Chapter 607 Mr. Bagshot

When Felix returned to Hogwarts Castle, it was completely dark.

He strolled along the edge of the Forbidden Forest and casually took out a pocket watch from his pocket. With a crisp "click", Valen poked his head out and ran out.

"I'm sorry to let you stay in there. No matter what Jim and Rebecca think of you as, it's definitely not an animal that should exist in reality..."

"Chi (It's okay.)"

Valen, who ran to the front, waved his hand behind him, twisted his furry body and quickly ran to a piece of upright wood in front of Hagrid's hut. The sturdy and burly Hagrid was busy in the open space in front of the hut. "Hey, Valen?" He looked very happy, leaning on a shovel that was oversized and looking around.

"Hey! Felix, Dumbledore is back. I know you are paying attention to this matter." He shouted, "But he looks a little tired, entangled with those foreigners!"

"Got it, Hagrid." Felix waved in the distance, and he looked at the small tower protruding from the top of the castle, where the lights were on.

A few minutes later, Felix knocked on the door of the headmaster's office.

Dumbledore was sitting on the sofa, and he didn't even have time to change his traveling cloak. He looked very tired. He straightened up, "Felix? I just want to find you for something. I just came back and my mouth is very dry... Tea? Coffee? Juice? If you want to try something new, I also have some wine collection."

Felix smiled, "I haven't drunk the collection in your wine cabinet yet, um-can I take a bottle away to give to someone?"

"You're welcome, please, I can't find an occasion to enjoy them." Dumbledore said, and then asked curiously, "Severus?"

"Caring for the elderly in the empty house." Felix said humorously.

"Fantastic words, maybe I should write them down for later use - oh, I'm afraid not, it's hard to meet someone older than me." Dumbledore pouted, but he didn't dwell on it for too long, and said lightly: "Many of your ideas are out of tune with others, Felix, maybe your childhood experiences prompted you to start thinking independently at a very early age... Oh, sorry."

Felix shook his head slightly and took out a bottle of wine from the wine cabinet. The glass door reflected the stars outside.

Dumbledore flicked his fingers, and two empty goblets appeared out of thin air. The two watched the red wine pour into the cups, and after each of them raised their glasses and took a sip from a distance, Dumbledore smacked his lips in satisfaction: "But Severus is not old at all."

Felix raised his eyebrows, "But his life is boring, to be honest... maybe even more boring than mine."

At least there was room for entertainment activities in his schedule.

He put the goblet aside, looked at the other person, and said:

"Albus, my research has come to a standstill. The soul is a rare and taboo field. There is very little relevant information. We must take some risks. If you think about it carefully, it's no big deal that Voldemort's brain is broken-"

Dumbledore stared at the goblet in his hand, without commenting. After a moment, he said, "Wait for me." He walked around the desk, went straight through the magic barrier and walked up the spiral staircase on the second floor. After a while, he came down with a stack of parchment.

"What is this?"

"Some of my personal thoughts on the 'soul'." Dumbledore nodded slightly and said.

Felix took it with a little surprise, flipped through two pages, and simulated it in the thinking room. His eyes sparkled, and his tone couldn't help but carry a hint of excitement: "This information is very useful. Some parts coincide with my research, but it is more comprehensive and more in-depth..."

As he said, he stared at Dumbledore strangely. When did Dumbledore start to touch the part of the soul?

Is it true that the older you get, the more you know?

"I received a message today that Grindelwald is missing," Dumbledore said in a deep voice.

"Missing?" Felix repeated, thinking over the message in his mind, and raised his hand, "I was not involved and I know nothing about it, if you want to ask that." He explained rather guiltily, "At most, it was through a few letters."

"I know." Dumbledore said briefly.

Just as Felix was trying to figure out what he meant by that - did he 'know' that he was not involved in the old man Grindelwald's jailbreak; or did he 'know' that he had communicated with the old devil, Dumbledore continued, "I urgently contacted several old friends, and they are still in contact with some core saints, but no news has come yet."

"Even after so many years, there are still people who are loyal to Grindelwald?" Felix was quite surprised.

If that was the case, why did these people sit back and watch Grindelwald being imprisoned for half a century?

"It is difficult to describe Grindelwald's influence in just one or two sentences," Dumbledore shook his head slightly, his expression serious, "His power was once extremely terrifying. When I was teaching in school, he had already raised an army of wizards that was enough to subvert any Ministry of Magic in the world. I racked my brains to shake the foundation of his believers and forced him into a corner..."

He changed the subject and said, "Even though Grindelwald made such a serious mistake, in the hearts of many people, he is still the most suitable person to lead them."

