Chapter 164: A Letter To Dumbledore
The Purifiers are different from other powers in America; no matter what their ultimate demands are, those wizarding powers would absolutely not dare offend the Federation.
After all, everyone knows that the Federation’s management is covetous of various major powers, and they’re always looking for an excuse to provoke them.
If you harm someone from the Federation, wouldn’t you be handing them an excuse for armed intervention on a silver platter?
Regardless of whether one is pure-blood, half-blood, or Muggle-born, the slogans of revenge and equal rights may be shouted loudly, but in essence, it’s all about fighting for the right to speak.
No one wants to lead a tiger in while fighting.
That would benefit no one!
However, the Purifiers are different.
In the eyes of the Purifiers, there’s no such thing as pure-blood, half-blood, Muggle, American wizard, European wizard, or the Federation… there are only two types of people: wizards and non-wizards!
Those who once wreaked havoc on the American continent do not care about your nationality or affiliation; as long as you can use magic, you are their enemy, their prey.
To be honest, Vaughn never expected before coming here that the Purifiers, who were rumored to have long since disappeared, would not only resurface but be so powerful…
As he pondered, the person in the black robe beside him continued to introduce other intelligence:
“…Based on the current situation, it’s likely that pure-bloods have completely controlled the Ministry of Magic for a long time. For the past few years, they have been instigating class conflict and creating hate incidents, until last year, a witch whose child was kidnapped attacked the Woolworth Building, and she was dealt with by Aurors on the spot.”
“There were many ways to handle such a situation, and there was no need for such extreme measures, but it’s obvious that the Woolworth Building never intended to de-escalate the conflict; they wanted the conflict to intensify!”
“…Currently, the areas that the Ministry of Magic can fully control are mainly concentrated in coastal cities on the East Coast like New York. These are basically the core areas of America, with large populations and strong power. It’s hard to say whether they had already prepared for today.”
“We must be vigilant against any half-blood forces. The logic behind their actions is very strange. Rather than being rebels, their actions are more like terrorism… We suspect that some organizations might be supported by the Woolworth Building, especially since last year they issued death threats to pure-bloods, attacked pure-bloods, leading to a complete deterioration of the situation, and it was they who incited hatred.”
“…Wizard organizations of Muggle origin are relatively purer, but their territories are too dispersed. To the west, to the north, in every state, they are like a pile of loose sand. And I also do not recommend contacting them, how to say it?” The person in the black robe thought for a moment and sighed, “Many wizards have lost their Muggle family members in this past year.”
“The retaliatory attacks by pure-bloods, the inexplicable attacks, and the arrests by the Muggle government, allegedly… there have been too many. Now, many wizards of Muggle origin can no longer tolerate anything else in their eyes and minds; only revenge!”
“They don’t want to consider anything else; they just want to kill all those who brought them pain, whether old or young… In short, they’ve gone mad.”
The intelligence concluded with a simple closing remark.
As he spoke the last paragraph, he seemed to recall those “wizards he knew,” and the person in the black robe’s emotions became somewhat low.
And quite pessimistic.
He looked at Vaughn and said, “Mr. Weasley, although my identity shouldn’t allow me to say this, I still want to advise you—if possible, after you pick up your friends, leave this place!”
“This place is beyond saving. The entire North American continent is filled with hatred and bloodshed. For you to choose this place to develop WAC will only make it worse and will not bring any good results.”
This was his final statement.
On the other side, after Lupin completed the handover of the Fire Dragon, he mounted his broom and left without looking back.
Vaughn stood by the ship’s railing, watching their backs disappear into the undulating shadows of the distant continent, vanishing into the sea under the dark night.
No one knew what he was thinking, or if he had taken the advice.
The shrewd old Ajinbad didn’t know either!
He also left; he needed to go back and analyze that memory carefully to compile a report on the Purifiers for the Federation.
On the way back, Vaughn was still pondering the intelligence brought by the person in the black robe.
Especially that memory.
