It doesn't sound difficult to do, but the magic potion requires the presence of a wizard and stirring to increase the magic components in the potion, so making a large cauldron at a time is already the limit. It would be too wasteful for 45 people who can be called potion masters to spend two or three hours a day making a pot of potion, or a low-level potion such as hair growth.

"No," Granger said honestly. "No one would be willing to do something that a first-year Hogwarts can do for decades."

He had expected Lockhart to be disappointed, but Lockhart was overjoyed.

"Sounds like you're saying that the supply of raw materials for potions is not an issue?" he asked.

Granger didn't expect that Lockhart was only concerned about this: "Ah... the material is really not a problem, hair growth is a very common potion, and the cultivation of many medicinal materials is already a mature industry, but the key is people. , none of us."

"Didn't you just say that even a Hogwarts first-year student can do it?" Lockhart pressed.

Granger hesitated: "...but the quality of what they do will definitely not be very good, and there may be side effects such as slight hiccups and loss of appetite."

"Do I need a good quality potion? Oh... Don't be afraid of minor side effects. I suspect that if this kind of thing has no side effects at all, Muggles will not dare to buy it. They won't believe that there is such a good thing in the world." Luo Hart reassured.

"In that case... no, our association must guarantee the quality of the medicine

Granger thought for a while, and rejected Lockhart's proposal, and turned to other brains: "However, if a pharmacist hires 5 to 10 potion apprentices, some of them specialize in medicinal materials, and some specialize in medicinal materials. It is not impossible if the pharmacist is in charge of watching the fire and the pharmacist is responsible for stirring at the critical moment."

What a joke, pharmacist^], how would you allow so many pharmacists to suddenly appear in the wizarding world to compete with themselves for their jobs, what they eat is to monopolize this business, this is the full value of the existence of \"guild" .

"Look, isn't this possible?"

Lockhart pretended not to listen to the other party's selfishness, and looked very happy

"But then we'd have to openly recruit in society on a massive scale," Granger muttered.

Lockhart was glad he could think of the question right away.

Chapter 254 Retirement of old employees

After the end of July, Lockhart's series of social experiments and preparations finally came to an end, and he entered the rhythm of Quidditch matches with his colleagues from the Ministry of Magic.

Because of the Wizarding Secrecy Act, their biggest task for the Ministry of Magic is not to prepare venues and equipment, but to coordinate and arrange personnel and transportation.

They have to choose a suitable place to put the door key according to the addresses of all the wizard families in the register. If it is too far away from the door key, let him find a way to Apparate or use the fireplace to reach a closer place, and then use the door key.

This is undoubtedly a daunting task for wizards who are generally bad at mathematics, not to mention that they also have to arrange for foreign audiences and contestants to enter the stadium, and maintain the order of the competition... If it is not for the previous experience of holding competitions, The Ministry of Magic certainly can't handle this.

Because Barty Crouch is no longer in charge, Lockhart has not been assigned much traffic coordination, but he needs to shoulder all the tasks of receiving foreign guests.

This is a bit of a heavy task for him, because foreign guests will be not only Bulgarian and Irish teams, but also officials from the Bulgarian Sports Department. Many wizards from the international sports world will also be there to watch the game.

Not to mention that France, the United States, Uganda, and the Norwegian Ministry of Magic will also send people over because of the Big Five Tournament.

On the one hand, they are watching the game, and on the other hand, they are also examining how prepared the British are for the game.

Fudge was under so much pressure that he issued a death order requiring all departments of the Ministry of Magic, except the Department of Mysteries and the Law Enforcement Department, to use the Quidditch World Cup Final

Matters are the top priority.

He even said publicly that if anyone dares to do something "inappropriate", he will definitely find a way to make his career very unlucky.

In addition, the security of the guests and the competition is also very important.

Fudge sent all the Aurors out, and controlled all the known paths of wizards entering and leaving the country, so as to be safe.

Fudge declared that it was impossible for a wizard to enter the country without knowing it under such security.

For his words, Lockhart felt that it was enough to listen to him a little, and there was no need to take it seriously.

If there were wizards who wanted to escape, even if Fudge controlled all known channels in the wizarding world, they could find a way to escape from the Muggles, as evidenced by Sirius.

Especially after the recent completion of the British-French undersea tunnel, any wizard can go to Europe through there, which is far more convenient than riding a broom or taking a ferry. Ways to travel to Albania.

Although Lockhart did not know where little Crouch had escaped to now, he instinctively believed that he should not have escaped to England by now.

This is not because he has much confidence in the Ministry of Magic's search or tracking level, but because he does not believe that little Crouch will use such a suffocating method to travel to the European continent like Pettigrew.

To confirm his thoughts, Lockhart asked Barty Crouch Sr. to borrow his son's school diary.

Sure enough, in his diary, he believes that all Muggles who do not know magic are weak, belonging to the penultimate tier of the "food chain", only superior to some humanoids.

