Days wandering around Hogwarts

Chapter 367: Separating the Business

During the first Hogsmeade week in February, the students were playing around the village. Penelope went to Farbottom Castle for an interview by herself. Percy accompanied her, and Charles was busy with his own things.

In the small building rented by the Centaur Liaison Office, Charles continued to measure the resistance of the metal wire processed by alchemy.

Eleanor also came today to report on her recent work.

The trading channel for magical raw materials opened by Lupin had developed rapidly under Eleanor's management. The Centaur Liaison Office had become a secret money-making agency of the British Ministry of Magic, handing over a large sum of money to the Ministry every month, most of which was spent on various meetings held in the Dancing Grass Restaurant.

However, before that, most of the profits flowed into the personal accounts of Charles and Eleanor through shell companies.

Charles exchanged this money for gold in the magical world, then laundered it into US dollars and transferred it to the venture capital company he and his father established in Switzerland.

Eleanor was lying on the comfortable sofa. After reporting the business of the Centaur Liaison Office, she said, "The person you wanted to find at the University of Manchester was not found."

Charles paused, shook his head and said, "If you can't find it, forget it."

He wanted to find the big guy who tore graphene by hand. He only vaguely remembered his name and university, but had no idea about his previous experience. Maybe he hasn't worked at Manchester University yet.

Charles shook his head and continued to measure the resistance: "Maybe I remembered it wrongly. I just remember that the name of the university started with 'M'. Maybe it was McDonald's."

Eleanor asked him curiously, "Is this person important?"

Charles said nonchalantly, "It's nothing. If you can't find it, forget it."

He didn't have to worry about the people behind Eleanor guessing how the Nobel Prize was won based on a school and a name. This was so miraculous that even the Ig Nobel Prize was awarded.

It is not that easy to win a real Nobel Prize. It is not just about tearing out graphene by hand. You also have to measure its physical properties, which requires the help of universities and other research institutions.

We can talk about this later, there's no rush.

Eleanor asked him, "Did you know that all the Death Eaters in Azkaban have escaped?"

Charles nodded and replied, "I heard that."

After he finished measuring the data, he sat in a chair next to the table and began to organize the tables.

Eleanor sat up and said, "The Auror Office came to see me. They found that there were escaped Death Eaters appearing abroad, and they seemed to be trying to find out something."

"We have quite a few people in our office traveling around the world. They want to plant some people in to capture Death Eaters in foreign countries."

Charles folded his arms across his chest, frowned, and watched the quill in front of him fill in the data into the form by itself.

After a moment he asked, "Is the Auror's attitude tough?"

Now everyone who has reached a high enough level knows that the Centaur Liaison Office can make money, and you can't guarantee that someone will try to get their hands on it. The Aurors are just the beginning.

Eleanor replied: "They seem to be asking for advice, not forcing it."

Charles thought quietly, and only sat down on the sofa after he finished filling in today's resistance data.

Eleanor pushed Charles to the end of the sofa and lay down with her head resting on his thighs.

The next moment she felt a drop of water dripping on her forehead. It was not that Charles was drooling or had a runny nose due to a cold. The two of them came to the mirror space, where there was no need to worry about eavesdropping.

Charles lowered his head and asked Eleanor, "Did you reach out to the Auror?"

He was not sure if the Ministry of Magic was trying to interfere, but what was certain was that Eleanor was hiding in the Ministry of Magic and was part of a group that was trying to infiltrate the Ministry of Magic. God knew how it was going. Eleanor said, "It was a good start. There was a half-blood Auror, and his Muggle relatives had some problems, and we helped solve them."

Charles thought that was indeed the case, and asked her, "Do you plan to separate the office business in the future?"

"Hmm?" Eleanor frowned slightly, "Did you hear any rumors?"

Business involving collusion between officials and businessmen is the easiest to do, and the business is not yet stable. At present, there will be a lot of trouble if it becomes independent from the Ministry of Magic.

Charles said: "The news of the Death Eaters' large-scale prison break has been blocked, and the Ministry of Magic's response has been too passive."

"I'm worried that the Death Eaters will make some big moves. The worst case scenario is that they will occupy the Ministry of Magic."

"Wait!" Eleanor sat up suddenly, looked at him in disbelief, and asked uncertainly: "You mean... the mysterious man is still alive?"

If it had been just a few Death Eaters, they would have been caught before, and they would be caught now if they showed up.

If they can occupy the Ministry of Magic, there will be only one possibility: Voldemort has really returned.

Charles nodded.

Many wizards subconsciously believed that Voldemort was killed by one-year-old Harry and would never come back, even Lupin and Black thought so.

Charles was one of the few people who had seen Voldemort attached to the back of someone's head, so he was always on guard.

The business of the Centaur Liaison Office is an important part of his economic empire. If Voldemort captures the Ministry of Magic, this business will be gone.

"I see." Eleanor lay down again and rested her head on Charles' legs. "I need to think about how to quietly divest the business."

Charles said: "No rush, I think we have one or two years to prepare."

Eleanor shook her head and said, "It's not that easy to secretly undermine a multinational company. It takes a lot of time."

"Although there are few people in the Ministry of Magic who understand transnational operations, we still cannot let our guard down. If we encounter someone who does, we will be seen through."

Charles didn't really understand any of this, so he could only say, "I'll leave this to you."

"Pay attention to wizards with Death Eater backgrounds. Even if they escape punishment, they will return to You-Know-Who's side."

"I know what to do," said Eleanor.

She had studied Voldemort's policies. If Voldemort returned, the first people he would target would be Muggle-born wizards like her.

At this time, the Ministry of Magic was at peace. The Aurors kept claiming that the escaped Death Eaters would be arrested soon, but Eleanor still chose to believe Charles.

Charles has too much to do now and can't handle it all himself, so the big business of raw material sales is left to Eleanor.

"Let me rest for a while." Eleanor yawned, resting her head on Charles' legs and closing her eyes. "Don't do anything bad while I'm sleeping."

She has been living in fear, and can only completely relax in Charles' mirror space.

It’s just that the relationship between the two of them is a little weird, like hedgehogs huddling together for warmth, huddled together yet keeping a distance from each other.

(End of this chapter)