Hermione, join me as Minister of Magic!

"But if we don't do it this time, they will go too far in the future. It's fireworks today, and maybe some other weird stuff tomorrow." Percy said in a muffled voice, "and the Slytherins won't Let it go, they will definitely find something stronger than the Peruvian stealth bomb to deal with them... I remember this is called "arms race" in the Muggle world"

Lockhart smiled even wider.

"Isn't that better?" he said.

"Better?" Percy wondered.

"Competition leads to development. If we don't let them spend more energy on this, how can we make this an industry?"

"industry?"

"Or in other words, interest groups." Lockhart inspired him. "Didn't you find that the deans of the major colleges didn't say a word about this change?"

Hearing his reminder, Percy couldn't help but froze.

Yeah, why?

Not only did Slytherin get honors, but Dean Snape also made a lot of money by making potions.

Although Professor Sprout cares about the students of the irrigation school no less than others, the greenhouse where she grows herbs has been frequently visited by students recently, and those students obviously do not just help her clean up goblins and fertilize and weed.

Professor Flitwick was delighted at the sudden increase in the number of students who came to ask for advice on spells. In his words, "Half of the time you spend studying duels is spent on spells. Last year, W.Ls spells learned There will not be so few people."

As for Professor McGonagall, the same is true. After the senior students began to use the spell armor, causing the stun spell and the crushing spell to no longer work easily, some students began to try to use transfiguration on the stage of the senior grade.

Thinking of this, Percy raised his head, seeming to understand what Lockhart meant.

PS Everything else is easy to say, everyone can understand it by himself, but it doesn't make sense to say that Umbridge is "loyal to Fudge".

Umbridge has tried many times in the past to develop a relationship with her boss in order to gain power - but she usually doesn't care who her boss is.Moreover, when Fuji was in power, she would do things for Fuji, and when Fuji stepped down, she would still be attached to the party and powerful. It can be seen that the object of her loyalty is power, not a certain person.

In the central setting, Umbridge will only show her true face as an extreme bloodist after drinking, and in order to pretend that she is a pure-blood, she uses her authority to fire her father who sweeps the floor in the Ministry of Magic, because it will make herself ashamed.

Although the pendant of Slytherin may have affected her later, but... she was already like that before the pendant affected her, and it can only be said that the smell is similar

Chapter 110 Eight Benefits of Delivery

After Percy figured it out, the duel rules were upgraded again under the discussion of the club's referee team.

"Each person is only allowed to carry a total of no more than three magic items or magic creatures before the match, and must report to the referee and the teacher on duty before the duel to determine whether it is appropriate."

Although Percy thought he was perfect, someone came to his door.

Professor McGonagall felt very strange, because she thought that Lockhart would directly ban these magic items and creatures, and only keep the magic armor.

Because of the duel, the little lions and little snakes have recently begun to frequently bring in some contraband from outside the school through Hogsmeade and owls.

Although things like fang flying saucers, combo boomerangs, and sneeze powder can only be regarded as pediatrics, things like fireworks and stealth bombs have begun to make Professor McGonagall frown.It's just that she couldn't accuse Lockhart of anything, so she didn't say anything.

But when a claw hook that can dissociate stones and a diamond jewelry that can release fireballs were also detained by Filch, Professor McGonagall finally couldn't sit still.

"Gidero, I don't think you can do that," she said to Lockhart.

"Just keep the armor."

"What a coincidence that you came, Severus just came and said that armor should not be used in the duel field, because in reality no one walks with those things every day." Lockhart said with a smile.

"But why?" Professor McGonagall was puzzled.

For the money - of course Lockhart couldn't say that.

"It's going to be very hard for us to promote Defense Against the Dark Arts without the involvement of the interested parties, you know, the students wouldn't have come if there wasn't a duel

study these

Professor McGonagall raised her voice, "You're making a business of it?"

"Indeed." Lockhart admitted bluntly, "Only when some magic items are allowed to be used on the dueling platform, can we get sponsorship from the corresponding merchants."

"Not everything can be used as a business, Gilderoy." Professor McGonagall said sharply, "You are playing with fire."

"But, Dark Wizard..."

But dark wizards will certainly use all kinds of things, so it is also necessary to teach students how to deal with various magical items and creatures' - you want to say that? "Professor McGonagall preemptively said what Lockhart wanted to say.

Lockhart also acted very bachelor: "...indeed, you are right."

He hopes to use this healthy development method to make the Hogwarts Dueling Club a stage for performances.This stage is not only to show the students' anti-black magic quality, but also to show some props that can resist black magic or can be used for self-defense.

