The next day, it rained heavily at Hogwarts, dousing the morning fog in the Forbidden Forest, while leaving everything within sight gray and dull.
Niffler shrunk into a basket bed that is covered with a fine sponge and velvet sheet. Since yesterday, when she knew that she would be staying at Hogwarts for a long time, she refused to go into the space inside the pocket watch and moved her bed out when Felix wasn't looking, then she hid the silver pocket watch away, and later Felix can't find where she had put it even after he sorted through her collection again.
Of course, he did not seriously look for it, he can't always keep her inside - before there was nothing he could do when they're out of the house.
Somehow, her collection got enriched - silver fork, which should be the tableware of Beauxbatons; the crystal ball emitting light, Felix looked at it left and right before recognizing it as the one from Nicolas's former residence - the first time he saw it, the top was covered with dust, but now it is clean and smooth.
When Felix looked at Valen, she carefully blew a breath and rubbed the surface of the crystal ball with her small hand to make the interior more visible with clarity and brightness. In addition, there are also some miscellaneous new objects, presumably also collected while Felix was not paying attention, thermostatic pendant, badger-shaped magic lamp, flint case, gray hourglass, gold necklace - oh, this Felix knows it, he changed it with golden galleons, the reason is to find out how dark the Gringotts Goblins actually are, to find how much galleons mixed with sand and other minerals, the result well ... he suddenly wanted to rob the Goblin race.
He remembered having read a book about ancient goblins, which described in detail the extravagant life of the top ten families of goblins, all kinds of details written vividly as if the wizard who wrote the book lying on his stomach in the goblin burrows to check it out.
In his description, these goblin families are comparable to the Malfoy of today's magical world.
It's hard to say who the wizard who wrote the book had more ill will towards, but Lucius Malfoy certainly wouldn't have liked to let the metaphor circulate.
It had been a week since the Quidditch World Cup had ended, and in that time Lucius had not given him any response. Felix is in no hurry, these pureblood families will choose a good day to even send invitations, let alone to bow down and submit to him from now on.
In addition, the Ministry of Magic has not given up on tracking down the escaped hooded wizard due to public pressure, so I guess the matter will have to drag on for a while.
But Felix only intends to wait until Christmas this year, if Lucius does not respond by then, he will have to collect the debt.
Right now, Niffler Valen has taken a fancy to the Ring of the Ouroboros Snake, which is kept on his workbench, and at the same time she also adores the silvery memory stone basin, but last night Felix taught her a new lesson.
The new lesson in summary - Her little Pocket should be used to hold her favourite things, and anything that is not that precious should be kept in the office, which is also her home and hideout.
Since then, she has learned the truth that the cunning Niffler should have three caves(hideout) ...
There is also the fact that it cannot steal other people's things, otherwise, Felix will cast a spell to seal up her little pocket and will also give her treasures away in front of her. Then there is an additional reward if she behaves well.
After many days of education and coercion, Niffler Valen raised her three pink fingers and swore to heaven in the name of her two little brothers.
"Rumble!"
A lightning bolt cut through the gray sky and illuminated the figure of Felix standing in front of the window screen. Niffler Warren raised her head, squirmed her body to climb onto Felix's shoulder, and looked out with him at the thick curtain of rain.
They listened to the sound of the pouring rain, the thin, blown away haze of rain hitting their faces, which is cool and refreshing.
Felix tilted his head slightly to the side and said with a grin, "Don't wear that necklace in the future, it's too ugly." Niffler also turned her nose away, her dark little eyes despising his aesthetics.
Eleven o'clock in the morning.
By this time, the Hogwarts Express would have departed King's Cross station, spewing out steam and heading towards the Scottish Highlands.
Felix appeared in the Headmaster's office, where Professor McGonagall is sitting on the sofa and discussing with Dumbledore about the reception of the four wizarding schools during the tournament of champions.
"... Madame Maxime and the students of Beauxbatons will be arriving in a carriage, and they can be housed at the edge of the Forbidden Forest, and the people of Durmstrang will come by boat and can be housed close to the Black Lake ...," Professor McGonagall pursed her lips, "but the other two schools are not easy to arrange, although Uagadou does not mind living in the forbidden forest, as they can turn themselves into small animals-"
"Minerva," Dumbledore propped a hand on his forehead, "Ilvermorny will use the Portkey to cross the continent and will disguise themselves as a travelling group, they can be accommodated near the Quidditch pitch, and as for Uagadou, they won't be here until later... ..."
