Harry Potter and the Secret Treasure

On the left side of the store, cardboard boxes are piled up to the ceiling. This is the quick-acting skipping candy developed by the twins in the last year before Hogwarts. A squashed box, and several boxes of juggling wands, the cheapest of which can turn into rubber chickens or pants with a flick, and the most expensive of which, if the user is unsuspecting, will hit the neck and head. Last beat.

There are also boxes of quills, including automatic inkjet, spell check, quick answer and other varieties.

"When did they have so many products? There were only a few before." Ron sighed.

After leaving Hogwarts, Fred and George's new product development speed has obviously accelerated.

The two of them put unimaginable enthusiasm into this. In just a few months of practice, the number of new products they produced exceeded the past few years, and many products that were originally only theoretical were produced.

As the flow of people pushed, Ron and Harry flocked to the counter on the other side, where a group of teenage children were watching excitedly as a small wooden figure slowly climbed up the steps and climbed towards a lifelike set. Noose Rack.

Both are on top of a box that reads: Reusable hangman, hang him if you can't spell A hangman is a Scrabble toy, usually consisting of a gallows and a small figure, if the player who participates in the game If a person makes a certain mistake in spelling, the villain will be put to death on the gallows.

Ivan and Harry stopped in front of a large display case at the door, which contained a bottle of potion.

"Proprietary product: Daydream Curse." Hermione read, "What is this? Another new product, I've never heard of it."

In the center of the display case is a brightly colored picture of a handsome young man and a bewitched girl standing together on the deck of a pirate ship.

"With just one spell, you can enter a high-quality, extremely realistic three-ten-minute daydream, suitable for ordinary school classes, easy to operate, and absolutely imperceptible." Hermione continued, " Side effects include glazed expression and mild drooling, not for sale to teenagers under 10."

"It's amazing, it sounds a bit like a dream potion..." Ai Wen said, "But this potion has no hypnotic effect, they must have added something to it."

Chapter 1255 House Elf Without a Master

"Yes, this is an improved version of Dream Potion and Sleep Potion." A voice said behind them, "Based on the original formula, we added several herbs to it to make it more interesting."

Ivan and Hermione raised their heads, and Fred stood in front of them with a smile on his face.

He was wearing a magenta robe, which was incongruous and dazzling with his fiery red hair.

After not seeing him for a few months, Fred has changed a lot.

If he hadn't been familiar with it already, Ivan would have thought he came out of the comics.

But his personality remained unchanged, he shook hands with Ivan and Hermione enthusiastically.

"How did you make this potion?" Hermione exclaimed. "Dream Potion is a potion formula that can only be learned in NEWTs courses. It's incredible that you have improved it."

Not to mention the NEWTs level, Fred and George didn't even get the OwLs potion certificate.This means that they may not even be able to make a bottle of ordinary deciphering potion, but they can transform more difficult potions to have more interesting effects and mass-produce them.

I have to say, this is also a talent...

"Thank you for your compliment, Hermione." Fred said, "The recipe is our trade secret, so I can't tell you, but if you're interested, you can take one for free."

Hermione took a bottle of 'Daydream' and asked with some concerns, "Is this thing safe?"

"It goes without saying that our products are all safe." Fred comforted her, "Come on, Ivan, this is your first time here, and there are still your shares in this store, I will take you Go around."

They headed into the shop, where George was greeting Harry and the Weasleys.

Harry and Ron were looking at a plastic bottle marked 'Edible Dark Mark, disgusting to those who eat it'.

George introduced a set of rope trick props to Ginny and the Weasleys. It was Magu's magic. Mr. Weasley was very interested, and kept asking what the knock inside was, and asked George to take out a set of ropes for him. he.

Unlike Fred, George was wearing a sky-blue robe and his hair was all dyed blue.

The twins are facing each other, very conspicuous, but they look exactly the same.

From the clothes of the two people, you can know what is high-profile.

Bill was already dressed cool, unlike a normal wizard, but Fred and George looked even cooler than him now.

Seeing Ivan and Hermione, George came over to shake hands enthusiastically, and even hugged Ivan.

Under the guidance of Fred and George, they visited the store.

With a dizzying array of interesting merchandise, there is something for everyone.

In the display cabinet in the center of the store, there is a flying broomstick developed by Aiwen, and there is also a promotion about the performance of the broom.

Many children were gathered there, discussing excitedly.

No matter where it is, the broomstick is the most popular thing among wizards.

The Asterisker is a broom of the same level as the Firebolt. It has its own characteristics, so it will naturally attract attention.

Hogwarts students also saw the power of this black, thick and long broom in the last semester.

