Chapter 429
The Person in the Mirror
Chapter 429 The Person in the Mirror
"Wait, are they going to put a wizard plot in the movie?" Ron asked curiously.
"I have to say, this is a very creative idea..." Fred asked, "But won't it be a bit abrupt? At least give some hints in the beginning!"
Percy frowned and said, "The plot has become a mess! And they made wizards into villains?"
"What's wrong with being a villain? Villains are cool, okay?" George retorted without hesitation, and even raised his voice a little.
The wizards attacked to the sound of exciting music, fighting bravely without retreating, while the Muggle soldiers behaved in a panic.
Mrs. Weasley had dropped her sweater and picked up her wand to turn off the mirror, but after hearing what the children said, she slowly put her wand down.
——Yeah, this is just a TV show shot by Muggles, there's no need to make a fuss...
She suppressed her uneasiness, smiled at herself, and looked at the picture in the mirror more seriously than before.
Wizards and Muggles start fighting... Well, it's a fantasy plot. How many years have passed since wizards participated in a Muggle war? But the scene of the soldiers being burned is really magical...
Mrs. Weasley commented secretly in her mind.
"Something's not right."
Harry suddenly heard Michael's whisper. He turned around and saw his Ravenclaw classmate looking at the mirror with a serious expression.
"The magic is so real, including the hand gestures for casting spells... It doesn't seem like something imagined by Muggles who don't know magic..." Michael whispered.
Harry looked carefully and found that it was true.
When they were at Wade's house, they also played a game called "Might and Magic", and they knew very well how huge the difference was between the magic imagined by Muggles and the reality.
But the Weasleys did not have such sensitivity or experience. In their minds, magic was just as it appeared in the picture.
"That's... a violation of the Statute of Secrecy, isn't it?" said Harry anxiously.
Through constant popularization by the people around him, Harry is now very clear about the extent to which the wizarding world protects the Statute of Secrecy.
He also lowered his voice and whispered, "Perhaps a wizard leaked this information to the Muggle director... He must be in trouble."
Michael gave him a strange look. Harry scratched his hair and said in confusion: "Did I guess wrong?"
"What I mean is... this is not acting! This part... may very well have really happened! It may even have just happened!" Michael said in a very low voice.
"What?!" Harry exclaimed in surprise.
At this moment, the streaming mirror was playing the scene of the laboratory. Although Harry's reaction was too intense, no one found it strange.
"Oh..." Percy said in disgust, "This scene is so disgusting. How could a Muggle director make up such a plot?"
"Not the director!" Ron corrected him. "The one who writes the script is called the screenwriter, right Harry?"
Harry clenched his fists tightly, responded vaguely, and a layer of cold sweat broke out on his back.
—If this really isn’t a TV plot…if this is really happening…
Mrs. Weasley, feeling very uneasy again, stood up and said, "Now, children... this part is a little too young for children. You'd better go to bed. I'm going to write to FMC tonight - they can't show this kind of thing to children!"
"Wait, Mom! We're not kids anymore!" the twins and Ron hurriedly stopped her and said.
"Your sister is!" said Mrs. Weasley angrily.
"I'm not! I'm twelve! And these are all fake, what's there to be afraid of?" Ginny screamed.
She didn't care that Harry was still beside her and strongly defended her right to look at the mirror.
"Yeah, Mom." Even Percy, who was just complaining about the plot, said, "We've seen so many terrible scenes at school! Compared to giant cockroaches, these scenes are nothing... and it's Christmas after all."
Under the persuasion of her favorite son, Mrs. Weasley hesitated to compromise again, sat down and warned: "Half an hour at most! Go to bed after watching it!"
"Great!"
Several children cheered, but before they could look back for a moment, the scene suddenly changed. A skinny old man was giving a speech surrounded by many black-robed wizards.
"When it's not you who's bleeding, can you pretend you can't hear it? When it's not your loved ones who are killed, can you pretend you still have peace?"
Mrs. Weasley shuddered, and before her brain could react, the wand in her hand had quickly turned off the flow mirror.
