A certain Hogwarts professor of runes

Chapter 176 LCA Press

The next morning at 9:30, 126a Diagon Alley.

At the entrance of a low, white building, Felix smiled and shook hands with a woman in a purple dress to say goodbye.

"No need to see me off, ma'am. It's an honor to continue working with you."

"Oh, Mr. Hyp, you are too modest. Your books are always so inspiring."

Felix descended the dark brown wooden steps and blended into the crowded throng. A sense of relief washed over him. 'The first book deal is done; it took almost no effort.'

"But the main event is yet to come."

He walked along Diagon Alley, turned at Gringotts Bank, and took another side street, counting the house numbers along the way.

"Diagon Alley's south side has 13a, 14b, 15a... so shop number 15b should be across the street." Felix turned around and saw a seven-story building.

The building was filthy and dilapidated, with the letters on it peeling off. He could barely make out the letter L, which cast a shadow over his upcoming collaboration.

Between the building and the adjacent houses, there is a row of huge trash cans, which also bear the LCA logo.

He went up the dark staircase to the second floor, pushed open a large oak door covered in scratches, and a cacophony of noises entered his ears.

He seemed to have entered another world, where the walls were covered with densely packed, colorful comic strips that completely obscured the walls themselves.

The main character in most of the drawings is a little boy wearing a beret and a striped shirt, who is active in different scenes: being chased by a group of Bowtruckles; waving a small stick in his hand; riding a one-horned rhinoceros, excitedly turning his head to call to his companions; standing on the roof of a farmhouse wearing a wizard's cloak...

But Felix could tell that these paintings were quite old; the colors on some of the drafts had faded, and a few in the corners had even developed purple mold spots.

All of this shows that this publishing house was once glorious, but is now somewhat declining.

"Is anyone there, Mr. Andes?" Felix called out.

Half a day later, a door was pushed open beside him. The door was hidden among layers of drawings, and Felix didn't notice it at first.

A thin, middle-aged wizard with a stubble beard stared at him and asked in a heavily nasal voice, "Felix Heap?"

"It's me. I think you must be Mr. Andes? We had an appointment."

The wizard loosened the doorknob. "Come in, it's a bit messy inside." He then retreated on his own.

Felix frowned slightly, but he didn't say anything. He followed the wizard into the room, which smelled bad and was filled with various odds and ends. He also saw a few plates of leftover food in the corner.

This gave him the creeps, and his first instinct was to Apparate away from there.

The only thing that comforted him was that in this place that could barely be called a studio, he saw fresh paints and canvases, and the half of the painting on them was excellent.

He decided to explore the room further, but only if it suited his aesthetic taste.

"Clean it up! Clean it up! A whirlwind sweep!"

Felix waved his wand repeatedly, clearing away all the trash in the room. A sudden gust of wind raged through the small room, making the windows rattle and the tables and chairs shake violently. But the dust and grime on them were quickly stripped away and swept into the wind, eventually forming a murky mass of air.

He pushed open the window, and a silver swift flew out from the tip of his wand. "Do me a favor. I remember seeing a trash can when I came in." The swift nodded to him, flapped its wings, and flew out the window, followed by a long gray dragon.

"You, you..." The wizard named Andis stared at Felix in disbelief, his tongue tied in knots.

"Please sit down, Mr. Andes." Felix waved his wand and pushed a cleaned chair in front of him.

Andy sat down with a blank expression. He looked around and it took him a while to realize, "This seems to be my house?" He muttered to himself at first, then his face turned red and he shouted angrily.

Felix sat opposite him, his expression calm, and said, "Mr. Andes, let's get straight to the point. Since you've agreed to this visit, I'll assume you do have a need for submissions from outside sources."

"As a potential partner of yours, I have the right to make demands of you, at least until you explicitly refuse."

"you……"

Felix tapped the ring with his wand, and a stack of drawings flew out. "These are my manuscripts, 'The Adventures of Mick the Little Wizard,' which I mentioned in my letter. You can take a look first, and then you can decide whether we should continue the conversation. I don't want to waste either of our time."

The wizard opposite him, holding the sketches, looked at him with a puzzled expression.

"What are you waiting for?"