"Since it was put on the counter, many people have inquired from us and are interested in picking the asterisk. If there is no technical problem, we can try to produce it." Fred said, "Ivan, what do you think? Sample?"

"I think there is no problem. I have detailed records of related technologies and magic here, but the asterisk must be handcrafted. If you plan to produce it, you may have to hire a lot of people to help." Ivan said.

"We have our own production line, so don't worry about it at all." George said, "Remember, Ivan, we entrusted some of the materials to Muggles for production, and your father contacted us for us."

Ai Wen nodded, there is indeed such a thing, it seems that they have expanded the scale!

This is in line with the current situation. Fred and George’s commodities are very miscellaneous. In addition to potion products, they need a lot of things such as special candies, quills, telescopes, etc. If all these things are produced by wizards, the cost very high.

Especially now that the magic world is in such a mess, it is even more difficult to find wizards to do this kind of thing.

Entrusting the production to Muggles and Muggles can perfectly solve this problem and reduce the cost within a reasonable range.

"You can ask them to help produce the parts of the broom, such as the broom handle and the tail end." Aiwen said, "But the parts involving magic cannot be produced by Muggles, and the secrecy law does not allow this."

"So, we hired another group of employees and asked them to infuse magic into the manufactured products." Fred said with a smile, "Speaking of which, it was also inspired by Hermione."

"My inspiration?"

"Yes, we hired a group of house elves to work here." Fred continued, "Of course, there are many things that George and I need to do by ourselves. After all, elves' magic is different from ours..."

He lifted a curtain next to the Muggle magic supplies, revealing a darker, but less crowded room.

Dozens of house-elves are at work putting packaged produce on the shelves.

The house-elves, dressed in simple clothes, bowed hastily when they saw them.

Those big eyes stared like light bulbs.

"My God, where did you find these house-elves?" Hermione asked in surprise, looking at them in disbelief.

"London's underground world, you should have heard of this place before, the entrance is in the depths of Knockturn Alley." Fred said, "I only found out recently that it is a gathering place for house elves, and there are no masters. House-elves live there, but recently it's been taken over by werewolves, so..."

"A house-elf without a master?" Hermione noticed the key right away.

As we all know, house elves are a subsidiary race that depends on wizards and cannot exist alone.

They are all slaves of an ancient and wealthy wizarding family, and must serve their masters for generations.

As a unique magical creature in Europe, since they were conquered by wizards with war several centuries ago, the living conditions of the house elves have always been like this, and there has been no change. Even today, they have never thought of changing this situation. relationship.

Just look at Dobby and Winky. The house elves voluntarily undertake all the housework and are bound by their masters. They cannot disobey their master's orders casually. If they disobey, they must punish themselves. They are proud of their unpaid hard work. The concept of the elves is that it is a shame to be driven out of the house by the master.

But this is the first time Ivan heard that there are house-elfs without owners...

And what about London's underworld and its haunts of house-elves?

Chapter 1256 The House Elf's Treasure

"How could there be house-elves without masters?" Hermione asked. "Have they all been expelled from their original families? Or have they come out on their own, like Dobby?"

She looked very excited, and Alvin knew why Hermione was so excited after hearing about house elves without a master.

You know, despite the lack of progress, she has not given up on SPEW.

Hermione wouldn't give up as long as she had the chance.

She campaigned for the legal rights of house elves, wrote articles in newspapers, and persuaded wizards to treat house elves better. When she was in school, she insisted on going to the kitchen to talk to elves every week.

Hermione does a lot of things, but with poor results.

With the exception of Dobby, few house-elves share her philosophy.

House-elves don't need wages and holidays, all they need is work.The more work they do, the happier they are. If they can’t finish it, then punish them as much as you want, such as whipping them, burning their hands with an iron, or directly slashing them a few times with a knife, and then ordering them to go to work quickly.

In the eyes of traditional house-elves, the only good masters are those who treat them like this...

They regard it as the greatest honor to serve their masters for life, especially after the Black family created a perverted tradition. The dream of many house-elves is to be like their ancestors. Cut it off and hang it side by side with the ancestor's head on the wall as a decoration.

Even the house-elves as far away as France have imitated and learned this custom one after another, like a treasure.

So, for house-elves, Hermione's promotional stuff is heretical.

Over time, she became the least popular person in the kitchen.

When other students went to the kitchen, the house elves would take the initiative to gather around him and stuff all kinds of food into his arms.

Hermione passed by, and all the house elves hid immediately...

SPEW has not made much progress, but if there are many house-elves without masters, maybe this situation can be changed. Without the shackles of masters, it will be much easier to help them fight for their rights, and there will be many more role models for others to follow. The house-elves learn.

