Harry Potter: Charlie and the Candy Factory

"Are you kidding me?"

In the Gryffindor lounge on the third floor of Hogwarts, George Weasley stopped what he was writing on his homework, and then couldn't help but widen his eyes, as if he were watching a joke. He stared at the youngest brother in front of him at this moment.

"Fred! Come here, your brother is crazy!"

Suddenly, he suddenly stood up from his seat, put down the pen and paper in his hand, took two and three steps, and ran towards the dormitory where he and Fred shared while shouting.

With a muffled sound of "Peng", the dormitory door was closed, leaving Ron alone, standing there, looking dumbfounded at the place where George left.

What's going on?

Ron was confused for a moment. According to his opinion, after hearing the news, George and Fred would only behave in two ways.

One is deeply jealous of himself, and his words are full of sour envy. The other is frantically showing favor to himself, fawning over him, and begging him to bring something for them...

However, the naive Ron would not have imagined that his two brothers would actually sneer at his words, failing to even achieve the most basic trust.

Not long after the dormitory door closed, he clearly heard a burst of laughter coming from inside. Along with the laughter, there were noisy voices one after another.

You don’t need to think about it to know that after George returned to the dormitory, he definitely told others what he said to him as a joke!

"I'm not crazy!! I'm telling you very seriously!"

When Ron reacted, his face turned red with anger. He also ran to the door of the dormitory, knocking on it and gnashing his teeth as he walked inside.

"I'm telling you! You two don't believe it! When I really go there and get Charlie Black's autograph, you just huddle in the room and cry.

Because, I won’t ask for anything for you!!! Just wait and see!!!”

After saying that, probably because he still felt that he was not relieved enough, Ron kicked the door angrily twice, then turned around and left, searching for traces of Harry and the three of them in a depressed way.

As Ron left, the Gryffindor lounge outside the dormitory became quiet again.

"Squeaky..."

The wooden door opened, and Fred and George slowly poked their heads out.

Their expressions were incomprehensible. They first glanced at the direction Ron left, and then looked at each other.

"What should I say, Fred, I don't feel like Ron is making a fool of himself this time."

George asked.

"Who knows..." Fred raised his eyebrows and shrugged to himself.

After the two of them took their heads back and returned to the room, they looked at the painting with the figure of Charlie Black hanging on the wall and fell into deep thought for a while.

"You know...if what Ron said is true, then we will be in big trouble."

Holding his chin, for some reason, a vague sixth sense suddenly appeared, causing George to fall into deep thought at this moment.

"After all, I really want Charlie Black's autograph! He is the only legendary wizard who has defeated Filch in all aspects so far... Compared with him, our actions are like a small fight."

"Then what do you think we should do, George."

Fred came to the bed, sat down skillfully, then bent down and pulled out a box from under the bed, which was full of candies.

Outside, all the little wizards could hardly buy the wind-sniffing violets, and they had nearly half a box full in their hands.

After a while of selection, he tore open a bag of fruit-flavored gummy bears and ate them while continuing to ask.

"Maybe we can give Ron a little benefit...do you know what I mean? As an old Chinese saying goes, it's better to believe in something you have than something you don't believe."

After George thought for a moment, his eyes lit up and he gave his thoughts.

He moved his gaze away from the charming smile on the painting of Charlie Black and looked at the box filled with candy.

"How about... we go give Ron some violet candies? What do you think Fred."

"It doesn't matter, we still have a lot anyway." Fred shrugged and did not object. He just nodded, then skillfully bent down, took out two bags from the candies, and threw them to George.

"Ha...it looks like our little brother has finally grown up."

………………………………

Time flies quickly, especially in Charlie's factory.

With waves of Muggles or squibs successfully entering here with recruitment notices, the originally expanded assembly line has completely begun to play its original role and is on the right track.

Gradually, the elves seem to have become accustomed to the existence of these new employees, and no longer regard their appearance as a major event that can withstand discussion.

Only when he saw Kobe, the supervisor, holding the lesson plan under his arm and hurriedly walking towards another newly built factory, would he laugh and joke to his companions, "Ha, from now on, Kobe will be called Professor."

”, apart from that, there is nothing else.

After all, the two factories are separated by a long distance, and according to regulations, although Muggle employees can work here, they cannot enter the living area to use basic facilities or interfere with their normal lives like other elves.

Perhaps for Muggles, their life here is no different from life in the outside world, except that the money they receive has changed from pounds to more "high-end" galleons.

I go to work at the same time every day and leave at the same time every day, and I also have Saturdays and weekends off.

In your spare time, for example after get off work, you can go to the Leaky Cauldron in Diagon Alley with your co-workers and spend a few silver coins to drink a refreshing glass of "Wizard World Specialty" beer.

Everything is perfect...

At least for Vernon Dursley, that's the case.

Although every time he returned home, he always had to work hard in front of his wife. His brows were furrowed, his expression was gloomy, and he tried hard to show that he didn't like it there, but he still willingly sacrificed it for Dudley. In this way, he expressed his gratitude to Dudley.

Jenny said that she still did not "rebellion and surrender to the enemy"

But in fact, his state of mind gradually changed a lot.

Whether it was a relaxing job, a friendly environment, or a group of co-workers who were easier to get along with than before, his heart could not help but adapt and even be intoxicated.

