The housekeeper was slightly critical of this, because he hoped that the two of them could cure His Majesty with potion, just like using hair growth, because he didn't want outsiders to see the Queen's weak appearance, which would affect the majesty of the royal family.

But this time it was Lockhart who spoke out.

"If you rashly use the potion without knowing the patient's constitution and condition, then the disease can be cured, but the excess magic power will remain in the patient's body." Lockhart deliberately alarmist, "This is different from hair growth, hair growth. The magic power of the spirit will be consumed until the hair grows out, so there is no need to worry about excess."

The housekeeper frowned when he heard the words: "So, what's wrong with keeping the magic in the body?"

If magic power is poisonous to ordinary people, the butler must not let them in.

Fortunately, Lockhart dismissed his idea: "The magic power left in the body of ordinary people will not cause any direct harm, but if it remains for too long, it will change a person's physique, and it is likely to attract some unconventional people. Germs are coming.

Ordinary viruses can be eliminated in the blink of an eye, but magic viruses are

Even if we want to clean it up, it will take a lot of work, so it is best not to try it lightly. And if we take care of it, we can ensure that no magic remains.

Malfoy also interjected in a timely manner: For example, March vomiting... Every March, people who are sick will vomit for a month, and there is no effective treatment yet.

Radical treatment can only temporarily relieve symptoms. "

The old butler changed his face when he heard the words: "In this case, please let me ask for instructions."

\"Please." Lockhart saluted.

Mr. Farley raised his eyebrows at Malfoy and Lockhart after the old butler entered? That meant what the **** were they doing.

Although the magic power does remain, it will not permanently affect people, and it will dissipate automatically in a short time. Lockhart and Malfoy are completely alarmist

Lockhart said only one word for it: "hospital."

Mr. Farley wasn't stupid either, he understood what Lockhart meant at once.

If you just sell medicines to make money, of course, it is better to directly open a hospital and provide medical services to make money, and this can also solve more employment problems.

Since the huge amount of money poured into the treasury of the pure-blood family, although it has only been less than half a month, the price of the wizarding world has quietly risen by 3%. This is still more restrained by the big families such as Malfoy and Farley. The result of depositing the vast majority of gold into the vault

Although the prosperity of all industries is a good thing for the wizarding world, but their family knows their own business, as long as the international oil price continues to rise, their future income will only increase. Prices will only continue to rise, not fall.

This also means that the gold in the hands of pure blood families will soon become less and less valuable, so it is more cost-effective to replace it with assets that will increase in price early.

It seems necessary to buy St. Mungo's shares early... Mr. Farley thought to himself.

After a while, the butler pushed open the door of the tea room again.

"Then, Lord Malfoy, Lord Farley, please..."

"It's the Baron, thank you."

Malfoy corrected the old butler seriously, as if it were important.

The butler paused for a while, but didn't say anything.

In the 11th century, the Malfoys did accept titles, but it was clearly the lowest title of "Laird", and calling them "Lords" was actually flattering them. Even if the Malfoy family has continued to annex the surrounding land through marriage or purchase for hundreds of years, their main family still cannot be regarded as a baron.

More importantly, among the Scottish noble titles, there is no baron at all, only "Lrd_f_Parliament".

The old butler did not want to open this hole, because until the promulgation of the British "House of Lords Act" in 1999, the British hereditary nobles will automatically become members of the House of Lords, and the lowest title of this "hereditary noble" is also a baron, and Malfoy is recognized as a "Baron" Or "Lord" means a lot.

Therefore, Malfoy cared so much about this title, not just for the sake of fame, but for political status.

The butler raised his hand, not going to continue arguing about this issue, and besides, it was not within his control.

In the corridor, Malfoy frowned and asked Lockhart in a low voice: "You said, Ma... the Prime Minister of the non-magical world promised us to enter the House of Lords.

