my dad will send me a howler or two when he finds this out because I have tarnished the reputation of the Macmillan family – I shouldn’t even be here. ” Ernie Macmillan muttered.

“So why don’t you leave? That would save room for two more people!” Ginny said with a raised eyebrow.

“I’m warning you, stop pointing fingers at my size – ” Ernie growled in a low voice as he puffed up one of his fat arms.

“Then keep your fat mouth shut and cut the sour talk.” Ginny said nonchalantly.

Ron stood next to Ginny with a bubble that resembled a fishbowl, his whole face looking swollen, “You want to fight?” Ron said in a jarring voice and instead of backing down, Ernie took a step forward, the two men stood about the same height, but Ernie is considerably stronger than Ron.

Harry hurried over in stride.

“Don’t have any arguments.” He struggled to separate Ron and Ernie, “Ernie, Justin is looking for you, he’s not very good at the bubble head charm.” Only after Ernie had moved away did Harry turn his attention to Ron, “You too, Ron -” he was about to give a couple of warnings when he realised that Ron’s eyes looked twice as big as they had been under the bubble head charm, which made him look like an angry goldfish or a toad.

“Get a grip.” Harry stifled a laugh and left.

“Thanks.” Ginny said to Ron, who pretended like he didn’t care and waved his hand, Ginny stared at his face and snorted, “Oops – I have to go find Luna, I wonder what she looks like -”

As soon as Harry returned to his original position, Hermione raised her hand to get his attention, “Harry, I think we need to add the Impervius Charm as well.” Harry visualized the damp underground pipes in his head and immediately agreed.

Finally – after ten minutes when all the preparations had been made – Harry cleared his throat.

“Professor Hap-”

“Deputy Headmaster.” Mafalda said, “He’s our Deputy Headmaster now. I have been trying to interview him – or Professor McGonagall – about his plans for the school, but unfortunately I didn’t get the chance.”

“Thank you for filling me in on the latest plans of the Wall of Mystery tabloid – but now can you please shut up.” Harry couldn’t help but raise his volume, “Where did I stop? Oh, thank you, Hermione – Professor Hap has made a lot of modifications to the Chamber of Secrets, and the previous entrance originally could only be opened with the Parseltongue, but now there is a second way.”

He raised one arm and a dozen individual rune symbols flew and gathered into a glowing key, then the place beneath their feet swayed and the tap above the sink Harry was facing glowed with a blinding white light, then the entire sink sunk and revealed a thick pipe in the ground.

Everyone clicked their tongue in amazement.

“Is this the way you guys went down to get into the Chamber of Secrets and kill the basilisk back then?” Parvati Patil asked in awe, she wore her hair in a long ponytail today, just like her twin sister. Parvati’s hair tossed around and whipped between Harry, Ron, and Hermione.

“Yeah.” Harry said.

“Can we learn this set of rune sequences?” Anthony Goldstein asked tactfully, “That way we don’t have to ask you to open the door every time.”

“Yes,” Harry nodded, “that’s what the Professor intended. Ron – you’re first, lead on ahead, I’ll stay at the end.”

Ron took a deep breath and stood at the edge of the thick water pipe. Myrtle floated over to him with interest and plopped down in mid-air to stare straight at Ron’s face.

“I still remember the first time you jumped off.” She said sadly, “You were shorter than me then, but now you’re a head taller than me.”

“It’s not just the head that has changed.” Ron shot back at her and jumped, but things weren’t quite what he had expected, as he disappeared from view in near-slow motion due to the effect of the rune circuit on his body. A few people impatiently poked their heads into the hole to look down, there was pitch-black darkness deep below.

After a few seconds, Ron’s muffled voice came up.

“Oh – no danger, except it’s a bit dark, I’ll use my illumination magic now – wow! I feel like a rat in a hole, well, I mean – it’s an amazing feeling, a gentle push, and you can fly out so far like you’re gliding -”

The crowd looked at each other. Harry shrugged and said, “As you can hear, you can think of this as the first attraction of the Chamber of Secrets amusement park.”

One by one the club members went down and Luna waved at Harry, “Thanks, we do need some fun now.” Harry didn’t say anything and when he and Myrtle were the only ones left in the abandoned girls’ lavatory, Harry whispered.

