I, Hogwarts Second Week

On the window, there is a patch of mistletoe growing.

Mrs. Puddieff will naturally not forget this plant that is well-known in Britain.

At this time, the mistletoe hanging above their heads slowly sprouted new buds, and its white stamens were spread out like stars, as if it was waving to them, and seemed to be celebrating them.

There is a well-known saying in Britain: without mistletoe, there is no happiness.

It is not only one of the raw materials for making elixirs, but also a common plant in divination classes.

Yes, mistletoe branches are commonly used to divine dreams.

Of course, its most famous meaning is that as long as a girl passes by or stands where the mistletoe hangs, the man next to her can step forward and kiss her.

Well – someone has already done that.

"Owen." Hermione called softly.

Although deep in her heart she wished that time could pass slower, her reason told her that the relationship between her and Owen seemed to be progressing too fast.

They are only in fourth grade. Shouldn't this kind of thing be done gradually?

Even if they are already boyfriend and girlfriend, isn't this sudden kiss too intense? Hermione felt her face feel a little hot, although she didn't know that her face couldn't be any redder at the moment.

"Mrs. Puddifer, do you seem to be familiar with me?" Hermione quickly looked away from Owen and changed the subject.

"The shopkeepers in the whole street are very familiar with me." Owen did not let go of her hand. He picked up the scented tea with his other hand and took a sip. "When Hogsmeade was rebuilt, I provided the overall design. . I’ve talked to every one of their shop owners.”

"You can also design a house?" Hermione was a little surprised. He is really a treasure boy, how come he knows everything.

"No." Owen smiled, "But I can try to build our house myself in the future."

"." Miss Granger glared at him shyly, "Then you——"

"Although I don't know how to do it, I can find someone!" He pointed to the street scene covered with silver outside the window, "That's a drawing given by the Royal Society of British Designers, and the wizard added a bit of magic style to it. "

"Royal Society of British Designers?" Hermione was slightly startled.

"Use resources rationally!" he said. "This is the best result. You should also have this kind of thinking. After all, you will become the Minister of Magic in the future."

As he said this, he told how he would send someone to contact the Royal Society of Designers and spend money to ask a consulting company to provide a small town proposal on the grounds that Dituni was going to build a majestic "Lord of the Rings" theme park in the UK. design drawings.

Of course - in the process, he did inform the designer of some information about the magical world. After all, if you don't tell the other party the parameters of the terrain, how can you design it.

After hearing Owen's story, Hermione nodded slightly. This was indeed very effective. After all, not many wizards knew how to design houses. Most wizards' houses were like burrows, with strange shapes.

This is not to say that such a building is not good. In fact, for a little wizard who has just come into contact with the magical world, such a house is very charming and has a magical flavor.

But if as a city, if every household has such a strange shape, then this city must be very ugly.

Even Hogwarts Castle is a masterpiece of Gothic castle, full of artistic flavor, and every design is unique, far from the casual patchwork construction of later wizards.

It can only be said that wizards are getting worse and worse than before.

"But the Statute of Secrecy." Hermione was still a little worried. After all, this is a law that has been observed for hundreds of years. How could the Federation sit back and watch you break the law wantonly.

All violations of the Confidentiality Act are felonies.

"Don't worry! The Federation is all my grandfather's people. Ahem - I mean, I do this for the British wizards, for the lowest group." Owen coughed lightly, and then pretended to be serious. Said, "We will abide by what is beneficial to the public, and what is harmful to the public's interests is waste paper."

"Law is just a norm agreed by the public, supervised and implemented by violent institutions. It should reflect the interests of the class that formulated it. It cannot betray its class, just like clouds cannot betray the sea, because most of the clouds are It is evaporated from the sea.”

"Besides, Mr. Ober Bennie cast a forgetting spell on those two designers in the end. They won't remember anything, so it's not illegal." Owen chuckled, fully exposing his pragmatism. To.

"But-" Vaguely, Hermione felt that Owen was a little inappropriate in doing this.

Sometimes Irving's unwavering pragmatism does make things easier, but not everything.

But she didn't object rashly. If she were in the first or second grade, she would definitely accuse Owen of wantonly tampering with other people's memories.

