Chapter 847 The shadow behind the scenes
"I'm sorry Bagman, but I really have something to leave today." Sirius pretended to be helpless, "You can help me settle the remaining galleons first."
"Are you really not going to stay to watch the Quidditch World Cup final?" Bagman seemed to have heard some unbelievable news, and said with an exaggerated expression, "This is the World Cup final, and you just left like this? Harry didn't know there would be What a disappointment, England have been without a trophy for 30 years and this is a rare opportunity."
"No, I have to go." Sirius glanced at Lupine who was packing his things, shook his head and said: "However, Harry will stay and continue to watch the final, and the Weasley family will come over to watch the Quidditch World Cup final today. I've asked Arthur to help take care of those children."
Bagman was still a little unwilling to let Sirius leave like this. The guy in front of him had won a lot of Galleons, and he had never lost once.
Damn it!
"Look, Arthur is here." Sirius said, pointing to something.
Bagman looked in the direction of Sirius's finger and saw red hair that was very Weasley's signature.
"Okay, then why don't you continue to bet? The probability of Ireland winning this year is very high." Seeing that the method of changing the subject was useless, Bagman changed a method: "Little Agatha Timms thinks that the final It goes on for a week, and she puts up half the stock in Eel Farm."
"I agree with you and believe Ireland will win, but I don't think the game will last that long. Krum of Bulgaria is a great seeker. It's hard to imagine that he can't catch the Golden Snitch in a week." Sirius chatted with Bagman, and those who didn't know thought that Sirius was once an excellent Quidditch player.
"Honestly, I think Krum is better than Linzi and more likely to catch the Golden Snitch to end the game, but Bulgaria are easily separated by Ireland in terms of scoring. The gap between the players on both sides is obvious so far. Bulgaria has always relied on Krum to catch the Golden Snitch to win. Once the score exceeds 150 points, there is no possibility of winning."
"What you said makes sense, so do you want to continue betting?" Bagman said with a smile on his face: "If you bet that Ireland will win, but Viktor Krum will catch the Golden Snitch, I can give you very good odds. Don’t look at me like this, I just want to win you once. It’s really frustrating to lose all the time.”
"Okay, let me place a little more bet. I think the Irish team will score first, and after the game is over, the score difference between the two sides will not exceed 30 points." Sirius seemed to be interested and asked Bagman very confidently, "Add up the four points, what odds are you going to give me."
“How about this number?” Bagman made an eight sign.
"Okay, I'll bet five hundred galleons." Sirius nodded in agreement, "But you have to settle the remaining gold coins with me first."
"I thought you were very confident. This is the highest odds I've offered. It's a rare opportunity." Bagman's eyes widened, as if he couldn't believe what he heard.
"It's because the probability of losing the bet is very high, so I don't dare to put all the money on it." Sirius glared at Bagman and told him to stop, "Okay, you can settle yesterday's money first."
Bagman reluctantly took out the money to settle the remaining balance, and then wrote a parchment note to Sirius. He turned around and greeted Arthur who was coming this way, not seeing Sirius' slight sideways glance. The corners of his mouth raised.
Of course they expected that Bagman might not be willing to pay back the money, so they made the very exaggerated bet just now, using galleons to take back the remaining part to prevent Bagman from defaulting on the loan in the end.
In order to make sure that Bagman did not use the leprechaun's gold coins to kill himself, Sirius opened the money bag and checked the gold coins a little. Although he felt that Bagman should not dare to do that, there were some things that he had to guard against.
However, Sirius naturally had an easier way to deal with it. Following Albert's suggestion, he deliberately let Ludo Bagman see that he hired a goblin to handle the gold coins he won from gambling, and revealed that he had purchased gold coins in Diagon Alley. Willingness to rent a store and open a store.
“Arthur, Harry and Hermione leave it to you.” Sirius stepped forward to shake hands with Mr. Weasley after Bagman greeted Arthur.