The wizard swallowed hard and chuckled dryly, "N-nothing."

He quickly looked down and mentally labeled Felix as a strong-willed wizard.

The wizard decided to pick out a few flaws at random, then quickly send him away. If he wasn't satisfied, he would run to the street and ask for help...

As time passed, Andes, who had initially been nonchalant, became serious. He frequently offered various comments.

"Not bad."

"That's interesting."

"What is this... a Ferris... wheel? How does it rotate? Is it really not magic?"

"My goodness, two glasses of water mixed together can turn red? I guess it's the effect of some kind of transparent potion."

I don't know when it started, but he pulled his chair next to Felix and started discussing things with him.

"I like this part; I think it's very insightful—"

Felix looked over and saw the young wizard Mick and his newly acquainted Muggle friend shopping for clothes:

"How should I put it?" Little wizard Mick asked nervously, looking at the dazzling array of clothes in the store. "I don't understand at all. I'm just a simple-minded country bumpkin."

"Don't worry, I don't know either, but my mom told me a trick," his friend said.

Young wizard Mick watched as his companion confidently addressed the shop assistant, "My friend only has a budget of £15, but he needs a blouse, trousers, and preferably a bow tie. Can you do that, ma'am?"

The young shop assistant smiled and said, "Of course, young gentleman." She glanced at the little wizard Mick's figure and turned to get the appropriate clothes.

His companion smiled at the young wizard Mick, "How was it? Not too difficult, right?"

……

About half an hour later, Felix asked him, "How do you feel?"

Andes' expression turned shrewd as he quickly assessed the manuscript's value. After seven or eight minutes, he hesitated and said, "To be honest, I'm not sure either."

He added, "Personally, I think it's a pretty fun children's comic book, but I'm not that confident in my judgment. As you can see, this publishing house did have its glory days, but since I took over, it's failed more than a dozen times in a row. In the end, we had to release a 30th-anniversary edition of the old books."

"Mr. Andes, I haven't asked you yet what the letters LCA stand for?" Felix asked.

"It's an abbreviation of the names of the three founders. The 'A' stands for Andis, which was founded by my grandfather and two of his good friends," the wizard said.

"And your company's masterpiece, 'The Adventures of Martin Miguel'..."

"It was my grandfather's idea, and it's also based on his own experience. When he was a child, he hosted a Muggle boy who had wandered into the magical world. They played happily for a week before they were discovered. The Ministry of Magic erased the boy's memory and sent him back home."

Felix nodded knowingly. He took out several parchment sheets from his ring, covered with various tables and data. The parchment sheets fluttered and stuck to the wall.

"Mr. Andy, I cannot prove that this manuscript will necessarily help your publishing house turn things around, but we can analyze the data. Since its inception, your company has published a total of seventeen comic books. Of course, 'The Adventures of Martin Miguel' is the most famous. I obtained some data from a friend at the Ministry of Magic who is in charge of publications, and it is clear that relatively novel content is more popular..."

"At the same time, this manuscript, which is positioned as a children's publication, does not seem childish or immature, and is also very accessible to adults. If you are interested, we can collaborate."

Andes didn't really have many options, unless he wanted to continue eating the leftovers from thirty years ago.

Therefore, when Felix gave him a plausible reason, he readily agreed. Their initial plan was conservative: to publish a hundred copies first as a trial, so that even if it failed, it wouldn't be a big deal.

At most, it was just that Andes wasted a little time, but time is the last thing he has.

After finalizing the collaboration, Andy demonstrated his family's traditional craft to him. He made some changes to one of Felix's drawings and tapped it with his wand. Soon, the whole picture was filled with color, and the drawing became more exquisite.

In the picture, a little boy is standing on a giant Ferris wheel, standing on tiptoe and looking out the window. Next to him is a half-eaten vanilla ice cream floating in mid-air.

Half an hour later, Felix walked out of the LCA building, in a very good mood.

He planned to return to his office via the public fireplace in Diagon Alley, saving himself the trouble of Apparating to the edge of the Forbidden Forest and then having to walk a considerable distance. But just then—

"Professor Hepburn?"

Felix turned around and saw a familiar figure in the crowd. He said with some surprise, "Porter?"

(End of this chapter)