Hogwarts: Bourne Returns from Warhammer

In the south of England, no coastal town is as attractive as Saint-Loup. No wonder it has the reputation of "Queen of Water Towns".

This place, the Cornwall coast, is considered by many French people to be the only British health resort with scenery comparable to that of the southern French seaside.

The Zabini family lived here.

After returning home from the dilapidated castle that felt cold and damp, Blaise Zabini naturally walked into his garden, wanting to get rid of the moisture in his body by basking in the sun.

A wasp flew past his face. The beautiful boy with brown skin tilted his head sharply and checked his tie.

"It's a good thing I don't have to check my hat because I don't need to wear one at my age."

Thinking of the common bald hair style of British men, Blaise Zabini couldn't help but chuckle and whispered a wisecrack.

(The wasp in the hat: a British proverb that refers to the whimsical thoughts in the head.)

However, his good mood did not last long because he thought of other things.

There were wasps in the garden, which meant that there was probably a hive nearby, but his servants failed to find and clean the hive.

From this point of view, the servants of his family are not as good as the house elves of the Malfoy family.

The key point is that Malfoy's family has house elf services, but his family does not - everyone has me and I don't - this feeling makes Blaise feel uncomfortable.

"One day..."

Blaise thought darkly.

He lost the desire to continue wandering in the garden and turned towards his big house.

Because her mother was holding a salon at home today, many people came to visit the Zabini family mansion. However, those people had already entered the house, and now Blaise was the only one in the front room. He straightened his tie in front of the large mirror on the wall and walked straight to the door leading to the living room directly opposite.

"I'm afraid I'm a little early."

"Oh, no, how is it possible? Madam Zabini's salon is held much earlier than the official time on the invitation, and it will end much later."

"Is your knee feeling better?"

"Much better, thank you. Last time Appleby Arrows and Balicas Bats played, Arrows' Seeker caught the Golden Snitch, and the fans ignored the ban and celebrated with the old tradition, which made me kneel I was hit by an arrow for no apparent reason, I’m really impressed!”

"Then you will drink more Bat-brand butterbeer from now on. It will be equivalent to supporting the Balicas Bats. Rounding it off, you will be avenging yourself."

"Ha ha ha ha."

The guests in the living room, who were familiar with each other, gathered in groups and chatted with each other.

These people come from all over the UK, and they are all wizards who have been invested by Mrs. Zabini.

Most of them are businessmen, and some have decent jobs in Muggle society.

However, none of them is a member of the Holy Twenty-Eight pure-blood families. Most of them are mixed-blood wizards. Even if they are pure-blooded, there will still be some mixed-blood wizards after one or two generations.

But it is precisely because of this that Mrs. Zabini and the Dominatrix Reform Committee behind her chose to invest in them and give them "success" in their careers. In return, they must also give some benefits to the committee as shareholders, and like Mr. Zabini who died not long ago, they must become candidates for some high-level [husband] roles on the committee.

Most of these people were very happy to be invited to this salon party today, because they already knew the news of Mr. Zabini's death.

In other words, they also have the opportunity to marry that beautiful and expensive lady.

Of course, if they want to get this huge pie, they also need to make some sacrifices.

There were no tables, chairs or benches in the living room. Everyone was standing on the gray-green and white mosaic floor tiles. While they were chatting, they all subconsciously avoided looking at a piece of furniture in the middle of the living room.

They call this thing the silver table.

The lid of the table top can be opened upward, and the items stored inside can be seen through the glass.

This silver table contains several pieces of old silverware, a baby shoe worn by the Duke of Wellington, several jade statues from China, and many antiques from Africa...

A graceful maid shuttled among the guests, serving them drinks and some snacks.

If in normal times, these guests—mostly young wizards—encounter these beautiful women (even one of them), they would probably find a way to strike up a conversation or two, and it would be a good idea to leave their contact information.

However, at Mrs. Zabini's salon party, they all behaved like the most fundamentalist Puritans.

The beautiful scenery in front of them seems to be dispensable to them.

"That's really mean."

Looking at the behavior of these people with cold eyes, Blaise Zabini couldn't help but let out a disdainful snort. He didn't plan to stay in the living room for a long time, but planned to go upstairs to his room for a while.

"Don't run around."

