The stores in Diagon Alley are doing a lot less business than usual.
"That's normal if you have a row of pictures of Death Eaters posted in front of your store as well ..." said Madam Malkin, as she measured the measurements of Felix's body.
Felix enjoyed the cordial service in the robe shop.
He glanced at the wanted notices in the window, as well as the various large purple announcements, and thought her words made sense. The street outside the window is filled with passer-by walking in a hurry, all in groups with a clear purpose, heading straight for where they are going. They never linger after making their purchases, as they quickly left through the public fireplace.
After exiting the store, he walked into Sword Castle with a vanilla ice cream purchased from Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlour and stayed there throughout the day.
"The principle of the Thief's Downfall is complex, the key point is the mixture of seventeen alchemical materials and multiple magical spells, some obscure places may need unique magic of goblins, I checked it, the Thief's Downfall technology appeared just at the time of the honeymoon period after the wizard and goblin war, right?"
"You are absolutely right, Mr. Hap." A Ministry of Magic employee who was sent over said, "The goblins are so nasty that they left a hand in the knowledge!" The short, fat wizard gasped.
"But you guys never noticed it all along, either." Fred in the crowd murmured to George.
The rest of the day was spent on dividing up the work and responsibilities. Clammy was right, the R&D Wizards in the company are indeed very efficient. Several of the ministry's employees present marvelled as they found all their materials about Thief's Downfall rapidly understood and digested by Felix, it was as if the person in front of them is not a single individual, but a humanoid creature with dozens of heads.
By the end of the day, Future World's researchers had caught up with the Ministry of Magic's previous progress and had successfully recovered the ratios of the three alchemical materials.
"I'll be staying at the old mansion for the night today." Felix said to Fred and George, they are now in a room on the highest floor of the Sword Castle, the interior is plainly decorated, like a vacant office, but it has a fireplace connected to the old Black mansion.
If the two people, Tonks and Sirius, linked the Ministry of Magic and the Order of the Phoenix together, then Remus Lupin linked the 'Future World' company with the Order of the Phoenix to use it with Felix. Well, sometime, Fred, George, and Penelope will also use this fireplace.
It took a while for Percy to arrive, as he arrived half an hour later than expected.
"Ms. Bones is using you too hard." Penelope said unhappily.
"The ministry is seriously understaffed," Percy said cheerfully, "and it's just the right time for me to make my mark." He hastily rolled up a few papers and stuffed them into the large pocket of his shirt. Then he crossed the fireplace just in time to catch a warm meal.
Mrs. Weasley received Penelope warmly.
"We got back so late yesterday that not only Harry's birthday party had to be cancelled, but I didn't get many opportunities to talk to you."
"Mum, there's plenty of time for that later." Percy muttered.
"But the first few times are the most important." Mrs. Weasley said with a stern face.
At the dinner table, Bill is talking about his new job.
" At the beginning, I really didn't get used to it, all the works are involved inside the office, it's far worse than what I was doing before, the good thing is that I have a lot of extra time to work for the Order of the Phoenix ... and I'm partnered with a bunch of old gentlemen who are living at a frighteningly slow pace." He mimicked his colleague, handing the bottle of ketchup to Harry in the next seat, moving a dozen times slower.
Everyone around the table burst out laughing. Harry inadvertently met Ginny's eyes, and Ginny's wide smile immediately tightened, and her movements with the knife and fork became graceful. "That's right, Ginny's doing the best imitation." Bill said loudly in praise.
Hermione snickered.
"What's wrong?" Ron looked at her with confusion.
"Nothing." Hermione said immediately, and she turned to look at Harry, whose face flushed brightly with a rush of heat.
Dinner consisted of stew, sugared fruit punch, and vegetable soup, and Felix hurriedly put down his utensils before Mrs. Weasley could serve him more soup, so Mrs. Weasley turned her attention to Penelope.
"Is the meal not to your liking, dear?"
"Oh, no." Penelope said, only to find her soup bowl instantly filled up.
Sirius arrived late and joined only when everyone was almost done eating and was chatting with each other. He sat down in the vacated seat and took a big bite of the remaining food.
"Only one-third process of interrogation completed -" he drank the bowl of vegetable soup in one gulp, "Thanks, Molly, fill it up - everyone falsely claimed they were under the influence of the Imperius Curse, but Amelia didn't intend to let them go easily, especially Macnair and Rookwood who both sentenced for some previous crimes."
Felix is well aware that the former is being considered as the mastermind of the Quidditch World Cup riot, and the latter is a nailed-on Death Eater who has been in Azkaban for over a decade and has only been out of prison for a few days. Ms. Bones would be damned if she would release them.
Sirius swallowed a fried pie in three bites and sighed comfortably as his movements slowed down.
Ron stared at him with unblinking eyes, as if he is watching an interesting TV show.
"By the way, Sirius," Felix inquired, "I heard an Unspeakable was injured?"
"There is such a thing?" Sirius looked up from his soup bowl.
