The years of welding at Hogwarts

This time, it was replaced by a simply decorated but warm room. Noah was lying on a soft sofa in a Ge You-like posture, holding a game controller in his hand and a huge display screen in front of him.

Who doesn’t yearn for such a simple and beautiful life?

Various images changed one after another as Noah's thoughts progressed.

There is a scene where he cuts off Thanos' head with one sword in the final battle.

There was also the rhythm of the Youth March, and he kicked out the finale on the battlefield of the Fourth Ninja World War.

Or maybe he was standing on the battlefield of the Battle of Marineford, and said to everyone in a very pretentious manner, "Give me a favor, and this war will end here..."

Just when Noah was having a lot of fun, an old voice came from behind him.

"Noah, I didn't expect to see you here."

Turning his head to look at the source of the sound, Noah was not surprised to meet Dumbledore here, but he still pretended to be surprised.

"Professor Dumbledore, you are here too? I didn't notice just now..."

Dumbledore, who was sitting on a small round stool in the corner, stood up and walked to Noah's side. "It seems that you, like thousands of naughty seniors before you, have discovered the fun of the Mirror of Erised."

"The Mirror of Erised? Is that the name of this mirror?"

Dumbledore put his hands behind his back and asked the question he wanted to know most in a nonchalant tone, "What did you see in the mirror?"

Noah gave an answer without hesitation, "Family."

He wasn't lying, the first image he saw in the mirror was indeed his family.

"So," he said, his tone becoming somewhat hesitant, "this mirror can allow us to see what we want most in our hearts?"

family?

A strange light flashed in Dumbledore's blue eyes.

For so long, he had forgotten that the child in front of him was an orphan.

“Yes,” he nodded. “The Mirror of Erised allows us to see only our deepest and most burning desires.”

"And what did you see, Professor Dumbledore?"

Noah asked knowingly but still asking with a well-disguised look of curiosity on his face.

"Me?" Dumbledore smiled. "Me..."

Chapter 59 Proposals for Reform of Hogwarts Education

Standing next to the mirror, Dumbledore looked at the familiar figure emerging in the mirror and standing silently beside him, with deep loneliness in his eyes.

He was an old man with the same white hair as Dumbledore, but his hair was much thinner than Dumbledore's and he was very thin.

He just stood quietly beside Dumbledore in the mirror, staring at him closely with an indescribable look, with a faint smile on the corner of his mouth...

The image in the mirror rippled again, and this time a girl of about thirteen or fourteen years old appeared, waving at him with a smile on her face.

An old man with a sour face, who looked somewhat like Dumbledore but whose nose was not as crooked as his, stood next to Dumbledore and the girl at some point.

In the mirror, more and more people were standing next to Dumbledore.

Dumbledore tilted his head back slightly, the height difference between him and Noah allowing him to hide the emotions in his eyes.

"I, for one, saw myself holding a pair of thick woolen socks."

When Dumbledore lowered his head and looked at Noah again, all the complex emotions in his eyes had been well hidden.

"I never have enough socks. Every Christmas people give me all sorts of boring books. I never even get a pair of socks."

Just when Noah thought that Dumbledore would take advantage of this private meeting carefully designed by Dumbledore to instill some concepts such as "love and peace" or "the will of Horus" in him.

However, Dumbledore did not play the card he expected.

He wiped his eyes behind his half-moon lenses calmly and said, "Can you walk with me, an old man who has become a little sentimental due to his age?"

"It's my pleasure, Professor."

Walking in the corridors of the castle, Dumbledore looked like a kind old grandfather next door, and did not look like the White Lord at all.

"How has this month been like living in Severus's house?"

Snape's house...

While maintaining his occlumency, Noah briefly recalled and summarized his life this month.

“The food is good

, except when facing Shirley, Professor Snape has a cold face all day long, as if I owe him millions of Galleons for living expenses. "

He curled his lips and said, "I clearly paid him 20,000 gold galleons as my living expenses."

Dumbledore almost gasped.

Twenty thousand Galleons?

A month?

Even with Dumbledore's years of self-control, he couldn't help but want to curse -

Damn, what a rich dog owner!

Even the annual expenditure of Hogwarts is only more than 100,000 gold galleons.

Thanks to the existence of the Repairing Spell, the loss and depreciation of the teaching props used in daily teaching activities at Hogwarts can be completely ignored.

The only courses with relatively high expenses are those like Potions, where the broken cauldrons and lost potion materials need to be purchased again.

As well as Professor Sprout's herbology, the magical plants grown in the several greenhouses outside the castle are quite precious, and purchasing seeds is also a huge expense.

However, these two courses are not without benefits.

Although most of the potions brewed by students are poisons, a few outstanding students can also brew potions of quite good quality.

When the get out of class is over, students usually do not pack up the potions to take away. The finished potions can be packaged and sold to Diagon Alley to recover part of the cost.

Hogwarts has done this for thousands of years.

And because of the sponsorship subsidies and policy support from the Ministry of Magic, Hogwarts actually receives subsidies when purchasing consumables such as potion materials.

The purchase price is lower than the market average.

Therefore, the cost of potions brewed by students will be lower than similar products on the market, and there will be a larger profit margin compared to potions brewed by other people.