It can be seen that although the little Crouch is cunning and shameless, he, like Voldemort, looks down on Muggles in his bones, so he should not use Muggle transportation to travel to Albania.

Although there is some speculation about the way of thinking of little Crouch, it is a pity that Loha ^^ Temple cannot go and catch him in person.

There are not many people in the Department of International Affairs and Cooperation who are proficient in foreign languages, only two or three people, and Lockhart himself has only one deputy who can be used. I am afraid there is less free time.

Lockhart knew a little French and some Slavic Bulgarian, but he didn't know Norwegian at all, so he had to ask around if anyone could.

As a result, he was told that it didn't matter if he didn't speak Norwegian. He could communicate with the Norwegians in Rune, which is the ancient rune, and many Norwegians knew English. They would definitely bring their own translators when they came to the UK. Lockhart This was relieved.

In addition to translation work and reception work, Lockhart also takes on part of the security work for foreign guests.

Lockhart had half-truthed to complain to the Auror's office, only to be told that the sports directors of the United States, France and Uganda had named Lockhart to protect him.

Du Xuan asked you to be an \"internationally renowned wizard\'? They probably thought it would be safer if you were in charge of security." The Aurors said to Lockhart tastefully.

Lockhart then remembered that the books he had written before were also published in the United States, France and Uganda, and it was normal for them to hear about him.

As for the Uganda side, it is very likely that Dumbledore said something to them, or they wanted to thank themselves for the 20 British MPs who condemned the Gambia witch hunt a few days ago.

"Don't think about it, they probably just have something to discuss with me." Lockhart told him

we speak.

As for the Bulgarian side, Lockhart will not be in charge, because Fudge, as the head of the Irish side, will personally undertake the work of receiving the Bulgarians, which also saves Lockhart a lot of heart.

Of course, the Ministry of Magic was not stupid enough to have Lockhart alone in charge of the three foreign guests, so in the end three people were temporarily transferred to him from the Auror's office - Williamson, Prout, and Dawlish. .

The first two were not very familiar to Lockhart, because several of the outstanding Aurors he knew, such as Shacklebolt, as well as Scrimgeour and Robards in power, had all been transferred to him by Minister Fudge. .

The level of these three people is indescribable. In short, Lockhart feels that it is difficult to entrust his back to them, especially when he also knows that Dawlish will be knocked down by Mrs. Longbottom, who failed the spell.

Lockhart was very suspicious of Fudge for his own sake, so he assigned himself three things he didn't really want.

Although Lockhart was a little unhappy, the Ministry of Magic did not object to him hiring external personnel to be responsible for security under the condition of his own budget.

So Lockhart found someone he could trust, namely the famous Alastor Moody, the man who claimed to be "the man who filled half of Azkaban's cells"

Although this old Auror with great achievements is a little older now, considering that today's young people have not experienced much war, and the fighting strength is compared with ten years ago. Allocating to yourself is probably a good thing.

The only thing he wasn't sure about was whether Mr. Moody was really vigilant or just a little jittery, but the one-year captivity in the original book undoubtedly aggravated that jittery, that's for sure.

So during the interview, Lockhart deliberately made things difficult for these temporary workers.

—He moved the door of his office somewhere else using Confusion Charms and mirror hallucinations

As a result, among the four, only Mad-Eye Moody touched the door of his office with his magical eyes and the timely release of the curse, and he entered his office with his wand and cat on his waist, looking like he was ready to attack at any time.

The other three foolishly looked around at the door, and even went to the next office to ask about the location of Lockhart's office, but couldn't come in for more than half an hour.

When they finally figured out what might be wrong, Lockhart and Moody had been confronting each other in the office for a long time.

Obviously, no acting director would cast a spell at the door of his office for no reason, but now that all this has happened, it means that something must be wrong.

Originally, Moody had been in a state of paranoia and nervousness since he retired because of the large number of enemies. As a result, he has found a problem, and he will not let it go.

So Moody broke into Lockhart's office without saying a word, and immediately cast a binding spell on Lockhart.

Lockhart was tempted, so he fought back not to be outdone.

According to Professor Flitwick's description in the dueling manual, many common spells can actually be broken with the universal cracking spell "All spells end", but the problem is that after being hit by a spell in actual combat, a person can be It is impossible to have time to use the cracking spell, because there is a high probability that he has lost the ability to move at that time.

So if the rules allow it, it's a good idea to use various means to defend yourself in advance, such as general anti-spell, equipment coated with anti-spell varnish, or wearing a body that can automatically trigger armor protection. Hats, necklaces, etc.

Lockhart wants to be as good as he is, but he has always been

He was very afraid of death, and he belonged to the kind of person who wished to have an MRI examination five times a week, so long before Professor Flitwick's dueling manual came out, he had already changed all his clothes into various anti-curse equipment.

So don't say Moody's spell didn't hit him at all, and even if it did, Lockhart probably wouldn't get in the way.

