Chapter 368: The Telephone
From the outside, the carriage looked no larger than a small room, but its interior had been expanded into several cavernous chambers via the Undetectable Extension Charm.
Sean occasionally mused on the irony of it all. While the Ministry of Magic maintained strict regulations—with the Misuse of Muggle Artifacts Office keeping a paranoid eye on space-folding magic—in the hands of truly powerful wizards, such spells were treated as mere trifles. Rules, it seemed, were not written for those who could simply rewrite them.
Recalling how his Hufflepuff senior, Master Newt, once trekked across the globe with a case full of Thunderbirds, Swooping Evils, Nundus, and even an Obscurus, the death sentence once passed upon him by the MACUSA felt almost reasonable. It was, for all intents and purposes, the equivalent of carrying a live nuclear warhead in one's hand. Without proper containment, an Obscurus was capable of leveling an entire city.
They departed under the orange glow of the setting sun. Sean could feel the gentle vibration of his seat and hear the triumphant, muffled roars of the dragons outside. Even his Wizard's Tome seemed to hum with the movement. Snowy hopped excitedly from one of Sean's shoulders to the other, while Tila the Bowtruckle gripped the fabric of his robes as if terrified of letting go.
"And we're off!" Master Newt's voice called from the front.
The ground and the mist-shrouded buildings of the school fell away, vanishing from sight in heartbeats. The carriage climbed higher and higher until the entirety of Ilvermorny Castle was visible below them—a glittering, smokey jewel in the mountain twilight.
"It will be a full day's flight," Newt explained softly to the cabin.
"I understand!" Sean shouted back, his voice projecting over the wind.
"Hold on tight!" Newt warned.
The carriage shot forward, plunging into the low-hanging, cotton-like clouds, and the world outside the windows turned into a blur of grey and white.
"Fascinating, isn't it?"
Professor Terra's voice rang out suddenly. Sean looked around, his gaze eventually landing on a small hand-mirror sitting on a nearby side-table. A miniature version of the Professor was smiling at him from the glass.
"Sharp as ever, my dear apprentice," the tiny Terra said, her grin radiant. "An experimental modification of the Two-Way Mirror. It's my latest project—still a bit unrefined and horribly expensive to produce, but functional."
Sean leaned in to inspect the mirror. The small reflection of his mentor watched him with a mix of pride and amusement.
"Can I learn—?" Sean began.
"Of course, child. The inspiration for this device came from the 'telephone' concept you described to me," the mirror-Terra said, her usually stern features softening. "I shall teach you everything I have discovered."
Night fell, deep and heavy.
A carriage drawn by two magnificent dragons cut a silent path through the ink-black sky. After meticulously recording every detail of the lesson Terra had provided, Sean settled in for a period of intense review. By the time he finished his notes, even Master Newt had drifted off to sleep in the driver's seat.
Sean's mind was a whirlpool of ideas. The "Mirror Link" currently only supported a single connection and cost a small fortune in reagents. If he could find alternative materials to lower the cost and increase the number of channels, he might actually succeed in creating a magical equivalent of the telephone network.
After moving the "Phone Project" to the top of his to-do list, his eyes drifted toward a different entry in his notebook, one labeled: [The Mystery of Ravenclaw's Diadem].
He paused. The light in his eyes grew dark and thoughtful.
Mist began to rise.
In the hazy, shimmering light of the Lands Between, a black cat leaped down from the sign of the "Oak Tree Children's Home."
His personal domain was now populated by numerous clusters of mist. Because these specific vapors were connected to him by threads so thin they were nearly invisible, he had begun to refer to them as "Yarn Balls." This allowed him to distinguish them from the wild mists of raw desire and temptation that roamed the realm.
The largest and most vibrant "Yarn Ball" currently belonged to Remus Lupin, but a new, significant one had appeared: Newt Scamander.
The cat watched as the Newt-cluster drifted toward him. After a moment's thought, Sean extended a paw and tapped it.
Seconds later, Newt opened his eyes within the dream.
"A pleasure to see you again, my lovely Bastet," Newt said.
The cat could tell the old man was genuinely delighted. Its whiskers gave a small, feline twitch. "Good evening, Mr. Scamander."
"You look troubled," Newt noted with a shy smile, inching a bit closer.
Sean wondered how the man could read him so easily through the feline form. He looked down and realized his tail was twitching irritably; he quickly pinned it to the floor with a paw.
"I have forgotten something. Something very important," the cat admitted.
"Magic can sometimes offer a key... perhaps Occlumency?" Newt suggested, moving closer still.
The cat's green eyes brightened at the suggestion, but Newt's next words made the light fade.
"Alas, I am no expert in that field myself," Newt added, now standing right beside the cat's tail.
"You look quite troubled yourself, Mr. Scamander," the cat noted, catching Newt off guard.
"You have eyes that see all, dear Bastet," Newt confessed.
"May I ask why?"
The cat watched him with interest. Ever since Newt had taken the reins of the carriage, Sean had noticed a shadow of worry behind the man's eyes. It hadn't been hard to spot; Sean's years in the orphanage had honed his ability to read people to an expert level.
After a few minutes of talk, Newt confessed his concern as if speaking to an old, trusted friend. Sean's whiskers began to twitch violently, and his tail escaped his paw, swishing rhythmically.
Master Newt was worried about the purchase limits on Fairy Tale Biscuits.
"That is easily solved," the cat said, just as the mist began to surge.
Newt looked stunned. He watched with a mixture of shyness and intense curiosity as the cat leaped into the air and vanished into the rising fog.
"Do not worry," the cat's final voice echoed in his mind.
When Newt eventually woke, he stared out into the distance in a daze. It seemed he had still underestimated the weight of the "Great Spirit" he had encountered.
By the time Newt roused himself, it was morning.
The carriage was currently burrowing through a thick layer of clouds. Minutes later, it burst into a world of dazzling, unobstructed sunlight. They had entered a different world. The wheels of the carriage seemed to skim the surface of a fluffy white sea, and the sky above was a brilliant, endless cerulean.
"Lovely... Bastet," Newt whispered to himself, still lost in the dream.
When Sean woke and pushed open the window, he felt as though he had stepped into a myth. It was an incredible way to travel: sitting in a sun-drenched carriage pulled by dragons, soaring through towering formations of clouds, with a table full of the feast Will the Pukwudgie had prepared.
He could already visualize the landing—a graceful descent onto the great lawn before the towers of Hogwarts.
High above the world, Sean began to record his dream-time. Below him, the skyline of New York had long since vanished, replaced by the rolling green fields and purple marshes of the British Isles. The villages below looked like children's toys, and the occasional city was a swarm of colored ants.
Sean looked out the window and slowly wrote:
[Ten minutes. The progress is accelerating. What is the catalyst?]
[End of Chapter 368]
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