บท 587: Chapter 587 The Twins in Trouble

As the Easter holidays passed, Felix had to appear in the solemn courtroom every day, watching as strange dark wizards underwent their trials, and it was like winning a lottery when a familiar face appeared.

Of course, those acquaintances usually end up quite badly, as a death eater, they basically ended up with a life sentence.

The foreign observers who were seated opposite to his side didn't exactly act as statues either; they provided a wealth of identifying information, and Scrimgeour didn't seem to have any trouble reading out completely irrelevant offences to the case as background information before the official verdict.

As soon as this happened, Felix's mind began to wander.

Valen hadn't followed him in the last few days; she had gone off to settle scores with Ron Weasley again. Felix was rather taken aback, when had Ron taken up the hobby of his two brothers? But there was really no real harm in that telescope, just a scare, and well, it scared a Niffler.

And then there is another thing - according to Felix's research, the thing is supposed to imprint a black eye on the face and make it look like one has been punched in the face. But when you use it on Valen, the effect changed from a black circle around the eye to a mushy mess that is plastered against her fur and skin.

Felix had a good laugh.

He even wrote about it in a letter to Grindelwald, " I will introduce you to each other sometime ..."

Of course, these are just interludes. He spends a fair amount of time describing how times have changed, "After all, you've been isolated from the world for so long, it's understandable." And part of his own plan: "When the war is over, I'll pick the right opportunity to throw out some questions, with the various products of the 'Future World' company as a base, and they'll be able to more or less understand the level of Muggle technology. At that time, they themselves will realize the extent of the problem."

Given the poor attitude the old man had shown in his past letters, Felix had also deliberately used his experiences back then as a comparison on several occasions.

"... This way, they will value my opinion instead of branding it as heresy ..."

From the replies, Grindelwald was quite excited and the quills scratched several parts of parchment, of course - it might be due to old age or something.

There is also the fact that Dumbledore's disguised look of exhaustion was spotted by a sharp-eyed journalist the next day, and when he was interviewed about it, he used the excuse that he was playing 'ten-pin bowling till early morning' and looked much better after that day, so there was no rumour based around it - In the eyes of the public, Dumbledore would indeed do something like that.

But to some 'well-informed' people, his inconsistency seemed like a cover-up.

At the end of the fifth day of the trial, Felix was keenly aware of someone's presence when he took his customary walk around Malfoy Manor, and he followed the trail to the gardens, where he saw the formerly ornate and beautiful fountain melting into a puddle of foul-smelling sewage.

Voldemort had been there and had left in disappointment.

The rest of the days were uneventful, except for the night of the 15th.

Without warning, the Weasley twins threw a fireworks display on the premises, bringing out twenty different types of fireworks at once and setting them off over the castle. Felix, Valen, Sirius, and Flitwick were all together playing cards when there was a sudden loud bang from outside and Flitwick, who was seriously thinking about how to play his cards, fell out of his chair.

"Summon the Blast-Ended Skrewt into the game - oh my! What's happening outside?"

Flitwick got up from the floor, and was startled, did he just see a dragon flying past the window just now?

Felix looked out the window in silence as a familiar wheeled firework flew past the balcony, he recalled briefly that it has appeared in the eye of some green skull over Hogwarts not too long ago.

There were shouts of excitement heard from the castle below.

They went to the balcony and looked down; at the foot of the castle was a circle of people, and in the centre of the crowd, Fred was holding a very exaggerated rocket-shaped firework, and George held up his wand and cautiously moved closer. "It's dangerous, we haven't tried it a few times-" he motioned for everyone to spread out a bit.

From past experience, the group obediently followed their good advice and retreated a few dozen feet away in the blink of an eye.

"This thing isn't going to blow up, is it?" Hermione looked worried.

"Don't worry, they know what they are doing in their minds." Ron said cheerfully.

From the tip of George's wand, a small orange flame burst out and inched closer to the firework. "Careful not to burn my hand-" Fred called out because it was obvious that George's eyes were looking elsewhere, and he followed his gaze up to meet those of Professors Hap, Professor Black, and Professor Flitwick.

