A simple self-introduction had officially lifted the curtain on the magical press conference.
Dawn lowered his head and looked at the witches and wizards of all kinds below the stage. He could pick out plenty of indifferent gazes among them.
But he was neither timid nor restrained.
Instead, he was filled with an almost urgent desire to express himself, naturally pacing back and forth across the stage.
"First of all, I would like to thank everyone for taking time out of your busy schedules to attend this magical press conference.
Although I don't know who invited you here, or what reason brought you to this place, I hope you can all sit quietly and listen to me until I finish."
Dawn's voice was clear and bright.
With the aid of magic, every person in the hall could hear him distinctly.
"I imagine quite a few of you are probably wondering whether it's a little ridiculous for an underage wizard like me to hold a press conference.
After all, throughout history, whenever wizards created new magic, they only needed to print it in a book for it to spread widely.
There was never any need to make such a grand production out of it."
At this point, Dawn paused for a moment, then suddenly grinned. He leaned against the tall table on the platform and half-sat upon it.
"I can understand your doubts. But before I answer that question, I would like to ask all of you something.
What exactly is magic, in your minds?
A mysterious power? A useful tool? Or something you have grown accustomed to, as ordinary as breathing?"
Dawn looked toward the audience.
Dumbledore quietly watched him from among the crowd.
The professors' gazes had become more inquisitive, clearly wanting to hear what he intended to say.
Hermione was thinking.
Neville was confused.
The African wizards remained just as enthusiastic as before.
No one in the hall answered.
Fudge was sweating profusely, inwardly cursing himself for being so careless.
He had actually forgotten to arrange a few plants in the audience to give Dawn some prepared answers.
Just as he took a deep breath and prepared to call out an answer himself, Dawn casually continued speaking.
He did not return to his previous question. Instead, he began talking about something else as though they were simply chatting.
"Most of you probably know that I haven't spent very long studying at Hogwarts.
But strangely enough, I remember the content of my very first Transfiguration lesson exceptionally clearly."
Dawn turned toward the serious-looking witch in green robes.
"At the time, Professor McGonagall taught us Gamp's Fundamental Laws of Transfiguration and required us to memorize them."
As he spoke, Dawn extended one hand and lowered his fingers one by one.
"Transfiguration cannot create food.
Living things and non-living things cannot be permanently transformed into one another.
Transfiguration cannot alter quantity.
Transfiguration cannot create something from nothing.
Transfiguration cannot produce alchemical substances."
Dawn smiled softly.
"I'm sure everyone remembers these five principles just as clearly as I do, right?
Even now, I can still recite the book's evaluation of their creator, Mr. Uric Gamp.
He was an outstanding wizard who established the boundaries of Transfiguration, preventing death and injury caused by abuse and improper use.
He was a great man whose name deserved to be remembered by everyone."
At this point, Dawn fell silent.
He calmly looked over the various expressions below, seemingly waiting for everyone to recall this knowledge.
McGonagall frowned.
She remembered this student's attainments in Transfiguration, especially that astonishing scene when he had transformed blood into a magical creature.
At that moment, she suddenly understood what Dawn was about to say.
And so, out of a Transfiguration professor's innate curiosity, some of the resistance in her eyes faded, and she listened more intently.
Then, after remaining silent for a long moment, Dawn finally spoke.
"But I don't agree."
He pursed his lips.
His profile suddenly seemed as sharp as a blade.
One word at a time, he repeated:
"As! For! That! Assessment! In! The! Book! I! Absolutely! Refuse! To! Accept! It!
Magic is a power that allows us to do as we please! It is an extension of our imagination!
Wizards are not insects trapped beneath layer upon layer of spiderwebs!
We should be eagles soaring through the open sky, free and unrestrained!
Those who place restrictions upon us are guilty, because they are strangling the future.
Those who tell us that something cannot be done are foolish, because they are imposing their own limitations upon everyone else."
Dawn jumped down from the table and paced back and forth across the platform, seemingly becoming genuinely swept up in his emotions.
"So I have always believed that it is precisely because there are too many people like Uric Gamp that our magic has continued to decline!
Yes! Gentlemen, we are gradually moving backward!
Think about it! After all these years, how many young wizards have we systematically educated?
Yet when was the last time we experienced a truly revolutionary advancement in magic?
Every year, so many students graduate from this castle.
They enter the Ministry of Magic, join Quidditch teams, or inherit their parents' shops, settling down to become ordinary shopkeepers and business owners.
