Chapter 77: Chapter 77: Riddle's Diary (Edited)
For the next few days, Tom concentrated on carving runes. Before long, half a month had passed and he had mastered all the basic runes on the parchment, the strokes were even and consistent, and his job was to keep practicing, making the runes smaller and smaller.
Ollivander was quietly minding his own business, and only came to comment after Tom finished carving the runes. Although he seemed unperturbed on the surface, at first he was extremely surprised, then from excitement came numbness: Tom was learning too fast! It had taken him the same amount of time as it had taken Tom to learn to carve runes. But he had been exclusively studying carving, and Tom is working in a bookstore and learning to carve at the same time, so there was a big difference.
Ollivander was very frustrated for a while, and sometimes wondered if his talent was mediocre.
But when he thought about the level of people creating wands abroad, he regained his confidence.
However, as the day of admission for first-year students approached, the work of the Flourish and Blotts Bookshop gradually became more intense.
Although Hogwarts had not yet announced the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, other teachers had already announced the textbooks for the new term. So Mr. Lawrence began stocking them in bulk, and gave Tom a new task: Packing the textbooks.
Since the Flourish and Blotts Bookshop was primarily for Hogwarts students, the textbooks needed were similar for each year. In the first and second years, each student needed exactly the same textbook. From the third year onwards, there would be small adjustments depending on the chosen subject.
So Tom's job was to put the textbooks in cardboard boxes according to grade, and then sort the boxes one by one. This way, students can go to the bookstore and make their purchases as quickly as possible.
Of course, textbooks for elective subjects also figured prominently.
Everything is ready except for Defense Against the Dark Arts.
One afternoon in late July, Mr. Lawrence received a letter from an owl, his source of information. He was always the first to hear about Hogwarts' new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher and his choice of textbook, and to acquire it as soon as possible.
This time, when he opened the letter, his whole face turned strange: the new professor was really Lockhart! Best-selling author Gilderoy Lockhart.
Mr. Lawrence wondered what was going through Lockhart's mind. It was a sinkhole he had dug himself into, knowing that not only had one or two teachers been buried in Hogwarts' Defense of the Dark Arts, but two figures had fallen into it.
And what a man, asking his students to buy seven books as textbooks right out of office, that's a terrible thing to do. As a bookseller, Lawrence knew a little of what was going on. For every book Lockhart sold, he got 20% of the profits, which meant that for a 5-gallon book, Lockhart got 1 gallon.
For every student who buys seven books, Lockhart takes seven galleons from a student, and with hundreds of students and teachers at Hogwarts, it is conservatively estimated that Lockhart will make at least 3500 gold galleons from textbooks.
Mr. Lawrence shook his head, and although he considered what Lockhart was doing inconceivable, he could say no more. It was to his advantage, too: as the manager of the largest bookstore in London, the more books he sold, the higher his commission.
His face froze, however, and he suddenly realized something crucial: he had promised in his contract to cover a set of Tom's textbooks! And Lockhart was to be paid for seven books, all of them expensive, at five galleons each, which amounted to a week of Tom's salary.
How many weeks' work did Tom do in all? That would double his salary.
Lawrence looked at Tom's back and had to admit it: the boy was lucky. As for reneging? He wasn't that angry, he wasn't going to pay for it anyway.
In the afternoon, the bookstore had a distinguished guest: a high official of the Ministry of Magic, head of the Hogwarts school board, son of Abraxas, and the current head of the Malfoy family: Lucius Malfoy II (there was a Lucius Malfoy in the Malfoy family in the 16th century, so in the family tree, Draco Malfoy's father was actually Lucius II).
Incidentally, there is plenty of evidence that Lucius Malfoy I was a suitor of Elizabeth I, even though later generations have vehemently denied it. So all it took for Draco Malfoy to break his guard was to say Elizabeth a couple of times.
Upon seeing Lucius arrive, Lawrence immediately stood up, smiling flatteringly as he bowed his back and said respectfully, "Good morning, my lord, if you want any books, just send an owl with a letter, and I will send them to you."
Lucius stroked his pale blond hair with dignity, which had been carefully maintained at first glance, in style, then pushed his cane into the bookshelf and said slowly, "The Malfoy family's thirst for knowledge knows no bounds, and when it comes to books, it's best to come and browse through them in person."
Lawrence said yes, admiringly.
"I need a set of textbooks for second year Hogwarts students." Lucius looked at Lawrence, who immediately bowed and went to order the textbooks for Lucius himself. Lucius also wandered around the store, looking as if he wanted to pick up some books to look at.
However, no one noticed that, as he rounded a corner, Lucius slid an ancient-looking diary into the corner of the shelf when no one was looking. He had come to Diagon Alley today for several reasons, one of which was to get rid of this diary.
Of course, he also wanted to get rid of part of his family's collection in Knockturn Alley. In early July of this year, the Ministry of Magic had issued an order compelling the authorities to conduct raids on black magic items and illicit goods. Lucius hadn't taken it seriously, there had been similar raids before, but never on purebloods like them.
But this year was different, he had heard a rumor that the search party included Arthur Weasley. Lucius remembered his relationship with Arthur, so he felt that his family would not be able to escape.
To make matters worse, the head of the Department of International Magical Cooperation, Barty Crouch, had invited Arthur to his home for a search to prove his law-abidingness and enhance his reputation. This was a bad start for the purebloods, they had no reason to refuse Arthur's searches.
So, seeing the bad situation, Lucius decided to get rid of any potentially forbidden objects in his house in advance, and Lucius inherited the Malfoy family ethic perfectly: you will never see a Malfoy at the scene of a crime, even if his fingerprints are all over the wand.
