20demayo Page 443
Page 443
Draco raised his pointed chin, a smug smile spreading across his face.
"I heard you stole the prefectural seat that should have belonged to Potter. You've got some nerve. But you'd better behave yourselves. I'll be watching you like a hunting dog, and see if you dare to overstep your bounds."
He glanced at Ron with disdain, then turned to leave.
Although Draco was arrogant, he knew in his heart that Levin didn't like him causing trouble for Harry, but he also realized that Levin, like himself, didn't have any good feelings towards Ron.
Therefore, he is now focusing all his firepower on Ron.
Seeing this, Pansy led the clumsy Crabbe and Gore toward the food cart.
She picked out some snacks, then returned to the private room and slammed the door shut.
The carriage returned to silence, leaving only Ron and Ernie inside.
Ernie looked at Ron's flushed face and could sense the embarrassment and anger in the other man's heart.
To ease the tension, he pretended to be nonchalant: "Hey Ron, I've always thought Peppermints are the best in the candy bag. They're peppermints that will make your ears smoke. Want to try some?"
As he spoke, he handed one to Ron.
Meanwhile, at Hermione's insistence, Levin was forced to embark on this awkward patrol mission.
They moved between the carriages, Hermione and Cho Chang performing their duties as prefects with serious expressions, while Levin seemed somewhat distracted.
"Everything is normal in this carriage too," Zhang Qiu said, looking at a group of students who were quietly reading.
Levin nodded, but couldn't help thinking: the prefect's tasks were the same as what he had said before, nothing more than patrolling, maintaining order, stopping students from fighting and playing around, and dealing with the use of prohibited items...
Wait, prohibited items?
He suddenly remembered something crucial to him.
He took out several confiscated items: constipation pills, quick-acting truancy pills, fecal pellets, and binoculars for punching...
Look at the trademarks above; they all basically carry the Arcane Eye logo, which is exactly the same as the logos of Arcane United Television and Arcane United Home Appliances.
The Arcane Eye is a blue eye symbol with two lightning bolts below it, derived from the magical rune of Arcane Wisdom.
This is the logo that Levin designed for his products.
Because the Weasley twins received a large investment and technical support from him, their future stores would also have to be named after Levin.
Levin is ready; he'll call it the Arcane United Joke Company.
In other words, a large portion of these contraband items are products of the Weasley twins.
With Levin's investment and support, the Weasley twins' business expanded rapidly over the past school year, and their prank products became a sensation at Hogwarts.
With the wizards of the Academy of Knowledge providing a steady stream of raw materials, the twins' production capacity was fully guaranteed;
Levin's technical support, on the other hand, allowed them to come up with a constant stream of creative ideas.
What's even more ingenious is that the twins directly used Levin, the investor, as a living advertisement.
With Levin's fame, their prank props almost occupied half of the Hogwarts market.
Any Hogwarts student who wants to buy prank products will immediately think of these two.
However, most of these prank products were contraband items from Hogwarts.
Then the problem is coming.
As a prefect, should Levin confiscate his own products if he sees others using them, or should he turn a blind eye?
If we don't accept it, the school rules are clearly stated.
Although he himself had gone out at night and violated school rules, he was not caught.
There are countless school rules, but the first one was never discovered.
At Hogwarts, there is an unwritten rule: as long as you are not caught, you can do whatever you want; but once you are caught, you can only blame yourself.
But if Levin actually went to confiscate those prohibited prank products, he worried that he would offend his loyal customers and thus affect the twins' business.
After all, the twins mainly sell prank props, and the basic approach for this type of toy is:
We must come from the students, go back to the students, maintain close ties with the students, and never become detached from the student masses.
Students are the foundation of their business and the main force of consumption for the next few decades.
After all, students' money is the easiest to swindle.
However, Levin thought again that the twins had almost monopolized the school's goods. Although the students complained, if their things were confiscated, wouldn't they eventually have to obediently go to the twins to buy them again?
This is similar to those large tech companies, which are often criticized by users for various reasons, but when new products are released, consumers still rush to buy them.
This process of buying and selling not only maintained order in the school, but also stimulated domestic demand and boosted consumption!
Wouldn't this be a win-win situation?
Levin thought about it more and more and it made more sense.
As long as you don't lose your mind, you'll always sell more than you lose.
Having figured this out, Levin stopped worrying and followed Hermione around confiscating forbidden prank props.
In the last carriage, after Hermione decisively dealt with several young wizards who were trying to play with firecrackers in the aisle, Levin was finally freed from patrolling the train.
· ········Requesting flowers···· ·········
They returned to Cho Chang's prefectural box, where Levin found that Luna and Gabrielle were not inside.
He looked around and saw that they were sitting in the next box with Ginny, chatting happily with Harry and Neville.
Neville was holding a strangely shaped plant and enthusiastically introducing it to them.
The plant was quite ugly, roughly cylindrical in shape with a large bulge at the top. It looked fleshy and resembled a small gray cactus planted in a pot, but instead of being covered in thorns, it was covered with boil-like things.
Levin recognized the plant as Mibumibo, a rare plant native to Assyria with a powerful self-defense mechanism. When attacked, its boils become formidable weapons, spraying out a thick, foul-smelling liquid to attack the enemy.
In short, it's good that nothing serious happened.
Seeing this, Levin secretly rejoiced: thankfully they hadn't caused any trouble.
