"How are you, Prime Minister." Ms. Bones said with a serious look, "This is Felix Hap, he's-"
"I am Professor of Ancient Runes at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry." Felix said. The Prime Minister stood up and shook his hand hesitantly, his mind increasingly confused about Felix's identity. A bodyguard or a confidant, perhaps?
Ms. Bones sat in the hard wooden chair directly opposite the Prime Minister and Felix sat next to her, fiddling with his fingers with his head slightly lowered, so the Prime Minister could only focus his gaze on Bones.
"Do you know?" The Prime Minister said with a poker face, "Although we have met twice, and including several times with Fudge before you, and even I have a portrait that picks its nose and yawns hanging behind my seat in my office every day ..." his eyes bulged slightly. "But I still have a faint hope that perhaps you are a group of clever liars, or that I am delusional from the exhaustion I felt after countless painstaking efforts to sit on the Prime Minister's seat ..."
"Mr. Prime Minister -"
"I tried hard to hide everything, but all illusions were ruined today! The country is in chaos! Over fifty county governors have blown up the phones at the Prime Minister's residence, reporting to me that there are a bunch of guys in fancy dress flying overhead and doing all sorts of magic tricks - a cow in Kent has leaped the Thames in full view of over two thousand people! Goodness, even my niece crying about the fact that the gerbil I gave her turned into a teacup and shattered, I have never been this helpless."
"I'm sorry, did you say gerbil?" Felix asked politely, the Prime Minister's niece should be a potential little wizard, which would be good news and beneficial to the negotiations that would follow.
"Fudge turned the teacup on the table into a gerbil at his first meeting with me." The Prime Minister said through gritted teeth.
"Oh." Felix trailed off, tapping his index finger on the arm of his chair.
The Prime Minister regained his senses and he straightened his tie, though he was panting at the moment from talking too much in a single breath.
Ms. Bones finally found a chance to speak, and she got straight to the point, "That's why we're here. The wizards can no longer remain hidden, the integration of the two societies is inevitable."
"The integration of the two societies," the Prime Minister said slowly, "how?" He looked completely calm now.
"In the past, we only revealed our identities in front of the ruling Prime Minister, which worked the best for our secrecy, but after what happened today, it is clear that the old ways will no longer work," Ms. Bones said in a mild tone: "We both need to work closely together: you need to explain to the people why there is a group of wizards living on British soil and I likewise need to pacify wizards who are accustomed to the Statute of Secrecy to adapt to a very different environment."
"I did use the powers of the Prime Minister to cooperate with you," the Prime Minister said stiffly, "like ... like that little grey wolf Black's wanted notice, Tom Riddle's wanted notice, and a gas pipe leak ... It's not logical, I paid the price, but what was the result? The whole country got into a mess."
"You don't get the gravity of the problem!" Ms. Bones showed impatience for the first time, "It's not a question of who cooperates with whom, when we first met I spent an hour explaining to you the reason behind the wizards' secrecy and the Ministry of Magic's existence. So it should be clear to you that over twenty thousand wizards living in this land, whose ancestors owned this place even before you did, before the Statute of Secrecy officially came into effect, wizards and muggles lived together, and legends still circulate throughout the country."
"But you withdrew," the Prime Minister said nervously, "I haven't seen a single piece of news about wizards in any of the publicly circulated newspapers - maybe after today there will be - -and now you want the two societies to integrate, how am I going to convince the people that you are a presence hiding in the shadows that keep order in Britain? Not to mention that I have to consider the opinions of Parliament, the Church, and the army, who previously knew nothing about you, maybe one or two families know, but would they dare to speak out? Well, unless-" His expression changed.
"Unless what?"
"Alas, I cannot possibly speak with empty words, and perhaps you do not know our attitude towards refugees-"
"Wizards are not refugees!"
"Yes, yes, I know, but to the general populace it may not seem to make much difference, especially since you all can travel from one place to another, and who knows if you might suddenly come out of their fireplaces one day, gosh, the idea that a wizard could steal something may amuse you to hear, since you can conjure up gold coins, but you can't stop the populace from thinking like that... ..."
Felix didn't laugh, and neither Ms. Bones did. Because it is true that there are quite a few thieves in the wizarding community, a sizeable number, though most of them are not interested in muggle possessions because the penalties for breaking the Statute of Secrecy are much more severe than petty theft.
"... I think," the Prime Minister pulled out a green, diagonally striped handkerchief and wiped the sweat from his forehead, "that if wizards could be brought under the authority of the government in name and under the supervision of the law, while swearing allegiance to the Queen -- of course, in name only -- I think the situation would be much easier."
