Chapter 1144: Defense Against the Dark Arts Store

At night, shop 93 Diagon Alley.

Fred, George, Lee Jordan, and Shanna, who had just finished dinner, were frowning at the letters on the table. A few hours ago, they received bad news from Arthur.

Duke Bee and Joko joked that the shop owner had a monopoly in their shop and asked the Ministry of Magic to conduct a monopoly investigation on their shop?

The most ridiculous thing is that the so-called monopoly refers to the patents they developed themselves, and the other party has the audacity to acquire this part of the technology in order to ensure that everyone can "fair competition".

"This is really surprising." Shanna saw such a shameless guy for the first time.

"Probably we pushed them too hard." Fred didn't care. "However, I think they probably picked the wrong time. The Ministry of Magic obviously couldn't pass such a ridiculous bill."

"It's hard to say, who knows if Jokowi will bribe the officials of the Ministry of Magic to make a bill that is beneficial to them." George frowned and said, "The integrity of politicians is not to be trusted, otherwise why do you think Albert would rather give a discount to the Ministry of Magic. , and don’t let them default.”

"I think it's because I've made too much money recently and it's making a lot of people jealous," said Lee Jordan, frowning. "That's why they've joined forces to target us."

"We should talk to Albert about this," Shanna suggested. "He must have a solution."

"That guy is still traveling after marriage. Damn, it's really enviable." Fred took a gulp of butterbeer and couldn't help complaining, "When I get married, I will definitely travel for a year and a half. Come back again."

"Then you have to convince Angelina to agree to marry you first." Lee Jordan shook his head again and again, he didn't think Fred would get married in the last two years.

At this moment, a red light suddenly flashed in the corner of the restaurant, and then they all clearly felt that the watch on their wrist was slightly hot.

This is not a good omen.

The four jumped up from the dining table in shock, pulled out their wands and pointed to the door, and exchanged glances quickly.

"What's the matter?" Shanna asked nervously.

"Someone invaded the store and triggered the detector left by Albert." George quickly explained.

"Who has the Marauder's Map?" Lee Jordan asked in a low voice, "If it doesn't work, leave first."

This is Albert's exhortation to give priority to protecting one's own safety in the event of danger.

"The other detector didn't respond. It shouldn't be a dark wizard." Fred muttered. "Also, this time is not right. Even if it is a thief, it should come back in the middle of the night to steal something."

At this time, footsteps were heard outside, and it seemed that someone was walking towards this side.

After the four exchanged glances with each other, they began to cast the Illusory Body Charm on themselves, and then moved to the corners one after another, preparing to see which daring fellow was staring at them.

This is not the first time.

Ever since Defence Against the Dark Arts items made a lot of money, the number of guys greedily peeping at their shop has increased.

It was only after the Ministry of Magic installed a Defence Against the Dark Arts item store next door that the situation improved.

If it is the group of pink eyes again, I have to teach them some unforgettable lessons.

When the four of them raised their wands to aim at the door, the door of the room was suddenly opened, and a familiar voice sounded from outside.

"it's me."

Albert glanced at the empty room, glanced at the place where the four were hiding, and said, "Come out!"

"Wow! You scared us just now, I thought..."

Lee Jordan heaved a sigh of relief, waved his wand to release the Disillusionment Charm on his body, and greeted Albert with a smile.

"Thinking it's a dark wizard?" Albert raised his eyebrows slightly, "If it's a dark wizard, I suggest you retreat immediately, and bring a Marauder's map with you, at least to be able to determine whether the person coming is an enemy."

"If it's a Death Eater or a Dark Wizard, there will definitely be a red dot on the detector on the wrist," Fred reminded.

"When did you come back?" Lee Jordan also planned to go up to give Albert a hug, but was deftly avoided, "Why didn't you tell me in advance."

"Let's give you some surprises. By the way, let's take a look at your reaction ability. The detectors can't be trusted. If you want to deceive this kind of thing, it's not impossible."

