38 38. A happy Luna

"Where are we, sir?" She asked.

"Oh... No calling me sir or professor. I am no longer a teacher at Hogwarts and working hours are already over at the ministry. Just call me grandpa or do you wanna call me by my name?" He asked.

"No, grandpa." She said.

"Haha... Good. Let's go and find that fatty Crumple-Horned Snorkack." He said and flew towards a hill at the center of the forest.

"Does it live here?" She excitedly asked.

"Yes, he does. The reason they are so hard to find is that they have various kinds of hiding abilities. They have the ability to stay invisible for as long as they want and even if someone sees them they forget where they saw it or what it looked like. They release a kind of magic which partially obliviates people near them. They can literally walk on a crowded street without anyone noticing them. Another major reason they are hard to find is that they sleep a lot. By a lot, I meant years at one stretch." He explained to her while flying.

"No wonder people think they don't exist," Luna interjected.

"Yes, oh we've arrived." He helped Luna to get down.

Alexander went ahead and lightly kicked something invisible. He repeated the kick some 10 times before a voice came.

*YAWN*

"Oi, get up. Your number one fan in the world has come to meet you," Alexander said.

Luna was looking at the direction Alexander was talking with excitement. Then suddenly something appeared. A bear-like purple furry creature. It had a long uneven horn on its head. The face of the creature also looked very cute.

Luna couldn't control herself and ran to the creature and hugged its furry belly.

"Crumple-Horned Snorkack. You are real" she spoke.

"Well, of course, I am real. How else could you touch me?" a soft voice came.

Luno lifted her face and looked at Crumple-Horned Snorkack's face. "Y-you can speak?"

"Yes, I can, young lady. But, who are you and how did you find me?" Snorkack asked.

"Oh, Grandpa brought me here" She pointed to Alexander.

Snorkack looked at Alexander and got alerted. "Boss? But why are you here? I thought that you would come to take me and my people after 6 years." He asked.

"I'm sorry to disturb you, Bob. But this young lady was on a quest to find your kind. She is a pure-hearted girl so I thought of helping her," he explained.

Bob nodded and looked at Luna. "If the boss says you're good then you're good. Ask me anything you want"

Luna felt so happy at that moment but then she turned at Alexander with a sad face.

"I didn't bring quill and paper."

"Oh, nothing to worry. Here you go" Alexander gave her a pen and paper from his dimensional pocket.

For the next 2 hours, Luna played with Bob and asked him many questions about his kind. In the end, he allowed her to write about him but also made her promise that she wouldn't disclose his location.

Luna happily agreed to it.

"Okay, Luna. Sit tight." He said and they apparated back to Hogwarts party.

...

Luna was already past the curfew so he had to help her get into her dorm. He then went back to the terrace. Most of the couples had hidden themselves in whatever isolated corner they could find. Edward and Hermione weren't one of them though, they could have alone time whenever they wanted. Edward himself owned a great castle.

They just sat at the bar, drinking some Butterbeer and Firewhiskey.

"And here I thought that I'd not find you in the castle anymore. Good thing to know that youngsters these days can control themselves." Alexander said while standing behind them. Action like a typical shameless elder.

Hermione turned red hearing him.

"Ah, don't tease her anymore grandpa. She's turning into a tomato," Edward joked.

"Oh, being overprotective ha?... Anyways, did you see Dumbledork?" He asked.

"Umm, he's watching the 2nd re-run of Titanic movie," Hermione answered.

Alexander was about to say something but was interrupted by the oncoming crowd from open theatre.

Dumbledore straight-up walked to him, "Goddammit Alex, why did you have to kill Jack? That plank had enough space for two people."

"My friend, that's what the story was about. Two people, so close yet their worlds so far apart. Life is not always sunflowers and fairy tales. Many times, life is just... tragedy," Alexander solemnly said and put his hand on Dumbledore's shoulder.

"Don't give me that bull... I know you wrote it. You could have changed it." He refuted.

"Yes, and then it would have flopped. The death of Jack is the selling point of the movie. People are so accustomed to happy endings that tragic endings come as a surprise to them. It makes people cry. Also spend more money to buy a ticket and watch it again" he smugly replied.

"You and your crazy business strategies," Dumbledore shook his head.

"Well, you gotta be a bit crazy to get this rich," Alexander refuted.

"Wise words indeed," Snape interjected.

"Good to see you, Severus. Where is Harry?" Alexander asked. He could see the slightly reddened eyes off Snape. The emo boy must have cried a little at the ending.

"Probably in some corner with his new girlfriend," Sirius butted in with a large glass of Butterbear.

Alexander nodded and then looked at Dumbledore. "Albus, I want to talk to you,"

Dumbledore nodded and led him to the office.

"What is it, Alex?"

"Well, I mean no offense, I want to try your elder wand. You see, I haven't been able to find a wand that could match me. I don't really need one but I still want to feel how it works. Considering that your wand is the str..." Alexander was interrupted when Dumbledore straight up took out his wand and shoved it into Alexander's hands.

"Just like that?"

"Yeah, just like that. If I can't even trust you this much then I should just jump out of the tower's window," Dumbledore said.

"dammit... I'll have to work on that surprise for you faster." Alexander mumbled. Truly touched by the trust Dumbledore showed.

Alexander checked out the Elder wand in his hand. He could feel that it was somehow bound to Dumbledore but he also felt that if he tried he wouldn't feel any problem in using it.

He lightly flicked it and cast some low-level spells.

~Elder wand my ass. If I use any more magic then it would snap in half~ he said to himself.

*Sigh* "As strong as it may, it's still not strong enough to handle my full magic." He sighed and handed it back.

"How did it feel?" Dumbledore asked.

"Well, I can feel a slight ease in the flow of magic. It's like breathing in a city and the countryside. You can breathe in both places but the countryside feels a bit better. However, this has cleared my doubt. Wands don't make magic stronger. It's like crutches to help walk." He said.

"Do you mean that Wizards are meant to do wandless magic?" Dumbledore asked.

Alexander shrugged. "I don't know, but think about it. We know that wandless magic is possible but is hard to learn. We know that wands make casting magic easy. So basically a wand is just a cheat. Don't you guys ask the question 'has anything ever happened around you which was hard to explain? For example when you're excited or too happy' to all non-magicals when giving them a Hogwarts letter?. Those kids had performed wandless magic even without them knowing magic. So tell me, aren't we just making them handicapped by giving them the cheat called wand?"

His words hit Dumbledore hard, who then fell into deep thoughts. Alexander just silently left the room and went back to his office.

Dobby and Nagini had been overseeing the new elves. The elves were also diligently studying, they wanted to be useful for Alexander as fast as possible but overworking was against the rules.

Alexander started working on his muggle wand. Now that he knew how a wand worked he felt many new ideas emerging in his head. He now knew how the wand drew out magic from its user. Using the same principle he made a wand that used the meager amount of magic to get the command but to cast the magic it used ambient magic in the surroundings. This was also the reason why the wands could only be used to do chore magic.

Happy with the results, all that was left now was designing an assembly line for it. He could see the happy faces of some official squibs like Argus Filch, the janitor of Hogwarts.

...

The next day, he wore one of his finest suits. He rarely changed his clothes from his everyday vest and shirt combo but today was an important meeting. He was going to work out Dumbledore's surprise.

He got up from his office chair and apparated to a certain castle in Austrian alps.

"Halt, state your name and the purpose of your visit" A guard at the main entrance stopped him. 10 more guard had their wands out, aimed at him.

"I am Alexander Maxim Universe, the current British Minister of Magic. Here to meet Gellert Grindelwald"