"Mother--"
"We agreed on half an hour!"
"At least finish watching this episode!"
"It's too early to go to bed! I want to watch the Mirror! I want to watch wizards fight aliens!"
"Shut up!" Mrs. Weasley snarled, the blood rushing to her cheeks as she shouted, "Everyone go to the bedrooms! Go to bed! Now!"
The mother's anger, like a volcanic eruption, frightened everyone. The room suddenly became so quiet that you could hear a pin drop.
Fred and George exchanged glances, neither daring to speak.
After a few seconds, Michael pulled Harry and the two of them stood up first.
"Good night, then, everybody," Michael said.
Harry opened his mouth and finally uttered: "...Good night."
"I'm sorry, children," Mrs. Weasley said apologetically, her lips trembling. "I shouldn't be so rude, but..."
"I understand, ma'am, let's go back to the bedroom," Michael said.
"But..." George was about to say something, but when he looked up and saw Harry's eyes, an idea suddenly came to his mind.
He grabbed Fred, who was still trying to resist, and pulled him up from the ground, saying, "Well, go to bed early and get up early, so you can ride your broom earlier tomorrow."
Ron had already gone upstairs at Harry's suggestion, still looking deliberately indignant.
Ginny was heartbroken over the loss of her teammates. She looked angrily at her brothers who had no spirit of resistance at all. Noticing the glares from several people, she rolled her eyes and came up with an idea.
"I understand, Mom." Ginny hugged her mother and said sweetly and cutely, "You should also go to bed early."
"Oh, Ginny, dear." Mrs. Weasley touched her little daughter's face with her cold palm and said softly with emotion: "I'm so glad that you are so sensible." "We also went upstairs obediently!" Fred, who was standing on the steps, turned around and said to his twin brother: "Can't anyone notice this?"
George responded: "You can do it again."
"good idea."
Fred actually squeezed past and came to the first floor. He deliberately circled in front of Mrs. Weasley, and when Mrs. Weasley couldn't help but raise her eyebrows, he quickly ran upstairs and turned back to make a face.
"Fred, dear, you are so sensible!" George dubbed for him in a pinched voice and successfully earned a cold stare from his sister.
Percy, who was waiting for his younger brother and sister to fight back, was stunned. When he found his mother's sharp eyes turned to him, he struggled in his heart for a while, but ultimately he was unable to break free from the shackles of being "the most sensible child in the family."
Percy sighed, said goodbye to his mother, looked at Liu Jing reluctantly, and went upstairs slowly.
After watching all these troublesome children return to their bedrooms and making sure that no one sneaked down, Mrs. Weasley turned on the streaming mirror again, muted it, and watched quietly in the living room alone.
The bluish-white light from the mirror reflected on Mrs. Weasley's face, which looked completely bloodless. Her fingers were tightly grasping her apron, and they were shaking constantly.
That's... that guy, right? Grindelwald...
After this terrifying devil escaped from prison, his photo was featured on the front page of the Daily Prophet. The reporter used extremely objective and slightly flattering words to explain to readers the man's "great achievements."
When Peter Pettigrew and his two companions escaped from prison, it caused a heated discussion throughout the British wizarding community. The Ministry of Magic quickly initiated a manhunt, and reporters in newspapers would occasionally raise questions, suggesting that the Ministry of Magic was just sitting there doing nothing and that there was some behind-the-scenes manipulation as it had not caught anyone yet.
But after Grindelwald escaped from prison, the Daily Prophet only mentioned it once, and then it was as if nothing had happened. No one proposed a manhunt, and no one criticized him.
——Of course... Grindelwald is not a British wizard, and he has hardly ever been active in Britain...
Even if he did something now...it would have nothing to do with these British wizards...not to mention that the other side of the battle was the Muggle forces...
Mrs. Weasley tried to comfort herself, but she couldn't really let go of her worry.
As she watched, she suddenly jumped up, checked the doors and windows, and re-reinforced the protection and concealment magics around the shabby place, then sat down uneasily.
