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Hogsmeade, on the village high street.
The dew-dampened flagstone road hadn't dried yet, and green shoots of moss and wild grass were sprouting from beneath the winter snow accumulation. The two professors Apparated at the village entrance and walked along the flagstone path into the village.
Hogsmeade's reputation was gradually spreading. It wasn't as bustling as Diagon Alley, but it had its own unique charm. During the days when Hogwarts was closed, tourists from other places came in an endless stream. This time of year happened to be the peak season; as winter turned to spring, wizards began purchasing daily necessities for the new year.
A few shops along the street had already put up Easter decorations.
Mist flowed down from the distant mountains. Looking closely at the street, one could see ribbons and flags of various colors tied along the road. Spring flowers were fastened to signboards, and shop windows displayed Easter eggs, bunny dolls, and assorted cookies and cakes.
Honeydukes had just finished boiling a fresh batch of syrup, filling the air with a sweet fragrance.
Melvin walked on the slightly slippery flagstone road, Lupin keeping pace beside him. As they dawdled toward the main post office, they looked left and right, whispering about the shop decorations. Occasionally, they would step into a store to order supplies needed for Easter and settle the accounts from the previous quarter.
Sometimes they would encounter idle but chatty shop owners.
There were already several pilot shops on this street doing business with Muggles. The Ministry of Magic required shopkeepers to keep it secret, and ledgers and invoices were considered confidential for each store. But having been neighbors for decades, everyone knew pretty much everything about each other; nothing could truly be hidden.
They didn't know the exact amounts, but they could guess whether a profit was large or small.
"Professor Levent, Professor Lupin..."
The owner of J. Pippin's Potions saw the Muggle Studies professor passing by and hurriedly pulled him aside, asking in a hushed voice, "Professors, I wanted to ask, how is Muggle sugar boiled? Is it very cheap?"
"Isn't secrecy required? How do you know about it?"
"Is there anyone on this street who doesn't know?"
The potion shop owner immediately opened the floodgates, chattering non-stop:
"Ambrosius Flume started his Easter promotion early. The prices of those candies dropped by more than half. They were already low-profit, high-volume snacks. If the cost were the same as before, selling them like this would cost him his underwear. But the couple is grinning from ear to ear now. Who couldn't guess that the raw materials are cheaper?"
Melvin and Lupin couldn't help but smile.
These merchants watched the business on the same street all day long. Nothing escaped their notice. As the Ministry of Magic and the Muggle government began preliminary cooperation, the first thing affected was food ingredients.
Some wizards also ran farms and ranches, engaging in large-scale planting. They could use magic to remove pests and water, and even make plants take root, sprout, bloom, and bear fruit within a short time...
But a wizard's magical power was no match for the mighty power of nature. Due to the restrictions of Gamp's Law of Elemental Transfiguration, wizards could not create food out of thin air. Using magic and potions to accelerate plant growth still relied on the soil and water at the source.
Water was easy to solve; Aguamenti could condense moisture from the air. A simple point of a wand provided a steady stream of irrigation water.
But the nutrients in the soil were difficult for magic to change. Although alchemy had developed elemental theories very early on, wizards still couldn't correctly understand the nutrients needed by plants. Hogwarts Herbology classes still taught the traditional method of composting dragon dung.
Whether a farm was fertile or barren depended solely on experience passed down by word of mouth.
On the other hand, Muggle chemical fertilizers had developed rapidly in recent decades, and the efficiency of large-scale planting far exceeded that of wizards. Not to mention the agricultural technologies involved, such as photosynthesis, intercropping, and seed selection.
Using gold as currency, for the same price, one could buy several times the amount of crops and their by-products in Muggle society.
Melvin looked at the eager potion shop owner and asked with a smile, "Those businesses used to be controlled by pure-blood families, right? Flume changed his raw material channels—didn't those pure-blood families have any objections? Didn't they raise the rent to make trouble for you?"
"Some pure-blood idiots are protesting, clamoring that Madam Bones violated the Statute of Secrecy regulations and threatening to expose her crimes to the International Confederation of Wizards. But that's just a minority. The truly smart ones have already started asking about the application process for doing business with Muggles..."
The potion shop owner looked around to make sure no one else was eavesdropping, then snickered as he revealed the news he had heard:
"You know Borgin and Burkes in Knockturn Alley? Mr. Borgin is a thorough pure-blood. When he found out he submitted his application late and wasn't on the first list, he was green with regret. He got drunk at the Leaky Cauldron and bought three rounds of mead for the whole house!"
