Daphne was optimistic.
She felt that maybe they could try communicating with Muggles and see if they might be accepted. Besides, they had so many classmates from Muggle families. Were the two sides really irreconcilable?
After hearing Daphne's thoughts, Rhys glanced at her but did not comment.
"What you and Professor White did is absolutely right. For now, we should maintain the Statute of Secrecy and stay hidden so they don't discover us. But I have a very important question. If wizards and Muggles really went to war, who would win and who would lose? We've seen the ultimate limits of magic before. Spells of that level of power would make Muggles think twice as well, wouldn't they?" Astoria said, then raised another question midway through.
"It's very complicated. That depends on how you define victory. But I can guarantee one thing. Wizards are by no means powerless to fight back. A full-scale war is almost impossible, but if that day ever came, I believe victory would belong to wizards."
As his understanding of the international situation deepened, Rhys felt that the so-called war between the magical and non-magical worlds simply did not really exist.
The magical world was not a single united bloc, and the non-magical world was even less so.
The possibility of the non-magical world uniting to attack the magical world was close to zero, because this was a matter of strategic balance. Wizards were a form of strategic power, especially when other countries did not have them.
Any government with normal thinking and leaders of average intelligence should understand that their own magical community was actually in a cooperative relationship with them. If their country had no wizards to protect it, who would defend them against enemy wizards' Imperius Curses?
So once the magical world was exposed, it would likely not trigger war, but it would bring the loss of independence. After that, it would be very difficult for them to live as freely as they did now. Muggles would probably try to control them, to infiltrate their ranks.
When that happened, the conflicts between pure-bloods, half-bloods, and Muggle-borns would likely become even sharper.
"I see…" Astoria blinked, a thoughtful light flashing in her eyes. "Then we really can deal with them and see what attitude the Muggle leaders have.
"If that doesn't work, and they insist on destroying us…" A hint of sharpness appeared in Astoria's gaze. "Then we'll kill those leaders first and replace them with people who are friendly to us. If necessary, we can use the Killing Curse and the Imperius Curse."
Rhys looked at Astoria with appreciation. He felt that the strategy this girl proposed was nothing short of brilliant.
"That's right. And we can go even further, directly infiltrate their governments and strangle the possibility of the magical world being exposed at its source," Rhys said casually, sharing his own idea.
Completely adhering to the Statute of Secrecy was downright foolish. The magical world should keep its existence hidden from the vast majority of Muggles, while letting only a very small number of key Muggles know the truth.
"Alright, hurry up and eat. If you don't start now, there'll be nothing left but dessert," Rhys said as he removed the anti-eavesdropping charm, gesturing for Daphne and Astoria to get on with their meal.
After dinner, he sent a letter to Mr. Jamison, then began tinkering with a magical device he had designed after drawing inspiration from Muggle technology.
"Muggles believe sound is transmitted in the form of waves. Waves create vibrations, so as long as you transmit or replicate those vibrations, you can transmit sound." Rhys planned to use this idea to create a long-distance communication device specifically for witches and wizards.
While Rhys was designing his magical version of the telephone, Jamison Greengrass also received his letter.
He dared not treat a letter from that man lightly and prepared to deal with it at once.
So early the next morning, he went straight to the Minister of Magic's office.
"Mr. Greengrass, what brings you here?" Bones was a little surprised by Jamison's visit. The man had been extremely busy lately, attending meetings everywhere, barely keeping his feet on the ground because of the Quidditch World Cup final and the matches that followed.
"There's something I'm very curious about," Jamison said without beating around the bush. "Minister Bones, do you communicate with the Muggle side, stay in contact with the Muggle minister?"
Bones frowned, then her eyes suddenly widened.
"Oh no, I completely forgot about that! But it shouldn't be a problem, right? We only contact them when something major happens on our side—"
"So you really do keep in touch with the Muggles?!" Jamison asked in astonishment.
Bones: "…"
After a moment of silence, she first glanced at the office door. Only after making sure it was tightly shut did she tell Jamison the truth.
The Ministry of Magic had a long-standing tradition of contacting the Muggle Prime Minister.
Whenever something major happened in the magical world that might affect Muggles, the Minister of Magic would go to Number Ten, Downing Street, to communicate and cooperate with the Muggle Prime Minister.
The most recent time was when the former minister, Fudge, went to inform the Prime Minister that Sirius Black had escaped from prison and used the Prime Minister's influence to issue a wanted notice in the Muggle world.
Jamison Greengrass: ???
"For Sirius, Fudge even went as far as informing the Muggles? I mean, was that really necessary? Was it really necessary to let Muggles know about our existence over something like this? And what's the point of issuing a wanted notice in the non-magical world anyway?" Jamison felt his head buzzing.
As for Fudge, he truly had nothing good to say. Letting someone like that sit in the position of Minister of Magic for so long was a failure on everyone's part.
Obviously, Bones also found it hard to accept Fudge's actions. So even after she became Minister of Magic, she never activated that top-secret channel to contact the Prime Minister. After all, nothing major had happened in the magical world, had it?
"So every Muggle Prime Minister knows about the existence of the magical world?" Just saying those words made Jamison feel suffocated.
He had thought that sending a Squib relative to manage the family vineyard was already daring enough. He never imagined that the Ministry of Magic would directly keep in touch with the Muggle Prime Minister.
That was practically treating the Statute of Secrecy as if it didn't exist.
That was the Prime Minister, after all!
"Not every one of them…" Bones replied guiltily.
The Muggle side hadn't been changing Prime Ministers that frequently in recent years. The current one had already been in office for four years, and the previous female Prime Minister had served for eleven. As for those before that, Bones wasn't very clear either.
Fortunately, every Prime Minister had kept silent about the existence of the magical world, both during their term and after leaving office.
"After leaving office?" Jamison felt his blood pressure soaring.
"Oh!" Bones suddenly realized what he meant. "After a Prime Minister leaves office, we erase their memories, making them forget about the existence of the magical world."
At least that was some good news. For once, the Ministry of Magic had actually done something right.
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400 Chapters.. Holy—Molly!!
12 Chaps ahead at Patreon.com/HornyFBI