"Your brother." Harry rolled his eyes and changed the subject, saying, "So what we need to do now is to separate this curse from the position—but the position of Defense Against the Dark Arts professor has no physical form, which is different from Annie's situation. How do we proceed with the separation?"
"There's no curse from thin air," Vivi thought for a moment and then said, "I think Voldemort must have placed the curse somewhere we don't know…"
"So what do we do next?" Cassandra asked, "Are we just going to search aimlessly like headless flies?"
"We could check the Room of Requirement," Harry suggested, "I remember after leaving Dumbledore's headmaster's office, Voldemort went to the Room of Requirement to place the Horcrux made from Ravenclaw's Crown there?"
"Do you think he would place the curse in the Room of Requirement?" Vivi raised an eyebrow, "Unlikely, you just saw that while talking to Dumbledore, Voldemort had already completed the curse on this position."
Silence fell among the three.
"Let's retreat for now," Harry proposed, "First, we should discuss with Professor Dumbledore. I think…uh, more hands make light work."
Vivi and Cassandra accepted his suggestion, and the three exited Voldemort's memory world.
Back in the room, Dumbledore approached them, asking with concern, "How was it? Did you find anything?"
Harry plopped onto the sofa and took a sip from a teacup.
"We can basically confirm that Voldemort cursed the position during his interview with you."
"What we need to do now is to find his curse nodes." He continued.
"Over the years, I have tried to lift the curse on the Defense Against the Dark Arts position, but there were no clues," Dumbledore sighed, "I must trouble you to spend more effort on this matter."
"Who made us your seniors?" Vivi said with a seemingly ridiculous but indeed true fact, smiling.
For now, the matter could only be put on hold; to find the traces of the Black Magic curse, they must return to the school.
In the meantime, Dumbledore and Vivi had to attend the International Wizarding Union meeting to discuss with some countries how to handle the Voldemort crisis.
In fact, many countries' Ministries of Magic didn't take Voldemort seriously at all.
Not everyone, like the British Wizards, experienced Voldemort's reign of terror. Most people lived their lives as usual during that time, as the Death Eaters, no matter how rampant, couldn't leave the UK to cause trouble in other countries.
A single UK hasn't even been fully conquered, going to other countries would obviously be finding trouble for themselves.
On August 3rd, the International Wizarding Union convened officially in London.
It was initially set to be held in Stockholm, but since it involved discussing the British Dark Wizard, the venue was changed to London, UK.
At the International Wizarding Union meeting, the first agenda was to elect a new Chairman.
Former Chairman Dumbledore's membership was revoked by the British Ministry of Magic, automatically canceling his chairmanship. The position has been vacant for months.
Not many people participated in the election; the meeting adopted a secret ballot system. Eventually, Dumbledore won by a narrow advantage of 108:106 over Vivi, re-selected as the Chairman of the International Wizarding Union.
After receiving this result, Vivi was actually quite unhappy.
Before the meeting, she was confident she would be elected Chairman of the International Wizarding Union this term.
However, Dumbledore's victory was a severe blow to her.
"Young people shouldn't have it too easy," Gellert privately told Harry, "A youth too successful can face a big setback."
Harry discreetly recorded Gellert's words on his phone and asked, "Why do you say that?"
"Because that's how I was, Scarhead Enchantress," Gellert gazed at the sky at a forty-five-degree angle, reflecting on life, "But that's all in the past; we should learn from past experiences."
Whoa…
For a moment, Harry even considered deleting the previous recording.
This Gellert…isn't entirely beyond saving.
See, acting on impulse again.
"How about you? What lesson did you learn?" Harry asked.
"The lesson I learned is—" Gellert paused for a moment, then said, "If I could do it all over again, I would have kept my sister away from you, Scarhead Enchantress!"
Harry gritted his teeth silently.
He deleted everything after that, leaving only the part where Gellert sharply criticizes the beloved sister's loss.
Hope the Sunflower Parrot is alright.
After electing the Chairman of the International Wizarding Union, a day had already passed.
Through discussion, it was decided that the Voldemort crisis response would be fully discussed the next day.
Back at No. 12 Grimmauld Square, Vivi was clearly not in a good mood. She sat on the sofa, her eyes staring out the window, lost in thoughts.
Harry sat beside her, holding her hand. Though he didn't know what to say to comfort her, being there for her was necessary.
"It's just losing an election, right? Grindelwald?" Cassandra stood beside them with folded arms, looking displeased, "Look at you; one would think you'd never win this in your life… Who is this resentful act for? We didn't come here to see your sour face!"
"It's not about the election," Vivi glanced up at Cassandra, illustrating how the words of a rival can sometimes be the most effective, "It's just realizing some of my shortcomings. I think I need to address them."
Cassandra smirked and reached out to tug at Harry.
"Potter." She tilted her head, her delicate chin pointing at Harry. That swan-like neck looked tempting to bite, "Let her be by herself for a while, come with me, I have something to discuss with you."
"What is it?" Harry didn't stand up; he remained heavy on the sofa.
"It's an order!" Cassandra's face darkened, "Potter, come with me!"
Harry had no choice but to follow Cassandra out of the living room.
As soon as they left, Gellert crept over with a mischievous grin.
"Didn't I say Scarhead Enchantress is the most unreliable? Sister?" he began to sow discord between his sister and her partner, "You didn't believe me before, thinking I was trying to drive a wedge between you—do you understand now?"
Vivi didn't even look her brother in the eye; she merely gazed out the window, contemplating today's events at the International Union.
As Teacher Wang used to say—whoever gives the teacher something, the teacher might not remember; but whoever doesn't, the teacher must remember.
Today at the International Wizarding Union, though votes were anonymous, Vivi could roughly estimate who voted for Dumbledore and who voted for her.
How to win them over? Vivi pondered, was it her political agenda that didn't appeal to these people?
"Actually…"
Annie's voice suddenly interrupted.
Vivi slowly turned her gaze toward Annie.
"I think there's a significant possibility that the majority voted for Professor Dumbledore because of his age," Annie bravely said, "And Vivi, your disadvantage lies precisely in your age—you're too young, which is a natural drawback."
They say those most involved are the last to see. After Annie's comment, Vivi truly realized what was happening.
(Though I drank a bit more, I can't keep taking leave… Came back early to write.)