Hogwarts: This holy light is righteously evil.

With all the scattered clues sorted out, the next step is to confront the core of the entire incident: Voldemort himself.

Chapter 126 The holiday is coming to an end

The secret plan that Puni and Regulus had previously finalized is now progressing steadily as expected, with all aspects showing a stable and positive trend.

The two deliberately went beyond the limitations of a single investigation, expanding their propaganda efforts from Romania to the entire European magical community, creating a comprehensive image of the British magical world's overall strength.

A meticulously planned and widespread propaganda campaign continuously conveyed a unified core message to wizards across Europe: the British magical community now boasts Dumbledore, the world's most powerful white wizard. With this top-tier expert in charge, the overall safety and magical foundation far surpass those of other regions.

At the same time, Hogwarts, the most prestigious and comprehensive magic school in Europe, is located here.

With a thousand-year history of education, a comprehensive curriculum, and a rich magical atmosphere, this castle school has become a sacred place of learning for countless overseas wizards.

Aside from prestigious schools and powerful individuals, the UK also boasts Hogsmeade, the largest and most populous wizarding village in the entire wizarding world. With its complete industrial structure and stable order, it is a highly representative pure wizarding community. Gringotts, entirely controlled by goblins, is widely recognized as the world's best magical vault in terms of its security system.

Gringotts has maintained a record of zero thefts for a thousand years thanks to its layers of ancient restrictions, high-level magical traps, and exclusive guard system, accumulating extremely high credibility. Deep within its vaults are sealed a vast number of rare magical treasures, including the legendary Philosopher's Stone, a one-of-a-kind treasure with the ability to grant immortality and turn lead into gold.

This progressively effective promotional strategy yielded excellent results in just a few months. Wizards from all over Europe were drawn to the resources, strength, and heritage of the British magical community and flocked to the UK, either to see the prestigious schools and holy sites, to explore rare magical resources, or to seek a more stable environment for cultivation.

The influx of a massive number of foreign wizards has placed enormous pressure on the daily operations of the British Ministry of Magic. The number of tasks, such as entry and exit registration, management of foreign wizards, maintenance of regional order, and handling of foreign disputes, has increased exponentially. This has kept Ministry of Magic staff in a high-intensity work state for a long time, struggling to cope with all kinds of complicated matters, and everyone feels a lot of pressure.

The surge in visitors brought unknown risks and challenged Gringotts' management system. In order to eliminate potential problems and safeguard its millennia-old reputation, the goblin management urgently expanded its workforce, adding a large number of high-ranking goblin guards and magical surveillance devices to comprehensively strengthen the defense system inside and outside the vault.

Everyone in the industry knows perfectly well that the wizarding community that has flooded into Britain is a mixed bag, and there must be dark wizards lurking in other countries among them. For them, Gringotts’ millennium record of no thefts is not a deterrent, but rather a very tempting challenge.

Once someone successfully infiltrates the vault and seizes any high-level magical artifact, they can reap enormous rewards. If they are fortunate enough to find the legendary magic stone, they can directly gain the heaven-defying power of immortality and completely rewrite their own destiny. This immense temptation is enough to make countless dark wizards take the risk.

The series of rumors and gossip deliberately spread by Puni and Regulus achieved their intended effect perfectly, successfully stirring up the situation in the entire European magical world and diverting all external attention to the British mainland.

After the dinner at Black's mansion, Puni politely bid farewell to the hosts and successfully returned to his own mansion via the fireplace teleportation channel.

He has a large appetite, and while the dishes at the Blake family's dinner were exquisite, the portions were restrained. In addition, he was preoccupied with the situation throughout the meal and did not eat freely. As a result, he was not full at all by the end of the dinner.

Upon returning home, he immediately instructed his house-elf, Sensen, to prepare a sumptuous late-night snack for him once again.

Sen Sen is an extremely talented house-elf in the family, especially in the area of ​​cooking.

It doesn't stick to fixed dishes and flavors, but excels at innovating and improving traditional magical cuisine. Every dish it cooks has a brand new flavor, always bringing Puni a different taste experience.

Each satisfying and enjoyable meal made Puni increasingly appreciate Sen Sen's culinary skills.

Puni's satisfaction and praise became the greatest motivation for Sen Sen to do his best, keeping him extremely serious and enthusiastic in managing all the affairs at home.

