Fourth of July at quarter to noon, Luca as well as nearly eighty thousand wizards and magical creatures awaited the opening speech of the Minister, standing in relative order on the steps of the pitch-black Coliseum, filling the space only half-full.
“Is it a law-mandated gathering? Shocking to see so many trolls, and they don’t smell like described.” Luca asked whoever knew of his roommates that he stumbled upon and reconnected with since morning, the scale of celebration summoning seemingly the whole of the people. Below the boy’s place gathered nearly a thousand mountain and river trolls, surrounded by forest trolls keeping them in order as the type with nearly human intelligence.
“They do stink in the wild, someone had to cast cleaning spells, or they went through doors of the Inn a couple times.” Winnetou replied also interested in observing the grunting and poking each other creatures stuffed in white sackcloth with a hole for head worn over their usual animal skin clothes to ensure no ‘slip up’ incidents that must have been commonplace enough to warrant a designated person taking care of dressing them up.
“It’s not mandated, but an extremely widespread tradition. I’ve been to every single Fourth July event since birth, ask me anything.” Junfeng said proudly, confident to know all things related to the process.
“What’s there to know, listen to the opening, watch the show.” Miranda stayed with the boys as she didn’t encounter any of her friends, Bryce chose to go with his housemates, eager to discuss in a circle new ‘Guardians of the Galaxy Volume One’. Near the four students, Mr. Toll was at the center of attention, telling his kidnapping story to wizards nearby, including Junfeng's parents listening intently, from time to time affirming that they would never leave the safe barriers of the village.
“You never went out?” Winnetou had to ask in disbelief after the nth time he overheard the Hou couple.
“Yup, we stay at home.” Junfeng shrugged.
“It’s a privilege to be capable of travel… Different perspectives I guess…” the Native American boy sighed at the nonchalant attitude. At this moment, one of the gem-incrusted golden gates leading to the underground staff-only levels opened to have two rows of wizards emerge from it, clothed in pure white robes women, tailored to fit them closely, to the opposite of men in black. They formed a corridor leading to the middle of the field, where a monument unveiled itself before the spectator’s eyes, previously under the Invisibility Charm, depicting twelve real-sized wizards holding up a disc painted over with MACUSA emblem, a golden circle surrounding a blue eagle spreading its wings, its chest filled with fifty stars, rest of the torso in red and white stripes. The rows of wizards faced inside the passage, standing with their hands folded in front over the lower stomach area, after a minute Minister Selina Lopez walked unhurriedly between them to the sound of the anthem.
“Why is it the same as no-maj?” Luca leaned into Junfeng’s ear to solve what suddenly came to his mind, the boy knew previously it was the case, but now it seemed extraordinarily weird to have all the magical creatures and wizards listening to the same thing as regular people.
“It’s hard to find someone talented to compose and play, we only have so many wizards after all. Music isn’t taught anywhere, but in a little family business, entertainment comes from no-maj world.” the Asian boy explained to Luca’s enlightened nod. The Minister came up to the middle of the shield stepping on stairs, part of the sculpture, after the noise died down, she waited for it to be exactly noon, and started speaking to the silent crowd anticipating the beginning.
“Welcome to the annual parade organized by the joint effort of benevolent volunteers from all walks of life wanting to come together on this important day. I hope everyone is having a great Independence Day, and that last year was kind on you and your families. I dare to say, Congress under my leadership worked in a splendid fashion to improve everyone’s lives, the rebellion is almost quelled, and we just saved a hundred compatriots. The historical inclusion of vampires under our laws, further emphasis on rights of disenfranchised creatures, and upgrade of the schooling system all happened over only a short year since I last spoke to you. Please take a moment to remember those fighting to protect us, those who unfortunately parted with us during the year, and celebrate the magical newborns of all species. Kudos to our allies attending the event at record numbers, I look over and see only half of the audience human, it’s encouraging to observe how our uninterrupted efforts to knit closer ties bear fruit. Enjoy broadening your horizons and witness our proud communities showcasing their unique heritage and culture to the best of their ability.” it was a peculiar feeling to realize most of the Minister’s speech talked about things caused by himself, the short duration of it stark contrast between politicians Luca watched on TV droning on and on about nothing. The Minister walked back, the male and female wizards in pairs after her disappeared as the gate closed to the mild applause of the crowds that went up in volume as two other huge silver gates opposite each other opened, Luca’s eyes and head turning one way and the other, as were the audiences’.
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First on the left emerged a square of a hundred Aurors in uniforms with MACUSA logo on their chests marching in unison in ten rows and ten lines to a slow beat of drums serving as background audio, a wizard leading them, boy guessed current Head of the Office. On the right, William led the same number of Pukwudgies in their iconic camo, holding sniper rifles like a real military unit on inspection, the tribal feathered headwear reaching mere inches above the ground. To be more presentable, they ditched the usual ammo belt and knives, Luca had to admit the grey-skinned dwarves looked very reliable. They went in the same clockwise direction, circling under the black obsidian stairs with the audience of mixed races now truly fired up in cheers.
Second from the right were centaurs, their human parts bare, excluding a single leather strap holding a quiver behind, metal composite bows covered in runes held in one of their hands, the other swinging to their steps. Their horse halves covered in chain armour painted white, hooves inside silver plate boots. On the left, a mishmash of Ministry employees in different coloured robes of Obliviators, Enforcers, and Civil Servants, waved their arms to the benches walking more or less at the same speed and smiling.
