Chapter 449 Professor's Invitation

After finishing the negotiation with the Muggle Prime Minister, Mike welcomed the opening of the school year at Hogwarts.

When he and Franklin stood at the crowded 9 3/4 station again with his luggage, he felt as if he was in another world.

He had done too many things this summer, especially the contract he signed with the Muggle Prime Minister, which caused a stir within the Freemasons.

Most of the people, led by Franklin, were extremely happy.

After all, Mike had won them an exaggerated privilege, which meant that no matter what their family background was before, their families would have a good life from now on.

But a few people still expressed their concerns about this matter.

Because this was simply ignoring the International Statute of Wizarding Secrecy, and this organization would definitely come to the door afterwards.

Mike completely sneered at this. At this stage, all wizards were afraid of the country where Voldemort was rampant, and even if the International Confederation of Wizards had ten times the courage, the other party would not dare to step into this place again.

Thinking of this, a trace of sarcasm appeared on Mike's face.

Franklin on the side said in a strange way:

"Mike, are you okay? The train is about to leave, let's get on."

Hearing this, Mike immediately restrained his expression, nodded, and took the lead to pass the Hogwarts Express.

There were a lot of people on the platform. Everyone was trying hard to squeeze to the entrance of the train, fearing that they would miss the train departure, and they didn't know what they were doing earlier.

But when Mike appeared in front of them, they all made way without any prior agreement, respectfully sent Mike into the carriage, and then continued the previous crowd.

This scene made many freshmen look surprised. They couldn't imagine that those ferocious seniors would treat a person so respectfully.

"Mike, everyone respects you."

Franklin said with a smile, but Mike smiled and shook his head.

Due to age issues, many senior members of the Freemasons and even the Mutual Aid Society, including Benjamin, have already graduated. Before coming here, Franklin had been worried about whether their influence in Hogwarts would be affected. But now it seems that Mike's reputation has not only not been affected, but has even become wider.

Because Mike, as a prefect, had to enter the prefect's carriage, Mike and Franklin separated and walked to the prefect's carriage alone.

Everyone on the road was respectfully saluting him, and many bold ones would come up directly for daily greetings.

Mike was a little annoyed by this, and couldn't help but speed up his pace, wanting to enter the prefect's office to get rid of these annoying flies.

But things obviously wouldn't go so smoothly. When he stepped into the prefect's carriage, everyone in the carriage except Slytherin College stood up and looked at Mike with excitement.

"Mike, you're here!"

"You're finally here!"

"Senior Townley!"

...

A dense voice of greetings instantly surrounded Mike, and Mike had to squeeze out a smile and respond to everyone over and over again.

Fortunately, the prefects of the three major colleges were not fools with single-digit emotional intelligence. They did not pester Mike and quickly returned to their seats.

However, their eyes looking at Mike were still hot.

Of course, not everyone likes Mike.

After sitting down, Mike cast his eyes to Slytherin, where Draco, who replaced Chris as prefect, was sitting side by side with Pansy, looking at Mike indignantly.

Perhaps they noticed Mike's gaze, and they quickly turned their eyes to the side.

This behavior made Mike want to laugh. Compared with Chris, Draco was really far behind.

"Mike, have you read the report called "The Savior Star" in the Daily Prophet?"

A somewhat unfamiliar voice came over. Mike turned his head and saw a blonde girl who looked familiar, wearing a Ravenclaw school robe, who should be the new prefect of Ravenclaw, looking at him with a blushing face.

"Of course, I read every issue of the Daily Prophet."

Mike said with a smile.

He knew very well what the girl was going to say.

The cause of the incident was a report in the Daily Prophet in August, which made some speculations about the prophecy between Harry Potter and Voldemort, and proposed that since Harry Potter was able to defeat Voldemort when he was a baby, he can still save the magic world of the United States again.

If it was just like this, it would be fine. After all, people who understand things know that the people in the Daily Prophet have always been just talking nonsense, and everyone just laughed it off.

But the problem is that in order to prove that their point of view is correct, the Daily Prophet also broke an explosive news.

That is the battle that took place in the Ministry of Magic at the end of June, in which it was Harry Potter who defeated the Death Eaters and Voldemort.

The people were originally skeptical about this matter. After all, the troops of the Ministry of Magic are not vegetarians. Compared with a little wizard who has not yet reached adulthood, they are more willing to believe that it was those powerful Aurors who defeated Voldemort.

Everyone is waiting for the Ministry of Magic to publicly refute the rumor, but surprisingly, in the face of such a situation, the Ministry of Magic did not even fart!

This incident gave the public great confidence. Everyone gave Harry Potter hope of defeating Voldemort and gave him the title of "Star of Hope".

It stands to reason that Harry Potter should be treated like a hero wherever he goes, and in fact, this is the case, but it is different in Hogwarts.

As a person who personally experienced the night raid on the Ministry of Magic, many people have a deep understanding of this incident, and they are also very clear that the biggest contributor to that action should be Mike and all of them.

Harry Potter now takes all the credit on himself, which is undoubtedly a thief's behavior in everyone's eyes!

So, a boycott campaign against Harry Potter began. Mike could almost imagine it. Except for a few close friends like Ron and Hermione, the rest of the people, no matter how good their relationship with Harry was before, would probably not give Harry a good face now, not to mention the others.

Mike's expectation was not wrong at all. When Mike said that he had read the report, the little face of the Ravenclaw female head turned red, and she said angrily:

"Harry Potter is a thief. He stole your honor!"

The girl was very excited, but Mike just smiled.

