Harry Potter: Charlie and the Candy Factory

Hogwarts, in Albus Dumbledore's headmaster's office.

The vivid white color of the candy vending machine undoubtedly brings new vitality to this antique room that has not undergone any major changes for hundreds of years.

Albus Dumbledore rarely sat behind his desk as before, maintaining his usual posture. Instead, he stood up, walked to the candy vending machine and bent down, as if he had received a new gift. Children who play with toys can't stop playing with them.

And it wasn't just him, even the principals on the wall couldn't help but cast their gazes. They all opened their eyes curiously, carefully observing Dumbledore's behavior, and asking questions from time to time.

"This is what the blond kid was talking about...the candy vending machine?"

"He is a Black!" Phoenix, the ancestor of the Black family, quickly spoke and emphasized in a sharp voice.

"I don't care who he is, I just want to see what this machine can do!"

"This thing is so beautiful... What a pity, when I was the principal, no one ever came to give me any interesting gadgets..."

"Did I sleep for too long? What kid with blond hair, and when did this strange white square appear??"

Ignoring the noise above his head, Dumbledore studied every button of it attentively, his eyes sparkling behind the thick spectacle lenses.

He was so invested that even if there was a knock on the door of the principal's office, he didn't pay too much attention to it.

He just casually said "Come in." and continued to immerse himself in it.

"Dumbledore!" The door opened with a creaking sound, and then McGonagall's figure appeared. She looked at the principal squatting in the corner, couldn't help but frowned, and shouted in a deep voice. The other person’s name.

"Ah! It's you, Mag."

Hearing the voice behind him, Dumbledore reacted and hurriedly stood up. He turned his head and smiled awkwardly at McGonagall and said softly.

"Ha...I thought it was Hagrid here, because you know, he always likes to come over to me at this time and talk to me..."

However, before he could finish his words, Mag, who looked serious, interrupted him and continued.

“I thought from the beginning that Charlie’s idea of ​​installing this candy vending machine in the principal’s office was not a good idea!”

As she spoke, she looked at the candy vending machine behind Dumbledore, paused and continued.

"But I really didn't expect...you would buy all the candies in this machine within half a day."

As soon as these words came out, Dumbledore, who was about to think of something to say, couldn't help but hesitate for a moment.

Then he felt a little guilty and did not look into Mag's eyes. He shifted his gaze to the side and asked in a low voice, "Where did you hear about it?"

In this regard, Mag did not hide it and responded directly and briefly.

"It was said by the elf in Charlie's Factory. He posted a notice on the first floor of the castle without authorization, but Filch tore it down. Just now Filch happened to bump into me when he was eating, so he handed the notice to me. Me."

"What's written on it?"

Dumbledore stretched out his hand, pushed up his glasses, then walked calmly in front of the candy vending machine, walked back to his seat, and sat back down again.

"It says that in order to celebrate that all fifteen candy vending machines were emptied of products in less than half a day at the latest, he is planning to re-apply for more candies from the factory."

Having said this, Mag couldn't help but sigh. The sigh was full of helplessness for him as the principal.

"Haha..." Dumbledore couldn't help but laugh twice after listening to McGonagall's words, said haha, and replied unhurriedly.

"I just bought them all, I didn't mean to eat them all at once...really, I won't lie to you."

As he spoke, Dumbledore couldn't help but lower his head and glanced at the candy that was almost overflowing in his half-open drawer.

Then he quickly changed the subject, resumed his upright posture, and started a conversation with Mag.

"Okay, let's not talk about irrelevant things. I don't think you came to me because of this trivial matter, right?"

"Yes..." Even though she knew that the other party was deliberately changing the topic, Mag still chose to reveal this in advance and talked about other important things.

Anyway, Dumbledore's obsession with candy has reached a point of hopelessness in his opinion. He has been talking to him for so long but it has no effect, and it is no worse than now.

"It's a letter addressed to you."

"Letter?" Dumbledore raised his white eyebrows strangely, with some confusion in his words.

"Yes...it's from the Ministry of Magic."

While talking, Mag took out the letter.

"So, is it from Fudge?"

When Dumbledore mentioned the Ministry of Magic, he easily thought of his "old friend" - Cornelius Fudge.

It's just that he was no longer willing to communicate with him a long time ago. And Dumbledore himself naturally understood the reason. So he also gave humility and acquiescence to this to a large extent, which was considered to be enough for the Minister of Magic.

due dignity and power.

"Yes, it was indeed sent by Fudge, but it was not in his name..."

McGonagall nodded first, then placed the letter on Dumbledore's desk and pushed it in front of him.

Looking down at the mark on the letter, Dumbledore finally understood, then he lowered his head and read out the name.

"Wizengamot..."

………

After the letter was delivered to Dumbledore, McGonagall left. Before leaving, she couldn't help but murmured a few questions about candy.

Dumbledore also nodded and coped with it, but whether he would actually do it is another matter...

He opened the envelope and began to read the contents carefully.

The letter was not written by Fudge himself. It was probably ghostwritten by someone close to him. The handwriting is very beautiful, and the content is also very formulaic. It is a long paragraph of words and phrases, all of which are complicated and cumbersome and blunt politeness, and there is nothing else.

Something of value.

But Dumbledore still read it carefully word by word, as if it was a kind of upbringing that came from his heart, making him respect what everyone wrote to him.

While watching, he also took out a piece of candy and put it in his mouth.

Feeling the sugar slowly melting in your mouth, the letter in front of you finally came to an end.

Although this letter is complicated, the meaning expressed can be summed up in just one sentence.