Looking at the devoted, docile, and diligent Sensen, Puni could never understand those pure-blooded nobles who abused house-elves.

He knew that these magical creatures were thoughtful and grateful. As long as their masters gave them enough respect and kindness, they would be grateful from the bottom of their hearts, do their best to do all their work, and be extremely efficient and loyal.

Conversely, deliberate mistreatment and abuse will only make house-elves resentful and uncooperative, ultimately hindering household affairs and affecting the wizard's own life and interests.

In Puni's view, this kind of counterproductive approach was extremely foolish.

The steady development and prosperity of Puni's various businesses are not only due to Regulus's assistance in terms of connections and resources, but also largely thanks to the meticulous care and silent dedication of the house-elves in the house.

They handle the trivial matters of the industry meticulously and reliably, saving Puni countless complicated worries.

After a hearty meal and some rest, Puni calmed himself down and began to review the complete set of industry operation reports that Moti had compiled that day.

Relying on the huge initial capital accumulated from the "Golden Dragon Battle" competition in previous years, his Golden Dragon Magic Game Club has already completed its initial accumulation and officially embarked on the road of large-scale expansion.

Currently, the store has two branches operating stably in the UK, with a stable customer base and excellent reputation, occupying the mainstream market for local magical toys.

Moreover, the store's overseas expansion is also progressing steadily. Two new branches in France and Germany have completed site selection, decoration, and qualification review, and will soon officially open for business, successfully opening up the magical consumer market in Europe.

As the Battle of the Golden Dragons continues to gain immense popularity in the British wizarding world, almost all the spare Galleons held by wizards in the country have been absorbed and circulated.

The consumption potential of the domestic market is nearing saturation, and there is very limited room for continued profitability by relying on the UK market.

Under such circumstances, shifting profit targets to foreign wizards flocking to various parts of Europe became the inevitable and optimal choice.

"Before the stores in France and Germany opened, I specially arranged the Golden Dragon Battle Tour performance, and the feedback was far beyond my expectations. The acceptance and enthusiasm of overseas wizards were very high."

He pondered for a moment, then quickly finalized the subsequent promotion plan.

Since this kind of pre-match tour can quickly open up overseas markets, accumulate popularity, and enhance brand awareness, the opening of overseas branches in other countries can adopt this mature promotional model, which can significantly reduce customer acquisition costs.

But then he thought about the design work for the exclusive cards, and he couldn't help but frown slightly, feeling a bit helpless.

To adapt to the magic markets of France and Germany and to suit the aesthetics and combat habits of local wizards, he spent a great deal of time and energy independently designing, adjusting the attributes of, and optimizing the content of two new sets of classic cards.

If a completely new card system is to be customized for each country's market expansion in the future, the workload of the tedious design will increase exponentially, which he alone simply cannot handle.

He followed his train of thought and tried to come up with the best solution, muttering to himself, "Perhaps we can divide the card versions according to language systems, instead of customizing them for individual countries."

But he quickly overturned this idea himself.

Many European countries have overlapping borders, and some countries have multiple mainstream languages. The boundaries between languages ​​are blurred, making it difficult to achieve precise matching and leaving many loopholes.

After weighing the options repeatedly without reaching a conclusion, he simply put his concerns aside for the time being.

Overseas expansion is still in its early stages, and there is plenty of time to refine subsequent market planning and version adjustments. There is no need to rush to finalize all the rules.

After a brief moment of thought and deliberation, he independently completed the selection and decision-making for the entire plan.

Puni's long-term solitary life has cultivated his habits of independent thinking, self-deduction, and self-talk to organize his thoughts, enabling him to make complex judgments of pros and cons almost without the need for communication with others.

This is a quality that has been accumulated over a long period of time.

He was already used to being alone, but when he had frequent social interactions and in-depth conversations with others, he would feel a little uncomfortable and restrained.

As people grow older and accumulate more experience, most gradually become accustomed to being alone, shedding the impetuousness and obsession with conformity of their youth.

People who spend a lot of time alone tend to become more carefree and childlike in their behavior in order to alleviate the loneliness of being alone.

The common saying "old people are like children" originates from this.

Older people may seem experienced and knowledgeable, but in reality, they have long cultivated a mindset of self-entertainment. Only through casual and carefree self-entertainment can they alleviate the loneliness and emptiness accumulated over the long years.

