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.
The owners of Duke Bee and Zuko's joke shop actually asked the Ministry of Magic to conduct a monopoly investigation on their shop because of their monopolistic behavior?
The most ridiculous thing is that the so-called monopoly refers to the patents developed by them themselves, and the other party shamelessly wants to obtain this part of the technology in order to ensure that everyone can "fairly compete."
"This is really surprising." Shanna saw such a shameless guy for the first time.
"Maybe we pushed them into a hurry." Fred didn't care about this. "However, I think they probably picked the wrong time. It is obviously impossible for the Ministry of Magic to pass such a ridiculous bill."
"It's hard to say. Who knows whether Joko and the others will bribe officials from the Ministry of Magic to formulate bills that are beneficial to them." George frowned and said, "The integrity of politicians is not worthy of trust. 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 we have made too much money recently, which has made many people jealous." Li Jordan frowned and said, "That's why they joined forces to target us."
"We should talk to Albert about this." Shanna suggested, "He must have a solution."
"That guy is probably still traveling after getting married. Damn, he's really enviable." Fred took a big sip 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 repeatedly. He didn't think Fred could get married in the next two years.
At this moment, a red light suddenly flashed in the corner of the restaurant, and then they all clearly felt that the watches on their wrists were getting slightly hot.
This is not a good sign.
The four of them were so startled that they jumped up from the dining table, pulled out their wands and pointed at the door, and quickly exchanged glances.
"What's going on?" Shanna asked uneasily.
"Someone invaded the store and triggered the detector left by Albert." George explained quickly.
"Who brought the Marauder's Map?" Lee Jordan asked in a low voice, "If it doesn't work, we'll withdraw first."
This is Albert's advice: when in danger, protect your own safety first.
"The other detector didn't respond, so it's probably not a dark wizard." Fred muttered, "Besides, the timing is wrong. Even if it's a thief, he should come to steal things in the middle of the night."
At this time, footsteps came from outside, and it seemed that someone was walking towards this direction.
After the four of them exchanged glances with each other, they began to put the Illusion Charm on themselves, and then moved to the corner, ready to see which bold guy was targeting them.
This is not the first time.
Ever since they made a lot of money selling defense items against the dark arts, more and more people have been greedily peeking into their stores.
However, the situation improved after the Ministry of Magic opened a store specializing in defense against the dark arts next door.
If it's that group of pinkeyes again, you must give them some unforgettable lessons.
When the four of them raised their wands and pointed them at the door, the door to the room was suddenly opened, and a familiar voice sounded from outside.
"it's me."
Albert glanced at the empty room, glanced at the hiding place of the four people, and said, "Come out!"
"Wow! You scared us just now. I thought..."
Lee Jordan breathed a sigh of relief, waved his wand to remove the disillusionment spell on his body, and greeted Albert with a smile.
"Think it's a dark wizard?" Albert raised his eyebrows slightly, "If it's a dark wizard, I suggest you retreat immediately and take the Marauder's Map with you, so you can at least determine whether the person coming is an enemy."
"If it's a Death Eater or a dark wizard, the detector on your wrist will definitely show a red dot." Fred reminded.
"When are you coming back?" Li Jordan also planned to step forward to give Albert a hug, but was cleverly avoided. "Why didn't you notify me in advance?"
"Let me give you a little surprise. Let's take a look at your reaction ability. The detector cannot be fully trusted. If you want to deceive something like this, it is not impossible."
"This isn't fun at all," Fred muttered. "Seriously, everyone was shocked when the detector went off."
"You just lack experience now. You will be able to deal with it calmly after a few more attempts." Albert comforted.
"A few more times." The corners of their 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 wages here are very good, but the work is so busy. Sometimes I feel like I'm turning into a house elf." Shanna poured Albert a glass of ice-cold butterbeer: "What are you doing?
It’s time to come back.”
"This afternoon." Albert reached out to take the glass of butterbeer, but did not drink it. Instead, he put it directly on the table and joked with a smile, "I came here just after I came back, so that some people would not blame me behind my back for being lazy.
!”
"You wish you knew better." Fred, George and Lee Jordan complained in unison.
"I think this is purely your misunderstanding. My job is different from yours." Albert said seriously, "Look, I need to be responsible for developing dark magic defense items, and I need to help the store get orders from the Ministry of Magic.
…”
"Okay, okay, stop making excuses for yourself." George interrupted impatiently. Although he felt that what Albert said made sense, many of it was nonsense.
"How are the sales of defense against dark arts items?"
"It's very popular!" Li Jordan said excitedly: "In just two months, we made a net profit of nearly 20,000 yuan."
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 accounting for a long time before I could figure it out." Albert took the account book and looked through the recent sales, not forgetting to complain about the three people's poor accounting.
Way.
"We have no experience in this area before." Lee Jordan argued.
"To be honest, it's less than I expected." Albert said, closing the account book.
"Just be content. I don't know how many people have suffered from pink eye recently." George couldn't help but rolled his eyes at Albert: "Besides, 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 returned
It can bring us a net profit of more than 10,000 yuan."
When Albert was looking through the bill just now, he found that most of the items sold were detectors, and there were more than a thousand pieces in total (including 500 pieces from the Ministry of Magic).
A lot of items from the defense series were also sold, but most of them were sold to the Ministry of Magic, and the rest was only a fraction.