Lockhart is not willing to take this responsibility: "This... you have to go through the procedure again, and you have not even pledged allegiance to Her Majesty the Queen."

Lucius Malfoy tightened his imitation tuxedo-style robe and didn't continue to talk, but judging from his expression, it was an inevitable look.

Although Mr. Farley was equally astute, his face was still a little thin, and he did not dare to declare that he was also a baron.

After all, the Malfoy family still has a large manor, and he only has the territory of a village. It is somewhat far-fetched to call himself a baron, and he has to admit it.

Chapter 359: The Way of Allegiance

Lockhart was a little worried about whether Malfoy and Mr. Farley still remembered the etiquette of visiting the royal family after not setting foot in the aristocratic circle for many years.

But he was obviously overthinking it, because looking at Lucius Malfoy's meticulous salute and his rather quaint greeting, it was estimated that his family had not done anything for hundreds of years, so he was just practicing this.

Her Majesty the Queen really only had a small cold, so it only took Lockhart and the others 30 seconds to cure her, and they spent the rest of the time listening to Malfoy bragging about his loyalty.

If you just listen to Lucius's narrative, you would think that in the past three hundred years, the Malfoy family has always been to the royal family. The persecution of wizards by people in the magical world has forced them to be in vain.

- After some remarks, even Mr. Farley behind him couldn't help rolling his eyes.

I have seen shameless, but I have never seen Lucius so shameless. It seems that the descendants of Armand Malfoy undoubtedly inherited the style of their ancestors, and even came out of blue. Mr. Farley is very suspicious of the flatterer Gregory's flattery curse. Was it secretly learned by the Malfoys?

Even Her Majesty the Queen had to interrupt Lucius' babble—as a successor, she couldn't characterize the previous attack on wizards as evil, or even admit that the British government was responsible for it. the main responsibility, because she is completely ignorant of it.

Don't forget that the state religion in England is still the Protestant Anglican Church. When the royal family was deprived of executive power by the parliament, it only relied on "the divine authority of the monarchy", how could it possibly do something to destroy the faith of the church.

By the way, the King/Queen of England is also the head of the Anglican Church.

"I believe that blindly excluding something that one does not understand is never the course of a merciful man, and I also believe that, as long as Parliament and the Church continue to be honorable, they are the bedrock of British existence and injustice will end in the near future. The distant future is wiped out, what do you think, Mr. Malfoy?" she asked softly and hard.

Even though he knew that the old lady in front of him didn't know any magic at all, Lucius was acting like he was docile at the moment.

"It couldn't be more correct!" He immediately agreed, "so we hope to contribute a little bit to the prosperity of your rule, even if it's insignificant."

The more Lockhart listened to it, the more inaccurate it became. Could it be that Lucius thought that Her Majesty's power was exactly the same as it was three hundred years ago?

The old lady is not confused. Although she doesn't know why Lucius and the others want to enter the House of Lords so much, since this is the only bargaining chip she has at this time, she will not give them so easily.

"Certainly, the House of Lords will never reject any promising aristocrat who respects tradition and is willing to devote himself to the prosperity of Britain," she strongly suggested.

"Of course." Lucius was amnesty, "This minister has always respected tradition... This time, we have brought you the traditional royal tribute of the Malfoy family... three hundred years old.

Seeing him mention the tribute, let alone the queen, even Mr. Lockhart and Mr. Farley were curious, and they wanted to know what was in the two big boxes.

After the housekeeper whispered a few words in the Queen's ear, Queen Elizabeth II showed a surprised expression.

"This is really... unexpected, but Lord Malfoy really has a heart."

Lockhart pricked up his ears, wanting to know what Malfoy was paying for.

"...so much baleen, I think you must have spent a lot of effort collecting it.

' said Queen Elizabeth II approvingly.

"Yes, Your Majesty, it took three hundred years." Malfoy straightened his chest,

"We have always upheld the tradition of carefully preserving all the baleen, so that one day we will be able to make them work as they should."

