The Admiral of Hogwarts

The taxi departed from their hotel, crossed the Hudson River to Manhattan Island, and headed straight for the core financial district in the southern end of Manhattan Island. After experiencing several minor traffic jams, the taxi finally stopped on the famous Broadway. Across from their drop-off point were several skyscrapers built in the early 20th century.

"This is it." After everyone got out of the car, Mike pointed to a Gothic-style building across the street, a style popular during the American Gilded Age, and said to Mr. Granger, who had accompanied them, "Please wait here. I'll accompany your children to complete this procedure. If there are no accidents, it shouldn't take more than half an hour."

Soon, Mr. Granger found a place to sit in a nearby café and agreed on a meeting point with Hugo and Hermione after they were done. Then, he watched as the staff member from the Magical Congress of the United States led his children towards the Woolworth Building across the street.

This building looked very similar to the other buildings on this street, with countless white-collar workers in professional attire passing through a large revolving door. When Mike brought the Granger siblings here, he had them hold onto his hands, then made a slight turn and entered through a side door, while chanting a spell.

Stepping through that door, Hugo was surprised to see the entire foyer transformed from the Woolworth Building into the building of the Magical Congress of the United States of America under the influence of magic. Led by Mike, they walked up a wide staircase into the main hall—a magnificent and spacious area. Looking from the bottom up, it felt as if the entire building had been hollowed out, with sunlight streaming in from the windows on the wall surfaces, illuminating the entire hall.

A magical machine that looked like a clock was located high above, with many gears and dials. The colored dials were engraved with words: Magic Exposure Threat Level. The green section indicated Safe, 0 Threat, followed by Low Threat, Medium Threat, High Threat, Unexplained Serious Situation, and the Urgent Highest Level.

At this moment, the pointer of the magical clock pointed to Low Threat. Behind the clock was a daunting portrait, depicting a distinguished wizard, with a brass plate below engraved with the words: William Picquery, President of the Magical Congress.

A large number of paper airplanes converged in the air above the hall, forming a torrent composed purely of paper airplanes. From time to time, paper airplanes joined this torrent from the surrounding corridors and offices, while a large number of paper airplanes broke away from this torrent and flew to other places.

Below these paper airplanes were a large group of busy male and female wizards. However, unlike Diagon Alley, the clothes worn by the male and female wizards here looked more like the styles of ordinary people outside, with only a small number of wizards wearing traditional wizard robes. It looked significantly more modern than the British wizarding world.

"We used to use owls, but you know that most living birds have the habit of defecating anywhere. Therefore, we had to spend a lot of time cleaning up owl droppings. So, after hearing that Britain had invented this small magic, the Magical Congress immediately replaced the original owls with this magic."

As Mike spoke, he led them through a queue of wizards waiting for house-elves to maintain their wands, and then walked to an old-fashioned but extremely beautiful wrought-iron cage elevator, pressed the floor button, and said: "All kinds of changes have been happening in the Magical Congress, not only the owls outside, but even the elevators have changed."

"This elevator looks—it seems a bit old." Hearing Mike say this, Hermione looked at the surrounding iron railings with some confusion. "It should be from the same era as this building, right?"

"Of course, the change I'm talking about doesn't mean that the elevator itself has changed." After hearing Hermione's words, Mike realized the loophole in his previous statement, so he added, "But that this place used to have a goblin helping to press the elevator button, but this person was laid off during the reforms more than a decade ago."

"Honestly, I think this approach is right." Mike shrugged and said, "Why should we spend money hiring someone to press the button when a small copper plate nailed under the button can solve the problem?"

Hearing him say this, Hugo turned his head to look at the row of brass buttons next to the elevator door, and as expected, he found a small brass plate under each button, which clearly recorded what departments were on each floor corresponding to each button.

The elevator descended rapidly underground. Although these magic-driven elevators were much faster than ordinary elevators, it took them a while to reach their destination because the offices of the Magical Congress of the United States were located very deep underground.

"Feels a bit strange." Victory's voice rang in Hugo's mind through the T督 network at this time. "Why are all the known Ministries of Magic built underground, the British Ministry of Magic, the Magical Congress of the United States, the French Ministry of Magic—what made them make the same choice?"

"I think this may be from one of the most primitive ideas of mankind." Hugo raised his head, looked at the skylight above that had become a small square of light, thought for a moment, and said to Victory. "You know, the earliest place for humans to hide was some caves, so when it comes to concealment, everyone subconsciously digs some caves as their hiding places. Wizards are still humans after all, so it's normal to have such thoughts—"

Just as they were talking, the elevator stopped and opened its doors. Then, Mike led Hugo and Hermione through a closed hall that resembled a cave. There were at least 100 typewriters in the hall, each typing documents with a clatter. After the documents were typed, they would automatically fold into a mouse and then climb along the transparent pipes above the typewriter to the offices above.

"This way." Mike said, leading Hugo and Hermione into a small corridor next to him. This corridor was much brighter than the room just now. A row of benches was placed against the wall on both sides of the corridor. At the end of the corridor was an office, and there was a machine made of gold and mahogany at the door of the office.

Hugo and Hermione followed Mike through the corridor to the machine, and then Mike pulled the handle on the side of the machine. After pulling it twice in a row, two copper plates popped out of the opening below the machine. Each was printed with the Arabic numerals 06 and 07.

"Okay, you can listen for the staff in the office to call your number in a while. Whoever's number is called can take the plate and enter that office to complete the formalities. After you've registered, you two can go back the way you came and find your father, understand?". Mike said, handing the two egg-sized copper plates to the Granger siblings. "Now I have some other things to deal with and can't accompany you to finish things."

"Understood." Hugo and Hermione nodded at the same time, then bowed and saluted. "Also, thank you very much, Mr. Jenson."