Ten minutes ago.
In the Hogsmeade village, the challenge continued.
According to the procedure, Felix would explain the ancient runes in the morning, and take some time for the challenge at noon (to demonstrate his strength), while the rest of the afternoon would be reserved for the experts in ancient runes, the professors of the magic school and the headmasters, to ask questions to which Felix would answer.
But because they had just experienced the ‘mysterious disappearance of a dozen dark wizards’ and the ‘dispersal of dark clouds using illumination by Felix’, the crowd of wizards is now obviously dazed, and no matter what Felix said, they all looked at him robotically, not quite recovered from the shock they had just experienced.
None of them dared to step up to the challenge either, and many of the wizards who had signed magical contracts cried out in frustration.
Felix simply announced that the challenge session would be moved to tomorrow, and asked the crowd to take a break before starting the questioning session in two hours. The wizards dispersed, needing to digest everything they had seen in the morning, and specifically to mentally redefine the importance of ancient rune discipline.
A handful of wizards and all the journalists stayed behind, and they surrounded Felix with all sorts of questions.
“Mr. Hap, that lava-like flame you just used is also a form of ancient magic?”
“That’s right.”
“It’s so powerful! So all those people died?”
Felix glanced at the journalist, “You could think so.” The journalist’s breath choked, and he gave a wry smile.
“Mr. Hap, I’ve seen illumination in an ancient rune booklet, but its description is nowhere near as outrageous as you’ve shown it to be …?”
“Ancient magic’s power varies from person to person.” Felix explained patiently, “It is difficult to control, but it is also less constrained …”
“Mr. Hap! Ouch, don’t squeeze! I’m a senior official of the French Ministry of Magic, and I’ve spoken to you through correspondence-” said a short, chubby man, his hat shoved off to reveal a few strands of flowing, thinning hair.
Felix shot him a double glance, “Giles Fitzgerald?”
“It’s me, Maxwell asked me to say hello on his behalf.” The man yawned slightly, revealing the top of his bare head, and said, “The French Ministry of Magic is interested in adding a new subject in the Beauxbatons Academy of Magic, can we talk about it?”
Felix’s eyes lit up, and he looked around for the impressive tall figure, “Is Madame Maxime not here?”
“She got caught up in something tedious and will probably arrive tomorrow, but the deputy headmaster of Beauxbatons is here …” The man got so squeezed that he looked like he would throw up at any moment. He had one hand over his head while a short, stubby finger of the other hand pointed at a man a dozen feet away.
“No problem.” Felix said.
At the edge of Hogsmeade Square, Amelia Bones breathed a long sigh of relief, “Not too much trouble after all, what was the origin of those dozen dark wizards? Is there a record of them in our files?”
Kingsley replied, “There is too little information available, and they entered using the Apparition, these dark wizards aren’t stupid-”
“As it turns out, they were stupid.” Ms. Bones said snarkily.
After a moment she asked in a low voice, “Has there been any news from Mad-Eye Moody’s side?”
“No word has come through yet.” Kingsley said.
“That’s odd,” Ms. Bones said suspiciously, “we’ve purposely scheduled a day off and now the Ministry’s defence is as empty as it has ever been, it’s the best chance to take the Prophecy Orb … ”
Kingsley shrugged.
“Leave him be, there must be no disorder on his side, have Aurors and the Hit Wizards broaden their surveillance around Hogwarts.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“I don’t think Voldemort will show his face on this occasion either, lets’s just try to remove as many hidden dangers as possible.” Ms. Bones said with a smile, “Even not counting the Aurors and Hit Wizards, there are close to two or three thousand wizards in Hogsmeade village at the moment, many of whom are considered the elite among the wizards.”
The expression on her face froze at the sight of an Agilbert Fontaine, Headmaster of the Ilvermorny School, whose face had suddenly changed dramatically as he left with a grave expression.
“Let’s follow him and check-up.” With a slight hesitation, Ms. Bones said.
They watched as the Headmaster of Ilvermorny School went into a nearby makeshift tent, where Ms. Bones and Kingsley stood a few seconds later and called out twice without receiving any response, and instantly realized that something had gone wrong.