“We certainly need some fun, but we also need a war shelter more than anything.” He glanced up at some corner of the lavatory ceiling where there’s a mirror, “I suppose you feel the same way, Professor Hap?”

…

“I certainly thought so.”

“I found out this very early on: the Chamber of Secrets goes several kilometres underground in the school, and it is a natural shelter. In the event of any big disaster, students can head there for shelter, and I also built a hidden fireplace in the inner space of the statue of Salazar Slytherin – there’s always the possibility of using it, even if you can’t use it against Grindelwald now, but if you can extend the time to dozens, hundreds, or even thousands of years later from now, it could be a big help then.”

Felix said with a nod from Professor McGonagall’s office. n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

A mirror rippling with water in mid-air disappeared, and Professor McGonagall stared blankly into the air, ” He has discovered it – perhaps Albus was right, Potter does have potential.”

“He defeated Voldemort. Even if Voldemort was very weak at the time, it is an indisputable fact that he did it.” Felix said, “Plus he is popular enough in the school to have the editor of the Wall of Mystery tabloid on his team, the founder of multiple school clubs … I’m sure it won’t take an afternoon for word of the underground amusement park to spread throughout the school.”

“Very prescient, Felix. I’ll ask both Head boy and Head girl to cooperate with Prefects to spread this news.” Professor McGonagall said, with a sigh, “The situation has once again become very tricky, and the words of the acolyte this morning make me fear that Grindelwald will target the school. There are still a few more days left to go for the final holiday, and we must keep the students safe til then.” Her last words had a firm edge to them.

“Well, I’ve handed that one over to Amelia, who should be discussing it with Babajide Akingbade at the moment, hopefully, it will bear a good conclusion.” Felix said, “At the last meeting it was agreed by vote that twelve ministries of magic agreed to send men, and this team of Aurors came under Akingbade’s command. Now that Amelia has come up with new solid evidence, I’m sure the number of ministries of magic that would agree to join the allied forces will increase again.”

“How many Aurors and Hit wizards is Bones prepared to send?” Professor McGonagall asked curiously.

“A third.”

Professor McGonagall frowned, “So it is less than fifty. That acolyte said that Grindelwald has nearly six or seven hundred people on his hands right now. Although these people are old, they are not all bad at what they do, they used to be the most loyal group of Grindelwald’s men, and in case these people spread out in all directions to recruit wizards who are dissatisfied with the current state of the magical world, that number could immediately swell a dozen times over.”

Felix rubbed his chin and said.

“There is no way around it, in order to prevent this situation you mentioned, the ministries of magic in each country must also leave enough manpower and reaction time, for the people of the International Confederation of Wizards, the most important thing now is to establish a smooth and stable communication channel, there is a lot to learn from some of Dumbledore’s previous approaches, and… …”

He stopped talking as the fireplace burst into flames and Ms. Bones walked out of it, in a dusty state.

“How did it go?” Professor McGonagall asked with a serious look.

“It has produced some results.” Ms. Bones said wearily, “But Akingbade has refused the suggestion of placing all the nation’s Aurors in England, and instead, he wants me to convince you to join the Allied forces as his second-in-command.” She glanced at Felix.

“At the moment no one is sure how far Grindelwald has recovered his strength, if we go by the test results given by the healers of the International Confederation of Wizards, Grindelwald is now at best a little stronger than an elite Auror, but it can only be considered for a limited time, and if he has fully recovered his level of strength to back then… ”

There was a meaningful gleam in her eyes.

With this information Felix Hap would never be able to leave so easily, only in the most troubled times would people realise what it meant to have a wizard like Dumbledore, or Felix in their lives.

“I’m not leaving the school at this time.” Felix said with a frown, “It’s uncertain what Grindelwald’s true intentions are, but you can tell Akingbade that I’ll take some action when the end of term has arrived – don’t get me wrong, I’m not interested in commanding a large army of wizards with complex elements, and I’m sure the political tug-of-war involved in this will definitely consume most of my energy if I try to take a charge of it, and I won’t be able to do my research and other things; I’ll try to find Grindelwald and have a talk with him. The best outcome would of course be talking him out of it, with the secondary goal of figuring out his true agenda – or a little fight to find out what he’s made of. I’ve always felt he’s in too much of a hurry, and he shouldn’t be in such a rush in his current state.”