"Later than scheduled?" Professor McGonagall asked, "How many days later?"
"That's the problem." Dumbledore said, gesturing for Felix to find a place to sit down as he said with some distress, "They're planning to travel all the way over here."
Professor McGonagall looked at him in surprise, "Albus, what are you talking about, they're literally in Africa!"
"Yeah, I know, and I've been there a few times, especially hoping to try the dream messenger job -" Dumbledore said with a smirk: "Tell the young wizards in their dreams that you've been accepted, and then leaving a notice behind. "
"Dumbledore--" Professor McGonagall looked at him sternly.
"Oh, yes ... where were we? The people from Uagadou use the journey as a training exercise, they've always had that tradition, but going from Africa to England is something that has never happened before."
Professor McGonagall's expression grew serious, "Albus, this shows that they take this competition very seriously, I can almost imagine what kind of honing those children have gone through on the road, compared to them, our students can't even pronounce the incantation properly."
"Minerva, don't get carried away." Dumbledore smiled and said, "I always thought that our students are not that bad. Isn't that right, Felix?"
Felix looked up and laughed, dismantling the stage, "Albus, I just got back from Beauxbatons, and their students have been informed of the Tournament in advance, and they are using the summer break for special training."
"Uh ..." Dumbledore was dumbfounded as he looked at Professor McGonagall, and sure enough, she said indignantly in a loud voice: "Look at that, Dumbledore! Other schools are preparing, and we?! Having a happy time over the holidays, the students don't even know that their Quidditch match is cancelled this year."
"Minerva ..."
"... I've been trying to talk to you about this for a long time, and it turns out that you can't be found at all, just like a hands-off manager." Professor McGonagall's chest constantly heaving, obviously exasperated, at the thought of Hogwarts students will be hung up and beaten, her heart stuffed tight.
Felix, who was watching the fun, looked away sheepishly, thinking about Lupin, to whom he had left a whole load of work.
'Is Remus in the same mood as Minerva?'
"Minerva," Dumbledore obliged to appease his Deputy Headmistress, so he said, "I have made arrangements, and Felix is here today for that matter."
"Really?" Professor McGonagall gave him a sceptical expression.
"Of course," Felix nodded, "I advised the Headmaster during the holidays to include some spells that must be mastered before graduation, and Albus said that he would have to reconsider, and now he will probably agree with it?"
"Not this matter." Dumbledore said helplessly.
"But I think it's a good proposal," McGonagall said as she looked over at Felix, "I've always thought the young wizards were too lazy, Felix, we could talk about it sometime and get it settled."
Dumbledore interrupted their conversation and said bluntly, "I'm going to let the Dueling Club take on additional roles, and it will become a special elective course with an open-ended faculty that can be rotated. And Felix, you'll have to spare more time for special training of the champions."
"Why me?" Felix asked curiously.
"You have the unique advantage with those magical teaching aids ..." Dumbledore winked, "they will help with the champions' training a lot, didn't you ask me to give my opinion, I think that stone basin is far from being used as it should be, it has surpassed the Pensieve."
Felix mulled over the headmaster's words, "You mean-"
"I can offer a memory of the seventeen-year-old me." Dumbledore nodded slightly, "Containing my own battle wisdom."
Felix was taken aback, a wizard's memory is his most valuable asset, many people will guard it very tightly, although he knew that Dumbledore would certainly eliminate irrelevant memories beforehand to prevent someone from snooping, but this trust came too suddenly.
Dumbledore smiled slightly when he saw Felix looking at him blankly: "Am I an old fogey in your eyes, who is still living in the last century?"
Felix regained his composure, "Just a bit of a surprise, Headmaster Dumbledore."
Professor McGonagall was very interested in what they were talking about, and after learning what the Memory Stone basin could do, she immediately decided to join in, "There are other professors we can get-"
"No, Minerva," Dumbledore shook his head firmly and said in a quiet voice, "Don't bother the other professors, we can't force them to make a decision, don't even mention it."
Professor McGonagall opened her mouth, but Dumbledore's attitude was so firm that she did not raise her voice to object. "Alright then, I'll go and set up the great hall with Filius." She said and walked out of the office.
