Babajide's mouth fell open in surprise. If time had not been so tight, he would have wanted to sit down and have a proper talk with Tver about it.
"Even though stories like that have always existed, I have never actually heard of anyone encountering it. So what did you see?"
"It is hard to describe." Tver shook his head with a faint smile.
"It felt like it was telling me that the way we study magic is no different from the way muggles study technology. Both are just ways of studying the most fundamental laws of this world..."
Babajide stopped walking, speechless. Of course, that was also because they had already reached the conference room doors.
"This is not just some hallucination from worrying too much about the meeting, is it?"
"Maybe."
Tver gave a careless shrug and did not try to force Babajide to understand the strange experience he had just had.
Seeing that, Babajide did not say anything more. As he gently pushed open the door, he quietly began reminding Tver what to watch for during the meeting.
"I deliberately arranged for your speech to come right after mine, second on the agenda, so hopefully everyone will not react to what you say..."
He hesitated for a moment, suddenly remembering the massive shock to his own worldview not long ago.
"...too strongly."
"Maybe."
Tver gave him the same vague answer again, but there was a confident smile on his face.
This time, he was not going to speak in the same tentative, probing way as before. After a year of groundwork, and with the situation now turning so much in his favor, there was no way he would let an opportunity like this slip by.
Babajide let out a somewhat defeated sigh. Just thinking that he had not even become President yet and was already facing threats from Voldemort and the future danger posed by muggles gave him a pounding headache.
No wonder Dumbledore had slipped away so decisively...
Of course, that was only his private complaint about how busy things had been lately. The instant he opened the door and stepped into view, his expression returned to its usual gentle composure. Once again, he was the leader everyone in the Union trusted most after Dumbledore.
"Good morning, everyone."
Babajide let go of Tver's hand and strode toward the center of the conference room.
It was a large square room. Because the windows were narrow and tall, very little sunlight made it inside, so even during the day, the ancient lampstands around the room were still lit with candles.
In the firelight sat a circular arrangement of seats, broken by two openings, filled with representatives from more than two hundred countries and regions, along with staff responsible for handling the Union's internal affairs.
Before Babajide spoke, the room had been as noisy as a muggle marketplace, full of the representatives' "passionate" discussion.
But the moment his clear voice rang out, the room fell silent for a second.
Then, one second later, the noise exploded back with even greater intensity.
"Babajide, do you even understand what it means for a muggle to appear here?!"
"Is the Wizards' Union planning to compromise with muggles now and hand over everything in the magical world to them?"
"Or are you trying to become a second Grindelwald? And now Dumbledore has brought a muggle here again?"
...
Tver took advantage of the chaos to find his seat and watched with interest as the old wizards fired question after question at Babajide like a barrage.
At last year's assembly, their attitude had not been nearly this intense.
Honestly, this was much more like what he had imagined the Union should be. That previous half dead, worn out air of theirs had been too dull to interest him.
Babajide, meanwhile, paid the uproar no mind at all and simply walked to the center of the circle, smiling as he looked around the room.
"The matter concerning Madam Modesty will be resolved during this meeting. But before that, I hope all of you can calm down."
As an old member of the Union, Babajide might have been younger than many of the representatives, but his authority was not weaker than anyone else's.
So the noise gradually subsided, and everyone turned their full attention to him.
Babajide nodded in satisfaction.
"Then let us begin with the first item on the agenda, the election of the President of the International Wizards' Union..."
"We all know how that is going to go, Babajide," an old wizard said loudly, impatience written all over his face.
Tver glanced over at once. Well, well. It was an old acquaintance, Quentin, the same man who had argued against him at the assembly last year.
In their correspondence, Quentin had seemed fairly rational in writing. Tver had not expected that two years later, he would still be this hot tempered.
"Dumbledore was forced down by a bunch of foolish politicians. Of course, he had no desire to resist that decision, which is why we are all so frustrated."
No one seemed inclined to argue with that, and Quentin only grew more worked up as he continued.
"Exactly. So we should respect Albus's decision and elect a new President as soon as possible. After all, the Union urgently needs to deal with the problems that mysterious person may bring..."
After he paused for a moment, Babajide tried to speak again, only to be interrupted almost immediately.
"Then stop wasting time. There is no one in the Union who can compare to you, Babajide. We all agree that you should become the new President."
Quentin sounded even more impatient this time, and not only did no one object, a number of people even laughed in amusement.
"Even though I do not care much for Quentin's impatience, I think he is right this time."
Zhou Ya looked at Babajide with a faint smile. It was the first time she had ever seen him look somewhat awkward in front of everyone.
"Uh... I still think we should follow the proper procedure. For example, I should first explain my ideas, and then everyone can discuss them..."
"Clearly, our discussion is already over."
Quentin gave no face at all to the new President he so clearly favored.
"Move on to the next item already. I am much more interested in Tver Fawley, Dumbledore's successor. Let us hear what thoughts he has brought us this year, especially since he actually brought a muggle here!"
At once, his words were like a stone dropped into a thousand waves, stirring up another burst of noisy discussion throughout the room.
The representatives present all remembered Tver's speech from last year very clearly. Ever since then, these old bones had been forced to correspond with one another far more often, thinking seriously about the future of the Statute of Secrecy.
Even though the conclusions they reached had not been especially favorable to wizards, it had at least proved that all their hard work had not been for nothing.
And now, the muggle causing such controversy had been brought here by none other than Tver Fawley. And he was about to deliver another speech.
The moment they thought of how much effort they had spent running around over the past year, many of them rubbed their backs with weary hands, backs that had clearly suffered a great deal more wear and tear than before.
This time would not be even sharper than the last one, would it?
They thought bitterly.