Hermione, join me as Minister of Magic!

Krum, as the student representative of Durmstrang, together with officials from the Norwegian International Department, came to express his gratitude to Dumbledore in person.

Because Karkaroff took away most of the school's liquidity when he escaped, Durmstrang is now in a very embarrassing situation, and what even a fool can think of is that after this incident at the school, he will choose Durmstrang in the next few years. The number of students enrolled in Strong is not too many.

Looking back at Hogwarts, not only did they earn a lot of income because of the competition, but their popularity also increased again. Many wizards from Commonwealth member states expressed their willingness to study at Hogwarts.

In addition to funding from the Ministry of Magic, Hogwarts now also has donations from alumni, competition income, and income from school-run industries. It is not short of money at all.

Not surprisingly, because the venue was held in the Chamber of Secrets in Slytherin, many snake wizards who donated to the school received invitations to watch the game, and Lockhart was going to have a good "talk" with them there

It had to be a coincidence, because the purebloods were also desperate to talk to Lockhart, and some of them were already talking to him.

Since the fifth day after Voldemort's return, Gemma Farley has been taking the opportunity of working at the Shrieking Shack to try to persuade Lockhart to withdraw from this matter, and the two have no idea why How many times have you quarreled over this?

And today, after Gemma's persuasion failed again, she finally couldn't hold back her anger.

"I don't understand!" she yelled at Lockhart, "You did all these things before, didn't you just want to be in a detached position when encountering this kind of thing? Why would you Get involved in such a dangerous thing?"

And Lockhart became more and more impatient: "Stay out of it? How many times have I said, do you think anyone can really stay out of it?"

"Why not?" Gemma asked back, "Now you are very famous and have a lot of fame, you have mastered all the resources to trade with Muggles, you have countless money on hand, and you are still in a high position. The strength is not small... No matter which side wins, don't they all need to rely on your strength in the end?"

The verdict is nonsense. "Lockhart interrupted her wishful thinking, "On the side of the mysterious man, every condition you just said is a reason for him to kill me. "

Gemma paused, realizing that things might really turn out as Lockhart said.

How could that man with a strong desire for power let another dazzling guy steal his limelight?Not to mention a "master against the dark arts"

"But... we can still go abroad, aren't we from the International Department?" Gemma still didn't give up, ""In China, Dumbledore can entangle with the Dark Lord for a long time, we can be safe, wait for others to ask, You can also say that you are "enlisting foreign aid'"

Lockhart was tempted to say "that was an escape" and tell her that he would be excluded from the inner political circle.

But in the end he didn't say anything.

Because he suddenly found that he didn't even have the mood to continue coping at this time.

Seeing that he stopped talking, Gemma thought she had convinced him.

"It's good if we can figure it out. If possible, we will go to Australia after the Tournament. My family also has a friend there..."

"Gemma," Lockhart cut her off suddenly.

Gemma was going to continue talking about her vision of life, but Luo

After Hart interrupted, she was a little dazed: "What?"

"Peace be with you," said Lockhart.

How could the young lady of Farley's family fail to understand what he meant.

She was furious: "Why are you so stubborn? Just for the power to stand in front of the stage? What is that?! Tell you, even the Minister of Magic has to listen to us!"

Lockhart was surprisingly calm: "Yeah, I think you're right. The one who wins the war is not the one who defeats the opponent, but the one who survives to the end."

Gemma laughed angrily: "So you understand everything, but you still want to stay in England? Work hard for Dumbledore?"

"I only work for myself, just like you." Lockhart smiled slightly.

The atmosphere in the air froze for a moment, and the unpleasant silence was not broken until a chubby stranger visited.

"Gidero, I heard you left a ticket for me..."

As soon as the visitor entered the yard, he shouted with a deliberately modified tone of voice, as if he was notifying the owner of the house to welcome him.

At the same time, his pace was not too fast, for fear that if he walked too fast and walked directly to the door, the effect of letting Lockhart come out to "greet" him would not be as good.

Ignoring Gemma Farley who was sulking beside him, Lockhart walked over quickly and opened the door.

