No one can disturb my retirement life in the Red Mansion

Chapter 864: The original plot that cannot be shaken off
"Are you going to London for the holidays?" Fei threw Ou Mengmeng's box to the little elf, and he walked slowly while pulling Ou Mengmeng.

"I should do my homework at home in the first half and study with grandpa. I now feel that my natal magic wand is useful, especially when carving magic patterns, the magic output is very stable. Studying here will prevent the Ministry of Magic from accusing us of using magic indiscriminately outside of school." Ou Mengmeng said hurriedly.

"Baby, you should have fun during the holidays. I've been thinking about taking a vacation and taking you to Egypt." Old Fay said softly. He still wanted his old friend to see his daughter. They couldn't just avoid each other like this.

"You're welcome!" Ou Mengmeng refused immediately and firmly.

When they received the list of books just before the start of school, Ou Mengmeng threw it down, and her good mood during the holiday was completely destroyed. She was furious just by looking at the name of the book list.

Harry and Hermione were with her now, and just as they had arranged during the holidays, they chose a weekend to invite each family to dinner together to show their attitude that the four of them were good friends, so the parents could also get to know each other.

Hermione's family is a pure Muggle family. Although the Fosters and Drakes are wizarding families, their houses are Muggle ones. Moreover, each of them owns multiple companies, although they have nothing to do with Uncle Vernon's company. The Malfoys are a famous aristocratic family and they live in a palace not far from Hyde Park.

Draco held a Slytherin House ball and invited Neville, Owen, Hermione and their families. Everyone knows that Owen has a very good relationship with Draco. Slytherin is originally profit-oriented, and with the family pedigree of the Devonte family, Owen did not face as much hostility there as in Gryffindor.

Because of the three families' invitations, Vernon and Petunia were somewhat respectful and intimidated by Harry's friends, so they had to stay at the Dursleys' house for a very polite month. Then Ou Mengmeng invited Harry to her home as a guest, and waited for school to start. This relieved both parties. However, Ou Mengmeng and Harry were both satisfied with this.

After Hermione took the train back to London, she was determined to go back to Hogsmeade with them. She couldn't imagine taking a ten-hour train, changing clothes on the train, and looking for a compartment. It was scary to think about it. So, they received the book list together at Foster's house in London.

"What's going on?" Hermione was confused when she saw the list of books. "Do we have to go to Diagon Alley? Flourish and Blotts also has a store in Hogsmeade. There's no need for us to go to that."

"The key is the books!" Ou Mengmeng looked at the list of books, picked up a pen and wrote a letter to Professor McGonagall, firmly opposing the purchase of a set of novels by a narcissistic character. Besides, haven't we already found a solution for the Defense Against the Dark Arts course? You are looking for trouble and abusing the board's funds by inviting such a show-off to come here?

Yes, old Foster persuaded a certain old man to buy a seat on the Hogwarts board of directors. Now, Lucius is the chairman of the board, and old Foster also has a seat. The other directors have never been very involved, and they just take the money according to the rules every year. Lucius doesn't have that much time, so he learned from the boards of European noble schools and got a financial officer. It's not that you can get the money you want. Everything needs to be reviewed and managed.

McGonagall was actually very angry, because the reading list was decided by the teachers themselves. For example, for Defense Against the Dark Arts, she originally wanted to let Professor Binns read to them and answer questions, just like last year. But she didn't know what Dumbledore was thinking, and he had to find such a person. However, he was the headmaster and he had the authority, so it was difficult for everyone to object. But this person asked all students to buy his books, which made people very disgusted. After all, books in the wizarding world are not cheap. Especially this person's books are ridiculously expensive. But because teachers have this right, she can only follow the rules and send a notice. Now she has received a letter from "Little Petunia", which also stated that she will formally let the board of directors intervene. You can hire teachers, but don't add burden to students. These books must not be included in the required textbooks.

Professor McGonagall, without going through Dumbledore, quickly issued a supplementary explanation to make her position clear to all students and parents that the set of books was the private work of the new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher and was not a textbook but a required subject.

Ou Mengmeng was relieved when she received the letter. She wrote to the Weasleys, saying that her first-year textbooks could be given to Ginny, and there were many useful notes in them, which she hoped would be useful to her. In addition, there was no need to buy the Defense Against the Dark Arts novel, and she sent Professor McGonagall's supplementary notes, although she knew that the Weasleys must have received it. But she had to make her position clear that neither she nor the three little ones would buy it.

She remembered that Molly was a loyal fan, and her family had five children in Hogwarts, which made her feel upset. If they followed the school's requirements, they would have to buy five sets of books, which was not so harmful. In the book, Molly bought this person's book and made little Ginny use second-hand items for school.

"Is there something wrong with this person?" Hermione asked again.

"Look at those crappy book titles!" Harry felt that he had been through a lot. He looked at the crappy titles on the list, "Breaking with a Female Ghost", "Traveling with Ghouls", "Holiday with Hags", "Traveling with Trolls", "Traveling on a Ship with Vampires", "Wandering with Werewolves", "A Year with the Tibetan Yeti", and looked up at Ou Mengmeng who was still writing a letter. "Don't tell me they invited a novelist to be a teacher this year?"

"Just treat it as a social practice class. The real learning happens outside of class anyway. All six teachers' classes are still on this year's schedule." Ou Mengmeng was writing a letter to Lucius. At the end, she asked her dear grandfather to sign it with his wand to indicate that this was an official document.

Lucius didn't have the time, he also handed these matters over to Draco. After receiving Ou Mengmeng's letter, Draco immediately asked the financial officer to send a formal document to the school, stating the attitude that such books must not be included in the textbooks. The board of directors would never allow such books that insulted Hogwarts to enter the school's official document system. The meaning is very clear, you are not afraid of embarrassment, but we are.

Dumbledore still didn't care, because the board was targeting the textbooks, not the teachers themselves, so knowing that Professor McGonagall had already issued a supplementary explanation, he only wrote a mild letter to Gilderoy Lockhart, stating that the school could not help him sell books. However, as a best-selling author, he probably wouldn't care too much about this small sales volume.

As for what Gilderoy thought, Dumbledore didn't really care. He asked someone to be the professor for the purpose of experiment. If he was still unlucky, it meant that the mysterious man was still alive. As long as he was alive, the spell would not disappear. This was also the reason why he had firmly believed that the mysterious man was not dead for so many years.

I wrote very smoothly yesterday and wrote three chapters in one go. Finally, I have some drafts saved.