"Don't get excited, Hermione, I may not have made it clear that these house-elves still have masters in name, they are not evicted house-elves like Dobby, but their masters are actually gone." Fred explained, "Imagine, those ancient pure-blood wizard families lost their descendants for various reasons in the process of inheritance. Without family members, the family died, but the house-elves were still there. These lost masters The house-elves don't pledge their allegiance to the new wizard, they just..."

"House-elf without a master?"

"Yes, if you ask them in the past, they will be willing to tell you about their masters. They are all pure-blood wizard families that have disappeared for a long time, and there are ancient surnames hundreds of years ago." Fred pointed The house-elf who was working in the room said, "These house-elves you see now are descendants of house-elves who have lost their masters, and they nominally belong to those extinct wizard families."

Bound by ancient contracts and magic, house-elves are slaves to ancient and wealthy wizarding families.

The same goes for their descendants, and while many of these wizarding families are no longer there, the potency remains.

House-elves do not betray and switch to other wizards, even if their master is no longer around.

This kind of situation is very common in the magic world, especially in the past, when there were frequent wars between wizards and duels prevailed, people would die if they disagreed, and the ancient families would be extinct. As the last members of these families, the domesticated Pokémon probably thrived for centuries.

After listening to Fred's explanation, Ivan realized that there is indeed such a possibility.

He once read a book about the coats of arms of wizarding families in the UK. In the past few hundred years, the number of families that have disappeared is countless, there are hundreds of thousands of them, even if not all families will survive. House-elves, but as long as there are one-tenth, it is also a very large number.

"I don't know when, these house elves who lost their masters gathered in the underground world of London, which is the fringe of the wizarding world, where they lived in obscurity." Fred said, "I heard that they The history of living there can even be traced back thousands of years.”

"It's the first time I've heard of the existence of such a group of house-elves."

"I only found out about their existence not long ago. Only the house-elves know about their existence, but the house-elves regard this kind of thing as a taboo and won't say it easily." Fred said, "If it wasn't for the recent Those werewolves and dark wizards are doing too much trouble in the underworld, and George and I won't know about it."

"What are the werewolves going to do? Why are they occupying the territory of the house elves?" Ivan asked.

"It may be because of the treasures of the house elves. Many of these house elves are the last members of those ancient wizard families. When they moved to the underground world, they took the last things of these families with them." Fred disapproved. Said, "I have seen some of their so-called treasures, which are not of much value. The concept of house elves is different from ours. The actual value of the items they fancy and collect as treasures is not very high. The real treasures of the pure blood wizard family Usually kept in Gringotts..."

This is true, but it is undeniable that there will be more or less gains in doing so.

However, this kind of thing sounds like only a wizard like Mundungus Fletcher would do it, and a werewolf would not do this kind of thing.

Greedy werewolves?A bit strange?

They have lived in the underground world for many years, and they have been living in peace with the house elves there. The relationship between them may be quite friendly, but it is not impossible to attack them and occupy the elves' territory.

The house elves only look weak, but their actual fighting power is still very strong.

Aiwen didn't understand why the werewolves did this. He suddenly thought that this matter had something to do with Voldemort?

Assuming the werewolves are now obeying Voldemort's orders, is there any secret in it?

"These house-elves, do you and George pay them?" Hermione asked.

She was more concerned about this than the illusory conspiracy.

"No wages, they won't take it, as long as we provide food," Fred said. "Please, Hermione, stop talking about vomiting, it's not suitable for house-elves at all..."

Chapter 1257 The Loyalty of the House-Elves

Hermione glared at him and walked towards the house-elf closest to them in the room.

She kindly asked them about their current living conditions, and encouraged them to ask for wages and holidays to protect their own rights.

She was already experienced in this area, and knew how to communicate with house-elves.

Ivan is still thinking about whether this has something to do with Voldemort?

And, crucially, Hufflepuff's treasure.

He speculated that the clue to the treasure was also related to the house elves, maybe there was some connection?

The riddle left by Hufflepuff mentioned that "the key to unlocking the treasure is integrity and loyalty. All you need to do is trust your humblest friend." Ivan guessed that the humblest friend mentioned here refers to the house elf.

The Hogwarts kitchen is not only home to a large number of house-elves, it is also Hufflepuff's favorite place.Under the castle kitchen, Ivan found the crypt full of house-elf heads, as well as the demon altar deep in the crypt, and the summoned demon was also the image of the house-elf...

House-elves, house-elves, it's all about house-elves.

Perhaps he could find something among the house-elves in London's underworld.

Aiwen has such a premonition, but there are too few clues so far, and everything is still unknown.