Albert flipped through the notes in his hand carelessly, listening to the howling blizzard outside. He raised his head to look out the dark window, then glanced at the pocket watch next to him. It was clearly seven o'clock in the morning, but outside it still felt like four or five in the morning. The blizzard had been going on all night.
Tom heard the sound of turning pages. He opened his eyes and looked at the only light source in the room. He stuck his head out of the warm cat bed, opened his mouth to yawn, and then yawned again.
It's really cold outside.
This is the true portrayal of most students, who all stay in their warm beds and don't want to get up. Fred, George and Lee Jordan are ready-made cases.
The heater in the dormitory could not dispel the coldness around us. It was the coldest time of the winter in Scotland.
Albert sighed softly as he looked at the notes that he had edited into a mess. They recorded his plans for the future: building a safe house, forming a force to resist Voldemort, gaining reputation and mission rewards, and even gradually eliminating Voldemort. And a backup plan if Potter died in the confrontation with Voldemort. There was also a plan to infiltrate the Ministry of Magic and plant his own people. Although Albert didn't like politics, he still had to have his own helpers in the Ministry of Magic, and in fact he was already doing it. There was a plan to build a profitable integrated company. Fred, George and Lee Jordan were all part of this plan. When the time came, he would also bring Sirius and Lupin in. As for the subsequent beauty products, they had already been arranged. Then there were the arrangements for marriage and life planning.
Well, the last one is complete bullshit, Albert has never planned his life well, or he has actually done so.
Albert started this notebook the year he came to Hogwarts. It has been many years. He often picks it up to look at it, and occasionally makes some modifications to improve it. However, there are always some unexpected things that happen sometimes, but overall it is relatively stable.
After completing the final backup plan for fleeing to Britain by ship, Albert put the notebook back into the alchemy box given to him by Nicolas Flamel, stretched lazily, rubbed Tom's head with a smile, and lay back in bed to continue his nap under the confused gaze of the fat cat.
Sure enough, in a winter like this, it would be more comfortable to sleep with my girlfriend in my arms.
Not long after the warmth came over him, Albert closed his eyes and fell asleep.
When he reopened his eyes, he found that Fred, George and Lee Jordan were all up.
The three of them were huddled together, chattering about something. It was bound to be bad news when these guys, who were full of bad intentions, got together to discuss something.
"What are you talking about?" Albert asked, hiding his yawn.
"Did you forget?" said Fred excitedly, "We're going to Hogsmeade today."
"I haven't forgotten."
"We hope you can take us..." The three of them looked at each other, and finally George spoke, "Use Apparate to take us there."
"Are you really not afraid of accidents? I have never appeared with an entourage." Albert looked at the three of them speechlessly and kindly reminded them: "If something goes wrong, we will definitely be fined a large amount of Galleons by the Ministry of Magic."
"We have confidence in you." Fred reached out and patted Albert on the shoulder. "We have to learn it sooner or later anyway, so we plan to experience the feeling of Apparition in advance."
"Okay, don't blame me if you get into trouble." Albert covered his yawn and glanced at his skill panel. Apparition was already level three. He thought about it and invested more skill points into it, upgrading Apparition to level four.
They went downstairs to have breakfast, and after getting Filch's autograph in the hallway, they walked slowly towards the castle gate.
"When are we going to take a walk under the Black Lake?" Fred asked, looking at the still frozen Black Lake.
"Are you crazy? Going swimming at this time, aren't you afraid of freezing to death in the lake?" Lee Jordan looked at Fred as if he were a madman.
"It shouldn't freeze anyone to death." George pointed at the Black Lake and said, "Look over there..."
The three looked in the direction George pointed, and saw Viktor Krum appear on the deck wearing only a pair of swimming trunks. He swiftly climbed to the side of the boat, stretched out his arms, and plunged into the black lake with a splash.
"Is he crazy?" Lee Jordan's eyes widened in shock.
"That's not the point. The point is that Krum seems to have figured out the secret of the golden egg." George frowned and said, "I thought Krum would never be able to figure out the secret of the golden egg without Karkaroff."
"I told him the secret of the golden egg." Albert said calmly, "But it does take courage to jump like him. At least I can't do it."
"What?"
The three of them looked at Albert in astonishment. They really couldn't understand why Albert told Krum the secret of the golden egg.
"If he doesn't tell me, he'll probably be in danger or even die in the Black Lake. Although Krum seems to be a good swimmer, he won't be able to successfully complete the second task without any preparation."
"It's none of your business if he died in the Black Lake!" Lee Jordan muttered. "Besides, I don't think he'll die. At most, his second project will fail."
"I'm going to win anyway, so I should be magnanimous." Albert really didn't care.
The three of them were speechless. After looking at each other, they smiled and put their arms around Albert's neck and said, "You are really worthy of me. I think only you can say such words."
While the three of them were laughing and playing, Harry, Hermione and Ron walked over here.
Harry and Ron looked at Albert with complicated expressions. They had obviously heard what Albert had just said. They really couldn't understand how confident Albert had to be to do such a stupid thing. On the contrary, Hermione admired Albert very much. Most people didn't have such courage.
"I really don't understand why Albert did this." Ron whispered to Harry and Hermione after he moved away from Albert.
"Maybe he never considered us as his opponents from the beginning!" Although Harry hated that feeling, he felt that this was probably the truth.
"Albert is different from you." When Hermione turned her head to look back, she suddenly froze in place.
Harry stopped and looked at Hermione who was standing there in confusion, and asked in confusion: "What's wrong, Hermione?"
"They're... gone."
Hermione looked at the empty snowfield in surprise. Albert and his friends disappeared without any warning.
"Perhaps, they used magic to hide themselves."
