Hogwarts on the tip of the tongue

"Oh, to be honest, I hate this place."

Gringotts, an empty conference room.

Dirk Cresswell, who serves as the director of the "Goblin Liaison Office" of the Ministry of Magic, muttered dissatisfiedly, took off his thick-lensed eyes from the bridge of his nose and wiped them.

"I thought you would get used to it here, Dirk. After all, isn't your job to contact the goblins?"

Next to the wizard, Arthur Weasley, who was wearing horn-rimmed glasses, shrugged and said helplessly, "Of course, I don't like it here either. I think maybe only those rich people think banks are a wonderful place." The place."

"Dealing with goblins is not an easy job, Arthur. Believe me, after today you will feel how polite the goblins were before this."

Dirk Cresswell sighed. Many people thought that dealing with Gringotts might be a bad job, but only he knew that those stingy goblins were completely different when facing Ministry of Magic officials. A face.

According to the former director of the "Fairy Liaison Office", fairies are actually a group of smart magical "beasts" who hide all their cunning and ferocity under their greed for wealth.

"In fact, I've felt it."

Arthur Weasley took out his pocket watch and looked at it. They had been waiting here for almost an hour, but until now they had not seen the so-called Goblin Commissioner of Gringotts.

Obviously, the Gringotts goblins who have grasped the Ministry of Magic's weakness are very clear about their attitude.

The long-standing isolation between the magic world and the non-magic world, coupled with the political barriers between countries, the goblins only need to block the channel for exchanging gold galleons for rubles, and all the initiative will be under their control. In their hands, the so-called intention to negotiate is just to give the Ministry of Magic a seemingly decent step.

All officials of the Ministry of Magic, including Cornelius Fudge, understand this clearly. In this silent contest, unless the British Ministry of Magic dares to risk the disapproval of the world and start a war first, this dumb loss will definitely be suffered. .

To be precise, since officials from the Muggle Liaison Office compiled comments from non-magical newspapers and evaluated the difficulty of obtaining rubles, the entire Ministry of Magic has almost unanimously agreed: to give up taking over the debt of Hogwarts. plan, and instead focused on investigating the remaining Death Eaters to recover the funds.

However, as a government department responsible for all matters in the British wizarding world, the necessary efforts naturally need to be maintained.Fudge had no doubt that if he dared to speak out about giving up Hogwarts, he would be ousted by the angry wizards the next day.

Therefore, after the meeting in the Minister's Office, Mr. Weasley, one of the few "Muggle-savvy" people in the Ministry of Magic, and Dirk Cresswell, director of the "Goblin Liaison Office", were assigned to go to Gringotts to represent the Ministry of Magic and the goblins. They discussed the issue of reopening the ruble exchange window.

Of course, in the eyes of the discerning people in the ministry, this actually has another meaning.

The Ministry of Magic needs officials with enough weight to come to the public, attract people's anger and doubt for them, and take the initiative to take responsibility-if in the end Hogwarts Castle is really controlled by the goblins because it cannot repay its debts. , then Arthur and Dirk are another group of "incompetent and stupid" Ministry of Magic officials.

However, according to the usual practice, the ministry will usually give some symbolic criticism afterwards and then secretly issue a small amount of additional salary subsidies to appease these "scapegoats". This kind of task is naturally fatal to those officials who want to be promoted. Poison, but perfect for Mr. Weasley.

However, understanding is understanding, and the two of them still have some resentment in their hearts.

"This is too much, these arrogant goblins! We are also officials representing the Ministry of Magic after all. Do you really think that we can do whatever we want just because we have money?"

After waiting for another ten minutes, even a good-tempered person like Mr. Weasley became a little angry. He stood up angrily, walked to the door and questioned an elf attendant dissatisfiedly.

"Sorry, please wait patiently, sir. The goblin commissioners responsible for this matter are still in a meeting, and they will come as soon as the meeting is over."