But now, she will think about the value of doing so. Of course - such behavior is still disgusting to her, but today's magical world cannot fully tolerate her ideas, and she will remain silent for many more years.

"Wait a minute -" thinking, her head cooled down a little.

Then Hermione suddenly realized that what Owen just said seemed to contain a surprising fact, "You participated in the construction of the new Hogsmeade village? Does that mean that the entire village has a part of you?"

"Yes!" Owen nodded, "In addition to the shop rented to George and Fred on the main road, I also have two or three houses."

"Two or three buildings?" Hermione's eyes widened. Although the new Hogsmeade village was built on the basis of the old village, its area had increased several times.

But the entire wizard village is not that big to begin with. There are only about a hundred wizards gathered here, and the block only has three or four streets.

They are connected by a main road.

Owen actually had several houses. Suddenly, Miss Granger thought of some not-so-good things, the British Empire! In old capitalist countries, there are many ways to enclose land. Even a deep-rooted pure-blood family like the Malfoy family may not be as good as Owen in this regard.

Then, she asked with some urgency, "Where are the original owners of the house? Did Malfoy drive them away?" She cryptically did not mention Owen because she didn't want him to be involved.

Owen saw this and gave her a pleased look.

This is the Miss Granger he likes. She has not been carried away by love. Her independent soul is the most attractive thing.

"First, the new Hogsmeade village is already larger than before. It is normal for some houses to be vacant. Second, because of the war, many residents died in the fighting, and most of the survivors chose to leave. Malfoy Gave them a sum of money and acquired the land deeds. Thirdly, there were some who were unwilling to leave, such as this teahouse. After paying a small sum of gold galleons, Mrs. Padiff got a teahouse that was originally A new teahouse ten times the size.”

"About the compensation, was it arranged by Lucius?" Miss Granger immediately grasped the key point. Her distrust of the Malfoy family has been deeply rooted. Of course, this stems from the fact that this family has not done anything for many years. What a good thing.

You could even say that good things are basically insulated from the Malfoy family.

Even the wizarding insurance company established under Owen's suggestion was for political purposes. For Lucius Malfoy, using the insurance company to influence the Ministry of Magic was what he really wanted.

As for profit--from the perspective of the Malfoy family, whose wealth has been accumulated to the point that they will not be able to spend it all in the next century, if they can exchange gold galleons for the status of the Ministry of Magic, it is simply the most cost-effective deal.

Therefore, from beginning to end, Malfoy was not serving the majority of ordinary wizards, referring to those poor people whose memories were permanently erased by Lockhart.

I haven't heard from them again this year.

It was as if these people had disappeared.

To a certain extent, Irving, as a promoter, is happy to see this because it is part of the plan.

It's part of his huge plan.

In another five years, after they graduate from Hogwarts.

Irving is about to dismantle the wizard insurance company that has now expanded its business to Germany.

After Miss Granger becomes the Minister of Magic, he will begin to use the power of the Ministry of Magic to acquire the company and turn it into a state-owned company, transform the company's business into a complete social welfare system and embed it in Miss Granger's new policy, forcing Implement.

Owen can be sure that the huge prestige in a short period of time will allow her to secure the position of Minister of Magic from the beginning.

As for the land deeds acquired by the Malfoy family——

Owen smiled slightly and said, "I have stipulated the compensation standard, but what is certain is that Malfoy will never abide by it.

The fluctuations in the market caused the house prices in Hogsmeade Village to fall to the bottom after the war. It was impossible to even think about asking him to pay more money to compensate for those who were in their eyes. As for the dead wizards - without any relatives to lodge a complaint, he should have swallowed them all by himself. "

"." Instantly, Miss Granger's face became unhappy.

Even the inner joy brought by the hazy feeling of dating disappeared without a trace.

"Are you angry?" he said.

Hermione didn't respond, just nodded sharply.

"It's okay to be angry. This at least shows that you still have the most precious thing - conscience." Owen patted the palm of her hand and sipped tea through the glass in front of him while watching everything outside covered by heavy snow.

"The society of wizards is still about a hundred years ago. Looking at this society from the perspective of modern society, of course it is full of all kinds of oppression and injustice."

"The important thing is that you see it and you make up your mind to change."

The Malfoy family has aggressively acquired many properties and lands over the years, and Owen's promotion and instructions are behind this. His purpose is simple.