"He must have regretted it even more when he sobered up the next day."
"You can say that again..."
The potion shop owner leaned closer to the young professor. "Professor Levent, I heard that you were deeply involved as a consultant in the formulation of this policy, and Madam Bones often writes to ask for your advice... So, do you have any inside information to reveal to me?"
"You've already found out everything clearly. What inside information do you need?" Melvin was a bit amused. These shop owners knew some details even better than he did.
"It feels more secure coming from your mouth, Professor."
"In business, is anything ever truly secure?" Melvin shook his head.
The potion shop owner scratched his head and walked the two out of the shop, giving them two bottles of near-expiry Invigoration Draught before they left.
Delayed for over ten minutes coming out of J. Pippin's Potions, today's business was mostly done. The two were in no rush to purchase or settle loans anymore. Shaking the Invigoration Draught gifted by the owner and treating it as a beverage, they sipped it casually.
Walking to the end of the street, Melvin looked back and saw the potion shop owner and his neighbor huddled together, also holding near-expiry Invigoration Draughts, standing in front of the window, pointing and discussing as they looked at them.
He couldn't hear the specific content of their conversation, but he could vaguely guess the topic.
Melvin felt delighted, a sense of accomplishment even greater than when he established the Mirror Club.
"From now on, wizards will actively contact Muggles."
Lupin drank the Invigoration Draught, seemingly understanding the function of this trade exchange, and praised with a smile, "Since the implementation of the Statute of Secrecy four hundred years ago, this kind of business has only been small-scale transactions in the black market. Formulating practical policies to help wizards and Muggles do business is a history-making move."
"This is the meaning of Muggle Studies."
"It will take a long time to perfect. It's very troublesome, isn't it?"
"Madam Bones sends two letters every morning and evening now, asking about the details of the bill. Recently, it even involved the concept of tax law—that stuff is even more troublesome..." Melvin sighed.
"When Fudge was Minister, he would write to ask Dumbledore's opinion whenever he encountered something. Wizards outside said Fudge was Dumbledore's yes-man. Madam Bones's way of getting along with you is very similar to that time. I hope what happened with Fudge won't repeat itself."
"Madam Bones was originally from the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. During the Wizarding War, she even dared to stand up and publicly refute Voldemort. No one dares to say she's a yes-man."
Melvin paused for a moment and pushed the topic to Remus. "I heard you plan to resign and go find the werewolves. What's going on?"
Lupin was silent for a while. "Melvin, you can often find out many unknown secrets. It's useless to hide it from you, and I don't want to hide it from you either."
He drank the Invigoration Draught in the bottle in one gulp, thin steam escaping from his nose and ears:
"Umbridge's Anti-Werewolf Legislation caused many werewolves to be ostracized from the wizarding community and forced to join the wandering werewolf packs in the wild. The Ministry of Magic angered Greyback. Now that the legislation has been repealed and archived, they are back, lingering around the wizarding community. I don't know exactly what they want to do, but it certainly isn't anything good..."
The werewolf group led by Greyback was notorious for its ferocity. During the last Wizarding War, they sided with Voldemort and tried to join the Death Eaters, but were ostracized by pure-bloods like Malfoy, who thought branding the Dark Mark on those sub-human creatures was a defilement.
But Greyback was stubbornly loyal to Voldemort. Because of the infectious nature of Lycanthropy, they created even more cruel tragedies and unrest, their harm even exceeding that of the Death Eater gangs.
"Leaving Hogwarts, forging an identity, lurking beside Greyback... What's the plan after that?"
Melvin slowed down and asked, "I haven't heard any encirclement plan. Giving up a stable and happy life to go over at the risk of your life, just to pass intelligence?"
"I plan to win over a group of innocent werewolves, those who were forced to leave because of the Anti-Werewolf Legislation. I want to help them break free from Greyback's control."
"What kind of plan is that? What about the specific scheme?"
Melvin asked faintly, "Do you know which werewolves are kind and innocent, and which are bloodthirsty and cruel? You find them, then stand up and cast Sonorus on yourself, using a speech to persuade them to follow you?"
"Lurking inside, observing for a long time, I can distinguish who is a good person."
"And then infect them with personal charm, making them follow you on an empty stomach?"
Melvin shook his head, shaking the potion bottle. "What kind of plan is this? It's better to lurk and wait for an opportunity to control them with the Imperius Curse."
