The Price of Power

The first time they met, Dumbledore calmed down completely and looked seriously at Elena, who was sitting directly in front of him.

At that moment, the silver-haired girl was embarrassed and confused due to her previous mistake. Her face was full of flattering expressions.

However...

Dumbledore's eyes lingered on Elena's beautiful blue eyes. Apart from a little annoyance and panic, the rest was as pure and clear as autumn water without impurities.

Whether it was a Phoenix, portraits on the walls, or interior facilities slowly being restored with magic, they did not cause any special attention in her eyes. Her emotional changes came more from events than from where she was in the world.

Dumbledore finally understood that vague sense of discord he felt when Professor McGonagall confronted Elena. She was too calm.

Being a girl living in a non-magical world, facing all the unknown magical world, Elena showed almost no fear or reverence in her eyes, even if she knew information about the magical world in advance and saw and heard essential differences.

"I'm curious..."

Dumbledore adjusted the half-moon-shaped glasses on the bridge of his nose and said slowly.

"If I am not mistaken, this should be the first time you've seen a Phoenix. Are you afraid of the flames and the magic that suddenly disappears from it?"

"Fear? Why should I be afraid?"

The Lolita with silver hair looked at the Phoenix, tilting her head in confusion, and responded bewilderedly.

"Fire is just a basic natural phenomenon that emits light and heat. Strictly speaking, isn't combustion an exothermic reaction between fuel and oxidizers? As for the space through..."

After a pause, Elena carefully recalled the scene where the Phoenix disappeared and reappeared suddenly, and hesitantly said, "The sound that occurs when this happens is very similar to the sudden explosion of air compressed by a vacuum. I suppose this should come closer to the short-range superficial transition. But then again, it's really beautiful."

Oxidizer? Exothermic reaction? Vacuum? Curved transition?

Upon hearing Elena's response, Dumbledore was even more perplexed. If it weren't for the serious look on the girl's face, he would even think she was suddenly speaking in a strange and difficult-to-understand language.

"So, do Muggles now see magic in this way?"

After remaining silent for a moment, Dumbledore rubbed his forehead again and rephrased his words to ask.

Elena shrugged rather awkwardly. She didn't understand how, almost approaching the 20th century, wizards thought that magic would frighten Muggles.

"Professor Dumbledore, you may be a little misunderstanding. It's not a way of seeing magic, it's just a basic operation of world cognition. Unlike the cognition of wizards in a world similar to inheritance tales, the non-magical world is through the meticulous fields of chemistry, physics, biology, mathematics, etc., to understand a bit about the origin of the world..."

Middle-aged people might be surprised and shocked by flames that appear out of nowhere and consider things like turning water into wine as miracles because their cognition and thinking limit their understanding of the world.

Superstition and religion cloud their vision, so they consider incomprehensible wizards as the devil or messengers of the gods, rather than being humans like them.

The oldest and strongest human emotion is fear. The oldest and strongest fear comes from the unknown.

Magic, an inexplicable unknown coming from human common sense, is undoubtedly the strongest barrier that once blocked the non-magical and magical worlds.

However, times have changed.

The most important thing modern science gives to humanity is not knowledge, but a way of thinking about unknown things.

With the advancement of human science, the scope covered by "common sense" has become increasingly broad, and even reasonable conjectures and explanations for most of the unknown have begun to be consistent with themselves.

For example, when a modern person sees a flame that appears out of nowhere in someone's hands on the street, they are most likely to consider it a theatrical performance, applauding with envy, while curiously guessing how it was achieved.

From Elena's point of view, magic is simply an undetected energy. Although it cannot be fully understood according to the knowledge learned in her previous life, she only needs to temporarily add some black box theories, and it does not involve the internal structure. It is not difficult to summarize cognition of the regularity by analyzing the relationship between input and output features only.

Watching the young silver-haired girl speak, Dumbledore suddenly realized that her knowledge of the magical world did not prevent Elena from cognitively observing the magical phenomenon appearing before her.

More precisely, she used a Muggle way of thinking to explain the magical phenomenon in her mind to some extent, even if it might not be correct, but it was enough to remove her fear and reverence for the unknown.

In an instant, Dumbledore seemed to see the shadow of an equally confident white-haired man in Elena.

It seemed as if he had gone back several decades, to when he imprisoned Gellert Grindelwald in the highest tower of Nurmengard, the conversation that only he knew, or rather, the "Prophecy" of Grindelwald.

In 1945, at the highest level of the Nurmengard Tower.

Grindelwald, defeated in the duel, was not as hysterical and sober as people think.

He still maintained his methodical elegance, and looked calmly at Dumbledore standing in front of him, as if it were just a friendly chat, not a farewell before permanent imprisonment.

"You can imprison me, Albus, but you cannot prevent the spread of thought."

"I admit that I underestimated the ability of Muggles, but this simply shows that they will be more terrible than the predictions I have seen."

"The wizards have missed the best moment to take the stage. I would rather see the muggles bravely raising their weapons unknowingly towards us, like enraged animals."

"Instead of waiting for reflection, as we treat all wise and magical races, we solemnly launch a war of reciprocity."

"My transformation failed, and you are not a person who can change the magical world. But I believe that your strength is sufficient to protect the entire magical world."

"However, one day, there will definitely be a young person who sees again the evils of both worlds."

"A youth who can understand the pros and cons of both worlds from a more comprehensive perspective and who is not eager for power. Reading at .com has the potential to equalize the possibilities of you and us, and perhaps guide the voice of the magical and non-magical worlds."

"When he appears, make sure he is on our side, then use your influence to teach him as much as possible, so that he can help the magical civilization continue in this world when the two worlds merge and collide. The pride continues."

"We all know that I did not succumb to your strength, but voluntarily locked myself in this tower."

"But for the greater good! (ForTheGreaterGood!)"

"Assure me! Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore!"

Dumbledore raised his head, the shadow of Grindelwald reflected in his pupil.

"I will."

"If everything is truly as you said."

.....

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