Real history is far from as plain as the words on paper.

It is fresh, alive, and it really happened. It is difficult to summarize a person's full characteristics and charm with just a few comments in history books.

Especially for later researchers, the words "very talented, very attractive" may appear anywhere and be used to describe more than one person. But it must be admitted that people are different.

"It's safe for now," Dumbledore said softly, "He is restrained by powerful spells. I can ensure that these restrictions still exist. It is difficult for him to use advanced magic... No matter what he wants to do, these conditions objectively set a threshold for him

. What I am worried about is that losing power will prompt him to think, hide in the dark, promote his ideas, recruit troops, or provoke disputes with another set of theories. That is too dangerous. I even worried that he would bewitch you."

"Hmm." Felix thought, I shouldn't be bewitched.

Dumbledore smiled and said, "I just figured it out recently. Excellent people always have many commonalities, but the difference is that you hate trouble and advocate simplicity, which prevents you from being too involved in power. Because power is complicated, the more power, the more complicated it is."

"What kind of person is Grindelwald? His personality, appearance--" Felix asked.

"No, Felix, you can't understand, these things are not important at all, thoughts, thoughts! You can't imagine how his thoughts attracted me and inspired me. Muggles were forced to submit, and we wizards were proud."

"I was extremely eager to stand by his side and see him as the young leader of this revolution... I was completely obsessed with it, with a head full of cruel dreams. Of course, I thought about how much harm our dreams would bring to the world, but in the end I used empty reasons to convince myself that everything was for the greater good. If I could gain power, I could protect my family and let them live in the sun. I could also protect more people, but I was wrong. My desire for power made me go against my original intention and ignore the people who should be the most important."

Pain appeared on Dumbledore's face, and tears flashed in his eyes.

"I think I understand it a little bit," Felix said softly: "In an era when people are generally confused and dissatisfied with the status quo, thoughts will kill people."

They talked for a long time. Dumbledore no longer avoided the fact that he and Grindelwald were close friends. It might be the sense of security brought by the night. He admitted that he had been tempted and gave many ideas and contributed a lot of wisdom to Grindelwald's evil cause.

Felix poured him a glass of wine and consoled him, "You don't have to blame yourself for this, Albus. You have never put your ideas into practice. Who doesn't have some noble or mean ideas when they were young? Talented and wise people often make bigger mistakes because ordinary things are not challenging for them - I have thought about ruling the world."

Dumbledore looked at him in astonishment.

Felix shrugged, "I did think about it seriously, and the final conclusion is that it is not worth it. It costs too much and the return is too little."

Dumbledore smiled.

Then he looked down at the goblet in his hand and sighed, "But what if your ideal can only be realized through power? Those persistent and beautiful visions, when you are eager to get there and hope that it will become a reality... That kind of extreme obsession, perhaps only the colder reality can wake people up, but what's the use? Everything is too late." What everyone values

​​may be completely different, or even completely opposite.

Felix understood this, so he did not mention his "so-called ideal", because he knew that the ideal Dumbledore talked about was not the same as his. He hoped that the wizarding world and the real world would merge, but it was just a "hope". He could wait and was willing to let others do it. In case things were impossible, he could withdraw all his tentacles without any delay and wait for the opportunity.

Dumbledore must have paid a huge price for his sudden awakening. It was so great that he would feel heartbroken, full of disgust and regret when he thought of his former ideal.

Felix thought of the original intention that was not mentioned too much, Dumbledore's "family".

"Don't worry, Albus. I told him in the letter that the times have changed and his ideas are outdated. Unless they are updated... I am willing to talk to him. I only have one question. If he is hit hard, will he kill innocent people indiscriminately? Like Voldemort?"

"Enjoy abusing Muggles? Not at all. He always focuses on his own goals. He is an idealist with lofty goals. He sees sacrifices along the way as a price that must be paid."

Dumbledore took off his glasses, rubbed his nose and said, "I hope he can change. I heard that he expressed regret when he was imprisoned alone in Nurmengard. He regretted what he had done. I hope this is true. Otherwise-"

"The damage he can cause is far greater than Voldemort."

...

In the blink of an eye, a week passed, and Felix digested the manuscript Dumbledore gave him.

During this time, the wizarding world was safe and sound. No Ministry of Magic in a certain country was occupied; no one stood up and announced the reorganization of the Saints Army. Everything was normal. Everyone did their job. After that night, Dumbledore went back to haggle with the representatives of various countries. In addition to discussing the damage caused by Voldemort, there was also the topic of how to deal with the threat of Grindelwald.