Although he didn’t show it, those Purifiers had indeed brought Vaughn an impact beyond his imagination.
“They are not wizards!”
Ajinbad’s words echoed in his ears again.
His tone carried confusion, bewilderment, and worry.
Visually, these people could use wands and cast spells; how could they not be wizards?
But in other words… can a being that can use a wand and spells be considered a wizard?
House-elves can use wands and magic; are they wizards?
What about goblins, giants, and mermaids… these humanoids can all use magic and wands, and they are undoubtedly not wizards!
Ajinbad’s statement was not about obsessing over whether the Purifiers were wizards or not, but about conveying his subjective feeling—they felt like creatures such as house-elves, goblins, and mermaids!
It was chilling to think about…
“President? President!”
Lupin’s call brought Vaughn back to his senses.
Turning his head, he saw Lupin holding the suitcase containing the Fire Dragon. His melancholy face looked even more troubled with worry.
“Sorry, Remus, I was a bit distracted. What is it?”
“We’ve arrived at your suite, Mr. President.” Lupin hesitated and asked, “What did that person in the black robe say to you? You and Ajinbad both seem unwell.”
Vaughn didn’t hide anything and replied, “Ah, some bad news, Remus.”
“…How bad?”
This made Vaughn unsure how to answer. He paused, then walked into the room, gesturing for Lupin to follow.
As Lupin entered the suite with a puzzled look and closed the door.
Vaughn’s eyes lit up with a faint blue glow.
Legilimency!
The familiar glow made Lupin instinctively reach for his waist, gripping his wand.
Then he realized that Vaughn was about to take him into his mind world to see something.
Otherwise, with Vaughn’s mastery of Memory Magic, if he really wanted to attack him, he might not even have time to react before being hit!
He withdrew his wand, looked at Vaughn’s faint blue eyes, and let his consciousness be drawn in by the light, feeling “loose” and “falling,” descending into another quiet world with a pitch-black background.
Vaughn’s mind world!
Descending from reality into illusion, this familiar yet strange experience made Lupin somewhat dazed—he had practiced Memory Magic for a period of time, and a friend with black hair and glasses had urged him:
“If one day we are no longer here, with your mastery of Memory Magic, even if you can’t make it in the wizarding world, at least you can still make a living in Muggle society, hahahaha…”
A hearty, teasing laugh suddenly echoed from the depths of his memory.
Lupin was surprised to find that this conversation from over ten years ago was still so clearly preserved in his memory.
Then, he heard Vaughn’s voice tease him, “Control yourself, Remus. Are you looking down on me by thinking about all sorts of random things in my mind world?”
Lupin immediately became alert.
How could he suddenly recall past events for no reason?
He looked at Vaughn’s figure, which had suddenly appeared not far away, with a troubled expression, “Mr. President, you…”
“Sorry, ever since I learned Memory Magic, I’ve added many defensive measures to my mind world… too many, sometimes I can’t even remember which ones are automatically activated.”
Vaughn apologized insincerely, then with a shift of thought, a huge illusion rose from the bottom of this pitch-black mind world, from a ground that resembled a clear lake.
Enveloping them both.
The scene instantly shifted. Lupin only felt a blur before his eyes, and he and Vaughn were now in an almost realistic scene.
This was a memory simulation processed by Vaughn.
A Muggle community late at night, with rows of apartment buildings.
And fireballs descending from the sky, and intense explosions.
Although he had anticipated that Vaughn’s so-called “bad news” might be quite impactful, when Lupin personally witnessed dense ranks of wizards in black robes emerging from the darkness, surrounding the apartment building, and coldly and ruthlessly wiping out all the wizards like machines, he still gasped.
“What… what are these?”
“Purifiers!”
*Snap!*
Vaughn snapped his fingers, and as if time had stopped, everything in the scene froze.
He walked up to a wizard in a black robe and lifted the hood from his head.
There was nothing under the hood!