He was about to return to the private room when he suddenly caught sight of a familiar figure standing at the door—Professor Remus Lupin.
.... .... 0
“Professor Lupin, I never expected to see you here.” Upon seeing this, Levin immediately stepped forward and shook hands with Professor Lupin. “I’m so glad to be able to take your Defense Against the Dark Arts class again.”
Professor Lupin held Levin's hand tightly, and patted Levin's shoulder affectionately with his other hand.
“I am also very happy to be able to officially serve as your professor again,” he remarked. “The time I spent teaching at the end of last semester was too short.”
“Professor Lupin, although I really enjoy your courses, you shouldn’t have returned to Hogwarts this year, especially given the current situation.”
Taking the opportunity, Levin pulled Professor Lupin into the private room and lowered his voice, saying, "Fudge is currently trying every means to cause trouble for Dumbledore. If they discover your identity, they might use it as leverage to attack Dumbledore and then interfere in Hogwarts affairs."
Professor Lupin nodded slightly, indicating that he understood Levin's concerns. "I had the same concerns, but this time it was Dumbledore's arrangement. He told me that Fudge originally intended to send one of his people to be the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor this year. Dumbledore had a heated argument with them and finally used their leverage over the Dementors' unprovoked attack on Harry to successfully reject their proposal."
At this point, Lupin showed a satisfied smile, seemingly very optimistic about the current situation.
He continued, "Right now, Fudge can only allow the witch Dolores Umbridge, who was originally in charge of the Dementors, to enter the school as an observer. So, as long as we act carefully and don't give her any leverage, Fudge has no reason to directly interfere in Hogwarts affairs."
Lupin paused, then added, "Unfortunately, Dumbledore couldn't find anyone else he trusted to take on the Defense Against the Dark Arts professorship in a short time, and he was also unwilling to let Snape take over the position. Sirius Black had to run the family business and fight Fudge in public opinion, so he had no choice but to let me take the job. You're right about that. My identity is indeed a potential problem. I will be extra careful not to let my identity be exposed."
Just then, the food cart arrived, and Levin and Lupin ended their conversation and returned to their respective private rooms.
Chapter 498 Thick Juice
The executive suite remains spacious and comfortable, with soft velvet cushions on the seats that make you reluctant to get up once you sit down.
In addition to comfortable seating, the private rooms also offer tea and snacks, as well as a whole row of bookshelves.
Levin glanced at the books on the shelf; they were mostly authoritative magical journals, such as "Fantastic Beasts Almanac," "Transfiguration Today," "Practical Potions Master," and "Spell Innovations," which Levin frequently contributed to. They were clearly prepared specifically for the prefects so that they could pass the time during their travels.
It seems that the Hogwarts professors are using this to earnestly tell you that you should spend your time reading papers.
All I can say is that the idea was beautiful, but the reality was harsh.
Zhang Qiu never reads the books in the private room; she always prefers to spend her time admiring the scenery outside the window or chatting with friends.
Now no one talks to her anymore, and she still ignores all the other books, instead engrossed in reading "Singing a Different Tune".
Two or three years ago, before Levin acquired shares in The Quibbles, she wouldn't have read such a third-rate newspaper at all.
What curved-horned snoring beast and what harassing ravens? They're all obviously fake stuff. They're neither realistic nor fun. Only kids would watch them.
But things are different now. With Levin's help, Xenophilius began writing urban legends that had already been verified by Muggles, such as the crystal skull, the Bermuda Triangle, the 2012 doomsday, 5G radiation, mask antennas, and lizardmen ruling the world.
And they often add, "That's what Muggles say."
It has a kind of "that's what foreigners say" attitude.
In any case, most wizards wouldn't specifically seek out a Muggle to verify their claims.
But to be fair, this approach actually attracted a lot more readers to "The Quibbler". Even if these stories are fictional, at least they are interesting, and a lot of the content is related to Muggles, which fully satisfies the wizards' curiosity.
At least Zhang Qiu really enjoyed watching it.
As for academic journals, even a dog wouldn't read them!
No, people still watch it.
For example, Hermione,
At that moment, she was holding a copy of "Fantastic Beasts Almanac" and reading it open.
The way they loved it so much they couldn't put it down was enough to keep them occupied for an entire day.
Watching Hermione engrossed in her reading, Levin couldn't help but recall the first time he sat in Cho Chang's prefectural car.
At that time, he was also very puzzled as to why the professor would arrange it this way, and almost thought that Hermione had sent a letter of opinion to Dumbledore before adding the book.
After making some inquiries, he learned that it was Professor McGonagall, known as "Big Hermione," who had done it.
Just then, a loud commotion broke the silence inside the private room.
Levin couldn't help but turn his head to look, and saw Ron and Malfoy arguing fiercely at the door of the next private room, their faces red and necks bulging, as if they were about to start fighting at any moment.
Although Levin couldn't hear exactly what they were arguing about through the soundproof door, he could guess the gist of it from the faint sounds, Malfoy's provocative expression, and Ron's angry eyes.
It's definitely Malfoy stirring up trouble between Ron and Harry again, bringing up the old story of Ron taking Harry's prefecture position.
Crabbe and Gore, meanwhile, stood by, gloating and adding fuel to the fire.
Ron was trembling with rage. He angrily grabbed Neville's Mibu Mibu from the windowsill. The thing was twitching slightly and looked like a diseased organ, which was very ominous.