Hogwarts on the tip of the tongue

"Ilvermorny? I admit that it is a great magical educational institution with a reputation as good as Hogwarts. Moreover, since the Magical Congress of the United States of America announced the abolition of "Rappaport Law" 30 years ago, their development speed has It's surprising indeed. It seems to me that they do have the potential to challenge Hogwarts' legacy."

Dumbledore nodded thoughtfully, his mind immediately corresponding to the young school on the other side of the ocean that Elena mentioned.

If we must choose one of the many magic schools in the world with a campus model that is most similar to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, then it must be Ilvermorny School of Witchcraft and Wizardry located in Massachusetts, USA.

Compared to Hogwarts, which was founded in 993 AD, Ilvermorny School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, which was not established until the mid-seventeenth century, is undoubtedly a relatively young newcomer. Initially, Ilvermorny was just a school founded by Irish immigrants. The stone cabin built by Aesop Seal and her No-Maj husband James Stewart.

As the school continued to grow, the number of students increased and more teachers were recruited - the simple granite hut soon turned into a huge castle, and the reputation of Ilvermorny School of Witchcraft and Wizardry soon spread among the Aboriginal tribes of North America. As word spread among the British colonists, witches and wizards from all over the Americas sent their children to Ilvermorny, which, like Hogwarts, became a boarding school.

In fact, because the founder Aesop Seal is from Scotland, the school has consciously used the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry as the initial template reference from the beginning of its establishment, so people can easily Many similarities were found in both schools.

For example, in terms of lineage tracing, Aesop's aunt Gormley Gaunt is a direct descendant of Salazar Slytherin - even the notorious Lord Voldemort had to respectfully call him his ancestor. that kind;

For another example, after first-year students at Ilvermorny School of Witchcraft and Wizardry arrive at the school for the first time, they will go through a sorting ceremony to join four different houses (Horned Water Snake, Cat Leopard, Thunderbird, and Goblin);

In addition, whether it is the basic courses, the boarding learning system for seventh grade, or the OWL and NEWT that each student needs to take, they are the same.

The only difference is that most young wizards in North America will be allowed to get their first wand after entering school, instead of going to a wand shop to buy it like the students at Hogwarts.

Although Ilvermorny is slightly inferior to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, which has thousands of years of magical history, in terms of the strength of its teachers and the depth of its magical heritage, its development over the past few hundred years has been enough to enable it to train a large number of students. A slightly lower level wizard who is the backbone of the magic world.

As a new magic school, Ilvermorny is inherently easier to recruit Muggle-born wizards than Hogwarts. There are almost no old and stubborn pure-bloods in North America similar to those in Europe. The wizard family has undoubtedly become one of the biggest advantages of Ilvermorny's rapid rise.

"But, no matter what, Ilvermorny School of Witchcraft and Wizardry is always too far away from Europe. Moreover, they are too young. As a school that imitates the teaching model of Hogwarts, I don't think it will be a threat. "

Dumbledore shook his head disapprovingly, obviously not thinking that Ilvermorny would have any impact on the future of Hogwarts.

"On the contrary, it is precisely because of the same origin and similarity that it becomes Hogwarts' biggest competitor."

Elena looked at Dumbledore without showing any signs of weakness and retorted tit for tat:

"Only when there is an obvious difference between the two, can peaceful coexistence be possible. The source of life in the magic world is extremely limited. With the advancement of technology and magic, the geographical and spatial barriers that originally restricted people's gathering and movement are rapidly disappearing. The wizards of the Magical Congress of the United States extending their tentacles to the goblins of Gringotts in Europe are a particularly clear signal of attack."

The older it is, the more sophisticated and comprehensive it is, and it also means a higher threshold for entry.

Although in this era, most people still adhere to long-established brands and have an overwhelming advantage over similar imitation brands, Elena, who comes from the cruel era of information explosion in later generations, knows very well that the real On the contrary, newcomers with low development costs and extremely high trial and error advantages can always easily defeat the old brands in some new fields.

Among them, the most interesting example is undoubtedly the three MOBA games that have formed a strange chain of contempt - "DOTA", "League of Legends", and "Honor of Kings". There is no doubt that the competitiveness and sophisticated construction of the three games The level and difficulty of getting started form a particularly smooth ladder. And completely opposite to this ladder is their social communication popularity.

Among all this, one point of view that everyone agrees with is that the event that truly enabled "League of Legends" to quickly defeat "DOTA" and seize most of the MOBA game market was that it chose a particularly strong backend support. The power of capital was introduced into the competition of similar qualities and the situation was reversed.

There is no doubt that things are slightly different today.

