Felix and Bill stood in front of a tall wooden house not far from the wedding tent. The house was twenty or thirty feet high, and each side was made of tree trunks with excess branches cut off. Only the top part of the tree trunk was retained, and the whole house looked like a green mushroom.
This was a temporary house prepared for Hagrid's brother Grawp, but now there was a big hole in the small house.
"Little Grawp couldn't find the door when he woke up this morning." Hagrid said without beginning or ending, as if this sentence was enough. He knocked and knocked, dismantled the broken wood, and replaced it with a new log. He tied a handkerchief the size of a tablecloth to the edge of the door and pointed it to Grawp.
The giant stretched out two fingers, pinched the handkerchief and pulled it back and forth, and the door kept opening and closing.
"He's very smart." Bill said.
"Yes," said Hagrid proudly, "little Grawp can count to twelve."
Grawp's thick fingers moved the logs one by one, and he said in a muffled voice, "One, two, three... ten." When he reached ten, he counted two more, "Grawp eleven, Hagrid twelve."
He touched his head and grinned.
"Very good, Hagrid," said Felix. "He still has great potential. But we have to move the house first."
"Move it," said Hagrid cheerfully. "I think that by binding names to numbers, little Grawp can count to seventeen, but no more," he said with a gloomy face. "It's easy to miss one or two names."
The giant suddenly blocked the house and shouted at them, "Grawp - wants - the house."
"It's just temporarily moved." Hagrid also responded loudly, "I'll give it back to you in the evening." After that, he looked at Felix uncertainly, "You can use that - that magic that can shrink objects, right?"
"I plan to use another magic." Felix said vaguely, "It's convenient to carry and of course more interesting." He looked at Grawp, "Please make way." The giant was stunned for a while, remembering the experience of the three big dogs, he reluctantly made way and sat down on the ground.
The ground shook violently.
Felix circled around the hut, looking for a suitable angle, and then the thinking hut was spread out like silver yarn. The color of the wood became unreal, and the lines on the edges became more prominent, like a three-dimensional oil painting. He stretched out his hand and pushed it, and the three-dimensional painting was compressed into a flat surface, floating down into Felix's hand. Felix rolled it up and handed
it to Hagrid. Hagrid unfolded the picture in a daze. Grawp's eyes were wide open, his head resting on Hagrid's shoulder, and hesitating.
"You can do this now?" Bill asked in surprise.
"The application of ancient runes with other magic is quite interesting, isn't it?" Felix asked.
"It's as if my memory is confused." Bill said casually, "I didn't think that ancient runes would become what they are now when I was in school-are you still in touch with Professor Barbling?"
Felix hesitated, "She said that I made the originally leisurely vacation busy." However, his former ancient rune professor praised Felix's approach of incorporating the Ancient Rune Association, thinking that it helped her vent her anger.
"The old guy is avoiding me now," she wrote proudly in the letter. Felix was not sure whether she was talking about Clemmy's grandfather or the president before him - maybe both.
Felix used magic to conjure a spinning top for Grawp to play with, and then they walked towards the Burrow on the soft grass. Hagrid kept waving at Grawp on the way, and he was holding an irregular oil painting folded into a scroll in his hand.
"Be careful, Hagrid, magic may destroy its structure." Felix warned him. Hagrid's bold movements suddenly became much gentler.
Passing through a grove of sand apple trees, the Burrow was in sight, and Bill hesitated.
"Felix, I have something to tell you, it's about goblins."
Felix looked at him, waiting for the next words.
"I worked at Gringotts for a while. I understand them, or think I do. When sensitive topics are not involved, wizards and goblins can still become friends. Like wizards, they have individual differences, with good and bad personalities."
Felix knew that was not what Bill was going to talk about. "This is not surprising. Intelligent creatures always have richer personalities and emotions."
"Yes," Bill echoed, and then said, "A goblin friend of mine told me that the Goblin Brotherhood has elected a new leader and is dissatisfied with the goblins' easy agreement to join the Pan-Magic Alliance. He is also dissatisfied with wizards' threats to disclose the secrets of goblin magic. In addition, goblins are not only in the UK. Gringotts is all over the world, and goblins are also all over the world. They balance different opinions through a council of elders. Only nearly one-third of the goblin elders participated in the previous negotiations."
"You mean they have different opinions, and the trend is obvious?" Felix thought for a moment and asked, "Are they planning to do anything in the near future?"
"As far as I know, no," Bill said, "but when our negotiations with the Muggle government are over, they should take action."
"Then just keep an eye on it," Felix said. "Even if it's a powder keg, it will only explode in the future. Unlike the ongoing government negotiations, goblins have already joined the Pan-Magic Alliance. Dirk Cresswell, the director of the Goblin Liaison Office, will appease them. I can't get away at the moment - if nothing goes wrong, I'll go abroad after the wedding."
"Abroad?" Bill and Hagrid shouted at the same time. Bill's eyes flashed with a thoughtful look, "Is it related to the few guests that Sirius added temporarily? They are from the International Confederation of Wizards..."
