Chapter 65: Historical Remnants of War

"Roger, let's go! Come have a snowball fight with the Slytherins! We're short on a real expert!"

December 25th, Christmas Day.

With the first half of the semester drawing to a close, most students and teachers had long since returned to their respective homes in accordance with traditional holiday customs, reuniting with their families. They would not return until the holiday ended in early January.

Of course, a few chose to stay at the school for various reasons.

Those remaining students had their own forms of entertainment, brimming with a festive atmosphere.

"No, I still have unfinished business," Roger said, lifting his head from the long table in the Gryffindor common room to reply to his classmate.

"Oh." Hearing Roger say that, the Gryffindor student didn't press the matter further.

Through interactions earlier this term, many had come to understand what kind of person Roger was.

There were no empty excuses in his words; when he said he was busy, it meant he genuinely had important matters to attend to.

After the student left, Roger lowered his head once more, raising his quill to write and sketch in his notebook.

Although Roger possessed the magical ability of "transfigurative creation"—much like when he shared the internal spacetime research report of the Department of Mysteries with Harry—magic would eventually dissipate one day. To preserve it for the long term, it still needed to be written down bit by bit.

"Roger, what are you writing?" Hermione, holding a book as she passed by his side, leaned over with a curious gaze.

In her impression, ever since Roger acquired absolute memory and stopped taking notes, she had rarely seen him pick up a quill to write.

"Some theoretical material I've researched. The Headmaster said he'd like to read it too, and I want to discuss the feasibility of this theory with him," Roger said, his thoughts drifting back to the previous night.

After he expressed his willingness to let Dumbledore examine the materials on the path of magic, Dumbledore had stopped pursuing the topic of Roger's magic.

Instead, he shifted the conversation to the Middle East, recounting the outcome of events over there to Roger.

The conclusion of Dumbledore's "Great Crusade" to the Middle East was rather bizarre.

On one hand, those fiercely turbulent Middle Eastern wizards, upon seeing Dumbledore actually descend upon the region with an expression of "Are you actually playing for real?", instantly lost their momentum.

Without even needing Dumbledore to exert any pressure, they folded immediately.

Yet on the other hand, certain other wizards who had previously remained relatively silent suddenly jumped out to challenge Dumbledore.

These wizards were composed of two factions. The first group harbored pure dissatisfaction with Dumbledore's actions.

"Yes, there were wizards on our side who acted wrongly, but isn't your approach even more wrong?"

In the eyes of this faction, although those Middle Eastern wizards had been rowdy, they hadn't launched scaled military actions, let alone terrorist attacks, yet Dumbledore had come in so forcefully to suppress them.

We only played a pair of nines, and you immediately dropped a nuclear bomb? I launched public opinion campaigns and border harassment, at most combined with withholding some magical material exports from you, and you deployed nuclear deterrents right at our doorstep—isn't that a bit lacking in fair play?

Were they, the Middle Eastern wizards, supposed to be scared out of their wits?

Well, they simply felt humiliated and disgruntled.

This faction was easy to deal with. As the Supreme Mugwump of the International Confederation of Wizards, Dumbledore possessed considerable diplomatic skill, and resolving their grievances wasn't too troublesome.

The crucial issue lay with the second group.

Earlier, under the guise of a religious prophet, Roger had intervened in Muggle warfare in the Middle East, causing a massive upheaval that even influenced the trajectory of the war.

Afterward, Roger was arrested and put on trial in Britain.

The United States subsequently inaugurated a new Middle Eastern order.

A large number of Middle Eastern civilians rescued by Roger returned to post-war life... or so it appeared on the surface.

Yet the matter did not end so simply!

The wizarding world adhered to the International Statute of Wizarding Secrecy; magic must not manifest before Muggles, nor should the existence of magic be revealed to the majority of them.

Britain could brush its hands clean and acquit Roger.

But what about the rest of us?

Too many civilians knew of the "Prophet"!

Although they didn't realize it was magic, the birth of a prophet bearing "divine miracles" had become practically a household notion in certain regions!

Europe and America were manageable.

The Magical Congress of the United States, in conjunction with financial cartels, utilized information warfare to muddy the waters.

People in Europe and America who hadn't genuinely witnessed the prophet were left half-doubting the truth under the onslaught of overwhelming junk information.

They assumed it was merely a fantastical battlefield tale.

In the Middle East, however, countless individuals had been saved by the prophet's own hands!

Through word of mouth, the news spread from ten to a hundred, and a hundred to a thousand.

When the count reached a terrifying magnitude of tens of millions, memory charms were entirely out of the question.

The true upper echelons of the Five Permanent Members in Muggle society would never allow the wizarding community to meddle with the minds and wills of so many people before things reached an irreversible state.

Loyal to their countries, their people, their beliefs... Not all wizards marched in lockstep with the so-called pure-blood supremacists; the upper echelons of various nations all commanded certain Muggle-leaning factions of wizards.

Wizards could not simply act recklessly and do as they pleased. The wizarding and Muggle worlds were not rigidly demarcated; rather, they were deeply intertwined, each containing elements of the other.

Even within the Middle Eastern wizarding community, some had consistently stood on the side of the Prophet, rendering their stance even more peculiar... Entangled by various forces, everyone remained locked in a stalemate.

Consequently, the "semi-public exposure of supernatural power" in certain parts of the Middle East became a historical legacy issue of the Gulf War.

It would have been fine if Dumbledore hadn't come, but once he arrived, many wanted him to "uphold justice"!

"I heard you were the one who orchestrated the Great Prophet's acquittal? In that case, this burden—ahem, I mean, this monumental responsibility—is handed over to you!"

This involved the conservative consensus shared by the vast majority of wizards worldwide regarding the International Statute of Secrecy.

Centuries ago, the signing of the Statute of Secrecy reshaped the global wizarding societal landscape, leading to the establishment of Ministries of Magic and magical congresses in various countries.

And centuries later today, whether the Statute of Secrecy should be resolutely enforced, where the boundaries of its definition ought to be drawn, and what should be done when past methods of enforcement conflicted with the will of the upper echelons of the Five Great Powers on Planet Blue... all presented vexing dilemmas.

Even for Dumbledore, handling such matters gave him a splitting headache.

This was the primary reason Dumbledore had remained in the Middle East for nearly two months, and why he had only been able to temporarily "escape" back to rest for a while by taking advantage of Severus's plea for help via letter.

Reflecting on this after his conversation with Dumbledore concluded late last night, Roger realized upon returning that perhaps the matter wasn't quite as difficult to resolve.

"Discussing with the Headmaster?" Hermione asked, leaning in slightly to take a look while Roger alternated between deep thought and transcription.

Transformation, intervention, ascension of life hierarchy, dimensions, spacetime, the psychological self, the collective human unconscious...

Hermione recognized every single word when taken apart, but put together...

What on earth was this?!

Hermione slowly averted her gaze and took a deep breath.

She was interested in knowledge and respected it, but learning for Hermione was primarily a weapon—a tool she used to protect herself and establish her standing.

She actually wanted to go out and play too, but seeing Roger studying always filled her with a sense of guilt.

When someone stronger than you works harder than you, how could she possibly find the face to rest?

Yet now, that guilt vanished completely.

The person working harder than you might not even be human.

How could you possibly compete with someone who could sit down and discourse equally with Headmaster Dumbledore as a first-year?

A snowball fight with Slytherin? I suppose I'll go join the fun as well.