“Don’t worry, I will take good care of the children.” Arthur promised.
“Does anyone want to place a bet on the game?” Bagman asked everyone with a smile on his face.
Everyone looked at each other.
"Sirius won a lot of Galleons from me. He even bet me that Ireland would win the game and score first, but Viktor Krum would catch the Snitch, and at the end of the game both sides would The score will not exceed thirty points." Bagman had to use Sirius's deeds to attract everyone, "I gave a very high odds, does anyone else want to match? Sirius has never lost, He made thousands of galleons off me."
“Really?” Fred and George both looked at Sirius.
“Well, I have been betting on who will win. The odds are not high, but I did win some money.” Sirius said honestly: “Ireland has a high probability of winning this year, and Bagman thinks so too.”
“What are the odds?” George asked curiously.
“This amount.” Sirius gestured.
"We offer 50 Galleons, the same as Sirius." After Fred and George looked at each other, they immediately took out a bag of Galleons from their pockets. This bag of Galleons contained Ron and Ginny's share.
“Kids, gambling is not a good habit,” Arthur Weasley said in a low voice, “and this is almost all your savings.”
"Arthur is right, gambling is really not a good habit. If you want to make money, you can invest in the Defense Against the Dark Arts magazine I founded." Sirius thought of Albert's words and couldn't bear to let Fred and George fall into the trap. , he said: "Don't worry about the newspaper losing money. Albert is very optimistic about the branch publication and even invested a large sum of galleons, accounting for nearly one-third of the share."
"Don't be a spoiler, Sirius," Bagman eagerly wrote out a list for the Weasley family, then turned to ask, "Arthur, do you want to place a bet?"
"Okay, then I'll put up a Galleung... and bet that Ireland will win." Mr. Weasley hesitated for a moment, and finally took out a Galleung from his pocket.
In fact, the wizard is just anxious and does not want to gamble with his own child. However, Bagman helped get their tickets, so they had to give the other party some face.
“Does anyone else want to bet?” Bagman looked at Harry who seemed to be planning to take out the Galleons.
"Well...if Sirius wants to start a magazine, I'm willing to help provide some money." Harry knew the reason why Sirius started a magazine, so he used all the Galleons originally planned to bet to invest in Sirius' magazine. publications, and Harry planned to pay a hundred galleons.
"Don't listen to Blake's nonsense. That guy is not short of money at all. The galleons he earned from me are enough for him to run several magazines." Bagman curled his lips, but he was still satisfied with the current results and gave Fu After Red and George finished issuing the invoice, they turned around and left.
“Albert seems to have come over to watch the football match with his girlfriend.” Fred asked Sirius, “Have you met him?”
"Albert is in the camp next door. If you are free, you can help me pass the parchment to him so that Albert can take time to see what needs to be modified." With that, Sirius handed over a few pieces of parchment. Fred, above is their preliminary design for the magazine issue.
“If the speed is fast enough, we may be able to produce the first edition of the “Defense Guide” magazine before the start of school.”
“By the way, Bagman,” Sirius stopped Ludo Bagman who was about to leave and asked, “If I want to advertise at the Quidditch final, is it still too late?”
"This... should be added, but the advertising fee for the World Cup finals may not be cheap." Bagman frowned and asked: "Isn't your magazine publication not out yet? Are you starting to advertise now?"
"The content of the magazine has been roughly finalized, it won't take long, and it's only the 22nd, and there are still several days until September. Even if you fail to get the machine in the end, you can go to Lovegood to borrow it machine." Sirius smiled and said: "As long as I can help facilitate this matter, I am willing to pay some consulting service fees."
With that said, Sirius took out ten galleons from the bag and put them in Bagman's hand.
"Okay, I'll ask for you, but I don't guarantee that I can be added." Bagman immediately agreed to help, and this matter wouldn't waste much of his time.
This thing seemed strange to Bagman. However, what he didn't know was that it was actually Albert's idea to advertise in the World Cup final.