"Fudge plans to award Charlie Black the Order of Merlin, Level 3 in recognition of his important contribution to the British wizarding community. He hopes that Albus Dumbledore, the chief wizard of the Wizengamot, will be able to attend the ceremony."

"Charlie..." Dumbledore couldn't help but muttered to himself after putting down the letter.

After thinking for a long time, Dumbledore took out the letter paper and wrote a reply to Fudge.

The content of the reply was extremely simple compared to the long speech of the other party.

I saw him pick up the pen and lightly write the word "good" on the letter paper

…………………………

"Good afternoon, Principal Dumbledore..."

Soon after, just as Dumbledore had finished processing his reply to Fudge, Hagrid knocked on the door of his office.

He stepped into it as usual, and at the same time stretched out his hand to say hello to Dumbledore. In the crook of his other arm, there was a fluffy ball of brown and gray feathers.

"Good afternoon, Hagrid..."

Dumbledore nodded and greeted Hagrid in response. Then he squinted his eyes for a long time and finally determined that it was not a feather duster or the like, but an owl.

Looking at this owl, although its head has not yet been exposed, Dumbledore already felt a bit inexplicably familiar just by the color of its feathers.

"Isn't this...Charlie's little fat owl, Vivien?"

Finally, Dumbledore remembered it, and it matched the little guy in his memory who often flew to his office. But he usually didn't notice that this little guy could shrink so round...

"Why is he here with you?"

"Uh... I was just setting up a pot outside my hut to cook food for Yaya. When the newly baked rock cakes were ready in the room, I put down the spoon and went inside to get the rock cakes."

As Hagrid spoke, he pondered for a while and used his thick fingers to gently tease the owl in his arms, which was obviously not energetic.

"When I came out to see it, this little guy had already jumped into the pot... Fortunately, the food was almost done, so I turned off the heat, otherwise this little glutton would have suffered."

"By the way, Principal Dumbledore..."

Before Hagrid finished speaking, he continued, and then took out a wrinkled letter with some oil stains from the pocket of his robe.

"This little guy probably came to deliver a letter to you. After I took him out of the pot, I found this letter next to it - it was written by Charlie."

After hearing Hagrid's words, Dumbledore showed a look of understanding.

"I see...Thank you, Hagrid. Please sit down first and I'll take a look at what Charlie wrote to me."

Taking the letter from Hagrid, Dumbledore pushed up his glasses and said casually

"Seriously—"

After getting Dumbledore's permission, Hagrid skillfully found a place to sit and sat down. Then he took out a bag of transparent candies from his large pocket.

It was Charlie who gave Hogwarts the wind-sniffing violet candy in the candy vending machine.

The packaging is small, with about a dozen pills in each bag. The price is medium, not very cheap, but not too expensive either. Anyway, it is not a problem for Hagrid.

Anyway, he usually spends most of the salary paid to him by Hogwarts to buy wine. Now that he has candy as replacement, he not only looks better in spirit, but also saves a lot of money.

Hagrid tore open the packaging bag and skillfully picked one out of the transparent plastic bag with two fingers.

Although compared with his body shape, it is not very proportional, but for this kind of delicious food, Hagrid rarely changes from his usual behavior, and instead chooses another more detailed way of eating the candy to slowly savor the candy.

taste.

As the candy entered his mouth, his tongue flicked, letting the sweetness immediately fill his mouth.

After taking a deep breath of the violet-scented air, Hagrid finally spoke sincerely.

"Seriously... Charlie is a genius, not just for this candy, but also for that candy vending machine. Oh my God, what is in his head!"

"Creativity, thoughts, and a world that others cannot understand."

Dumbledore nodded with a smile, the wrinkles at the corners of his eyes showing some recognition of Hagrid's words.

While answering the question, he reached out his hand and opened the letter sent by Charlie.

"My dear Headmaster, to make a long story short...after a while, I will recall Dada and send a new employee to Hogwarts to manage the fifteen vending machines."

"His name is Dabu. He is a young child, and he is also a child with extraordinary potential and ideas. So, I hope you can..."

"...Originally, I wanted him to go over earlier and let you take a look at this child. However, as it happens, new products from our factory will be produced in the near future. I plan to ask him to bring some to you. You

You can be the second wizard besides me to eat this candy. I think you will like it very much, because it tastes like Lemon Olaf..."

"That's all I have to say. Finally, I hope your teeth will always be as white as ever and not be eaten by moths - your student: Charlie Black."

Hagrid did not disturb Dumbledore and was happily eating sweets.

After seeing Dumbledore put down the letter in his hand, he slowly exhaled a breath filled with violet smell and asked carefully

"What did Charlie tell you?"

Dumbledore looked at the letter in his hand with a kind smile on his face, as if he was looking at an old man of his own generation.

From this moment alone, the images of him and his brother Aberforth Dumbledore are vaguely overlapped.

"He introduced me to his back... He is a child in their factory. He hopes that I can take care of him after he arrives at Hogwarts. Then he said that the factory has made a new product.

Sometimes he would ask the kid to bring me a little..."

"New product!?"

Hagrid didn't seem to notice the previous words at all. It wasn't until Dumbledore mentioned the new product of Charlie's Candy that he became energetic.

"Can you give me some to taste then?"

Hagrid's eyes lit up, he subconsciously sat up a little straighter, and licked his lips under his thick beard.

"Of course." Dumbledore readily agreed. He raised his head again and looked at Hagrid. Without stopping, he carefully folded the letter and put it in the drawer, then said jokingly.

"When the time comes, you can be the third wizard to eat it."