Chapter 738

Chapter 738: Epilogue: The Prosperous World (finale)

It was just after midnight, dawn had yet to arrive, the moon and stars still hanging in the sky, and a faint grey-green colour appeared on the distant sea surface. It was early in the morning, the time when people are most asleep, Harry rode on his broomstick, breathing the cold sea breeze, over and over again as he rehearsed the operation plan in his mind.

Today is the day to close the net, the last group of mercenaries along with the tourists blended into the island.

The huge floating island gradually dismantled piece by piece in his mind, which was replaced by a dense traffic map: thousands of Floo networks, more than two hundred knight buses, tens of thousands of low-altitude tourist brooms, as well as not very popular flying carpets, hover cars and other magical substitutes …

Then there are also Apparition and Portkey shifting hubs.

The governing body of the floating island has relatively comprehensive regulations for wizards to Apparate on and off the island. Usually, only the external defence is maintained, that is, outsiders are prohibited from directly sneaking onto the island, and in turn, wizards are not allowed to leave at will, but there are no internal restrictions; during the World Cup, it is much stricter, and a series of no-apparition zones are announced in advance, except for a few places – -such as the stadiums and their surroundings, which could accommodate 500,000 spectators, and the strongholds controlled by Aurors, all other areas were strictly banned for wizards to apparate at will.

The latter – the Auror stronghold – is one of the main reasons why the floating island can cope with most emergencies with less manpower, and Harry has even temporarily formed a dozen elite wizard squads to provide support in case of emergency.

At that moment a figure rushed over, it was Ron, he pushed the broom handle to suspend in front of Harry.

“Everyone’s ready. When are we going to move?”

“Now.”

“Cool!” Ron gave a thumbs up, “See those Billywig insects? I can’t wait for them to get a good shot of my wizard pieces charging …”

“Don’t wake up the whole island.” Harry cautioned.

“I really would have liked to,” Ron trailed off with a bit of regret: “Too bad you deployed a group of people dedicated to casting the quietening charm and repairing charm.”

The two descended to the ground on their broomsticks, and one by one the heavily armed figures disappeared from Harry’s sight. Harry tightened his wand, they are his family, classmates, friends, and comrades, who did not hesitate to answer his call, so he must do everything possible to protect their safety.

The battle was fought before dawn and ended before dawn. Harry’s Patronus pierced through the darkness, near the stadium, his close range continuous apparition was a nightmare for all enemies, and he barely faced more than a decent resistance; in many cases, the battle was over before Harry rushed to support, and Harry heard the Creevey brothers whispering that they hadn’t even caught a single enemy.

“I knocked down seven!” Sirius walked around excitedly, “Make sure you let little Rosalie know that, oh, and little Edgar! Grandfather Phineas who loves to yap!” Harry grinned, Little Edgar is Sirius’s second child, the one who was almost named ‘James’ and later inherited the name of Ms. Bones’ brother.

As for the Grandfather Phineas that Sirius spoke of – it is actually the portrait in the Headmaster’s office at Hogwarts, which Sirius has often gone back to visit since he had a child, and he loves to give advice.

Harry walked to the back corner, Hermione was yawning a bit, she danced all night, and when she returned, she learned that the operation was imminent and rushed over, she was so sleepy that she couldn’t keep her eyes open. She barely said hello, “Oh – ha – Harry, anything else? I’m going to go back and catch up on my sleep … and come back when I have time.”

“Um, okay.” Harry said hesitantly, he still did not say the words of thanks – since Hermione is here, it’s given that the Professor also came over, but he only did not show up. Today’s operation is expected to have some of his pushing factors to build up momentum for him.

Hermione smiled and waved her hand, “Come on, Harry!” She turned into a shadow, Harry seemed to see the professor smile and nod at him, and then they both disappeared together. Harry took a deep breath, he still has a lot to do, when the World Cup is over there is plenty of time to talk with Professor Hap.

Early in the morning, the sleeping city reawakened. When you look down from high above, you could see little ant-like people pouring out of the hotels and merging into the various main roads. Today is the day the Quidditch World Cup begins, and although the opening ceremony will not take place until the evening, the atmosphere in the air is already pulsating with excitement.

Many tourists had only learned what had happened in the early hours of the morning from the newspapers, and a large group of kindred spirits had gathered in the pub to talk about how more than three hundred organized and premeditated criminals had been caught unawares while they were sound asleep.