"Professor Slughorn! Welcome, please sit inside!"

Chapter 390 Seven Hidden Boss Old Slug

The person who came to visit Lockhart was, of course, that "old slug", Professor Slughorn.

He is very well dressed, neat and straight, and the one-piece robe with dew marks was obviously ironed before coming here, and everything from the cane to the leather shoes has been taken care of spotlessly, even if it's just the small accessories on his body - there is a trace of delicacy and no deliberation the taste of.

Based on this body alone, someone with a little knowledge can tell that this person is definitely a nobleman among the nobles.

But compared to the look on his face, the clothes on his body are nothing

Even though he was Voldemort's teacher and was a contemporary of Dumbledore, Professor Slughorn looked younger than a middle-aged man in his 50s.

On his face, not only can you not see a little age spot, even his skin is still pink, and it is difficult to find obvious wrinkles, which even Dumbledore can't do.

If the "Magic Awakening" on the pig farm is an officially recognized part of the official history, then Professor Slughorn will still be a professor of potions at the school until 2022, and his age has definitely exceeded the biological limit of 120 years old.

Not only that, although he is not as famous as Dumbledore and Voldemort, this does not mean that Slughorn is inferior to them in terms of talents.Even when Voldemort could not find the method and spell to make the Horcrux, Slughorn blurted out the principle of the Horcrux, and even hinted that he actually knew the spell.And judging from the fact that Voldemort deliberately took the opportunity to ask him for advice, this is not the first time this has happened.

The i text is so terrible-days and jinhua Gehuo failed to teach the calendar defense technique

, but like Snape, the master of Potions class, even Dumbledore had to go to the library to look through books temporarily in order to find information on Horcruxes, but Slughorn was able to blurt out when he was slightly drunk.

This is Slughorn—knowledge of black arts is enough to guide Voldemort, Potions can guide Snape and Lily, set up a crime scene at the moment Dumbledore came to the door, and use Professor McGonagall's repeated warnings of human body transformation Transfiguration is undoubtedly the top level.

In addition, in the final battle of Hogwarts, after drinking Felicia, Slughorn, together with McGonagall and Kingsley, faced Voldemort... the wizard who is qualified to say that Slughorn is "weak" , there should be no more than 5 in the whole of the UK.

Therefore, Lockhart has every reason to believe that this Professor Slughorn is definitely a hidden boss in the "Harry Potter" series. In the matter of taking responsibility, you always have to "be brave", so you are weaker than Dumbledore in terms of reputation.

Such a person has high magical strength and a very wide network of contacts. If possible, it is best to draw him into his camp. Even if he cannot be drawn in, he should be kept neutral.

While Lockhart was looking at Slughorn, Slughorn was naturally thinking about how to deal with Lockhart.

Gilderoy Lockhart is about 5 years younger than James and Sirius, which means that when Lily Evans was in the Advanced Potions class, Lockhart should have just entered the class, so Slughorn The professor should have also served as Lockhart's Potions teacher.

But embarrassment was embarrassment here, because Slughorn found that he didn't remember the student very much at all.

Clearly Lockhart is not Professor Slughorn's "Slug Club"

In other words, Lockhart's school grades were not outstanding at the time, and it was even more unlikely that he was "first in grade" as some fanfiction said.

And Professor Slughorn has always been very characteristic in his treatment of students. To put it nicely, he is called "meritocracy", and to put it badly, he is called "snobbish". Students who show off but have mediocre grades, Slughorn usually doesn't pay much attention to them.

But the problem is that he missed it!

Who would have thought that the student who behaved so mediocre in school would become a "master against the dark arts" within a few years after graduation?

Of course, if he is just an adventurer who can write books, Slughorn will miss it if he misses it, not to mention that when he read Lockhart's book, like Moody, he also found that his methods of dealing with dark magic creatures are all Right, but the theory was all wrong. I felt that he couldn't go far, so I didn't make any effort to remedy it.

But then Lockhart's performance made his heart bleed too much - Lockhart not only cooperated with the pure blood to create a profitable oil company, but also made friends with Muggle executives and the royal family Using this method, he sold the worthless garbage from the Extraordinary Pharmacists Association for a good price.

