Hermione, Be the Minister of Magic with Me!

When Lockhart questioned, he also glanced at the pure-blood wizard who said this, and found that the other party's dress robe was very old.

If nothing else, his family should not have any money to invest in oil wells, no wonder they are so aggressive.

The wizard wanted to say something more, but was stopped by the light coughs of his companions around him.

Seeing that he stopped talking, Lockhart also pretended not to understand his overtones, but continued to speak.

"...We chose Nigeria because that country is chaotic and poor. There are tens of thousands of oil refineries in the country ranging from public to private. The government is completely out of control of the opening of factories, so we can negotiate with their government to buy two pieces of land, and then apply the Muggle Expulsion Curse..."

"Do you still want to buy?" Someone couldn't help but ask, "Didn't you just say that the government can't control the private factory?"

Without an explanation from Lockhart this time, Mr. Farley answered for him.

"Nott, use your brain! If we also dig privately, what is the difference between us and Muggle thieves?"

The reprimanded person is not convinced: "When do we need to pursue this kind of moral superiority? Or for Muggles?"

"Fool." Farley replied coldly, "I mean to make money... Although I don't know what Muggle 'finance' is, I think I understand a little bit about business. "

But when he looked at Nott's expression, he didn't understand what business was.

"If we stole Nigerian oil, others will follow our example, and not only will there be conflicts, quarrels, but there may be a bargaining competition in the market, which will cost us a lot of money and a lot of money. energy.

Therefore, we might as well simply buy the legal management rights from the Muggle government through the African wizarding community, and exchange for their support by giving taxes to the government, and use the government's force to swallow up the business of competitors little by little. It ended up being an exclusive business... that's what we did hundreds of years ago and still do it now, is it hard? "

Lockhart is very happy that there are still one or two people who understand these people. If there are no people who understand this truth, then he will reconsider the issue of cooperation with the pure blood family.

"I will donate a thousand Galleons to the Hogwarts Alumni Association." Mr. Farley solemnly promised Lockhart, "Students should learn how to participate in politics when they are in school."

/mouth

Lockhart reached out to shake his hand as a thank you.

—Thousands of Galleons are not many. If it is replaced by investment, it may only be enough to buy a small oil pump, but if it is just a donation to the school’s student organization, the money is slightly more.

But this is also good. After the student union has enough financial backing, they can be more lenient in managing the funds of the club, and their power will be expanded a lot because of this.

Lockhart immediately reciprocated: "I hope Miss Farley can help supervise the operation of the club even after graduation."

"It is my duty." Mr. Farley understood, "Gemma has said many times that you are her favorite professor."

Chapter 131: Initial Results

The wealth is touching, and in the face of the possibility of family wealth increasing, the pure blood family did not even bother to pay attention to the third year finals of Slytherin.

It's also a Slytherin civil war anyway, so there's nothing to pay attention to.

In "Sacred Twenty-Eight Pure Blood", although Slytherin accounts for most of them, there are still Hufflepuff families like Aibo and Diggory, and Gryffindor families like Weasley and Longbottom. There are also Ravenclaws like McMillan and Ollivander.

Even the Slytherins, because they have more pressing things to do now.

If Slytherin's little snakes know that their hard work has been ignored by their elders, they will be very depressed, but as long as they continue to grow, sooner or later they will understand the struggle for power and power for glory. difference between profit

The duel on the first day was not a good result for the little snakes in Slytherin. Although they successfully won the third-year championship in the end, this was expected before the game, but the first-year The defeat, and the success of Harry's leapfrog challenge, still left the Slytherins with a dull face.

Lockhart didn't get to see Harry's leapfrog challenge, but I heard that after Harry discovered the benefits of using a broom, he simply stopped on the broom to complete the leapfrog challenge, and it turned out to be a third-year Slytherin. The prepared pot of poisonous tentacles didn't work at all, and he could only watch Harry launch spells and fireworks downwards in the air.

Even if Slytherin protested afterwards that this could not be considered a duel at all, Gryffindor immediately retorted, saying that poison tentacles are also dangerous magical plants, but because the rules were not written, Slytherin also took advantage of the loophole.

"It's also because the rules haven't been written, you just haven't even drilled the loopholes well.

' said Wood sarcastically.

No matter how Slytherin protested, broomsticks were indeed a type of magic item according to the rules, and there was no reason why you couldn't use a broomstick in a duel.

This is a brand new topic for young wizards - when the battlefield changes from two-dimensional to three-dimensional, many tactics that were originally on the ground need to be redesigned, even if the height of the secret room and the auditorium is actually limited.

It is said that after watching the duel, Mr. Fleet is ready to ask Harry to endorse his product, which is a new model of broom he plans to launch next year - Twigg 94

This model will mainly use "safety" and "anti-curse" as its selling points, add more handguards and pedals, and make more efforts on the overall firmness, supplemented by anti-curse varnish, and strive to be in the comet, A new market is squeezed out between the three companies of Nimbus and Sweep.

The duel on the second day has not yet started, but the event has already yielded a lot of fruit.

