A Bite of Hogwarts
Mysterious Journey

Hogwarts, Headmaster's Office.

When Erina arrived, it seemed that a round of discussions had just ended in the room.

She unfastened her Quidditch cloak and casually hung it on the wooden pole beside the phoenix Fawkes' perch. She quickly glanced around at the personnel in the room: two Gringotts goblins, Dumbledore, Grindelwald...

The portraits of the past headmasters hanging on the wall were now covered with a layer of dark purple curtains, leaving no gaps.

"Looks like something big happened?"

Erina familiarly walked to the small square table on the right side of the Headmaster's Office, poured herself a cup of hot tea, found a soft armchair to sit in, and took a comfortable sip before putting down the cup.

Without a doubt, from the moment she saw the Gringotts goblins, Erina knew – the season of harvest had arrived.

Although, strictly speaking, according to the historical progress, the sudden death of the "毛熊" (Máo Xióng - literally "furry bear," referring to the Soviet Union) should be Christmas a month later, the collapse of a huge alliance could never happen overnight.

Judging from the wrinkled green faces of the two Gringotts goblins, the well-informed Gringotts had clearly smelled some ominous signs.

However, compared to their keenness for industry financial changes, the cunning and arrogant goblins have always had very poor judgment when it comes to people. Looking at the silver-haired little witch who walked into the room, a look of annoyance appeared on the old goblin Leo's face.

"This is the... particularly important negotiating partner that Professor Dumbledore mentioned?"

"That's right, Miss Kaslana is the most important link in the entire collaboration, and she is also the main person responsible for discussing with Gringotts. Her opinion will be crucial to Hogwarts' stance."

Dumbledore smiled and nodded. "So, please repeat what you just said to her."

The elderly goblin turned his head and looked at the white-haired little creature who was about the same height as him, the wrinkles on his face twitching.

"Professor Dumbledore! You may not realize the seriousness of the situation!"

"In less than a week, the Russian Muggle leader is going to issue a series of extremely stupid presidential decrees, leaving us little time to respond. If you want to refuse or discuss it later, you can say so directly. There's no need to pull in some ignorant wizarding whelp as a shield to fool us!"

...An ignorant wizarding whelp?

Erina's mouth twitched. She was being ignored.

But this was normal. In the eyes of most Gringotts goblins, she was just Dumbledore's representative.

Whether it was signing contracts or passing messages, the mastermind behind the scenes would only be Albus Dumbledore, the top wizard in the magical world, and not a weak, pitiful, and helpless little thing like her. This was also the overt and covert strategy she and Dumbledore had discussed beforehand.

It was just a pity...

The situation was different now.

"It's a shame, Mr. Leo!"

Erina shook her head indifferently, looking at the elderly goblin not far away with ease, and said softly.

"For so long, Gringotts doesn't even seem to know who the real negotiating partner is. I can't help but admire that the magical world's financial system hasn't collapsed in your hands. It's truly an incredible thing."

According to her agreement with Dumbledore, once the "毛熊" entered its countdown to collapse, all important decisions needed to be judged by her and would never be made by Dumbledore based on his own logic, leaving her out of the loop.

In the face of such a major event involving tens of billions of currency units, or even human life, any ripple from the outside could lead the world into an unknown vortex – the "毛熊" before its total collapse was itself the most terrifying existence, with the ability to drag the entire world down with it.

Erina didn't want the butterfly wings she was flapping to cause the "毛熊," which was originally supposed to have a "peaceful death," to suddenly head down an uncontrollable fork in the road during its final moments, triggering an all-out war that no one could escape.

Fortunately, it wasn't difficult to explain this worry...

In this era, people might find it hard to imagine an unbreakable alliance disappearing overnight, but they could easily imagine how terrible it would be if a third world war, with the United States and the Soviet Union as the protagonists, were to break out.

"Huh? You... were you pretending before?!"

Goblin Elder Leo turned his head, looking at Erina, whose temperament and tone were completely different from before, and then looked at the calm Dumbledore. His pupils suddenly constricted.

