The dragon flapped its wings happily against the air and rose higher and higher, an excited gasp escaping its mouth.
"You want to fly?" Felix muttered to himself on the dragon's back, "Then fly, I'll show you where to go."
His words were relayed to the dragon beneath him in a peculiar form, and the dragon let out an unrestrained roar high in the sky before flapping its wings and soaking up the golden haze above the clouds as it flew towards Hogwarts Castle.
On the other side, the wizards of Diagon Alley hadn't yet figured out what had happened.
A few minutes earlier, a large hole had suddenly blasted open in the roof of the Gringotts, and a loud roar had instantly attracted the attention of half of the street, who had all shifted their eyes to witness an old, scarred dragon crawling out of the hole, it first poked its head out, then its bloodied wings and claws that were wrapped in chains, and finally, the huge dragon lay on its back on the roof, tilting its head and remaining still for a few seconds like a giant decoration of a whole alternative genre.
Fred and George looked out from the first floor of Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes and made surprised noises.
"Is that the dragon that guards the vault? Well, I've always wanted to see it in person."
"Oh come on, our family vault has no chance of being guarded by a dragon - wow! It looks so cool, how about we find Lupin and rent the dragon magic lamp?" One of them suggested.
"I like that idea," said another similar voice, "It has to be over twenty feet, I remember Professor Hap bringing it to demonstrate at the Quidditch World Cup, and we haven't seen it after that, it's a waste."
More than thirty Aurors showed up, they had stood guard nearby for a while now, but none of them made a move. The dragon threw back its head and spat out a ball of flame, frightening the people in the street and causing them to scream in terror as they stumbled away, afraid of being caught in the crossfire. But the dragon stomped hard on its feet and used its strength to spread its bloody wings, flapping it hard to fly, soaring higher and higher as it turned into a black dot.
It didn't take long for Ms. Bones to emerge from inside, fully intact, calmly directing Aurors to take over the scene.
The large hole that had been broken in the roof of the Gringotts was quickly repaired, and Ms. Bones returned back as if nothing had happened, except for the presence of two more Aurors at the entrance to the Gringotts Bank.
Fred and George withdrew their satisfied gaze and made their way down the stairs. The shop was piled high with an array of merchandise and littered with noisy, moving knick-knacks, but there were no visitors in sight - the customers had all run off to see what all the fuss was about. The two men looked at the posters on the window, and remained quiet for a while, before speaking in unison.
"A joint announcement from the Ministry of Magic and Future World-"
"You think that notice -"
The two men blinked and laughed.
Early in the morning today the Ministry of Magic employees had delivered a notice to every shop in Diagon Alley, inviting all shopkeepers to the Sword Castle on the weekends to discuss important matters. But they had actually known the inside story earlier, when Penelope (whom the twins now loved and affectionately called 'Percy's Secret Prober') had revealed that Percy had recently been busy perfecting a lengthy report on the future of the magical world and the trading plans that would be available to muggles, with a list of goods ranging from potions, books, magical items, clothing, food, and many other categories.
It was a massive plan, covering every aspect, with enough detail to make a first-time reader's head turn in two.
"This whole business cannot go around the Future World, and I applied to Lupin to take charge of this part of work," said Penelope grumpily, " otherwise it might possibly take a few years before I could meet your brother regularly ... Oh, are you asking me what will I do now after getting this job? Nitpicking his reports, for sure!"
"Apparently, she enjoys it." Fred concluded.
Since the wizard muggle negotiations hadn't really started yet, right now it was only the first step in the whole plan.
Outside Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes, Tonks, Ron, and Collins entered following a few customers with a laugh.
"The vigilante mission was cancelled," Tonks said matter-of-factly, looking at her bright pink hair, you can tell she was in a good mood, "Everyone was worried earlier, Scrimgeour advised Ms. Bones not to take any chances, but she still insisted ... good thing it turned out not too bad." She said looking around with great interest.
"What's the deal with that dragon?" Fred asked.
"They said it was an accident, old age or something." Ron said.
"That doesn't sound very convincing." George said.
"Well, it's not like they had a fight in there, is it?" Ron shrugged and rummaged through his pocket and pulled out a wizard's chess piece, letting it spin in his fingertips.
Fred raised an eyebrow.
"If I go check the shop for dancing wizard pieces now, I won't find a knight missing, will I?"
"Go ahead and look for it." Ron said, "By the way, I was just about to say that I learned Animagus and became one ... Did Ginny snitch about it to you guys?"
"You became Animagus?" Collins remarked in surprise.
Half a beat slower, Tonks fondly withdrew her gaze from a doll that could punch people and asked for confirmation, "Animagus?" Her hair was beginning to transition to dazzling violet colour.
"Pretty easy." Ron said, pretending like he didn't care much about it.
"That's a fair point," George said with a nod, "I know ... many of them who became Animagus individually," he turned his head to Fred, "How many again? Harry, Hermione, Neville, the little girl from the Abbott family, I can't count them all."
