A certain Hogwarts professor of runes

Chapter 268 An Encounter with Newt

The phone booth door suddenly sprang open, and Felix walked into the gilded foyer and made his way to the information desk.

"Hello, could you tell me where reception room number two is?"

A blonde, middle-aged witch glanced casually at the badge on his chest. Behind her, a bulletin board was covered with various signs, but these were obscured by an exaggerated wanted poster. "Felix Heap... Oh, Mr. Heap, Mr. Sidrick instructed that you should follow me—"

"Excuse me, ma'am, I haven't registered my wand yet."

The witch said enthusiastically, "That's not a necessary step, dear. I heard you're a Muggle expert? I have a book at home called 'Simple Spells to Fool Muggles,' but I haven't read it much and can't tell the difference between good and bad... Little Tim always makes a mess of the house."

She led Felix to the elevator area, glanced at the floor, and said, "We're going to the fourth floor—oh, watch out!" As she spoke, a flock of paper airplanes flew into the elevator through the gaps in the gold-plated doors. She explained, "These are notes used by the department to pass messages—"

As soon as these paper airplanes entered the elevator, they hovered slowly above the ceiling. They were a light purple color and had the Ministry of Magic stamped on the edges of their wings.

"We used to communicate with owls, so you can imagine the air quality here... and the problem of feces, the tables and chairs were a mess. After switching to these little things, the cleaning work in the department has been reduced by a third."

"Excuse me, I don't know your name yet?" Felix had to interrupt her.

"Ella Defina, where was I? Oh, right—" she began to recount how her five-year-old son had created the logos of the entire Quidditch League using only a bag of flour. "He'll lead the national team to victory," she said proudly.

"Ms. Defina, I heard that LCA Comic Book Publishing recently released a new comic book series, which is very popular."

"Really? I didn't pay much attention. What's your name?"

"Call--"

The elevator stopped, and two wizards walked in. One was a red-faced wizard with a short brown beard, wearing a black wizard's robe; the other was an old man with white hair and beard, wearing a tweed gray trench coat over a brown vest.

The old man tilted his head slightly. "Amos, your process is flawed, seriously flawed. And you've been going in circles. I can tell Tina has taught me quite a bit."

Amos, the wizard dressed in a wizard's robe, said uneasily, "I know you are very concerned about the survival of the hippogriff, but this matter has nothing to do with you, does it? You are not even its owner."

"I can't just ignore it because it has an owner; I'm just fighting for its legitimate rights."

"But you've already retired, Mr. Scamander."

"Theoretically speaking, I just don't go out much... but I haven't stopped working. If you knew how much work I do every day, you wouldn't think that way."

"Your 'Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them' is already in its 52nd edition, why not finish another one?"

The old man looked at the other man's profile. "I do have this plan, but—we've gone off-topic. To reiterate, I've been commissioned by my friends—including three kind-hearted little ones—to question the Ministry of Magic's procedures. I don't think you hired me as an advisor to keep me silent."

"Of course, many of the ministry's protected areas for amazing creatures need to take your opinions into consideration."

The elevator stopped on the fourth floor, and the two of them got out.

"Mr. Hyp, we've arrived too," said Defina at the front desk. Felix gave a slight bow. "Thank you. Is it on this floor? I can find it myself."

He took a few steps, then turned back. "Also, the book is called 'The Adventures of Little Wizard Mick,' and it's sold in many bookstores."

Felix followed the two wizards, watching them stop in front of a spacious office. He looked up; it read, "Department of Management and Control of Magical Creatures."

A wizard dressed in a black robe entered the office, leaving the old man waiting outside. Felix approached and said, "Mr. Newt Scamander?"

The old man turned his head, his gaze sweeping over him. "You are...?"

"Felix Heap, Professor of Ancient Runes at Hogwarts," Felix introduced himself. "We just met in the elevator."

Newt's gaze fell on him. "Yes, yes, that's right... Mr. Hyp, I've heard of you. Young Rolf mentioned you."

Felix said, "I was very interested in your research when I was in school, and I even collected some clippings, but unfortunately I didn't find much of it."

"I did publish a few articles in my early years, but they weren't well-received at the time—" Newt said. "That was a long time ago."

"For a time during my school years, I was obsessed with how to deal with them, of course, making sure not to hurt myself," Felix said.

Newt's eyes lit up. "That's the meaning of my research: rescuing, raising, protecting... and I also teach other wizards to understand them, instead of being afraid of them—"

"So, Potter and the others eventually found you?" Felix said. "I overheard a few words in the elevator; I guess you were discussing the case of the Hippogriff attacking students at Hogwarts."

"Potter? Harry Potter?"

"Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, Hermione Granger, and of course, at the center of the vortex, Rubeus Hagrid and his Buckbeak."

Newt nodded. "Then that's it. They wrote to me saying a hippogriff had been treated unfairly and asked me to speak out. To be honest, I've been away from the Ministry of Magic for many years, and it's not quite the same as when I left. Sorry—it's very different."

He tilted his head back in a disappointed gesture. "Tina advised me to focus on my writing, but some things, once seen, can't be ignored—if the horns of the venomous beast start to shine, then action must be taken—you know what I mean?"

The venomous horn is a large, ferocious beast that resembles a rhinoceros. Its long, sharp horns store a deadly liquid that causes anything injected with this strange venom to explode.

"We cannot tolerate the injustice happening before our eyes," Felix said, expressing his understanding.

"Yes, you've summarized it very well—oh, wait a minute, I need to deal with a little trouble—" Newt quickly reached into his pocket and took out a silver pocket watch, which suddenly expanded and contracted, looking like it was about to explode.

"Mr. Scamander—" Felix stared wide-eyed as he donned a humanoid armor spell for himself.

"Don't worry, it's not a bad thing—" Newt said hastily. The front cover of the silver pocket watch suddenly popped open, revealing a pink snout shaped like a duck's bill. The next second, a palm-sized Niffler crawled out of the pocket watch and nimbly climbed onto Newt.

Immediately afterwards, two more Nifflers appeared. One of them immediately smoothed its soft black fur against the smooth cover of the pocket watch, while the other seemed to have its eye on the silver watch chain.

Felix looked at them curiously; they were small, black, furry creatures somewhere between a mole and a platypus, with an unusual fascination for shiny things.

"Hey! Valen, Sal, Thorpe, settle down," Newt whispered, nimbly grabbing the Niffler perched on his shoulder, struggling to pull off the silver button, and shoving it back into the pocket watch. He tossed the other two Nifflers in as well, then closed the front cover.

Newt glanced around to make sure no one was watching, then stuffed his pocket watch back into his pocket and winked at Felix. "Theoretically, I shouldn't have brought my magical creature friends... but they're only a few years old, and I'm really worried about them."

Sigh, I can't finish writing anymore, I'll definitely do a big update tomorrow!

(End of this chapter)