#64 - Section 64
"It's all Gilderoy Lockhart's fault. If it weren't for him, we wouldn't be like this."
Speaking of this, the two brothers were on the verge of tears.
They had just started their vacation and bought a large pile of raw materials, planning to go all out this summer, since they weren't short of money.
They even promised to buy their most beloved sister, Ginny, a brand new set of textbooks, wizard robes, and a wand, all at their expense.
Originally, they thought it would only cost seventy Galleons, which was nothing, as they earned that much in less than a week during their final exams.
But they were stunned when they received the Hogwarts letter at the end of July.
The new Defense Against the Dark Arts professor had specified the textbook, and one set cost more than thirty Galleons, which was about the price of all the other subjects' textbooks combined.
If it were just that, the two wouldn't be so upset, but the key is that the Weasley family is poor and doesn't save money, spending as much as they have. (They go on vacation when they win the lottery, which shows they don't have a habit of saving money.)
In previous years, they could use Bill's and Charlie's old books as textbooks, but this year they couldn't, which greatly increased the Weasley family's expenses, as five children needed them.
This put pressure on the twins, and if they didn't have the money, the pressure would be on Arthur.
In the end, the twins paid for the textbooks for all five of them, with Ginny alone costing nearly a hundred Galleons.
The twins went bankrupt on the spot and were so angry that they almost cursed Gilderoy Lockhart to his face for coming to Hogwarts to teach, just to boost the sales of his books!
"Alright, how many Galleons do you need?"
Ethan couldn't help but laugh after learning the reason.
"Thirty Galleons will be enough!"
This was because the twins had recently gotten used to being extravagant. In the past, they would have been cautious even asking for ten Galleons.
Since school had just started, the Baruffio's Brain Elixir wasn't selling very well, and the Puffskein breeding speed wasn't fast enough. To form a sales scale, they had to start quickly, so they wanted Ethan to invest.
Ethan directly took out thirty Galleons and handed them over, stating that it could be deducted from their future sales revenue.
This moved the twins so much that they almost called him Dad!
At lunchtime, the Weasley family's dishes weren't lavish, but the portions were quite generous, with seven or eight sausages per person, plus fried eggs, ham, and potatoes, which was quite filling.
Chapter 90: A Natural Legilimens
In the afternoon, the Weasley family's garden was a bit noisy.
Molly sent the twins and Ron to clear out the gnomes, and Ethan and Harry followed along.
Harry was introducing the gnomes, which he had seen when he first arrived, and had even been bitten.
"Look, these are gnomes!"
Fred, George, and Ron reached into the gnome holes and immediately each had a gnome in hand. The little creatures were kicking their hands with their short legs.
"Let me go! Let me go!"
Small bodies, rough and tough skin, and bald heads that looked like potatoes. Would his animal affinity also work on these things?
This thing looked even more disgusting than a Murtlap.
"Mum told us to use the methods in Gilderoy Lockhart's book to deal with them, but to be honest, our own methods are better."
Fred was now annoyed by Gilderoy Lockhart no matter how he looked at him.
"I think he's a fraud."
Ron hated him the first time he saw him, but of course, he wouldn't admit that it was because he was jealous of Gilderoy Lockhart's popularity.
Then the three of them acted in unison, holding the gnomes by their ankles and swinging them around like wrecking balls, before throwing them far away.
"You can't hurt them like that, can you?"
Ethan didn't quite understand their actions. Gnomes were thick-skinned, and that little bit of force wouldn't kill them.
"We can't hurt them, but it can make them dizzy and unable to find their way back to the gnome holes."
"So, they'll come back?"
"That's right, but they'll be quiet today."
George nodded affirmatively. They had been dealing with gnomes like this since they were young, and they were quite clear about the behavior patterns of these ugly little creatures.
"These are pests like Doxies, and they damage the garden, so why not just kill them?"
When dealing with pests, the normal person's thinking should be to eradicate them. This behavior of catching and releasing them was puzzling.
Ethan also took a gnome out of the hole and examined it in his hand.
But after hearing Ethan's words, the entire 490 body of the gnome shrank into a shivering ball.
This person felt a little close, and it felt like a good person, so it didn't struggle and let Ethan grab it, but the words were so scary that it almost scared the gnome to death.
And Ethan also noticed this. Was it so intelligent?
Being able to speak and understand human words already surpassed most magical creatures, and it also possessed a certain amount of intelligence.
A distant poor relative of goblins?
"Not really, although they're quite noisy, they just steal some vegetables."
"My dad quite likes them, thinks they're funny."
"Harry, what's it like to deal with pests over there?"
Funny?
No matter how you look at it, this thing has nothing to do with being funny.
"We use pesticides to kill pests, and there are also specialized pest control companies."
Harry didn't feel sorry for the gnomes anymore after being bitten by one.
The three of George didn't know what to say. Maybe they were indeed too tolerant of these gnomes, otherwise, other wizarding families in Ottery St Catchpole would only occasionally be bothered by gnomes, but their home was almost a gnome base.
"Can you walk by yourself?"
Ethan said as he threw the gnome on the ground. It was someone else's home, and Ethan didn't want to take matters into his own hands.
If this was his own home, he would dig three feet into the ground to exterminate these ugly things.
"Yeah! Yeah!"