"Well," Felix didn't elaborate, "Compared with the problems abroad, the troubles caused by goblins seem a bit insignificant - the goblin problem is not unsolvable, but it is difficult to solve it for the time being. We can pretend to threaten and make a cut at the negotiating table, but the specific implementation will inevitably be accompanied by turmoil and chaos in the entire wizarding world, which is not cost-effective at this point."
He actually meant only one thing, to distinguish between the primary and the secondary, and it was obvious that goblins belonged to the latter.
The three of them walked through the garden that seemed to have been washed by water. Mrs. Weasley stood in front of the window with a long list in her hand, her sharp eyes scanning back and forth. After hearing the door open, she took the initiative to come forward and couldn't help but say anxiously: "I always feel like something is missing."
Bill opened his mouth, but a white shadow brushed past Mrs. Weasley and threw herself into his arms. It was Fleur. She took a step back and turned in a circle. Her white dress spread out like ripples in the water, and her long silver hair was like the finishing touch.
"Dear, do I look beautiful?" Fleur asked.
"Very beautiful." Bill said, and Fleur smiled immediately, but Mrs. Weasley's smile disappeared. Felix looked around and pointed at the floating banner above the ceiling and the purple lanterns piled in the corner and said: "I think it's because of this, Molly, some things from Harry's birthday party last night were not cleaned up in time."
"Oh, yes, you are right." Mrs. Weasley said hurriedly.
Hagrid followed Felix carefully, and the two walked into the living room, which was crowded. "Hello, Charlie." Hagrid said enthusiastically. Charlie was the second child of the Weasley family. He worked in Romania to study dragons. Hagrid liked him very much, perhaps because Charlie had helped him a lot.
"How is Norbert?" Hagrid asked.
"Norbert?" Charlie laughed. "We call him Norberta now."
"What-Norbert is a girl?"
"Yeah." Charlie said, "It's not easy to distinguish the gender of young dragons. It's easier when they grow up. For example, I recently got a Ukrainian iron belly. It's as big as a balloon..." He looked at Felix, who waved at him and sat down next to Lupin.
"They really grow fast when they are young." Hagrid whispered, thinking of his experience raising dragons.
When Felix sat down, Lupin leaned over and whispered a little anxiously: "After the wedding, can you spare some time to come to the company? It shouldn't take too long."
"Why?" Felix asked in a low voice.
"I think... it's done." Lupin seemed to be trying hard to hide his excitement. Mr. and Mrs. Delacour were quite surprised, but they were immediately distracted by Mr. Weasley's wonderful joke.
"What's the matter--oh!" Felix looked at Lupin. He made a lip gesture.
"The ancient magic of controlling the transformation of werewolves." Lupin said with a trembling voice: "It may be the effect of alcohol. After celebrating Harry's birthday last night, I returned to Sword Castle and a strange feeling surged in my heart. I tried it once, and it turned out to be very smooth to reach the last step, but I dare not continue."
"No problem, tonight." Felix said thoughtfully. He was also happy for Lupin. After five months, Lupin finally saw the dawn of hope. He even had a lot of ancient magic foundation for work reasons, which showed the difficulty of this magic.
He could also understand Lupin's impatience-normally, it would be the best choice to test it on a full moon night, but the significance of this magic was too great for him, and the waiting time of half a month seemed too long.
...
Mr. Weasley laughed as if he was the one listening to the story.
Mr. and Mrs. Delacour were not very good at English, so they expressed their compliments in French. Their little daughter, Gabrielle Delacour, sat between her parents and looked around. She was a replica of Fleur. Although she was only 11 years old, she was a real beauty. She and Ginny were bridesmaids at today's wedding.
Gabrielle suddenly jumped up from her seat, pressed her little face against the window, and chirped, "Mom! Someone is coming, are they guests of the wedding? Is the wedding about to start?"
Mr. Weasley also stood up and walked to the window to look at the scene outside. "It's Percy and Penelope, and another person - it's Sirius!" He glanced at his watch, then searched around the room, and finally fell on Charlie.
"It's almost time, Charlie, go call the little guys in the garage -" Charlie stood up in response, "Okay, Dad." "- and by the way, help me see if they have messed up the things in the garage."
"Let Gabrielle go." Mr. Delacour said kindly. His wife stood up, and the couple seemed to be inverted in height, with the wife towering over her husband, slender with brilliant blond hair, while the husband was short, plump, and had a black moustache.
Gabrielle ran to the door excitedly, pushed it open, and disappeared from their sight in the blink of an eye. This was like a signal, and everyone in the house moved.
Elsewhere, earlier -
the adults stayed in the living room to talk, and the children (or those who were considered to be children) were crowded in the Weasley's garage, chatting and relaxing. Ron had been fiddling with the radio equipment brought back by the Weasley twins.
"I'm going to buy one later," Ron said.
"You're not an Auror anymore?" Fred raised an eyebrow.
"Of course I am," Ron said, "but it doesn't stop me from having a private hobby."
"Our brother is very interested in plugging his voice into other people's ears," Fred said to Cedric. The two families moved to the same place to take care of each other because of the short-term threat of Voldemort. After the war, the Diggory family did not move back, but thought it was good and visited each other frequently.
"Don't say you don't like it." Ron pointed out.
