Hermione, join me as Minister of Magic!

The butler complained a little about this, because he hoped that the two people could cure His Majesty with potions, just like using hair tonic, because he didn't want outsiders to see the Queen's weak appearance, which would affect the royal family's dignity.

But this time it was Lockhart who explained it aloud.

"If you use the potion rashly without knowing the patient's constitution and condition, then the disease can be cured, but the excess magic power will remain in the patient's body." Lockhart deliberately alarmist, "This is different from the hair growth spirit, the hair growth The magic power of the spirit will be consumed until the hair grows out, so don’t worry about overdosing.”

The housekeeper frowned when he heard the words: "Then, what's wrong with keeping the magic power in the body?"

If the magic power is poisonous to ordinary people, then the housekeeper must not let them in.

Fortunately, Lockhart dispelled his idea: "Magic power staying in the body of ordinary people will not cause any direct harm, but if it stays for too long, it will change a person's physique, and it is very likely to attract some unconventional people. Germs come on wind.

Ordinary viruses can be wiped out in the blink of an eye, but magic viruses

Even if we want to clean it up, it takes a lot of work, so it's better not to try it lightly.And if we treat it, we can guarantee that there will be no magic power left

Malfoy also interjected at the right time: Die, for example, the March emesis...every March, the sick person will vomit continuously for a month, so far there is no effective

The radical treatment method can only temporarily relieve symptoms. "

The old housekeeper's face changed upon hearing this: "In that case, please let me ask for instructions."

"Please." Lockhart saluted.

After the old butler entered, Mr. Farley raised his eyebrows at Malfoy and Lockhart? That meant what the hell were they doing.

Although the magic power will indeed remain, it will not have a permanent effect on people, and it will dissipate automatically in a short time. Lockhart and Malfoy are completely alarmist

Lockhart had only one word for it: "hospital".

Mr. Farley wasn't stupid either, he understood what Lockhart meant right away.

If you just sell medicine to make money, of course it is not as good as directly opening hospitals and providing medical services to make money, and this can also solve more employment problems.

Since a huge amount of money poured into the treasury of the pure-blood family, although it was only less than half a month, the prices in the wizarding world have quietly increased by 3%. This is because big families such as Malfoy and Farley are relatively restrained. The result of depositing the vast majority of gold into the vaults

Although the prosperity of all industries is a good thing for the wizarding world, but my family knows their own affairs. As long as the international oil price continues to rise, their future income will only increase.Prices will only continue to rise and will not fall back.

This also means that the gold in the hands of pure-blood families will soon become less and less valuable, so it is more cost-effective to switch to assets that will increase in price early.

It seems necessary to buy St. Mungo's shares early... Mr. Farley thought to himself.

Not long after, the housekeeper pushed open the door of the tea room again.

"So, Lord Malfoy, Lord Farley, please..."

"It's the Baron, thank you."

Malfoy corrected the old butler seriously, as if it was important.

The butler paused for a moment, but didn't say anything.

In the 11th century, the Malfoy family did accept the title of title, but it was obviously the lowest title of "Laird" (Laird), and calling them "Lords" was actually flattering them.Even if the Malfoy family has continuously annexed the surrounding land through marriage or purchase for hundreds of years, their head family still cannot be regarded as a baron.

More importantly, among the Scottish nobility titles, there is no title of baron at all, only "Lrd_f_Parliament".

The old butler didn't want to open this mouth, because until the British "House of Lords Act" was promulgated in 1999, British hereditary nobles would automatically become members of the House of Lords, and the lowest title of this "hereditary nobleman" was also a baron, and Malfoy was recognized as a "baron" Or "Lord" means a lot.

Therefore, Malfoy cared so much about this title not only for fame, but for political status.

The butler raised his hand, not planning to continue arguing on this issue, and besides, it was beyond his control.