Dumbledore received a donation of about 19,000 Galleons, which was not much compared to his own net worth, but given that Hogwarts' operating expenses were not high, the money was enough for Hogwarts. Gwarts does a lot of things.

Of course, if, like the Ivy League University in the United States, it would rather give the school football coach an annual salary of $7 million than give an ordinary professor an annual salary of $50,000, then no matter how much alumni donate, it will not be enough.

In addition to the donations received by the school, Lockhart himself has also gained a lot. After deliberation for a long time, the pure-blood families decided to send a few people to visit Africa at the end of the year.

After the new industry was naturally monopolized by Muggle-born wizards, the old industry in the wizarding world gradually declined, and these families felt a sense of crisis. After all, Gaunt's

The lessons from the past are still there, and they can't allow their own family to sit still.

Lockhart suggested that they pack their armor and camping stuff, because it's really messy over there in Nigeria.

It is often said sourly that some countries in the Middle East and South America can get rich, "don't they rely on oil?"

But the example of Nigeria tells the world that even if some countries have rich natural resources and convenient transportation environment, as long as problems such as religion, military government, and European and American interference in politics still exist, they will still not be able to become rich.

There are constant looting and conflict. In addition to the robbers, there are also pirates stationed in the Gulf of Guinea all the year round, and these robbers are not the ordinary people who have no oil and water, but the oil refineries under the control of the military government.

However, there is a saying that is good - "wealth and risk seek".

The thing that the Nigerian military government is most worried about is no longer a problem under the Muggle Expulsion Curse. Only the wizards of the projects that Muggle capitalists have a headache when they hear it have room to intervene, and high-quality projects such as the Middle East and Malay Oil is no match for them.

In 1993, Nigeria was about to usher in a coup d'état, which was a great opportunity to reshuffle the cards, and it was this opportunity that Lockhart and Gringotts had been staring at.

If this can happen, then Lockhart's political sponsorship is likely to be far greater than the amount of donations Dumbledore made.

Just as Lockhart was smugly watching the duel match the next night, the Malfoys, who had been unusually quiet the day before, suddenly made a big move.

Lucius Malfoy publicly announced before the duel that he would donate 10,000 Galleons a year for the establishment of a Snake House alumni association within Slytherin House.

"The conference will be handed over to the prefects, and the finances can be distributed freely, so that the students in our school will not be at risk of running out of food." Lucius said.

This is a bit too big, so that it dwarfs other families who call themselves nobles, so they have to donate all kinds of magic items to avoid horses.

Delphi hog's limelight.

Obviously, this is the reaction of the Malfoys after being expelled from the school board, and they want to use this opportunity to regain some power at Hogwarts.

Even Dumbledore could not object to this. As the principal, he could not refuse donations from alumni to the school, even if the donations were directed.

This is the two sides of things. There are advantages and disadvantages to integrating the school with the society. The advantage is that both the school and the society can benefit from it.

However, this was not unexpected by Dumbledore, he had guessed that the Malfoys would probably do it before implementing the plan.

As rich people, their money is not only satisfying their extravagant life, but the extra part is actually of little meaning to them.

When a person has thousands of cows, but he can only eat two or three cows a year, the only meaning of the extra cows is to use them to support other people, and to exchange them for other people's cows. Serve.

Lockhart advised Dumbledore to relax.

"If you don't want the Ministry of Magic to intervene, you have to involve the general public in the running of school affairs, with checks and balances between academic education, socioeconomics and politics.

Dumbledore shook his head gently: "I'm not really worried about this, I just don't know whether the number of dark wizards following that person will increase or decrease after this continues."

Lockhart dismissed Dumbledore's concerns.

"You might as well think back to who the **** was supporting that guy--some were coerced out of fear of him, scumbags like Malfoy listened because he showed strength, and he followed suit. His Death Eaters... Aren't those who have power, but who have lost their financial means for lack of flexibility

Broken down? "

Like the Carlo brothers and sisters of the Nott family, the Dolohov Lestrange couple, Regulus and Black, basically people who have no brains and are addicted to the past family glory will follow him, even if Regule Si finally woke up, and couldn't avoid the fact that he had been a fool.

But this is also understandable. It is always painful to admit the truth. When a person is doubting himself, if someone suddenly tells them that the world should be ours, and weaving a set of words for this, you also I think he's very eloquent

That's why the core Death Eaters have the image of lack of shrewdness and brutality in front of the world. It's rare to have people with brains like Barty Crouch Jr. and Snape. Of course, Voldemort has to reuse them.

If all the wizards had a family and business, lived a happy and happy life, had harmonious relationships, and still had money to eat, drink, prostitute, and gamble, who would be willing to engage in terrorist activities with Voldemort?

Dumbledore nodded: "I think so too, but I'm not always right

"Relax, Headmaster, we are striding on the right path." Luo

Hart said boldly

Chapter 132: The Enemy Who Sneaked In

Just as the situation at Hogwarts was surging, the duel in the secret room on the bright side finally came to an end.

Not surprisingly, the champion of the fourth grade group was Cedric Diggory.

Cedric's fighting style is a lot more unpretentious compared to the others, but he shows a calmness that others can't match.

