"Have you ever thought about teaching at Hogwarts? One year is enough." He reminded, "When Alastor Moody leaves Hogwarts in May this year, Hogwarts will Another year of Defence against the Dark Arts professorship will be vacated, and Hogwarts is undoubtedly the safest place to be under Dumbledore's protection."

Slughorn was a little moved. "I'll think about it, Gilderoy."

"When will I be able to answer... Oh, no, I should have the principal hire you personally"

Heart\'

The old slug immediately understood: \"Yes, after all, I have retired for many years. If I re-employ, I'm afraid I still need some time to prepare lessons."

Talking to smart people is fun, and although Old Slug and Gemma Farley are both egoists, Lockhart doesn't hate people who can distinguish between interests and who know how to trade obligations for power.

After the business was over, the atmosphere in the room improved a lot, and Slughorn finally began to secretly express that he hoped that Lockhart would go to the house he was living in on the weekends to drive. At a tea party, he would introduce a few people to meet him.

This is officially to share his personal connections with Lockhart.

Lockhart smiled and agreed. Although not all of the people in the slug club were high-ranking government officials, they all played a "fulcrum" role in the wizarding society, which was very suitable for Lockhart to control public opinion. .

"I'll go this weekend." Lockhart promised to promise, "I just have something to ask you."

He's planning to make good friends with Slughorn.

Slughorn upholds the "meritism" of the able-bodied and the "pragmatism" that catching a mouse is a good cat, which Lockhart is well aware of is an improvement for wizards and even human history. .

But he is also very aware of the problem with it - that is, those who achieve good results are not entirely dependent on ability, and may rely more on luck. After all, there are many capable people, but few successful ones.

And even if they actually have the ability, people who get resources by virtue of "excellent achievements" are often not representative in social life, so it is a bit outrageous to indiscriminately put him in the top position.

Just to give an example - the teacher always likes to let the classmates with the best grades in the class serve as the class cadres, which is the most direct "merit doctrine"

Exam results are good, and success depends less on luck, but this is not the case in society. Luck often plays a bigger role in success than strength.

But even so, are people who do well in exams really suitable to be class cadres who need to be able to manage and organize? Also, those who become class cadres have their own needs. Can they really represent the interests of all students?

The same is true in society. It is unknown whether people who have achieved good results by virtue of their connections, family resources and luck have the ability, but even if they have the ability, they cannot represent the interests of everyone in the whole society, even most of them. Human interests cannot be represented. Not to mention anything else, even the cadres of the primary school class would embezzle public funds when purchasing materials for the class meeting and class celebration, and secretly buy two popsicles for themselves. That's the downside of "meritocracy".

It is a pity that human beings are still unable to get rid of meritocracy, because if even "excellent merit" cannot be used as a criterion for the distribution of power, then other doctrines are even more immoral, or even less operational.

For a meritocracy like Slughorn, Lockhart is determined to bring him under control

Control it under your own hands, instead of giving such a person the opportunity to manipulate the political arena.

Slughorn returned satisfied, and Lockhart finally got what he wanted.

After careful calculation, Lockhart found that the social resources on hand were not too small.

He now has some of Dumbledore's network resources, the political legacy left by the old Crouch, the right to ship the two gold-absorbing industries, the favor of the Hogwarts Student Union, and the experience of cooperating with big companies. There is also a good relationship cultivated by dealing with the media for a long time, and now Slughorn is willing to send the club to the club. This influence has reached a very terrifying level.

To be honest, if he had had similar resources in his previous life, he might have dared to fire his boss's choyu directly, and then competed for the position of prime minister.

With that in mind, Lockhart figured he only needed "one more big win" to be Minister of Magic, which wasn't difficult.

Chapter three hundred and ninety-ninth rumors spread

After attending a "slug club" and successfully becoming one of Slughorn's "most admired students", Lockhart suddenly found that his rumor-mongering career was going a lot better.

He carefully inquired about the channel through which Slughorn learned about Voldemort's return, and found that the time he received the information was two days later than that of the Farleys, which belonged to the third channel of transmission.

It's important to know this, because Lockhart wants to understand the relationship between wizards and the channels for information to spread.

Voldemort himself was the first to get news of Voldemort's return. The second is the Death Eaters that Voldemort summoned immediately, and the Order of the Phoenix who got the news indirectly.

The people who got the news in the second time were those who had a deep intersection with the pure-blooded interests of the Death Eaters, such as Mr. Farley's family, and the senior officials of the Ministry of Magic who had obtained information through the Order of the Phoenix.

Slughorn didn't know the news of Voldemort's return until the third time, which meant that in the eyes of the Death Eaters, the old slug was an irrelevant person at all, and he had to be ranked very low in the relationship. And Slughorn was able to get the news, not because of the Death Eater's active notification, but through other channels.

Sure enough, under questioning, Slughorn admitted that he was attending a Slytherin alumni association and found that someone was whispering to him, so he used a little trick to find out In the end what happened.