"Headmaster, what led you to this decision? To be honest, I was shocked just now." Felix said jokingly when only two people were left in the Headmaster's office.
"Because Dumbledore received a letter from ...," the Sorting Hat on the compartment suddenly cracked open a slit on it and said audibly.
But Dumbledore directed a solemn gaze at it, and it immediately shut its mouth and turned to softly hummed the song of this year's Sorting.
"
Bold Gryffindor, from wild moor,
Fair Ravenclaw, from glen,
Sweet Hufflepuff, from valley broad,
Shrewd Slytherin, from fen.
They shared a wish, a hope, a dream, ... They shared a wish, a hope ..."
The Sorting Hat seemed to not have made up the lyrics, or was in the final stages of rehearsal, repeating the last line over and over again, but the song was so hard to listen to as Felix had listened to it for seven years when he was at school, and two years after he graduated, that he grew a bit tired of it, if only it would just shut up and let itself be studied.
Dumbledore did not care about the Sorting Hat, he just raised the volume, as he explained: "Remember the Christmas present you gave me the first year you joined, 'The 99 inventions that changed the world'? I passed it to a friend, and we talked about what was in it when you were mentioned incidentally."
----------
Thanks for all your support.
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Thanks for all your support.
There are 388+ chapters on P_atreon, if you have some extra pocket money, Support me on Pa_treon: www.pa_treon.com/Crazy_Cat.
Felix nodded slightly, from what he was aware of, Dumbledore travelled widely, has friends all over the world. If you add the number of his fans, ten Lockhart combined won't be his rival.
Sometimes he could not help but speculate, the reason why Dumbledore seems so busy, wasn't it because he was hiding in his office writing letters to his pen pals all around the world ...
Ahem! You can't stray too much, the headmaster should be doing some serious tasks, like analysing Tom Riddle's childhood life, with that he might as well write a thesis like "The influence of childhood upbringing on the key choices of a wizard's life when he grows up: a brief analysis from first, second, and third perspectives".
Felix took out the stone basin from the ring, and the two entered the inner space, which is a white world with a foggy surrounding.
Dumbledore surveyed the surroundings with interest, he said with a sigh, "You are the only one in this world who has this ability, judging from the traces of magic left behind, very subtle, yes ... subtle."
Felix asked, "No one else can't do it?" He made it without much thought about anything else, he just thought about it then made it, and he also considered it at that time as a defective product, not as good as the original Pensieve, so he never cared.
It was only later that he gradually developed its functions.
Dumbledore said: "I'll say what I can see, ancient runes, alchemy, Hardening Charm, Extension Charm, Transfiguration, Memory Magic ... very unique, I seem to see some solid magic nodes ... "
He stretched out his hand, his slender fingers pointed in the air, the surrounding clouds immediately churned up.
"What is this?" He asked curiously.
"The memory node, and also the magic node here." Felix said briefly.
Dumbledore nodded slightly, "It seems you have made improvements, it's getting farther away from the function of the Pensieve, but closer to the Room of Requirement."
His eyes swept around sharply, causing Felix to feel a vague tingle and a layer of goosebumps on his skin, like irritation.
The Headmaster's vision is very sharp.
Although the shape of the stone basin is very similar to the Pensieve, it is closer to the principle of the Room of Requirement - it is enchanted with an Undetectable Extension Charm, which stretched the space to the size of five-six basketball courts, and filled with various blank memory fragments inside, which remained intact with the help of the Runes. He also used memory nodes to build a more solid structure.
The advantage of this is that real people and false illusions can interact, and as the owner of the stone basin, Felix is able to use the all-pervasive memory power to perform what he is capable of in the thinking room.
Felix took a few steps forward, the clouds churned and opened a path, and an ancient pyramid appeared in front of the two, he showed a smile and extended an invitation, "Headmaster, this is a level adapted and inspired from a real experience, er, a real experience I had during the summer ... want to try it? "
Dumbledore took his eyes off the memory node and carefully examined the pyramid in the cloud, he knew it is all false, probably just a memory manifestation, but it looks quite real.
Could Felix really have mastered the principle of the Room of Requirement? He became interested and walked toward the open golden door, and could see that the interior of the pyramid is pitch black, and from nowhere a beam of light hurled into the inner part about seven or eight feet from the door, but it appeared it became even more pitch black in the depths.