I have even gradually forgotten my original intention when I first came to work here, which was actually to lift the vicious spell on my dear son Dudley...

………………………………

In the past few months, if we say what is the busiest work in the entire British wizarding world, then the Floo Network Administration, which is affiliated with the Department of Magical Transport, dares to say that it is second. I am afraid that no one can really claim to be first.

…

According to the original situation, the Floo Network Administration, whose basic responsibility is to monitor and build the fireplace network, should be regarded as a sinecure among sinecures.

After all, the entire British wizarding world is so big, and the foundation of the Floo Network is there. Even if it takes more than ten years, there will be few problems.

In one year's time, in addition to bringing several new wizard fireplaces into the management scope of the Floo network, they also dealt with some idiots who made unauthorized copies of Floo powder and succeeded in injuring themselves. Even if you are not yet a graduate.

Children can handle it easily.

It can be said that, except for the centaur office under the Department for the Control of Magical Creatures, they should be the most leisurely... (Because no centaur will ever accept their so-called services. Therefore, if a civil servant of the Ministry of Magic is transferred to

Horseman's office, that means he is not far away from being fired.)

However, ever since Fudge, as the Minister of Magic, waved his hand and chose to agree to Charlie Black's recruitment plan, their original leisure life and paid fishing have completely gone away from them...

Since most of the Muggles who apply for jobs are far away from the location of the factory, if they are really required to work in the usual Muggle way, I am afraid that many of them would not be able to come from home even if it takes half a day.

.

So there is no doubt that Charlie found the Department of Magical Transport and hoped that they could open up the floo network for their employees, a service that was originally only provided to wizards.

At the beginning, George Pakarin, the director of the Magic Transportation Department, did not agree.

Because there are nearly a thousand recruitment notices issued by Charlie Black. And the number of employees who actually applied for the job can be at least a hundred... You know, the number of fireplaces built by the Floo Network Administration in the past five years is far less.

To reach this number. What's more, he also requires that it be solved within a few months...

Basically, every time a new group of employees is recruited, the Floo Network Management Bureau will connect all the fireplaces of these Muggles to the Floo Network within this week.

In George Pakarin's view, Charlie's idea is undoubtedly ridiculous and absurd, and can be described as whimsical.

However, not long after, when Charlie re-entered his office and placed the mission document signed by the Minister of Magic Fudge lightly on his desk,

George Pakarin feels...this can't be said to be impossible.

After all, people's potential comes from forcing. If you don't force it, how do you know that the Floo Network Authority can't fill more than thirty fireplaces into the Floo Network within a week?

Anyway, if he doesn't do it himself, it has to be done!

So, just like this, after a long period of working like animals around the clock, working day and night, a group of civil servants from the Floo Network Bureau finally managed to catch up.

The recruitment speed of Charlie's Candy Factory.

………………………………

"Okay...there's still one last step left."

In an ordinary-looking, featureless house in Inverness, Cowley Moseley slowly straightened up in front of an old fireplace.

He exhaled a long breath and said feebly.

At this moment, Cowley's beige windbreaker was stained by the stove ash, and his hands and face were also dirty and messy.

However, when he turned his head and looked at the other two colleagues who came here with him, there was no trace of unhappiness or boredom on their expressions.

In those eyes that were covered with fatigue and numbness, there was a faint light of life.

After hearing Cowley's words, the other two people also became moved in an instant.

The corners of their mouths twitched slightly, but they could not say a word. Tears of excitement rolled in their eyes, almost falling down on the spot, staining their faces with ashes.

After a long time, one of them trembled and asked

"Is this the last one?"

"Um!"

Cowley couldn't hold himself any longer and nodded heavily.

"Come on... as long as we complete the last step, we will be liberated."

Another colleague took a deep breath and began to look enlightened.

He put his hand into his pocket and skillfully took out a small round box made of silver. It looked a bit like the cream from China in the last century.

The colleague slowly opened it, revealing the floo powder inside. Then he put it in his hand, raised his eyes and nodded solemnly to Cowley who was standing in the front.

"Um……"

Cowley naturally responded, and then he also put his hand into his pocket and took out a medicine spoon.

The hand holding the medicine spoon stretched out, scooped up a full spoonful steadily, then turned around and threw it towards the fireplace.

At the same time, the three people who were waiting closely for this scene shouted in unison

"Ministry of Magic!!!!"

"Peng!" sounded, and a muffled sound like an explosion came from the originally lonely and empty fireplace.

The next second, a bunch of green flames rose out of the air, spitting out tongues of fire quickly, spreading toward the inside of the fireplace and in other directions. It also caused the surrounding light to begin to change, briefly illuminating the green fire.

appeared on their faces, and then disappeared without a trace the next second.

Although due to the dosage, the flame disappeared quickly, and the size was not as violent as that used on weekdays.

However, this is enough, it means that this fireplace has entered the floo network and become one of thousands of connection points.

At the same time, it also means that the mission of Cowley and the others has come to an end...

"Bata..."

Tears flowed down his face and fell on the floor of the house, spreading soot on his face.

"finally……"

Cowley closed his eyes, opened his arms, and faced the fireplace, as if facing an unknown god piously.

"It's finally over."

This will be a perfect end to their work over the past few months.

Because this is the last Muggle recruited by Charlie's Candy Factory, and it is also the last fireplace they will add to the Floo Network.