After learning of these things, Slughorn was heartbroken.

The thing he wants to do most now is to find a chance to go to the Department of Mysteries of the Ministry of Magic, use the most powerful time-turner treasured there to go back 15 years ago, and tell himself at that time to include Lockhart in the Slug Club.Otherwise, how many benefits have I missed over the years!

In a word, it is regret, very regret.

But at this time, it is too late for Slughorn to regret it, and the best remedy he can think of is to pay for shares in the oil company led by Lockhart, and to help him speak well in the Pharmacists Association, so that Hope to have a chance to get online again in the future

He originally wanted to be more reserved, waiting for this young man to come to him, but he suddenly heard recently that the damn Voldemort had actually been resurrected.

Slughorn knew without even thinking about it. In order to keep the secret of his Horcrux, Voldemort might one day recall the fact that he had asked him about the Horcrux, and he would instruct the Death Eaters to attack him. , Voldemort can definitely do this.

Although Slughorn's own magical strength is quite good, it is no problem to deal with seven or eight Death Eaters, but Slytherin's caution still made him reject the idea of ​​tough Death Eaters.

There are only two safe places for Slughorn these days: one is Hogwarts, and the other is far away overseas, and both of these places happen to be around Hogsmeade. solve.

So he stopped being reserved and took the initiative to look for Lockhart.

"Hey, Gilderoy!" Slughorn's voice was particularly friendly, "Look at what I have recently invented - a potion, just mix a drop of it when pouring water, it can make hundreds of bushels All the oil in the tar sands is leached out, and the remaining bitumen and muddy water can be solidified together, and it only costs 10 Sickles a pint..."

Lockhart's mind was racing - it turned out that Slughorn was here to show his favor!

Thank you so much with E! He quickly made a happy look, "This is a great help!"The drilling aids sold by Muggles are too expensive, so you can't buy them..."

"Hahaha, nothing to thank, boy, it's really nothing, anyway, I have shares..." Slughorn's face turned into a flower with a smile, "Since I retired, I've been relying on this extra income Living life, you know…”

Believe in your ghosts, you are a very bad old man.Lockhart thought.

The reason why Slughorn can live so well is not only the income from making potions.

His protégés are all over the entire British wizarding community. It can be said that the younger generation of British wizards, Tpi00, have more or less friendship with him, and the rewards from these people alone are enough for him to live comfortably and live a good life. Very moisturizing.

As for the reason why he came to find him this time, he probably finally heard that Voldemort was back, so he couldn't wait to come to Hogwarts, probably because he wanted to get Dumbledore's protection.

After entering the Shrieking Shack, Slughorn looked around and found that there were props for defending against black magic piled up everywhere, and he felt relieved immediately.

"Why is there so much Auror equipment here?" He pretended not to notice, "And...Miss Farley? Are you traveling?"

He saw the family crest on Gemma Farley's robes.

Gemma Farley didn't know Slughorn because of her young relationship, but she had known Slughorn's name for a long time, mainly from her own father.

The Slytherins had nothing good to say about the old slug, although the old slug was smooth and no one could offend, but his reputation was only slightly better than that of the "pure-blood traitors" of the Weasleys.

There is no other reason, because Slughorn is too smooth in his attitude towards students.

He has never been partial to Slytherin, but has always adhered to the "meritism" attitude, only selecting students who will be useful to him to join his club, and he does not take the bloodline theory seriously.

Of course, it is an honor to be valued by the old slug and join the club, but the purebloods who have not been selected will not appreciate him, even if they think they rely on their blood? The same is true for elitists by nature

He didn't rely on bloodlines, but relied on the ability of the school to select candidates. For pure blood, this is Slughorn's "crime"

And Gemma Farley, who has been influenced by this kind of influence, only showed a due courtesy to Slughorn.

Well, Newell, Mr. Slughorn...For some reason, my father and I are going abroad to inspect the family's property outside. ' she replied.