Ms. Bones cautiously lifted the curtain and Kingsley readied a magic spell in his hand, but there was no one inside.
The two looked at each other.
“Is it an Apparition? Or is it a Portkey? Kingsley, notify the Portkey office and the Accidental Magic Reversal Squad to come over and determine the approximate distance of travel at least …” Ms. Bones said seriously.
…
Ilvermorny School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, Headmaster’s office.
A figure suddenly appeared in the room, and Agilbert Fontaine rushed through the window with blinding speed as soon as he appeared.
“Headmaster Fontaine?” Jura Edmund, who had been walking Bethany in the garden, looked surprised and asked, “Didn’t you go to England? Why are you back so soon?”
Headmaster Fontaine hastily left with a simple statement, “The Snakewood Tree prohibitions have been triggered, I’m going over to check out.” And with that, he disappeared from their sight.
Jura’s expression became serious as he turned to Bethany and said, ” It must not be a trivial matter if Headmaster Fontaine has been alerted, I’ll follow him and check.”
“In case there is any danger -”
Jura hesitated and raised his arm, as a line of tiny runes started to emerge from the back of his wrist before a wand appeared out of thin air.
“Jura, this is what Mr. Hap told you to use in a pinch.” Bethany persuaded, “I’ll look for the other professors-”
“Now is a critical moment.” Jura said, gripping the wand, “Don’t worry, I’ll protect myself.”
On the other side, Headmaster Fontaine had appeared at the entrance of the school, where he paused briefly before running in the direction of the Snakewood Tree. He thought fast, every past headmaster had left protective magic on the Snakewood Tree, making it impossible for an ordinary student to destroy it, especially since it concerned a hidden secret that dated to more than three hundred years ago.
The students of Ilvermorny only knew that the leaves of the Snakewood Tree had powerful medical effects, but as a Headmaster and descendant of the original twelve Aurors, he knew much more inside news: one of the founders of the Ilvermorny School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, the witch Isolt Sayre, had once wielded the wand of Salazar Slytherin.
Headmaster Fontaine hurried on his feet, the hidden history of the past slowly flowed through his mind.
Isolt Sayre’s mother had been born into the Ancient House of Gaunt, a pure-blood family that descended from Salazar Slytherin, one of the four founders of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. However, her mother did not support the idea of pure blood like most of her family and moved out of the house at an early age.
She married her husband and had a lovely daughter, known as Isolt. The early years of Isolt’s childhood were peaceful and happy, with loving parents by her side, who were kind enough to quietly help their No-Maj neighbours, but all that was destroyed by a fire in which both of Isolt’s parents were killed.
The culprit was Isolt’s aunt, Gormlaith Gaunt, a cruel witch with a violent nature. She adopted Isolt at the age of five to raise her as a “proper” pure-blood witch. As Isolt grows up, she realizes the true nature of her aunt, and then finds an opportunity to steal her wand (she is not allowed to have one personally), and after some trouble, she travelled to New World (North America) on the Mayflower ship.
That wand is the heirloom of the Gaunt family – the snakewood wand of Salazar Slytherin.
Isolt then married her No-Maj husband in the New World and lived in peace for over a decade, and during that time she had founded the prototype of the Ilvermorny School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, but at that time her Aunt Gormlaith had finally found out about the residence of the increasingly famous Isolt, and Gormlaith Gaunt was enraged; she used the rules that had been designed in the Snakewood Wand when it was first made to order it into a dormant state using the Parseltongue, and then tried to kill Isolt and her family.
But she ultimately failed.
Isolt later buried the dormant wand in the ground outside the school and attempted to make her own wand. The following year, the spot where the snakewood wand was buried began to sprout into what later became the iconic ‘medical’ snakewood tree of Ilvermorny…
Headmaster Fontaine finally arrived at the location of the snakewood tree but was stunned by what he saw: it was completely destroyed and reduced to ashes.
A black-robed wizard with pale skin and blurred facial features gently stroked a glowing wand.
The Snakewood Wand!
A wand hand-crafted by Salazar Slytherin himself, a wand that had served as his companion and ranked only seventh in the previous sensational news, but Headmaster Fontaine had scoffed at it, for he had known from the start that the other wands might be fictional, but this one is certainly genuine. And it is plenty miraculous to rank first.