The goblin wearing Gringotts' black uniform bowed respectfully and continued to repeat his previous answer. His tone was rigid and impeccable, making Arthur somewhat doubtful whether the person in front of him was a magical creation or a living goblin.

"you……"

"Thank you, we understand, then just wait."

Just when Mr. Weasley was about to explode, Dirk stretched out his hand from behind the door and put his arm around his shoulder, pulling him back and whispering in his ear, "Calm down, Arthur, now It’s time to compete for patience. In my opinion, there is good news.”

"good news?"

Arthur Weasley looked at the young man behind him strangely. Hasn't this child become confused after dealing with goblins for too long?

"If being left out for half an hour can be interpreted as an act of demonstration. Then as time goes by, I am becoming more and more certain that Gringotts must have encountered some kind of trouble."

Goblins with long lifespans have a much heavier concept of time than humans. Even one of the wise sayings of the Goblins of Gringotts is that "time is the most precious wealth".

According to Dirk Kresswei's long-term contact, the purpose of this group of goblins' actions is usually frighteningly clear. Bureaucracy may exist, but it will never affect the efficiency they focus on most.

There is no doubt that the meeting with the Ministry of Magic is an unavoidable official-level act, and the time cost of the negotiation itself is inevitable.If the outcome is really as unchangeable as the Ministry of Magic originally envisioned, then theoretically speaking, the most reasonable approach is to end the negotiation as soon as possible instead of using such childish tactics to delay time.

The young director of the "Fairy Liaison Office" pushed up his thick-lensed glasses and concluded with a firm tone.

"At this special moment, there is a high probability that the things that can cause trouble to Gringotts will only be related to what we are about to talk about. Although I don't know why, I am certain of one thing - from From now on, the longer we wait, the better it is for us."

"In other words, are they really having a meeting to discuss how to deal with us?"

Mr. Weasley frowned, with a flash of surprise in his eyes, and pondered, "So, the goblins of Gringotts are not as fearless as they appear. Things may turn around, as long as we understand that the goblins are worry about what."

Dirk Kresswei touched his chin, and the two of them fell into deep thought at the same time.

"Yes, this contract must be disadvantageous to the goblins, but where..."

……

Arthur and Dirk's guesses were correct. The goblins did encounter a very difficult problem.

At the same time, right under their feet, was the Gringotts Venture Capital Office.

"Everyone, an hour has passed! Even the stupidest wizard can detect something wrong!"

Douglas, the goblin supervisor with neatly combed hair, knocked on the table with his cane and roared loudly, "A plan! I need a plan! Instead of listening to you telling me that the ruble exchange rate has dropped a few points and the losses in our contract, I could figure out these things verbally when I was ten years old!”

Under Douglas's cane, there are several pictures and documents of reports from the Soviet Union.

[Azerbaijan declares independence today]

[Uzbekistan declares independence today]

[Kyrgyzstan declares independence today]

……

The one at the top is a white-haired Muggle wearing glasses. There is a dark brown birthmark on his Mediterranean bald scalp. In the picture recorded with the magic camera, the man is sitting in front of a wooden table and repeating Say a word.

"I, Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev, announce my resignation from Гehepaльhыncekpetapьцkkпcc and suggest that kПcc disband itself!"

"asshole!"

Douglas's cane hit the table hard, making the goblins around him shrink their heads in fright. "This Muggle must have been under the Imperius Curse! Are all the wizards in the Soviet Ministry of Magic and Internal Affairs fools?" ?! I knew that wizards were definitely not well-intentioned and protested to the International Federation of Wizards, demanding more protective personnel around important Muggle government officials. They must not be allowed to be manipulated."

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Yesterday’s two chapters were not successful~ Sure enough, it is close to the Chinese New Year, and everyone is not in the mood to read~

Gu~I am a cute chubby chicken with a round face again~It’s better if it exceeds 1000~rua~