The Unreceived Letters

Kate kept reading for a while. Since no dragons had appeared, she went back up to the fourth floor to resume dancing.

Ryan sat with his legs spread carelessly wide, his elbows resting on his knees, his hands clasped together beneath his chin, maintaining Bu Jingyun's classic pose from Wind and Cloud as he continued considering the previous topic.

The wizarding world had actually gone in the wrong direction. Back when the masses were still unenlightened, wizards should have worked more through the upper classes. Hufflepuff's Fat Friar had nearly become Pope.

Even Malfoy, famously hateful toward Muggles, had done better than most wizards.

Back then, the wealthy and influential Malfoy family had fiercely opposed the implementation of the Statute of Secrecy.

Although the Malfoys believed wizards were superior to Muggles, members of the Malfoy family cared more about money and social influence.

With those things, even Muggles could be noble.

Poor Muggles were different from wealthy and powerful ones.

Throughout history, they had maintained ties with Muggles of noble birth—both royalty, with William the Conqueror and Queen Elizabeth I being obvious examples, and aristocrats. To some extent, this had helped them amass vast amounts of Muggle treasures and artworks.

The Statute of Secrecy was more like a one-size-fits-all measure. It had not taken into account the differences between countries or the status of wizards within them.

The Malfoys of that era could have used their influence to unite wizards and Muggles. As long as they further enlightened the masses and controlled education, there would have been no problem.

Instead, apart from a few wealthy and socially prominent wizards, the rest withdrew from bustling cities. Wizards also began using Confundus Charms to live together in small villages, forming their own little societies.

The village of Tinworth, Cornwall; Upper Flagley, Yorkshire; Ottery St. Catchpole in Devon; and Godric's Hollow in southwest England all had concentrated wizarding families and were among the most famous semi-wizarding settlements.

Speaking of semi-wizarding settlements, Shell Cottage, where Fleur and Bill lived, stood by the sea outside the village of Tinworth, Cornwall. The most common magical creatures there were pixies.

Lockhart had once captured a batch of them as teaching aids for Defense Against the Dark Arts. Although one spell could deal with those creatures, they had still caused chaos in class.

In wizarding history, Dymphna Furmage was kidnapped by a large group of pixies while vacationing in Cornwall in the seventeenth century. For the rest of her life, she devoted herself to persuading the Ministry of Magic to humanely exterminate every last pixie.

That made her famous and earned her a place in A History of Magic. What a ridiculous history of magic!

Thinking of A History of Magic, Ryan found himself irrationally consumed by anger again.

That was what was bad about wizards. They carved everything into their bloodlines: appearance, personality, even love and hatred for certain things.

Some people said that if Harry had been a girl, Snape's attitude would have been completely different.

But don't forget, Harry looked exactly like his father, James Potter. Even if Harry had been a girl, she would only have been a gender-swapped James. Snape would have wanted to gouge his eyes out—or, more directly, humanely destroy Harry.

Ron would have been a better choice for a gender swap, though then Harry Potter would probably have turned into a harem story.

Harry's terrible childhood might also have had something to do with his near-identical resemblance to his father. Harry's father had met Vernon and Petunia, left them with a very bad impression, and in his aunt's eyes, he had been the murderer who caused her sister's death.

A young wizard's appearance could also be altered through blessings. Voldemort's mother, despite her lack of confidence, had possessed powerful magical potential from birth. Before dying, she gave her child one final blessing, and in the end Voldemort came to look exactly like his Muggle father, Tom Riddle.

That unfilial son—how could he use magical transformation to erase his mother's blessing?!

He had gone off topic. Ryan gently rubbed his forehead, speechless at his own wild train of thought.

"Still, if I wanted to, it's not like I couldn't invent a gender-swapping potion or spell." Ryan took a sip of tea and put a stop to his final wicked thought.

Come to think of it, Ryan had originally assumed this journey would involve encountering evil vampires who used their jobs as cover to secretly keep blood slaves. Then, through Ryan's bravery and Kate's screams, the journey would reach its conclusion.

But everything had gone completely differently from the plan. During that one second yesterday when Kate fought the vampires, Ryan had taken the opportunity to scan the entire castle and the vampires' bedrooms.

Apart from a few bloody lollipops, ink, manuscripts, and letters, there had been nothing.

Even the plot where a wizard stole dragon eggs and sent the dragons into a frenzy had not appeared. It was just an ordinary, normal journey. It was not that it had not been fun, but Ryan was starting to wonder whether he was really the protagonist.

Speaking of letters, he had not received one from Penelope in two days.

That had nothing to do with Kate and him lacking a fixed address. Owls possessed a natural affinity for magic and could still find recipients even when letters had no address written on them.

Those who did not wish to receive letters had to use Repelling Charms, Disguise Charms, or Shielding Charms to stop owls from finding them.

According to Ryan's investigations, owls' magical affinity came from another great power: Athena, a long-dead wizard known as a god.

Combined with the fact that owls themselves suited wizarding aesthetics so well, even though their protector had died, this blessing had continued growing stronger to the present day.

Pigs were the opposite example. They had nothing at all to do with magic. Genetically speaking, pig organs were the closest to human organs, and there had even been speculation that genetically edited organs could be transplanted into humans.

But because of their terrible looks, they were naturally rejected by magic. As the wizarding community developed, the concept of magic itself had become like a living thing. Though it had no will of its own, it still carried the broad aesthetic preferences of wizards.

That was also why Ryan used pigs as experimental material. Pigskin, after special magical rituals, could even be used as dragon hide.

As for why Sirius had not been captured through an owl in the third book, it was because this ability did not entirely belong to owls themselves and could not be used maliciously. If you tried to use an owl to catch a criminal, you would suddenly find that this talent had inexplicably failed. Of course, sending a letter with a minor curse or a Howler was possible.

The principle was similar to how ordinary House-elves could not harm wizards. Of course, since House-elves possessed magical abilities themselves, they were not entirely bound by that restriction.

Like Dobby's well-intentioned attempted murder, and the House-elf army later on.

The Smith Family possessed an innate Shielding Charm-like ability that resembled a curse. Though it had mutated somewhat in Ryan, the tower in the gorge near Smith Castle, specially built to receive owl mail, was still operating. That indirectly proved the ability still existed.

The tower itself was an alchemical item built to compensate for their inability to receive letters. Owls could find it through the surname Smith. If Ryan's Shielding Charm-like gift had vanished, the tower would have stopped working long ago.

Kate's stealth was actually quite similar to the talent of ordinary Smiths. As long as Kate focused on hiding herself, she became difficult for others to notice. It was an active skill.

The Smith Family's ability, on the other hand, was an innate passive one. They could not even receive letters, and even intangible things like curses found it difficult to reach them. Blessings were the same.

But Kate was right beside Ryan. In fact, while touching her stomach recently, Ryan had temporarily transferred the concept of his name from the tower onto Kate.

The letter should have arrived long ago. This was truly strange.

Thank you to Taishi Yumi Xu for the monthly ticket.