Voldemort’s heart is contented with the fact that he is currently holding the wand of the greatest of the four founders in his hand, and there is no hint of rejection from it. He could feel the wand of his ancestors cheering, the power of the wand echoing with his own magic as if urging him to use it as he saw fit.
There is no better wand for me than this one, and there is no one more worthy to use it than me … Voldemort thought, right now it is time to find a sacrifice worthy of it … He looked up at the sky, should Felix Hap be in Hogsmeade at this hour?
Voldemort gave a cold smile as he turned to leave –
“Stop!” Headmaster Fontaine shouted, and Voldemort’s red eyes fixed on him. Fontaine frowned, the man in front of him looked tall and thin, like a skeleton, his face oddly contorted, and the more he looked at him the more familiar he became …
“You are the dark wizard Voldemort?” He asked coldly.
“You may address me as the Dark Lord Voldemort-” Voldemort said politely.
“Whoever you are, leave the wand behind! It’s not yours.” Headmaster Fontaine shouted.
“It doesn’t belong to me? There could not be a more rightful owner for it than me.” Voldemort said contemptuously, “And if I say no?” He spread his hands lazily, the snakewood wand gleamed in his hands.
Headmaster Fontaine felt uneasy, but nonetheless, he withdrew his own wand out.
” Hehe!” Voldemort sneered, his red eyes glowed vividly as if they could ooze out blood, as he softly muttered, “It isn’t a disgrace to take you as a first sacrifice …”
“What did you say?”
“Avada Kedavra!”
Green light filled his entire field of vision.
“No!”
…
“No!”
Harry shouted out. His mind was in turmoil like someone had churned it with a knife. His vision flooded with green light, the colour of death, and he cried out at the same time as the other young man he saw in his mind, the one who looked familiar …
“Harry, wake up!”
Hermione shook him, and he barely opened his eyes to find himself on the floor, resting on the cold ground, a large shadow enveloping him above his head. It is Ron, who is arguing with Malfoy.
“What have you done to him, Malfoy? I knew you couldn’t be trusted!”
“I didn’t do anything!”
“It’s not him, Ron, it’s Harry’s scar.” Hermione said.
Harry blinked a few times, unable to take interest in their argument. His heart felt very heavy with the death of a man, the Headmaster of Ilvermorny. A bright green light still lingered in his mind, Ron, Hermione, and Malfoy’s faces were all strangely contorted, he looked around, Neville also had his wand in his grip and remained silent as a rock.
He tilted his head as Sirius and Snape ran over to him from a distance, the expression on Snape’s face seemed as anxious as Sirius’ …
Harry rubbed his forehead hard, the scar stung like a pinprick.
“Harry,” Hermione mumbled, “You can’t do this anymore.” She took a deep breath, ” You can’t afford to allow your mind to be invaded anymore-”
“Invade? Hermione, I can’t let the vital information slip out of my sight, and it’s not me being invaded, it’s me invading Voldemort’s mind!” Harry retorted irritably.
“But both are the same, your mind’s defences are already riddled with holes, and it will ruin the occlumency you’ve worked so hard on.” Hermione advised patiently.
“I can’t worry about that for now Hermione, we can talk about that later, we have more important things to do now.” Harry said, propping himself up, his hands touching the cold dirt, which lifted his spirits a little. He grabbed another handful and pressed it to his forehead, the ice-like touch eased the pain in his scar.
He lifted his head and looked at the castle iron gate in front of him.
“Harry, what did you see? Did he do something else?” Hermione asked in a low voice as she approached him.
“He killed the Headmaster of Ilvermorny.” Harry said woodenly.
Hermione covered her mouth in surprise, Ron and Malfoy lost their voices in unison, Neville’s eyes went wide, and Sirius and Snape, who had just arrived, were stunned in place. They stared at Harry in disbelief, as if they had heard the most ridiculous thing in the world.
It was Harry who had managed to snap out of it first, as he said urgently, “There’s something more important, Voldemort is coming.”
“What?”
“Voldemort is coming, he’s going to Hogsmeade to find Professor Hap!”
————
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