Chapter 328 Checking out
the location Holidays are undoubtedly a pleasant thing. Even after experiencing so many sad and shocking things, when everyone took their luggage and boarded the Hogwarts Express the next morning, most of them had smiles on their faces. Of course
, there are exceptions.
Harry Potter.
He seemed a little depressed sitting in the carriage, which was not surprising. The series of events that happened some time ago were really a big blow to him.
First, Krum's death, then his good friend Hagrid was seriously injured and almost died, Voldemort who killed his parents was resurrected, and finally a little physical discomfort made him look so depressed now.
Everyone thought so, even his best friends Hermione and Ron were no exception.
But what others didn't know was that the reason why he was frowning today was entirely because he saw a person.
Qiu Zhang.
And the ring Qiu Zhang wore on the ring finger of his right hand.
The ring was very beautiful, with a big diamond inlaid on it, and under the sunlight, it actually reflected a gorgeous rainbow-like brilliance.
Harry had never seen a diamond before, so he didn't know whether the brilliance was the natural color of the diamond or the magic.
But the moment he saw the ring, Mike remembered that Cedric had privately asked Mike to prepare a pair of rings for him, and said that he would use the ring to get engaged to Qiu Zhang.
'Has Cedric succeeded?'
Harry kept asking himself this question in his mind.
Although it was not a good thing to indulge in love at such a critical moment when Voldemort returned, Harry still couldn't control himself from thinking about Qiu Zhang.
This made him very uncomfortable.
He really wanted to find someone to talk to, but this matter was too shameful, so shameful that he didn't dare to talk to Hermione and Ron.
The only person he felt he could talk to was Mike.
Harry felt that after the night of the Triwizard Tournament, the relationship between him and Mike had been sublimated, and he would never forget the joy and gratitude in his heart when Mike stretched out his hand and said he would take him home.
It was a pity that Mike had no intention of helping the little brat solve his emotional problems.
At this moment, he was sitting in a compartment separated from the Freemasons by the members of the Freemasonry, discussing the tasks of each member during the holiday.
The first one was Penelope.
She had officially graduated from Hogwarts, although due to various reasons, she did not get very good results in the final wizard exam.
But none of this mattered, because she was about to join the Los Santos Group and serve as the secretary of the group's boss Mike.
The first task assigned to her by her boss was to issue a bounty for the Slytherin pendant, with a bounty of 1,000 gold galleons for those who provided information and 10,000 gold galleons for those who directly submitted the pendant.
Mike believed that unless the pendant had now fallen into the hands of a pure-blood noble who was not short of money, as long as the owner of the pendant saw the bounty, he would definitely rush to give the pendant to himself.
After all, the money he gave was too much, enough to support a person's expenses for most of his life.
On the other hand, Benjamin, Franklin and others were also assigned a task by Mike, which was to accompany him to Gringotts to check out the location.
Although Gringotts' defense system was not as impeccable as others boasted, Mike, as a professional robber, knew that even a lion would use all its strength to fight a rabbit. They had to do their best in preparation, because the preliminary preparations they made now might save their lives when the action was carried out.
This was warned by an old friend in a wheelchair in his previous life.
That old friend was the think tank of their team, and almost all the actions were planned by him. Therefore, Mike always believed in what he said.
When Mike had arranged all the characters, the train finally arrived at the station.
The people in the carriage left the carriage one after another, deliberately dispersed and mixed in with the crowd getting off the train and walked to the platform.
Around them were densely packed with students who were anxious to go home and parents who came to pick up their children, and the platform was in chaos.
But even in such a chaotic place, the members of the Freemasons seemed to have telepathy with each other and looked at the boy who was slowly walking down the train door.
The blond boy seemed to have noticed their smiles and nodded to them.
The Freemasons also smiled and walked out of the station in all directions along the platform without hesitation.
They all knew that the first major mission since the establishment of the Freemasons had begun!
...
The next day, Mike took Benjamin and Franklin, who had just reunited with their families for one night, to Gringotts.
This time, their mission was to record everything they saw in Gringotts.
Therefore, Franklin and Benjamin both wore a pair of black-framed glasses on their noses. This was Victor's latest research work. Its mirror was engraved with dense ancient magic words, which gave it the ability to record images.
It is said that the reason why Victor studied such a prop was completely influenced by the 007 movie.
Of course, this is all irrelevant.
Mike walked in the front, while Franklin and Benjamin followed Mike half a step behind, and walked into the tall white building in the center of Diagon Alley.
The first thing that caught everyone's eyes was the famous bronze door and the warning words on it to warn those who had a glimpse of Gringotts.
Franklin and Benjamin looked at each other and laughed in unison. The scene in front of them was indeed a bit funny. They came here to prepare for the robbery of Gringotts.
Standing next to the bronze door were two goblin guards wearing scarlet and gold-studded uniforms. They looked at the three people in the group and their eyes lit up.
Today, Mike visited Gringotts as the president of Los Santos Group, so he dressed more formally.
Franklin and Benjamin are now Mike's assistants, so today they are also dressed in suits and look like decent people.
Benjamin even combed his hair back on purpose, which made him look a lot more mature, and he really looked like a social elite.
But Benjamin's hairstyle today made Franklin very unhappy.
He originally wanted to have a nice hairstyle, but unfortunately, Nig's hair quality was really bad, and Franklin was the worst of the worst. He had already become a quasi-bald head at a young age, so he could only shave his head.
Franklin and Benjamin followed Mike on the left and right, which made Mike look like a rich young master with a bodyguard and a butler!
That's right, the two goblin guards mistook Benjamin and Franklin for a butler and a bodyguard.
This really can't be blamed on them. There is no concept of business elites in the wizarding society. The most common ones are families.
