The next morning, the storm stopped. Albert opened the window and the air blowing towards him was exceptionally fresh. However, there was still no sign of clearing up outside. There were large dark clouds rolling in the sky and heavy rain could fall again at any time.
"Good morning." George said to Albert, hiding his yawn. "It looks like it's going to rain outside."
"If the heavy rain continues, the lake will flood." Lee Jordan also got up. They had to go to the hall early today to confirm the sixth grade schedule with Professor McGonagall.
"Sixth grade is great. We have a lot of free time." Fred said happily:
"Don't waste the limited time you have at Hogwarts. The most valuable thing for you now should be the Hogwarts library. Make good use of the remaining two years and use the books in the library. They can provide more inspiration for your joke props." Albert opened a bag of cat food for Tom and said to the three who were ready to embrace a happy sixth-grade life, "If you don't want to become the next Zuko."
"What does this have to do with Zonko?" Fred was puzzled as to why they were talking about Zonko for no reason.
"Zonko is a typical example of someone who has run out of inspiration. He doesn't have enough knowledge to support his research on more joke props, and the result is that." Albert closed the window and motioned for the others to walk away while talking.
"There are still people patronizing Joko's shop because there are no other new shops competing with him. If there are other more interesting joke shops, Joko's joke shop may not be able to withstand the market impact and close down at any time."
"I remember you said something similar before, that once our joke shop opens, Zokko's joke shop might be squeezed out by us." George agreed with Albert's words, because Zokko's shop had indeed not launched any interesting joke props for a long time.
"Don't we have you?"
Fred felt that they didn't need to worry about those things at all. Perhaps, as Albert said, the lack of sufficient knowledge support would lead to stagnation in the development of joke props, but they had Albert. When Albert graduated from Hogwarts, the knowledge reserve in his head was equivalent to a mobile library. Moreover, they also knew that Albert had the habit of collecting books. With his book reserve, he could fully support their store.
"By the way, are you planning to build a radio station?" Lee Jordan suddenly interrupted and asked, "If you want, I can write to Dad and ask him to find a way to help us get the radio equipment."
"There's no rush for this. Even if we get the equipment, it will take a while to set it up. And we haven't figured out what to broadcast yet. We have to plan these things slowly." As Albert walked down the stairs into the common room, he greeted Sana who was coming down from the girls' dormitory, and said to Lee Jordan, "I think you can give our radio station a name first."
"Little gossip?" Lee Jordan said seriously. "If you allow me to spread a little of your private gossip, I think our radio station will be very popular soon."
"Why aren't you discussing the color of Snape's underwear on the radio?" Albert glared at Lee Jordan.
"That's a good idea, but it will make people lose their appetite. As we all know, Snape may not wash his underwear for several days. Besides, we don't know what color Snape's underwear is." Lee Jordan's words immediately attracted the disgusted eyes of the girls around him, "But we know what color your underwear is."
"Man, I think you're on the road to death." Fred and George couldn't help laughing, patting Lee Jordan on the shoulder with an expression of wishing him good luck.
Noticing Albert's look of having seen it, Lee Jordan couldn't help shrinking his neck, and hurriedly explained: "Many people are curious about your affairs. Instead of letting them make up some messy gossip, it's better for me to talk about it with everyone. Once everyone knows it, there will be no more messy gossip."
"Aren't you afraid of being beaten to death?"
"Sorry, I was just joking," Lee Jordan apologized immediately.
"If you really want to be popular, you can interpret recent events, such as the attacks at the World Cup, why the Ministry of Magic's response was so bad, or the attack on Professor Moody yesterday." Albert gave Lee Jordan a direction.
"Isn't this similar to what's in the Defense Guide?"
"Yes, you can discuss these topics together and interpret some recent events. Many wizards are actually very poor at interpreting key information," Albert did not deny this. He planned to let them start the broadcast first to accumulate experience.