True maturity comes from years of experience, not just from being calm and restrained.

Many people are restrained and prudent in their middle age, but as they get older, they tend to let go of all constraints, act as they please, and no longer consciously restrain their words and deeds.

Dumbledore of Hogwarts is the best example.

At only 110 years old, he was unconventional and full of fun, often making casual and unrestrained moves. In the eyes of countless students, he had no serious airs of a top expert. In private, he was often teased by students as an old rascal or an old madman.

He is inherently prone to chaos and capriciousness, acting without restraint and possessing a naturally quirky and carefree personality. If he doesn't learn to entertain himself and alleviate his loneliness, the long years will only be filled with boredom and desolation, devoid of any joy in life.

This is why, even though Puni is free-spirited and still retains a carefree and playful nature, he has restrained himself too much. The stable environment, the companionship of his relatives and friends, and the peaceful atmosphere of life have allowed him to devote himself entirely to life.

Studying magic, running a big business, accomplishing everything I want to do in this strange yet familiar world...

......

Puni finished all the paperwork at hand and handed it over to Meti for external handling.

After completing all of this, the busy daily routine came to a complete end, and I was finally able to calm my mind.

The holiday is quietly coming to an end.

Not only Puni, who was busy managing various personal matters and planning for the future, but most of the students at Hogwarts were also busy with their own distinct tasks during this final holiday, making the originally relaxed holiday atmosphere instantly lively and bustling.

Many students who are usually lazy and slack off are now caught up in the chaos of rushing to finish their assignments. Marcos is the most typical example of this. He indulged in fun and relaxation during the first part of the holiday and completely forgot about the homework assigned by the school.

It wasn't until the holiday was about to end that he suddenly remembered the long-piling schoolwork. He stayed indoors all day, frantically catching up on the magic homework he had been neglecting. He worked at his desk all day, not daring to slack off, trying to catch up on all his schoolwork before the start of the new semester. The Weasley twins, who were always mischievous and naughty, also received their own special "punishment" at the end of the holiday.

The two boys have recently been staging all sorts of pranks and antics at home, causing chaos and thoroughly angering Molly Weasley. In order to punish her two unruly sons, Molly ordered them to clean and tidy up their garden, completely removing the goblins that were causing trouble and straightening the messy flowerbeds and courtyard. She also set a strict rule: if they failed to complete all the cleaning and tidying work to a high standard, their beloved flying brooms would be permanently confiscated. Under the strict punishment, the usually playful twins could only stay at home and work obediently, not daring to cause any more trouble.

Unlike the relaxed, flustered, and unruly students, Qiu Zhang spent the end of his vacation in a particularly fulfilling and disciplined manner.

During this time, she followed her mother and devoted herself to learning various basic spells, practicing diligently day after day without daring to slack off.

Throughout Cho Chang's upbringing, her family adhered to the wizarding world's secrecy rules, never revealing any information about the magical world to her, nor allowing her to touch or learn any magic beforehand. As a result, she grew up in a Muggle environment and remained completely unaware of her own wizarding identity for a long time.

After learning the truth about her origins and stepping into the magical world, the regret of missing out on many years of study has always lingered in Cho Chang's heart. She always felt that she was lagging behind her peers as wizards and that her basic skills were weak, so she cherished every opportunity to learn magic.

Compared to theoretical knowledge of magic, Cho Chang was most concerned with practical spell training, devoting all his free time to it, desperately absorbing all kinds of knowledge from the magical world, frantically making up for his lack of foundation, and single-mindedly wanting to quickly improve his strength and catch up with his classmates.

Qiu Zhang's mother always felt guilty about this. Years of concealment and restraint caused her daughter to miss the most suitable time for enlightenment in magic.

Therefore, she always fully supported her daughter's desire to learn magic and improve her strength, patiently stayed by her side, personally guided her daughter to practice various basic spells, and tried her best to make up for past shortcomings.

As the mother and daughter devoted themselves to their studies, a real problem always lingered in Cho Chang's mind: the Ministry of Magic had strict regulations on underage wizards. All ungraduated wizards were automatically tracked by the Ministry of Magic outside of school. Once they cast spells outside of school areas, they would be immediately monitored and recorded, and would face public criticism and punishment. Under normal circumstances, underage wizards could not practice any spells outside of school.

