Harry Potter and the Candy Factory

Inside the office, thick curtains with classic Baroque patterns blocked the light, making the already quiet space seem even more dim.

Charlie Black sat behind a long table, leaning back in a comfortable high-backed chair, his slender fingers of his left hand gently holding a cup of steaming coffee, while the spoon in his right hand continuously stirred, creating a small vortex in the center of the coffee.

He repeated this mechanical and meaningless action, not even noticing that the temperature of the coffee was gradually disappearing.

Charlie's gaze was entirely focused on the newspaper that was unfolded and floating in front of him.

This was the latest issue of "The Daily Prophet," which had just been delivered to him not long ago.

As the most official and authoritative media recognized by the magical world, "The Daily Prophet" was one of Charlie's important sources of information after coming here.

Because on it, you could easily obtain all kinds of major events in the magical world and all the latest regulations promulgated by the Ministry of Magic.

And Charlie could easily find what he wanted between the lines and in the dancing pictures.

But today, the headline of "The Daily Prophet" seemed particularly out of place compared to usual.

The text, which was magnified three times and almost horizontally occupied the entire top position, clearly conveyed a message to people: "Mr. Harry Potter is about to turn eleven years old!! At that time, he will enter Hogwarts as a freshman!!!"

After a moment of silence, he simply put the coffee cup and spoon in his hand back on the table, and then stretched out his right hand and gently snapped his fingers to the side.

"Snap."

As the sound fell, a light suddenly flashed beside Charlie, and a house-elf appeared out of thin air.

"Good afternoon! My great Master Charlie, Russell has received your call!" The house-elf, who called himself Russell, bowed respectfully and greeted Charlie.

Charlie nodded, stood up from his seat, and instructed Russell, "Russell, accompany me out for a while..."

Charlie hadn't finished speaking when Russell, who had received the order, immediately became excited.

He opened his eyes wide and looked at Russell moved, his body seemed to tremble.

"Great Master Charlie needs Russell!!! Yes, my great master, you know, as your loyal servant, Russell is willing to do anything for you, oh, my god, maybe I should go prepare Floo Powder first."

"No, no need."

Seeming to be accustomed to Russell's state, Charlie was not surprised.

He waved his hand casually, walked out from behind his desk, picked up the top hat hanging on the hanger, put it on his head, and walked towards the door, continuing to say.

"This time, we don't need Floo Powder."

After he finished speaking, he pushed the door of the office open.

Along with a "creak", the somewhat rusted brass door hinge made a faint groan.

The door slowly opened, and the light from outside shone through the crack in the door, illuminating Charlie's black trench coat, passing through his golden hair, hitting his tall nose, and awakening the azure blue eyes under his eyelashes...

Then, a factory that was enough to subvert anyone's imagination appeared in front of him.

Using magic pumps as the most primitive power, driving countless gears to rotate slowly, after the simple transmission structure was cleverly combined with magic, a huge and quite precise production line formed the largest candy factory in the entire magic world, and even the world—"Charlie's Candy Factory."

In the assembly line, hundreds of house-elves were carrying out their work in an orderly manner.

Each of them was wearing a uniform work uniform, and their faces were filled with happy smiles.

Hearing the sound from the office door, all the house-elves put down their work at the same time, raised their heads, and looked at Charlie.

"Good afternoon, Mr. Charlie!" At that moment, everyone greeted him almost in unison.

"Good afternoon to you too, my dear employees," he replied.

As he spoke, Charlie smiled and nodded, raised his hand, and waved to hundreds of pairs of eager eyes, like a star facing his enthusiastic fans.

He waved while walking down the stairs from the second floor until all the house-elves could no longer see him, Charlie put down his hand and returned to his original state.

"How is the new product development I mentioned before going?"

Charlie walked forward on his own, while Russell carefully followed behind to serve him.

Suddenly, he seemed to remember something, paused, and asked.