The two stepped into the pyramid, and the next second, Felix's figure suddenly disappeared, and the door slammed shut.
Dumbledore looked at the eerie and frightening Pharaoh's burial tomb with its own miserable soundtrack, so he muttered: "I'm just an old man ..." He drew his wand, and slashed his arm down, "Buzz ~" Magic fluctuations made the entire pyramid shake in unison.
If it had legs, it probably would have run away by itself.
Felix's sigh echoed around: "Headmaster, this is just a toy I made for the members of the Magic Rune Club, it just happened to occur to me that it could be used to train champions, but it still can't handle a spell at your full strength ..."
Dumbledore's eyes seemed to see the very top of the pyramid, where Felix is sitting lazily at the top, waiting for him.
Dumbledore smiled faintly, put away his wand, and walked up the only path as he picked his pace, meeting all sorts of strange creatures, only to be blocked by vines, chains, and tough barriers that suddenly appeared, and after a few minutes, he pushed open a door where Felix is sitting right outside, looking over the sea of clouds.
"Albus, what do you think?"
Dumbledore said with amusement, "I'm going to praise your imagination, Felix. Big spiders and pythons are still traceable, what's with those cars that screech and transform, is it Arthur's car that inspired you? But as far as I know, it stayed well in the forbidden forest and did not develop any strange abilities.
There are also monsters with insect exoskeletons and acid breath ..."
Felix said nonchalantly, "Some are made up, some are from films that I saw and borrowed them here." His two little legs dangled out and kept swaying.
"It's wonderful, but unfortunately I have not studied it in depth." Dumbledore said, he thought carefully, commented: "Our ideas actually have similarities, those ... wacky creatures of yours, can be used to exercise the students' adaptability, although it is clear that you did not put too much thought, and there is less connection with reality."
Felix also admitted this, "the more you know, the more real the memory will be, this is the drawback of constructing a virtual memory, I can't do anything about it. Instead of making a real 4d world and making students confuse it with reality, it would be better to deliberately make it look false at a glance."
If he intends to construct a Sphinx, then he must know the habits of this magical creature very well-to-do so, or else if you made a messy alteration as a matter of course, as a result, the students believe it as real, then what if they encounter a real Sphinx in the wild, they might make a fatal mistake at that time.
Dumbledore nodded slightly, agreeing with his opinion. Every time he exchanged ideas about magic with Felix, there would be something new to learn. He thought down this line of thought and quickly thought of ways to perfect it. He thought of a man who could certainly recreate a magical creature vividly if it were him -
The world's most distinguished expert in the Magizoologist, Newt Scamander.
The only question is whether there is a need for that, Dumbledore secretly noted this, decided to keep observing it further.
"I also noticed a problem, which may not be considered as a real issue, but it is worth noticing." Dumbledore said, "this place somewhat has singular means of protection, as long as there is someone who has a certain understanding of memory magic, they can borrow the authority of this place."
He waved his hand, the pyramid beneath the two of them collapsed in an instant, they then stood very abruptly in a square, which Felix had just made it out of the stained-glass on a crumbling tomb, and the next second, the scene changed into empty highlands, and before their eyes was another blur, then they were standing in front of the Hogwarts castle bay window.
Dumbledore said softly: "When it comes to the attainment of memory magic, I'm actually no match for you, but I can still manifest these scenes. Also, I just made my will infiltrate and let the surroundings mistakenly think I 'cast a successful spell', and they became what I wanted them to be ..."
Felix shrugged: "You made a good point, there are indeed quite a few loopholes. I was just too lazy to correct it before, after all," he gave a dangerous smile and kept flexing his fingers, "if any student from the club dares to try something funny, I'll let them experience a twenty-minute free fall ..."
Dumbledore fell silent at that.
...
They emerged from the stone basin, Dumbledore needed some time to prepare for extracting the memories of his youth, the good thing is that every headmaster must leave a portrait of himself, he is not a stranger to this process.
Felix returned to his office, in the sound of dense rain, suddenly thought of something, he drew his wand, the tip of the wand exploded into a silvery light, rain swallow Patronus took shape in midair. He then placed his wand against his forehead and drew a silver line, which outlined in the air, and a silver white-coloured cloak slowly appeared.
The rain swallow Patronus let out a chirp and plunged into the cloak, and after the dazzling light disappeared, a ghost that hid its face beneath the cloak appeared.