This is actually not difficult to understand. After the Ministry of Magic successfully suppressed the Death Eaters, everyone became optimistic about the future. There was no longer the same sense of urgency as when Voldemort was resurrected, and naturally they no longer desperately sought
Protected.
"It seems that Scrimgeour has done a good job recently." Albert sighed softly.
"Dad said those dark wizards are afraid of being killed."
"Yes, many people think that dark wizards were frightened by Scrimgeour's actions. It was not until recently that the Ministry of Magic stopped trying dark wizards. I heard from dad that the Ministry of Magic used your wedding to capture the group of dark wizards last time.
Seventy percent of them were killed." Fred admired Scrimgeour's courage.
"Every day Scrimgeour asks the Daily Prophet to publish the list of dark wizards sentenced to death and the crimes they committed." George glanced at Albert and continued, "The effect is very good, plus Harry
With support, few people would say that Scrimgeour killed innocent people indiscriminately."
"Most people bully the weak and fear the strong, 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
Let’s talk about the dark arts defense items store next door.”
"That was Dad's idea," George explained. "He felt that there were too many vendors selling inferior dark arts defense items in Diagon Alley. Why not gather them together and sell them uniformly?"
"Members of the crisis response team and members of the Office for the Detection and Confiscation of Counterfeit Defensive Spells and Protective Items will conduct an initial selection of those dark magic defense items, and then hand them over to the Aurors of the Ministry of Magic for testing. As long as they can pass the inspection, they will be confirmed
If the black magic defense items pass the test, they will be allowed to be sold in a black magic defense item specialty store."
"Last time, many people were jealous of our profits and were caught sneaking into the store. 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.
The stronghold of Diagon Alley." Fred introduced to Albert.
"Every day, Ministry of Magic employees will be stationed next door. They are responsible for patrolling Diagon Alley and helping to maintain the stability of Diagon Alley to ensure everyone's safety. After all, students at Hogwarts will go to Diagon Alley during this period.
Shopping."
"What Scrimgeour did was well received by everyone."
"I remember you said before that Fudge's successor was..." Lee Jordan glanced at Shanna and stopped talking.
"It's not convenient for me to know." Shanna raised her eyebrows slightly.
"No, Fudge's successor is an unlucky guy." Albert finished.
"It doesn't look like that." Zannah was a little surprised, because Scrimgeour looked very capable and didn't look like a hapless person.
"There was Bones in front of Scrimgeour, who was already dead." George thought of Dumbledore's injury and suddenly understood that Albert would say that Scrimgeour was unlucky.
After Dumbledore dies, Scrimgeour will become an obstacle to Voldemort's control of the Ministry of Magic.
It's really unfortunate if you think about it carefully.
"I remember that the store next door was bought by you, right?" George changed the subject. He thought it was best not to let Shanna know about it.
Several people turned 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, actually it has nothing to do with me. It should be Diggory's plan. He has asked me similar questions before." Albert said lightly.
As for forming a patrol team, it was actually Percy who proposed it, because it would help increase Scrimgeour's reputation, and their store happened to be targeted at that time.
Scrimgeour needs to make Albert owe a favor in order to prepare for the future attack on the dark wizard.
Put everything together and it becomes the thing next door.
"So, you really built that store?"
"Making a lot of money can easily lead to jealousy and hatred, not to mention that we are still living alone. Lending the shop next door to the Ministry of Magic and turning it into a store specializing in defense against the dark arts will allow the Ministry of Magic to help share some of its attention.
And it can also ensure your safety." Albert took out his pocket watch and looked at the time, and continued, "Anyway, the Defense Against Dark Arts store will be divided sooner or later, and it can also make others think that we are not doing a monopoly business...
"
"Well, it's best to find a reporter to interview us? It will make everyone think that it is not that we have a monopoly on black magic defense items, but that the black magic defense items sold by others are really bad, so most people are willing to buy our products,"
Shanna continued with a smile, "Can we use this to build our own brand and give people the wrong impression?"
"Yes, that's probably it." Albert did not hesitate to praise him, "It seems that you are very talented in this area."
"By the way, we received this letter not long ago. How do you solve this matter?" George took out the letter he just read.
After reading the contents of the letter, Albert said with a smile: "It seems that not only the defense against dark arts props, but also your joke props are selling well!"
"What are you going to do?"
"Don't worry about the Ministry of Magic. As long as they are not idiots, they will not trouble us at this time." Albert comforted, "You can talk to them about this matter first. If possible, you can turn them into
Our store.”
"I don't think it's possible."
"Zoko's joke shop should be easier. I want to continue. He will probably be defeated by us soon." Albert analyzed: "At that time, you can swallow up his shop first and then give it to Zoko."
By sharing some of the benefits, we can make a fortune together, and we can claim to be cooperating with the outside world. In this way, we will have an extra branch in Hogsmeade, and we will also have someone ready to help take care of the store."
"If Joko joins and benefits from it, I think the owner of Bee Duke will also consider cooperating with us. Rather than having his business squeezed, wouldn't it be better for everyone to become business partners and make a fortune together?"
"I always feel like your ideas are a bit naive." Lee Jordan muttered.
"Believe me, they will definitely be willing to accept our goodwill. No one will have trouble with money. And if you want to expand your business, you should take a long-term view." Albert pulled out his wand and said, "
Okay, there are guests coming over later, so get ready!"