Russell also hurriedly stopped and replied, "Very smoothly, Master Charlie! I have entrusted this matter to Tika to take charge of... Oh, maybe you haven't heard of this name, the little guy came from the batch of house-elves you took in last August, he is a very diligent young man, and he is good at tinkering with some new things. You said before that the flowing center of the Kazzz Filled Hard Candy was not smooth enough, and he was the first to think of adding catnip to it to improve the taste."

"Excellent," Charlie nodded.

"Russell, lead the way, I want to take a look."

"With pleasure, respected Master Charlie."

Russell first bowed deeply again, and then said apprehensively, "Please forgive Russell for walking in front of you."

"Of course, let's go."

Under Russell's leadership, the two shuttled through the intricate factory and finally came to an iron gate.

At the top of the iron gate, the words "Product Development" were written in some kind of magic paint.

Below it, a wooden sign that read "No Admittance" was rudely hung.

"Master, I will open the door for you."

With that, Russell came to the door and opened it.

The door opened, and what came into Charlie's eyes was a rather chaotic room, with a dazzling array of equipment placed randomly, and various bags of raw materials that had been opened were also wantonly opened, making the taste of the entire room particularly strange.

In the room, six house-elves seemed to be busier than the outside assembly line, each doing their own work, and none of them were attracted by the opening of the door for a moment.

"What an impolite bunch of mules," Russell's expression wrinkled, and he was obviously extremely dissatisfied with their attitude.

He was about to reprimand them when Charlie behind him stopped him with his hand.

Charlie shook his head and continued to ask, "Which one is Tika you just mentioned?"

Russell's expression changed, and he pointed to one of the six people.

The house-elf named Tika was sitting on a sack, reaching out and digging out raw materials from the bag next to him, not knowing what it was, and then stuffing it into his mouth.

Charlie raised his eyebrows and watched his actions with interest, without interrupting.

Tika closed his eyes and chewed large mouthfuls of raw materials, not knowing what they were.

After two or three minutes, he swallowed them all, and then showed a surprised smile, shouting, "Tika likes this taste!! He can add it to the nut brittle!!"

Just as he was excited, a voice suddenly sounded beside him.

"What are you doing?"

The sudden sound startled him, and Tika broke away from his own world, and then subconsciously looked in the direction of the sound.

"Oh! Mr. Charlie!!"

In an instant, he jumped up from where he was sitting and bowed to Charlie.

"You know, looking for improved recipes."

Listening to his answer, Charlie curiously looked into the sack containing the raw materials—yellow powder of varying particle sizes, seemingly some kind of dried and crushed plant.

He gently stretched out his hand, picked up a little and sent it to the tip of his tongue, closed his eyes and tasted it carefully.

A faint fragrance spread between his mouth and tongue, although weak, it had a unique delicacy.

Tika, whose eyes were shining with light, said at the right time.

"This is osmanthus powder, its unique taste I think can neutralize the sweetness in the nut brittle in a certain proportion."

"Good idea."

Charlie opened his eyes, a smile appeared on the corner of his mouth, nodded to Tika, and praised his idea without hesitation.

After speaking, he gently flicked his fingertips stained with a little yellow powder, and before Tika was happy, he continued to say.

"But this time I didn't come to check your work... I heard Russell say that you have developed a new product, can you show it to me?"

Tika scratched his head and subconsciously looked at Russell behind Charlie, watching Russell winking and constantly reminding him, and then he suddenly realized, as if he remembered something.

Slapping his forehead, Tika's two short legs carried his slightly bloated belly and ran very fast, and suddenly scurried to a storage box full of things on the other side of the studio and quickly rummaged through it.

Charlie waited patiently for a while, but not long after, he heard Tika shout, "Ah ha, it's here!"

After speaking, he excitedly carried a small package wrapped in kraft paper and tied with a rope back to Charlie.

"Mr. Charlie! Look, this is the new product you told me about last time."

As he spoke, he held up the unremarkable small package with both hands and brought it to Charlie.

"Excellent."