Just as her mother was worried about her inability to practice, Qiu Zhang smiled calmly, showing no fear of being monitored by the tracking device.

With a faint fluctuation of magical energy, a thin, transparent, and almost invisible magical cloak slowly emerged from her body, completely covering her entire form, its aura restrained and unassuming.

"This is a magical item that Puni specially crafted for me, with the unique effect of shielding me from all traces." Qiu Zhang smiled as she explained the function of this special item to her mother. At the same time, with a thought, she activated her magic to make the cloak instantly conceal her figure, completely disappearing into the air.

"It can appear or disappear at any time, and will not be noticed at all when worn daily. It can not only block the Ministry of Magic's detection, but also achieve full-body invisibility. It is perfect for practicing spells in private and is extremely convenient to use."

This highly functional magic cloak was specially made for Cho Chang by Puni before the start of the holidays. At that time, Cho Chang was just casually confiding in him about her troubles, complaining that due to the rules for underage wizards, she could not practice spells outside of school throughout the holidays, and her progress was severely limited.

Knowing Qiu Zhang's unwavering determination to quickly become stronger and improve her magic, Puni did not hesitate at all. He devoted all his efforts to creating this exclusive item, fully supporting her cultivation path. He would do his best to clear obstacles in the way of Qiu Zhang's goals.

Witnessing the magical effects of this prop firsthand and feeling the pure magic contained within the cloak, Qiu Zhang's mother was filled with amazement, her eyes brimming with disbelief.

"The magical craftsmanship of this item is too exquisite. It can shield the Ministry of Magic from any detection. It is definitely an extremely rare high-level magical artifact. Puni is a very thoughtful and capable child."

Chapter 127 The holiday is over, so annoying.

After her initial amazement, Cho Chang's mother didn't say anything more about the magic cloak. She was just an ordinary half-blood wizard from an ordinary family, living a stable life in the wizarding community, and mostly dealing with conventional magical knowledge and basic spell applications.

She knew very little about the special magic and high-level custom-made items passed down in pure-blood families, and she couldn't judge what kind of superb magical skill was required to create such a portable magical item that could reliably block traces and was suitable for everyday wear.

However, her attitude towards Puni had completely shifted towards tolerance and acceptance. She could clearly see that this outstanding and composed young man cared for his daughter very much and looked after her in every way. Originally, she had always maintained a cautious attitude towards young feelings, but at this moment she put aside her concerns.

In her mind, Qiu is still young and has a long life ahead of her. There is no need to settle down emotionally too early. The feelings between young people are casual and pure, without fixed constraints and agreements. The future is full of variables. Even when they enter adulthood, the coming together and parting of feelings between people is normal. The current compatibility may not be able to support the two people to stay together for the last time.

When it comes to romantic relationships, her views are far more insightful and open-minded than those of the stubborn and devoted Qiu Zhang. She never felt that young feelings needed to be committed to one person forever, but simply let the two of them get along naturally and wait for time to prove everything.

At this moment, Qiu Zhang was not at all immersed in thoughts of romance. She had a firm conviction in her heart. She devoted all her free time during the entire holiday to studying magic, just to hone her strength and have the ability to assist Puni.

She set a clear goal for herself: to use her hard work during this period to demonstrate a remarkable transformation that would impress everyone, and to make Puni look surprised and astonished when he saw her progress.

Whenever Qiu Zhang imagines Puni's surprised and delighted expression, the tedium and fatigue of practicing the spell disappear, and Qiu Zhang's heart is filled with motivation, and a faint smile unconsciously appears on his lips.

After their emotions had completely settled, a private spell training course for the mother and daughter officially began in the spacious courtyard of the mansion.

Qiu Zhang's mother had already prepared a secret training manual for her daughter. She told Qiu Zhang that she possessed an ancient and secret magic spell passed down from Qiu Zhang's maternal grandfather, which was not the ordinary magic circulating in the market.

The greatest advantage of this secret technique is that it combines offense and defense, is extremely practical, adaptable to the vast majority of real combat scenarios, and its power far exceeds that of the basic spells in the Hogwarts textbooks.

This magic has no strict requirements on the amount and purity of the practitioner's magic power, and the threshold is extremely low, so anyone can start practicing it.