The Queen stepped aside, and a middle-aged man soon stood in her place.
He wore a sleek black suit that fitted him neatly, his short beard carefully trimmed, and a pair of half-moon spectacles resting on his nose, perhaps the only detail about him that suggested he was not entirely what his appearance made him seem.
He carried a strange sort of serenity with him, the kind that was difficult to name precisely but immediately apparent, and across the world, billions of people watched him on their screens knowing nothing whatsoever about who he was and finding, somewhat to their own surprise, that they could not look away.
Dumbledore looked over the assembled leaders one final time before turning his attention towards the cameras. Beneath his calm exterior, however, he felt a touch of nervousness. In more than a century of life, he had spoken before countless crowds, and standing behind a podium was hardly new to him. But this was different. This time, there was no room full of people before him. There was an entire world.
He was about to address every soul on Earth.
"I have never quite understood why I was given enough names for several people."
He decided a touch of humour might make for a gentler beginning. In his own mind, at least, he found it rather amusing.
None of the nervousness made it into his voice. When he spoke it carried easily through the hall, calm and warm and unhurried.
"Thank you, Your Majesty." He smiled.
"Good afternoon." Taking a small cue from the Queen's opening, he continued, "Or good morning, or good evening, depending upon where you happen to be."
"He sounds like an old man…"
"I don't know... I think he's funny."
"I like him. Quite handsome, don't you think?"
Dumbledore had barely begun and people everywhere were already doing what people always did, forming opinions before they had been given any particular reason to. His calm manner drew some in, his small joke amused others, and a surprising number had already decided they liked him, though they still had no idea who he was or what he was about to say.
"My friends have always preferred Albus Dumbledore, which is considerably easier on the tongue."
A few smiles appeared among the assembled leaders.
"I am also, among my people, considered an educator, in my capacity as Headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, a school which has stood for more than a thousand years. I have been a teacher, a headmaster, and, on several rather unfortunate occasions, a man who found himself standing between the world and something with considerably less pleasant intentions."
His expression softened.
"But enough about my rather unremarkable introduction. I am here today to tell you who we are. To tell you about my people."
He rested both hands lightly upon the podium.
"For centuries, my people, or, as we might more simply call ourselves today, the magical community, have lived alongside you, whom we have generally referred to as the non-magical peoples of this world. Different magical communities have, over the years, adopted different names for those without magic. Here in much of Europe, we have commonly used the term 'Muggles'. I appreciate that it may sound rather peculiar to those hearing it for the first time, but I assure you, no offence is intended."
His eyes twinkled behind his spectacles.
"Usually."
The hall gave another small burst of quiet laughter. Maverick, sitting among the others at the long table, found himself wondering whether they genuinely found Dumbledore funny or were simply being polite.
"But jokes aside, the distinction between our two societies has existed for a very long time."
Dumbledore's expression settled into something a touch more serious.
"Magic is real. Witches and wizards are real. All those spells, potions, enchanted objects and magical creatures that you have long considered the stuff of children's stories exist. They are not myths, nor are they legends. They are part of a very real and very old civilisation."
He looked directly into the nearest camera.
"And we have been here all along."
The words seemed to hang in the silence of the hall, and in every room and bar and public square where they landed, they seemed to hang there too.
"Our history is every bit as old as yours. We have lived alongside you since the earliest days of civilisation. We traded with you, fought beside you, learned from you, and on more than a few occasions, found ourselves on opposite sides of a conflict neither of us fully understood."
A small smile found its way back onto his face.
"We have never been entirely separate from the history of your world. We have merely been absent from the history books."
He turned slightly, looking across the assembly.
"Many of the legends your ancestors passed down to their children began with encounters with witches, wizards, magical creatures, or simply with things they could not understand. Some became myths. Others became religion, superstition, folklore, or stories told beside the fireplace, passed from one generation to the next."
He lifted one hand slightly.
"And, I regret to say, some became rather terrible historical accounts."
"They're really taking the gloves off."
"I think this is the right approach. If they're going to come forward, might as well tell the whole truth."
Peggy Carter gave a small nod from her seat in the S.H.I.E.L.D. conference room, her attention remaining on the broadcast. The atmosphere in the room was considerably lighter than it had been two days earlier. Everyone looked more like themselves after finally getting some proper sleep, the dark circles beneath their eyes having retreated to a more manageable degree.
"…human beings have always had a talent for filling gaps in their knowledge with whatever explanation seemed most convenient at the time."
The amusement faded from Dumbledore's voice as his words carried across the world.
"For much of our history, there was no great wall between your world and ours. There was no formal agreement separating magic from non-magic. There were simply people who possessed magic and people who did not."
His voice lowered slightly.
"That changed as both societies grew."
"As your world became larger, more organised and increasingly capable of observing the world around it, magical society faced a choice. We could continue living openly among you, or we could retreat from your notice."
"The decision was not made because we believed ourselves superior. Nor was it made because we feared ordinary human beings."
He paused for a moment.
"It was made because, by that time, fear existed on both sides."
"My people were hunted. But it would be unfair to place all the blame upon those without magic. There were Muggles who suffered at the hands of magic they could neither understand nor defend themselves against, just as there were witches and wizards who believed that possessing magic made them somehow better than those who did not…"
"On both sides, there were those who met what they did not understand with fear. And, sadly, there were those who believed that fear could only be answered with force."
