The sickly, iron-fisted beauty in Harry Potter

So Dolly, Ron, and Harry went out together, leaving the shop to Ollivander and Ginny.

This is not surprising, because choosing a wand is a private matter.

Some people don't mind Dolly being an apprentice, but others will take the initiative to invite her out.

So much so that later on, Dolly would mostly go out on her own, only occasionally staying behind to learn the measurement process when she saw first-year students.

"I thought I could get a discount."

Ron said with some disappointment, "You're an apprentice here!"

"The wands were all made by Mr. Ollivander, how could I possibly give you a discount?"

"However, since we've known each other for a while, I'll give you a wand bag for free."

Ron laughed when he heard this, as if it wasn't a bad idea.

Soon, Ginny got her wand.

This is actually a normal speed; most people don't need to try each one individually.

Ginny thanked Dolly again with the bag in her hand, and Dolly said, "Wait a moment, I'll go with you."

Harry asked in surprise, "Where are you going? We're going to buy more things with Ginny next."

"You're going to Flourish and Blotts bookstore eventually, aren't you?"

"Of course."

"That's right, I'm going to the book signing event."

"A book signing?"

At first, Harry didn't understand what a book signing event meant.

When he and a few others arrived at Flourish and Blotts and saw the banner on the store, they finally understood.

There was actually a book signing here, hosted by a guy named Gilderoy Lockhart!

"Dolly, you're here too!"

Hermione's surprised voice rang out, and Dolly turned around to see Hermione looking delighted.

"Could it be that you also..."

Hermione was even a little excited and blushed because she hadn't told Dolly that she was coming to Lockhart's book signing.

She had a vague feeling that Dolly would be angry about this, although this feeling was just an unfounded intuition.

After all, Dolly didn't seem like the type of person who would like Lockhart.

But to her surprise, Dolly said, "Yes, I'm a Lockhart fan too, didn't expect that?"

Are you planning to buy Lockhart's complete book series?

"Of course!"

"In that case, I don't need to buy it. I'll see what you think then?"

Hermione frowned. As a Lockhart fan, how could she not spend real money to help Lockhart boost sales?

However, Hermione immediately nodded in agreement.

After all, Lockhart's complete set of books is not cheap; Hermione is not just buying textbooks, but all of Lockhart's works.

Since she can solve the problem for two people by spending money on her own, why should she spend an extra penny?

Hermione was very happy to have an idol with Dolly.

Harry and Ron stared at Dolly in disbelief. After Hermione rushed into the bookstore, Ron asked in surprise, "You really like this... show-off?"

A large banner was stretched out of an upstairs window: Gilderoy Lockhart's autobiography, "The Magician Me," for sale.

Today, from 12:30 PM to 4:30 PM.

Then there was his enormous portrait of himself, and his signature radiant smile, which disgusted Harry and Ron.

Dolly shrugged and said, "Hermione likes his books, why would I badmouth him and upset Hermione at a time like this?"

"We'll soon find out just how good this guy is."

Harry still didn't understand and asked, "What do you mean?"

"It's simple, just look at our book list."

Dolly took out a letter from Hogwarts from her handbag and said, "Second-year students are to read Standard Spells, 'Second Grade,' by Miranda Gossack."

"Breaking with the Ghost, by Gilderoy Lockhart; Traveling with Ghouls, by Gilderoy Lockhart; ... A Year with the Yeti, by Gilderoy Lockhart."

Dolly finished reading a long list of book titles and said, "Guess why we're buying so many Lockhart books?"

“This is no small sum of money. Hogwarts has never needed to buy so many books in the past.”

"Fred said that our new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher must be a witch who idolizes Lockhart."

Ron said somewhat indignantly.

Their family was already struggling financially, and now they need to buy several sets of Lockhart's books, which cost over two hundred Galleons.

If it were old books, he and Ginny could still use the old ones, but now they were using Lockhart's works, and Hogwarts had never specified that they should buy these books.

"Actually, there's another possibility."

Dolly held up one finger and said, "He's our new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, and he's taking this opportunity to promote his entire book series."