Fred grinned sheepishly, "Bang!" A loud explosion sent up layers of air and smoke and the two men tumbled out in disarray.

" Failed?" George said disappointedly as he sat on the ground.

"I don't think so." Fred, who was lying on the ground, looked up at the sky and raised one arm, which acted like a fuse, as the choking and coughing audience looked up at the sky in unison, following the gesture.

The massive firework shot straight up into the sky, barely visible in the darkness, only a glowing tail could be dimly seen, and after a dozen seconds or so, the black velvet-like curtain exploded with an explosion of brilliant colours, and the night became alive with countless more bright, shining stars, which fell from high above like a shower of meteors, and then settled in midair in a brilliantly coloured design.

On the balcony, Felix's face looked expressionless, but the movement of his hands gave away his mood as he stared at the huge half-figure made of fireworks in mid-air - the man with a face similar to his smiling broadly and giving a thumbs-up.

A suppressed intake of breath was heard from the ground below.

"Oh my God, oh my God-" Hermione was speechless with shock. Everyone nearby looked on in amazement at the spectacle.

Three or five fireworks in the shape of Blast-Ended Skrewt crawled above the schoolyard, and one in the shape of a flying broom trailed a long banner that spelled out the letters: May Professor Hap live-

"Bang!"

Felix held up his wand and made it explode out in the air. Not too far away, Dumbledore pushed open his office window, the blue eyes behind his semi-circular lenses curving in an arc as he surveyed the figure high above his head with interest, then looked back down at the bustling ground.

Even Fawkes poked his head out, watching with fascination as the dragon-shaped fireworks spun in mid-air while spewing out red and green sparks.

Dumbledore even waved at Felix through the window.

At that moment, Professor McGonagall trotted over from the castle, looking at the mess with a shocked expression.

It was unclear what the twins had said to Professor McGonagall, as she didn't deal with the variety of fireworks flying wildly above Hogwarts and seemed to acquiesce to it all before returning to the castle with both Fred and George by the ears in each hand.

"It's actually quite pretty." Sirius said with a smirk when Felix turned his head.

He considered it as retribution - the night before Valentine's Day Felix had dragged him to test a transfiguration spell and afterward told him with an apologetic face that the spell couldn't be lifted for a while, "Turn my nose back on!" Sirius yelled with a pig's nose, and at the end of the day, he was forced to wear a large mask and refused to take it off when he met with Amelia.

When Felix saw the twins again, it was in Professor McGonagall's office. The two were quietly receiving a lecture with their heads down and their eyelids drooping, looking downcast. But when they saw Felix walk in, they immediately looked up in surprise and gave him a wink.

It seemed to ask, 'Are you satisfied, Professor?'

"Breaking school rules, intimidating students -" Professor McGonagall said with a grumble of exasperation.

" They are having a good time!" Fred shouted accusingly, and the background noises of the bustle outside seemed to validate what he was saying.

Professor McGonagall's chest puffed out, "Making fun of Professor-"

"We were trying to give the Professor a birthday surprise!" George shouted.

"Yeah." Fred kept nodding his head. They had a lot of experience in breaking school rules, and they had already discussed every big and small consequence, even detention.

"Minerva," Felix called out softly. Professor McGonagall frowned and said, "They must be punished." "I totally agree." Felix said, his two hands placed on each of the twins' shoulders, and the two chuckled audibly, before noticing that the professor is growing taller and taller.

No, they are the ones who are getting shorter and shorter.

By the end of the process, Felix looked like a great demon bent over with a terrible grin, holding shrinking twins in his hands.

"Oh, Felix!" Professor McGonagall exclaimed in surprise, "We never advocate corporal punishment against our students-"

"Don't worry, it's not corporal punishment." Felix said as he took the opportunity to shake the two little men, who are only a foot tall, as hard as he could, making them dizzy. He raised his both hands in the air and said menacingly, "I heard you guys have been wanting to make memorable memories before you graduate? Well, I just got the right thing to satisfy that."