Just raising pigs.

When the time comes, he will kill the pig without mercy.

Then use their meat as Miss Granger's future political capital. Then, she will have less resistance to implementing reforms.

It would be foolish for a fool like Voldemort to start a war in an attempt to promote change among wizards.

In the first episode, he was forced to resort to war, because when he joined, it was already the time when Voldemort was rising for the second time.

We must understand that it is actually much simpler to control the wizarding world than to control any Muggle country!

It seems that wizards all have magical powers and live in scattered places. It seems that they can use the infinite extension spell to build a house anywhere with a wave of a magic wand and live there forever, but in fact, no matter whether they are wizards or Muggles, as long as they are human, they cannot get rid of the instinct of social creatures. , how many wizards will choose to live in the mountains and forests all their lives?

Therefore, Owen only needs to control the absolute core areas of the wizarding world such as Diagon Alley and Hogwarts to perfectly control the British wizarding world.

The premise is that you cannot be an enemy of the greatest white wizard in the world, and you cannot let him discover your true intentions.

Thinking about it this way - it seemed like he had chosen Miss Granger from the beginning.

Because only she can realize the unfulfilled ideal of Zhou Mu in her dream.

Well - unknowingly, his expectations for Miss Granger had reached an unbearable level.

Perhaps, what he often said, 'Hermione Granger is the real savior', was actually a reflection of his true thoughts in his heart.

"Would you like to try running my houses?" Suddenly, Owen made an invitation to her that surprised Hermione.

"Business?"

"Although it's not on the main road, it still has some geographical advantages. Maybe you can use it to open some shops."

"Shop?" Hermione looked at him confused.

"Like a newspaper, or radio."

After all, the most important cornerstone of power is the media.

"."

Hermione looked at Owen with some emotion, her big eyes filled with waves of happiness.

She didn't think much about it at all. She simply thought it was because of Rita Skeeter's report that Owen had such an idea.

She would never have guessed that Owen was actually distressed because the room was empty and he couldn't make money!

Miss Granger did not respond. After all, it was too difficult to open a newspaper. The main reason was that her energy was limited and she could not spare the time to manage a newspaper.

Think about it and know that if she were to manage a newspaper, every report would definitely have to go through her hands.

How tiring that is.

The two of them looked at each other in the teahouse, because Miss Granger's wrong guess made the relationship between them even more heated.

Suddenly, when the two of them leaned together ambiguously and looked at the snow through the window. But unexpectedly, they discovered the Weasley twins, Harry, Ron, and Ginny. They braved the wind and snow and walked past the window talking and laughing.

Behind him was the alchemist, Victor.

Hermione was startled, and her hands couldn't stop shaking. But when she realized that people outside could not see inside, she felt relieved.

"Where are they going?" she asked with some lingering fear.

"The Weasley family's alchemy workshop." Owen looked at Hermione amusedly. The whole castle knew we were dating, so there was nothing to be afraid of, but he still explained.

"Alchemy workshop?" She pondered for a moment, and then remembered what George and Fred said they wanted to open a store in Hogsmeade village. "Aren't they going to open a joke shop?"

"People will always grow!" Owen looked at the crowd drifting away, "When you can create alchemy magic props that will last forever, who will continue to make prank and joke products."

"But they still have to open a joke shop. After all, researching alchemy tools requires a huge amount of money." He said calmly, and then said, "Those two guys plan to build the workshop at the back of the store, and buy things in the front and behind. Do the research, and from what I understand, they’ve got some results.”

"What results?"

"You'll know after Christmas."

he said with a smile.

"Yes!" Miss Granger nodded, then shyly leaned against him.

The snow falling outside the window is getting heavier and heavier, and the snowflakes are like waste paper, falling from the sky in a mess, and the strong wind is raging inside. Just looking at such a snowy scene will make people feel bitingly cold.

It is easiest to fall asleep while watching snow.

Because the flying snowflakes will gradually hypnotize people who stare at the snow, and the gradually relaxed nerves will also make people sleepy.