This was because the provider of the memory had not seen whether these wizards in black robes were male or female, or what they looked like. After all, no matter how much a memory is processed, it’s based on information collected by the senses and cannot exceed it.
So Vaughn was not disappointed. The hood could conceal the face, but it couldn’t hide the material itself.
He took off the hood, tossed it aside, and it disintegrated into countless fine threads in the air—countless weaving threads.
Lupin was confused by Vaughn’s actions, “President, what are you doing?”
Vaughn didn’t answer him but retorted, “Remus, after seeing these wizards in black robes fight, what is your intuition?”
“Intuition?” Lupin was taken aback.
“Yes, for example, do you feel they are like wizards?”
“No!” Lupin said without hesitation, emphatically.
“Oh? Why?”
Lupin hesitated, “They don’t have the aura of wizards… roughly speaking, I can’t describe it clearly, I just know that they feel completely different from wizards.”
“Heh!”
Vaughn neither agreed nor disagreed, merely chuckled, “Let’s go back to the previous question. I want to find out the identity of these people.”
As he spoke, he waved his hands gently.
Following his movements, the weaving threads swayed like aquatic plants, constantly dissociating.
Watching this scene, Lupin’s eyes were filled with confusion, seemingly not understanding the meaning of his actions.
Noticing his expression, Vaughn smiled, “In this memory, there is almost no other information to prove where these wizards in black robes came from or what group they belong to. I can only analyze using the existing conditions, for example, analyzing the material of their clothing from the perspective of light!”
As he spoke, the weaving threads had completely dissociated into fine fibers.
They spread like fluffy hair across the sky of this frozen scene.
But unlike the normal state, here in the world of memory, under Vaughn’s magical processing, they emitted a faint glow.
Gently brushing a glowing fiber with his finger, Vaughn slowly explained:
“It’s not that they are emitting light themselves, but the material absorbed and reflected the light waves under the ambient light of the night sky and the explosion’s flames… According to Muggle scientific explanation, what human vision sees is not the substance itself, but the light reflected by the substance.”
“Light is captured by the visual system, forming the contour information of the substance, which is then transcribed by the brain into memory. What I am doing is reversing this process and, through the light waves reflected by these fibers, analyzing what material it is composed of.”
Lupin felt his brain was not enough.
He knew what each word meant, but when put together, it was so obscure that he couldn’t understand it at all.
He couldn’t help but ask, “You want to know what material it is, can’t you just touch it and find out?”
“Dear Remus, you not only need to study Muggle knowledge well, but you should also deepen your understanding of Memory Magic…” Vaughn said patiently, “This is not reality; it is just a memory. Its information composition is missing. The memory provider did not touch these black robes, so his memory naturally does not contain related tactile information. How, then, can I know what it is through touch?”
“…”
Lupin closed his mouth in shame.
On the other side, the fibers glowing under Vaughn’s magic became brighter and brighter. At one moment, their entire form collapsed.
They turned into countless points of light, suspended in this stagnant space.
Vaughn extended his hand, and the points of light automatically flew into his palm.
He closed his eyes for a moment, then reopened them, without any surprise, and said softly, “Polyester…”
“…Mr. President, what did you say?”
Vaughn looked at Lupin, “Polyester, also known as polyethylene terephthalate, is a synthetic fiber produced only by Muggles, a chemical fabric!”
Lupin was stunned. He didn’t know what polyester was, nor did he need to. He had already understood Vaughn’s implied meaning.
Wizards would not use Muggle chemical fabrics.
Thanks to the convenience of the modern spell system, the productivity of wizards has always been in surplus. Natural fabrics like cotton, wool, and velvet are the first choice for wizards.
He opened his mouth to say something but felt as if his throat were blocked.
After a long time, he finally managed to ask in a hoarse voice, “You mean… these black robes holding wands and using magic are Muggles?”
“Yes.”
Vaughn replied, under Lupin’s shocked, confused, and disbelieving gaze, he thought for a moment and expressed it in more precise terms, “To be precise, it is a new breed of Muggle that can use magic!”