"Oh..." Slughorn immediately understood what she meant—it seemed that the Farley family had also heard about Voldemort's resurrection, and they didn't plan to get involved.

To be honest, he was very moved.

If possible, he would also like to find an opportunity to sneak out of the country with the Farley family, but we don't usually know each other very well, so it is difficult for him to say this.

"So, Gilderoy, aren't you planning to go abroad? I don't think you're ready" Slughorn noticed this keenly.

If Lockhart also planned to flee the country, then he didn't need to prepare these Defense Against the Dark Arts equipment, and now there are a lot of equipment here, which means that he intends to stay and deal with Voldemort?

Lockhart glanced aside, then nodded resolutely under Gemma's disappointed gaze.

Chapter 390 Eight Resources Are In Place

Because it was in front of outsiders, Gemma was not easy to get angry, so after learning that Lockhart's attention had been decided, she walked out of the room angrily, as if she was going to cry with her father about Lockhart's "not knowing good from bad" "

After the absence of outsiders, Slughorn finally stopped covering up, but bluntly expressed his "appreciation" for Lockhart, and strongly hinted that he was willing to use the influence of the "Slug Club" to help Lockhart a handful.

"The current situation is not very good..." Slughorn carefully considered his words and sentences, "I discussed carefully with several students back then, and finally agreed that in the current situation, we need a strong leader We point the way forward...what do you think?"

For this extremely clever old man, Lockhart felt that he had to figure out the other party's purpose before deciding what to do.

"You mean Dumbledore? I agree." Lockhart pretended to be stupid.

"Yes, of course Dumbledore can always be trusted."

Slughorn did not directly deny Dumbledore's authority, but Lockhart's answer was obviously not what he hoped for.

And Lockhart also waited patiently, asking Slughorn to say first, at such a time, the party who asks for others can't hold his breath no matter what.

Sure enough, seeing that Lockhart was unmoved, Slughorn had no choice but to reveal his true intentions: "...But I also know that Dumbledore is very busy, and he has to concentrate on solving big problems, which is very important. Maybe we can’t take care of the little people like us.”

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, why don't we try to help ourselves first? That way we can help Dumbledore a little bit." Slughorn cautiously

Say.

Lockhart smiled: "So, how many people have decided to join this exchange?"

What about aid organizations?In other words, how many people, like you, think it is necessary for us to hug each other to keep warm? "

Slughorn was overjoyed: "Many! And many of them are unarmed, dying poor people who just hope to have a safe place to live..."

Regarding the phrase "unarmed", Lockhart decided not to comment, but after thinking about it carefully, this is indeed a good opportunity to buy people's hearts.

In the coming war, Voldemort is destined to use violence against those who are unwilling to obey him, and this will not only make those who opposed him even more against him, but also make a group of "silent majority" turned against him.

Regardless of whether it is public opinion or political momentum, the loudest voices are always a very small minority, and although the majority are silent, their power is not small.Ordinary politicians can only detect their attitudes when they vote. Only politicians with better observation and judgment can keenly detect the direction of the wind in advance.

Because Voldemort's personal strength is too strong, most people dare not directly resist.If they can win the support of these people, even if they only secretly support the Order of the Phoenix, it will be of great help to the improvement of the situation of the Order of the Phoenix.Not to mention that in order to maintain his rule, Voldemort must allow his men to kill Muggles.

After thinking it over, Lockhart made a promise: "No problem, the African Wizarding Union will support us. This time about the Sphinx, that person slapped them in the face, and they are trying to get revenge."

"You mean, Africa?"

"Yes, there are hundreds of thousands of wizards living in Africa. Even the Mysterious Man would not be able to capture Africa immediately. We can arrange their families there and let Dumbledore be the secret keeper." Lockhart promised .

Slughorn felt that this plan was acceptable to him: if Voldemort wanted to send a large number of troops to Africa to trouble the family members of these insignificant civilians, then he had to solve the problem of the domestic Order of the Phoenix first.If the Order of the Phoenix is ​​dealt with, it won't matter where these people flee.

Seeing Slughorn nod, Lockhart struck while the iron was hot.