"Let's call you ... Well, forget it for now, and let's see if you can fool the ghosts in the castle."
Felix surveyed the 'ghost' in front of him, it kind of looked like a dementor that got a facelift, he suddenly remembered that he still had a dozen of them in his ring, his schedule was too full recently, that the original research work had to be postponed again and again.
The silver-white 'ghost' is about three feet off the ground when it turned to leave, "You can look for the Peeves, he fears Baron for a reason." Felix reminded.
"Whoosh!"
The 'ghost' disappeared in a flash, Felix reached up to hold his forehead, "The speed hasn't changed at all, anyone can see the problem now."
He took over the Patronus and wandered around the castle in its perspective ...
Meanwhile, on the Hogwarts Express train -
In the carriage, a golden shadow scurried around headlessly, and as it approached, Harry reached out and clutched the golden snitch in one fell swoop, "Nice catch!" The twins passing by gave him a thumbs up.
Harry grinned, expecting Cho Chang to pass by in the corridor and see him catching the golden snitch accidentally; she is a Ravenclaw seeker, so she should be able to tell how difficult this move is.
He had just seen Cho Chang in the corridor and couldn't resist the urge to do something to impress her, then he remembered the advice Sirius had given him a while ago, and he rummaged it out of his travelling trunk.
He is now so skilled at it, as he was playing with golden snitch whenever he was bored at Dursley's house.
A ruckus came from the side of the door, and a familiar dragging voice drifted in through a small, thumb-sized gap in the door.
"... You know, Father really considered sending me to Durmstrang instead of Hogwarts. He knew the Headmaster of that school. But my mother didn't want me to go to the school that far away ... Durmstrang students are seriously studying dark magic, I mean, some of it comes in handy ..."
Hermione stood up and tiptoed over to the compartment door, shutting it tightly to keep Malfoy's voice out.
"Leave the golden snitch alone, you look so silly, Harry." She said impatiently.
Harry snapped, ready to put the golden snitch away, Ron took it as soon as he could, "Let me play with it for a while." He'd just taken a quick glance. Harry pointed towards Hermione and shrugged, "Ron!" Hermione yelled, Ron's hand shook, and he slapped Harry in the face.
"Oh, sorry, Harry-"
There is a flurry of activity in the compartment, Ron's new owl bouncing around the cage, Hermione's pet cat " whining and whimpering ", and when everything calmed down, Harry's face left with a red slap mark, and two scratch marks from the cat's claws.
He immediately changed his mind, before he regretted that he could not meet Cho Chang, but now he sincerely hoped that he would not bump into her.
Even when the snack cart passed their compartment, Harry begged Ron and Hermione to go out and buy some.
After a while, Ron returned with a pile of snacks in his arms, placed them on the small table, and said to Harry with a very strange expression, "You were right."
"What?" Harry ripped open a box of chocolate frog and bit off the head of the frog in one bite.
"We met Cho Chang, and she came with her friend to buy snacks, it's a good thing you didn't go ..."
Harry suddenly choked, he coughed violently, his face turned red, "What are you talking about-"
"Well," Ron wrapped his hand around his shoulders and said playfully, "I could tell that you had a thing for her from the last term, it's pretty obvious - ask Hermione."
Harry's heart suddenly burst out, now all he wanted is to find a crack in the ground.
Hermione raised her eyebrows, "I thought you were giggling all the way because you saw Malfoy practicing illumination in the carriage. This is against the rules, I must tell--"
"-Professor Hap." Ron answered, shaking his head dramatically, "This is a train, no one cares. Might as well talk about Durmstrang, what's that?"
...
The sky grew dark. In fact, it never dawned, as thick rain clouds covered everything up. After an unknown amount of time, the Hogwarts Express train finally slowed down and docked at the darkened Hogsmeade station.
The doors opened and the sound of rumbling thunder was heard through the air.
The trio shivered and looked outside as the rain poured down and the wind howled. "We're not going to drown on the road, are we?" Harry asked.
"Think about Hagrid," Ron replied without thinking, "He's got to take the first years across the Lake in a boat, in this weather, that can be pretty irritating."
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#DatPerson, Thanks for your support.
There are 388+ chapters on P_atreon, if you have some extra pocket money, Support me on Pa_treon: www.pa_treon.com/Crazy_Cat.