Chapter 78: Chapter 78: 2 Tom (Edited)
Lucius' first stop was Borgin and Burkes' black magic goods store in Knockturn Alley, but today he didn't get a deal with old Borgin: Borgin's price was too low and Malfoy was a bit angry with him for taking advantage of the situation. Of course, he wouldn't have sold the paper to Borgin even if he had made a deal. Because Borgin was a man who knew too much about dark magic items and Lucius was afraid he would find out something about the diary.
By the time he had finished hiding the diary, Lawrence had also packed up the second year textbooks. Lucius almost lost control of his face at the sight of such a large box of books. All he could think of was, 'What the hell? what's with all the books?'
Lawrence put the box in the box and then put the books Lucius had chosen on top of it. Hermione glanced at them, "That's fifty-one galleons and thirteen sickles."
Lucius couldn't help himself: fifty-one galleons was almost half of his month's salary, And this girl just glanced at it and said the price? Who was she kidding?
"Are you sure you got the math right?" Lucius looked at Hermione and said haughtily, "You don't even know how to use a calculator?"
Hermione grimaced, pulled out her calculator and started doing the math, and the results were accurate.
Lucius grimaced, pulled out his money bag, took out 52 galleons and put them on the counter.
He looked at his deflated bag instantly and felt bad that the Malfoys were in a situation where they had to pay out of their monthly salaries to keep up appearances. Although seemingly respectable, Mr. Lucius was actually a moonlighter, barely managing to keep his balance and whose savings were growing slowly. Shelling out the 52 galleons wasn't much, but it was as disgusting as eating a fly.
Lucius looked at Hermione and suddenly remembered that his son had mentioned that red-haired girl, his eyes narrowed slightly, "Heh, some people's families are going to starve just to buy these books..."
The thought of the Weasleys having to pay five times as much and the little half-breed in front of him having to cough up everything he earned on vacation made Lucius feel much better.
Hermione looked up and remembered the exchange rate between gold, gold galleons and pounds, 5 grams of gold per galleon, 35 galleons required 175 grams of gold, the current price of gold was $355 an ounce, which was almost 170 pounds an ounce, 31 grams an ounce....
Hermione did some simple calculations and found that it would only take £960 to change 35 galleons, which her old man could probably earn in a day or two overtime....
Sometimes doctors in Europe and America find it very easy to earn money. For example, for nucleic acid tests, there are three designated institutions in Paris, two of which charge 50 euros; 65 euros more if you don't have health insurance, and the third offers an extra package: 190 euros for a test, guaranteed results in 12 hours, service in English, French, Arabic and Chinese, which can be called a one-stop shop service, as long as the client's money is in place, it will definitely be organized properly.
By the way, if you want to book an appointment with this clinic, you have to pay 100 euros in advance, and if you cancel the appointment, the money is non-refundable.
Mr. Granger could have won his daughter's schooling and living expenses in one fell swoop if he had arranged appointments earlier, charged more money and gone straight to the dentist. In Europe and the United States it is so difficult to get a dental appointment that some students have a toothache in December, make the appointment, and end up getting their teeth fixed when they return home in the spring, but of course this is not the right way.
Then Hermione's expression became: Is that it?
And Lucius was very aware of the change in Hermione's expression.
Lucius; "???"
"It's okay, Dad will do it in two days overtime." muttered Hermione under her breath.
This statement caught Lucius off guard.
He grabbed his cane and hurried out of the Flourish and Blotts Bookshop.
Lawrence waited for her to leave before straightening up, spitting on Lucius' back and returning to his office to rest. Hermione sat back down on her little stool and continued reading.
Tom got up and carefully walked the place Lucius had been prowling around, finally finding the diary in the corner of an inconspicuous bookshelf. Tom had been restocking these days, so he spotted the book that didn't belong in the bookstore right away.
The journal was quite striking, in fact, because it looked like an old book. The cover looked worn, the corners of the cover were bent, and the inside pages were yellowed. Such an old book should not be in a bookstore full of new books.
Tom quietly put the diary in his pocket.
[You obtained Tom Riddle's Diary]
[A seemingly ordinary blank diary, belonging to sixth-year Tom Riddle, with extremely evil powers in it].
Tom knew that this diary was Voldemort's Horcrux, or rather Tom Riddle's. He had decided to destroy it immediately, but before he could do so, he needed to squeeze every last ounce of courage out of Riddle.
As for the erosion of the Horcrux, Tom had a vague suspicion that it might be possible to solve the erosion problem. It was because of this suspicion, and the fact that the sixth-year Riddle still considered himself human, that Tom dared to take such a risk.
In the evening, Tom returned to his dormitory in Ollivander's wand store after work. Today, for the first time, he did not practice carving runes, but sat at his desk and opened the book.
He wrote his name in the journal: Tom Yode. After a second, the ink faded and was absorbed into the pages of the journal, leaving no trace of the writing. Then, a line of text oozed from the paper, forming a sentence with his ink: What a coincidence, my name is Tom too, I'm Tom Riddle.
Resting the tip of the pen on the paper, letting the journal absorb the ink, Tom suddenly realized something and switched pens: he didn't want to write and passively spit out the truth.
"I must ask you why a diary would talk to someone..."
When Tom didn't answer, the journal started talking to itself again, "Actually, I'm an alchemical product made by a brilliant graduate!"
Tom didn't know what to say for a moment: it was a way to intimidate a young wizard who hadn't seen anything, but if Riddle's diary really was an alchemical product, it was no less clever than the Sorting Hat. So you're a graduate on the level of the four founders?
Since Tom didn't answer, the diary began again, "You see, your name is Tom, and mine is Tom, so..."
"Are too many people named Tom in the UK?" asked Tom.
Diary: "..."
Tom confused Riddle's diary with his words.
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