That morning, he came to Spinner's End and accidentally ran into the Malfoy family at Snape's house. This made Felix's plan fall through. According to his understanding, Severus would never tell the truth in front of so many people.

But it was not all in vain. In a conversation full of wit, Felix roughly grasped the purpose of Lucius's trip - his relationship with Snape, who was also a spy. Felix could even infer that Lucius must have gone to more than one family, such as Selwyn, and the pure-blood family that had been in a panic recently.

As long as Felix moved his mouth, he could gain the loyalty of these people and become their nominal leader.

Without touching the bottom line of these families, they would be consistent with Felix. This condition was quite attractive - with Voldemort as a bad example, the bottom line of the pure-blood family was particularly low.

But Felix also had to give something, in summary, there was only one thing - his name, he had to allow those pure-blood families to mention his name.

This meant the minimum protection.

Felix did not refuse, because at this time, such a person was needed, a person like him. Ms. Bones could not continue to be strong, and it was even more impossible for her to put innocent people in prison, giving these people a reassurance, so that they would not flee abroad collectively...

Felix could tolerate the Shafik family, and Ms. Bones had to tolerate the pure-blood families that did not pose any threat.

"You haven't moved out of the safe house?" Felix asked with great interest.

"Not yet, it's quite comfortable." Lucius said vaguely.

Felix smiled in his heart. Lucius might be speaking from the heart, but he might also have other purposes - he wanted to wait and see for a while. Lucius knew that Voldemort was not dead.

"Okay, you can live in that house first, it's empty anyway."

Lucius followed this topic and started chatting. He talked about their life in that 'little house', and the sigh in his words was as if he was experiencing life in a remote and poor place with particularly harsh conditions.

"There are too many things, Narcissa and I put some of them in Gringotts, but there are still some left... These days we are studying the traceless extension spell to make the house as big as possible while maintaining its beauty... Draco, talk to the professor..."

Draco put down his fork and said dryly: "We blew up the floor--"

"Cough cough cough cough!" Lucius coughed violently, glared at his son, and explained: "Narcissa and I are not very good at this spell, because--because--" "

It's not necessary." Felix helped to add.

"Uh, yes." Lucius said embarrassedly.

Coming out of Snape's house, Felix looked around. There was a faint smell from the dirty river and garbage mountain in the distance. The surrounding weeds were barren, and the gloomy and ominous abandoned buildings cast dark shadows.

All this made it difficult for him to sympathize with Malfoy's hard life.

Severus probably had the same idea, because when Lucius complained, his face was sour.

Felix even regretted taking out the bottle of Dumbledore's wine.

After he explained that it was Dumbledore's collection, Snape reluctantly drank half a glass, but Lucius drank very enthusiastically.

In the afternoon, Felix went to visit his business on the bustling streets of London - together with Winnie Valentine, and they unexpectedly ran into Harry. There was someone else beside Harry, not Sirius, but a strange face.

"Professor Hepp." Harry greeted sullenly. He tried to pretend that he didn't see it, but the person next to him suddenly spoke loudly. Before he could react, he noticed that Professor Hepp's eyes were on him.

Felix nodded at Harry, "Buy a book?"

"Oh, no, I'm with Mr. Bagshot to buy a cane. He just moved here recently and lives alone. It's not convenient for him to get old." Harry said. In fact, not only that, this old man must be very lonely and isolated, because he doesn't know much about many modern products and has been taking extra classes recently.

And his personality is a bit extreme...

But when Harry knew his identity, he felt relieved. Harry knew that the Squib had some psychological problems.

"Bagshot." Felix pondered the surname in his heart.

He felt a faint magic. Is this a wizard? Did Dumbledore know? He stretched out his hand calmly, "Hello, Mr. Bagshot, I am Felix Hep." "I have heard of you

for a long time, Mr. Hep." Grindelwald stretched out his hand, and the two hands were clasped together. Felix felt the magic like a pool of stagnant water, and his heart suddenly understood.

Squib...

Grindelwald showed his exclusive wand hidden inside his clothes and said politely: "I have to say thank you, because of you, people like me can return to the stage of history."

Winnie Valentine, who was accompanying him, looked at him sympathetically.

She secretly thanked herself for being lucky enough to encounter the invention of the exclusive wand at a young age. If she was like this old man, not to mention how much power the exclusive wand could exert, it would be painful enough to be isolated from magic for so many years.

"Yes, we are all grateful to Mr. Hep from the bottom of our hearts." She said emotionally.

They stood at the intersection and chatted for a while. Felix learned from Mr. Bagshot that he was so serious because he was going to attend an interview in the afternoon.

"Good luck." Felix said.

"Thank you, I've been lucky recently." Grindelwald grinned.