Ron seemed to recall some unpleasant memories and said through gritted teeth, "Fred and George are both very good at using the Disillusionment Charm. I asked them to teach me before, but those two bastards thought I was too stupid to learn it."
"Maybe they just flew away on their brooms because walking was too much trouble." Harry thought without thinking. "Isn't that something Anderson would do?"
In a remote snowfield near Hogsmeade village, four figures suddenly appeared out of nowhere accompanied by crackling sounds.
"vomit!"
The three of them squatted down in unison and retched, apparently suffering from the aftereffects of using Apparition for the first time.
"Are you all right?" Albert looked at the four unfortunate guys with concern and explained to them: "It takes time to get used to this feeling. It's like this at the beginning, but overall it's more comfortable than using a door key."
"Ugh, I hate this feeling, like being squeezed out of a rubber tube." After a burst of dry heaving, George took a deep breath of cold air and reached into his pocket to take out a handkerchief to wipe his tears and snot.
Lee Jordan took a long time to recover. He muttered, "Apparating is terrible."
"It's more comfortable than a portkey." Albert didn't like using a portkey to travel, it felt terrible.
"You're right, but it's still very uncomfortable."
"So, I have always felt that wizards are really magical creatures who can adapt to this feeling." Albert looked at Hogsmeade Village not far away and asked: "Let's go, where are you going first?"
"You're not going to go on a date?" The three of them looked at Albert in surprise.
"Sirius wants to see me about something. We agreed to meet at the Three Broomsticks. It's still early." Albert took out his pocket watch and checked the time. "It seems that he wants to publish a big news in the Defense Guide and plans to discuss it with me."
"What's the breaking news?" Lee Jordan was very interested in gossip.
"About how Peter Pettigrew escaped from Azkaban." Albert didn't actually intend to object to Sirius publishing this matter, but Lupin thought that there were some things that needed to be discussed with him to prove that they still valued Albert's opinion.
"How did you escape?" Lee Jordan asked curiously.
"Fudge accepted money from Mrs. Peter and let her into Azkaban to visit Peter Pettigrew, which led to Mrs. Peter using the compound potion to help her son Peter escape from Azkaban." Albert said this shocking news in a light tone.
"Sirius also believes that the Minister of Magic has connections with the Death Eaters and even has some private dealings with them," Albert continued.
"That's some big news," Fred muttered.
"Is the Minister of Magic really connected to the Death Eaters?" Lee Jordan couldn't help but ask. He thought this was fake. Even if Lee Jordan didn't know much about the Death Eaters, he knew something about them.
"Fudge has a good relationship with Malfoy, and Lucius Malfoy is a Death Eater. You say they have no connection? Do you really think Fudge doesn't know that Lucius Malfoy is a Death Eater? No, he knows, but as long as Malfoy is not caught, he can pretend not to know. Besides, Peter was let go by accident by Fudge. It is hard to say whether this was an accident or not." George sneered. He didn't like Fudge very much. His father Arthur worked in the Ministry of Magic for many years, but he couldn't get a promotion or a raise, which was related to Fudge. It was because Arthur liked Muggles that he was considered to lack the dignity that a wizard should have.
"You can't talk about this kind of thing casually, at least you can't report it carelessly, otherwise there will definitely be problems." Lee Jordan reminded with a frown.
"No, that's actually the truth." Albert glanced at Lee Jordan and continued, "So, I don't actually intend to stop Sirius from doing this."
"I don't think this is a good idea. The Defense Guide is likely to be discovered and banned by the Ministry of Magic." Lee Jordan didn't think Albert really didn't know these things.
"Let it be closed. Anyway, the Defense Guide probably won't be published smoothly this year." Albert didn't mind at all.
Well, actually, the reason why Sirius dared to bring up this matter so boldly was more because Albert once hinted to Sirius that the "Defense Guide" might encounter some troubles this year and might not be able to be published smoothly.
Sirius believed this and prepared to expose the matter.
"What do you think? Can we let Sirius report Bagman's case and bring discredit to Ludo Bagman, the Head of the Department of Magical Sports and Physical Education?" Fred began to feel bad, hoping to see Bagman get into trouble again.
"You can write anonymously to Rita Skeeter. That woman is better at reporting this kind of news, and I think she would be happy to report it," Albert suggested.
"Honestly, we hate that woman."
Fred, George and Lee Jordan didn't want to deal with Rita Skeeter. "That woman is very good at twisting the truth. God knows how she will report this matter after we report it anonymously."
"How did you get Rita Skeeter to shut up?" George asked Albert curiously.
"Use this..." Albert raised his wand and said, "Rita Skeeter is just a bully. You can't use reason to deal with people like her. You should use fists. As long as your fists are strong enough, she will be willing to take the initiative to reason with you. At that time, you only need to use a little coercion and inducement, and she will not dare to cause trouble."
"I like your method. Since reasoning doesn't work, use fists. Then the other party will be willing to reason with you." The three of them felt that what Albert said made a lot of sense.
"Rita Skeeter has a sense of propriety. She knows who she can and cannot offend. That's why she can report those offensive news so recklessly, because others can't do anything to her at the legal level of the Ministry of Magic." Albert sneered, "So as long as she knows that I can't offend her, and if I do, she might die suddenly one day, Rita Skeeter will not dare to report my news casually. At least, she won't dare to do that before I die, and she will obviously die earlier than me."
"You really shouldn't use normal methods to deal with people like that."
All three of them felt that what Albert said made sense and was very useful. At least so far, Rita Skeeter did not dare to continue reporting Albert's news at random.
After some discussion, the four decided to tell Rita Skeeter about Ludo Bagman's huge debt and use her to destroy Ludo Bagman's reputation.