Chapter 777: Ch 777: America’s Backstabbing the World

"Troubled times," Dumbledore sighed. He could already see more bloodshed was coming.

Hogwarts now held nearly every pureblood family in Britain along with the Ministry’s top officials, all gathered to figure out how to handle the chaos.

Why Hogwarts? Because London had fallen into complete disorder. Getting to the Ministry through the phone booth was impossible now, so to keep the Ministry safe, they’d simply sealed off the whole building. Nobody could go in.

They said these big shots were here to discuss the situation, but a lot of faces were pale with panic, and they were no use at all.

The purebloods, who usually looked down their noses at Muggles, were trembling like scared pups. Clearly the situation had them terrified.

Suddenly, the air rippled.

Tom stepped out of thin air in flawless white robes.

Every eye in the room snapped to him, as if they’d just spotted their savior.

"Mr. Riddle."

The greetings rose from all over the room, ragged but enthusiastic. Tom gave the crowd a small nod and took the seat at the head of the table like it was his by right.

And yes, Dumbledore had given it to him. Willingly. Eagerly. Practically glowing with relief.

There were too many headaches, and the old man couldn’t carry them all. Let Tom have a turn. Young people have energy to burn, and they can handle any amount of chaos.

Tom, naturally, didn’t see it that way. He turned to Dumbledore. "Professor, I’m a student who isn’t even old enough to drink legally. Don’t you think this is a bit heavy for me?"

Dumbledore nodded in agreement. "You’re right, it really isn’t fair to you."

Then he turned to Fudge. "Cornelius, I suggest we lower the legal drinking age. Say, fifteen?"

"Done," Fudge said instantly. "Bones, get this law on the books tomorrow."

"Yes, Minister."

And just like that, a drinking age that had stood for centuries was gone in a few casual sentences.

Tom didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. "Isn’t this going a bit far?"

"Far?" Fudge gave a bitter smile. "Mr. Riddle, with things the way they are, who’s going to care how old a young wizard has to be to drink? If you can fix this crisis, forget the drinking age. Rewrite the Statute of Secrecy however you like."

Having said that, Fudge looked at Tom with eyes full of hope.

"Fix it how?" Tom threw up his hands. "If it were just the New York incident, fine. But now they’ve rolled out a wizard registration act. That’s the Magical Congress and the Muggles fully teaming up to drag the magical world into the sunlight. You think there’s any way to stop that?"

Fudge had nothing to say. Everyone else looked like they were attending a funeral.

You can guard against thieves all you want, but you can’t guard against the one living in your own house.

Nobody had expected the Magical Congress to stab the entire wizarding world in the back, and right in the kidney, too, so nobody could even fight back. It hurt so badly that the whole world was in chaos because of it.

"I’ve been buried in magic research lately. What’s the situation now?"

Ever since he got home from Dalaran that day, Tom had been working with Mystryl on improving the Mystrylian Method until it met his standards. He’d known America announced the Wizard Registration Act, but he hadn’t followed the details at all.

News this big needed time to ferment, and he knew worrying wouldn’t help. So he hadn’t let it distract him and had just kept doing his own thing.

Dumbledore played the commentator.

"After the Mayflower reached port, the Magical Congress and the Muggles intercepted it. They used the young wizards as an entry point, registered the students first, then followed the trail back to their families. Right now, I’d say more than sixty percent have registered, maybe more, but on the surface there hasn’t been any real trouble.

"There are plenty of Muggle protest marches, but the authorities have been holding them back."

"Things are a lot messier on our side. I hear it’s turned into a huge shouting match. Cornelius has been practically living with the Muggle Cabinet these past few days. They keep pushing to copy America and introduce a registration act. I’ve gone along a few times to stall them, but I don’t think we can stall for long."

"Similar scenes are playing out inside many other countries. The trend is toward confrontation, and the Muggle governments want to follow America’s lead and take control of intelligence on the wizarding world."

Tom listened quietly, nodding now and then.

"Grindelwald too?" The old man hadn’t shown up in the study space lately, so Tom had no idea what was going on with him.

"He’s already had a fight with the Muggles." The corners of Dumbledore’s mouth turned more bitter. "Several hundred Muggles with guns surrounded a wizarding family. He just stood in the doorway, took every round, and then transfigured all their weapons into one giant iron ball."

"It’s still hanging in the sky over Berlin. The Muggles tried to knock it down with missiles, but he’d used magic, and he was actually hiding in a fold in space."

Tom laughed. "That’s Grindelwald all over. He’s probably been waiting for this day, itching for a war with the Muggles."

"The question is, what does a stunt like that actually accomplish?" Dumbledore shook his head helplessly. "He did save that family. But it also made the Muggles even warier of us."

"I’m sure they’ve already put countless clever people to work figuring out how to crack our magic. They may even have captured some of our own people for... inhumane experiments."

A flash of killing intent crossed the old man’s eyes.

He truly was a lover of peace, but where a man sits decides how he thinks. If the day ever came when things couldn’t be patched up, he would stand with the wizards.

"I have more news," Fudge said, his face full of misery. "Those traitors in America have leaked who knows how much. They even know about magical creatures now, and they’ve told other countries."

"One of our dragon reserves has been found. There was a bit of a scuffle while we were moving the dragons. Nobody was burned to death, but more than a dozen people were hurt."

"I was talking it over with the Muggle Cabinet before I came. They’ve given us an ultimatum. Within three days, the Ministry has to state its position. If we cooperate, we register by the proper procedure, and they’ll give us the same treatment and protections as every other citizen."

"If we refuse, every wizard becomes an undocumented person, and anyone found will be deported immediately."

"Deported?" Lucius Malfoy blurted out. "I don’t believe the Muggles are that generous! They’ll lock us up. They definitely want to study what makes us so powerful! What is Magic!"

Lucius’s words drew nods from plenty of people. That was the thing about Muggles that terrified them most.

Muggles seemed afraid of the unknown. All they wanted was to understand how everything worked, and the methods they used were enough to make anyone’s blood run cold.

Back then, the witch hunts hadn’t burned every witch, after all. A lot of them got shipped off to churches and various other places that never saw daylight.

"Tom," Dumbledore said earnestly. "I’d like to hear what you think. What exactly should we do next?"

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