And just when Miss Granger was drowsy due to the ambiguous smell in the teahouse, suddenly the slight movement of the boy beside her caused her to open her eyes. Then a snowy figure broke into her sight. This was a beautiful kitten! Its white fur was covered with snowflakes, and it walked on the snow with light steps. The kitten moved very briskly, leaving a series of small, plum-shaped footprints before disappearing at a nearby street corner.

"Shirlock?" Owen whispered.

It's a snowy day. If this cat isn't warming himself by the fire in the dormitory, why is he wandering around here?

Is it time to go out and relax again?

Owen had nothing to do with this little kitten that spent more than twenty days a month outside and especially loved wandering in the Forbidden Forest. He can apparate, but he can't contain him.

He could only pray that in the remaining few days of the month, he would be able to pamper its owner—himself.

Unfortunately, even this expectation is just a delusion.

In his free time, the cat would either sleep in the dormitory, or he would be caught by Hannah. Unfortunately, he would fall into the hands of a witch. He would be forced to pretend to be a good boy for one day, and then disappear again the next day.

The main reason for this kind of personality is that Owen hardly had to feed it. It was okay when it was young. When it grew up, the cat seemed to be able to distinguish what could and could not be eaten in the forest.

Plus he's lazy to begin with.

That’s why the cat was raised like this.

"I'm going to catch her." Owen stood up and was about to catch the cat.

Hermione, who was in a daze, instinctively wanted to follow, but was stopped by him. "You can take a nap," he said.

"No need to guess, I already know that you stayed up late again last night."

Yesterday was Saturday, and if Miss Granger didn't stay up late on Saturday, the sun would have to rise from the west.

"Do you know that staying up late can easily cause hair loss?" He moved the strands of hair from her forehead with some pity.

In fact, Miss Granger never lost her hair, and her fluffy buns remained unchanged for several years.

Even so, Miss Granger still managed to brace herself up and go with him.

Owen didn't refuse.

After the two took a sip of hot tea, they opened the door of the teahouse and walked in against the wind and snow.

"Huh!" Outside the door, the cold wind instantly penetrated through the exposed parts of the clothes.

The two of them couldn't help but shudder.

Immediately he pressed closer.

The snow on the road has reached to my calves, which is a foot deep. It is impossible to walk fast if you step on it. But this was in line with someone's wish, because walking less quickly meant they could cuddle up together for a longer period of time.

Following the traces left by Sirocco and using magic, Owen made a pale golden plum footprint appear clearly in the snow.

After walking for about a few minutes, the two turned into a dark street corner.

In the wind and snow, Owen felt a sudden chill in his arms, and then a familiar voice reached his ears.

"Meow?"

It was Sirocco, and this guy slipped into the lining pocket of his robe very naturally.

With its skinny stature, it doesn't even stick out in a pocket.

"This guy." Owen was startled. After all, this cat can apparate, and anyone would be frightened if it suddenly jumped out.

He slapped his chest as a warning.

Then in the wind and snow, something very conspicuous came into his field of vision.

"This is?"

He glanced twice subconsciously, and suddenly, both he and Hermione were stunned. A black robe? When they came in just now, they were only looking for Sirocco and didn't notice anything wrong around them, but now they took a closer look at the black robe lying quietly in the corner like a deep pit.

Strange - Owen frowned secretly, a magic robe that can protect against wind and rain, who would leave it here? As he thought, he stepped forward to pick it up and hang it on the door of the auditorium to see if he could find the owner.

However, the moment he opened his black robe, what was underneath surprised them both.

Hermione covered her mouth and wanted to scream, but in the end she didn't scream because she was afraid that the sound might attract something terrible. Owen squatted down, took out his wand, and used the tip of the wand to remove the rest of the black robe. Then, a corpse that was as dry as a branch and as terrifying as a little devil appeared.

"Goblin?" Owen frowned.

The goblin mummy in front of me was covered with bright red blood fragments, as if someone had chopped it into dozens of pieces and then sewn them together with silk thread.

Apart from that, the clothes it was wearing were very standard Gringotts employee clothing.

"A Gringotts employee died here? How strange." Owen didn't know much about goblins, but this one was obviously attacked.

That horrific wound didn't look like a natural death.

And Hermione beside him, her sleepy eyes suddenly became clear.

His expression turned serious.

Goblin!

It’s the goblin again!

This—she turned to look at Owen.

She hadn't told him yet about the goblin attack.