Chapter 254: Never Tickle a Sleeping Dragon
As is well known, the motto of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry is "Draco dormiens nunquam titillandus," which translates literally as "Never tickle a sleeping dragon."
Albus Dumbledore was that sleeping dragon.
Now he was awake.
And so, those who dared to tickle him would have to pay the price.
On the ruins, below the flagpoles strung with countless bodies, all the wizards present fell silent. No one knew if this war would affect them personally. In the raging torrent, countless figures, so insignificant that history books wouldn't record them, were always swallowed up, disappearing without a trace.
A new era?
No one knew who had started talking about a new era. Perhaps it was Lockhart, who had spread the idea at the Ravenclaw Alumni Association or among the student body. No one could be sure, but many people were talking about a "new era."
Well, now the "new era" had truly arrived, but it wasn't the one everyone had imagined.
It was Dumbledore's new era.
Too many people were frightened by Dumbledore's uncompromising stance and were at a loss, hoping to understand their own position in this new era and how to respond.
Many members of the Mallow Ravenclaw Alumni Association quietly looked toward Lockhart.
He looked completely unaffected, his face still holding a lazy, vacation-like expression. Lockhart truly wasn't worried. He saw clearly how the situation was changing, and as long as he grasped the pulse of the new era and went with the flow, there was nothing to be concerned about.
And so.
After the meeting ended, as night fell, one after another, figures quietly arrived at a house in London that looked overly extravagant and gaudy.
This was the house the original Lockhart had bought. Lockhart had originally planned to sell it and had even asked Rita to help find a buyer. But in the end, because the last book, "Voldemort, a Pure-Blood Supremacist with a Muggle Father?" had earned so many Galleons, he simply decided to keep the house.
It wasn't just members of the Mallow Ravenclaw Alumni Association who came that night. Of course, almost all of them were there.
Interestingly, Fudge and Umbridge also came. These two were perhaps the ones who most hoped to get some information about Dumbledore from Lockhart, for they were terrified.
Lucius Malfoy and old Goyle also came, bringing their sons, Goyle and Crabbe, with them, hoping to use Lockhart's relationship with the two students to close the distance.
Newt's son, young Scamander, also came. Dumbledore had specifically chosen the meeting place in California and mentioned MACUSA and Ilvermorny School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, which the Scamander family was a powerful presence in. This made him feel somewhat uneasy.
Newt was Newt, and young Scamander was young Scamander. Although they had a relationship due to their fathers' past friendship, neither Newt nor his son had participated in the Order of the Phoenix's activities during the time of Voldemort. Furthermore, now that Grindelwald had been released, some things were hard to predict.
There were many other wizards who came with similar thoughts, mostly those who had been introduced by the Ravenclaw Alumni Association during the promotion of the books.
So everyone realized that the wizards who came to Lockhart's mansion were from all over the world. Without anyone noticing, Lockhart's influence had grown immeasurably.
The Crabbe family's house-elf, Tutu, was very busy, leading other house-elves to quickly set up the venue and serve drinks to the guests.
In Tutu's eyes, his master, young Crabbe, was Professor Lockhart's first apprentice and was therefore special to him. Not to mention that Crabbe's future might be tied to Professor Lockhart, for better or worse. Thus, he naturally treated Professor Lockhart's affairs as the Crabbe family's own and handled everything with devotion, almost without needing any direction from Lockhart.
He was, after all, a house-elf from an ancient family and knew exactly what kind of atmosphere to create for his master's gatherings.
For example, now. Food could be scarce, but emotionally stimulating alcohol had to be plentiful. It was best to serve a lot of strong spirits that could go to one's head.
"I know what you're worried about."
Lockhart held his drink, looking at the dense crowd of figures standing in three layers. He smiled. "This matter is actually very simple. As long as you understand Dumbledore's way of doing things, you'll know how to act in this new era of the International Confederation of Wizards' call to war."
He said it was simple, but how many people in this world truly understood Dumbledore's way of doing things?
Probably not even Minister Fudge, who spent all his time pondering Dumbledore's thoughts, had figured it out.
Lockhart looked at their confused eyes and sighed helplessly. "In the wizarding world, magic is power. I believe that everyone here, who are all distinguished figures in their own fields, understands this principle."
"If you truly understand, you'll naturally try to figure out what the powerful wizard who has truly turned magical ability into authority is thinking!"
He looked at the people, his expression slowly becoming a bit strange. "Did you?"
He looked from one person to another. Fudge looked a bit embarrassed, Lucius was a little frightened, Umbridge was full of unease, and Rita was squirming as if she had ants in her pants. Not a single one of them seemed to be composed.
Of course, if they had truly understood, they wouldn't have come here.
But the fact that they hadn't bothered to carefully analyze Dumbledore's methods was something Lockhart found a bit hard to take.
Seriously?
What in the world had they been doing? Were they, the native inhabitants of the wizarding world, even more clueless about the rules of this world than he was, a mere transmigrator?
Lockhart for a moment wondered if he had been acting like such a dunderhead that all the dunderheads among the wizarding elite had gravitated toward him.
He couldn't understand what these people were thinking.