"I see. So, why did you choose to reveal yourself now? Wouldn't it be better to continue hiding behind the scenes...?"

"Because it's no longer necessary."

Erina smiled slightly, picked up her teacup, took an elegant sip, and said unhurriedly.

"Time is money, my friend. Let's put these unimportant things aside for now... Let's talk about business first. What kind of sincerity is Gringotts prepared to offer in exchange for Hogwarts' assistance?"

"Offer... sincerity?!"

Leo narrowed his eyes, tapped the floor heavily with his staff, and said coldly.

"Miss, you may not understand the seriousness of the situation yet! This is normal because you don't know the major changes that are about to happen in the east! According to Gringotts' reliable sources..."

"Sorry, you're the ones who don't understand! It seems I need to speed up the script's progress for you a bit."

Erina raised her hand and waved, impatiently interrupting the old goblin's performance, a playful arc rising at the corner of her mouth.

Perhaps she should help this old goblin recognize his position faster, rather than wasting time on meaningless flattery and nonsense. After all, she was still waiting to go back and celebrate the victory with her wings.

"Let me guess... the news that prompted Gringotts to rush to Hogwarts and that you're about to tell me is about the Russian leader Yeltsin announcing dozens of presidential decrees next week."

"And the core content of these presidential decrees is nothing more than Russia taking over a series of powers belonging to the central financial departments of the Soviet Union, including the precious metal production sector, and the Russian Central Bank taking over the Soviet State Bank and the Foreign Economic Bank, and controlling the monetary power of the union."

"Am I right? Judging by your expression, it seems you know even more details than Gringotts?"

The silver-haired little witch paused, looking with interest at the rapidly changing face of the old goblin in front of her. A strange question suddenly popped into her head – as magical creatures, goblins shouldn't be prone to heart attacks, right?

Hogwarts already knew all of this?!

Even more detailed than Gringotts? How was this possible?!

Leo's heart shook, looking at the little witch in front of him in disbelief, his expression changing unpredictably.

Obviously, the Gringotts Goblin Elder Council's previous investigation had a major flaw.

Perhaps from the moment the Hogwarts mortgage incident occurred, a long-planned net had already enveloped the entire Gringotts Goblin Bank. This was definitely not an analysis and intelligence gathering that could be accomplished by one or two people.

In this era of particularly difficult intelligence gathering, even Gringotts goblins had paid a considerable price to barely maintain their global news lead, and being ahead in the news was only the first step.

According to Leo's experience, to find the most important item from the myriad of messages and accurately analyze the impact it would have, it required hundreds of financial experts working day and night – and in Gringotts' previous assessment of the magical world, the current magical world shouldn't have this ability.

"Oh? Are you surprised... Then, let me continue."

Erina looked at the old goblin, who was comically gaping like a big green toad, and said softly.

"If this decree is really implemented, the most direct result is that the credit guarantor of the ruble will change from the Soviet Union to Russia. The worst result, of course, is a large-scale devaluation... provided that war doesn't break out, otherwise it's not even worth waste paper. Speaking of which, I heard that Gringotts has been hoarding a lot of rubles recently?"

"As for you saying that we will suffer a crisis – it's a pity, you may have misunderstood something."

"From beginning to end, it is you who will encounter a devastating disaster, not us."

"Now, let's go back to the original question..."

Erina gently licked her lips, crossed her legs, her right foot slightly raised, and a devilish smile appeared on the corner of her mouth. (Image.jpg)

"Is Gringotts Goblin Bank ready for the corresponding trading awareness?"

"To... continue living?"

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*Gū yā~* There's only one chapter today, but it's a big one!

I sorted out the plot a bit. It's not a big problem because the ending plot of this volume was actually written in detail a long time ago with key plot points. Now I'm just pulling it out of the draft box to review and modify it a bit.

Well, Fat Chicken is a little worried that it might be a bit stiff and difficult to understand, but I can only bite the bullet and write it. I hope it lives up to everyone's expectations ~ bow ~ and show my little feet to express my apologies ~

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