Lockhart didn't want to delve into how a potions master got the information, but he could confirm one thing through this incident—that the Death Eaters had not yet planned to extend their tentacles to the wizarding society and set up a Organization with administrative capacity

Otherwise, like a potion master like Slughorn, even if the Death Eaters can't win over, they will try to control him in advance.

It seems that Voldemort is very confident in taking control of the Ministry of Magic.

Because he has not experienced a wand flashback accident, Voldemort may not still want to get a prophecy ball now, but the penetration of the Ministry of Magic will definitely not be less.

Lockhart felt that if he were Voldemort, he would not have rescued his men from Azkaban until he was sure that the Ministry of Magic could not react to him, because that would have forced the Ministry of Magic to admit what had happened thing.

In the original book, it was when the Ministry of Magic and Dumbledore fought for more than half a year. When the Ministry of Magic was in a difficult situation from top to bottom, Voldemort chose to go to prison, because at that time Fudge had reached a stage where he had to insist on being wrong.

What the enemy is afraid of is what we are determined to do, so Lockhart's top priority now is to make Voldemort think he has been exposed, and then have to carry out the prison early before his power has recovered to its peak.

So without saying a word, he gave all the seniors who came to the slug club a set of gadgets that could protect against black magic, including smoke bombs, anti-curse cloaks and so on.

Diagon Alley's order certainly wouldn't arrive so soon, and Lockhart was sending what he had saved up before.

People who receive things are naturally inexplicable. Although getting a gift is a good thing, the gift itself is not something that can be used often.

But they didn't think much about it at this time, because Lockhart's identity was there, they only thought it was because of Lockhart's professional relationship, and liked to give people defense against the dark items.

Until they start to hear some wind from the market.

Just as the duel entertainment competition of the Big Five Tournament started, the rumors spread by Mundungus and the others finally began to spread among the wizards.

Big things happened in Game 3 of the Big Five!

Someone kidnapped Durmstrang's principal!

The Ministry of Magic has urgently summoned the Aurors to protect the Ministry of Magic!

Ministry of Magic officials privately ordered a large number of equipment to defend against the dark magic!

The Ministry of Magic's Department of Mysteries has discovered a new wizard virus that turns people into boars and forgets they're a wizard!

A cult has restored the five-legged monster blood curse and turned all wizards into five-legged monsters!

Dumbledore is dead! He hasn't been in the public eye for months

The appearance of such promises one after another caused the wizarding world to feel a sense of panic.

At first the Ministry of Magic didn't pay too much attention to these rumours because they were so outrageous that they didn't think anyone would believe it.

And as Lockhart predicted, it was precisely because there was so much difference between these rumors and the truth that the Ministry of Magic did not suspect that it was someone from the Order of the Phoenix who was messing around. They just mentioned it publicly in the newspaper, saying that these are just rumors, but they are not true.

But the Ministry of Magic, who has not studied information and communication, obviously doesn't know that they should try not to mention this when they have not figured out how the rumor spreads and cut it off.

So soon almost half of the magic world knew about these rumors, even if they didn't believe it, but at least they already knew the content of these "nonsense".

The Ministry of Magic's Information Office thought the matter had been resolved, but then things turned out completely beyond their expectations.

First of all, after these rumors were thoroughly spread, some people began to openly question the truth of the matter.

Although the content of these rumors is very sensational, it is not completely impossible from a logical point of view. At least the accident in the middle of the competition and the sudden escape of Karkaroff are undoubtedly true.

The first concern of doubters is what the Ministry of Magic is covering up. If these gossips on the market are indeed rumors, then why has the Ministry of Magic never released the truth of the matter, but blocked them.

Also, why does the Ministry of Magic keep saying that these are all rumors, but the officials of the Ministry of Magic themselves are secretly purchasing equipment to defend against black magic, and even some pure blood family members suddenly go abroad?

"Witch Weekly" even launched a special interview column for housewives, including Mrs. Weasley, almost all housewives are complaining that the price of daily necessities on the market is getting more and more expensive.

Originally, as long as the husband had a basic income, housewives could easily afford the meat, cheese, and wool needed for sweaters, etc. not go down.

But the recent price increases are not only one or two, but the prices of almost all living materials have become more expensive.

To this end, "Witches Weekly" asked the Ministry of Magic on behalf of the majority of witches - is there someone hoarding the living materials necessary for wizards?

Fudge frowned after reading the housewives' questions, and then called the director of the minister's logistics office.

Yes, it's the back office, because the Ministry of Magic doesn't have any department that has anything to do with economic issues.

"...Witch's Weekly said that prices have been rising very sharply recently, is that true?" Fudge asked.

The director of the logistics department was stunned for a moment, and then desperately thought about it in his mind for a long time.

Later, I remembered that my wife really seemed to have complained about the fact that the price of Floo powder had increased by 1 scoop recently, and it became 3 scoops.

"Well... the price of Floo powder has indeed gone up." He answered honestly.

"What about the others?"

\"do not know."