Ms. Bones stared, and managed to keep herself from turning her head to look at Felix, who had anticipated the Prime Minister's reaction to it entirely:
"We have to win the Muggle Prime Minister over." Felix analysed, "I know he can't quite make the call on this, the cabinet, the parliament, the military, the civil society, and the Queen who lives in Buckingham Palace, they all have their own sphere of influence, but the Prime Minister is the most important one, he links up all of them and has equal ability to exert influence over those people."
"Ugh, I don't know how to convince him." Mrs. Bones rubbed her forehead wearily.
"Convince?" Felix looked at her seriously, "That is the outcome we wish to achieve. But you'll have to be assertive through the process."
Bones looked at him hesitantly, "But - what if -"
"Oh, Amelia. We worry about war, but won't the other side be afraid of us too? But on second thought, we're not actually afraid of war, we're just worried about triggering a war that shouldn't have started due to the other side's arrogance and miscalculation of the situation."
"That's not exactly what we have been discussing." Bones objected.
"That was a tactic with the general public, and we can certainly take a softer approach and thus gain widespread support. But with politicians? You have to treat them as completely different creatures, when you take a step back, you have to demand something from the other side. It's almost engraved in the other side's veins."
"Concessions represent weakness?"
"Or it could be a sign of an exchange of benefits."
Bones grunted.
"You seem to know a lot about them."
"Just flipped through a few 'story books' before heading over here, and all I can say is that there's some great stuff in them." Felix said vaguely.
...
"Mr. Prime Minister, If you insist on that notion," Ms. Bones said sternly, "then there is no way we can negotiate. We are open to negotiations which define the obligations that both sides should fulfil, but will never give in to any group or individual, even in the name!"
The Prime Minister did not expect to receive a sharp rebuttal. There was a moment of silence.
"As I recall, you have an organization similar to the United Nations?" He asked cautiously.
"The International Confederation of Wizards." Ms. Bones said with pursed lips.
"That's right, the International - ahem - Federation of Wizards, that's what it is, Fudge told me about it once." The Prime Minister asked hopefully, "What do they think?"
"They can't decide yet," Felix suddenly interjected, "they're worried about war."
"War?" The Prime Minister called up.
"Yes," Felix blinked as if he had found something interesting, "You may not know this, not all magical ministries maintain friendly relations with their local governments, and Britain is considered quite friendly in that respect. In fact, there are quite a few Ministries of Magic and government relations that were at one time so strained that they have no qualms about speculating on each other with the utmost malice and weighing up the comparison of power between the two sides, for example, I've heard the word nuke more than once ..."
"Nuke?" The Prime Minister's eyes bulged out completely, and he jumped up excitedly, propping his hands on the table and spluttering, "Do they expect a nuclear war to break out of this?"
"Well, they do have that fear." Felix spread his hands and said 'frankly', "Some of the Ministry of Magic cut ties with the Muggle government long ago and their access to information is quite limited ... I, for one, have never been worried about a nuclear strike. "
"Of course not!" The Prime Minister roared, "No leader of any country would ever agree to detonate a nuclear bomb where their own people live, much less allow another country to do so! This is utter nonsense, and if anyone dared to issue an order like that, his political enemies would go absolutely crazy with laughter, and an angry populace would tear him apart."
Felix glanced at Bones without moving.
Ms. Bones got the signal, and she cleared her throat and said, "Mr. Prime Minister, no one wants war, and it is with the utmost sincerity that we hope that both sides will reach a consensus and do their best to move towards negotiations. In the meantime, in order to avoid unnecessary conflict, we will recall the wizards who are reclusive in Muggle society, fully retreat and conceal ourselves."
The Prime Minister nodded, he did sense the sincerity of the other side.
"However ... I hope you will not take too long to consider this, on the one hand, I cannot suppress the will of the wizarding populace for long, on the other hand, our retreat will cause a void in the local magical power, which is not necessarily a good thing at this critical time right now."
"A void in power? What do you mean?" The Prime Minister asked tactfully.
"During the period of our strict closure strategy, there could be an influx of other wizarding forces." Ms. Bones warned gravely, "It could be foreign wizards - such as those from Africa and America, who, as Felix mentioned before, are not on good terms with the local governments and may flee to Britain to take refuge; dark wizards who have been driven out by Aurors and have to hide in the gutters may also take advantage of the opportunity to make waves, but it is the Acolytes of Grindelwald who are most likely to make the most of it."