In the corridor, Malfoy frowned, and asked Lockhart in a low voice: "You said, Ma...the Prime Minister of non-magical people promised us to enter the House of Lords

Lockhart is not willing to take this responsibility: "This...you have to go through the procedure again, and you haven't even given your allegiance to Her Majesty the Queen."

Lucius Malfoy tightened his faux tuxedo-style robes and didn't say any more, but judging from his expression, it looked like he was going to win.

Although Mr. Farley was equally scheming, he still had a thin skin after all, and he didn't dare to declare that he was also a baron.

The Malfoy family still had a large manor, and he only had the territory of a village. It was a bit far-fetched to call himself a baron, he had to admit that.

Chapter 350 Nine Ways of Allegiance

Lockhart was still a little worried about whether Malfoy and Mr. Farley would remember the etiquette of meeting the royal family after years of not setting foot in the aristocratic circle.

But he obviously worried too much, because looking at Lucius Malfoy's meticulous salute and that rather quaint greeting, it is estimated that his family has been practicing this for hundreds of years without doing anything.

Her Majesty really only had a small cold, so it only took about 30 seconds for Lockhart and the others to cure her, and the rest of the time was spent listening to Malfoy bragging about his loyalty.

If you only listen to Lucius' narration, you will think that in the past 300 years, the Malfoy family has always been sympathetic to the royal family, but there are always a group of mobs in the wizarding world that hinder the communication between the two parties, and there are even non-magic The persecution of wizards by people in the world, they had to make false claims with it.

— After some rhetoric, even Mr. Farley behind couldn't help rolling his eyes.

I have seen shameless ones, but I have never seen such shameless ones as Lucius. It seems that the descendants of Armand Malfoy have undoubtedly inherited the style of their ancestors, and even surpassed others. Mr. Farley doubts Gregory the flattering curse Was it secretly learned by the Malfoy family?

Even Her Majesty the Queen had to interrupt Lucius' chatter—as a successor, she couldn't characterize the former government's crackdown on wizards as evil, and couldn't even admit that the British government was responsible for it. the main responsibility of her, for she was completely ignorant of it.

Don't forget that the state religion of the United Kingdom is still the Protestant Anglican Church.When the royal family is deprived of administrative power by the parliament, it can only rely on the "divine authority of the king". How could it be possible to do things that destroy the faith of the church.

By the way, the King/Queen of England is also the head of the Anglican Church.

"I believe that blindly excluding something that is not understood is not the act of a compassionate person, and I also believe that as long as Parliament and the Church remain honorable, the cornerstones of British existence, injustice will prevail in the future. The far future is eliminated, what do you think, Sir Malfoy?" she asked softly.

Although he knew that the old lady in front of him didn't know any magic at all, Lucius acted submissive at the moment.

"It couldn't be more correct!" He immediately agreed, "So we hope to make a little contribution to the prosperity under your rule, even if it is insignificant."

The more Lockhart heard it, the more wrong it became—could it be that Lucius thought that Her Majesty's power was exactly the same as it was 300 years ago?

The old lady was not confused. Although she didn't know why Lucius and the others wanted to enter the House of Lords so much, since this was the only bargaining chip she had at this time, she would not give it to them so easily.

"Of course, the House of Lords will never reject any promising aristocrat who respects tradition and is willing to contribute to the prosperity of Britain." She strongly hinted.

"Of course." Lucius said as if he was pardoned, "I have always respected tradition... This time, we have brought you the traditional royal tribute of the Malfoy family... 300 years old.

Seeing him mention the tribute, not to mention the queen, even Lockhart and Mr. Farley were curious. They really wanted to know what was in those two big boxes.

After the butler went to the Queen's ear and whispered a few words, Queen Elizabeth II showed a surprised expression.

"This is...unexpected, but Sir Malfoy really has a heart."

Lockhart pricked up his ears, wanting to know what exactly Malfoy had paid for

"...so much whalebone, I think you must have put a lot of thought into collecting it.

said Queen Elizabeth II approvingly.

