Contact List

Sure enough, less than an hour after Tom and the Acolyte left, a group of Auror followed the lingering magical fluctuations and found the quarry.

An Auror took out a detection instrument, scanned the area, and his expression instantly changed drastically. He exclaimed in disbelief, "There are traces of Fiendfyre here!"

Fiendfyre is a perpetual source of pain for Paris wizards. The Fiendfyre that Gellert Grindelwald set here nearly burned the entire Paris wizarding world to the ground.

Even now, many people are still experiencing stress reactions, Auror dared not delay and immediately turned around and rushed back to the Ministry of Magic to report.

The French Ministry of Magic quickly responded, dispatching a large number of wizards to search for suspicious individuals.

But just when things were at their most tense, that very night, the entire Étienne Family was wiped out.

More than a dozen family members were all killed by poisoning.

According to the Ministry of Magic's investigation, the preliminary assessment is that an error occurred during the brewing of the Potions, resulting in the production of deadly poison gas.

But this happened at such a sensitive time. The Étienne Family was a spy planted by the Ministry of Magic among the Acolyte, and several high-ranking officials were well aware of this.

This was too much of a coincidence; it made them suspicious.

In an instant, the entire France Wizarding World was gripped by fear and the atmosphere became extremely tense.

In truth, the French Ministry of Magic was far superior to Fudge of Britain.

If Fudge were in this position, his first reaction would definitely be to cover it up, since things haven't blown up yet and it's all just speculation.

As long as there are no serious consequences, just pretend nothing happened, enjoy yourself, and let loose.

However, none of this concerns Tom anymore; he will not have any further contact with the Acolyte in the near future.

Once we're back in Britain, we won't have to be so careful when we contact each other.

With Albus Dumbledore around, the Britain didn't really have a direct concept of how terrifying the Acolyte were, nor were they as paranoid as the France.

Back at Nicolas Flamel's estate, Tom immediately got his hands on the magical communication book he had been eyeing for so long, and plunged into the library to begin studying it.

In the original story, Nicolas Flamel used this address book to contact Lari Hicks, who was on the other side of the ocean.

This thing is one of the few remote, real-time communication tools in the Wizarding World.

However, he had quite a few shortcomings. Nicolas Flamel initially wanted to contact Albus Dumbledore but couldn't, so he had no choice but to turn to Hicks.

Tom studied it for two whole days and finally figured out how the address book worked.

Each page is actually a small picture frame. In a specific magical space, when the contact enters the frame, it will transform into an alternative portrait.

When Nicolas Flamel opens the contacts list, he will also appear in the other person's picture frame, which is equivalent to the two people talking to each other through a portrait.

But once the person leaves the space where the picture frame is located, they can no longer be contacted at all.

He then sought out Nicolas Flamel to inquire about the specific manufacturing techniques, and the more he studied it, the more he discovered that this thing had too many flaws.

Putting aside the materials, Nicolas Flamel is a large and powerful company that uses only top-tier materials and has never considered the cost.

Secondly, there are limitations. The address book in Nicolas Flamel's hand is like the "main unit," while the picture frames in the hands of the others are like "secondary units."

It only allows bidirectional communication between the main unit and the secondary unit; the secondary units cannot communicate directly with each other.

However, some of the signal conversion techniques in the address book gave Tom a lot of inspiration.

After learning of his thoughts, Nicolas Flamel didn't hold back and gave him a lot of targeted advice, which greatly benefited Tom.

The biggest pain point is that while the main unit and the slave unit can communicate bidirectionally, the slave units cannot communicate with each other.

Tom thought that if the communication protocol were changed so that each slave unit could relay messages through the main unit, it would be possible.

Wouldn't that enable multi-party communication? He took out his notebook and started drawing and designing.

In late August, Tom completely switched to a "study + slack off" mode, studying for two and a half days and then spending half a day going to see Phoebe to relax.

Although they couldn't go too far, they left their footprints at almost every major and minor attraction in Paris.

Tom also visited Diagon Alley and the Montmartre Hidden Square, France.

This place is much more bustling than Diagon Alley, and it's more than twice the size.

The streets were lined with a dazzling array of magical shops, with all sorts of novel magical items that were overwhelming.

Tom stood in the middle of the square, unable to help but think to himself: So Britain is just a rural place!

If it weren't for Albus Dumbledore holding things together, they probably would have been relegated to a second-rate France long ago.

Time flies, and before Tom knew France, it was the end of August.

The start of Hogwarts school is drawing ever closer.

On his last day in France, Tom arrived at the Delacour Family with a gift he had prepared.

Upon entering, I saw that Phoebe was not in high spirits, and Gabrielle was also hanging her head, looking aggrieved.

Both of them knew that Tom was going back to Britain, and they were both very reluctant to see him go.

"It's not a big deal. We can still keep in touch after we get back. Why are you making such a sour face?"

Tom gently patted Gabrielle's head, smiling reassuringly.

Phoebe pouted and retorted, "Writing letters is too much trouble. It takes two or three days to receive one; the efficiency is too low!"

Gabrielle nodded quickly in agreement, her soft, childlike voice ringing out:

"Exactly! Gabrielle still doesn't know how to write many words, and she always has to ask her older sister for help. It's such a hassle!"

"Then you should study writing properly," Tom said, tapping her forehead, deliberately showing off.

"When I was your age, I could speak English, French, and German fluently, and my handwriting was much better than yours."

"It's all my sister's fault!" the little girl said, pointing at Phoebe with a serious expression.

"My sister stole all my intelligence, that's why I've become so stupid!"

These words made Tom and Phoebe both laugh and cry.

So, the combined IQ of the two sisters is fixed, with the older sister having a higher IQ and the younger sister a lower one?

If Madame Delacour had another child, wouldn't it be so stupid that it would have a crooked mouth and drool?

Gabrielle's innocent words instantly dispelled the sadness of parting.

Tom smiled and placed the gifts he had brought in front of Phoebe and Gabrielle.

"What's this?" Phoebe asked curiously, picking up a green-covered notebook and examining it from all angles.

The cover also features two overlapping green bubbles, which looks quite childish.

"Oh, this," Tom smiled mysteriously, deliberately keeping it a secret, "You can call it WeChat."

Phoebe chewed on the strange name, looking completely bewildered, while Gabrielle, unable to contain her curiosity, snatched the notebook and started flipping through it.

The first page of the notebook is a simple table where you need to fill in your nickname, gender, age, birthday, and address.

There's a rectangular box in the upper right corner; anyone with a discerning eye can see it's for posting photos.

Gabrielle tilted her head and looked for a while before finally understanding.

He ran off to get a quill pen and sat down on the table to fill out the form carefully.