great-warnovel Chapter 201 Board of Directors Meeting
Chapter 201 Board of Directors Meeting
Chapter 201 Board of Directors Meeting
The Hogwarts Board of Governors' annual meeting is where the various board members sit around a table to listen to Professor McGonagall read out the previous year's aid usage, review the budget for the next year, and make suggestions for future development, etc.
However, it was basically just a formality; the outside world's ability to interfere with Hogwarts had vanished with Lucius's imprisonment.
In the past, the annual meeting of the Board of Governors was basically a one-man show by Malfoyburg. As the largest donor, Lucius did have a huge influence back then. Even though Professor McGonagall disliked him, she had to grit her teeth and adopt many of his opinions.
Apart from Malfoy Castle, other smaller factions generally don't criticize Hogwarts, but they are sometimes forced to join forces with the massive Malfoy Castle to put pressure on Hogwarts.
It is foreseeable that at this year's annual meeting, even without the Speaker, Malfoyburg will still try every means to unite all the other board members (except Hermione) to annoy Dumbledore and prevent Hogwarts from heading north.
Especially before the annual meeting, the nobles staged a farce involving a prophetic prediction, clearly trying to hinder Hogwarts in addition to their political struggles.
Hermione passed through the fireplace again and returned to the school. The campus was quite quiet this time. She stood in Professor McGonagall's office and could see Queen Elizabeth's London from the window. However, after only a month, its colors had faded considerably, and its repulsive power towards wizards had weakened. Many wizards were now flying up on broomsticks to take pictures.
Professor McGonagall, wearing glasses, was checking the various documents she would need later at her desk. In preparation for the return of students next academic year, she had assigned the younger students to other professors this summer, while she took some of the more outstanding older students to the Scottish Highlands to scout out the situation.
"The meeting is still a while away, and those nobles always like to show off their status by arriving late," she said, her head bowed.
"You can go check out the perfumery first. No one's been keeping an eye on them lately, so don't let them cause too much trouble."
Hermione owns the perfumery. Although it collaborates with Hogwarts, the professors theoretically have no authority over it. These newly graduated students suddenly enjoy unprecedented freedom and often run out through the fireplace in the middle of the night to throw things around, which makes Professor McGonagall want to say something but can't.
Hermione's visit as the boss did indeed make the upperclassmen behave much more restrained.
However, they weren't just playing around. The workshop's production was running smoothly, and they even brought out their own blended sparkling incense for Hermione to test. Unfortunately, the yield of white phosphorus flowers was too low. Hermione had planted all the seeds that Sprout had given her in her first year, but it still wasn't enough for so many people to consume.
The school greenhouse must prioritize supplying the production capacity for inducing sprays, so they can only wait for them to harvest the white phosphorus flower seeds before planting the next round themselves, just as every perfumer in the border region should have their own garden.
Hermione also used the perfumery skills she gained from the Shadowlands, namely "Four-Sided Spark" and "Chain Spark,"
They were given instructions on how to use this fragrant medicine.
Simply scattering it out is just a sticky gunpowder, but if used with perfumery techniques, it can unleash the power of multiple, even dozens of, doses of perfume. This can be seen as her adding a bit of self-defense capability to her perfumer subordinates.
As Beauxbatons' liaison, Furong couldn't go back to see her grandmother during the summer holidays; she could only go back once a year for Christmas.
The senior students weren't good at the details of the perfumery's accounts and revenue, but Fleur, who had previously worked in the sales department, was very familiar with it. Although she was from Beauxbatons, she was more inclined to help Hermione with the accounts for the past few months, so she took the initiative to help her with the accounts.
Theoretically, these secrets shouldn't be known to the people of Beauxbatons, but Hermione didn't care, and Fleur wasn't the kind of person who would betray them. The past few months of studying at Hogwarts had made her feel a strong sense of belonging to the school. If her grandmother and sister hadn't been left in the Beauxbatons carriage, she would have betrayed them without any qualms.
She certainly didn't disappoint Hermione's kindness. After regaining the opportunity to further her magical studies, she absorbed knowledge with great eagerness. Even on summer days when there were no classes, she would spend all her time in the library. Now she has already studied to the level of a fourth-year student, and her performance in all aspects is quite excellent. It may not be long before she surpasses the level of her Hogwarts peers.
After circling around, Hermione headed back towards the 8th floor. The annual meeting would be held in the principal's office, and she just hoped there would be fewer people she disliked.
But this hope was shattered on the way upstairs.
Just as Professor McGonagall had predicted, no winner was chosen to be the speaker in Malfoyburg. Instead, three groups of people, each representing a different faction, arrived.
Led by the Nott family, they controlled the media, including the Daily News, the government offices, and the International Exchange and Cooperation Department. Old Nott was a frail old man, and his youngest son, Theodore Nott, did not attend Hogwarts but was homeschooled. That fat pig Parkinson followed his example and did not send his daughter to school.
The other faction, led by the Burke family, controls arms, wizarding forces, and the gray market. They are the strongest on paper, and they are always involved in the recent frequent clashes.
Its leader was Karaktarch Burke, the gloomy middle-aged man who had reprimanded Barty the Younger at Hogwarts, and who always looked down at people with his eyes slanted.
The last force is led by the Selwyn family, who control the ecological dome of Malfoy Castle.
With a large number of shops and Gringotts' cash flow, they were also the largest group to come this time. Selwyn, who was in charge, was not very able to suppress the others. People from families such as Avery and Flint followed behind.
These people were chattering incessantly, blocking the stairwell and making sarcastic remarks to each other. Even after they got to the school,
The smell of gunpowder remained undiminished.
Hermione came up from downstairs and was noticed by them.
"Why are there still students in the school at this time?" asked one of the accompanying wizards.
Hermione always wore the standard Hogwarts robes; she had no concept of everyday clothes.
"You wouldn't happen to be Hermione Granger, would you? The youngest school board member that McGonagall forced in?" Old Selwyn asked, sizing up the witch.
"Oh, is that the student who squeezed into the board of trustees by using some dubious perfumery? When the secretary told me, I thought it was a joke," Flint said in a strange, exaggerated tone behind him.
Immediately afterwards, the people around started laughing.