But if the Magical Congress of the United States of America helps the North American goblins annex Gringotts in Europe as they wish, and at the same time eats a whole plump and delicious Soviet fur bear, the so-called "North American wizard bank joint reserve system", He will become the most terrifying giant in the magical world - a monster even more terrifying than the Federal Reserve in the non-magical world, and a monster that no one can check.

By that time, if Hogwarts is still relying on funding from the Ministry of Magic and funding from the school board to maintain school operations, being controlled by others is nothing more than a simple small order.

Therefore, since realizing the fate of the American wizarding community, Elena, who originally only wanted to help Hogwarts make a fortune from the disintegration of the Soviet Union, has begun to change her purpose. She does not want to wait until decades later , Zhou Zhou is wandering in the painful struggle to save the intangible cultural heritage of the wizarding world "Hogwarts" from disappearing due to the abolition of the school.

Elena thought for a while and decided to use some relatively simple numbers to make Dumbledore understand the seriousness of the matter.

"If I remember correctly, over the years, even though you have tried your best to expand the enrollment ratio for young wizards from non-magical families, the number of students enrolled in Hogwarts has inevitably been decreasing year by year. .The total number of first-grade students this year is only 73, which is a reduction of nearly [-]% compared to the largest number of seventh-grade students."

"There is indeed such a situation, but it should be only a temporary situation. The number of admissions to Hogwarts is not fixed every year." Dumbledore nodded slightly and glanced at Eileen who had a serious face with interest. Na, motioning for the girl to continue.

He was curious about what kind of strange opinions a little guy who had just entered school for a week could put forward from the perspective of school development. After all, compared to the completely unfamiliar financial field, Dumbledore had been immersed in teaching for most of his life. The field is still quite conceited.

"It seems to me that you are being too optimistic."

Elena shook her finger, looked around the cabin, walked to the window and pointed at the brightly lit city outside.

"Let's take Salzburg as an example. More than 60% of the permanent residents living in this city today are middle-aged and elderly people. In fact, since the end of the world war in 1945, the population composition of the entire Europe has It has been in a state of aging and declining birthrate. If the probability of wizards being born among Muggles does not change fundamentally, then as time goes by, Hogwarts will be able to recruit fewer and fewer Muggle wizards. .”

Compared to most skills and knowledge, magic is more like an innate talent.

According to the current definition of the magic world, a person is mainly divided into two directions: magic perception ability and magic release ability:

Having the ability to perceive magic and the ability to release magic at the same time, there is no doubt that one is recognized as a wizard.

Correspondingly, people who neither have the ability to perceive magic nor the ability to release magic are called Muggles.

Those in the middle, those who can only perceive the existence of magic but cannot release magic, such as Argus Filch and Mrs. Figg who can see dementors, are the so-called squibs.

As for the birth of magical talents, the magical community, which lacks the support of systematic genetic medical research, has not been able to understand it yet.

Therefore, although little wizards will indeed be born among Muggles, this does not mean that the Muggle population will directly determine the number of wizards.At least from the current perspective, the vast majority of wizards still come from families where at least one parent is a wizard.

This is why Britain will always be the place with the densest wizard population.

Since the genetic genes of magic are at an advantage and are actively active, as long as one of the parents is a wizard, generally speaking, their offspring must be wizards or squibs. Based on this, pure-blood wizards can form deep-rooted families. model, continuing its influence in the magical world from generation to generation.

"Professor Dumbledore, out of curiosity, I once asked everyone in the same grade. Except for the Weasley family, most of the other classmates from wizarding families are only children. The economic environment in the wizarding world has never been prosperous. Let most families choose to raise only one child - we all know that even though Hogwarts bears a lot of tuition and fees, learning magic is never cheap. Hey! Save some for me!"

After a slight pause, Elena glared at Grindelwald who was about to finish the food on the table. She knocked on the table with some dissatisfaction, looked at Dumbledore again, and continued:

"And if you want to fundamentally improve the economic situation of the magical world, then regaining control of the right to issue currency and the right to economic redistribution of the entire society is an indispensable basic condition. This is why Americans will not hesitate to walk On the verge of violating international wizarding laws, it is also one of the reasons why we want to help the Gringotts goblins become independent."

Hearing Elena's concerns, Dumbledore raised his eyebrows and continued to stick to his previous point of view unmoved, saying softly, "But, regarding this, as long as I can ensure that the British wizarding community will not be affected. Well, at most, we can ask the Magical Congress of the United States for a certain amount of profit and income, which can also achieve the purpose you mentioned to a certain extent. You still have not reflected the role of Ilvermorny and Hogwarts in this incident. The connection, and the reason why we must join the fight at Gringotts."

Population, wizards, America, goblins, the collapse of the Soviet Union...

At this moment, a flash of light suddenly flashed in Elena's mind, suddenly connecting her previous vague thoughts together to form a powerful and huge idea.

