After some bargaining, Felix purchased three sets of equipment each. He then took Lupin and the twins to travel through the streets of London, announcing the names of Muggle companies one by one, and bought a batch of miscellaneous items.
Back at Future World in Diagon Alley, Felix piled these items in the lobby, forming a small mountain, which attracted a crowd of onlookers. The company's new employees came one after another, not only to see these strange things, but also to see the company's boss who had never appeared.
Felix led them to sit together and held a brief meeting.
"I will live here for the next period of time, and work with everyone to produce the company's first product." Felix said, "By the way, transform some magical machinery."
Clearwater reminded him, "Professor Hep, oh sorry, boss-"
"It doesn't matter, you can still call me professor, or Hep." Felix said with a smile.
"...Okay, professor," Penelope said a little nervously, but she quickly got into work mode, "We need to consider the attitude of the Ministry of Magic, especially the Misuse of Muggle Artifacts Department."
"You mean the department headed by Arthur Weasley?" Felix said meaningfully.
Penelope blushed and pretended not to hear. "The responsibility of this department is to prohibit the use of magic on things made by Muggles, for fear that they might return to Muggle shops or homes."
Felix saw that others had similar concerns. He thought about it and answered seriously, "This is indeed a problem, but I have studied this part of the law carefully. It has little impact on us. We only need to report those engraving machines to the Ministry of Magic."
"Following this topic, you will find that the entire law is for one purpose, which is to prevent the exposure of the magical world." "In summary
, the prohibition of abuse of Muggle items has three main meanings." Felix glanced around, looked at the people with confused expressions, and said while counting on his fingers, "First, malicious casting of spells and teasing Muggles is prohibited; second, the sale of enchanted products in the form of Muggle items is prohibited, especially their unique things, such as a toaster;" he smiled, "Of course, nothing is absolute. The Ministry of Magic has a special list, and not all of them are prohibited."
"Third, it is forbidden to modify or add other functions without permission. The clauses of this kind of law are rather vague, probably because, if you really want to investigate, many people have contraband in their homes, and they may not even know it. So there is only one thing worth noting -" He said softly with a long tone: "That is, don't use it in front of ordinary people."
The Weasley twins looked at each other, and Fred chuckled and said, "Dad's mind is clearly understood." He knew that this law was drafted by his father. He was curious about everything in the Muggle world, so he left many back doors for himself.
Before Arthur Weasley, the relevant laws of the Ministry of Magic were blank, but as more and more examples of the abuse of Muggle items appeared, the Ministry of Magic finally remembered to formulate a law around it. It was in this context that Mr. Weasley formulated the law and served as the head of this department.
Felix continued: "One of our goals is to improve and transform Muggle items. What does that mean? It's not a simple copy, but to draw on the wisdom they demonstrate, not a specific thing;" "
For example, the magic lamp, its principle is completely different from the electric lamp used by ordinary people. The only similarity is that they can both emit light."
Everyone laughed softly, and the hidden worries in their hearts dissipated. Most people did not have the courage to openly defy the Ministry of Magic.
"In this process, you will find that what we are using is a conceptual thing - a more convenient and practical way of lighting. We don't need to work hard to learn how to use electricity, how to study the materials and principles of electric lamps, but rather consider how to use magic to achieve the effects we want."
Felix looked at everyone and said seriously, "I don't want to see everyone's prejudice against the non-magical world in the 'future world'. Any specific person or group, as long as it has obvious external characteristics, will not be liked by everyone. To put it bluntly, some people see advantages, while others see disadvantages..."
"I don't want you to dwell on these boring things. With an appreciative heart, you will find that in the past few hundred years, the outside world has also made remarkable achievements. In this process, the wisdom, ideas and achievements they have demonstrated are worthy of reference." In
the next few days, Felix stayed in the vertical castle in the future world. Lupin, Penelope and several seventh-grade graduates who had mastered the ancient magic of illumination completed the task of designing the magic lamp.
The most difficult part is how to store the magic runes of ancient magic on specific objects. Felix looked through the materials left by Nick Flamel and finally found an enchanted material that was like flowing mercury, and used magic to shape them. This process required
a lot of attempts. For this reason, Snape ran over to protest because he disliked the materials being consumed too quickly. As a result, he was also pulled by Felix to join the research.
Basic chandeliers, candlesticks, and lantern-shaped magic lamps were successfully completed one after another. Later, a witch who graduated from Ravenclaw proposed to use transfiguration to design an eagle shape. When using it, you only need to read specific syllables, and the eagle will flutter its wings, fly into the air, and spit out a bright ball of light.
This idea was unanimously praised by 17 employees who graduated from Ravenclaw College. Subsequently, more forms of magic lamps were proposed, including majestic lions with awakening functions, badgers that can jump and follow their owners everywhere, and snake-shaped magic lamps inlaid with green gems.
Felix added several more dragon shapes and used Transfiguration to change the light into the shape of breath.
The engraving machine he bought also came in handy. Felix had never thought that he would use it so soon. He simply modified it and asked his employees to familiarize themselves with its operation in their spare time and try to make suggestions for improvement.
As a result, a wizard named "Fink David" came up with an idea. When he was fiddling with the engraving machine, a flash of inspiration came to him. He proposed that a batch of magic rune cards could be made in the style of the Chocolate Frog cards, and the most basic engraving part would be done by the machine.
Felix was very interested in this idea, and he perfected this concept on this basis - using the machine to complete the engraving part, and then applying a layer of enchantment material on the card, so that wizards can hold the card and use their fingers to follow the marks on it to practice the corresponding magic rune.
Felix felt that he would have one more teaching tool in his ancient magic rune class this year, so he happily ordered a batch, which gave the company its first business.