"This..." Lupin froze on the spot.
Melvin silently tasted the near-expiry Invigoration Draught, casually pointing out the loopholes in his colleague's plan.
During the last Wizarding War, Lupin was just a young wizard who had not graduated long ago. After becoming a member of the Order of the Phoenix, Dumbledore didn't let him perform too many dangerous combat missions. It was almost all gathering intelligence and passing information. Experience in certain areas was severely lacking.
This time the werewolf group reappeared, and Lupin's idea was also to lurk in, gather intelligence, and pass information, as if as long as there was this intelligence, the rest of the things would be solved easily.
But reality wasn't that easy. Melvin easily discovered the omissions in the plan. Pointing it out casually left Lupin stunned. Some things didn't yield results just by self-sacrifice and self-movement; they also required some practical plans.
Lupin stood at the street corner holding the empty bottle, his eyes flickering.
Melvin shook the potion bottle with only a few drops left and gave his suggestion: "Head Healer Herbert Spring of St. Mungo's Hospital has contact with me. The Mirror Club donates a considerable amount of wealth every year. I can persuade Madam Bones to rope in Healer Spring to establish a special department for werewolves, develop improved Wolfsbane Potion, and subsidize the sale of Wolfsbane Potion."
Hearing this plan, Lupin sobered up instantly and tossed the empty bottle away:
"You mean, use Wolfsbane Potion to attract werewolves forced to follow Greyback, letting them break free from control and return to the normal wizarding community?"
Melvin nodded. "Werewolves willing to exchange labor for remuneration, and then use remuneration to exchange for potions, shouldn't be too bad."
Melvin didn't think too long about making this suggestion. According to his envisioned plan, Voldemort's resurrection was imminent, and this group of restless werewolves had to be dealt with as soon as possible.
With Madam Bones replacing Fudge as Minister, the Death Eaters in Azkaban no longer had the chance to break out. The batch of Death Eaters who escaped trial, led by Malfoy and Nott, wouldn't sincerely answer Voldemort's summons either.
The werewolf gang led by Greyback was a group of crazy, violent terrorists. Although they hadn't caused any trouble for the time being, crazy people were crazy people. Who knew if they would suddenly go nuts?
He had promised Dumbledore that the entire resurrection process would be under Hogwarts' control.
Melvin paused briefly and continued, "As for Greyback and his die-hard followers, investigate clearly during your lurking period, find an opportunity to gather them together, and catch them all in one net."
"Greyback is quite... complicated."
Lupin frowned slightly, memories flashing in his mind. "This guy's character is extremely cautious, just like a real wild wolf. Any disturbance will alert him. Mad-Eye from the Ministry organized several encirclements, but none caught him."
He sighed. "After all, he isn't an irrational beast, but a cunning Dark Wizard."
"Don't worry, wild wolves also fall into traps."
Melvin drank the last mouthful of Invigoration Draught and threw the glass bottle into the trash can. The two returned to Hogwarts together.
Lupin walked on the road, full of hesitation, worried about the future of werewolves.
Melvin's steps were brisk, ambitious, determined not to let werewolves disrupt the future he envisioned.
...
Noon, Hog's Head Inn.
Umbridge, draped in a black gauze cloak with her head hidden in the hood, ignored the curse of the tavern owner, ordered a bottle of eggnog, and found a seat at the tavern door.
The Hog's Head must have just opened not long ago. There were few customers, and the tavern owner didn't think about hospitality, cursing very unpleasantly. If it were when she was Senior Undersecretary, she would have found a reason to seal this tavern long ago.
But today, Umbridge didn't say a word. She didn't want to cause trouble or attract anyone's attention.
Today's action was very secretive. No one knew she had come to Hogsmeade.
In the Ministry's files, ordinary employee Umbridge took three days of sick leave. Today was the second day, and at this moment, she was supposed to be lying at home, tortured by flu and high fever until her mind was unclear.
Even the outfit was bought in a Muggle clothing store and treated with Transfiguration.
Umbridge shook her head, suppressing the many thoughts that surfaced in her mind. She took a sip of the awful eggnog, tugged at her hood, and stared straight at the street outside.
This position offered a wide field of vision. Looking out, the street was unobstructed, and passing wizard customers could be seen.
She had found out clearly that Levent was coming to Hogsmeade today to settle payments and purchase goods. On the way back to Hogwarts, he would pass by the Hog's Head.
She would definitely be able to intercept him here!