Especially some of the Ravenclaw Alumni Association members, some of whom were media moguls from newspapers and magazines, who often liked to take Dumbledore as an example. He had assumed they knew where Dumbledore's limits of tolerance lay.
Were they just stumbling along by luck to this point?
Incredible!
It couldn't be that everyone knew the principle of "magic is power" but deliberately chose to ignore it, could it?
Lockhart took a sip of his drink, looked around at the people, and with the glass still in hand, gestured to Umbridge, who looked like she wanted to say something but was holding back. "Dolores, why don't you speak up?"
Umbridge immediately looked nervously to her left and right, especially at her boss, Fudge. When she saw Fudge urging her to answer Lockhart's question quickly, she stood up and said, a little tremulously, "Is he—is he going to strengthen the control of the Statute of Secrecy?"
She asked a question and, seeing that Lockhart didn't answer but just looked at her, waiting for her to continue, she mustered up the courage and said, "In the meeting just now, he mentioned the historical development of the Statute of Secrecy. Actually, in the very early days, it was very difficult for the International Confederation of Wizards and the various Ministries of Magic to implement the Statute of Secrecy. They were only able to succeed later because they began to allow each Ministry of Magic to establish its own Auror Office."
"I—" she hesitated for a moment and then continued, "I'm a half-blood wizard. Although I grew up in the wizarding community, I also know a little about the Muggle world."
"The Auror Office is actually more like the Muggle police..."
"The more powerful armed organizations among Muggles are actually the military."
"I mean—" she swallowed, her expression turning to one of horror. "Is he going to develop a wizard army?"
Lockhart raised an eyebrow and was amused. "It's not out of the question."
Immediately, the crowd was in an uproar, and everyone looked extremely uneasy.
The Statute of Secrecy was not a good thing for wizards. It didn't seem to protect the rights of wizards; it seemed to protect Muggles.
This was a quote from Grindelwald. Because it resonated so deeply, it was still secretly recited after his downfall.
Lockhart looked at them, shook his head, and motioned for everyone to quiet down.
"The truth is, you may have misunderstood Dumbledore."
He thought for a moment and motioned for Tutu to close the doors and windows. He cast a spell to prevent anyone from listening in on the house.
"What I'm about to say, I'll only say once. If it gets out of this door, I won't acknowledge it."
Lockhart didn't want to reveal private matters, such as Dumbledore's plans to team up with Grindelwald to reform the Statute of Secrecy. This was out of respect for Dumbledore. As he had said, Dumbledore was the strongest wizard in the world. Magic was power, and people should know to respect Dumbledore, including Lockhart himself.
But he could provide an analysis based on reality to broaden their horizons.
With that, he smiled and looked at his apprentice.
"Crabbe, you tell everyone. When analyzing a person's character, how should you go about it?"
In the corner, Lucius and Goyle exchanged a look of disbelief. Yes, they couldn't believe that Professor Lockhart would ask that big, fat oaf, Crabbe, to answer such a question.
Was that a question a simpleton could answer?
But then, Crabbe stood up, bowed respectfully to the professor, and answered, "Professor, I know."
"We can never truly probe a person's heart. We can never know what's going on in someone else's head. Therefore, to know a person's character, you should look at what they have done, what they have accomplished, what their attitude is toward those accomplishments, and whether they choose to maintain what they've done or to correct those outcomes!"
Snap!
Lockhart snapped his fingers. "Perfect! Crabbe, a perfect answer!"
Crabbe smiled sheepishly, scratching his head. When he saw so many people looking at him, he immediately blushed with embarrassment, shrank his neck, and quickly sat back down.
Lucius and old Goyle were stunned. The wizards from some of the British pure-blood families who knew what Crabbe was like were also stunned. They all stared at the simple-minded boy.
This... this was outrageous!
How had Lockhart taught him this?
"That's the right way to think about it." Lockhart looked at the sea of heads in front of him and slowly began to speak about things everyone knew, walking slowly through the aisle in the middle of the crowd.
This was his usual habit when teaching. It seemed that these guys, who were supposedly bigwigs in their respective fields, also needed him to tutor them.
"In a certain era of the past—"
"Any union between wizards and Muggles was not allowed. If discovered, they would face terrible punishments based on the Statute of Secrecy. The highest punishment could even be death."
"This included half-blood children born from a wizard and a Muggle. They would also face this terrible disaster, with documented cases of them being executed directly."
"In that era, due to the strict enforcement of the Statute of Secrecy, all young wizards desperately tried to hide their ability to cast spells. This excessive repression led to a large number of Obscurials with Obscuruses forming inside them."
Lockhart narrated the history before the time of Grindelwald, the circumstances under which the Statute of Secrecy was strictly enforced. His voice was calm and his storytelling gentle.
He walked through the crowd as he spoke.
He said, "Now, everything is different."
"I teach at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. One of the four houses, Slytherin, is supposed to be for pure-bloods, but now, we'll find that at least half of the students there are half-bloods."
"Our 'Savior,' Harry Potter, who has been celebrated for over a decade, is also a half-blood wizard."