This is not only beneficial to the development of Defense Against the Dark Arts, but more importantly, it allows the entire wizarding society to participate in this activity. Those magic item merchants will definitely not mind using this stage for publicity.

The Snake Academy and the Lion Academy want to show their strength and win honors, the Eagle Academy wants to research more practical magic against spells, and the puff wants to eat more melons... and the Duelist Club can give them all these things.

Those who sell props, those who sell magical creatures, those who manage the media, and those who accumulate administrative experience for future political careers... When these interest groups are formed, even if someone from the Ministry of Magic wants to attack the Duelist Club, it will only be the one who will be unlucky in the end People who hinder everyone's interests.

"Not only those non-offensive magic items and magic creatures below 3X, I will also allow little wizards to use broomsticks in duels, and allow non-damaging

Sex potions...if all goes well, I also hope that in the future there will be an "foreign aid" mechanic where students can invite humanoids - such as centaurs, goblins,

House elves, ghosts, one by one, will be your dueling assistants, but of course werewolves, vampires, female ghosts and giants can't..."

"You're crazy!" Professor McGonagall yelled in disbelief, "For this business, you actually want to introduce unknown origin..."

"This is for the unity of intelligent life in the magical world." Lockhart corrected, "It's not about money."

But Lockhart himself is very clear that when a person says "it's not about the money", the problem is often the money, or not enough money.

Professor McGonagall finally left in a huff. She was going to report the situation to Professor Dumbledore and express her attitude.

But she didn't know that this was also what Dumbledore meant.

Dumbledore is not politically conservative. "Never refuse to change because of our ordinaryness" is his consistent creed.Although he may not be sure how effective Lockhart's handwriting will be, he doesn't mind giving it a try, since he's not afraid of taking responsibility anyway.

Therefore, after Lockhart revealed his reasons for doing so, Dumbledore not only did not object, but even encouraged him to take a bigger step.

Although Professor McGonagall is very responsible, her trip is destined not to get the results she expected, maybe Dumbledore will persuade her in turn.

No matter how powerful Dumbledore is in the political world, anyway, at Hogwarts he is absolutely right and what he says is what he says.

After sending away Professor McGonagall, the old lioness, Lockhart thought he would not be disturbed by the people of the Lion House, but a young lioness knocked on Lockhart's door again

Hearing the knock on the door, Lockhart had no choice but to put down the pen and paper in his hand for the third time.

He couldn't finish writing the plan today.

"Hermione? What a rare visitor, why would you want to come to see me? What would you like to drink? Tea? Pumpkin juice? Coke? Or iced lemonade?"

Lockhart was a little taken aback by the visitor, as it was the first time he had seen Hermione alone since the Chamber of Secrets incident.

"Tea is fine... no need to add milk, thank you!"

Because she had been to Lockhart's office many times before to participate in club activities, and Lockhart was always very easy-going, so Hermione was not as restrained as she was the first time, but rather relaxed.

She looked around at Lockhart's office, and found that there were a few more luxurious accessories than last week, and she had a more intuitive understanding of Lockhart's financial strength.

That's good, such a rich person shouldn't mind... right?

"That's right, professor... I wonder if you hired someone to take care of your life when you were working?" She asked directly what she wanted to ask.

Lockhart raised his eyebrows: "No, but this is Hogwarts, and the house elves are happy to help me with some housework."

"That's what I'm talking about..." Hermione hurriedly followed Lockhart's words, "That is to say, when you lived off-campus, no one came to help you with laundry and housework?"

Lockhart thought back to the flat he had rented in London, then shook his head.

Well, yes, I live in London, I wouldn't dare ask Muggles to come into my house to clean, in case they touch something they shouldn't touch, and I happen to be away. oo what, are you planning on summer vacation Work-study program? " Lockhart asked deliberately.

Hermione shook her head hastily.

"It's not me! It's a house-elf called Dobby, originally Malfoy

It's home, but Malfoy gave him a sock... Anyway, it's been looking for a new job lately. "

Lockhart knew what she meant by asking: Newell means you want to introduce him to work with me, don't you?It's really unimaginable, it's not that ancient aristocratic families generally don't have house elves, although there are more than one Malfoy family, but just abandoning the ownership of house elves... he won't have any problems, right? "

"There's nothing wrong with him."

Hermione was a little guilty when she said this, because she remembered the scene where Dobby tried desperately to get into the fireplace when he talked to Harry about Malfoy.

"He just has a...uh...bad.../" bug, even though Ron says it's a fucking bug..."

"what?"

"He wants wages! So it's not very easy to find a job these days."

Lockhart smiled: "So that's it, it's not a big problem. Let him talk to me about how much he wants to pay. To be honest, what a bachelor like me hates most is doing housework."

