It did not take long for the entire wizarding world to discover what had happened. One by one, the wizards of the pureblood families realized that their house-elves had disappeared from their homes.
At first, they didn't mind the fact that they had disappeared. They never viewed them as anything other than servants who were supposed to follow their every word. They expected them to return on their own with time.
But after a week or two, they realized that the elves were not coming back. They noticed it because of the stench that began to spread from their homes and the clothes they wore every day outside.
At first, everyone imagined that they could use spells like Scourgify to clean their houses and clothes. But for the pureblood families who held themselves to a high standard, doing such menial spells was something they considered beneath them.
Plus, the amount of work done by house-elves was actually tremendous. They cleaned every single corner of every room of the manor while simultaneously doing the work of preparing the food, washing clothes, and carrying out every order given to them by their masters without fail every single day. Normal humans would have died within a few hours with that sort of working conditions.
So any substitute servants and workers hired by the pureblood families added to their expenses, along with the disadvantage that their servants were now human. As a result, they were unable to give them overbearing orders, as it would only come back to bite them in the end.
Losing such a free, high-end workforce not only stumped the functioning of wizarding households, but the Ministry of Magic as well. The Ministry had a few house-elves that managed the cleaning of the common areas spanning kilometers underground all by themselves for many years. Their sudden absence also led to dysfunction within the Ministry.
Investigations to find the house-elves were ordered by the Minister and conducted by Aurors throughout Britain, but it was of no avail as the house-elves had completely disappeared.
When a few came to investigate Hogwarts, Auden made sure to hide the newly freed house-elves inside the Chamber of Secrets rather than in the kitchens. So, the Aurors left without any leads, other than the fact that Hogwarts elves were still present within the castle.
That too sparked a debate about making the Hogwarts house-elves work for the wizarding pureblood families, but that kind of thinking was instantly rebuked by Albus Dumbledore, who reported that the house-elves of Hogwarts were connected to the school itself, and separating them from the school would lead to the breaking of certain unknown enchantments within it, the results of which were unknown even to the headmaster himself.
At the time, in the secret chambers—
"Nice to see them running left and right the moment they lost their house-elves," Helena commented with a smile, while Auden was reading more books given to him by McGonagall and Flitwick, using the Diadem to remember what was written.
"Well, innovation requires desire and need," he said as he waved his wand. Suddenly, an advertisement for a vacuum cleaner appeared in front of him.
"Nice illusion spell, but what's the use of this?" Helena asked when Auden waved his wand again and suddenly countless advertisements for vacuum cleaners were displayed in the air.
Helena was still confused. Seeing this, Auden smiled and clarified.
"Helena, look at the advertisements. What kind of differences do you see?" Auden asked.
"They… seem to be minor. But a few are good," Helena answered.
"Helena, look at the dates," Auden finally said, chuckling as he saw the shock appear on her face due to the realisation.
All these advertisements had appeared within the span of just five years.
"The Muggle world is moving forward at a speed you cannot even imagine, Helena. When was the last time the wizarding world improved a product instead of changing its shape or colour" Auden said as he waved his hands once again.
This time, advertisements and blueprints of multiple creations appeared one by one. They filled the roof of the Chamber of Secrets, giving a glimpse of the technological marvels of the Muggle side.
"The Muggles do not have a wand they can wave around to perform multiple actions for their needs. They have to work hard and create technology for each of their problems. Even a simple act like cleaning is simplified by them by inventing newer and newer technology to support it," he said as he waved the wand once more.
Images of human history over the last hundred years appeared before Helena in fast-moving succession.
"You might have gotten information from the ghosts about the outside world, Helena, but even then you have no idea how much humanity has succeeded. Every invention sees improvement within a year or less, and it continues as time goes on. Even simple pipes and fittings are improved through the creation of new alloys and cheap materials they either do the same work or improve it while cutting the cost of creation. This in turn will give rise to a future similar to this" Auden said as the visuals changed one last time.
This time, an image of a future city appeared, where people moved on flying boards, used projectors to communicate with others, drove cars that flew at higher levels, and lived in buildings that shone as brightly as the sun and towered higher than any structure currently present in either the human or wizarding world.
Helena's eyes widened as she took in all the images. She wanted to say that it was fake and impossible, but the common sense within her told her that Auden would not show her a lie. She now glimpsed a future her brother had once predicted for the entire human race without magic.
Auden had used an image he had seen in his past life, along with his imagination, to create this future city.
"I didn't just free the house-elves for the sake of freedom alone, dear sister. I did it so that the wizards can come to a realization," Auden said as he stopped the illusion.
"I did it to make the wizarding world realize how fragile their world is, and how the absence of a single presence can destabilize their community—like how a clock stops when it loses one cog."
A/N- hope you like it.