"I don't think my ability to interpret is much better." Lee Jordan sat down next to Albert, picked up the latest issue of the Daily Prophet, and quickly found the report about Moody: There was new trouble in the Ministry of Magic.
However, Rita Kister deliberately downplayed the incident of old Auror Moody in the article and turned the blame to Weasley, so she deliberately changed Arthur Weasley's name to Arnold Weasley. Moreover, she also attached a photo of the Weasley family at the bottom of the newspaper, which was obviously malicious.
"Mother will be very happy. She has always hated that woman Rita Kister." George took the newspaper and frowned after reading the article. "I bet that woman must have misspelled her name on purpose."
"But she still reads Rita Kister, doesn't she? We have to admit that Rita Skeeter's bullshit technology contributes to the sales of the Daily Prophet."
"In your words, people sometimes don't want to accept reality because it's too cruel for them. They are only willing to accept the reality they want to believe." Fred took the newspaper and looked at it. "Rita Skeeter is very good at digging out other people's secrets and then writing articles in a way that many people like. In fact, I'm more curious, why did Rita Skeeter let you go and didn't spread gossip about you?"
"Because I talked to her about it and made her shut up." After Albert finished his milk, he started making himself a ham sandwich.
"How did you convince her?"
Fred, George and Lee Jordan all found it incredible. It was obvious that a woman like Rita Skeeter would not compromise easily.
"Everyone has weaknesses. She reports these things only for her own benefit. As long as the deal is settled, she will naturally shut up and compromise."
"You are indeed worthy of me. You actually found Rita Skeeter's weakness."
Fred, George and Lee Jordan were all very curious, but when they saw that Albert had no intention of saying anything, they did not ask any further questions.
Just then, Hermione came to Albert's side without knowing when.
"We can talk about house-elves."
"About the novel?"
"No, I've given up on the novel for now. Do you know where the kitchen is? Nick told me that there are hundreds of house-elves being oppressed at Hogwarts." Hermione took a deep breath and reorganized her words: "I want to set up an association to ensure that house-elves receive reasonable wages and a good working environment. I wonder if you have any good suggestions."
"No one will join your association except Harry and Ron." Albert was silent for a long time, and reminded: "Your original intention is good, but your practice is heresy in the eyes of other wizards. No wizard will support your practice."
"Why?"
Hermione's eyes widened in disbelief.
"House elves are slaves of wizards. No master will allow slaves to be on an equal footing with them." Albert motioned for Hermione to continue listening to him. "If you want house elves to have some power, then there will inevitably be a war between house elves and wizards. Although it is cruel, some things can only be won with blood. However, house elves do not have that kind of power. Their situation will only be worse than it is now."
"But I just hope they can be treated well and their rights can be guaranteed." Hermione looked at Albert in shock, unable to immediately understand why such a terrible thing had happened.
"Because you are going in the wrong direction, your idea is too naive." Albert pointed out: "Your goal should be to make sure that house-elves are treated well and that they can be fully integrated into the wizard family and become an important member of the entire family, rather than to guarantee their rights. That is unrealistic and impossible to achieve, because wizards will never share their power."
"But no one likes being a slave," said Hermione tremblingly.
"They like being slaves!" Fred reminded, "They like to work and serve wizards. Hermione, I think you should wake up instead of leading the house-elves to strike and fight for your own rights."
Hermione said nothing, but stared at Albert.
"Yes, no one likes to be a slave." Albert said helplessly, "But thousands of years of slavery have completely changed the nature of house-elves. This is not something you can change with just one word, not even Dumbledore can change it."
"Even if you want to help them, they won't appreciate it. Instead, they will hate you even more and even regard you as an enemy." Albert continued, "If you really want to help them, you should guide and call on wizards to treat them well and make them a reliable part of the family instead of treating them as slaves, similar to how we treat pets as part of the family. This requires a person to spend a long time and effort. If you really want to formulate a law to protect house-elves, then you should aim to become the Minister of Magic. Only when you become the Minister of Magic will you have the opportunity to call on everyone to treat house-elves well."