“This, how is this possible?”
“How is it impossible?”
“Magic Power!” Lupin’s voice was hurried, “Muggles don’t have magic power!”
Compared to Lupin’s urgency, shock, and hidden repulsion, Vaughn remained as calm and composed as usual, “Does not having magic power have a necessary relationship with being able to use magic?”
Lupin found it ridiculous and widened his eyes, “How can one use magic without magic power?”
Vaughn said as a matter of course, “They can borrow it from other wizards!”
“…?”
“That’s right, magic power is invisible. To date, the wizarding world hasn’t heard of anyone developing a device that can store magic power. But let’s think about it from another angle: magic power must be an objectively existing entity, perhaps a substance or an energy.”
“Since it is a real existing substance or energy, then it must follow the basic laws of interaction between substances, for example, mutual interaction!”
“Where there is interaction, there is the possibility of observation and utilization. Even dark matter can be observed through gravity, let alone magic power? Observing it is much simpler than observing dark matter, at least wizards can actually come into contact with and utilize magic power.”
Vaughn was excited.
Lupin, however, felt his head spinning. Dark matter, gravity—he didn’t understand any of it. He only knew that his worldview was collapsing. Even now, he couldn’t believe the possibility Vaughn had revealed—
Muggles can use magic?
But…
Thinking of his first intuition upon seeing those wizards in black robes, Lupin vaguely felt that Vaughn’s speculation might be true…
……
Lupin left.
He left in a daze, clearly showing fear. It was the fear of the unknown, of his worldview being shattered.
It could be said that any wizard who heard Vaughn’s speculation would have a similar reaction.
This was also why Vaughn had not demonstrated his analytical abilities in front of Ajinbad.
He didn’t want the 80-year-old old wizard to be shocked into a serious condition.
Just as Dumbledore always claimed to love Muggles, in his eyes, Muggles were more like pets.
Regardless of how these wizards branded themselves, an undeniable fact was that all wizards harbored some degree of superiority over Muggles.
This was a mentality that would inevitably arise in a group whose power resided within themselves, regardless of morality or character.
Therefore, when this superiority was likely to be shattered, the emergence of fear, rejection, resistance, hostility, and other thoughts and behaviors seemed natural.
But Vaughn was different from them.
After sending Lupin away, Vaughn returned to his mind world and replayed that memory again and again, even breaking it down into countless seemingly chaotic, but in essence, deeply informative states for more detailed analysis.
Lupin felt fear when he heard about Muggles using magic, but Vaughn’s thoughts were more practical—how did they do it?
“Body modification? Genetic engineering?”
Looking at the blurry patches of color and light in front of him, Vaughn’s thoughts began to drift.
In fact, ever since he transmigrated to this world and first felt the magical outburst caused by his early development, Vaughn had developed a great interest in researching magic power.
What is it?
Can it be extracted?
Can it be stored? Is there anything that can accelerate its growth or recovery?
But the topic of magic power was too vast and profound; it was not something he should have been involved in at that time. Even now, Vaughn had not considered researching magic power.
He considered himself to be still very shallow in magic, lacking sufficient accumulation to research such a fundamental issue.
In the real world, the more fundamental the problem, the more complex it is!
In Vaughn’s plan, the research into the essence of magic power and magic would likely not begin until a few years later.
But fate is so strange; research that he temporarily did not want to pursue suddenly appeared before him in this manner!
With a shift of Vaughn’s thought, the blurry colors and light spots in front of him instantly reassembled, and the memory scene reappeared.
Gazing at the dense ranks of wizards in black robes in the scene, Vaughn’s eyes seemed to be shining.
These were not terrifying Purifiers at all!
They were ten, dozens, or even hundreds, possibly in the hundreds across America, of living research materials!
For the first time, Vaughn felt that Isabella’s disappearance might not be a bad thing.
If he hadn’t come to America to save her, how could he have come to America? And if he hadn’t come to America, how could he have made such a significant discovery?