The old lady took a deep breath: ^ What an amazing loyalty, Lord Malfoy

Mr. Farley listened in confusion, but Lockhart understood. It turned out to be baleen—it's an old-fashioned tradition.

Since it became popular in Spain in the 15th century to make whalebone skirts and umbrellas, baleen has become a very sought-after commodity in Britain.

In Europe at that time, whales were indiscriminately hunted to the extreme. In many cases, after whaling ships killed whales with harpoons and whaling guns, as long as their fat and baleen, the rest were thrown back into the sea to feed sharks.

It is precisely because of this that the whales in the Atlantic Ocean were overfished to the brink of extinction by Europeans, and the whalebone skirts of British ladies and the whalebone umbrellas of gentlemen also fell into the embarrassing situation of insufficient production, forcing the British royal family to pay for it. This is a special law.

This law stipulates this - in the exclusive waters of the British royal family, the whale baleen hunted will belong to the royal family. The baleen of whales stranded on all the beaches of the royal family must also be turned over to the royal family.

By the way, even in the 21st century, 55% of the beaches in the UK are nominally owned by Her Majesty the Queen.

Although it is said that the royal family has long been reduced to a mascot, even if someone will strand a whale

The baleen is owned by the royal family, and the royal family will not dispatch the royal police to take the baleen in the man's hand.

grab it. But when Malfoy follows the "rules" like this

■■■

EA2

The nobles who know how to pay tribute,

Her Majesty the Queen is still very happy.

Even after the advent of plastic and synthetic rubber, the royal family has no need to use it

Fracture-resistant baleen is used as a support frame for women's dresses, not to mention that old-fashioned women's dresses are long out of fashion.

Malfoy's tribute to the queen is not so much a "precious" baleen, but rather a kind of \"tradition": a tradition of nobles' loyalty to the royal family, just like the spring and autumn countries paid tribute to the Zhou royal family. , like grapefruit.

In comparison, the lady's gemstone cane presented by Mr. Farley pales in comparison. Even from the perspective of ordinary people, his gift is more valuable, but because of its lack of symbolic meaning, it is at a disadvantage.

Could it be that Her Majesty the Queen really lacks something like your tribute? The British royal family is the richest royal family in the world. Its net assets alone have more than 80 billion US dollars. Intangible income such as various brands and topics is even more. The Saudi kind is really only in front of the British royal family. Could be a little rich.

Of course, now that she has received gifts from wizards, the Queen will not let them work in vain

Malfoy's desire to be a member of the House of Lords is actually not difficult to achieve in her opinion, it just has to be worthwhile.

Or to put it more bluntly, it doesn't really matter whether the tribute is a tribute or not. She is not short of that money. The key is that Her Majesty wants to live a few more years. It is best to let her kiss her son, Charles. His Highness will be the prince for a lifetime.

Since the wizards resurrected the ancient etiquette and paid her baleen, then she naturally has to give the two of them a sufficient response according to the ancient etiquette.

"In that case, please follow the etiquette and be loyal to Her Majesty the Queen!"

After the Queen agreed to their qualifications in the House of Lords, the butler suddenly appeared in front of several people, put down a woolen rug, and fetched a list of etiquette books from nowhere.

Just by looking at the parchment paper on the book, which has been oxidized to the point of being invisible, everyone can tell that this book must be quite old.

The butler held the book, stood up straight, and read out in his voice without any emotion:

"You two are here for the first time, right? According to the title, Lord Farley, you can kneel to the Queen; as for Baron Malfoy, according to the etiquette, you can kiss Her Majesty's feet..."

In Malfoy's dull eyes, Mr. Farley suddenly realized that he had not imitated Malfoy, and it might not be without merit to shamelessly claim that he had the title of baron. Chapter 360 Fortress of Destiny

With the Queen's return, Lockhart found that he suddenly had a handle that he could use to blackmail Lucius Malfoy.