“It wasn’t like there was no movement at all,” said one man, “I got up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom and vaguely heard someone shouting ‘charge’ and ‘give us some! ‘ Or something like that, but the volume was so low it wasn’t as loud as the sound of peeing.”

“It’s a quietening charm, some law enforcement officers have cast a quieting charm nearby.” A wizard cried out, “That means the battle was under control from start to finish.”

“I suppose that means the young chief of the island is quite a talent, huh?” Someone asked a question.

“Cough cough cough, it’s the island governor,” the wizard coughed violently, “Harry Potter is not young, he’s very famous in England.”

“Yeah well, but compared to Hap …”

The male wizard stopped talking, it was undisputed, no wizard could match Felix Hap’s influence now, not even close, but then again, governing the floating island isn’t that demanding.

These people soon diverted the conversation elsewhere, discussing the evening’s opening ceremony, arguing about which country’s team would win, and soon two drunken, cranky guys with flags painted on their faces were fighting at the pub as people around them cheered with gusto.

The pub barman ignored this and simply turned on the TV, where the morning news was being broadcast on the screen as follows.

“…327 criminals were arrested, and after interrogation, it was ascertained that these men were from twelve prominent anti-wizard organizations, and enchanted guns and materials used to make magic bombs were confiscated from their hideouts, which had been planned for over three months… …”

The people in the pub watched the footage of the subsequent battle in awe, most of them – including the male wizard – were seeing the standard wizard squad in action for the first time, which completely overturned their past perceptions: silent invasion after using bewitched sleep spell, transfiguration magic which could turn walls into open doors, the quietening and disillusionment charms to block sound and sight, besides the smoke that enveloped half the neighbourhood, the ten-foot-tall magic golems … and no one thought that the fully-armed equipment on Aurors was just for show, probably they didn’t even have the chance to operate it during the battle, or it was working, but they were unable to tell… …

Of all these, the silver stag Patronus was quite impressive, whenever it appeared, it basically meant the end of the battle within seconds.

Nearly noon, Valen sat up in her cradle bed, a little dazed, she only remembered that she was sitting at the door of the Great Demon King’s bedroom yesterday … Valen fully woke up with a jolt, jumped down and ran into the bedroom, the scene before her eyes made her angry, those two guys were lying on the bed snoozing, and she didn’t even know when they came back last night, and now they both, both –She tilted her head and glanced at the time, 11::59; Valen smacked her beak and waited quietly for a dozen seconds, and when the needle jumped to 12 and continued to go down, she immediately hopped into bed and shook the covers hard. Ahhhhh, it’s already past twelve! You guys are too lazy!

Felix reached out in a daze and glued Valen to the bed, and after a few seconds, he opened his eyes and met Niffler’s glaring eyes.

“Why did you glue yourself on the bed?” Felix scratched his nose absent-mindedly.

Valen froze for a moment, then struggled hard, “Kee-!!!”

By the time Felix and Hermione had eaten, it was afternoon, and the television was still dutifully broadcasting footage of the wizard squad’s heroic battle, with a number of interviews thrown in, such as Rolf, who was gushing about his wife’s skills, and the reporter who interviewed Seamus and Dean, failing to notice the scene of Ms. Bones lecturing her youngest son at his back, “Grawp knows more words than you do! You and your father should be ashamed of it for once …” Felix and Hermione, who were playing wizard cards, turned their heads just in time to see Sirius picking his nose.

But after 6 p.m., there was plenty of news from the stadium, and the two changed clothes and appeared in the stadium with an exasperated Valen. The stadium was packed. Their seats are at the very top, and they exchanged greetings with various people who they didn’t remember much along the way, before entering the private booth.

Felix was quietly relieved that it was packed with familiar faces, in addition to a bunch of Hogwarts professors, the Longbottoms, Lupin and Tonks, Luna and Rolf, Sirius and Bones, the whole Weasley family, Draco and Astoria, and a dozen small children of various ages.

He and Hermione sat in the first row, next to Professor McGonagall.

“Felix,” Professor McGonagall nodded at them, “Madame Maxime came by and talked to me about the matter of opening a magic school by working together with other magic schools on the island, you know, studying common disciplines where magic and science coexist … ”

“It would be a good idea to add Muggle Universities.” Hermione interjected.

