days at Hogwarts

Chapter 630: The Magic House, No, It’s an Arms Dealer
Behind the shop is the storage room, a spacious but dimly lit room. When you push the door open, you will see a large wooden square table in the middle of the room, surrounded by neatly arranged display shelves with boxes of Trick Shop products on the shelves.

They walked into the inner room and closed the wooden door. The noisy noises of laughter in the shop faded, and the three of them sat down around the square table.

"Honestly, Professor Lupin, you look like you haven't had a good night's sleep for a week." Loren looked at the dark circles under his eyes and asked with concern, "Is there anything bothering you recently?"

Lupin glanced at the two slightly childish faces and said with a smile: "You will know in the future that adult wizards have new troubles every day."

"This is in George and Fred's joke shop. They will definitely disagree with you." Loren looked around. "There are things everywhere that can make people happy."

"Momentary happiness cannot cover up the terrible reality." Lupin sighed, then shook his head and said, "But at a time like this, it's good enough to be able to forget the troubles for a short time... Forget it, let's talk about what happened recently..."

Loren saw that his frowning brows relaxed and he sat there listening quietly.

"The story begins when you took an exam last semester..."

Lupin slowed down his speech, organizing his thoughts while choosing his words, "Two months ago, I received a letter from the Magical Congress of the United States and the Werewolf Organization. Their investigation found some abnormal conditions. Someone was recruiting dark wizards there and secretly bewitching werewolves. There were even signs that... someone was using the Imperius Curse to enslave them..."

"Was it Voldemort's work?" Hermione guessed immediately.

Lupin nodded. "After receiving the letter, I immediately went to New York to investigate and found Greyback's whereabouts, or rather, a group of werewolves that had escaped from the UK. They recruited dark wizards and enslaved werewolves. Some of them were transferred here to deal with the offensive of the Ministry of Magic, and some stayed in the United States, seemingly planning something. But Greyback was too stubborn. He refused to reveal Voldemort's purpose until he was taken into the bedrock of Manhattan at the bottom of the building..."

"Manhattan bedrock..." Loren repeated.

"It is the execution chamber of the Magical Congress of the United States of America, located on the bottom floor of the Woolworth Building. There is a pool of death potion that can silently display the memories of the death row prisoner. We can see some scenes through the silhouettes of his memories before his death..."

Lupin explained calmly that no one had expected that Greyback's most precious memories were of his life before he was infected with lycanthropy, and because of this, his behavior of understanding that pain and passing it on to others was even more unforgivable.

"Some of the footage suggests that they had been lurking in Ilvermorny for a long time, and did not even leave when Voldemort attacked the Ministry of Magic."

"what are they doing?"

"Not sure. The Magical Congress of the United States notified Ilvermorny immediately. Principal Fontana invited many experienced wizards to investigate, but there is no result so far."

Lupin shook his head. "The Aurors examined other werewolves. They said they were hunting down Igor Karkaroff. But that doesn't explain why they stayed in New York and Ilvermorny. Half a year ago, they found Igor Karkaroff's body on the banks of the Mississippi River."

"Igor Karkaroff..." Hermione sighed as the goateed wizard appeared in front of her eyes. "If he hadn't escaped, he might have been safer under the protection of the Ministry of Magic and Dumbledore."

"Greyback is hiding in... Ilvermorny... Voldemort..." Loren frowned slowly, and various clues gathered in his mind, outlining a vague picture, "Could Voldemort be plotting against Slytherin's wand? The wand that turned into a snake tree on the top of Greylock Mountain."

Hermione was silent for a moment, with a thoughtful expression.

The snakewood wand was made by Salazar Slytherin himself, using Slytherin's unique magical skills. Like other treasures he left behind, this wand obeys the commands of Parseltongue.

In the early 17th century, Isolt Sayre stole the snakewood wand held by her aunt Gormlaith Gaunt and came to Ilvermorny, which was founded in Massachusetts.

Later, Gormlaith Gaunt came to visit her, and after a series of thrilling and exciting adventures with twists and turns, Aesop Thur finally won. The price was that the snakewood wand was ordered to dormant, and she could not use it because she could not speak Parseltongue.