"Yes Your Majesty, it took 300 years." Malfoy puffed up his chest,

"We have always upheld the tradition and carefully preserved all the baleen in order to make them play their due role one day."

The old lady took a deep breath: ^What amazing loyalty, Sir Malfoy

Mr. Farley listened in confusion, but Lockhart understood.It turned out to be whalebone—an old tradition indeed.

Since the popularity of whalebone skirts and umbrellas from Spain in the 15th century, whalebone has become a very sought-after commodity in the UK.

At that time, Europe’s overfishing and killing of whales was extremely extreme. In many cases, after whaling ships killed whales with harpoons and whaling cannons, only its fat and baleen were thrown back into the sea to feed sharks.

It is precisely because of this that the whales in the Atlantic Ocean were once overfished by Europeans to the brink of extinction, and the whalebone skirts of British ladies and the whalebone umbrellas of gentlemen also fell into the embarrassing situation of insufficient production, forcing the British royal family to pay for it. This is specifically the law.

This law stipulates that in the exclusive waters of the British royal family, all whales and baleen hunted belong to the royal family.The baleen of whales stranded on the beaches owned by the royal family must also be turned over to the royal family.

By the way, even in the 21st century, 55% of Britain's beaches are nominally Her Majesty's.

Although it is said that the royal family has long been reduced to a mascot, even if someone kills the stranded whale

The baleen is their own, and the royal family will not dispatch the royal police to take the baleen from that person.

Grab it.But meeting Malfoy so abiding by the "rules"

■■■

EA2

Nobles who know how to pay tribute,

Her Majesty the Queen is still very happy.

Even after the appearance of plastic and synthetic rubber, the royal family actually no longer needs to use it

The baleen, which is extremely resistant to breakage, is used as a support frame for women's dresses, not to mention that old-fashioned women's dresses have long been out of fashion.

Malfoy's tribute to the queen is not so much "precious" whalebone, but rather a "tradition": a tradition of nobles' loyalty to the royal family, just like the spring and autumn countries paid tribute to the Zhou royal family. Same as pomelo.

In comparison, the lady's gemstone cane presented by Mr. Farley is relatively thin. Even if from the perspective of ordinary people, his gift is more expensive, but because of its lack of symbolic meaning, it falls short.

Could it be that Her Majesty the Queen really lacks this tribute from you?The British royal family is the richest royal family in the world, with a net worth of more than 800 billion U.S. dollars, and even more if you include intangible income such as various brands and topics. Can be regarded as a small local tyrant.

Of course, since she has accepted the gifts from the wizards, the queen will not let them work in vain

In her opinion, Malfoy's desire to be a member of the House of Lords is not difficult to achieve, but it must be worthwhile.

Or to put it more bluntly, it doesn't really matter whether the tribute is tribute or not. She is not short of that money. The key is that Her Majesty wants to live a few more years, and it is best to let her dear son——Charles Your Highness will be the crown prince for life.

Since the wizards revived the ancient etiquette and paid tribute to her whalebone, she naturally had to give the two of them enough responses in accordance with the ancient etiquette.

"Since that is the case, please follow the etiquette and pledge your allegiance to Her Majesty the Queen!"

After the queen agreed to the two's qualifications for the House of Lords, the butler suddenly appeared in front of several people, put down a wool carpet, and took out a list of etiquette items from nowhere.

Just by looking at the parchment on the book that has almost oxidized to the point where no writing can be seen, everyone can tell that this book must be quite old.

Holding the book, the housekeeper stood upright, and read without any emotion in his voice:

"Is this the first time for you two to come here? According to your title, Lord Farley, you can bow down to the Queen; as for Baron Malfoy, according to the protocol, you can kiss Her Majesty's feet..."

Under Malfoy's sluggish gaze, Mr. Farley suddenly realized that he didn't follow Malfoy's example and brazenly declare that he has the title of baron, which may not be without benefits.Chapter 360 Fortress of Destiny

Following the return from the audience with the Queen, Lockhart suddenly found that he had an additional handle that could be used to blackmail Lucius Malfoy.