Dumbledore's eyes travelled across the room.
"Neither belief served us particularly well…"
"It was from these circumstances that the International Statute of Secrecy eventually came into being. Perhaps more importantly, it marked the first time the magical world came together as one and reached a decision that would affect us all. We chose to withdraw from ordinary human society, and live apart from it..."
"From that point onward, our settlements were hidden from your world. Our institutions withdrew from yours, and with every passing generation, the distance between our two peoples grew a little wider."
He gave a small, almost regretful smile.
"Years passed, centuries went by, and in time, we became rather good at hiding."
His gaze briefly wandered towards the long table, where his six colleagues sat with their backs to him.
"Perhaps too good."
Then he faced the cameras again.
"But secrecy was never intended to mean that we ceased to care about the world beyond our own communities."
"We continued to watch. We continued to learn. And, whenever circumstances demanded it, we sometimes intervened."
His expression became serious again.
"Sometimes, our paths simply crossed, and our own affairs became entangled with yours. At other times, circumstances arose from actions within your own world that could not simply be ignored. And then there are those occasions, such as the one two years ago, when the matter concerned neither of our peoples entirely, but rather someone else who had seen fit to involve themselves."
"Half a century ago, there was one such occasion. Two years ago, another. And three nights ago…" His gaze lingered for a moment. "The world was given the rather unusual opportunity of witnessing one for itself."
"I imagine there will be a good many history books requiring attention after today. I should like to apologise in advance to those who will have the unfortunate pleasure of putting them right."
He gave a small smile, letting a touch of humour once again ease the tension in the room.
"On that note, I believe it is worth mentioning that, following the Second World War, the relationship between our two civilisations began to change. The years that followed brought a considerable increase in cooperation between us. Certain laws were amended, and although we remained hidden from the wider world, we were no longer quite so hidden from its governments. One by one, we began to open our doors to them, allowing those entrusted with the affairs of your nations to know that we were here."
"That is, until rather recently…"
Around the world, people watched and listened with growing interest, their minds filling with questions that had nowhere to go just yet.
"Her Majesty has already touched upon what happened in London… meanwhile, a full written account will be published jointly by our two sides, setting out what took place in its entirety."
"For now, however, allow me to give you the shorter version. The two individuals who chose to launch that terrorist attack upon London were, regrettably, of our kind. And it was also our people who answered the call and put a stop to them."
"And, dare I say, they did so rather successfully, without a single innocent life being lost in the crossfire. Of course, this was not the work of one side alone. The entire operation was made possible through the efforts of both our peoples, working together, the magical government of Britain and the government of Britain alike. Whatever else may be said, it is something our two peoples can be proud of."
"The point I wish to make is this: those who came to London's defence were not strangers who simply appeared from nowhere. They were members of a civilisation that has lived alongside your own for thousands of years. They are witches and wizards. They are healers and scholars, craftsmen and teachers, parents, friends and neighbours. They are, in the end, people not so very different from yourselves."
"And, like yourselves, they are not all good."
A knowing glimmer appeared in his eyes.
"Nor, I should imagine, would any of you claim that every person born without magic is a saint."
The corner of his mouth lifted.
"Human nature, fortunately or unfortunately, appears to be rather universal."
The smile faded, leaving behind a calm seriousness.
"What separates our world from yours is not that we are better. It is not that we are somehow a different species. We are human beings who possess something you do not."
"Magic."
He said the final word simply, without flourish.
"Some are born with it. Some are exceptionally gifted. Others possess only a modest amount of ability. There are healers who can mend wounds that would otherwise require months of recovery. There are witches and wizards who can communicate across enormous distances without machines, travel without roads, and create things that your finest engineers might find difficult to explain."
"But magic has its limits."
Dumbledore's expression hardened slightly.
"It does not make us gods."
"We can be injured. We can die. We can make mistakes. We can be frightened, selfish, foolish, brave, generous and kind."
"In other words, we are people."
He looked towards the cameras once more.
"And today, after centuries of hiding, we have decided that it is time for the two halves of humanity to stop pretending that the other does not exist."
A silence settled over the hall, and over every room where those words arrived.
"That does not mean everything will suddenly become simple. There will be questions. There will be fear. There will be disagreements, misunderstandings and, I suspect, a truly astonishing number of people asking whether their favourite childhood stories were secretly historical accounts."
His eyes twinkled.
"Most were not."
A little laughter returned to the hall. Whether he did so deliberately or not, the old wizard had a remarkable talent for juggling his words. Whenever the weight of what he said threatened to settle too heavily, he would somehow find a little humour to lift it again.
"…But some of them may have been closer to the truth than their authors ever realised."
Dumbledore straightened slightly.
"So, to the people watching around the world, I offer you neither a warning nor a demand."
"I offer you an introduction."
"My world has been hidden from yours for a very long time."
"Today, we open the door."
"And what happens after that, I believe, depends upon what we choose to do with the opportunity."
He stepped back slightly from the podium, his gaze sweeping across the assembled leaders.
"For the first time in many centuries, we are no longer strangers."
"We are simply neighbours who have finally decided to knock on one another's door."
He smiled.
"And I believe it is rather overdue."
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