The wand was buried on the top of Mount Greylock, and a year later, a snake tree with powerful healing powers grew from the burial site.

Since he couldn't get the Elder Wand that was his first choice, it made sense for Voldemort to turn to the wand left behind by Slytherin.

Lupin suddenly spoke up and said, "Principal Fontana also suspected that his target was the snake tree. He has sent someone to check it out. The snake tree is just missing some branches and leaves. There is no problem with the whole tree, and its healing magic has not weakened."

"That's strange..." Loren was very surprised, and Hermione frowned.

"Don't think about it. This is not something you should worry about." Lupin looked at the two young wizards who were lost in thought and chuckled. "You should pay attention to your own personal safety, Loren. The dark wizards recruited by Voldemort have recently attacked many people who are proficient in alchemy and know the ancient secrets of the Middle Ages..."

"Don't worry, school starts in less than two weeks..." Loren shrugged. If Voldemort wanted to get some secret information about alchemy and the Middle Ages from him, he would definitely not wait until now. "Harry should pay more attention to safety than me, right?"

Lupin nodded and smiled. "Harry has moved out of the Dursleys' house. His current residence is not fixed. He rotates between the Burrow and the Black mansion. Mad-Eye Moody leads a team of Order of the Phoenix members hiding near the Burrow, and Tonks leads a team of Aurors stationed at Grimmauld Place. The most important thing is that Scrimgeour has ordered the Department of Transport to cancel the monitoring of the Burrow's Floo network. No one will find Harry's whereabouts."

The Floo network constructed by the Transport Department is truly a great invention that has changed the wizarding world. It is almost equivalent to the network lines in the Muggle world. The fireplace is connected to the Floo network, just like having fiber optic access at home. Wizards no longer need to climb mountains and cross rivers for long-distance travel, nor do they need to fly thousands of miles on broomsticks, nor do they need to spend time and effort to Apparate continuously. They only need to pay a little insignificant Floo powder to transform themselves into signals and transmit between the Floo networks.

The fireplace in the Blake mansion has its address hidden after being connected to the Internet, making it impossible for others to view it and difficult for the Transportation Department to monitor it.

The best network protection in the Muggle world is to disconnect from the Internet, which also means that the Black Mansion connected to the Floo Network is not 100% safe. Loren has now started to think seriously about it. If the Transportation Department always sees that the fireplace in the Burrow is connected to an unknown address, any smart person can guess that it is the Black Mansion.

Thinking of this, Loren subconsciously looked towards the fireplace in the magic show house. Unfortunately, it was summer and there was no fire in the fireplace. In addition, the shelves blocked the view of the fireplace.

Noticing his movements and expressions, Lupin followed his line of sight. Although he did not find anything unusual, he knew that this student was different. He asked directly: "Are there any loopholes in the protective measures? Or is there anything that can be improved? Just tell me."

"I have a rough idea. I want to connect the space channel of the old Black house in the Burrow independently, and not connect it to the Ministry of Magic's Floo network at all..." Loren pinched the pendant on his chest. In fact, he was not very worried about the security issue. With Dumbledore alone defending Voldemort, the other Dementors, werewolves and new Death Eaters were definitely no match for Moody and others. But this transformation was an opportunity. He could try to use the space magic obtained from the Planetary Room of the Department of Mysteries.

Loren thought about it, and his thoughts gradually became smoother. He spoke his thoughts bit by bit: "This connection is more private and more secure, and I may be able to build a pass identification mechanism. When using Floo powder, the target fireplace must agree to transmit..."

Hermione tilted her head slightly and looked at Loren beside her. Her eyes fell on the silver gem pendant on Loren's chest, and she showed an understanding expression.

The things we brought out from the planetary room last year should have yielded some results.

After listening to his idea, Lupin thought for a moment and said happily, "This will be of great help in future protective work. I will discuss it with them when I return and try to hand over the fireplace to you for renovation as soon as possible."

Loren nodded slightly.

At this moment, the door of the storage room was suddenly pushed open, and the twins said happily: "We also have a project for you to cooperate with!"