The gnome, which had fallen to the ground, got up and nodded frantically.
It could feel that Ethan really had the idea of killing it.
Immediately, it ran frantically outside, quickly scaling the fence and disappearing without a trace, resolving never to return as long as that demon remained.
“I’ll try it too!”
Ron stared wide-eyed at the scene.
To make a goblin scram with just a word, if he could do that, how cool would it be?
Unsurprisingly, he was bitten, and no matter how hard he pulled, he couldn't get it off. In the end, Harry had to help, and together they managed to pull it free.
Ron immediately ran back to the Burrow with a dark face, utterly humiliated.
“Accio Goblin!”
Originally, Ethan just wanted to try it, but he didn't expect it to actually work. A string of more than a dozen goblins were yanked out of several burrows, lined up in the air, struggling incessantly until they were thrown into the distant pond.
Magical creatures generally have considerable magic resistance, and wizards have some too, just not as high as magical creatures. These goblins, it seems, have extremely low magic resistance among magical creatures.
Harry watched this familiar scene, his lips twitching incessantly. Although he had said that he could accept anything to defeat Voldemort, this scene was still painful to recall.
“Ethan, sometimes I really suspect you're that old wizard who drank a Rejuvenation Potion!”
It was too demoralizing. He had just learned the Summoning Charm, already far ahead of his peers, as this wasn't magic that should be learned at his age.
And he was already the genius in his father's eyes, a leader among his peers, but Ethan directly used the Summoning Charm to pull out a string of goblins, and if he wasn't mistaken, he didn't even use a wand.
Sometimes the gap between people is greater than the gap between people and trolls.
“Cedric, you're here too!”
Ethan raised his hand in greeting.
“My home is over there, I came to invite you to be a guest tonight.”
Cedric pointed in a direction and said to Ethan.
“Cedric, are you here to steal people?”
“That's right, the Lovegood's house isn't far from my house. That little girl is quite lovely, and she has very fair skin. Ethan, don't you want to see her?”
As he spoke, Cedric raised his eyebrows at Ethan, giving him a knowing look.
I didn't expect you, with your thick eyebrows and big eyes, to be this kind of Cedric.
“Don't worry! I'll definitely be there!”
Of course, saying he was going to see the little girl was just a joke. If he went to get acquainted with someone's daughter, wouldn't he be chased out by her father as a pervert?
Then their names would be written in their magazine, and their reputations would be ruined.
Even if that might spread Ethan's name and incidentally earn him an achievement, Ethan didn't want it.
“I don't know which house she'll be sorted into, but I don't think she'll go to Gryffindor.”
Fred sighed. They felt sorry for the little girl Luna. She used to be quite normal, but since her mother died in an accident two years ago, both Luna and her father have changed.
“Hufflepuff probably won't work either, she's too independent and unconventional, most likely Ravenclaw!”
Cedric also chimed in. Although Hufflepuff is very inclusive, Luna is too eccentric and aloof, which doesn't quite meet Hufflepuff's standards.
“Are you saying Ravenclaws are independent and unconventional, or just as weird and crazy as that girl?”
“It seems necessary to talk to a few older students after returning to school. Don't even think about finding a girlfriend during your Hogwarts career. Even if you secretly find one, they'll ruin it for you.”
Ethan looked at them with a mischievous smile.
Not to mention that Ravenclaw occupies the highest quality girls in the school, there are also many best friends. What are you most afraid of when dating? It's your girlfriend's best friends messing things up!
“I was wrong!”
Cedric apologized first.
He had been thinking about it during this vacation. Ethan was already playing the girlfriend-raising game, from older students to peers. As for younger students, it would depend on this year's new students.
And if nothing unexpected happened, his future wife would also be a Hogwarts graduate. The British wizarding world only has this much population, only this school. At that time, they would either be peers, older students, or younger students, there would be no other choices.
If he didn't start early now, they would all be someone's ex-girlfriend in the future. Who knows how many hands they would have passed through by then.
“Were you guys talking about me just now?”
The few people who were talking and laughing, preparing to walk into the Burrow, froze in place, turning their heads somewhat stiffly.
Auburn-brown hair, slightly protruding eyes, pale skin, very light eyebrows, a pair of radish-shaped earrings, and a necklace made of butterbeer bottle corks.
Dressed quite strangely.
Ethan gave Cedric a look: Did you bring this?
Cedric replied to Ethan: I didn't!
Even Fred and George were stunned, only Harry didn't care, because he hadn't said anything and couldn't get a word in.
“Ginny invited me.”
“And there are Flobberworms going into your ears, a lot!”
After saying that, she called Ginny's name to the side, and then the two little girls left together.
“I told you she was crazy!”
“Ethan, don't worry about it. Flobberworms are something she imagines, they don't exist.”
What Ethan cared about wasn't these things. This was a natural Legilimens, just like Newt Scamander's sister-in-law.
With just one glance, she knew what Ethan and the others wanted to ask. And those so-called Flobberworms, if nothing unexpected happened, were the confusion, distress, irritability, and a series of negative emotions in their minds.
Returning to the Burrow, George took out a piece of shortbread from somewhere, which looked pretty good.
“Ethan, would you like to try it? It tastes good.”
“No, you guys can eat it yourselves!”
Ethan directly shook his head and refused. It was best not to put anything the twins handed over into his mouth.
