Chapter 84: Professor McGonagall's assignment (Edited)

Ron's question was to the point.

Fred opened the letter in the package and, as he glanced at it, a look of delight and surprise came over him, and George beside him leaned over and, reading the letter, showed the same reaction.

"Uh, Mom, actually, well, we really shouldn't buy those Lockhart books anymore." Fred said suddenly.

Mrs. Weasley looked surprised, she found it hard to believe: had a problem just been solved for the whole family? But if we didn't need to buy books, Ginny could buy everything first hand... Mrs. Weasley had a good idea of what it would be like without the burden of textbooks.

She was a little touched.

"Well, there's a ... friend who sent us some sets of Muggle-printed Lockhart books..." George said.

"Printed by Muggles?" Mr. Weasley caught the key word.

Fred looked strange, he glanced quickly at the top book and then said confidently, "Indeed, they are Muggle books, nothing in the pictures moves."

Since the pages were printed by putting them into an opening in the photocopier, Tom wasn't worried about the Muggle employee seeing the moving pages and leaking the secret.

Mr. Weasley was immediately interested, took the book in his son's hands and looked through it carefully.

The paper of the book was a printing paper of Tom's choice, with a slight yellowish tint in the bleaching process, and the texture of pure wood pulp. The Flourish and Blotts Bookstore edition is on imitation parchment paper, which feels slightly better than Tom's paper, but either way, both papers are a much better reading experience than the dreary white printer's paper.

The book cover was made of a strange material, not metal, not leather, which Mr. Weasley knew was a Muggle invention called plastic. The plastic cover bore the title of the book in fancy letters, "Recreation with the banshee."

Mr. Weasley skimmed the pages and saw that the writing style was indeed Lockhart's, and he could be assured of the authenticity of the book's contents. Then he saw an illustration of a small village in a beautiful landscape, which looked like a simple place.

It was a normal picture, but Mr. Weasley was thrilled that all the objects in the picture were still: "It's amazing how Muggles do it, when everything is still in a picture!"

Harry didn't even bother to look sideways: it was ridiculous that the pictures were moving!

Mrs. Weasley also picked up a book and looked at it intently for a while, "Actually, it's Mr. Lockhart's new work, but these pictures are all faintly printed..."

"The fact that you can't see his face seems like a plus to me." Somehow, Fred had little will to live today.

Mrs. Weasley's gaze turned dangerous.

Luckily there was George, who once again stepped in and changed the subject for his brother, "Great! Mom, instead of buying new books, the money saved will get us some new robes." At the same time, she sprang into action, distributing the books she had received.

Percy also looked up, "I want to buy a new quill."

Ginny didn't speak, just looked at her mother.

Harry felt a little embarrassed every time the subject of money came up, he wanted to help the family wholeheartedly, but he was afraid of hurting her feelings by doing something rash. So he concentrated on his cereal.

"This friend is very rich, these books must not be cheap, right?" Ron gently stroked the new book he received, feeling the smell of ink on it, "Harry, Muggles need to make so many books. It must be very difficult."

Harry, who was named, couldn't hide, so he could only explain to the Weasleys how the photocopier worked. Mr. Weasley was dumbfounded and came up with the idea of building a photocopier.

Tom really had no intention of making any money, he was just offering the twenty sets of books in exchange for a set of the Weasleys' gag toys,

To Fred, it was the same as giving them the books.

As the family discussed what to buy in Diagon Alley next week, Fred gave George a wink and the two left the dining room in silence. Fred had to go pack up the prank toys he had made up, so he needed to avoid his mother; otherwise, he was in for a surprise.

As Fred and George cheerfully went back upstairs to collect their prank products, Professor McGonagall, the Deputy Headmistress of Hogwarts, was frowning in distress: she had a bit of a problem on her side.

She frowned at a new letter from an owl, and had a hunch that someone at Hogwarts would also need to communicate with this family. But she was too busy to do it herself: Professor McGonagall was very busy, she had acceptance letters to write, all sorts of tedious preparations for the start of the school year, and as a Transfiguration teacher she had a lot of meetings and letters to ask her personal advice...

Much of this work, in fact, should have been done by Dumbledore, but the man had a tendency to feel his way around and put all the work on Professor McGonagall's shoulders, which took up all of Professor McGonagall's time.

But you can't blame Dumbledore, his goal was to train and prepare his successor, an old man over 100 years old, it was time to train his successor.

But it is true that Professor McGonagall has a lot to do.

It was part of Professor McGonagall's job to guide young wizards from Muggle families. In theory, Professor McGonagall could have asked other teachers for help, but the problem is that all teachers take the summer off, and not all of them agree to do overtime like Professor McGonagall: behind every head is a secretary/assistant/subordinate who works overtime until she pukes.

Originally, there was another option: Hagrid, although his size is a bit scary, can be considered experienced in handling Muggle families.

But Hagrid had more important things to do this summer, and Professor Dumbledore had arranged for him to take care of the animals for Professor Silvanus Kettleburn in the Care of Magical Creatures class during this time.

So Professor McGonagall was in a quandary: she needed someone who was capable of doing recruitment work, who knew the Muggle world, and who would agree to work overtime during the vacations ... ah no, who would contribute to the school during the vacations ...

"Who fits those criteria?" Professor McGonagall frowned for a while, and then someone came to mind.

She smiled and started looking up his lesson plans and notes.

So Tom received a package after the one he had sent.

He opened it and saw two letters, a bag of money, and two notebooks. One of the letters looked familiar, as it was an acceptance letter from Hogwarts.

Why on the cover was written in bright green ink the following:

Second Floor, 17 Burlington Place, Eastbourne, East Sussex.

To Miss Peggy Grossman.

The envelope also contained the Hogwarts crest.