George and Fred came running in with quick strides. It was not known how much of the news they had heard. The three people who were talking did not care much. Anyway, it was the fireplace of the Burrow that was about to be renovated, and there was no way they could hide it from them.

"What is this cooperative project you mentioned?"

Facing the three people's puzzled looks, Fred explained, "We mentioned this to you a long time ago. You can use your superb alchemy skills and potion skills to develop and produce products, and we will be responsible for the promotion and sales."

George chuckled and said, "You can name the profit share as you like, whether it's 30%, 70%, 20%, or 19%. We believe in your alchemy and potions."

Loren thought for a moment, shook his head and refused, "Forget it, I'm not short of money now. What's more important is... for prank products, thinking is more important than technology. Alchemy and potions are just tools to realize ideas. I may come up with a few good ideas occasionally, but they are definitely not as popular as the prank products you designed. This is your unique talent."

The twins never cared about other people's comments on their achievements, but they enjoyed such compliments.

"The purpose of Weasley's Hocus Pocus is to bring happiness to customers!" George and Fred said in unison, but the next moment they burst into laughter, "But the cooperation we are talking about is not a prank product!"

"What is that?" Hermione asked curiously.

"It's protection against the dark arts. To use the words of you Muggles..." George said proudly, "It's a military product!"

"We just developed these more serious products. It's really funny..." Fred muttered as he walked to the display shelf and took out some things from the carton. Compared with the goods displayed outside, these products seemed relatively low-key. "It's unbelievable that people working in the Ministry of Magic...even many senior Aurors, they can't even recite a decent Shield Charm."

"That's right. We originally thought that the curse-proof hat was just a funny thing." George showed off an ordinary felt hat. "When you wear this hat and stare at someone's face when they curse you, the curse will bounce back. It was originally used to play tricks on your companions. I didn't expect the Ministry of Magic to purchase 500 of them! Now they are placing additional orders for larger amounts!"

"So we took the opportunity to develop a series of products, such as anti-curse cloaks, anti-curse gloves, etc...."

Fred spread his hands to show the products. "By the way, I picked some products from other countries. Look, the invisible smoke bombs imported from Peru. Charlie introduced them. He once tamed a Peruvian venomous dragon. Bait bombs, props to divert attention when the fire dragon gets out of control..."

Loren became interested and looked through the products in front of him.

The decoy bomb, which looks like a black owl, has a simple alchemy process in terms of materials and craftsmanship. Once thrown out, it will make a loud noise and quickly flee. The invisible smoke bomb, which has a slightly worse invisible effect than the Disillusionment Spell, has a very effective smoke burst...

As for other spell-casting products, the basic principle is the use of the Armor Curse, and the effect... is stronger than Merlin's Blessing.

"It goes without saying that they are not very effective against the Unforgivable Curses. They can only protect against some less deadly and less powerful evil curses..." George said excitedly, his eyes shining. "But these things are simply cash cows!"

The two of them looked at Loren together, their eyes sparkling: "We plan to fully enter the field of Defense Against the Dark Arts, and now formally invite you to join, Loren!"

Loren raised his eyebrows. "It sounds interesting, but I have a different opinion on the share you proposed."

George and Fred looked sad: "Can't we just take 10%?"

"I really don't want you to take 10%..." Loren smiled, "Listen to me, the two bosses of Weasley Arms Company, I don't plan to spend a lot of time as a supplier. It's too troublesome to refine things and sell them, so I have a suggestion..."

"What advice?"

"I will be responsible for the research and development work, developing products and drawing blueprints, and recording the refining methods in detail. You can refine and sell them by yourselves, and you only need to pay me the patent fee." Loren paused, "The patent fee is a price that we both agree on. It can be a direct buyout or a split. It means that you spend more time and make more money."

George and Fred looked at each other, cheered in surprise, and took two steps forward, trying to hold his arms and lift him up.

Loren quickly dodged.

Just at this moment, a young witch with short golden hair pushed the door open. She was also wearing a magenta shop uniform robe.

George and Fred immediately changed their target and ran over to high-five her happily:
"Virity! We're going to be rich!"

(End of this chapter)