"It's not funny at all," muttered Fred. "Seriously, when the detectors sounded the alarm, it really surprised everyone."

"You are just inexperienced now, you can deal with it calmly after a few more attempts." Albert comforted.

"A few more times." The corners of several people's mouths twitched slightly.

Albert didn't care about other people's reactions, looked at Shanna and asked with a smile, "Are you still used to this job?"

"The food and salary here are very good, but the work is so busy that sometimes I feel like I'm about to become a house elf." Shanna poured Albert a cold butterbeer: "What are you doing? time to come back."

"This afternoon." Albert reached out and took the cup of butterbeer, but instead of drinking it, he put it on the table and laughed and joked, "I came here as soon as I got back, lest some people blame me for being lazy behind my back. !"

"You just know it yourself," Fred, George and Lee Jordan complained in unison.

"I think this is purely your misunderstanding, my job is not the same as yours." Albert said solemnly, "Look, I need to be in charge of researching and developing Defense Against the Dark Arts items, and I need to help the shop get orders from the Ministry of Magic. …”

"Okay, okay, don't make excuses for yourself." George interrupted impatiently. Although he thought Albert's words were very reasonable, many of them were nonsense.

"How are Defence Against the Dark Arts items selling?"

"Very popular!" Lee Jordan said excitedly: "In just two months, we made a net profit of nearly 20,000."

With that said, he picked up the account book on the table and handed it to Albert.

"This looks much more pleasing to the eye now. In the past, I had to look carefully at your bookkeeping before I could figure it out." Albert took over the booklet and flipped through the recent sales, not forgetting to complain about the poor bookkeeping of the three of them. Way.

"We have no experience in this area before." Lee Jordan quibble.

"Honestly, less than I expected," Albert said, closing the book.

"You can be content, I don't know how many people have suffered from pink eye because of it recently." George couldn't help but glance at Albert: "Moreover, there are still a large number of orders from the Ministry of Magic that have not been completed. After that order is completed, it should be paid back. It can bring us more than 10,000 pure profits.”

When Albert flipped through the bill just now, he found that most of the detectors sold were more than 1,000 pieces in total (including 500 pieces from the Ministry of Magic).

The defense series also sold a lot of props, but most of them were sold to the Ministry of Magic, and the rest was only a fraction.

This is not difficult to understand. After the Ministry of Magic successfully suppressed the edge of the Death Eaters, everyone became optimistic about the future. There was no longer the sense of urgency that Voldemort had at the beginning of his resurrection, and naturally he would no longer seek desperately. protected.

"It seems that Scrimgeour has done a good job recently." Albert sighed softly.

"Dad said the dark wizards were all scared of being killed."

"Yeah, a lot of people think the dark wizards were horrified by Scrimgeour's actions, and it wasn't until recently that the Ministry of Magic stopped trying dark wizards, and I heard from my dad that the Ministry of Magic caught the group of dark wizards at your wedding last time. Seventy percent killed." Fred admired Scrimgeour's courage.

"Scrimgeour makes the Daily Prophet publish the list of dark wizards sentenced to death and their crimes every day." George glanced at Albert and continued, "It works very well, plus Harry Few would say that Scrimgeour murdered innocents."

"Most people are bullying and fearing hardship, and dark wizards are no exception. As long as they meet someone who is more ruthless than them, those people will naturally become more docile than sheep." Albert handed the account book to Shanna: "Say Tell me about the Defence Against the Dark Arts item store next door."

"That was Dad's idea," explained George. "He thinks there are too many vendors in Diagon Alley selling low-quality Defence Against the Dark Arts items. Why not gather them all together?"

"Those Defense Against the Dark Arts items were initially selected by members of the Crisis Response Team and the Office of Counterfeit Defensive Spells and Protective Items Detection and Seizures, and then passed to the Ministry of Magic's Aurors for testing. If the Defence Against the Dark Arts items are qualified, they will be allowed to be sold in the Defence Against the Dark Arts Items Store."