"The one with the name Bode." Felix reminded him.
"Bode," Sirius pondered and said slowly, "kind of rings a bell ... seems to have had a research accident and was sent to St. Mungo's for treatment. I was too busy yesterday to pay attention to such a trivial matter. What happened to him?" He asked sensitively.
"We'll talk about it at the meeting." Felix replied briefly.
Sirius showed a thoughtful expression, his sense had become much sharper after spending a month around Amelia Bones, so he immediately realized that this incident might not be a coincidence. Harry, Ron, and Hermione at the side also showed an intrigued expression.
" That name sounds familiar." Ron muttered.
"We met him at the Quidditch World Cup camp." Hermione whispered, "He works for the Department of Mysteries?"
Harry remembered too.
"Wait." He made the connection to Voldemort almost instantly, and he looked over at Mr. Weasley, "You told us that the work of the Department of Mysteries is all top secret."
"This-"
Mr. Weasley's expression looked stagnated, and Harry racked his brain hard.
"It means that Voldemort wants something in there! Or information about something! And Bode is either an undercover Death Eater or under a curse!"
"Boys-" Mr. Weasley hesitated.
"It's okay, Arthur." Sirius said, "Let's see what they can analyse, I can bring it to Amelia - I mean, even if we stop them, they'll be discussing it in private secretly, so we might as well listen and maybe get some useful inspiration."
Harry glanced gratefully at his godfather. "Uh." He suddenly got stuck.
"What exactly is Bode's job?" Hermione asked. Sirius frowned, "I don't quite--"
"What Hall does he work for? The Time Room, the Hall of Prophecy, Brain Room, Space Chamber, or the Death Chamber?" Hermione asked again, and Sirius almost bit his tongue.
"How do you know that?!"
It is Hermione's turn to get stuck, she stole a glance at Felix. "I - oh - I guess, it's from a certain book?"
"Information about the Department of Mysteries is never leaked." Mr. Weasley said seriously.
"She would have seen it in Nicolas Flamel's material." Felix explained, "I gave it to her before the end of the school year, and since there are so many materials, I didn't read every one of them, so Nicolas might have casually mentioned it in one of his notes."
Professors can be so deceitful ...
Hermione blinked and put on a "that's it" look.
Sirius and Mr. Weasley understood it.
"Nicolas Flamel ... No wonder, that makes sense." Mr. Weasley said. It is no secret that Felix inherited Nicolas Flamel's entire legacy since the Beauxbatons' students spent a whole year at Hogwarts last year.
At some point, it was even reported at length in the newspapers.
"I've heard Fleur mention," Bill suddenly said, "that you're still a school board member at Beauxbatons."
"Fleur?" Harry, Ron, Hermione, and the Weasley twins shouted at the same time.
"What's happened?" Mrs. Weasley asked, "Am I mistaken, isn't she one of Beauxbatons' Champion? A French girl?"
"She's become my new colleague, just joined two days ago. I promised to help her with her English ... you know how boring office work can be." Bill shrugged and said, "I wish the war would end sooner."
"That's not up to us," Ron muttered, "It's not like the You-Know-Who will admit defeat ... By the way, Harry, what did Headmaster Dumbledore want to see you this morning for?"
"Dumbledore came by during the day?" Felix asked, a little surprised.
"Yeah, but he didn't say a few words before he took Harry and disappeared for the whole day. In fact, Harry just returned not long before you guys did." Ron said.
Several of the adults looked at Harry.
"Can you tell?" Mr. Weasley asked measuredly, "If Headmaster Dumbledore told you to keep it a secret, then don't tell anyone."
"Uh, I'm not sure." Harry said with a blank expression, "I don't think we did anything special, Headmaster Dumbledore took me to an old friend's house for a cup of afternoon tea and a bellyful of pineapple preserves. And Headmaster Dumbledore persuaded his old friend to move to a safer place ..."
"Who did you visit? Do you remember his name?" Felix asked.
"Horace Slughorn." Harry said after a moment's thought.
"Professor Slughorn?" Mr. Weasley shouted, watching the others' reactions as he explained, "He used to teach us, Molly and me. He's a brilliant Potions master, and I guess that's why we can't let him fall to the other side?"
After dinner, the adults went to their rooms for a meeting, while the children sat in the living room in discontent. "At least I have you guys with me." Penelope said while scratching Crookshanks chin, the cat comfortably lying on her lap.
...
Meanwhile, hundreds of miles away, in an old building. Large bushes of flowers were overgrown with thorns from lack of tending, casting messy and twisted black shadows in the background, and the surrounding area is deserted and remote.
A bug did not learn from its companions as it flew straight into the old castle to look for food. It crawled through the ancient, mottled walls and climbed up the beams of the house, and peered with its compound eyes at the solemn, oppressive crowd below in the dim light.
"Sizzle~"
The bug was burned to ashes by a sudden rush of energy.
Severus Snape is attending a meeting of Death Eaters here.
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