Although Voldemort probably won't give up recruiting these rich guys because of this, but if those purebloods know, that "noble" Lucius Malfoy actually knelt down and kissed a Muggle as a wizard representative I'm afraid they won't be very tolerant of him, let alone Voldemort is still a professional-level PUA expert.

Mr. Farley has maintained the "honesty" that a wizard should have-that is, kneeling on one leg, which can at least be said to be just a common etiquette.

Lucius Malfoy himself knew this. On the way back to the manor, he embarrassedly explained to the two people next to him his mental activities at that time—that was really a dead end.

He had already done that before, and he really couldn't give up just because the final touch deviated from what he had expected.

Lockhart suppressed a smile, and told Malfoy that he had almost forgotten about it—of course, if Mr. Malfoy was willing to join the "Seminar on Wizarding Political and Economic Models" that Lockhart was about to set up, and become an association As for the sponsor, maybe he will forget more cleanly.

Malfoy is not stupid: "You are going to form a party."

"What kind of party?" Lockhart pretended to be stupid and said, "Now the wizarding world is facing a change unseen in a thousand years, and people of insight must unite and discuss how to deal with it

The two pure-blood "nobility" chose not to comment on Lockhart's account.

They don't care what Lockhart's purpose is, they only care about what benefits they can get from it.

After the New Year, both Muggles and wizards are a bit lazy, in a state of holiday syndrome.

In such an atmosphere, the Five-wizard Tournament is obliged to serve as a "refreshing agent", injecting stimulating factors into the blood vessels of the wizards.

Because the competition schedule is relatively dense and the reports can keep up, when the third event was held, according to the media statistics, the number of followers had covered more than half of the wizarding world in Europe and America.

The most direct manifestation of this is the popularity of the five participating schools and their warriors.

There are not many magic schools that have been in operation for more than 30 years.

Schools like Ilvermorny, Castroche, and Waggadu that don't care about the source of students are rare, and their resources are unique because they have an entire continent as their source of new students.

And big schools like Hogwarts and Beauxbatons don't worry much about the source of students, because Hogwarts has the pen of acceptance and the book of admission, and Beauxbatons has the living fossil of Nicole Flamel, so at least It is no problem to unify the academic circles of Britain and France. The greater significance of the Five Powers Competition for them is to let people all over the world know about them.

These schools don't have to worry about their students, but that doesn't mean other schools don't have to either.

For example, for Durmstrang, whose enrollment has been declining, the publicity effect of the game is more important.After receiving the report on the number of applicants for the new school year, Karkaroff walked with a tinge of joy these days. If it wasn't for the looming shadow of Voldemort, he might have gotten carried away.

It's not his fault. There are only 30 magic schools that have been in operation for more than 0 years and have been recorded by Rowling in the European and American cultural circles.

In addition to these relatively large schools, there are many sporadic small magic schools in Europe, and there are even families who raise their own children instead of sending them to school.

Under such circumstances, large schools already have advantages in terms of size and teaching staff over small schools. As long as large schools do not kill themselves like Durmstrang, small schools have no chance to snatch people.

After the Big Five Tournament was held, it was obvious that there were no sign-ups from elementary schools this year, and Beauxbatons, Hogwarts, and Durmstrang, who were eligible to participate in the Tournament, had a huge impact on the number of students from schools in the surrounding areas. siphon effect

The population of the wizarding world is only that large, and if there are more students in this school, there will be fewer students in other schools.So after discovering the advertising effect of the Big Five Tournament, many schools suddenly began to show an extremely enthusiastic attitude towards the competition.

They sent inquiries to the Organizing Committee of the Five Powers Tournament through the magic departments of each country, asking about the method of participating in the competition and the time for the next competition. What's more, they directly asked for the next competition to be held.With so many schools signing up, the organizing committee even began to discuss whether to set up a multi-school league.