When he heard the first point, the Prime Minister had merely frowned; he certainly trusted his own wizards more than outsiders, except that as a seasoned politician, he knew the art of negotiation as well as compromise and didn't mind using this as an excuse to gain an advantage, but when he heard that the Ministry of Magic intended to let the dark wizards go unchecked, he immediately sat up in silence.
"This is a threat!" He shouted, "You've been hiding this trick for a long time, haven't you? You've been secretly breeding dark wizards so that at this moment you can-"
"What a silly thing you are saying!" Ms. Bones said angrily.
"Don't lie to me, I don't know much about you guys." The Prime Minister said, making a distressed look of recollection, "But, that, that - your previous Minister of Magic revealed quite a bit of insider knowledge in several conversations - Knockturn Alley, isn't it? Once Fudge grumbled that the Aurors had seized another batch of cursed items from Knockturn Alley, again and again ... You surely won't deny it, right!"
"I would not deny it." Ms. Bones said calmly, "In the official definition, Knockturn Alley is an alternative magical business district to Diagon Alley, and it sells a wide variety of items in a far wider variety of categories than Diagon Alley. Many of these items have no practical use, or are second-hand or functionally defective ... Naturally, they also include some dangerous materials. It is the last category of goods traded that law enforcement officials are cracking down on."
"... Different people have a different sense of what it is; if it is just a student or a law-abiding civilian, then that person may never set foot in Knockturn Alley for the rest of their life; but if his interest is sufficiently unique, such as an interest in old magical items, cheap and novel gadgets, and rare magical materials, or simply wants to get rid of a rare kind of plant disease that the conventional methods fail to help ... they may well try their luck there. Of course - you'll have to keep an eye on your wallet and your own safety at all times. There are always some strange and scary people walking around there. But they're not breaking any laws, so Auror is unable to deal with them."
"Sounds like a large grocery market that lacks regulation." The Prime Minister said in a dry voice.
"Is your grocery market completely free of stolen goods, drug abuse, and second-hand guns?" Ms. Bones asked.
The prime minister stopped talking.
"The most common people in Knockturn Alley are petty thieves - either smugglers or those obsessed with dark magic, the latter also classified as dark wizards, but they can be a lot cuter than the really cruel, evil dark wizards, and at least the Aurors don't have to worry too much about a killing curse flying from across the street when they're enforcing the law. " Bones concluded.
"What does a real dark wizard look like?" The Prime Minister asked.
"Well, if you rephrase this question - what does a dark wizard with a strong animosity towards muggles look like?" Ms. Bones held up her monocle, "You should have seen what he can do this morning, even though he didn't even show his face in person, and it was the Acolytes under his thumb who made the disturbance."
"Grindelwald? Oh yes, I am mean to ask you that, you mean he is the culprit behind this whole thing? An extreme subversive person?" The Prime Minister asked eagerly, "I watched the interview of the guy who caused the tornado in front of the Houses of Parliament, several times!" Once again he could not suppress his anger and slammed his fist down on his desk.
"Why didn't you guys arrest him?"
"If you knew what he had done, you wouldn't be asking that question." Ms. Bones said seriously, she waved her wand and a bulging folder appeared on the desk, "Here is some information we have compiled, his philosophies, his claims, his influence ..."
The Prime Minister opened the folder and pulled out a newspaper clipping from inside, it seemed to be quite old, and the clipping looked a little yellow.
"-It's worth mentioning that there are significant differences in the criteria used to evaluate the combat power of wizards and muggles. I know that muggle armies rely more on collective strength, whereas wizards -" Bones sighed, "some of them do all sorts of incredible things with just a wand."
"Like this man?" The Prime Minister asked less comfortably, frowning at the moving picture of the man with the evil aura.
"And Dumbledore."
"The guy on the news said he was dead."
"... Yes, sigh, if only he is still around, he has foiled Grindelwald's plots to rule the world many times." Ms. Bones said with a sigh, she saw the Prime Minister's mouth open and seemingly jaw drop as she continued, "That doesn't mean he's no longer unrestrained though, we have an equally great Archmage on our side who has touched the essence of magic in certain areas, he - oh, the researchers at the Ministry have borrowed Professor Hap's method of grading magic, and the chart is attached to the document."
"Professor Hap? Is he a researcher in this field?" The Prime Minister turned his attention to Felix, who showed little presence.
"No, he is the only one who can stand up against Grindelwald at the moment, although he is still young and only -" Ms. Bones paused and turned her head to look at Felix, seeming equally taken aback by the number that she is about to say, " If I remember correctly, you are barely 26 years old, right?"
Felix nodded, "If you compare magic to science, the only people who can master the power could be the scientists of the magical world, and I happen to be quite gifted. There's no need to make a fuss about it."
