Chapter 82: Chapter 82: Isn't there a printing press there? (Edited)
Today, most of the stores in Diagon Alley are closed for inspection. The Ministry of Magic has stepped up to the plate this time and raided for banned items. But most of these items are banned and have nothing to do with dark magic, just a touch of mischief. Keys that shrink, kettles that bite, etc. Mr. Weasley's Ford car was no exception, if we are to be strict.
Tom waited outside the store for a while and finally Hermione arrived.
"Come on! No work today." Tom told Hermione what had just happened.
"That's a good thing," Hermione said, supporting the Ministry's actions, "They really need to clear out all the contraband items, what are your plans today?"
Tom was also a bit moved: how about, for example, a trip to London with Hermione?
Suddenly, two owls flew past them and handed them a yellow parchment envelope.
"Oh, it's the school owl!" Hermione opened the letter, inside was a list of second year school books, the contents of the list Hermione had known for days, now she just knew for sure.
Hermione sketched a small smile, "It seems the new professor is a Lockhart fan; all the books he asked for are Lockhart's. If Lockhart could be our professor, he must be amazing, with all the books he's written, he must have had some incredible adventures, right?"
Hermione revered the knowledge, she thought that a man who had written so many books must be an amazing person.
Tom rolled his eyes.
"Well, it looks like this has all been a waste of time." Hermione calculated her salary and realized that all the money she had earned in the last few weeks had been spent on buying books, and if she added the books she wanted from the bookstore, she would probably need some support from her family.
Tom, on the other hand, was not worried, as he had already received his set of books. But Tom really hated Lockhart's behavior: he could use two or three books a term, but Lockhart wanted students to buy seven! That's too many.
With the addition of a teacher like Lockhart this year, the Weasleys directly emptied their savings. It's hard to imagine how the Weasleys managed to get five sets of books from Lockhart, plus buy robes and wands for their little sister Ginny.
From what he remembered, Harry saw that Mrs. Weasley had pulled out all the coins stashed at Gringotts...
Hey, Lockhart!
Tom pulled Hermione out of Diagon Alley and into the streets of London.
"Where to?" Hermione asked, a little embarrassed, her head bowed and her little brown leather shoes with bows hitting the ground.
Tom looked around and went to the ice cream parlor down the street and bought two ice creams, three scoops: vanilla, yogurt and plain.
The three best flavors are vanilla, yogurt and plain, followed by chocolate, and the rest of the ice creams are first grade, which is a good indication of the quality of the ingredients. The strawberries and mango have too much syrup added to them, and even if they are made with the best ingredients, they will be overpowered by the flavors of the other fruits and affect the taste of the milk.
When Tom eats ice cream, he only chooses these three flavors.
Tom returned with his ice cream: he was now quite rich, his good friend and business partner Yuri had given him a lot of money and had recently tried to get him to go out on business, but Tom had more interesting things to do, so he turned him down.
Tom passed Hermione an ice cream and then ate another.
"It'll make you fat," Hermione looked at the ice cream and smiled, but still refused.
"Look, the ice cream is cold, isn't it?" Tom licked the top vanilla scoop, "Well, when you eat ice cream, the liquid inside is heated to your body temperature and it needs to absorb heat, I mean, absorb heat, right? So, all the heat from the ice cream is absorbed by itself."
Hermione: Σ(⊙▽⊙)!
She was very confused, it seemed like Tom was talking in circles, but it seemed to make sense...
But she quickly replied, "I don't know how to argue with you... but I already ate. It's impossible to lose weight after eating, isn't it? how can there be anything so good in the world?"
Tom was unimpressed by this, and looked at Hermione with a smile, "It's good for a girl to be a little fleshy."
And naturally, he got two punches in.
And so, the two strolled through the streets of London, which was blessed with a rare sunny day. Truly, the capitals of the two Western European countries of England and France are fascinating, rainy days. Some people are lucky enough to see the sun when it is cloudy every time they pass through Paris.
Tom had a good eye, spotted a print shop at the end of the street and immediately headed that way.
Coincidentally, the two were talking about their textbooks for the new year.
"No need to buy Lockhart's books, I have a complete set, you can take them." Tom was generous: there was no difference between Lockhart's books and the novels sold in the Muggle bookstore. Oh, there is a difference, other best-selling authors don't make their book covers look like movies, and it's still hard for Tom to look at Lockhart's big face smiling at him every day.
"So, what are you going to do? You won't have books, do we have to read the same one together?" Hermione imagined the two of them sitting together in class reading a book, and got a little excited: it must be nice to read with your best friend.
"No, isn't there a print shop over there?" Tom ignored the girl's thoughts and pointed to the print shop with some excitement.
Hermione looked at him and said, "My goodness, Tom, you're not thinking...?" She immediately understood what Tom meant: Lockhart's books were mostly narratives, interspersed with photographs, nothing special, so even if they were Muggle copies, they didn't matter at all.
"It's a pirate copy!" said Hermione angrily.
"Hermione, do you really think it's reasonable to use seven copies of a textbook for one subject in one school year?" Tom looked at Hermione, "Professor McGonagall uses the 'Beginner's Guide to Transfiguration' for two years, the 'Thousand Herbs and Magic Fungi' for Potions is still used until sixth year, and the 'History of Magic' can be used until graduation, so why should a Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, who will probably teach only one year, use seven books? And by the way, most of the above only cost one or two galleons, while one of Lockhart's great works costs five."
Hermione gaped, her mind so scrambled that she could barely comment on Tom's behavior for a moment.
"Hermione, not everyone lives as prosperously as you do, I'm just helping others in my own way."