"Wizard groups! Once a large-scale social unrest occurs, the migration of wizard groups will inevitably occur."

"Huh? What do you mean?" Dumbledore frowned, looking a little confused.

There are always new words appearing in this little girl's mouth from time to time, which makes a 110-year-old man always have a bad feeling as if he is being quickly abandoned by the times.

"Yes, the number of wizard families will directly determine the number of little wizards born in the future."

Elena raised her finger and said seriously.

"This is also the second question I want to talk about. Only a relatively wealthy and stable living environment will give people the desire and motivation to have offspring. In order to prevent goblins and wizards from the Americas from destroying the magical world of the entire European continent and Africa. The wizarding world is in a mess, and we must proactively intervene in this fight."

The girl raised her head and looked at Dumbledore, whose face was full of thoughts. After unconsciously pausing for a second or two to organize his words, the next words became more and more fluent.

"The daily income and expenditure of most wizarding families are extremely dependent on a functioning Ministry of Magic for coordination and payment of salaries and benefits. In today's wizarding world, there is a particularly special alliance-shaped magic department - composed of dozens of The Ministry of Magical Internal Affairs of the Soviet Union composed of the Ministry of Magic of each country. If the magical world where these people live temporarily collapses..."

"I understand, this is a huge plan."

At this moment, Grindelwald, who was sitting next to him, clapped his hands lightly and couldn't help but continue what Elena said. A complicated expression appeared on his face, as well as a look of eagerness and interest.

"At this time, whoever can be the first to lend a helping hand to them and provide them with basic food, accommodation, and job security will be able to gain the absolute right to speak in the magic world in the next few decades. In this way, you little guy, want to What you want is not Gringotts or Galleons, what you want is the entire magical world in the future."

"Soviet wizard..."

Dumbledore gently rubbed his wand with both hands, a hint of surprise flashed in his eyes, something he had not considered before.

"While using the so-called ruble to make a fuss, are we gathering those wizard wanderers from the Soviet Union? However, Hogwarts and the British Ministry of Magic are not selfless philanthropists. We cannot increase such a sum out of thin air. Huge gold galleons expenses. It is even more impossible for us to recruit them in the form of recruiting troops or employees."

There is no doubt that Dumbledore also realized Elena's thoughts slightly behind Grindelwald.

However, in Albus Dumbledore's view, the danger and uncontrollability of Elena's idea are obviously higher than the benefits she can bring - the girl obviously wants to take advantage of Gringotts' split and confrontation. , directly and partially dismantled Gringotts' economic control over certain countries, and attracted some wizards who originally belonged to other European countries to the Hogwarts camp.

But a very important problem is that although Hogwarts and the British Ministry of Magic seem slightly more righteous than the Magical Congress of the United States, they still have no legitimate reasons and funding expenditures to consolidate and attract this community in the long term. Criticize foreign wizards.

To be precise, if subjective factors are excluded, Americans who currently seem to be richer and richer seem to be more likely to snatch those elite wizard talents from this land.

"No, you may have misunderstood one thing. If we now target people, then it is no longer just a matter of money games. When necessary, wealth can be thrown out as bait to attract their attention. . The wealth accumulated in the castle is enough to cause all the forces involved in the money game to suffer huge losses at the critical moment - as long as our purpose is not to make money, but to drag everyone to hell."

The corners of Elena's mouth turned up, revealing a terrifying and meaningful smile.

In economics, there is one of the most classic theories called the last survivor principle.There are two ways to win, one is to defeat the opponent, and the other is to pull everyone to die together, and then be the one who survives to the end.

There is no doubt that in order to harvest the huge wealth of the entire non-magical and magical world of the Soviet Union, whether it is the Gringotts goblins on both sides or the wizards of the Magical Congress of the United States, their eyes must be focused on the fight for wealth at this time.

If we go to the end of the competition in the normal way, the final result will actually be to sacrifice a poor furry bear, and then everyone will carry different weights of bear meat home to spend the cold winter.

However, if there is a spoiler with the goal of destroying everyone and passing on all the debts of more than 28 trillion yuan after the collapse of the Soviet Union on the heads of all participants, it would be another very interesting story.

As for the benefits Elena and the others can get from this——

Without further elaborating on her thoughts, Elena glanced at the food piled on the dining table, her eyes gradually becoming brighter. There was always only one thing that could truly drive human beings.

"Professor Dumbledore, you may not have had an actual understanding of the living conditions of people living in the Soviet Union today. Gold Galleons cannot alleviate hunger, and Gold Galleons cannot bring warmth or daily necessities."

"But, if we add a little more time to magic, I think we can do this. After all, my experience in Nurmengard Castle these days has made me realize a problem, the greatest advantage of the magic world, It occupies quite abundant land resources and vegetation natural resources.”

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