After them, Healers and nurses in their hospital attire levitated beds with lightly ill in them, the patients in pajamas sat up as they searched with their eyes for family members on the tribunes. Among them was a man in a tophat, Quentin Forges, that managed to solve Luca’s trouble in a stroke of good luck and genius when the boy thought he desperately needed help. On the opposite side, what seemed like a moving swimming pool of extraordinarily clear water, radiating three alternating lights coming from tridents held in webbed upper appendages of three types of merfolk dancing inside in a vortex, led by what seemed like a King and two Queens, the man and his kin looking almost entirely like fish if not for still retained arms and general humanoid shape, with flat faces and black eyes, fins and scales running through both sides of their bodies and backs. Luca remembered what was written in the ‘Eternal Mystery: What Hides in Deep Seas?’, a journal of a wizard that explored as many bodies of water as he could during his long lifetime, from graduation until late death at one hundred sixty years of age, which delved into the specific tribes inhabiting the Oceans, Merrows the variant’s name capable of living the deepest of creatures that can learn human language. The Queen in the middle, a Siren covering her breasts with starfish, was a stunning sight that turned the heads of all wizards, including the three boys, to her floating freely blonde hair, a crown of red coral, and exuding the same shine as Luca’s eyes tail akin to fine gleaming rubies, ending in a pearly white caudal fin. Last Queen’s skin was a rough sight, a sickly-green shade with almost visible from a mile away texture to it. Selkies degenerated from Sirens badly, living for generations in cold waters of the world made their eyes bulge and teeth sharpen, beauty exchanged for environmental adaptation.
Fourth in a row of intelligent creatures were Veelas riding unicorns in a ladylike pose, their bare legs hanging down the white manes of their steeds immediately turned the spotlight from Siren Queen, although some creeps still only had the half-fish woman magnified in lenses of their binoculars as they panted like dogs. The wizarding side had Professors of Ilvermorny led by the headmaster as he drank from a hip flask ever so often, a dozen of Wampuses walking proudly with their tails straightened to reach as high as ten feet up, and slithering with their heads high Horned Serpents flanking them.
To Winnetou’s and the interspersed here and there Native Americans' war cry, shamans came with force, changing their shapes from time to time and under a conspicuous thundercloud hovering above them, silent lightning falling down and scorching the grass along their path. The trolls shook the earth under them in a mob holding giant tree trunks on their shoulders, the leading noticeably bigger forest troll with his beard wrapped in circles around the whole length of his body, grunted rhythmically to at least make his problem subordinates not freak out and run in any which direction randomly.
Next, the human side run out of wizards serving important positions or from a closed-off group, so they sent ghosts wailing discordantly in repeat of the letter O. Abigail there, she had fun O’ing it up in falsetto. Leprechauns riding Kelpie as they threw gold at the audience came to close the line, Luca curious as to why the capable of shapeshifting into human form water horses were fine being ridden, the twelve groups circled the Coliseum once and stopped, awaiting something. Luca soon got to know what exactly, as a roar of multiple dragons came from the sky, all present looked up to see clearly a dozen Dragon Knights riding two types native to America, Texan Rapidfires, bronze, relatively diminutive in size against the expectation when someone imagines dragons, with a characteristic dragon breath, a series of small exploding fireballs instead of a normal uninterrupted stream of fire, and Alabamas’ Stonepaws, grey, hulking in mass, with degenerated wings, almost incapable of flight anymore, experts desperate to cross it with other species in order to revitalize the limited gene pool.
“I thought it was impossible to tame a dragon?!” Luca screamed into Junfengs ear.
“I heard they used Imperio and love potions, but don’t talk about it.” Junfeng looked around in a conspiratorial manner before making the boy bend to bring Luca’s head in front of his own and revealed a shocking gossip. The boy’s head short-circuited due to his rich imagination immediately coming up with numerous scandalous pictures, he stayed in that position until Miranda elbowed him and screamed pointing up.
“Look, Grace!” Luca gazed along her arm to see a dozen kinds of eagles forming their own V-shaped squadrons led by a huge bald eagle, golden led by the boy’s pet bird’s father, the contemporary Emperor of the flock.
“Grace, Grace!” Luca waved both his hands up when they started circling the building, next emerging from over the walls was a pair of Thunderbirds. Then Hippogryphs, Pegasi, Cockatrice, Gargoyles, Thestrals, Sphinxes, large Crows, tiny fairies making up for their size with numbers, a literal swarm of a thousand ladies flapped their butterfly wings hard to keep up with the queue, and to end of the reveals a hundred wizards riding brooms in logos and colours of their teams.
“Are there so many different quidditch clubs?!” Luca yelled to Junfeng again.
“Yeah, and that’s only registered! You won’t see them play in Iverstead though, too many houses accidentally burned in riots after every match, endless disputes over the date of games and training times, it was a nightmare lasting only a year before residents started to camp outside the Floo Point to stun whoever came wearing a quidditch suit!” Junfeng explained, the double parade on ground and air circled in opposite directions once more until the flying ones landed closer to the middle of field. They stood, eyes on the monument, awaiting the noise coming from behind to die down completely.