"I don't know, but Cedric's been holding on to Transfiguration Today a lot lately." Fred replied with a poker face.
The raised hair on Ron's head drooped.
"Will you guys stop demolishing your own brother down?" Ron complained in a small voice when Tonks and Collins were excitedly looking through the shop's merchandise.
Fred and George looked at each other and said in unison, "Sorry - no."
Ron held up the wizard's chess piece in his hand and muttered, "Did you see these two guys? Remember their hateful faces, I'm going to get my revenge back sooner or later, but I can only depend on you in this mission."
...
The dragon flew all the way north, relishing its hard-won freedom. Standing on its broad back, Felix briefly healed the dragon's bloody wounds with his magic, removing the chains one by one, before opening his eyes to look at the distant view of the clouds.
He stroked the long spikes on the dragon's spine with one hand, looking like a captain holding up a mast.
"Fly a little steadier." He instructed.
They swept past towns and fields painted in grey and green one by one, and soon the scenery became monotonous and repetitive. Felix called the Niffler out of his silver pocket watch to play cards. After having experienced flying carpet rides in the Arctic, Valen soon adapted, and ran around excitedly on the dragon's back, the huge spikes acting like a pillar to her.
"You've lost again, Valen." Felix said smugly.
Valen's dark eyes stared into the air in front of her, and the Niffler Phantom that had transformed from its wizard card was knocked off its feet by a single, plain spell, tumbling a dozen times and leaving a trail of smoke behind it. She smacked her lips, feeling that something was wrong, and she looked at Felix suspiciously.
"I didn't cheat." Felix said as he swore.
Valen fumbled through the hand of cards, trying to find the flaw. It was a new deck, with some new cards added to the original, so what the Great Demon King used might be cards that added to increase playability. That was true, and Valen found quite a few cards from it that shone gold when they activated their effects, which she particularly liked.
But even after playing it, her win rate plummeted.
"Kee!"
Valen couldn't figure out why on her own, so she decided to find a chance to ask Hermione. The sun's level lowered once again and the golden light on the clouds grew dimmer as the dragon began to descend, and Valen ran up to the dragon's head, her weight was like a feather to the dragon and had absolutely no effect on it.
Valen could spot a cluster of lofty castle buildings amidst the mountains.
Felix patted the dragon's spine, "Your identity is sensitive now. Er, not a lot actually, but to cut down on the hassle, I'll cast a spell to disguise you before I send you to Charlie."
The dragon growled, indicating that it understood.
Do whatever you want.
Then it began to shrink dramatically in size and Valen rushed her way back and climbed onto Felix's shoulder to look down, the huge dragon, which was the size of a small plaza, shrunk from thirty or thirty-five feet long to half that, and soon it began to struggle to land on the ground.
The dragon whimpered twice and struggled to keep its cloudy eyes open.
"Don't worry." Felix stood in the air next to it and casually reassured it, then gave an instruction, "Fold back your wings."
The dragon - not quite a dragon now, it looked only twice the size of Valen, the shrunken dragon obediently folded its wings and then fell straight down, and was caught in Felix's hand. With its wings folded, it looked even smaller and a little pitiful.
Felix dropped towards the ground, and as he descended to a certain height, he made a few gestures with his empty hand, and the Hogwarts defences did not stop him as he continued his descent.
Inside the castle, Professor McGonagall flipped through the documents, she had just been in contact with Madame Maxime and the two had exchanged information about the precautions and opening times of their respective schools, the British Ministry of Magic had been making one move after another for some time now and using it as a reference, the French and some European Ministries of Magic had begun to leave the International Confederation of Wizards behind and made their contacts with their local Muggle governments.
She heard a knock on the window and looked up to see Felix waving at her from outside the window.
"You're now Deputy Headmaster, Felix." Professor McGonagall pushed open the window in annoyance and glared at him as he entered through the window from outside, Valen had jumped down first and stayed away from Felix, she didn't want to be lectured along with him.
Professor McGonagall led Felix over to the table, saying in exasperation as they walked along, "... What should I do if someone sees you like this, and what do you have in your hand?"
"A lizard." Felix said calmly, as two sparks of fire erupted from the dragon's nostrils.
Professor McGonagall ignored his gibberish and lowered her head to carefully examine the creature that was half sprawled on the small table flapping its wings in confusion, then her two eyebrows knitted together firmly.
"Is this a ... dragon? Still a Ukrainian Ironbelly one at that?"
"Ahem, if anyone else asks, I'll just say its a mutated lizard, which has some questionable origins." Felix said honestly, and Professor McGonagall glared at him with an expression that said she wouldn't stop until she got an answer. "Well, it came from the Gringotts." He explained the situation briefly.
Professor McGonagall frowned at first, then her eyebrows relaxed.
"The Goblin Brotherhood, another goblin subversive group that operating in secret?" By subversion, she naturally implied subverting wizards.