I wonder if anyone has noticed that the rules governing the entire wizarding world are becoming increasingly similar to those of the Muggle world.
Even Hogwarts grades have become nothing more than qualifications to knock on the door when looking for employment, rather than a means of measuring our talents and interests!"
He walked behind the table and placed both hands upon it, looking at everyone below.
His crimson eyes narrowed slightly, carrying an indescribable sense of pressure.
"Gentlemen, we are being tamed by those restrictions! We are gradually losing the ability to object, to say no!
But the world itself develops precisely through saying no!"
Dawn waved his hand.
"In the fifth century before Christ, the ancient Greek philosopher Socrates said no to unexamined traditions, authority, and so-called common sense, prompting people to begin thinking independently about the nature of justice, virtue, and truth!
From the fourteenth to the seventeenth centuries, from Petrarch and Leonardo da Vinci to Voltaire and Rousseau, countless revolutionaries said no to the medieval supremacy of religious authority, asceticism, and scholastic philosophy, directly paving the way for science and progress.
Of course...
Those are all events from Muggle history. Perhaps some of you don't consider them authoritative enough.
But haven't we wizards done exactly the same thing?
Birth, aging, sickness, and death. Reaching the end of one's lifespan. These are iron laws established by nature.
Yet haven't we wizards always been defying those natural laws?
To escape death, we studied ghosts, hoping to achieve rebirth through death!
To escape death, we developed spells that could transform flesh and blood into straw!
To escape death, we created portraits, attempting to preserve our thoughts!
We have done countless things like this, exhausting ourselves in the pursuit of magical discovery!
Until Herpo the Foul appeared and created the Horcrux, giving immortality the possibility of becoming something that could be achieved by others."
His words were filled with force.
But Dumbledore's face twitched.
Although he had already expected Dawn not to behave himself, hearing him openly mention Horcruxes still left the old headmaster with a helpless smile.
Dumbledore glanced around.
Several wizards who were hearing about this magic for the first time, and who had just learned that it could grant immortality, were indeed breathing noticeably faster.
He looked back toward the platform, worried that Dawn might drop another bombshell.
He even considered stopping him.
But after glancing at the considerable number of wizards surrounding them and worrying that an altercation between the two of them might endanger everyone else, he took a deep breath and temporarily restrained himself.
At that moment, Dawn happened to look directly at him.
"Ever since I first came into contact with magic, I've heard the same sentence countless times, whether from books or from other people's mouths."
"Magic has limits. We can never truly do whatever we want."
He smiled arrogantly.
With a wave of his hand, one of the candles floating overhead dropped into his palm and transformed into a cup of clear water, which he immediately swallowed.
Then...
The wooden table behind him trembled and transformed into a sharp executioner's blade.
Amid a chorus of screams, it came crashing down.
Dawn's head was severed from his body and went rolling across the floor with a dull thud.
Flames erupted.
Dawn emerged from them completely unharmed.
The severed head continued rolling before transforming into a raven.
Under the countless stunned gazes, it spread its wings and flew into the crowd, circling above them.
It was an extraordinarily bizarre sight.
"Merlin's beard!"
Every young wizard turned pale with fright.
Ron saw the splattering blood and instinctively shrank his neck.
An imagined pain seemed to flash through him, and considerably more fear appeared in his eyes.
Hermione also abruptly turned her head away.
Remembering the brief glimpse of the severed neck, she covered her mouth and suppressed the discomfort rising from her stomach.
Neville, meanwhile, had already rolled his eyes back and looked as though he was about to faint.
The adult wizards were not much better.
Fudge stood there with his mouth hanging open.
Looking at Dawn's madness, then remembering the horrifying scene in his office that day, he once again felt that his future had become utterly bleak.
Rita Skeeter's expression was almost identical to that of the Minister of Magic.
However, as she thought about the astonishing photographs she had just captured, her fear was accompanied by barely suppressed delight.
Blake, standing beside Harry, instinctively clenched his teeth.
Although Dawn's style was completely different, there was something about him that felt familiar.
A complete disregard for life.
A cruelty in the way he acted.
Only the group of African wizards seemed completely unconcerned by the psychological impact of the severed head.
They kept reaching toward the raven, clicking their tongues in admiration.
The Great Hall descended into chaos.
The noise rose once again.
Dumbledore's expression became solemn.
He took a deep breath. He had never expected Dawn to actually do something like this.
And moreover...