"With students, teachers, parents, and even more fans, he might sell several hundred sets, which would be tens of thousands of Galleons."

"This is no small sum of money."

Ron was dumbfounded, both because Dolly's reasoning was correct and because of the number of tens of thousands of Galleons.

This was the first time he had realized that someone could make so much money just by doing something casually.

Harry, on the other hand, seemed much calmer.

Because he knew that the woman in front of him had earned hundreds of thousands of Galleons.

"Hopefully he's good enough; our Defense Against the Dark Arts class was terrible last year."

Harry expressed his expectations, noting that last year's Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher was Quirrell, who deliberately didn't teach anyone anything substantial.

This year's Lockhart is better than Quirrell, right?

Dolly knew what Harry was thinking, but clearly, Harry was wrong.

Big mistakes.

Lockhart's only proficient spell is the Memory Charm.

The remaining skills were all used for social networking and marketing.

After the three finished talking, they began to try to walk inside.

It wasn't until they were squeezed outside the door by a huge crowd of middle-aged witches that they realized just how popular Lockhart really was.

A weary-looking male wizard salesman stood at the door and said, "Ladies, be quiet, don't crowd, and watch out for the books..."

Dolly then used her strength to her advantage, choosing an angle with a gap, and squeezed in with Harry and Ron.

The winding line stretched from the entrance all the way to the back of the bookstore, where Gilderoy Lockhart was signing books. There, Dolly saw Ron's parents and Hermione's parents.

Hermione had obviously come with her parents, who were worried about letting her wander around the wizarding world alone with so much money.

The two families are currently having a completely irrelevant conversation.

The Grangers had seen many wizards before, but this was the first time they had ever met purebred wizards like the Weasleys.

So the Grangers were caught off guard by Arthur's relentless pursuit of every detail about the Muggle world.

Fortunately, the Grangers were dentists and very patient, so they explained things to Arthur little by little, and the two got along very well.

“Oh, you’ve come! That’s wonderful,” said Mrs. Weasley.

She was breathing rapidly, patting her hair repeatedly. "We'll see him soon..."

Gradually, they came into view Gilderoy Lockhart.

He sat behind a table, surrounded by large photographs of himself, all of which showed faces winking at the crowd and flashing dazzling white teeth.

The real Lockhart wore a robe the same blue as forget-me-nots, which perfectly complemented his blue eyes. A pointed wizard's hat was playfully tilted to one side on his wavy blond hair.

146. The Changing Plot

Even Dolly had to admit that Lockhart had very favorable external conditions.

In his previous life, with Lockhart's intelligence, he could have easily earned the title of the most considerate little brother to middle-aged and elderly women with a little manipulation.

Unfortunately, Lockhart's activity in the wizarding world, confining him to the few thousand people in Britain, ultimately limited his potential.

This is also why Dolly is convinced that she will definitely live in the Muggle world from now on; it's not that she doesn't love magic or want to explore the magical world.

Rather, there are simply too few wizards in the magical world to support a complete society.

At that moment, a short, hot-tempered man shoved Ron, causing him to stumble.

He walked over without any hesitation and said, "I'm taking a picture of the Daily Prophet, don't block my way."

Then he started jumping around Lockhart taking pictures, each time the flash went off and a puff of purple smoke came out of the camera.

Dolly glanced at the camera in this magical world, wondering if it worked on the same principle as the one in the Muggle world.

They shouldn't be the same, since photos taken in the magical world can be animated.

It's more like one of those moving portraits in Hogwarts Castle than a real photograph.

This technology was indeed ahead of its time in the Muggle world, and it would still be popular even in Dolly's era.

"Are all the people around Lockhart heartless like this?"

Ron rubbed his shoulder; the rough shove from the grown man was still a bit too heavy for him.

Ron, who already disliked Lockhart because of their bad first impression, now disliked his mother's brother even more.

Ron's voice wasn't loud; in fact, it was very quiet compared to the chattering women.

But Lockhart still looked over, because he was very sensitive to opinions and criticisms.