"Not to mention that Muggle-born wizards are allowed to appear in plain sight, with the right to go to school, the right to participate in major organizations, and even the possibility of becoming the Minister for Magic."
"This would have been unimaginable in that bygone era."
Lockhart walked to the front of the crowd, his expression strange as he looked at everyone. "We all know that this situation, in fact, is the greatest violation of the Statute of Secrecy!"
"The union of wizards and Muggles, and the allowance for Muggle-born wizards to live and participate in the wizarding world, has led to countless Muggles knowing about the existence of the wizarding world."
Lockhart shrugged. "If a family has a Muggle-born wizard, almost all the Muggles in that family are therefore permitted to know about the existence of the wizarding world."
"After all these years, Muggle-born wizards are countless, and half-blood wizards are extremely common. It's even hard to guess how many Muggles know about the wizarding world because of this."
As he spoke, the crowd began to stir. Some were struck by the terrifying implications, and some even began to whisper among themselves.
It was only when his apprentice, Crabbe, stood up and shouted for order that everyone quieted down again.
Lockhart smiled and looked at them, continuing to speak. "In the past, if a wizard accidentally exposed the existence of magic to a Muggle, they would face terrible punishment. Now, although they will still be punished, the severity of the punishment has been reduced as much as possible compared to that era."
"What do wizards do?"
"They send out Aurors who cast the Memory Charm on Muggles with no qualms, simple and crude!"
"I even heard that at some wizarding gatherings, like the Quidditch World Cup, Muggle merchants are allowed to come and sell goods that wizards need. But because the Muggles are constantly noticing something is off, they are continuously subjected to the Memory Charm."
"After just a few days of the event, it's very common for a Muggle to have been subjected to a dozen or so Memory Charms."
As Lockhart talked about these things, a cold smile appeared on his face. Some things didn't seem so serious until you really looked at them.
Of course, he wasn't interested in dwelling on these things and brought the topic back to the main point.
"So, I ask everyone!"
His eyes were burning as he looked at everyone. "Tell me, since Dumbledore became the Supreme Mugwump of the International Confederation of Wizards, for decades, has the control of the Statute of Secrecy in the entire wizarding society tended to be more open or more conservative and strict?"
Fudge gasped, looking disbelieving. He muttered, "More open..."
It wasn't just him. Too many people were marveling at the quiet changes in the world.
Lockhart smiled slightly and asked again, "So, has our Supreme Mugwump of the International Confederation of Wizards, the most powerful and greatest wizard in the world, truly not seen these societal changes? If he has seen them and felt them, has he made any changes in response to these situations? Or has he let it develop? Or perhaps even pushed for its development?"
The answer was obvious.
Dumbledore was in the "anti-Statute of Secrecy" camp?
Oh, to be precise, he wasn't an "opponent." He should be called a "reformer." But even if you used a nice-sounding name like "reformer," the fact that Dumbledore had been quietly breaking the Statute of Secrecy during his decades of controlling the wizarding world was undeniable!
At this point, the question arose!
"If that's the case!" Umbridge cried out in disbelief. "Why is he reacting so strongly to the film incident now?"
As she asked, she also realized the problem and added, "I know it might be because of the Dark Lord and the Scourers, but since the Scourers have existed for so long, it wouldn't be right to suddenly declare all-out war on them now, would it?"
This was what truly terrified everyone.
If you were a powerful figure who could accept and even condone breaking the rules to a certain extent, but then suddenly declared a killing spree, how could anyone know what extent you would allow?
How could anyone know if they might not make a small mistake in the future and become Dumbledore's enemy, or an enemy of the International Confederation of Wizards under his leadership, and even be branded with such terrifying titles as "Wizard Traitor" or "Wizard Spy"? So much so that they might end up in prison, die a terrible death, or even bring ruin to their families.
"That's why I'm saying—"
Lockhart looked at them and sighed. "None of you have bothered to properly study Dumbledore's magical path and his magical philosophy? Even if you haven't studied it on your own, I think I wrote about it in my book, "Voldemort, a Pure-Blood Supremacist with a Muggle Father?" didn't I?"
He looked at Fudge and Umbridge. Well, those two were bad students.
He then looked at Lucius. Oh, right, this guy probably wouldn't dare to admit that he had read the book, but the bigger problem was probably what Dumbledore had complained about to him—"You wrote it, but can people really understand it?"
He looked at everyone else. Even the two witches who had explicitly stated they were his subordinates, Rita and Mary, who he knew had read the book, seemed unable to say anything.
How frustrating.
He shook his head and simply gave them the answer directly. "Love. It's all based on love!"
"If it's from a place of 'love,' everything that violates the Statute of Secrecy will have a great deal of leeway, or may even be permitted."
"If it's from a place of 'hatred,' everything that violates the Statute of Secrecy will make them his enemies."
Lockhart spread his hands. "See? It's that simple."
The influence of a great magical master's philosophy on the operation of the entire world was terrifying. Even the Minister for Magic, Fudge, could hardly understand the true origin of the Ministry's practices that he naturally accepted every day.
This was what "magic is power" meant.
It meant making this world, this society, embody his will!
...................
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