In Albert's view, World Cup advertisements are very suitable for quickly gaining fame. After the game, the Dark Mark is undoubtedly the best publicity. A magazine that teaches everyone how to protect themselves has panicked the wizarding world. When the period comes out, it will definitely attract everyone's attention. As long as the insecure residents are sure that the content of the magazine is valid, they will definitely be happy to order it, and then they will not be short of money.
Although it would cost a lot of galleons initially, Sirius was not worried because the gold coins he got from Bagman were enough for them to spend a long time.
Furthermore, Sirius didn’t have a good idea on how to quickly gain fame, so he chose to trust Albert’s judgment and plan. Anyway, the galleons he got for free didn’t really hurt him to spend.
What's more, Sirius knew that he had to give Albert enough trust before the other party would help him plan the magazine.
"What's going on with the newspapers?" Ginny looked at Sirius who left with Bagman and wondered about Ron.
“Sirius plans to start a magazine related to Defense Against the Dark Arts.” Ron explained.
“It is said to be the proposal from Albert.” Harry added.
"Albert always complains about the poor defense against the dark arts in the British wizarding community. Even foreign students know this." Fred and George were not surprised. They all knew that Albert had special interests, such as defense against the dark arts. field.
“Okay kids, let’s go to the camp and set up the tent first.” Mr. Weasley asked everyone to leave with him: “Remus, I’ll take them there first.”
"Well, goodbye Arthur, goodbye Harry, Hermione and Ron." Lupine waved his wand, quickly and completely put the tent into his backpack, and then stood here waiting for Sirius to come over and join him after he had finished everything. go home together.
"Goodbye, Professor Lupin." Harry and Mr. Weasley left.
“You just made that bet?”
Ron, who had been silent, suddenly asked Fred and George
Ron had to care about this.
There was nothing he could do about it, he had a share of the galleons that Fred and George bet on, and if he lost, he would really be a pauper.
"The possibility is very high, and Albert also believes that Ireland will win the championship." Fred and George both felt that Sirius's ability to win a large sum of galleons from Bagman had something to do with Albert, especially since Sirius made Albert They confirmed this matter when it was published in the investment magazine. After all, the two of them had helped Albert before and were no strangers to this kind of operation.
"Stop chatting over there and come over and help set up the tent." Mr. Weasley called the three of them over to help set up the tent. It took them nearly half an hour to finally set up the tent with Mr. Weasley's help. stand up.
"We need some water, and we also need to collect some firewood for fuel." Mr. Weasley said to everyone, "Let's complete the division of labor."
"Dad, we have to go find Albert, and we have a stove, so there is no need to use firewood to make a fire." After the Weasley brothers threw down their backpacks, they took the parchment given by Sirius and slipped away.
"They will definitely be surprised when they see Albert's tent." Ron muttered quietly, "That guy is weird in every way, and he also has very strange house elves helping to prepare food."
“House elf?” Ginny asked confused. As far as she knew, Albert was a Muggle wizard.
“Albert should have hired him with money!” Hermione said without thinking.
"Hermione, no one would pay to hire a house elf." Ron felt that Hermione didn't understand the situation at all.
"Perhaps, Albert is an exception." Hermione said stubbornly: "He is very good at treating people."
"Maybe, that guy is also a weirdo." Ron didn't bother to discuss the matter with Hermione.
"If Mr. Anderson does hire a house elf, you'd better remind him to be careful and avoid trouble from the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures of the Ministry of Magic."
“Mr. Weasley, can’t wizards hire house elves?” Hermione asked with a frown.
"This..." Mr. Weasley looked a little embarrassed, and lowered his voice as if he was afraid that others would hear him: "There is almost no such precedent in the wizarding world, because no wizard is willing to waste galleons to hire them. Of course, as long as no one knows, Don’t cause big trouble, it’s not really a big problem.”
(End of this chapter)