Although it was mid-August, the hottest time of the year, Lucius Malfoy felt a chill in his heart.

"What are you talking about? Severus?" Lucius poured himself a glass pretending to be relaxed, "I'm just here to bring Draco to buy things for school, although things are not expensive, but It's complicated, and I'm a little uneasy about having house-elves do it.

Seeing that Snape was still staring at him, Lucius had to make a gesture of surrender.

"Well, there are no outsiders here anyway, so I'll just say it straight... That Arthur Weasley pushed me so hard recently, so I stopped by Knockturn Alley to get some goods."

"I thought friend meant to be more honest with each other." Snape said lightly, "Draco didn't help you cover just now, and I don't think he knew about it, so I left it for you. A little face... need I be more direct

■

Lucius Malfoy's face became more and more unsightly: ""What kind of riddles do we need to play between us? Just say it. "

"Okay, then I'll just say it."

Seeing that Lucius couldn't get in, Snape simply opened the skylight and said something bright: u What did you stuff into that little girl's old book at Weasley's just now? "

Lucius groaned in his heart: "Severus... must we do this? Why can't we think about each other a little more?"

Snape's expression didn't change: "No matter what you stuffed, if the little girl had an accident at school because of it, then it's likely that I'll be responsible in the end. If that's how you think about your friends, It can only mean that I have crossed friends

"Probably not, you are not a professor of Defense Against the Dark Arts now." Lucius accidentally missed his mouth.

Snape stared into his eyes, his face even colder. It was the pain in his heart that he couldn't be a Defence Against the Dark Arts professor, but Lucius dared to expose it.

Only then did Lucius Malfoy realize that he had said the wrong thing.

He hurriedly remedied: "Take it easy, there shouldn't be any magic on that thing. I just want something wrong with Weasley, so he doesn't bite me like a wild dog all day long."

Snape had a bad feeling: "Why do you say that?"

"Isn't he still staring at me, he..."

"I'm not talking about that!" Snape snarled. "Why do you say the magic of that thing is gone?"

Lucius was at a loss for words, he didn't know why Snape had such a big reaction.

Snape didn't say much, he directly raised his arm.

"This marker hasn't reacted for many years, I guessed yours too, but I seem to be wrong"

"Severus, I..."

Snape looked Lucius directly in the eyes: "Just now when I saw you stuffing something, there was a tingling... You know what I mean?"

Lucius Malfoy knew that the contents were revealed, and he had to break the jar and put on an indifferent look.

"It's been so long, and even that person has disappeared. It's normal for me to want to keep the trouble away, right?"

Lucius picked up the glass and wanted to take a sip of the wine he had just poured to overwhelm himself.

But his hand was held down by Snape

He looked at Snape puzzled, but saw a face that looked a little hideous.

"Do you know what you're doing?" Snape was extremely angry. "That's what the Dark Lord gave you! How can you..."

Probably finding that he was agitated for a while and attracted the attention of the people next to him, Snape lowered his voice again: Io, how can you just throw his things out?

"I never knew you were so loyal to him." Lucius replied.

Snape was a little exasperated: "You know what I mean! As long as it's his thing, it's definitely not a trivial matter if something goes wrong!"

"No matter how big things are going to happen, it's Wesley's business now." Lucius shrugged, "It's good to be elegant, I always wear gloves... Ha, don't look at Wesley's. The guy loves Muggles, but I don't think he knows what a fingerprint is yet. He's been trying to figure out how planes fly, but I bought one..."

Snape stood up, put his hands on the table, and stared at Lucius condescendingly: Divert the topic! I'm not going to watch the mess get bigger! Tell me, what is that? "

Lucius wanted to continue talking, but after seeing Snape's unreasonable face, he knew that Snape was playing for real.

"It's not really a dangerous item, it's just a tattered diary, and the man handed it to me, saying it could be used to open the Hogwarts Chamber of Secrets, but I doubt it will survive after all this time. What's the use...don't look at me like that, that's all I know."

Snape stared at him for a moment, then walked away, looking like he was planning to leave without saying goodbye.

Lucius asked another question uneasy: "Hey, you don't really intend to report on me, do you? Will you?"

"I'm going back to look after my Purin, who's probably overcooked," Snape said sullenly.

After the trip to Diagon Alley, Lockhart finally got a rare leisure time.

Of course, this leisure is only relative, although he can sleep until he wakes up naturally every day.

In order to prevent the **** morning fog in London from damaging his health, he chose to go out to exercise after nine in the morning, and when he came back, he practiced spells and prepared lessons in his basement, very regularly.