"Not really," Felix shook his head, "they at least operate quite openly and promote a philosophy that doesn't advocate violence, at least on the surface." He said to Professor McGonagall, "That's a rare thing to find anymore among goblins."
Bodrig the Boss-Eyed didn't want the peace talks to go smoothly and intended for the dragon guarding the vault to make some noise; of course, he didn't care if a few wizards died in the process, it was all an accident anyway. Felix didn't care much either.
Professor McGonagall stayed out of the Ministry of Magic affairs and, knowing that it wouldn't affect the negotiations with the goblins, she turned her attention to other matters.
"Beauxbatons and Durmstrang are in a similar situation like us, their Ministry of Magic is secretly in contact with their local Muggle government and the word is not released to the public yet," she glanced at Felix with a small smile, "What you did the other day has affected not only the choices made in Britain but other countries as well. "
Felix nodded, the results were not unexpected.
At the beginning of the process, the Ministry of Magic, being to openly communicate with the Muggle government; then Hogwarts and the British Ministry of Magic had attracted the attention of the world, including the International Confederation of Wizards, who were watching every move made over here, waiting for the outcome of the first official negotiations to come out.
If it is acceptable, then this negotiation may soon become the benchmark for communication between the magical and non-magical communities. Felix had spent the last two days at the Ministry of Magic meeting a number of visitors sent by other countries.
"On top of that, Uagadou has taken a reference from Hogwarts and set up shelters around the school where some of the exposed wizards are temporarily staying."
"Are they those semi-public mediums, soothsayers, and occult cultists?"
"I've heard that even the magician muggles receive a lot of harassment." Professor McGonagall said oddly, "There are also some wizards who stay in the tribes, which are relatively exclusive and inaccessible to outsiders. The Castelobruxo School of Magic in Brazil has no need to worry for the time being as it has been hidden in the rainforest where conditions are harsh."
"What about Ilvermorny? You left out this school."
"Ilvermorny is not like any other school." A look of sadness spread across Professor McGonagall's face, "It's not a good environment for wizards to survive in - you know, their little wizards always act a little different, and the local muggles - they're called as No-Maj -- have also launched a type of search to find wizards around them ..." she shook her head, "There are companies that openly advertise in the newspapers wanting to recruit wizards; of course there are those who oppose this idea in muggle communities, various large and small organizations, groups of a religious nature, popping up, both registered and operating in secret."
"So the Magical Congress of the United States of America was compelled to order a full recall of all students to avoid accidents."
Felix pondered for a moment, "The problem of the American wizards is hard to solve, and right now it is not the right time either. We have to wait for Amelia to reach an initial agreement with the Muggle government before promoting it under the name of the International Confederation of Wizards - the point of the Confederation's existence disappeared for the most part with the complete invalidation of the Statute of Secrecy, and a new reason must have to be found for it."
"What function do you want it to fulfil?" Professor McGonagall asked.
"Well, it needs to be transformed from its previous function of concealing wizards to one that mediates between wizards and non-wizards and makes regulations that are tailored to pass around the world." Felix said.
Professor McGonagall's eyes flickered with a trace of uncertainty, she felt alienated about that future, and she glanced at the dragon that was struggling to adjust to its new size, the uncertainty in her eyes faded and grew resolute once again.
Felix's gaze turned to the portraits of past Headmasters on the wall in the office, and he walked over to a golden frame in which Dumbledore winked at him.
"Can you utter a witty phrase or two now, one that I haven't heard before?" Felix asked.
"Not for this kind of challenge," the Dumbledore in the portrait smiled, "There are too many ways to slip through the cracks."
Felix sized him up, "Also, would you like me to add a sweet shop to your painting?"
Dumbledore laughed again. "Oh, not necessary, the little ones at Hogwarts - the students of the Magic Painting Club painted a huge Hogsmeade painting that featured not only the Honeydukes but also Madam Puddifoot's Tea Shop and the Three Broomsticks Inn. That painting is hanging in the Trophy Room."
Felix nodded as he thought about something and spoke.
"... The Resurrection Stone was destroyed after you left, and what you gave to Snape is still in his possession, and he has a new job that may keep him busy for a decade or so."
Dumbledore said with slight distress, "So, Severus' retirement plans will have to be postponed?" But there was little sincerity in his expression, and he even looked a little pleased by the situation.
"I suppose so." Felix said.
"And another thing," he said, "Aberforth is planning to sell the Hog's Head Inn when the school opens up, and Classroom Seven and the Slytherin Chamber will be reopened at the same time, which both will need someone to keep an eye on them."
"I hope he sells the Inn for a good price." Dumbledore said.
Felix smiled, "Not unless he cleans the place properly, I can smell the goat stench every time I pass by and the floors don't look like they've been cleaned in centuries - so don't get your hopes up."
"Hope is a precious thing for someone who is going through a hard time." Dumbledore said calmly, his eyes turned to Professor McGonagall's direction.
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