Tom dropped these words and walked into the print shop.
Chapter 83: Chapter 83: The Burrow's New Guest (Edited)
To be fair, intellectual property rights can't be violated. But Lockhart's own ass isn't clean either! His stories were taken from other wizards. The memories that were so precious to those wizards were taken from them by Lockhart.
They probably felt a sudden void in their minds, didn't they?
Tom hated Lockhart. Yes, Lockhart didn't have Voldemort in the back of his head, he wasn't a Death Eater, he didn't spread the werewolf virus, he wasn't a Ministry spy, but Tom still hated the man.
Perhaps there is such an adventurer, who has traveled to the ends of the earth, who has survived all the mysterious places, who has found like-minded partners, but whose partners have fallen on quests, whose soul may be trapped where there is no wind.
The adventurer did not stop, he carried the last wish of his partner and continues to move forward, conquering nature. Then, he meets a young man with a big smile on his face.
And then? No more.
The adventurer's story ended, no one knew his name, his friends, his history, his everything, everything was replaced, manipulated.
If Lockhart hadn't ended up on the wrong side of someone Dumbledore knew, I'm afraid such a man would have continued to make waves, would have continued to enjoy the cheers, the admiration, the adulation in front of the cameras, would have continued to empty wizards' pockets of unlimited gold galleons.
Tom can't afford to pay people like that.
[Mission Unleashed: Oblivion is the ultimate death]
[You die three times in your life: the first time, when your heart stops beating and your breathing stops, you are declared biologically dead; the second time, when you are buried and people attend your funeral in black, they declare that you no longer exist in society, that you have disappeared from the web of relationships, they declare you sociologically dead; and the third time, when the last person in the world who remembers you, forgets you, then, you die for real. You will be erased from the entire universe]
[Quest Goal: Deprive Gilderoy Lockhart of the memories he has taken with him!]]
[Quest Reward: Lockhart's Notes].
It is said that on some distant continent, if man's will is strong enough, the gods will cast their gaze upon him. At this point, perhaps Tom's will was strong enough to trigger a mission on the system side.
"Lockhart..." Tom narrowed his eyes.
...
The print shop Tom was referring to was not one of those little stores specializing in photocopying and printing for about ten cents a sheet. There were no stores in the UK that specialized in that, but post offices and photographic studios offered basic photocopying. If Tom wanted to make copies of entire books, he would have to go to a professional printer.
Fortunately, following their instincts, they found such a printer. They came across one such printer.
The store was small, and the first thing they saw when they entered was almost a hundred printers and a couple of large desktop computers, which looked dumb and dumber, but they were far from cheap.
Tom pulled out his bag with all of Lockhart's books and, before coming here, removed the book cover, which can be repaired later by a spell.
In the 1990s, digital photocopiers were created, featuring a very important new feature: multiple copies in a single scan. This greatly reduced the time it took to make copies.
The printing staff took the pages and went to work with all their might, and half an hour later Tom came out of the store with twenty sets of bound copies of the entire Lockhart collection, which were much cheaper than buying the books.
Book printing is a common practice for many international students. What if the professor's textbooks are too expensive? They are bought secondhand or electronic versions are found for printing.
Over a hundred books, a bag full of books and two large, very heavy bags. With a bag like that, they couldn't go shopping. The two took a cab back to the street outside the Leaky Cauldron.
Tom found an owl courier company in Diagon Alley, opened the door and went in.
...
The Burrow, where the Weasley family lives, was a small, crooked building with a small garden and four or five chimneys on the roof. Behind the house is a large garden with a pond full of gnomes.
In recent days, the Burrow has welcomed a new guest.
In terms of hardware, the house was a little less well kept than the Dursley's house on Privet Drive, where everything was in good order and clean, a standard modern middle class house where everything was fine, the only drawback is that it didn't feel like a home to Harry.
Not so at the Burrow, where Harry felt at home for the first time.
Today, as they were eating breakfast, Harry received a letter from Hogwarts, with tickets for the Hogwarts Express and a list of books for the new year.
Looking at the long list of books on the list gave the Weasleys a bit of a headache.
Even when Fred and George were eating, their vocal cords were not dormant and the two were chattering about the contents of the letter.
"I guess most likely the new professor is a witch, almost all of Lockhart's admirers are witches" Said Fred.
"Don't think about that," George said, seeing the increasingly dangerous look on his mother's face, and hastened to change the subject, "Lockhart's books are very expensive..."
"Oh, we'll find a way," Mrs. Weasley said, looking a little worried, but as if it was no big deal and they didn't have to worry about it. But obviously, many of Ginny's items will be bought secondhand this year.
Ginny is Ron's younger sister, the youngest daughter of the Weasleys, and every time Harry spoke to her, her whole face turned as red as her hair.
As they were talking, Ron's older brother Percy walked into the dining room fully dressed, his Prefect badge shining on his knitted vest. It was a strange thing to wear the Prefect badge in the house, but Percy had always insisted on it.
Suddenly, several gray owls joined in and flew up with a large package, dropping it on the floor in front of Fred.
"Fred, what is this?" Mrs. Weasley was immediately alerted.
"Oh, Mum, it's George!" Fred made one of his usual jokes and opened the package, "It looks like a bunch of books."
"Merlin up there, how can someone send you books?" Mrs. Weasley looked stunned, not just her, but everyone in the Weasley house was stunned, Percy had dropped the slices of bread in his hands on the table: in his eyes, someone sending books to his brother was more unbelievable than failing his own exams in all subjects.
Ron made a strange noise: he had choked, and as he wiped the gruel from his windpipe, he asked, "And what are these books about?"
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