This is a good thing for Lockhart. If the person presiding over this matter is not Lockhart, but other wizards, then Lockhart promises that they will be played around by the Prime Minister, because they are completely untrained.

Of course, in return, Lockhart will not sit back and watch the Prime Minister casually violate the interests of the wizards, and he is going to give the Prime Minister a problem.

He wants to take advantage of the New Year: as a shareholder representative to participate in the shareholders of the express company

The assembly then announced that the company's directors had unanimously decided to recruit workers and clerical staff across a range of locations until the 1,500 people were gathered.

It's just that these areas "just happen" to be in Labour's main constituency, and the employee will find someone through the union - for the well-being of the people, right?

I believe that the beloved Prime Minister will take the initiative to talk to Lockhart after he gets the news.

Since it's a game, let's have a good time. As the saying goes, if you don't fight, you don't know each other. It's a fantasy to expect politicians to know what it means to "get it when you see it". Everyone still has to fight without breaking the premise. Balance" is the most reassuring.

But don't worry, it's better to wait until the new year, when Sirius should also go to work. Let's let the Prime Minister have a nice Christmas first, before making trouble.

Lockhart read the newspaper several times, even the most boring emotional column patiently read it before he had to shout to the hut behind him.

"Gemma? Is there anything I can do for you?"

Soon, a head popped out of the window on the second floor of the villa.

"Wait a minute, I'm working on the lashes."

Lockhart looked at his pocket watch and found that it was less than half an hour before the opening of the ball, and even if they set off immediately, they might be late.

"You're already beautiful without dressing up." Lockhart said against his will, "We're not the protagonists of this Christmas ball. Are you trying to overshadow the warriors?"

Gemma said in her heart that of course the warriors should be out of the limelight, otherwise Fleur Delacour would inevitably play a trick of "beautiful crown".

According to what Gemma learned from her schoolmates, Fleur's daughter at Beauxbatons

The popularity in the middle of life is very poor, mainly because as long as she appears in public, she will "unintentionally" steal the boyfriends of several people.

The conscience of heaven and earth, although Beauxbatons is different from the movie, it is a co-educational school, but because the principal is a female (giant) person and is more biased towards girls, the number of girls admitted to Beauxbatons is indeed much more than the number of boys . Fair-looking wizards are a scarce resource in Beauxbatons, and they were all taken away by Furong, where else could they go to pick up men? Hook up Muggles? No kidding.

Although Gemma had more confidence in Lockhart's concentration, she also felt that instead of trusting a man's concentration, it was better to take her own destiny into her own hands.

So she has been pouring all kinds of bottles and jars since two in the afternoon, from choosing hairstyles, modifying skin to smearing, and finally drinking potions, it took a full three and a half hours to finish.

As for the clothes, there is nothing to choose from, she had already ordered them from Fengya Wizard Shop half a month ago.

It was only ten minutes before the start of the dance that Gemma walked out of the newly renovated Farley Villa.

The well-dressed Gemma looked radiant, and from what Lockhart observed, she must have used some magic to make herself stand out.

"We've been waiting, let's go," she said to Lockhart.

Lockhart wanted to politely say, "It didn't take long," but it seemed more false to say it now, so he didn't say it.

"We're running late, how about I call Dobby to take us to the castle?" Lockhart tried to suggest.

Gemma shook her head again and again: "How can I do it? It was brought into the castle by a house elf. I can't afford to lose that person."

"Then what should I do?" Lockhart was a little worried, "The Cloud Wing Charm will mess up your etiquette.

Clothes.

JJ

do not worry.

While speaking, Gemma rubbed the ruby ​​ring on her left index finger, and then under Lockhart's surprised eyes, she took out a small pumpkin from the gem and threw it to the ground.

"Hey, doesn't Lockhart seem to have guessed something.

Gemma nodded, then cast an Expansion Charm on it.

So the pumpkin swelled up quickly and turned into a carriage, and the pumpkin seedlings turned into a guide lamp in addition to the wheels and brackets of the carriage.

"That's right, it's what you think." Gemma was obviously proud, "One use, the effect can last for six hours, it's six o'clock, we have to be back before midnight

Lockhart looked down at Gemma's feet subconsciously, and found that it was not a pair of crystal slippers, but a shoe made of an unknown animal fur.

"Why not glass slipper? Or glass slipper?" he said.

Gemma, of course, knew what he was asking: "It was originally squirrel fur (French vi, Muggles at that time always thought the story was wrong and thought glass was more noble, so it became a glass (verre) shoe. In fact, the Slavs were there In the 1990s, squirrel skins were used as currency, but not many people knew about glass.”

"Okay, then let's go, it looks like we should be there in ten minutes."

Lockhart tried to act a little more gentlemanly and went to open the door for him, but the door didn't move.

Gemma smiled and stretched out her wand, pointed it at the door, and the door opened in response.

"I'm afraid you'll have to change your last name to Farley to open it," she meant.