Although Voldemort probably won't give up recruiting these rich guys because of this, but if the purebloods know that the "noble" Lucius Malfoy actually knelt down and kissed a Muggle as a wizard representative I'm afraid they won't be very forgiving of him, not to mention that Voldemort is still a professional-level PUA expert.

Mr. Farley maintained the "honesty" that a wizard should have - that is, to bow down on one leg, so at least it can be inferred that it is just ordinary etiquette.

Lucius Malfoy himself knew this. On the way back to the manor, he was embarrassed and kept explaining his psychological activities at the time to the two next to him—it was really an arrow on the string.

He has already done that in the past, and he really can't give up because the final touch deviates from what he expected.

Lockhart suppressed a smile and told Malfoy that he had almost forgotten about it. Of course, if Mr. Malfoy is willing to join the "Wizard Political and Economic Modeling Seminar" that Lockhart is preparing to set up, become an association For the funder, perhaps he will forget a little more cleanly.

Malfoy is not stupid: "You are going to form a party."

"What kind of party." Lockhart pretended to be stupid, "Now the wizarding world is facing changes unseen in a thousand years, and people of insight must unite to discuss how to deal with it.

The two pure-blood "nobles" chose not to say a word to Lockhart's statement.

They don't care what Lockhart's purpose is, they only care what they get out of it.

After the new year, both muggles and wizards are a little lazy, in a state of inextricable holiday syndrome.

In such an atmosphere, the Big Five is obliged to act as a "refresher", injecting stimulating factors into the veins of wizards.

Because the schedule is still intensive and the reports can keep up, when the third project was held, the number of followers counted by the media already included most of the wizarding world in Europe and America.

The most direct manifestation of this is the five participating schools and the popularity of their warriors.

There are not many magic schools that have been established for more than 30 years.

There are not many schools like Ilvermorny, Castroshe, and Vagado that don't care about the source of students. They are blessed with unique resources because they have an entire continent as their source of freshmen.

And universities like Hogwarts and Beauxbatons don't care much about the source of students, because Hogwarts has the Pen of Acceptance and the Book of Admission, and Beauxbatons has the living fossil of Nicole O. Lemay, so at least There is nothing wrong with unifying the academic circles in Britain and France. The bigger significance of the Big Five Tournament to them is to let the world know them.

These schools can not worry about the source of students, but that does not mean that other schools do not need to worry about.

For Durmstrang, whose enrollment has been falling, for example, the publicity effect of the game is even more important. After receiving the report on the number of applicants for the new school year, Karkaroff walked with a hint of joy in the past few days. If it wasn't for Voldemort's haze looming, I'm afraid he would have been complacent.

This is not to blame him. There are only 0 magic schools that have been in business for more than 30 years and have been recorded by Rowling in the European and American cultural circles.

In addition to these relatively large schools, there are many sporadic small magic schools in Europe, and there are even families who raise their children themselves and do not send them to schools.

Under such circumstances, large schools already have an advantage in terms of size and faculty over small schools. As long as large schools don't kill themselves like Durmstrang, small schools have no chance at all to rob people.

After the Big Five Tournament was held, an obvious phenomenon was that no one from elementary schools signed up at all this year, while Beauxbatons, Hogwarts, and Durmstrang, who were eligible to participate in the Tournament, had a negative impact on the number of students in schools in the surrounding areas. siphon effect

There are only so many people in the wizarding world, there are more students in this school, and there are fewer students in other schools. So after discovering the advertising effect of the Big Five Tournament, many schools suddenly began to show a very enthusiastic attitude towards the competition.

They sent inquiries to the Organizing Committee of the Big Five Tournament through the magic departments of various countries, asking about how to participate in the competition and the time of the next competition. What's more, they directly asked to hold the next competition. With so many schools signing up, the organizing committee even began to discuss whether to set up a multi-school league.