When it came to the speech itself, the old headmaster genuinely could not decide whether it was good or bad.
Dawn seemed to be inciting something.
And yet he also seemed to be merely offering encouragement.
That uncertainty left Dumbledore conflicted. After thinking for a moment, he decided to watch the situation for now.
Beside the old headmaster, Flitwick's reaction was much simpler.
He looked at his former student and gently applauded.
Although he knew this was probably not something he should encourage, obvious pride still appeared in his eyes.
Even so, that pride seemed insignificant compared with the excitement of the African wizards behind him.
Those who had traveled all the way from Africa because of news of Dawn's press conference were all fanatical enthusiasts of Transfiguration.
They gazed eagerly toward the platform.
Even knowing the possibility was extremely slim, they could not help hoping that Dawn would reveal the secret behind his miraculous transformation of magical creatures.
Suddenly, Dawn raised his hand.
The circling raven spread its wings and flew away from the disappointed African wizards before diving down and landing on his outstretched arm.
Dawn grinned.
His smile carried a confidence bordering on arrogance, along with an unmistakable air that seemed to say, I am the strongest.
He spoke.
"Look! This is how miraculous magic truly is!
They say Gamp's principles are unbreakable truths. Yet I can transform objects into genuine food.
They say an Animagus can only transform into an ordinary animal.
Yet when I was in my first year, I had already acquired the traits of a phoenix through Transfiguration.
They say living things and non-living things cannot be permanently transformed into one another.
Yet the animals I created are still living in the Forbidden Forest at Hogwarts.
Yes! Nothing is impossible! Wizards are gods! We can use our thoughts to alter the world however we please!
So, gentlemen and ladies! From this moment onward, let us cast aside those unnecessary restrictions and return to the true world of magic!
Let us climb beyond death and pass through time! Let us explore the meaning of life and step into the realm of creation!
Then let the glory of wizards truly spread into every corner of the world!"
Dawn's voice was almost a shout.
He raised his arm high and looked intensely at the face of every wizard below.
"And that is the fundamental reason I chose to hold this press conference!
I hope that what I reveal next can shatter the impossibilities in your minds and bring you back to the true essence of magic!
And then...
Let us look forward to, and welcome, the next person who will say no to the world!"
His speech ended.
Dawn's voice echoed throughout the Great Hall, lingering within the eyes of every wizard and stirring countless thoughts.
He did not know whether his words had actually accomplished anything.
Perhaps they would change something.
Perhaps they would change nothing at all.
Dawn could see that the gazes of many adult wizards had changed, but what appeared in them was mostly greed, a desire to reap the benefits without doing the work themselves.
Among the pure-blood wizards, half revealed resistance in their eyes. They hated change and wanted nothing more than to preserve the current order.
But the other half showed recognition.
They thought of their families' decline after Voldemort's fall and hoped Dawn would become the next Dark Lord, allowing them to reshuffle the entire wizarding world.
As for the young wizards...
They were at the age when youthful idealism and self-importance were at their peak.
Many of their eyes were shining, filled with motivation and purpose.
Hermione was a perfect example.
Her fists were clenched, her face flushed, and her chest rose and fell rapidly.
At the same time, in the corner occupied by the professors, Snape's expression was also constantly changing.
If it was possible to acquire the traits of a phoenix and obtain a form of immortality...
Then perhaps resurrecting someone who had already died was possible as well?
'Lily.'
Those green eyes appeared in his mind.
Snape took a deep breath, his fingernails digging into his palm as though he had just made some kind of decision.
Meanwhile, thousands of miles away, inside the lonely tower of Nurmengard, Grindelwald was also sitting before his desk.
His mismatched eyes flickered faintly.
His gaze seemed to pass through stone walls and barriers, landing upon the distant body of the boy.
After remaining silent for a long time, he suddenly began to laugh softly.
His hoarse voice echoed through the chamber, reverberating against the words carved into the wall:
"For the Greater Good."
The sound shook loose the dust covering the inscription.
Meanwhile, inside the Great Hall of Hogwarts...
Dawn stood upon the raised platform, watching the countless flashes going off below and the faces of every color and expression.
The corners of his mouth rose slightly.
He had completely concealed his desire for the Collective Consciousness.
Instead, he had wrapped that desire in a far more dazzling and attractive exterior.
He could not say that there had been no genuine emotion in his speech.
But...
Deep down, indifference still occupied most of his heart.
___________
Upto 20 chapters ahead on patreon :-
patreon.com/BloodAncestor