Chapter 343 Ball (X)? Curse (V7)!

As Mr. Weasley said in the World Cup camp, wizards are creatures who can't help but want to show off whenever they get a chance to get together.

So when Lockhart came outside Hogwarts Castle, he realized that the two of them weren't the most high-profile group yet. There are people who come in carriages, flying carpets and even elephants, which is an eye-opener for Lockhart.

Lockhart saw that Ron was not wearing the lace-trimmed ball gown that the Weasley family had inherited, but a dark green dress robe, as the Fancy Wizardry Dress chain sponsored ball gowns for the warriors.

Lockhart guessed that the dress originally belonged to Harry, but because of the sponsor's request, Harry couldn't wear the dress that Mrs. Weasley chose for him, so Ron was finally cheaper.

It's a pity that these small changes did not allow the savior duo to find a satisfactory dance partner. After failing to pursue more than a dozen girls, Ron finally chose Hermione to pursue it, but it backfired, and Hermione was enraged by him. And more resolutely accepted Krum's invitation.

And Harry is similar, and this time it's even worse - because he has a good relationship with Cedric, he is even more afraid to pursue Qiu Zhang, even if his godfather repeatedly encourages him to dig corners.

"Please, James was the one who snatched Lily from Snotling back then!" Sirius accidentally revealed a big inside story to Harry, "What are you afraid of, come on!"

"What? Io"

Hearing this, Harry's eyeballs almost broke through the shackles of their sockets and shattered his own glasses.

Sirius wasted no time in showing Harry his father's "great exploits"

performance”, but the effect is equally counterproductive.

So in the end, Harry and Ron still chose the Patil sisters as their dance partners.

In good conscience, Lockhart doesn't think the Pettil sisters are not decent enough, and even from the aesthetic point of view of Asians and Africans, the Indian sisters are still pretty, according to Dean Thomas' evaluation of them. This can be seen in .

But they obviously don't fit Harry and Ron's aesthetic, which may be related to their lack of "Aryan" physiognomy.

Although the surname Patil belongs to a high caste, it stands to reason that there should be more Aryan ancestry and fewer indigenous peoples, but the Patil family is different.

Her ancestors should have belonged to the "Sudra (peasant caste, and they belonged to the bottom of the caste class. They were only stronger than the untouchable untouchables. If they insisted, they were "barely regarded as individuals".

But then the ancestors of the Petil family purchased and annexed other people's land through various means and successfully became big landlords, so they bought the relationship and changed the family name to Petil, the Kshatriya (samurai class) surname, Only lower than the Brahmins (hierarchy of priests).

And what caught Lockhart's attention was that they were twins, but Padma Patil was in Ravenclaw and Parvati was in Gryffindor. Lockhart couldn't help but be a little skeptical about the sorting hat's standards for sorting people.

Because the values ​​and thinking patterns of the sisters are almost the same, and they are not lacking in courage and sense of justice (speaking for Neville, participating in the battle of DA and Hogwarts), but from the point of view of superstitious divination and love of gossip, how? Neither looks like a Ravenclaw.

But none of that mattered, and Lockhart didn't expect them to come to an agreement anyway.

If he remembered correctly, whether it was Harry, Ron and the Patil sisters, or Neville and Luna, Cedric and Cho, Hermione and Krum, or even Vaughan

Rong, Dean, Seamo and these supporting roles, no pair of dance partners at this dance can reach the last 7 to become each other's life partners.

And there's even more outrageous - Fred Weasley, Angelina Johnson's dance partner, who died in the Battle of Hogwarts, the woman who was entrusted to his twin brother, George o Weasley.

Therefore, this ball is not so much for people to fall in love, but rather a very vicious curse.

Lockhart stared at the group of young boys and girls in front of him, lamenting the impermanence of life and fate, and observed a full half-minute of silence for these children who came to the dance today.

I hope you don't take this relationship too seriously, and may Merlin bless you.

But at the same time, Lockhart overlooked one thing—a vital thing

It is easy for people to see only others but not themselves, right?

Although Lockhart is not a great ballroom dancer, today's dance is not too difficult for him

Wizards rarely import anything from Muggles after signing secrecy laws, so most of their ballroom dances are still in the late 17th century.

At the end of the 17th century, the court dance had just come out of the rigid "salutation", and added some movements on the arms, and the rotation had just begun to become a little more vivid, so the overall difficulty is not particularly difficult. .

Lockhart's ballroom dancing skills aren't great, but compared to wizards, he can still be considered a fighter, especially when he's wearing a hunting suit.

Wearing a hunting suit to a ball is a fashion that only appeared on the Muggle side in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Dumas wrote in "The Three Musketeers" that the King insisted on wearing a hunting suit at the ball held for him by the citizens. , but wait until this practice becomes popular

I'm afraid we will have to wait until the 20th century.

The advantages of dancing in safari clothes are obvious compared to the bloated, sluggish robe gowns—it makes Lockhart's dance moves more agile, and he's more protruding than the robes.