Fudge is a little dissatisfied. As the Minister of Magic, I can know nothing about the grassroots and keep away from the masses, but how can you practical cadres ask three questions?

■

"Where's the food?" he asked.

The director of the logistics office had to spread his hands: "I really don't know, because we are in London!"

Fudge then remembered that the officials of the Ministry of Magic might not know enough about wizard villages.

Because of the sparse population of wizards and their distribution all over the UK, the hundreds of staff of the Ministry of Magic and their families have accounted for nearly one-tenth of the population of wizards in the UK, and most of these people live in London, and some of them are is in the countryside.

In the big city of London, it is neither possible nor necessary for wizards to grow vegetables themselves. Except for magical items to buy in Diagon Alley, their daily necessities are bought from Muggle markets, as long as Muggle supermarkets, groceries If the price of food in the store does not rise, they can hardly feel the price change in the wizarding world.

But other wizards are different - some in Hogsmeade, some in Godric's Hollow, and some living in mixed villages like San Catchpole, they are more sensitive to prices.

Fudge should have such a difficult time.

Chapter 400: Fudge in hindsight

The disconnect between wizards living in London and those in the countryside is perhaps another big problem in the wizarding world.

■■■

EAS

Barty Crouch, who lives in London, can follow the Muggle dress code

Make no mistake, the entrance to the Ministry of Magic is the telephone taro, and later the Muggle public toilet

Therefore, there are also two official vehicles in the Ministry that can be used to pick up and drop off important tasks, as well as ride

A highly Muggle form of public transport

But the wizards living in the country are relatively obtuse about these things, even the Weasleys, Mrs. Weasleys don't even know the internal structure of the car, and Ron is completely ignorant of the knight bus.

It just goes to show that Muggle urbanization has also had a huge impact on wizards, even if they don't realize it.

The city-dwelling Ministry of Magic officials were slow to respond when the oil trade and the apothecary business brought inflation. They either didn't realise the problem or thought it was no big deal, anyway they could get food from Muggle cities and it was cheaper.

Although wizard farms have the climatic conditions and soil fertility that Muggles can only dream of, and the magic-rich food can be increased with the increase spell, it should not cost more than Muggles. However, the wizard farms have to face problems that are not encountered by magical creatures such as goblins, dwarf pigs, Frober caterpillars, and Muggle farms such as magical germs, so the labor cost is still high, and the price is reflected in the addition of grains. The prices for the rest of the food are high except for the cheaper ones.

Because of his ignorance of the living conditions of the commoners, Fudge made a small mistake—he thought that the influx of foreign gold would not affect the price of wizard agricultural products, but he ignored the labor from the oil and pharmaceutical industries. The famine also greatly affected the agricultural population of the wizards.

The reason is not difficult to understand. Just like the migrant workers who come to the city to work, they can only get a few thousand yuan a year to grow grain, but they can earn three or four thousand yuan a month working in the city, so they will naturally choose industries that make more money. . Among the various costs of wizard agriculture, the labor cost is the most expensive.

Fudge knew that he had made a mistake, and felt that he should take care of the rising prices, or at least pretend to take care of it, otherwise all the dissatisfaction of the people would be poured out on him.

\"Are many people hoarding food and Defence Against the Dark Arts items lately?" Fudge asked again.

The director of the logistics department looked confused: "Yes, some people did buy some Defense Against the Dark Arts equipment and potions because of rumors, but food... I really haven't heard of it."

Because the director of the logistics department does not belong to the core political circle, the news of Voldemort's "possible" return is still only known within the circle of senior officials such as Fudge and Scrimgeour, and even several directors are not aware of it, so he It's natural to be confused about this situation.

"I'll find a way about the food." Fudge didn't hesitate, "but you have to investigate the defense against the dark arts equipment, and take control actions when appropriate. This is not a joke."

"Oh?" The head of the logistics office was a little surprised, "Do you mind? If someone wants to buy it, let them buy it, just to help us clear the inventory.

\"Our inventory?" Fudge's face changed, "You mean, our Auror equipment?"

The director of the logistics department didn't know why he reacted so much, but he answered Fudge honestly.

\"Yes, we have sold part of it and are looking for an opportunity to sell the rest

Fudge is about to rise

He immediately roared at the director of the logistics department, spitting the stars on the other side's face: "No! Who allowed you to do this?!"

The Director of Logistics was even more confused: "Uh, Minister... we have always been

Is that what you do? "

"All the time?"

"Yes, a lot of equipment in our Auror office is about to expire, such as the potions and invisibility cloaks in reserve, which have a maximum validity period of 2 years. It is better to sell them now, free up funds, and wait for the price of equipment to drop. After coming down, we can get a new one without spending a penny..."

Fudge really jumped up this time: "This is bullshit! In case our

What if Luo is in a hurry? "

"No." The director of the logistics department looked very confident. "We will keep a small batch of equipment and medicines. It is enough to maintain the duty for about half a year. When the price falls..."

"What if it doesn't fall?" Fudge looked a little unsightly.