Hogwarts Summoning Guide

The Mandarin Oriental Hotel is situated near Knightsbridge, boasting beautiful scenery and adjacent to a bustling commercial street filled with trendy Muggle shops. Every now and then, stylish urban women stroll along the street, attracting admiring glances from passersby.

Looking at the Muggles on the street, Bai Lin was filled with mixed emotions. The Muggles were vibrant and progressing every day, while the wizards were more conservative, restricting the use of Muggle technology and even indulging in the self-image of medieval nobility. But Bai Lin knew that with the advancement of Muggle technology and information, wizard and Muggle societies would eventually merge.

In recent decades, many Muggles have become aware of the existence of wizarding society, and even the Quidditch World Cup has a special Muggle stand. However, most of the time, wizards remain hidden outside of Muggle society, and if a wizard exposes himself, the Ministry of Magic will assign someone to erase the Muggle's memory.

However, with the advancement of audio and video recording technology in recent years, the Ministry of Magic's capabilities have become stretched thin. Bai Lin knows that when short videos become popular in a decade or so, wizards will be completely unable to hide themselves. Once a wizard is captured on camera by surveillance cameras around the world or by a passerby's mobile phone, he can be viewed by millions of people on the internet within minutes. Even if the Ministry of Magic increases its manpower a hundredfold, it still won't be able to solve this problem.

While a villain like Voldemort might be good at terrorism in wizarding society, if he really wanted to rule the earth, eliminate Muggles, and establish a dark wizarding regime, he was probably just daydreaming. He might be able to assassinate some Muggle leaders, but as anyone who has seen X-Men knows, the strength of Muggles lies in their creativity and research capabilities under survival pressure. They can create Sentinels to deal with mutants, so creating a targeted weapon against wizards is not impossible.

Phineas's shout brought Bai Lin back to his senses. He warmly helped Bai Lin put on his coat, then made himself invisible and led Bai Lin to the luxurious hotel where wizards and Muggles lived together.

Although it's called the Mandarin Oriental Hotel, its decor and taste have absolutely nothing to do with the East. If you have to say what the connection is, it's probably the Turkish handmade wool carpet on the lobby floor, which is decorated with ancient Indian deities. Perhaps this is a misunderstanding of the East by the West.

The room was quite nice, but before Bai Lin could rest, Finis brought over a large box containing a strange machine that seemed to be a creation from the steam engine era, exuding a punk vibe.

"I'm sorry, my master, but the elders insist on conducting one last check on the identity of each new young member. Please extend your hand..." Phineas said humbly.

Just as Bai Lin was about to reach out, the Summoning Encyclopedia suddenly appeared and automatically placed on the machine. Bai Lin saw the long-awaited notification:

[The magic-assisted system is currently performing a temporary bloodline correction... Correction rate: 35% - 95.32%]

Bai Lin was completely bewildered by the system prompt, but when he placed his hand on the machine, after a burst of noise, it sprayed out a white mist, and then all the green lights on it lit up.

"Ah, young master, your Explorer bloodline is exceptionally pure!" Phineas exclaimed in admiration. Bai Lin, however, could only roll his eyes, as if the encyclopedia had helped him cheat.

Suddenly, a question popped into his head: had his soul or his body transmigrated? If it was his body, why did he have an identity in this world? If it was his soul, why did his original bloodline become Muggle because of his arrival, and why did he need to summon the encyclopedia to help him correct it? He couldn't figure it out, he really couldn't figure it out.

Phineas closed the large box, which shrank on its own and eventually transformed into a mechanical bird, which flew out the window and disappeared.

"Young Master," Phineas said, "Please rest for a while. If you need anything, please let Phineas know... In thirty minutes, Phineas will open the Apparition portal for you and take you to the assembly venue."

With thirty minutes left, Bai Lin had many questions for Phineas: "Will you be following me from now on?"

"Whenever you need me, no matter how far apart we are, Finnis will sense it and rush to your side immediately. You can also keep Finnis with you if that won't cause you any trouble," Finnis said politely.

Ancient and wealthy wizarding families often kept house-elves as slaves, but they never kept them close. An ugly, ragged house-elf would be a disgrace to the wizards, which is why Malfoy showed such disgust towards Dobby, and ultimately allowed Harry's plan to succeed, granting Dobby his freedom. (In the Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets storyline, Dobby is the first house-elf to display rebellion and a spirit of freedom; in the books, he dies at Bellatrix's hands.)

"Can you cook?"

"As you wish, I can cook any dish from any Eastern cuisine."

Does that include stinky tofu and preserved eggs?

"I'm sorry, Master, Phineas is not permitted to manufacture biological weapons..."

"...How many spells do you know?"

"If you need, Phineas can prepare a list for you... but there are many spells that Phineas is forbidden to use... and some that are restricted in use."

"One last question, do you know how to sew?"

"What?"

The pleasant thirty-minute conversation quickly came to an end. Finnis snapped his fingers by the decorative fireplace in the room, and the decorative firewood inside suddenly burst into a white flame with a slightly bluish edge.

Phineas said, "Please come with me."

Bai Lin followed Finnis into the white flames. This wasn't the first time he had used Apparition, but he still felt uncomfortable. Bai Lin was very glad that he hadn't impulsively ordered a whole table of Sichuan food for Finnis to fill his stomach.

The destination was a plaza in an unknown location, resembling a grand outdoor bonfire party. Bai Lin thought he had arrived quite early, but he soon discovered that there were already at least several hundred people in the plaza. In addition to people dressed in various ethnic costumes or wizard robes, many tables and chairs were set up in the plaza, laden with delicious food and dozens of kinds of fine wines that would drive a man like Hagrid crazy.

"Phineas, are these all...my relatives?" Bai Lin looked at the hundreds of wizards with some surprise.

"Young Master, those who can participate in this gathering are all wizards and Muggles with Seeker blood. Some influential family members in the Muggle world are also allowed to attend, but your bloodline is 95.32%, your status is incomparable to theirs!" Phineas said with considerable pride, "They should all bow down to you!"

Bai Lin glanced at Finis and found his serious expression rather amusing; perhaps his previous owner was a power-hungry maniac.