He was a big believer in that people who want to be successful must first have self-control.

When teatime came, Lockhart would sometimes go to his brother-in-law's bank and have a snack with him as a "customer"; sometimes he would go to some dilapidated red phone booth, dial 62442, enter the Ministry of Magic, and "Future colleagues" go to chat and **** off.

Because he is a famous person for his size,

His circle of contacts is wide: sometimes he goes to Arthur Weasley of the Misuse of Muggle Substances Division to talk about the possible introduction of the Wizarding Metro into the wizarding world; Go to Gilbert Wimple of the Experiment Spells Council to transcribe the new spell (as long as it's proven safe to do so).

Of course, as his best entry point to the Ministry of Magic, Arnold Peasgood, who is in charge of the "Reversal of Incidents Team", is his key target. He had known this Ministry of Magic official before because of helping out by Loch Ness.

Peacegood told him that their department is very short of people right now, and what's worse, because there are too many things to do and not much salary, many people want to quit or

Jump to another department, even he himself wants to transfer to the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. "That won't work, you'll have to hire a lot of new people," Lockhart said. Dike. "

"That sort of thing should be left to Muggle-born wizards who know what's 'discordant' to Muggles. "

"You're right, but pure-blood wizards don't like Muggle-born wizards in important departments of the Ministry of Magic."

Lockhart was amused: "You're joking, this is an important department? Why didn't I know?"

Peacegood dropped the custard cookie in his hand: "Will you die if you say a few words less?

"You're not my boss yet," Lockhart said.

They've already gotten to know each other, so it's perfectly fine to make innocuous jokes, and Peasegood even sees Lockhart as a "non-staff" because of this, and Peasegood has him Said a few words from the heart.

"To be honest, I don't understand why you have to go to Hogwarts to coach." He wondered, "If you take office now, at least Fudge will not have any prejudice against you, but if you come out of Hogwarts again, He'll see you as Dumbledore's side. oo I think you're a smart guy, you should know how wary Fudge is about Dumbledore, you're famous..."

Ur is right, I am too famous. Lockhart simply admitted, "So since Fudge will be alerted no matter what, I might as well give him a reason so that Dumbledore will believe me." "

"But he doesn't care about the Ministry of Magic."

"But he also has things he wants to do." Lockhart said vaguely.

Chapter Fourteen September 1st

In the midst of this seeming idleness, September 1st finally arrived.

Lockhart bought a copy of the Financial Times and The Times early and leaned against a stone pillar next to Platform 9 3/4 at King's Cross.

He pretended to be waiting for the bus, but he was actually waiting for the new Muggle-born students to come. Lockhart has never been left behind in this kind of face-saving thing.

He didn't know why Hogwarts didn't have an instructor here specifically to guide freshmen into the platform. He speculated that this might be a way Dumbledore wanted to get the wizarding family to show kindness to the new born, as the Weasleys did to Harry.

Sure enough, after a while, Lockhart saw several new Muggle students with blank expressions on their faces.

Even though they had been to Diagon Alley, and had learned a part of the book early on at Lockhart's orders these days, something like Platform 9 3/4 was beyond their imaginations.

"Just rush to that wall, it's a magical passage, the key is to believe." Lockhart said to Colin, pointing to the platform entrance.

Colin Creevey took courage, hugged his magic suitcase with both hands, and then—gritting his teeth, rushed towards the wall.

"Don't rush so fast, kid..."

As soon as Lockhart finished speaking, he heard a scream from the other side of the wall.

"You hurt me!" Lockhart vaguely heard a female voice.

"I'm sorry, it's the first time I've walked through here. It's too rude." Colin's apology came from the other side of the wall.

Lockhart shrugged, ticked the Creevey's place on the list, and then

Leaning back on the pillar to continue reading the newspaper.

Soon, 12 Muggles passed here one after another, and under Lockhart's guidance, they passed the wall one after another.

Lockhart saw that it was almost time, so he put away the newspaper, and slipped past when others were not paying attention.

Aboard the "Express" steam train at Hogwarts, Lockhart went straight to the prefect's carriage.

Although he could Apparate directly to the outskirts of Hogwarts, Lockhart decided to seize every minute and second to strengthen his influence, so he chose to ride the train with his students, since Hogwarts didn't have any. Specify where the teacher should sit.

So he waited outside the prefect's box in the name of "understanding the progress of the students in the past few years". After the prefects meeting was over, and the prefects began to inspect the train, Lockhart was openly mixed in with the prefect. In the carriage, I chatted with the student president.

Lockhart admitted that he was unable to solve the curse of Voldemort: "Because of the curse, I only plan to work in this position for a year, and I will cut the knife before the final exam.