"Minister of Magic." Hermione stared at Albert with wide eyes.
"Yes, it is difficult." Albert nodded and said, "So, I suggest you write a book to subtly guide people to treat house-elves well."
After Hermione walked away, Fred muttered, "I thought she was a clever girl."
"Hermione is just a little naive and takes things for granted." Albert shook his head.
"Do you think Hermione could become Minister of Magic?"
"It's hard to say. If the environment in the Ministry of Magic doesn't change, she probably won't have any chance." Albert said softly, "But who knows what will happen in the future?"
"You know!" said George. "If you want to."
"That's true." Albert laughed.
Albert had just finished breakfast when he saw Professor McGonagall coming to distribute the course schedule. She needed to confirm the advanced courses chosen by the sixth-year students and ensure that their OWLs grades met the minimum requirements of the professors.
"Charms, Defense Against the Dark Arts, Transfiguration, Herbology, Potions, Arithmancy, and Ancient Runes." Professor McGonagall repeated the courses Albert had chosen, picked up her wand and tapped the course schedule. When she handed the completed course schedule to Albert, she lowered her voice and asked, "I remember your birthday is in September."
"Yes, September 21st, are you going to give me a birthday present?" Albert asked jokingly.
"So do you plan to participate in this year's Triwizard Tournament?" Professor McGonagall lowered her voice.
"I do plan to sign up." Albert nodded and said, "For a Gryffindor, such an interesting competition is something I cannot miss."
"The Triwizard Tournament is more dangerous than you think. If you've seen it..."
"You mean the incident in 1792 when a chicken-like monster got out of control and injured three headmasters?"
"The Triwizard Tournament is still very dangerous for you. If you want to participate, you should have the right mindset." Professor McGonagall reminded.
"In my opinion, the Cockatrice monster is not a very dangerous creature. Even if I have to face fire dragons in the Triwizard Tournament this time, I am confident that I can defeat them." Albert said calmly.
Professor McGonagall opened her mouth slightly and turned away. Although she felt that Albert was a little too confident, when she thought of his heroic deeds, there was indeed no one in Hogwarts who was more suitable to be a warrior than him.
"In this Triwizard Tournament, the warriors need to face the fire dragon?" Lee Jordan felt that he guessed right.
"Fire dragons are not easy to deal with, especially their scales. Most magic doesn't work on them. How do you plan to defeat them?" Fred and George were very curious about how Albert planned to defeat the fire dragon.
"Fire dragons also have weaknesses. It's not difficult to deal with them by targeting their weaknesses."
"What is the fire dragon's weakness?"
"Eyelids, so only an eye disease spell is needed to hurt them." Albert shrugged.
"That means you have to deal with a crazy fire dragon." Lee Jordan muttered, "It feels crazy."
"We have a Defense Against the Dark Arts class this afternoon. I'm suddenly looking forward to what Professor Moody will call us."
"How to fight against dark wizards? After all, he is an Auror and is very familiar with this matter." Albert took out his pocket watch and checked the time.
"But didn't you say..."
"That doesn't affect anything, does it?" Albert packed up his things and stood up: "I have to go. I have an ancient magic class in the morning."
"Albert's words always confuse people." Fred said as he looked at Albert's departing back.
"I think he actually guessed everything, but he just didn't tell us." George smiled and called Fred, "Let's go, we should go do something."
"Where are you going?" Li Qiaodan was a little confused. Why didn't these people speak human language
"Of course we're going to study our gadgets!" George said matter-of-factly, "You forgot that Albert told us to hurry up."
"If we want to make a fortune this time, we must prepare in advance." Fred and George said in unison: "After all, opportunities are reserved for those who are prepared."
After that, the two walked back to the common room arm in arm. They were going to move all the stuff in the dormitory to the laboratory in the Room of Requirement. After all, it was obviously not a good idea to tinker with those things in the dormitory.
"I agree with Albert, but can't you wait for me?" Lee Jordan finished the food on the plate in a few bites and hurried after him.