“The progress needs to be accelerated…”
Vaughn thought that he needed to complete the system’s side quests as soon as possible to obtain the Spell Development Module.
With it, he would have a faster way to explore those human treasures!
The wizards in the delegation all found Lupin to be suddenly very strange.
With the respected President, Vaughn Weasley, immersed in research and neglecting worldly affairs, Lupin, as the de facto head steward of the delegation, was the one who interacted most with the committee members.
However, for the past two days since arriving in American waters, this head steward, for some unknown reason, had been absent-minded all day, and his service was not as attentive as before.
In the early morning, Matthew, as usual, carrying the latest issue of the 《Extraordinary Potions》 magazine, arrived at the top terrace, preparing to continue reading “President Weasley’s” great work.
He then heard two committee members complaining next to him:
“…Merlin’s socks, he’s locked himself in his room all day now. Yesterday I went to ask him, we’re arriving at Boston Harbor today, what should we do… this is official business, right? But he actually scolded me soundly!”
“Good heavens…”
“Not only that, I heard he’s been looking everywhere for Muggle medical magazines. Yesterday, when I was in his room, I personally heard him instruct the owl to fly back to England and bring all the medical magazines he had commissioned.”
“Truly insane,” another wizard agreed, then wondered, “But why is he interested in Muggle medicine?”
“Who knows? Penny said she heard Remus muttering something about Muggle science, about Muggles creating life… hahaha, Muggles? Creating life?”
Another wizard also laughed.
The speaker spoke without thinking, but the listener took it to heart.
Matthew, who had recently been cramming all sorts of materials, especially reading many of Vaughn’s papers to understand him, opened the 《Extraordinary Potions》 in his hand and, by memory, searched for a moment, finding an obscure paper that, despite being labeled “Vaughn Weasley,” was still placed in a corner by the editor.
There was a reason why it was obscure.
The paper’s content was not related to potions but was a “popular science” article introducing Muggle life sciences and molecular biology.
To many wizards, this was undoubtedly meaningless filler—who would care about the progress made by those frail Muggles?
Matthew only noticed it not because he thought it had value, but because he believed this paper reflected a certain pro-Muggle sentiment of Vaughn Weasley.
He wanted to understand why the other person valued Muggles so much in order to “have common ground with his leader”!
Frankly speaking, if he hadn’t unfortunately encountered Greyback during his graduation trip and had grown up normally, Matthew would likely have become a qualified Ministry official, or even a politician!
At least since he decided to pledge his allegiance to Vaughn, he had not only immediately changed his actions but also diligently tried to align his thinking with his leader.
Matthew found the line he had drawn yesterday on that paper:
【…Muggle science is exploring the mysteries of life’s essence. They have isolated a microscopic substance from what wizards consider the smallest unit of the human body—called a cell by Muggles—a double-helix long polymer composed of organic compounds, which records the genetic information of life and is the basic blueprint for external and internal factors such as your skin color, hair color, appearance, height, and mental state…】
In the article, Vaughn elaborated extensively on what deoxyribonucleic acid is, what base pairs are, and why it is a double-helix structure.
To be honest, Matthew couldn’t quite understand it. The first time he read it, his thought was the same as the editor’s note at the end of the paper:
“A very interesting little story about Muggles!”
This issue of the magazine was released yesterday. 《Extraordinary Potions》 is a highly influential publication worldwide, and it is also an authoritative magazine in the field of potions, with a very large circulation, not limited to England.
They naturally have a comprehensive international distribution system, and even on the moving RMS *Queen Mary*, fresh papers can be found.
The paper was also written recently.
Matthew estimated that it was after he left the suitcase space, because during that period, Vaughn’s research was still relatively “magical.”
Yes, Vaughn had produced more than just this paper recently.
There were several quite “weighty” papers that were not only placed in the most prominent positions in 《Extraordinary Potions》 but also widely reprinted, cited, and discussed.
The titles of those papers were the kind that would make a potion novice like Matthew respectfully awe-struck.