“We do have such plans,” Professor McGonagall said, “but it is still in preparation, we have to reach a mutual understanding with Beauxbatons and Durmstrang first, and it would be better if we could add Ilvermorny and Uagadou– ”

“To prepare for another Tournament of Champions?” Felix asked with interest.

Professor McGonagall froze, “It’s not impossible if we can … before I retire”

The advertisements on the circular curtain around the stadium disappeared, and the lens shifted past each prominent VIP and made its way to the top floor where Harry’s back was followed all the way to the top booth, and then the crowd cheered as footage of the daytime battle began to play.

Harry sat next to Ginny.

“Where are the kids?”

Ginny sighed, “James went to find Teddy, Rosalie is with Victoria, Albus-” she raised her chin and Harry looked over, Albus and Scorpius were exchanging souvenirs with each other and Draco nodded towards Harry.

“Harry.” At that moment, Sirius waved at Harry, and Harry went to sit over. He took Harry by the shoulders and pointed to the Patronus on the screen, “How does it feel?” The meaning was obvious.

Harry scratched his head, “There are a lot of things I haven’t had a chance to learn more about–”

“Find him!” Sirius nudged towards Lupin, “He knows the best.”

Harry blinked and looked over at Lupin.

“Sirius got it more or less right, Future Worlds does have an obligation to help you with this, and what we’ve done over the years would be very informative for you to manage the floating island.” Lupin said, “We have to do only one thing, or rather aim for one objective: to make magic integrate as much as possible into all the fields it can access! After more than a decade, it’s finally starting to pay off …”

“Initial gains?” Harry asked.

“Exactly.” Lupin explained, “Magic and science are becoming more and more closely integrated, truly becoming part of what keeps the world going, and no one person or group has the ability to force them apart – and that means huge changes in existing life.”

Harry received a tremendous shock inside. Then he felt a heavy weight on his heart.

Lupin smiled slightly, “It’s a big responsibility, but don’t stress, you’ve already proven yourself, and there are many opportunities ahead. Plus we’re all here. Felix is here too.”

He knew the world is changing for the better and is on the right path. Those who used to climb the mountain would not be easily hindered by a boulder or two.

“We are in the midst of an unprecedented era of prosperity.” He said in a strong, confident voice.

It was as if in response to Lupin’s words, Felix who was having a small talk with Professor McGonagall in the top booth found the stadium gradually quieted down, and Hermione at the side quietly nudged him, as a giant screen made up of countless curtains projected Felix’s face on it.

At the same time, his face appeared in the floating island’s pubs, and open-air venues, as well as on Tv screens all around the world.

Felix stood up to his feet and opened his arms – people held their breath, the Quidditch World Cup had attracted the world’s attention, so for a few seconds, it was as if the entire floating island, and even the world outside, had gone silent by a dozen decibels. His voice carried clearly through every corner of the stadium with the help of magic and appeared on every screen.

“Everyone – Welcome to the opening ceremony of the 426th Quidditch World Cup! Ladies and Gentlemen Welcome!… Let the carnival begin with a bang, the festivities will now-”

“Begin!!!”

Millions of arms waved enthusiastically in the air, flags of all colours fluttered over the heads of the crowd, creating a sea of joy; then came an even more dazzling sight: countless fireworks burst and condensed into brilliant patterns above the night sky, the sky turned into a larger colourful canvas than the stadium, and a tidal wave of excited screams pierced through the thick clouds and echoed in the ears of tourists for a long time. Everyone’s face was filled with unquenchable joy.

Prosperity is just around the corner.

—–

[Note:]

This is where all the bonus episodes come to an end. The overall framework of the bonus episodes is Quidditch World Cup, but the World Cup itself is not important, rather its role is to just provide a stage for the story to be framed in the most vibrant possible context.

The main characters’ families, careers and living conditions are introduced through individual episodes (rather than dry textual descriptions), which is the main purpose of the bonus episodes; some of them I have found difficult to keep as a stand-alone episode, so they are integrated into other people’s stories.

Thank you for your support and company till now, but this story is truly going to end here.

Thank you all!

Very Big Thanks for all the support you guys have given me, every comment, likes, reads, power stone and financial support has motivated me; Thank you.