At this time, the images in the streaming mirror had returned to normal program broadcasting, but those funny or tense plots could no longer arouse Mrs. Weasley's emotions as before.
She sat on the sofa, twisting her fingers, hoping very strongly that her husband would come back soon.
……
"Good night."
"Good night."
The Weasley siblings said goodnight to each other, giving each other looks that only they could understand.
"Ahem." Ron pretended to cough twice and said to Percy, "I'll squeeze in with Harry and Michael tonight and won't disturb your rest."
Percy was more than happy to do so. He said good night and returned to his bedroom without thinking about anything else, his mind full of the unfinished plot.
"boom!"
When the door closed, Fred and George immediately stuck their heads out, looked upstairs and downstairs, and then quickly went into the bedroom of Harry and the others.
Harry had quickly hidden the haphazardly thrown socks under the mattress and was opening the suitcase to search.
"Actually, I also have a stream mirror, but it's a little small. Sirius gave it to me a while ago...ah, I found it!"
Harry took out the mirror, but before he opened it, he heard the door being pushed open with a creak.
Several people turned their heads in horror, but did not see Mrs. Weasley's angry face. They only saw the door being pushed open a narrow crack, and then their little sister turned sideways and came in.
"Go back to your bedroom, Ginny!" Fred drove her away rudely, "You promised Mom that you would go to bed early."
"Humph! No way!" Ginny crossed her arms and threatened, "If you don't let me participate, I will shout and call my mother over!"
"What?! How could you…"
"Keep your voice down, or Mom will really come running!" George urged, "Hurry up, Harry. I don't want to miss any more of the plot!"
"Okay." Harry turned on the mirror, and the Weasley brothers quickly drew the curtains and turned off the lights in the room, pretending that everyone had gone to bed.
Ginny blushed when she heard Harry's voice. She squeezed next to Ron, and Fred leaned on the other side of her. Everyone pulled the quilt and turned it horizontally to barely cover everyone.
Grindelwald's speech had come to an end. He didn't say much. Then the screen showed the tragic fate of the experimental subjects from different angles, a natural pit with many corpses thrown into it, and the tearful self-narration of the Muggle leader.
Ginny squeezed close to Fred and heard Ron express the question in his mind:
"Why do I feel like... this isn't a TV plot?" Ron said uncertainly, "The protagonist... and the other characters haven't appeared yet."
"Actually... Michael just said... this might have really happened..."
Harry said, feeling cold even under the covers.
Ginny shuddered.
"Don't be ridiculous, mate." Ron said in a tense voice, "If this were true, it would have been discovered long ago! The Aurors in the Ministry of Magic are not vegetarians!"
"It's impossible for Aurors to know everything." Fred said sullenly, "There are as many Aurors as there are Muggles. They can't keep an eye on the whole world."
George also said: "And the place in the picture doesn't look very British... the Muggle's accent sounds American."
As he was speaking, the scene suddenly flashed and returned to the plot of the male protagonist tracking aliens.
After a moment, the scene changed again. A sweaty wizard stood in the middle and said to the one beside him: "Are you done?... What? It's already started!"
He quickly turned his head, looked at the camera, wiped his sweat and said: "On behalf of FMC, I solemnly declare that the footage just played has nothing to do with us! Yes, there is..."
He quickly glanced at someone outside the screen, and then stammered, "Some...some people illegally hijacked our signal, so the picture just now appeared...This is the first signal hijacking incident in the magic world...This...We will strengthen protection as soon as possible to prevent similar incidents from happening again..."
As he spoke, he looked to the side. It was unclear whether he was being threatened or his boss was constantly telling him what to say.
"Um... our company is not responsible for any words or images in the video. These have nothing to do with us... The plot you just missed will be replayed, please continue watching..."
After a long while, Fred said in an amazed tone: "Merlin...it's all true!"
"How terrible..." Ron whispered, "Those Muggles... and Grindelwald... Now I understand why people are so afraid of him..."
Next to him, Michael's face looked extremely ugly, but in the dark, no one noticed it.
(End of this chapter)