“Well, I will pass the word.” Bones said with a sigh, “To be honest, I am just now realising that Voldemort seems er … compared to the pressure brought on by Grindelwald, at least at the time you and Dumbledore were able to completely overpower Voldemort, and the Ministry of Magic Aurors and Order of the Phoenix members had an absolute advantage over the Death Eaters, but now Grindelwald has in his hands a force more than three times that of the British Ministry of Magic, and this is only the backbone of the group most loyal to him, and any random one of them can gather dozens or hundreds of followers …”

“… If all these people could be used to target a certain country, it would be an absolute disaster of enormous magnitude.” She seemed to imagine the scene and couldn’t help but shudder, ” Are you still unable to get in touch with Dumbledore?” She asked expectantly.

Felix and Professor McGonagall looked at each other slowly and shook their heads.

“There’s no need to be so pessimistic, Amelia.” Felix said, “Have you ever wondered why Grindelwald gave priority to gathering this core group of forces? According to that acolyte, Grindelwald even resorted to using Protego Diabolica to test the loyalty of every acolyte that chose to join him… he didn’t do that back in his time.”

“Are you saying he has little confidence?” Ms. Bones asked, on alert immediately.

Felix nodded in all seriousness.

“Grindelwald has two paths forward: violent confrontation and verbal bewitchment. If he chooses the former, he will immediately be branded as a dark wizard by the Ministries of Magic of every country, his past crimes will all be rehashed and magnified tenfold, and don’t forget that the existing order shows no sign of collapse, and as long as we can keep a tight lid on it for a few months, things will be very different in time.”

“If he chooses the latter – now more than half a century has passed, and even if his speeches held as much charisma as they did once, and even if his slogans reached the hearts of the general public, how many people are left today who would pledge their loyalty to him? The era that belonged to him has passed, and let’s see, there won’t be many of the new generations who will want to follow him – the young people probably haven’t even heard of him, and if they have, it’s a notorious reputation. The only thing to worry about is that he will be throwing his weight around in desperation, even if the chances of his survival become too small!”

…

Grindelwald stood on the finely detailed steps with Vinda Rosier and knocked on the door. As they waited, he said casually.

“I don’t need too many people to pledge allegiance to me; it’s enough if we can gather enough vocal support to intimidate the law enforcers. A couple of dozen ministries of magic are pulling each other’s strings, and does Akingbade have enough authority to hold these people’s might together? I’m not the same person I was back then, but neither Akingbade is the Dumbledore of that year.”

“Believe me, Vinda, as long as we don’t make the first move, no one will dare to take the initiative to start a wizarding war.”

Grindelwald showed a sarcastic smile.

“But his identity does have some use, at least enough to deter some people, so here we are.”

The sound of footsteps approached, and a woman dressed as a maid opened the door. She leaned in the doorway and surveyed the two men suspiciously, “Hello, may I ask who you are looking for?”

“We are looking for Mr. Babajide Akingbade.” Vinda Rosier said.

“But – Mr. Akingbade has mentioned that he will not see any foreign guests, do you have an appointment?” The maid asked.

“It’s an urgent official matter, related to Mr. Akingbade’s biggest worry at the moment.” Grindelwald said, “I spoke to the guards here, Grove, right? A very duty-bound lad.”

The maid’s eyes looked across their shoulders to the opposite side of the path, where a young man at the end of the path nodded his head in that direction.

“Oh,” she moved out of the way, “come in, I’ll go and wake him up – Mr. Akingbade has not slept for dozens of hours in a row – has been in a meeting and has only just laid down for a short time.”

Grindelwald and Vinda Rosier were led into the drawing room, where Grindelwald sat down in a nice, comfortable chair, and with a calm demeanour, he took a book out of his pocket and read it with great concentration.

The Tales of Beedle the Bard?

The maid gave the tattered cover a critical glance, and she could see that its owner had definitely looked through it so often that several of the letters had flaked off. It seemed a little odd, but her wariness did lessen considerably.

Someone who liked to read fairy tale books couldn’t be a bad person, could they? And this person was very polite …

—————

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