Hogwarts: This professor is too Muggle

Yaya moved back and forth at his feet, pulling his trouser legs towards the table, reminding him that there was still half a pot of broth there.

Hagrid rubbed its head with a smile: "You're right, eat breakfast first."

ten minutes later.

The hound Yaya looked at the half-blood giant slurping the broth and let out a long sigh of satisfaction. Then he looked at the plate of boiled meat in front of him and remained silent for a long time.

That's obviously its dog food...

Hagrid ate and drank his fill, and burped, his stomach feeling warm.

I thought Professor Lewinter was a wizard from a pure-blood family, but I didn't expect him to be so friendly and even the broth he made was so delicious.

Invite him to drink when you have the chance.

……

On the third night after Christmas, there was a small quarrel in the Gryffindor boys' dormitory.

"Want to play chess?"

"Do not want to."

"How about going to see Hagrid?"

"If you don't want to go, go ahead."

"Harry, I know you're still thinking about that mirror. I have to remind you not to go there again tonight."

"why?"

"I don't know. I have a bad feeling. Magic mirrors that see desires and dreams and make people obsessed are never good things in stories. Maybe they are dark magic items. Besides, you have escaped danger so many times. Filch, Snape and Mrs. Norris will patrol at night. What if you get caught?"

"You sound like Hermione."

"I'm not kidding, Harry, really don't go."

"..."

Harry didn't listen to his roommate's advice. He hadn't seen his parents since he could remember, and had never felt the love and care of his parents in the past ten years. Now he finally had the chance to see his parents' faces. Even if Merlin came, he couldn't stop him, and Ron's unfounded guesses were even more unacceptable.

As night fell, Harry put on his Invisibility Cloak, left his dormitory, walked through the common room, and climbed out of the portrait hole.

"You naughty boy, who are you?!" the Fat Lady asked angrily. She had been disturbed in her sweet dreams for three consecutive days, and she was still scolded even though the principal had warned her.

Harry remained silent, silently apologizing in his heart.

The torches in the corridor had been extinguished. With darkness and the invisibility cloak as a double insurance, Harry was not as panicked as he had been the night before. He walked briskly downstairs, avoiding the patrolling Filch and Mrs. Norris, and soon arrived at the abandoned classroom and stood in front of the Mirror of Erised.

"Mom... Dad..."

Harry looked at the mirror obsessively, stroked the mirror and sat on the ground. He wanted to stay here all night. No one could stop him from staying with his family, not even Merlin!

"You here again, Harry?"

"Headmaster Dumbledore! I…I didn't see you."

"The Invisibility Cloak shouldn't be obstructing your vision. Perhaps your myopia has worsened," Dumbledore said with a smile, sitting down next to him. "However, it's also possible that you were so eager to see the Mirror of Erised that you ignored your surroundings."

"I didn't know it was called that, sir."

"I just call it that according to the inscription above."

“Eris…”

"You can try reading it backwards."

"..."

In an abandoned classroom in the castle, the amiable headmaster began giving a psychological counseling class to the freshmen, while five hundred miles away in London, Melvin walked across Charing Cross Road, pushed open the revolving door of an old pub, and walked in.

The tavern was at its busiest. The dim kerosene lamp could hardly illuminate the entire room, but instead added a hazy and mysterious atmosphere to the bar. An old witch dressed strangely sat in the corner, emitting a hoarse and shrill laugh. The goblins from Gringotts were drunk and crazy at the long table. The young nephews of the Abbott family were in charge of mixing drinks and serving the guests. Old Tom was hiding behind the counter, slacking off and chatting with a few wizards.

Hearing the sound of the brass bell hanging behind the door, Old Tom looked over. When he saw the visitor, his eyes suddenly lit up and he smiled brightly. His wrinkled face was squeezed together, revealing his toothless gums, like a shriveled walnut.

"Professor Lewinter!"

Old Tom hurriedly walked out of the counter and pulled him towards the room on the second floor. "Please wait a few minutes. Wright has already told me that he didn't expect you to come early. He will be here soon."

The second floor of the pub is a hotel, which has been specially cleaned up to accommodate guests. The tables and chairs are neatly arranged inside, the air is filled with the faint aroma of wine, the fire in the fireplace is crackling, and the sound of cars passing by can be faintly heard outside the window.

"Old Tom, we haven't seen each other for just a few months, not today. You don't have to be so polite." Melvin said helplessly, "I'm still used to the way you were during the summer vacation. You were a little polite, but not much."

"Well, isn't this because we're thinking about discussing business tonight..."