/field

But I've felt so disorganized and disorganized in the Defence Against the Dark Arts class over the past few years that new teachers don't know where to start. So I plan to build an iron-clad framework, so that no matter who the new teacher is, they can just follow the script without lowering the quality of teaching.

My goal is to directly improve students' ability to confront black magic. In addition to basic training, I also strive to make every fifth grader pass .W 丄?S, and seventh graders who want to pass N.E.W.T.s , we also have to let him pass steadily. "

The male and female student presidents listened to Lockhart's plan very seriously, and nodded again and again.

"A pragmatic goal, professor," said the male student president, "regardless of the teaching method.

How the law is, passing the exam is the most direct.

He is already in the seventh grade, and he is about to hand over to the next student president. He is most worried about homework now.

"This is my basic plan, do you want to take a look?" Lockhart handed over his lesson preparation schedule.

The two student presidents are very satisfied with Lockhart's respect for them. Children in their age group are not yet or just adults (Wizards are 17 years old), and it is the middle of the day that calls me out of my life. In the second interval, the sensitivity of self-esteem is extraordinary.

They read Lockhart's planning table carefully, and after the little adults asked a few more questions, they nodded with satisfaction.

"It doesn't look like there is any problem, although the safety may be... But considering that you are the teacher of the class, I think there should be no accident." The male student chairman handed back the lesson plan.

But his arm was pulled by the female student president

"I don't know if I can keep this," she pleaded with Lockhart.

"Of course," Lockhart said. "I still have the original manuscript. This is a special copy after the revision."

The female student president immediately snatched the lesson plan from the male companion.

"It would be better if I could sign up again, it would be more convincing," she said frantically.

Lockhart smiled, then took out his peacock quill, on which he signed his name swiftly.

When the grade leaders came back, the student president deliberately announced the decision just now—Professor Lockhart intends to reform the Defence Against the Dark Arts class and build a new framework. Please cooperate with all of you this year.

"Because our Defence Against the Dark Arts professors are likely to be

It will be changed every year. It can be said that this matter is related to the vital interests of every student at Hogwarts, and it is also related to the future of Hogwarts. I hope that everyone can restrain the thorns of their own colleges within their ability, and not to oppose Professor Lockhart. We looked at his plan and should say it's still very...hey, get it out! "

"No, didn't you read it too? Just tell them directly."

The female student president resolutely refused to do it, and it seemed that she had made up her mind to use power for personal gain.

When Lockhart came out of the prefect's box, he found that the place where he was sitting had been taken.

He had no intention of vying for a seat with a bunch of little furry kids, so he had to go to the back to see if there were any vacant carriages.

But then he realized that he had made a wrong decision-everywhere he went, the little witches came around, asking him to sign, and graciously invited him to sit in his partition.

Considering that no matter which private room he sat in under this circumstance, the rest of the people would be dissatisfied, Lockhart had to change his seat to patrol, and was relieved when he reached the dining car compartment at the end of the train.

Anyway, there was only one woman here who asked him for an autograph, and that was the sales clerk pushing a small truck to sell.

He bought a bunch of small cakes and berries and looked at the Muggle newspaper he had bought at the station as he ate it, and to avoid trouble he put it upright and covered his face.

The "Financial Times" made it clear that since the end of the Anglo-Falcon War, the value of the pound has been shorted by international financial speculators.

Although the Great Empire finally won the face war, allowing the domestic nationalists to get over the addiction of "we are still powerful people", but the British foreign exchange and gold were almost exhausted because of this, and they were powerless. Maintain the high pound

currency value.

And they even want to tie the exchange rate of the pound to the mark - they don't think their economy can keep up.

As Sir Humphrey said, "There is always a little penalty for us pretending to be Europeans."

Soros saw this opportunity and used his energy to short the pound.

Although the value of the British pound has not shown any signs of loosening due to the firm resistance of the British Treasury, anyone with a discerning eye can see that the British will not last long, and when the Prime Minister and the Minister of Finance express their determination to maintain the value of the currency: from the beginning 's toughness becomes "leave room"

Even if in this time and space, the final time of the outbreak of the European exchange rate crisis is not September 16, 1992, Lockhart is confident that it will be within a month.

In just a few days, the pound fell by 24%. He only needed to add several times of leverage with Soros to make a lot of money. Is there any more profitable option trading?

Lockhart couldn't help feeling elated when he thought that he would become one of the richest wizards in half a month.

After all, it is an eternal truth to have money to play politics.

"Ron! Harry! Are you here?"