He didn't take it seriously. After all, he already had enough honor. Besides, this honor had no effect on him except to attract the attention of the Death Eaters and Voldemort. He gave it to Harry, and he could help him attract attention.

On the contrary, he looked down on the Daily Prophet, the Ministry of Magic, and even those who pushed Harry to the position of "Star of Hope".

Facing a strong enemy, they not only tried their best to defend their homeland, but also expected an underage child to defeat the strong enemy!

This behavior made Mike feel sick!

But Mike didn't care, but it didn't mean that others didn't care.

As soon as the girl said this, everyone in the carriage was angry. Everyone, even several senior prefects in Gryffindor, were madly scolding Harry Potter for stealing their honor.

On the contrary, the Slytherins did not participate in this criticism. They just sneered at everyone, with a feeling of watching a dog bite a dog.

Ron and Hermione in the crowd blushed and trembled with anger. They finally joined the verbal battle and spoke for Harry.

However, their strength was too weak. Facing the attack of so many people, their voices were easily drowned out.

Hermione was so anxious that tears were about to fall down. Seeing this, Pansy and Draco from Slytherin laughed even louder.

Mike just watched coldly. His previous conversation with the Muggle Prime Minister made him understand one thing: the masses have always been forgetful. If you want to erase something, the best way to deal with it is to deal with it coldly. If he rashly got involved now, maybe the matter would become even bigger and stay in people's minds longer.

However, at this moment, a snow-white envelope came in from the door of the prefect's carriage, which was not a secret room, and floated into Mike's hand.

The other people in the carriage also saw this scene. They stopped arguing at the same time and stared at Mike intently.

Under the watchful eyes of the crowd, Mike opened the envelope and saw clearly written on it.

Mr. Mike Townley:

I would be very happy if you could have lunch with me in Box C.

Yours faithfully,

Professor Sgraughorn.

Mike's eyebrows twitched. It seemed that Professor Sgraughorn was very confident that he must know his identity, so he did not mark his identity as the new professor of Potions on the letter.

Looking at Mike's expression, everyone's curiosity was aroused.

Especially the Ravenclaw prefects sitting next to Mike. Out of politeness, they have been restraining themselves from peeking at the contents of Mike's letter. This feeling is not pleasant.

The Ravenclaw girl who had talked to Mike before might have felt that she had won Mike's favor with her previous behavior, so she boldly asked:

"Senior Townley, what's written on it?"

"Nothing." Mike generously handed the envelope to everyone and let them take turns to read it. "It's just an invitation, sent by the new Potions Professor." Everyone passed

the invitation around, and after seeing Professor Slughorn's autograph on it, their admiration for Mike deepened a little.

Most of the seniors present came from families with some power, and most of them had heard from their parents and elders that this famous potion master liked to curry favor with powerful and famous people. And now the other party sent an invitation to Mike before he even arrived at Hogwarts. This impatient behavior just showed that Mike was extraordinary.

At this time, several more letters came in, and fell into the hands of the girl sitting next to Mike and a Slytherin boy.

However, Draco and Pansy were not among them.

This made the two of them look unhappy. While mumbling something that Mike couldn't hear, they secretly paid attention to the door of the carriage with their peripheral vision.

Unfortunately, the mail in this carriage seemed to have been delivered. After waiting for more than ten minutes, no other mail flew in.

Seeing this, Draco's face became even darker.

The girl next to Mike was extremely happy. She jumped up, took Mike's hand and said excitedly:

"It's getting late, let's go, Senior Townley!"

"Okay, no problem."

Mike readily agreed and walked out of the carriage first, but he shook off the girl's hand calmly.

The girl looked a little disappointed, but she quickly adjusted her mood and continued to follow Mike's footsteps.

After Mike and the girl left, the whole carriage became silent. The Slytherin boy who received the invitation looked at the time and said righteously:

"Draco, don't worry, there must be something wrong with your invitation. I will go and ask Professor Slughorn for you now."

Hearing this, Draco's face was dark and he said angrily:

"Go, go! It's just an invitation from an old man. I don't want to go yet!"

However, the Slytherin boy didn't listen to Draco's words at all and left the carriage without looking back.

Seeing this, everyone in the carriage laughed, and Draco's face turned red.

Mike knew nothing about the farce in the carriage. At this moment, he was walking on the way to box C with the Ravenclaw girl.

The girl was a very talkative person and obviously had a good impression of Mike.

So, Mike learned a lot of information about her from her.

For example, her name was Emma Walker, the only daughter of the Walker family.

For example, her family is engaged in beauty and hairdressing products, focusing on the mid-to-low-end market. Many well-known mid-to-low-end magic cosmetics on the market come from her family.

Since then, Mike has roughly understood why she is so hostile to Harry.

The fact that Harry stole everyone's honor is probably just an excuse. The main reason is probably because Harry's grandfather invented the hairdressing spirit.

This cheap and easy-to-use hairdressing product has dealt a heavy blow to the Walker family's business.

They are a feud!

Mike and Emma walked into the C carriage, talking and laughing. At this moment, there was only a fat old man sitting in this huge carriage.

He had a shining bald head, two walrus-like beards and a huge belly, looking quite festive.

"Good afternoon, Professor Slughorn."

Mike and Emma greeted him with a smile.

The latter just noticed the two of them, and quickly stood up with a smile, greeting them warmly:

"Oh! It's Mike and Emma! You are the first, come and sit down."

Mike's mouth curled up a smile, and he sat down opposite Slughorn leisurely.

He wanted to see what kind of medicine this old man was selling today.