《Feasibility and Performance of Multiple Magical Rituals in “Cell” Observation》
《Revisiting the Magic Power Extraction Method》
《Basic Classification and Definition of Properties: Why Does Mysticalness Arise?》
Of course, because many professionals participated in the analysis of these great works, Matthew didn’t pay too much attention to them.
After all, his original intention was simply to understand his leader’s hobbies and thoughts.
However, the conversation between the two just now made him realize that the obscure paper he was most interested in might be more important than he thought.
Because he and Lupin lived together.
He clearly remembered that Lupin’s mental state had been off since returning the night before yesterday, after he accompanied President Weasley in doing something.
“What exactly happened that made President Weasley publish a popular science article about what he called Muggle technology in 《Extraordinary Potions》?”
“And Lupin, what kind of shock caused this usually responsible person to abandon his management of the delegation and frantically search for Muggle knowledge?”
Matthew was very confused.
And Vaughn, one of the parties causing his confusion, was now writing letters to explain his small act of willfulness to some “old friends” and people who cared about him.
For example, Dumbledore.
The gentle morning sunlight streamed in through the observation window. Vaughn was leaning over his desk, his shadow cast by the sun swaying and shifting as the cruise ship slowly moved.
The rustling sound of the quill gliding across parchment had a strangely peaceful quality.
【Dear Albus… that popular science article was not a show of my pro-Muggle stance. On the contrary, it represents my concern about something that could endanger the wizarding world.】
【The wizarding world has been too closed-minded for too long, so much so that wizards have no idea what is truly happening in the world today… Those Purifiers are likely products of Muggle genetic engineering. I suggest you reread this letter after reading the popular science article; it will help you understand the many Muggle terms I have quoted.】
【Only then will you understand the astonishing facts hidden behind those seemingly obscure terms… Ajinbad was also present when I received the relevant intelligence. If nothing unexpected happens, he should also submit a report on the Purifiers to the Federation in the near future. You can compare his report with what I have said…】
【Your loyal friend, Vaughn Weasley】
After finishing the letter, he blew gently. A faint, magically created breeze passed, and the ink immediately dried.
Vaughn folded it, put it into a thick parchment envelope, sealed it, and then tied it together with several other letters with a zip tie.
Then he whistled.
A fiery blaze of light instantly illuminated the room.
Soon, Fawkes appeared on the desk. Its wings were scorched, like a large piece of burning red sandalwood.
“My dear, thank you for taking these letters back. The one on top is for Albus. Please ask Albus to mail the others for me.”
Vaughn instructed while taking out a bottle of potion and handing it to Fawkes as a reward for its hard work.
This poor phoenix, who had followed a mediocre potion-level master and hadn’t tasted much good food for most of its life, eagerly picked up the stack of letters, held the potion Vaughn handed it in its beak, and then looked expectantly at the open suitcase beside it.
It smelled food!
Phoenixes like to eat things rich in magic power. Herbs and potions are like snacks; they are delicious but not enough in quantity.
In nature, they have their own diet, such as Fire Dragons!
Vaughn covered its eager gaze, “Sorry, those are all my experimental subjects, and you can’t eat them for now.”
Hearing the first half, Fawkes was a little disappointed, but the second half made its eyes light up again, like two glowing red copper beans!
Can it eat them after the experiment is finished?
“…How long have you been hungry!”
Vaughn grumbled.
In the end, he couldn’t resist Fawkes’ pleading gaze and promised it that if there were any edible parts left after the experiment, he would save them for it, finally managing to send it away.
After dealing with personal matters and doing some light stretching in the morning sun, Vaughn re-entered the suitcase.
Compared to a few days ago, the space within the suitcase was now quite crowded.
A space with a side length of one mile seemed vast, but its new residents were also quite large.
The living conditions of the werewolves had further “deteriorated.” They no longer exclusively occupied the open plains near the oak trees but now had six colossal, ferocious behemoths!
Fire Dragons!