For Lockhart, it was his dance partner Gemma who was limiting his performance—she seemed to think about every step she took, and her movements were also very stiff, not like someone who often went to and from the ball.

Lockhart had to slow down and cover her with his movements when he could turn around. Even so, Gemma finally twisted.

When the first song was over and everyone went to rest, Lockhart asked her in a low voice, "You rarely dance?"

"It should be said... almost no skipping." Gemma looked a little embarrassed, "Hogwarts hasn't held a ball for a long time."

"What about your pure-blood party?"

"Only a few can afford an indoor dance. As for those poor people, they can't even afford a dress. After a few times, they meet the same people every time, so they get tired of it. I don't want to go. Muggle dances, so..."

Gemma explained in a low voice because she also felt a little ashamed.

"When everyone has the money, we'll be able to hold more **** later," Lockhart said casually. "It won't be long."

Even if you can't hold high-end dance parties often, you can always hold some "open-air dance parties" in the village square, and you don't need to bring your own cement, which is great.

Lockhart decided to do this after he became Minister of Magic. Anyway, the biggest financial problem for the Ministry of Magic at that time should be how to spend money. The scene of singing and dancing can not only promote GDP, but also this kind of glitz in a sense. Said also helped to help Lockhart cement his position.

At least Fengya Wizard's Dress Shop would definitely agree.

Chapter 344 Private Chat

Because Gemma twisted her foot, she had to sit on the edge of the dance floor early.

But this does not mean that she has nothing to do, she can continue to "meet" the juniors of the Hogwarts Student Union and continue to support the power.

It's just that, Lockhart can't take care of her anymore.

Only the first piece of the dance is mandatory to dance with a partner, and they are free to find someone later.

Lockhart watched Harry and Ron escape like an amnesty after a dance, and it seemed that the occasion was not for them.

But Lockhart is an international celebrity, so even if he wants to rest, there are still a lot of people looking for him to invite him to dance, and many people still come to socialize with him with serious business, and Gemma is not easy. He looked too dead.

So Lockhart was released just like that after Gemma quit.

There are usually two ways to dispel the suspicion of a dance partner. One is that he does not accept any invitation to dance, and the other is that he accepts all invitations to dance.

And Lockhart chose the latter one—to the lady's invitation to dance, and Lockhart almost refused to come. Even female students from several other schools didn't mind dancing with each other as long as they showed that they were fans of Lockhart's books.

This is a good opportunity to expand foreign contacts or get familiar with each other. The image Lockhart showed at the ball will become an important first impression of these people. When he wants to start diplomatic work in the future, he can easily a lot of.

It's just that he underestimated the number of his fans abroad and the attractiveness of a rich single young man. There were a lot of witches who danced to put small notes in their hands, and many of them invited him to find a private room to talk to.

Out of loyalty to his current girlfriend, Lockhart could only regretfully decline. After all, too many politicians have failed in the political arena because of the relationship between men and women. He can't help but be alert.

Fortunately, not all the people who came to him were mad bees and butterflies. For example, a witch from Australia, she was asking Lockhart through dancing, what they could do if her family also planned to expand the Muggle business. After all, Australia's mining industry is already very developed, and the minerals are in a situation where the development of mines is not complete, not mines are not found. They do not need wizards so much.

The implication is that if they can't find work, her family will most likely not support political reform in Britain.

For Lockhart, as long as she is not greedy for her own body, everything is fine - he suggested that her family could open a pest control company, specializing in raising soil mink, and helping Muggle farms to deal with the flood of rabbits there. and kangaroos.

The Australian witch left with satisfaction, but immediately someone came to invite Lockhart, almost one after another. After a few laps, even with Lockhart's physical strength, he had to find a place to rest temporarily.

Before he could rest for two minutes, he found someone sitting next to him

He thought he was a fan from somewhere, but when he looked up, he found out that the person who came was actually an internationally renowned star - Viktor Krum.

Strange, it turns out that he didn't go to the house to make out with Hermione? Although I don't know what he's here for, that doesn't stop Lockhart from flattering.

"Hello, Krum, congratulations on getting the number 9', in fact we—we didn't expect Hydra to be tamed at all, and you surprised us." He made a look of admiration. .

"Thank you." Krum was also very polite, "I have also heard of your reputation, such as

thunder

After the courtesy was over, Krum slowly revealed his intentions - apart from tactfully stating that he wanted to "seek" Lockhart, what he most wanted to know was the girlfriend he had just made ( assumed).

Zhuang also said that her thoughts are all learned from you. ' Krum said to Lockhart in half-baked English.

Lockhart was in trouble.

Although he can speak a little everyday language of the Slavic family, it is beyond his ability to use Bulgarian to explain complex and obscure theories and concepts. Nordic languages ​​are also not long in Lockhart. item.

"Do you speak German? Or Italian?" he asked.