Honeydukes Candy Shop, Hogsmeade Village.
Ambrosio Froome was restocking the shelves of his shop with sweets in preparation for the arrival of the Hogwarts students at Hogsmeade.
"well!"
Frum sat back behind the counter, staring at the notebook on the table, and sighed softly.
The candy store owner has been in a very bad mood recently. Ever since the rise of Fred and George's "Fun House" joke shop, he could clearly feel that the business in Honeydukes candy store has declined significantly. What made Froome most angry was Zuo Ke's betrayal. They had clearly agreed to suppress Fred and George's business together, but that guy turned around and defected to the enemy, and now he is making a fortune. This made Froome feel as uncomfortable as if he had eaten shit, and he was hesitating whether he should accept the invitation.
The magical candies sold by Fred and George actually did not overlap with the candies and desserts he sold, and there seemed to be no conflict between the two sides. However, there were only so many people in the entire British wizarding world, and the purchasing power of most children was limited. Once someone bought the candies from the "Fun House", they would have no money to buy the candies in Honeydukes' store.
At least, for the vast majority of Hogwarts students, magical candies are more attractive to young people.
Even though his Honeydukes candy store was famous throughout the UK, Froome was well aware that most of his customers were Hogwarts students.
Apparently Honeydukes' candy store is about to be overwhelmed by all those magical candies, and he still can't crack the code to create more attractive products.
"Honey, please help me watch the store first. I'll go talk to Zuo Ke." Frum closed his notebook, handed the task of watching the store to his wife, and walked directly towards Zuo Ke's Magic Joke Shop.
He immediately saw Zuo Ke chatting with John from the post office. After the two men finished chatting, Froome walked over to say hello.
"It seems that your business is booming."
"It's not very popular, but the business is okay. It just has nothing to do with me." Zuo Ke seemed to remember something and sighed helplessly, "Why, are you planning to join too?"
"I have indeed considered it, and I plan to talk to Fred and George first, but I can't contact them for the time being." Froome did not hide it. Zuo Ke's business was booming, which made him jealous.
Who else would have a problem with Garlon
"Don't look at me. I can't contact them either." Zuo Ke shrugged and motioned for Froome to come into the store to talk.
"Is there nothing you can do?" Froome frowned slightly.
"I can't help it." Zuo Ke complained, "I heard that they were targeted by the Death Eaters and now I don't know where they are hiding. No wonder they asked me to help sell the goods. I always feel like I was cheated by them."
"What did you mean when you said it has nothing to do with you?" Frum ignored Zuo Ke's complaint. It was just talk. Unless the Weiss brothers were killed by Death Eaters, it would only be a matter of time before the store reopened.
"I am actually the owner of this store. I can get a fixed salary every month, and I get a small commission from the items sold. However, I chose to retain the ownership of the original products in the store, so the commission rate is lower." Zuo Ke was a little depressed when talking about this, because he found that many of the goods in his original store could not be sold, even at a discount. If he had chosen a higher share, the Galleons he would get every month would be considerable and sustainable. What made Zuo Ke most depressed was that Lee Jordan had reminded him of this many times, but he still stubbornly made the worst choice, just like a big fool.
After listening to the conditions offered by the Weiss twins to Zuo Ke, Frum frowned slightly. Because the other party's conditions were not attractive to him at all. Although Honeydukes Candy Store was not as popular as before, it was still very profitable. If Zuo Ke followed the contract, it would not be attractive to him at all.
"If you two cooperate, the situation will be different. After all, I was planning to close my store in the first place." Zuo Ke consoled him, "You can consider contacting him and discuss ways for both parties to cooperate."
"Oh, it would be great if the Ministry of Magic could limit their monopoly." Frum felt a little regretful. He had studied those magical candies before, but he could never crack the secret. Even if he cracked the raw materials, the results would be far inferior to those magical candies.
"Don't even think about it. If we could restrict them, we would have succeeded long ago." Zuo Ke understood Frum's depressed mood. After all, the situation of Zuo Ke's Magic Joke Shop was even worse than that of Honeydukes Candy Store. Otherwise, he would not have accepted the invitation to cooperate and led such a busy life. The daily needs of receiving, consignment and bill settlement alone made him exhausted. Sometimes Zuo Ke even wanted to hire someone to help him, but when he thought about having to pay the other party's salary, he gave up this tempting idea.
"If you can contact them one day, tell them that I'm willing to talk to him about cooperation." Frum felt that he should leave himself a way out, lest the other party planned to enter the candy field one day, Honeydukes Candy Store might end up like Zuo Ke's store closing down.
"I will, but you'd better not get your expectations." Zuo Ke looked at his old friend and shook his head.
As Frum walked out of the joke shop and was about to return to the candy store, he saw two Ministry of Magic employees who had just finished their patrol and were chatting with Madam Rosmerta, the owner of the Three Broomsticks.
After their eyes met, Frum simply nodded slightly to Ms. Rosmerta and turned back to his shop.
This scene was seen by the middle-aged crisis response team member who was in charge of patrol.
"Is there something wrong?"
Another young member of the crisis response team paused and looked back at his colleagues.
"nothing."
The two returned to their temporary base to rest, made themselves a cup of black tea, picked up the newspaper to read the latest news, and chatted about the current situation.
"Do you think there is anyone in Hogsmeade under the Imperius Curse?"
Ever since the Ministry of Magic sent people to Hogsmeade, they have checked the residents here more than once, but have not found anything abnormal.
"If there is, he must have been under the advanced Imperius Curse, otherwise he would have been exposed long ago." The middle-aged wizard took a sip of black tea and continued to read the newspaper in his hand.
"Why are you so sure that someone in Hogsmeade is under the Imperius Curse?"
"I don't know, maybe the Auror office has received some new clues." The young wizard stood by the window, looking outside through binoculars.
"Maybe they have a spy in You-Know-Who."
"How is it possible? Going to be a spy for the mysterious man, do you think your life is not long enough?"
Anyway, this job is not bad, at least I don't have to be as busy as others." Looking at the news reported in the newspaper, the employee of the Ministry of Magic sighed, "I always feel that those guys are crazy, and now things are getting bigger and bigger. Once things can no longer be covered up, I really don't know how to end it."
“This isn’t very good…”
"What?"
"I mean this has nothing to do with us, let the minister worry about it." The middle-aged employee secretly raised his wand and cast a spell on his colleague.