A cold scolding made Brace stop. Her mother appeared at the stairs on the second floor, and several old witches wearing veils followed Mrs. Zabini.

They used their wands to jointly maintain a levitating spell, and a huge magical painting covered with a curtain floated in the air.

Mrs. Zabini said to Brace: "Go back to your room in a while and close the door. Food and drinks will be sent to you by a servant."

After saying that, she walked past her son without looking away, gently stroking the handrail of the stairs and walked down the stairs.

People who had been waiting in the living room downstairs for a long time burst into a burst of joyful applause when they saw the "rightful owner" appear.

"Everyone."

Mrs. Zabini stretched out her hand and clapped twice to signal everyone to stop applauding, and then continued to speak.

“First of all, I would like to thank everyone for coming and attending my salon party.

You must already know the purpose of my hosting this salon.

The silver table has not been opened for a long time.

Those uniquely valuable ancient objects have not been appreciated by knowledgeable people for a long time and have not had the opportunity to touch..."

In just two or three sentences, Mrs. Zabini finished her opening remarks, and then the salon party immediately got down to business.

The wizards who wanted to become the next husband of this beautiful lady began to openly shout out the prices they recognized for the pile of "uniquely valuable" antiques stored in the silver table.

As magical contracts stamped with Gringotts' special seal were signed, the silverware with no discernible style, the shoes worn by the Duke of Wellington, and the old pocket watch from the Victorian era - in short, there were all kinds of things that didn't exist. The things - all were sold one by one to those visitors who were destined to them.

However, until Mrs. Zabini received a stack of magic contracts with a total value of approximately one hundred thousand gold galleons, and only a tattered tablecloth was left in the silver table, Mrs. Zabini still did not stop.

This is because the Dominatrix Reform Committee’s recent deficit has been quite large.

They can neither reduce their "contribution" to the British Ministry of Magic. Otherwise, the official voice that the organization has spent generations building with great difficulty will be weakened. And those people in the Ministry of Magic who were originally willing to speak out for them might suddenly feel a "sore throat" at some point.

At the same time, due to Mr. Zabini's death, a large amount of the committee's investment was completely wiped out, so they are now extremely short of cash.

Even though Mrs. Zabini has a secret vault in the Gringotts vault that only she knows about, it is all her personal property. How can it be used to subsidize the entire Dominatrix clan?

So I can only lick the dog hard.

"...I recently found a very rare magical portrait.

You all must have heard that there were wizards in France who researched Napoleon, the famous emperor in Muggle history, and thought that he was probably a wizard.

However, this statement has always existed in the form of rumors, and even the French Ministry of Magic has not publicly clarified this matter.

However, I have found important evidence that proves the truth of this rumor. I have a magical portrait of the French Emperor.

If you are interested, you can take it back to your home and seek the answer to this question personally from the characters in the portrait..."

Mrs. Zabini was so desperate that she finally used her killer weapon.

And when she finished saying this, the witches following her lifted up the hanging portrait that had been held up by the levitating spell, revealing the "Italian-speaking Frenchman" inside. ".

how to say?

Art does require some taste.

But none of these men with ulterior motives present have this ability at all.

No matter who you are, you can't tell who the artist is from the portrait that looks like a figure that is either Fauvist or Impressionist.

Brown, red, blue and white... various paints are mixed together, and the coating looks very thick, but it is difficult to recognize the appearance of the characters.

But there were still people present who were willing to be cut with leeks - I don't know whether it was because they were greedy for Mrs. Zabini's beauty, or because they were thinking about the relationship between the dominatrix reform committee and the dominatrix behind this widow.

Soon, the group started bidding again.

It wasn't until someone expressed their willingness to give away a few alchemy props whose prices were yet to be determined, and got such a "fair price" that Mrs. Zabini felt "heartache" and prepared to part with her.

However, before she and the bidder could announce the establishment of the magic contract, the character in the magic portrait suddenly snorted coldly.

"This is truly a magical portrait."

"Good guy, at first I thought this was a fake bought from Muggles!"

What is even more unexpected to everyone present is that the characters in this magical portrait can not only move and make sounds, but "it" can even walk out of the painting.

Just like something dug out of the rock, it was thick and coated with countless layers of magic paint. Suddenly it became a "human-shaped" hollow, and a man with colorful bodies appeared all of a sudden. Arriving in front of those "licking dogs".