As for herbal medicine, the profits it creates are even more incredible.

No matter how expensive the seeds of those magical plants are, their price is far less than what they will cost after they are cultivated to maturity.

I have to say that Professor Sprout can really be regarded as the most valuable professor among all the professors at Hogwarts.

Under her management and care, the magical plants produced in the Hogwarts greenhouse not only largely supplied Snape's consumption of materials in potions.

Moreover, a considerable portion of the production capacity can be exported to Diagon Alley, earning a lot of teaching funds for Hogwarts.

Apart from the expenses of Potions, the bulk of the castle's operating funds come from the professors' salaries.

Oh no, there is another item that accounts for a larger proportion, and that is Dumbledore's secret embezzlement of public funds.

Although the Order of the Phoenix, a secret organization used to resist Voldemort, was disbanded after Voldemort's fall, was it really disbanded as it appeared on the surface?

The answer is unknown.

The Order of the Phoenix never really disbanded.

Its members are spread all over the British wizarding world, and even in continental Europe, and all of them maintain close ties with their leader, Dumbledore.

That’s a lot of money, so…

Can that be called misappropriation of public funds?

That's called preparing for Voldemort's return.

At this moment, there was some change in the look in Dumbledore's eyes when he looked at Noah.

Although he knew that Noah had a large fortune in the non-magical world, those assets had been sold in a hurry at a less-than-ideal price.

But he really didn't think that Noah was so rich.

If he remembered correctly, Gringotts could help incoming Muggle students exchange their Muggle currency into gold Galleons.

But there is an exchange limit, I think it is 200 Galleons or 1,000 Galleons.

Dumbledore didn't remember clearly, but he was sure that the amount was definitely not 20,000.

In other words, Noah, the rich man, exchanged it directly with gold?

He was able to take out gold worth 20,000 Galleons, and he was so generous that he just gave it to Snape as his future living expenses.

This means that Noah's net worth is definitely more than 20,000 gold galleons. His wealth could be ten, twenty or even fifty times this number.

A barely perceptible glimmer of cunning flashed in Dumbledore's eyes.

Perhaps he could deduct the expenses of Potions from the operating expenses of Hogwarts in the future?

Noah, a big dog owner, can completely support the expenses of Potions by himself.

Dumbledore, who appears to be kind but has a black heart, exploits a big dog owner like Noah without any conscience burden at all.

Don't think he doesn't know that Noah actually still retains some assets in the Muggle world.

Dumbledore is not a devil. Although he wants to sever the connection between Noah and the non-magical world, it is impossible for him to make the other party willingly give up all his property.

Dumbledore was very satisfied that Noah could keep only a small part of the assets that could earn money continuously and separate himself from the non-magical world as much as possible.

In this case, the Board of Directors, which has no real power or, to put it bluntly, is Hogwarts' ruthless funding machine, seems to have no need to exist anymore?

Seeing that Dumbledore suddenly stopped talking, Noah raised his head and glanced at the White Lord who was calculating on the abacus beside him.

What evil is this old bee planning?

"

professor?"

"Ahem." Dumbledore cleared his throat, hiding his little thoughts well, and changed the subject very naturally.

"How do you feel about living in Hogwarts for this week?"

"not bad."

Speaking of life at Hogwarts, Noah showed a subtle smile that showed his true intention. "Regarding the teaching at Hogwarts, I have a few questions I want to raise."

"Really?" Dumbledore suddenly showed some interest. "Why not tell me about it?"

Noah blinked, "It's anonymous, so the professors won't know?"

Dumbledore didn't know whether to laugh or cry. "I will keep it a secret. No one else will know the content of our conversation tonight except you and me."

"That's good," Noah said with an honest and simple look, "First of all, the biggest problem is that the teaching quality of Hogwarts is uneven."

Hearing this question, Dumbledore showed a trace of embarrassment.

How could he not know which course Noah was talking about?

But the reputation of the Defense Against the Dark Arts class at Hogwarts is so bad that no one would apply for this position unless they are looking for death.

This is the cognitive blind spot caused by inertial thinking.

As the saying goes, a single leaf blocks the view of the mountain.

Noah grinned, "Voldemort cursed the position of Defense Against the Dark Arts professor, but why can't we just create a new course?"

A look of confusion appeared on Dumbledore's face.

Seeing this, Noah raised a finger and said, "We can definitely offer another course called [Magic Attack and Defense]."

"Voldemort cursed the Defense Against the Dark Arts class. What does it have to do with my magical offense and defense?"

"As for the teaching content..."

At this point, with Dumbledore's wisdom, he should have understood what Noah meant, and his pair of deep blue eyes became brighter.

Yes, Voldemort cursed the Defense Against the Dark Arts class, what does it have to do with magical offense and defense?

As for the teaching content, I teach wizard dueling, not defense against the dark arts.

Although I use dark wizards like Death Eaters as my imaginary enemies, so the teaching content is a bit similar, but what does it matter?

Noah shook his body timidly.

"We can reduce the time for the Defense Against the Dark Arts class. We only need to have one Defense Against the Dark Arts class every week. No, we only need to have one class every two or three weeks."