Old Tom chuckled twice, revealing his toothless gums. "Let me tell you, there was a period of time in the past two months when there were so many customers coming into the bar every night that I thought they were caravans from Knockturn Alley, coming here to have a drink and relax after their business. But when I settled the accounts in the evening, I found that the business had not changed at all. I asked someone about the situation and found that they were all here to borrow the pub's fireplace, traveling from Diagon Alley to Hogsmeade just to watch the game of Broomsticks."

“Is it okay?”

"Yes, at first it was just the relatives and friends of the Hogsmeade villagers who went there to join in the fun. Later everyone knew that the Three Broomsticks could watch the Hogwarts Quidditch House Match. My regular customers, Kodoli and Digger, went to watch it and kept talking about it to me when they came back... The Boy Who Lived was the Seeker, Gryffindor versus Slytherin, it was a thrilling match, and in the end, Harry Potter won by grabbing the Golden Snitch."

Old Tom seemed to be dissatisfied with this and kept muttering, "It's really abominable!"

"So you want to buy a mirror too?"

"That's right!" Old Tom nodded heavily.

Melvin chuckled softly. "I didn't expect you to be so thoughtful. I always see you slacking off behind the counter, neglecting hygiene, and always putting off making cocktails. I thought you didn't care about the pub's business."

Old Tom blinked and looked up at him: "I don't care."

"Then why did you buy a shadow mirror?"

"Because I want to watch Harry Potter's match, too," Old Tom said matter-of-factly. "The Leaky Cauldron is the entrance to Diagon Alley, and it has a public fireplace. Customers still come for a drink every day, and it's inconvenient for the pub to close, so I can't leave. In order to watch the match, I had no choice but to buy a mirror."

"..."

Melvin had a thoughtful look on his face.

The influence of Quidditch was even greater than he had anticipated, and with the addition of star players and the Harry Potter label, word spread faster than he had anticipated. If this was the case in London's Diagon Alley, what about wizarding communities elsewhere?

Would tavern owners elsewhere also want to buy a shadow mirror?

How long will it take to establish a cinema system in the wizarding world?

The pub owner had no idea that the young professor was distracted, and was still muttering to himself. He had been running the Leaky Cauldron for so many years. Others could go out and travel, but he could only stay in London. Posters for the Quidditch World Cup were always posted in the shop every four years, but he had never seen it in person.

"And those damn guys like Diggle, they still want to show off in front of me after watching the game!" Old Tom gritted his teeth even though he had no teeth. "Every time I make a drink, I want to spit in their drink!"

"Squeak..."

The door opened.

Wright and Bogin were standing at the door with a tray of butterbeer. They had rushed in from outside and ordered a few dozen beers specifically to take care of the pub's business. When they pushed the door open, they heard the pub owner say he wanted to spit in the beer. They didn't know whether they should go in.

"..."

Wright began to reflect on whether he had watched the World Cup games in previous years and boasted about it in the store, and whether he had asked Old Tom to personally mix him a cocktail.

Borgin began to reflect on whether, as a merchant in Knockturn Alley, he had ever offended the tavern owner in Diagon Alley.

Old Tom was caught on the spot by the drunkard. His expression was a little unnatural. He coughed twice and began to scratch his head. Although he had little hair, his head felt itchy. It might be because he was under the control of the Imperius Curse that he was talking nonsense.

Melvin did not get involved in their dispute. He led the two men into the room, brought them a glass of butterbeer, and asked them, "No one told me that Mr. Borgin would also participate in the conversation tonight. Do you have any good news to tell me?"

“That’s good news indeed.”

Borgin laughed slyly. "Many wizards have seen the shadow mirror in the Three Broomsticks and understand its value. But they are not as well-informed as old Tom. They can't tell that it is the work of the Monks and Stanleys, nor can they find Wright's repair shop. They can only find Borgin and Burke's in Knockturn Alley."

“How many people want to buy it?”

Melvin was in a good mood.

His clues to the Demon Court have been found.

Chapter 59 Win-win cooperation

"The news of Harry Potter joining the team spread quickly. With the help of the fame of the Boy-Who-Lived, the news of the three broomsticks and the memory mirror also spread quickly. Almost half of the wizards in Britain had heard about it."

Borgin's slightly unctuous voice echoed in the room. "But not all tavern owners have good taste. Ordinary drinkers and football fans are just there for the fun. Wright and I counted on the way here, and there are about 19 buyers interested in buying the Memory Mirror. One of them is Old Will from West Overton..."

Borgin and Burke's in Knockturn Alley has a great reputation. When people come across new gadgets like movie mirrors that can't be bought through normal channels, they go to Borgin.