" Pro-Professor-" the shrunken Fred said dryly, "Are you saying you don't think the show is memorable enough, we will consider your opinion- "

Felix grinned in irritation and shoved them into the large pockets of his robe as the two men struggled, "Ouch - it's too dark in there!" One of them complained and tenaciously tried to poke his head out, which was coldly pressed back by Felix's backhand.

"I'll teach them well, don't worry, it's just a normal punishment." He said to a stunned Professor McGonagall.

On the way back, Felix deliberately climbed up and down, swaying his pockets back and forth, and it took him twice as long as normal to get back to his office. When he pushed the door open, he could still see part of the firework with some semblance to him through the window - that thumbs up - and Felix looked pissed off.

"You guys have a lot of time on your hands, have you finished your assignments?" He grabbed the dazed pair from his pockets and shoved them at the opening of two empty ink bottles.

"Done." One of them said dazedly.

"Good." Felix said wistfully, "I heard your club is doing well with a lot of people joining?"

Fred, who had just pulled his arse out of the ink bottle, didn't realize the approaching danger and slowly said, "Yeah, it was pretty productive." George gave him a hard shove, and he sat back down again.

"Ouch-" Fred waved his arms.

"'Swear to Defend School Rules Club'? Sounds good, but you'll have to take the lead." Felix said vaguely and turned to leave.

"What's Professor going to do?" George asked uneasily.

"Who knows? Don't you think the show was a huge hit today? Even now, the show's still going on -" Fred said cheerfully.

Valen jumped from the other side of the table and looked at them for a moment, before shaking her head.

"Why do I get the impression that Valen is pitying us?" George asked.

"Bang, bang."

Two quills that stood above their eye level fell on the table and George jumped in shock and looked up to see a dozen sheets of parchment-like blankets flying over, and they hurriedly jumped out of the way.

" The punishment will be copying the school rules." Felix's distant voice said, "No changing back until you've copied them."

As it proved, he had guessed wrong. The twin's thought process is completely different from normal people's, and their first reaction was not frustration, but excitement as they looked at each other, "I've wanted to do this for a long time!"

"It's a deal, Professor!"

By the look on their faces, it seemed that it was not a punishment, but some kind of preferential treatment.

The two spent the next few moments trudging through the parchment with gusto, as they evaluated each other's 'work' as they wrote.

"Your 'W' is horrible and difficult to read."

"Why don't you look at that letter 'O'? How perfect, your letters seem malnourished-"

"Nonsense!"

Felix held out his finger and cast a Muffliato Charm near them, and the office finally fell silent - if you ignored the excited shouts of the students outside and the whooshing sound of exploding fireworks.

He ultimately did not use his magic to wipe out the fireworks overhead.

...

Ignoring the twins who were playing and scribbling sentences, Felix sat in the armchair behind the table, twirling a strand of dark magic in his hand and examining it carefully.

The wisp of magic itself radiated a strong aura of contaminant.

It was the magic he had extracted from Lucius' Dark Mark that belonged to Voldemort.

The more Felix studied it, the more he felt that the magic energy had gone too extreme into the negative side. He even doubted if Voldemort could still use the positive and righteous spells. But when he thought about his own recent research into Patronus charm, he wasn't that certain.

As he pondered, there was a brisk knock at the door.

Felix waved his hand and the door opened automatically, and Harry, Ron, and Hermione rushed in. He wasn't really surprised, they might have come to plead for the twins. But what he didn't expect was the presence of Draco who was standing behind them.

When he also entered, Felix was just about to speak when a fifth person walked in, a somewhat confused looking Luna, who seemed to have gotten lost and had followed them on a whim after seeing Harry and the gang. She was followed by Ginny, Neville, and then Daphne and Astoria squeezed into the office, with Cedric and Cho Chang behind them.

Felix was completely baffled as for why all these people had arrived together.

The people who had just entered were also a little dumbfounded, their jaws dropped as they looked at the twins squirming around on a stack of parchment on the desk. Because of the Muffliato Charm, they hadn't realized what was happening.

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