"Yeah, we're just giving you a heads up," George said in a threatening tone, "If you're planning to share some interesting family stories, it's best not to bring us along, for your own health."
"You mean Mr. Weasley's interview?" Hermione asked the twins.
They didn't respond directly. "The Daily Prophet quoted some Muggle reports, and now I feel like I'm standing naked in the snow." Fred said in a depressed tone.
"Parents are really terrible creatures. They remember every embarrassing moment of you since you were born." George also said with deep emotion.
"- and they are still happy to share."
"I thought it was my mother's hobby!"
"Who knew it was my father who hit us from behind."
"I don't dare to go out to see people."
The two said in unison. Harry didn't see much embarrassment on their faces, and Mr. Weasley didn't mention anything bad, but Harry did solve the doubts in his heart-the Weasleys marked the twins' buttocks to distinguish the two identical babies in the cradle.
"Hey, I saw a group of goblins looking over here." Qiu Zhang said through the window.
"That's strange," Ron said in wonder, "Usually they would appear after a day or two, and need time to muster up the courage."
"I know the reason." Ginny said, "Dad thinks that every member of the family should be blessed with a little bit of happiness, so he secretly took some candy and distributed it to the goblins."
"Every family member? Goblins?" Ron was dumbfounded, and after a moment, an expression of understanding appeared on his face: "I was wondering why Dad thought of changing the clothes of the ghoul in the attic. I thought he was infected by Mom...right, Harry?"
"Don't say it." Harry said painfully. He accidentally squeezed several pustules when he grabbed the ghoul's arm. The stench was enough to make people faint. Hermione, Ginny and Qiu Zhang giggled, and Cedric turned his head away. He was also having a hard time holding it back.
At this time, a little girl with silver waterfall-like hair appeared at the door, "Hello! They are calling you over! Guests are coming!"
"Got it, Gabrielle." Hermione said gently, as if the person who was smiling so happily just now was not her, "Let's go."
When they came out, they met a group of people coming out of the Burrow. Mr. Weasley handed the seating chart to Fred and George, "Help me, kids." Then he turned to Ginny and said sternly, "If you don't want to hear your mother shouting your name with the Amplification Charm, you'd better go back and change your clothes."
Ginny cried "Oops" and ran back in a hurry. Gabrielle followed behind with light steps.
"Where are Amelia and Tonks?" Behind the crowd, Felix and Lupin walked together and asked Sirius who had just appeared.
Sirius glanced at his watch.
"There's still an hour before the wedding starts. She'll arrive about fifteen minutes early, so she should be inspecting Diagon Alley now - in preparation for the reception of Muggles in the near future. Tonks is with her. They asked me to come here first to explain the situation. It is said that the guest commentator is a tour guide from a travel agency. I don't know whose bad idea it was."
"It's me." Felix said absent-mindedly. "I just mentioned it casually."
"Very insightful." Sirius grinned. "I don't know that wizard, but when I was in school, this travel agency seemed to make it their mission to make more wizards 'missing'."
"There will be Aurors watching in secret by then." Felix said, "As for the people from the International Confederation of Wizards, when will they arrive?"
"They've arrived," Sirius said. "Amelia asked them to rest in the Ministry of Magic and then come together. Akinbade is in a bad state."
At exactly three o'clock in the afternoon, Harry, Ron, Fred and George stood outside the huge milky white tent in the orchard, holding seating charts in their hands, waiting for the guests to arrive. The purple carpet stretched from their feet to the end of the tent. The golden chairs were arranged in an orderly manner. The pillars and tables were carefully placed with flowers that Fred and George had exchanged from the town. Hermione and Penelope took the trouble to place various small gifts in the middle of the table.
Mr. Weasley disappeared for a while, and then appeared with a team of waiters and a band. They each performed their duties, and gradually, more people came into the tent.
Grawp couldn't enter the tent, and he could easily take down the flag stuck on the top of the convertible just by standing. As the only pure-blooded giant in the UK - although it may have nothing to do with this - Grawp was also assigned a task. He held a handful of balloons in his hand and handed one to every guest who passed by. But the only effect was to scare the guests.
But there are always brave people who dare to try.
Felix had nothing to do and kept looking at the guests who came from afar.
After observing for a while, Felix took out a magic camera and handed it to Mr. Weasley. Mr. Weasley was overjoyed and left with the camera. When Felix looked outside again, he found Percy standing in front of the giant, holding a camera and taking pictures of the guests who were eager to try and show their courage.
When a group of girls who came from France and were suspected to have the same blood of the Charmed Baby took the courage to leave photos, this event seemed to have become a special wedding event. The successful people seemed to have returned victorious, and even their walking posture became more upright.
Finally, the person Felix was waiting for arrived.
The first time he saw Babajide Akinbade, Felix knew that Sirius's previous evaluation of him was too light. Akinbade's condition was not just a little bad, but he was very haggard. In just over a month, he seemed to have aged by a dozen years.
－－－－－－－Digression－－－－－－－
Seeing that readers have questions, here is an explanation: the previous extra chapter was written in conjunction with the website's 515 Good Book Festival. Although this book is about to end, it is not finished yet.