The Prime Minister murmured, "Yeah, 26 is nothing, quite a few scientists have published the most important papers of their lives at that age, like Einstein, I think I remember him doing something amazing at 26 ..."
"He came up with the theory of relativity in general." Felix reminded him kindly.
...
"Grindelwald came close to destroying a city in the twenties?" The Prime Minister asked incredulously as he flipped through the information, glancing down at the parchment quickly, " It's still Paris? How on earth did he do that?"
"An out-of-control magic." Felix said softly.
"Fiendfyre." His fingertips manipulated a small flame, "Even in the magical world it is classified as an extremely evil curse, it is considered a curse because it senses living creatures and targets them preferentially, it is difficult to extinguish, you have to wait for it to burn itself out - oh, I mean it cannot be extinguished by conventional means, but it has a counter-curse."
The Prime Minister's eyes fixed dead on the small flame in his hand without a word.
"What I'm holding is just a normal fire, no different from a lighter's fire." Felix said.
"Felix, are you sure he used a Fiendfyre?" At this point, Bones asked suspiciously, "The magic community is still not certain about that."
"He mastered the Fiendfyre." Felix's tone was even, "Grindelwald seems to be very good in fusion magic, like the one I saw in the profile, which I suspect was a combination of an advanced form of shield charm and the Fiendfyre curse. Not a random patchwork, but a fusion of the properties of different magical spells, possibly mixed with something else ... thought he must have studied the magic itself extremely deeply."
The Prime Minister gulped and continued to read the information with his head down, asking a question or two every now and then.
...
As they walked out of the Prime Minister's residence, Bones breathed a sigh of relief.
"Not a wasted trip, although the Prime Minister didn't promise to be on our side ... but at least he promised to do his best to facilitate the negotiations, and he asked us to continue to maintain the wizarding order in the meantime, which, er, we had intended to do."
"That's only the first step," Felix said calmly, raising an eyebrow, "The Prime Minister is considered half aware of the existence of the wizarding society, and with past experiences of communication, he's at least not going to shout at the top of his lungs, but he's dealing with a group that knows nothing about wizards, and this Prime Minister has never been known to be decisive and toughness ... Let's wait and see."
"Ugh, I'm tempted to step down."
"That doesn't sound like something that would come out of your mouth." Felix turned his head in surprise.
"I mean it," Ms. Bones said seriously, "I'm not intending to run away, I just feel more and more that I'm not capable of leading the people through the crisis at hand, so why don't you become Minister of Magic instead, and I'll assist you as Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement afresh ..."
"Don't, I don't have such an idea."
"Felix ..."
"Well, let's talk openly and honestly." Felix stared at Bones clearly in the eyes, "At this point, I can't stay out of it, I do intend to grab power - but not the one from the Minister of Magic, do you understand?"
"So-" Bones blinked, in shock, "Supreme Mugwump of the International Confederation of Wizards?"
"That's right."
"But what about Akingbade and Grindelwald's vow?"
"O Amelia, it is certainly not now. Let us take a longer view: even if the wizarding and muggle societies reach a reconciliation, will the conflicts and contradictions just disappear? From the moment the peace treaty is signed between the two sides, it will take at least until the new generation to fully grow up for us to see the first results."
In the darkness of the night, Felix poured out his thoughts as Ms. Bones listened quietly.
"... Whether they are little wizards or muggle children, they may all still be in their infancy at the moment, teething and toddling. But they will eventually grow up in the new world order, and that is exactly what I hope to see - neither as strange and frightened of magic as the muggles of today nor overwhelmed about living in the sunlight as the wizards of today."
There was a silence and stillness as the moonlight shone on Ms. Bones' longing and resolute face.
"Then go ahead and do it, Felix, and I will give you my full support." She said.
Felix smiled.
"We have taken the first step tonight: giving the International Confederation of Wizards and other countries a kick in the arse and successfully switching the conflict from the vast subject of muggles and wizards to an internal national matter. If all goes well, we could well be the first success story of its kind!"
"And you will use this to gain great fame and step onto a bigger stage?" Ms. Bones asked with some leap of faith.
"Yes, so no more slacking off, aren't you going to give a speech to all British wizards, add me to the list."
"Don't you want to slack off again?" Her eyes widened.
"Ahem, I'm still in the adjustment phase." Felix averted his eyes and said with a twinkle in his eye, "Come on. We'll go and talk to the undercover agent who's been lurking behind the press, and after that, I've got a run to Hogsmeade ... There's so much going on that quite a few of my research projects have been forced to be put on hold."
--------------
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