From start to finish Cedric used little spells familiar to the students, such as Transfiguration, Cloud Spell, Snowball, Magic Missile, Knockback, Disarm and Stun, but the timing of his release And calmly seeing tricks and dismantling tricks made him invincible.

With cheers from his own father, Cedric easily defeated his final opponent George Weasley, a scene that didn't even allow Harry to challenge his thoughts.

He then made consecutive leapfrog challenges to the fifth-year champion and successfully defeated C. Warrington of Slytherin.

The Slytherins were relieved that Cedric didn't challenge the sixth graders, given the magical surge in wizarding adulthood, but it was enough for his father to brag about for a few years.

But Kevin Hopwood, a seventh-grade student in the swollen hospital, who was purely a ticket-playing Gobstone player, used his rich understanding of his opponent's tactics to win a game by trickery in the final. If it wasn't for Slytherin's senior in the winner's bracket, I'm afraid the soon-to-be champion would just fly like this.

Slytherin House was afraid that their dean would get angry, but Snape didn't seem very angry, maybe it had something to do with his mother being the captain of the Hogwarts Gobstones back then

In any case, Slytherin has won three year group championships, of which

It also includes the seventh grade with the most gold content, and is still the biggest winner of the duel competition.

But this is not their biggest gain. The biggest gain is that Slytherin Academy has got a lot of money, which can be used for future "arms race"

Even if Dumbledore was biased intentionally, he had to add 300 points to Slytherin, while Sa Yuan, who had a leapfrog challenge, added 150, the Lion House 250, and the Eagle House 100.

The students of other colleges will be very worried about this. If the Slytherins monopolize the right to speak in the dueling club, the resources of other colleges will definitely be squeezed because of this. In addition to Quidditch, the Snake House has another There will be a big project to earn points, which is definitely not a good thing.

They told their elders about it, and hoped that they could give more funding, but at this time, the elders were more concerned about how many people the investment project in Africa could bring in and how much stable income it would bring to them.

Lockhart has obviously come together with Dumbledore. Although they did not say it clearly, the people who can join the investment group must be people who have a political stance, and they are mentally prepared for this. .

"Get what you can get, and then think about the next step," Farley said to his companion.

When everything seemed to be going well, Wizard Politics published an article ahead of the Daily Prophet 7's coverage of the Hogwarts dueling events.

"Students' job is to learn so that they can be successful in the future. And parents don't send their children to Hogwarts to make them perform juggling in public like circus monkeys."

"Dumbledore spent his life preaching love and peace, but inciting opposition and struggle in his own schools."

"When the smell of copper enters the campus, can academics still be impartial

"The area outside the Forbidden Forest has been cut off by hedgerows, and the thousand-year-old secret room has been reopened. The professor of Defense Against the Dark Arts teaches students black magic, the professor of potions allows students to poison you, the professor of magic spells to teach killing spells, and magical creatures. Professor unleashing fire crabs in public... Hogwarts is building an army like never before?"

When Percy showed Lockhart the editorial, Lockhart's first reaction was to look at the author.

Then he saw a familiar name on the author column - Rita Skeeter.

"As expected of her, the angle is still as tricky as ever." Lockhart praised casually.

But Percy was a little distressed. He came to Lockhart with this editorial, obviously not to hear Lockhart's praise for Ms. Skeeter.

"The information in the newspapers and public opinion can be ignored for the time being, but it is necessary for us to find out first which guest brought this matter out." Percy frowned and said.

"Guests? Why do you doubt them?" Lockhart asked rhetorically.

He didn't think it was revealed by the guests, even if there were people like Malfoy who were destined to not pee in the same pot with Dumbledore.

In addition to some people who have made up their minds to get involved in this matter, a considerable number of alumni are still watching.

There is no reason for these people to openly oppose the school at this time. Even if they want to do something wrong, they should wait until they don't get the right benefit and go outside before exposing it.

"It contains a lot of scenes from the dueling arena, as well as changes inside and outside the school. Although it is a little exaggerated, it is impossible to know so many details if it is not for people who have been here and pay special attention."

Percy's words are well-founded, but Lockhart knows something Percy doesn't know yet, so he doesn't agree with him.

"If that's the case, I'm afraid you are overthinking it. Maybe she saw this herself and chose to distort the facts."

Percy shook his head again and again: "That's impossible, we don't have Skeeter on the guest list."

"Yeah." Lockhart stared at "Witcher Politics" with a thoughtful expression, "perhaps she came uninvited."

Percy was a little worried, because Lockhart seemed to be implying that the student union's guest selection was not done well.

"Even if she sneaks into the castle, it is impossible to enter the secret room. We have checked the identities of the guests who participated in the secret room concert and watched the duel. We checked not only the invitations, but also..."

Lockhart smiled apologetically at him: "I didn't mean that, you think too much. I have already speculated about the method of Rita Skeeter sneaking into the secret room, it has nothing to do with your work... I'm going to find it The headmaster borrowed a Pensieve to make sure we did see her somewhere by accident, we just didn't pay attention."

Pensieve is a good thing, it can perfectly reproduce the memory of a wizard, and it is also a real-time scene reproduction, which is very suitable for people who have forgotten some details accidentally.