And Lockhart's retaliation against Moody's spell is not a very aggressive curse, but a gadget such as a freezing spell, a gas-filled spell, a magic missile, and an eye-sickness spell. On the one hand, he didn't think the usual curses would work for Moody.

Sure enough, when Moody found that the regular spell didn't work, he immediately began to cast the Transfiguration spell on the furniture next to him.

Seeing him start using Transfiguration, Lockhart knew it was time for him to stop.

He hurriedly shouted: "Look out! Mr. Moody! I don't want to blast around with thunderbird feather bombs, that's expensive!"

Moody turned a deaf ear to Lockhart's cry: \"Say, who the **** are you?"

Seeing Moody's unwillingness to give up, Lockhart had to put his wand on the table in front of him.

"I'm Gilderoy Lockhart, Acting Director of the Department of International Affairs and Cooperation. I called you here today. I hope you can help maintain the order of the Quidditch World Cup. The one outside was just a test of my Auror level. , and they didn't break in, you came first," he explained.

Moody relaxed a little, but still didn't let his guard down: "\"Really? If so, then I'll ask you a few personal questions, many of which Dumbledore told me..."

Lockhart spread his hands: "Ask."

Just as Moody was questioning Lockhart, Delix and a few other Aurors finally discovered the Confusion Curse on the doormat at the elevator door, and untied it, embarrassed.

Unbearably found the door of Lockhart's office.

When they walked in to report to Lockhart, Lockhart and Moody had already asked each other several questions to confirm their identities, and had even begun to discuss security measures during the World Cup and a new code within the department.

After Dawlish saw this, no matter how slow his mind was, he would have reacted at this time.

He shouted at Lockhart angrily: "You have no right to do this! We are just here to cooperate with your work, you are not qualified to assess us!"

Lockhart then turned his head and sighed.

"Looks like I can only count on you, Alastor."

business relationship. ' said Moody, staring at the drooling eye that kept rolling,

"I didn't expect anyone else."

Chapter 255 win over

Alastor Moody For Lockhart's team, the most important thing is his past experience, not his quality.

As a contemporary of Voldemort and Hagrid, Moody's performance among the Aurors is not just "outstanding".

To be recognized as the "best" Auror by everyone in that war-torn era, he must not only possess sufficient personal strength, but also must be equally admirable in his personal character.

Even in his later years, his remaining power could influence Voldemort's judgment. Voldemort identified the real Harry as Moody's **** in "The Battle of the Seven Potters", which can be seen in Voldemort's mind, Moody is the strongest of all escorts.

However, according to Lockhart's observation, Moody's body and dueling skills are actually far from being strong after many years of retirement.

The best proof is that his consciousness often reacts, but his body is more than one beat slower, which is deadly in the duel between masters and masters.

However, the rotten boat also has three pounds of nails, and the dead camel is bigger than the horse. Even if Moody's skills have slowed down a lot, he can still do the most right thing with his own literacy and experience, which is more important than anything else. .

In front of the three Aurors transferred to him by the Ministry of Magic, Lockhart officially announced that the security work of the Department of International Affairs and Cooperation was temporarily "rehired" by Alastor Moody, who was in charge of all personnel, including Lockhart. You, including yourself, must obey Moody's arrangements.

Originally, Dawlish still looked unconvinced, but when he heard that the person in front of him was actually old Moody, he was stunned to hold back.

No way, if Dumbledore is a wizarding legend, then Moody is

A legend in the Auror world, even if he is a junior, he can't jump up in front of Moody.

Moody was unequivocal, frowning after just a glance at the Ministry of Magic's security plan, and when he read it, he said bluntly "They made all the mistakes they could. ”

"It doesn't matter if the responsibilities are unclear... I was the same in my time, this is a glorious tradition of the Ministry of Magic, but what the **** has Scrimgeour been doing all these years? Doesn't he know that security first is to establish a command decision. Center? What does he mean by three command units?"

Hearing this, Delix couldn't help but defend his superior.

"It's not the director's plan, it's what the minister asked for, and he asked himself to be in charge of the Bulgarians."

Moody immediately pushed back: "The meaning of your existence is to be a minister's brain.

■■■

When it’s muddy, you either obey the yin and disobey, or you disobey the order, don’t tell me about the current law enforcement.

The boss has been so cowardly.

Delix muttered something in a low voice, but in the end he couldn't say it.

Moody ignored him, but turned to Lockhart.

"Lockhart, although Fudge has given you some of the command of the security in order to engage in his tricks, I hope that if there is no accident, please obey the command of the Law Enforcement Department."

As he spoke, he looked at Lockhart, as if he wanted to consider whether this guy was what Dumbledore said, "a guy who knows the whole thing"

For a straight talker like Moody, Lockhart never took his actions as offensive, especially when he was right.

"No problem, it's just that some foreigners have named me to provide security for them," Lockhart said.