A few knowledgeable wizards, knowing the reputation of the Monks Tully family, also found a repair shop a few streets away. After Borgin finished speaking, Wright immediately added some more names to the list.

"Godric's Ada..."

"Alfie of Dingworth..."

"One-Eyed Jack of Upper Flagley..."

The British wizarding community is so small that the wizarding families with a long history are basically related. Even the pure and ever-victorious Malfoy family has a blood relationship with the shame of pure-blood Weasley.

Monkstanley and Borgin also have their own acquaintances, and each has their own biases when introducing the client list. When they meet ordinary customers, they will just say the name and mention where the wizard is from. When they meet close acquaintances, they will introduce the customer in detail to win the favor of the supplier Lewinter.

Melvin listened quietly to the two middlemen introducing their clients, while in his mind he was silently identifying the clients' backgrounds and selecting a few special, high-quality clients.

"Godric's witch, Ada, runs the Golden Snitch Tavern. They brew their own beer, passed down from generation to generation, and the surrounding villagers all love it..."

This is the average customer.

"Old Will of West Overton used to be an Auror. He went mad with Mad-Eye during the Last Wizarding War and had one of his arms blown off by a Death Eater. Rainy days always made him itch and ache, and he could only rely on whiskey to relieve the pain. After retirement, he simply opened a pub specializing in hard liquor. At first, it was just his fellow Aurors who looked after the business, but later many wizards came to drink there. Many of these customers had relatives who had been murdered by Death Eaters and were grateful to Harry Potter. Some were Quidditch fans too. When they heard that the Three Broomsticks were showing a Hogwarts game, Old Will closed the pub for a week and took his customers to Hogsmeade. Rosmerta almost thought he was there to steal the brewing recipe."

This person has an Auror background and is a high-quality client.

"Alfie from Dingworth is a fast-talking man. He used to be a commentator for the Quidditch World Cup. During the 1986 final, he accused the West German national team of taking bribes to fix the final group stage match. After the match, the tournament committee demanded a public apology in the newspaper. Alfie, who has a hot temper, pretended to apologize, but ended up cursing several officials from the Sports Department and the tournament committee in front of reporters...

"Alfie eventually resigned and returned home to open a Quidditch club. It's usually just retired players and referees hanging out there. Last week, he went to the Three Broomsticks to watch a match. When he paid for his drinks, he directly handed over several thousand Galleons to Madam Rosmerta, saying he wanted to buy the Shadow Mirror. But Malcolm mistook him for a drunk and kicked him out."

This person has a professional background and is also a high-quality customer.

"One-Eyed Jack from Upper Flagley used to be a photographer at Quidditch matches. It was during the 86 Quidditch World Cup. In an effort to capture the best shots, he got too close to the pitch and got hit in the eye by a Bludger. After retirement, he started a magazine dedicated to Quidditch news and articles, but it was too technical, and its sales were worse than The Dissenter's, so it went bankrupt within two years.

"The magazine's editorial office has been turned into a pub, a pub for intellectuals. The customers there are basically all people from publishing houses. The editors and reporters all have the same bad habits. They either always say things based on hearsay and without any evidence, or they just chatter away a lot. You think it sounds very impressive, but go back and think about it carefully. Hey, in fact, he didn't say anything. Alfie resigned because he insulted Ministry officials, but they said it was because he exposed Quidditch corruption and was ostracized and expelled..."

Melvin's eyes lit up. This Jack was a perfect match for the job. His mind must be full of wonderful scenes.

"Oh, and there are a few wizards from pure-blood families. They're not buying them for their own business, they just bought them and put them in the manor for their own enjoyment. Pure-blood families are like this, so I won't mention their names."

Wright's mouth was dry as he spoke, and he took a sip of beer.

Old Tom and Borgin, both from the pure-blood family, smiled awkwardly. Borgin cleared his throat, his expression somewhat lacking in confidence. "Finally, we have Knockturn Alley. There's a group of wizards and witches there who are reluctant to show up. Some of them are Quidditch enthusiasts, and some are Harry Potter fans. They usually hide in the basement of Knockturn Alley, and in their spare time, they'll have a few drinks to relax... Anyway, we need a shadow mirror too."

Melvin pondered for a moment. Knockturn Alley was quite complicated. They were channel dealers and also high-quality customers.

Old Tom, who had been listening to the other buyers, compared himself to them and suddenly realized that his family had no competitive advantage. He quickly stated, "The Leaky Cauldron is willing to cooperate with the school. As long as they have a mirror like the Three Broomsticks, I will give the school team a share of the profits, as well as a commission for teaching you."