So although Benjamin dressed himself up like an elite white-collar worker, in the eyes of the guards, the identity that best matched his temperament at the moment was a butler.
As for Franklin, the tendon meat that made the whole suit bulge out, coupled with the fierce and serious face, it was impossible not to make people mistake him for a gangster or a bodyguard.
"Dear guest! Are you here to do business at Gringotts?"
A goblin guard asked Mike, the leader, with a flattering smile, while the slightly taller guard behind him looked annoyed, as if he was troubled by why his companion got there first.
"I'm here to deposit money."
Mike's expression was serious and his words were concise. His attitude could be said to be quite bad.
However, the goblin guard did not feel uncomfortable at all. On the contrary, the flattery on his face became stronger.
"Please follow me, dear sir!"
After saying that, the goblin guard hurriedly opened the door for Mike and led several people inside.
The scene in the hall of Gringotts did not change much from the last time Mike came. There were many counters densely distributed in the spacious hall, among which there were counters specializing in the identification of gemstones and antiques, as well as counters for pawning or redeeming pawned items. Of course, the counters for depositing and withdrawing gold galleons were the most numerous.
Since Hogwarts had just closed for the holiday, many people came to Gringotts to withdraw money to go to Diagon Alley for consumption. Therefore, Gringotts was bustling with people everywhere, and some counters even had long queues.
However, the people in line were all peasants, so a distinguished guest like Mike naturally didn't have to endure such a long wait.
"Dear guest, may I ask your name?"
"Mike, Mike Townley."
The goblin guard's eyes rolled around for a few times, and finally the colorful pupils shrank suddenly, and he exclaimed:
"Are you Mr. Townley? The boss of Los Santos Group?"
Mike nodded expressionlessly.
Mike was not surprised at all that the goblin knew his name. The Triwizard Tournament brought him great fame, and the Los Santos Group was also expanding at an astonishing rate in the past two years.
If it were a normal person, the reputation of the champion of the Triwizard Tournament might be even louder, but for greedy creatures like goblins, reputation is worthless. They only care about gold galleons.
"Oh! Please forgive me for my poor eyesight and bringing you here, Mr. Townley! Please follow me, this is the VIP counter!"
The goblin hunched over, as if he was kneeling on the ground.
Mike raised his mouth slightly when he heard the words, and a shiny gold galleon shot towards it with a flick of his wrist.
"A reward for you."
The gold coin was thrown a little by Mike, and the goblin saw it and flew over without hesitation and grabbed the gold coin in his hand. Its action was so fast that even Mike was a little stunned.
"Thank you! Generous guest! You are really the kindest person in the world!"
The goblin continued to compliment, as if hoping to get more.
Unfortunately, Mike didn't intend to waste time on it, and waved his hand to let it lead the way.
A trace of disappointment flashed across the goblin's face, but he didn't say anything more. Instead, he took Mike to a huge counter.
The counter was really huge. The high counter was nearly two meters high, which made the goblin teller sitting inside look a little superior.
"Sir, do you need anything?"
An old goblin with gold-rimmed glasses asked with a smile at the counter.
"I'm Mike Townley. I need to go to my vault to deposit some money in person." Mike was still expressionless, pointing to Benjamin and Franklin behind him and said, "These two people are my secretaries. They will come here to deposit and withdraw gold galleons on my behalf for a period of time in the future."
The old goblin squinted his eyes and looked at Benjamin and Franklin, which made Franklin and Benjamin very nervous.
Fortunately, the old goblin's eyes did not stay on the two for too long. After looking at the three of them for a few times, he began to mutter Mike's name while flipping through an incredibly thick account book.
"Aha, I found it. Mr. Townley, the VIP of the second-level vault, right?" The old goblin saw Mike nod, and his mouth opened, revealing his ferocious fangs. "Given your current status and wealth, I strongly recommend that you upgrade your vault to the first level!"
Mike smiled when he heard this.
Gringotts' vaults are divided into four levels, namely, level one to three and public vaults.
Among them, the public vault, as the name suggests, is a vault that provides storage services for ordinary customers, while levels one to three are private vaults with professional security.
The first-level vault not only has a large number of magic restrictions, but also is located close to the fire dragon guards, and the defense strength can be said to be seamless.
The defense strength of the second and third-level vaults is much weaker. For example, the second-level vault that Mike had before, there are actually not too many magic restrictions attached to it, and it is also quite a distance away from the nests guarded by the fire dragon and the Sphinx.
At this time, the old goblin on the opposite side obviously recognized the identity of Mike Loshendu's boss, so he wanted Mike to upgrade the vault.
The purpose of Mike and his companions' visit to Gringotts was to check out the place. They were originally worried about not being able to enter the first-level vault, but unexpectedly, someone brought them a pillow when they fell asleep.
"This is the best. To be honest, I'm a little worried about putting so much money in a mere second-level vault."
After hearing what Mike said, the smile on the face of the old goblin opposite him became even brighter.
He snapped his fingers, and then the tall counter came down.
"Because the authentication system of the first-level vault is more complicated than that of the second-level vault, we need to collect your identity information, wand and token again." The old goblin said, and then cast his eyes on Benjamin and Franklin behind Mike. "And since you said before that you would let your secretary help you to manage your belongings, your two secretaries also need to register their wands and identity information. Only after registration can they enter the vault with your token."
Mike nodded and handed over his wand and token as required by the old goblin. Seeing this, Franklin and Benjamin also handed over their wands like Mike.
After taking the wand, the old goblin changed his previous attitude and became extremely serious.
It was not until the registration was completed and the things were returned to everyone that a smile appeared on its face again.
"Confirmed, Mr. Townley." The old goblin waved his hand and said, "Now, let our staff take you to the vault."
After that, a goblin with a strange appearance came out and bowed deeply to Mike and others.
"Dear guests, please follow me."