Soon, the first batch of one hundred magic rune cards was finalized. It can be seen as a simplified version of Hermione using a magic rune carving knife to carve magic runes on a chestnut board. It only has one reference angle, which is the stability of magic power. Once successful, the magic symbol corresponding to the magic rune will be displayed, such as a waterfall or a flame. Of course, this is just a phantom of magic.
The twins came up with a prank version. Once the magic power is interrupted, the card will make a shrill scream and loudly mock the wizard who uses it.
"This is the inspiration that life gives us." Fred said with emotion.
Felix was afraid that the young wizards would become autistic, so he did not adopt it. He valued the magic rune cards more for their auxiliary role in learning magic runes. However, the twins enjoyed it very much. They also tried to add a few fake cards to a stack of real cards. If they tried to inject magic power, the cards would transform into a nest of mice and run around.
George said with a smile: "We can give it to Harry as a birthday present."
...
In the morning of July 31st.
When Harry opened the gift, he was a little confused. Professor Hepp and the Weasley twins gave exactly the same gift, a stack of cards, and even the instructions were the same.
However, there was a strange smiley face drawn on the instructions of the Weasley twins, which made him a little flustered.
He curiously followed the instructions of the instructions and tried to trace the card with his fingers and inject magic power. The moment he succeeded, a lush green magic wand tree popped out of the card, swaying gently and making a "rustling" sound.
Harry stared at it for a while and tried other different cards with great interest. He got to know a lot of unfamiliar magic runes. However, he finally discovered the difference between the two gifts.
After a failed attempt, the card made a "bang" sound, and purple smoke exploded. The card turned into five or six fat mice, running around in the narrow gap in the house, which scared him. He tried to drive these little guys out from under the bed, but they squeaked even more happily.
When he heard Uncle Vernon's snoring, he did not try to do anything radical. He waited quietly for a while, and the fat mice ran out by themselves and gathered together. After a cloud of purple smoke, they turned back into a card.
Harry opened other gifts. Ron, Hermione, and Hagrid gave him three super-large cakes, which made Dudley's weight loss plan completely unaffected. In fact, except for breakfast, he usually sneaked to Sirius's rented house and stayed there until the evening before returning.
In addition to satisfying his desire for family affection, Harry discovered a benefit that he had not expected before, that is, he could cast spells outside of school. Next to Mrs. Figg, Harry could use Sirius' spare wand - according to him, the wand he snatched from the dark wizard was not very convenient, so he went to Ollivander to get a new one.
Harry used the dragon heartstring wand, but he was not used to it. He always felt that it was not as good as his own wand, but he was satisfied to be able to cast spells. He and Sirius practiced dueling in the house with the firming spell. It was originally just a protest against boring TV shows when Sirius and Harry collapsed on the sofa one afternoon. As a result, Sirius unexpectedly became keen on this game.
He taught Harry a lot of dueling skills, but he soon found that Harry had formed his own fighting style, which was a little immature, but it did exist. And Harry's level was very high, which made the duel game between them closer to real battles.
Sirius called out Harry's father's name more than once, which made Harry sad and moved.
There was an episode in the middle. The Ministry of Magic sent him a letter to warn him about the fact that he cast a spell outside the school. Later, Sirius sent back a howler letter, and then the Ministry of Magic did not respond.
Harry was a little worried at first, and Sirius explained: "This law is aimed at students of Muggle origin to prevent them from exposing themselves in front of Muggles, but do you think they will control the children of wizard families?"
Harry was happily convinced, and he also wrote about this in the letter. Hermione said in her reply that she also wanted to learn from Sirius and send him a howler letter. Harry smiled very brightly, but when he saw the back of the letter, Hermione mentioned that she was studying curses, he couldn't laugh anymore.
...
In the bedroom, Harry opened Sirius's gift box, which was only the size of a palm and square. When he touched the lid, there was a noise inside. Harry was stunned for a moment. He was not worried about the curse, but he was worried that Sirius would send him strange gifts. Harry
had long discovered that his godfather was not as mature as himself in some aspects. For example, he couldn't cook for himself and was terrible at housework magic. If it weren't for Kreacher, he thought Sirius would move into the Dursleys' house and fight with them that day.
He carefully opened the lid, and a golden, round object flew out. Harry instinctively reached out to catch it, his heart pounding. Through the gap between his fingertips, he saw a beautiful, glittering golden snitch. Harry's eyes lit up. This gift was just what he wanted. There was also
a note in the box -
'Dear Harry,
I have wanted to give you this gift for a long time. I found it in Felix's office. At that time, only one of its wings was intact. I asked Felix to repair it and made some interesting changes, but you have to discover it yourself. It's boring to tell all the secrets. In addition
, when he was in school, James often stole the golden snitch from the team for a while, pretending to be cool to attract Lily's attention. I strongly recommend you to try it.
Your godfather, Sirius. Harry
grinned, and he loosened his grip. The Snitch slowly spread its wings, and with a whoosh, it disappeared. He glanced left and right, and soon caught its trail. When it flew over Harry's left ear, he grabbed it steadily.
Harry shook it hard, and the Snitch calmed down and stayed in his hand. He seemed to hear a small, trivial sound, and put the Snitch to his ear and shook it gently. This time the sound was more obvious.
Harry pressed the surface of the Snitch, and its metal shell suddenly opened. Harry noticed that something was stuffed inside. He tilted the opening towards the bed, and "clatter!"
A pile of various snacks were scattered on the bed, rolling everywhere - chocolate frogs, cauldron cakes, ginger salamander cookies, dragon milk cheese, and a candy gift bag from Honeydukes.
"Wow." Harry said in admiration.