Chapter 110 IX The Status of the House-Elves

To be able to hire a house elf for a little money, to be honest, this is no longer a question of whether to make money, but a question of how much money is made.

House elves have a strong ability to cast spells, not to mention the unfathomable wandless spellcasting and apparition that ignores Voldemort's prohibition, such as manipulating Bludgers, sealing magic channels, and disarming Lucius Malfoy. It's not something an ordinary wizard can do.

To put it bluntly, the magical ability of house elves is probably not inferior to some adult wizards, such as the weak chicken Lucius Malfoy.

And from the "Goblet of Fire" plot, the Ministry of Magic suspected that the house-elf Winky used Harry's wand and used it to cast the Dark Mark. Judging from the fact that the house-elves can actually use the wand, it's just that the wizard doesn't let them use it. .

It's just because it is a race "created by wizards", so it must have the owner's permission before it can cast spells.

From this point of view, wizards’ neglect and contempt for house-elves is not without reason.” Even if they can perform some magic that even wizards don’t know, it’s the same, because they are just a “tool” from the beginning

Just like humans treat AI and robots created by themselves, even if AlphaGo defeats humans and achieves things that humans cannot do in Go, no one will really regard AlphaGo as an equal " people"

It's a pity that Lockhart is a "person without the dignity of a wizard", so he doesn't discriminate against the magic of house elves at all, and he even covets it for a long time. Even if Hermione doesn't come to him, he still wants to have one. The house-elf came out.

But the magic of creating the original house-elves wasn't so easy to do.

Lockhart checked the spellbook and found that the prerequisite for creating a house-elf was

You must first own a big house that is old enough to turn it into a magic house.

Then you have to wait for hundreds of years to let this magic house slowly generate self-awareness, and then use a spell to solidify the consciousness of this magic house in the body that is also created by the spell, and restrain it, This is how a house-elf is created.

So "Even if you are an upstart and have a lot of money, but you can't get things like house elves, it is the threshold that symbolizes ^ldmneyJ, family in wizarding society.

If there is no way to create a house elf by yourself, you can only wait for house elves from other families to reproduce naturally, and then buy its offspring yourself.

But this is also very difficult, because the buyer raising elves is buying someone else's ancestral property.Even if they want to do it from the shabby households, the house elves and ancestral houses are the last ones that will be considered for sale.

Therefore, Hermione came to ask Lockhart to hire Dobby this time, which was actually in Lockhart's favor.

House elves like Dobby and Kreacher, because they came from ancient aristocratic families, they have been the result of multiple generations of reproduction, so the binding spells of the first generation were already very weak.

■■■

EAS

Although they still have to obey some of the rules of the house elves, servility is no longer

It is not as strong as the first generation and the second and third generation, but already has a lot of independent thoughts and consciousness

, so it is possible to make some actions that misinterpret the master's order.

To get their true allegiance, you have to give them more freedom, care, equality and autonomy.It's as if Kreacher has served so many masters, but when he avenged the Battle of Hogwarts, he still shouted revenge for Regulus instead of Mrs. Black, Sirius, Bella, and Narcissa.

Lockhart was mentally prepared for this.

Hermione was delighted to hear Lockhart say "no problem".

"Great, I thought...you are really different from those wizards." She said happily.

At this time, Lockhart was totally taking advantage of it and pretending to be good: "It's okay, my father is also a Muggle, and my primary school is also on the Muggle side. I don't have that kind of prejudice."

"I know."

For this girl who has read Lockhart's autobiography, let alone Lockhart's background, she may even remember which company produced the pacifier he held in his mouth when he was a child.

Seeing her like this, Lockhart was relieved a lot.It seems that after Hermione recovered her memory, she didn't worry about gains or losses, nor did she shrink back, but everything was as usual.

"It seems that you have recovered... That's good. If you have any troubles in the future, you can come and ask me anytime."

"In the future? Including after you go to the Ministry of Magic?"

When it comes to buying people's hearts, Lockhart has always been straightforward: "Of course, I mean, at any time, you can treat it as if you have an extra pen pal... Also don't tell other people my address, my address is blocked Curse, other people's owls can't find mine

"Absolutely not."

Looking at Hermione's appearance, she seemed to hear the headmaster announce that Christmas will be celebrated every day in the future.

After getting Lockhart's approval, Audio-Technica brought Dobby to Lockhart the next day.

After resigning from the Malfoy family, the elf looked for a job everywhere, but the wizarding family - after hearing that it wanted a salary, gave him a rejection.They would rather spend money on pets than spend this kind of "wasted money", especially this kind of wronged money that will embarrass themselves.