"Last time, many people were jealous of our profits. After sneaking into the store and being caught, Dad was a little worried about our safety. Later, he proposed this plan to the Ministry of Magic. Now, our next door has become the Ministry of Magic. Diagon Alley's stronghold." Fred introduced Albert.

"Every day, there will be Ministry of Magic employees stationed next door, they are responsible for patrolling Diagon Alley, helping to maintain the stability of Diagon Alley to ensure everyone's safety, after all Hogwarts students will go to Diagon Alley during this time. Shopping."

"Scrimgeour's approach has been well received by everyone."

"I remember you said before that Fudge's successor was a..." Lee Jordan gave Shanna a look and didn't continue.

"It's inconvenient to let me know." Shanna raised her eyebrows slightly.

"No, Fudge's successor is an unlucky one," Albert finished.

"It doesn't look like much." Shanna was a little surprised, because Scrimgeour looked very capable and didn't look like a bad guy.

"There is a Burns in front of Scrimgeour, who is already dead." George remembered Dumbledore's injury, and suddenly understood that Albert would say that Scrimgeour was unlucky.

When Dumbledore dies, Scrimgeour will become a hindrance to Voldemort's control of the Ministry of Magic.

Really unlucky if you think about it.

"I remember that the store next door seemed to be bought by you, right?" George changed the subject, he thought it was best not to let Shanna know about it.

Several people turned their heads to look at Albert, and couldn't help but suspect that the Defense Against the Dark Arts store next door was created by Albert.

"Well, it actually has nothing to do with me. It should be Digoriti's plan. He asked me similar questions before." Albert said lightly.

As for the formation of the patrol team, it was actually Percetti, because doing so would help increase Scrimgeour's reputation, and their shop was being targeted at that time.

Scrimgeour needs to make Albert owe him a favor in order to prepare for a future fight against the Dark Wizards.

Putting everything together, it becomes the thing next door.

"So, you really made that shop?"

"Making a lot of money can easily lead to jealousy and hatred, not to mention that we are still eating alone, and we lent the store next door to the Ministry of Magic to turn it into a Defence Against the Dark Arts props store, so that the Ministry of Magic can help share some of the attention, And it can also ensure your safety." Albert took out his pocket watch and glanced at the time, and continued, "Anyway, the Defence Against the Dark Arts store will be divided sooner or later, and it will make others think that we are not doing a monopoly business..."

"Well, it's better to find a reporter to interview? Let everyone think that it's not that we have a monopoly on Defence Against the Dark Arts items, but that the Defence Against the Dark Arts items sold by other people are really bad, so most people are willing to buy our products," Shanna continued with a smile, "Can you still use this to start your own brand and give people a preconceived illusion?"

"Yes, that's about it." Albert did not hesitate to praise himself, "It seems that you are very talented in this regard."

"By the way, we received this letter not long ago, do you see how this matter can be resolved?" George took out the letter he had just read.

After reading the contents of the letter, Albert said with a smile: "It seems that it is not only Defense Against the Dark Arts props, but your joke props are also selling well!"

"What are you going to do?"

"Don't worry about the Ministry of Magic, as long as they're not stupid, they won't trouble us at this point." Albert comforted, "You can talk to them about this first, if possible. , we can turn them into our store."

"I don't think it's possible."

"It should be easier for Joko to joke about the store. I want to continue. He will probably be defeated by us soon." Albert analyzed: "You can swallow his shop first, and then give it to Zoko. Part of the interests, we can make a fortune together, and we can claim to cooperate with the outside world, so that we have more branches in Hogsmeade, and there is a ready-made shop to help."

"If Joko joins and benefits from it, I think the owner of Duke Bee should also consider cooperating with us. Rather than being squeezed, wouldn't it be better for everyone to become business partners and make a fortune together?"

"It always feels like you're a little naive," Lee Jordan muttered.

"Trust me, they will definitely be willing to accept our goodwill, no one will be in trouble with money, and if you want to grow your business, you should take a long-term view." Albert pulled out his wand and said, " Okay, there will be guests coming over later, so get ready!"