"So, should we call you Empress now?"

Half an hour later, Hermione said as they headed to the Great Hall for lunch.

After several insistent questions, the cunning white-haired furball finally told the truth: after the trial of Peter Pettigrew last semester, Hogwarts had to temporarily take over Gringotts to maintain the magical world's economic stability.

And out of a desire to avoid suspicion, and some confidential agreements that Aileen said "couldn't be disclosed."

This little witch of their age, after discussions between Dumbledore and the Gringotts goblins, had transformed into the Empress of Gringotts Wizarding Bank, serving as an intermediary between goblins and wizards, facilitating communication and mutual supervision.

"That's what the Gringotts goblins call me; you don't have to call me that..."

Aileen said, self-consciously tucking her hair behind her ear, her tone sincere and soft.

"Actually, I refused at first. I'm a first-year Hogwarts student, well, now a second-year. How could I suddenly become the Goblin Empress of Gringotts Wizarding Bank? But Professor Dumbledore and the goblin elders said they had decided... so... so, I..."

"So, Miss Kaslana became the first Goblin Empress, the wealthiest witch in the entire magical world?"

Hermione continued, gently rubbing her temples, trying to digest the information she had just received.

"You probably understand that the real decisions are still made by Professor Dumbledore and the board of elders."

Aileen's face fell, and she spread her hands, complaining softly.

"Such a vast business empire can't possibly be entirely under my control. In reality, I only occasionally offer small suggestions for the truly wise and experienced professionals to consider. I just have a little more pocket money, and it's a bit easier to buy things than when I was in the orphanage."

"A little more? For example, practically speaking... if you were buying books at Flourish and Blotts, how many could you buy?"

Hermione raised her eyebrows slightly, looking at the white-haired furball beside her with a knowing smile.

After more than a year of living together, she wouldn't be fooled by Aileen's vague quantifiers. This black-hearted little witch's skills in being ambiguous and shifting concepts in her descriptions were simply too advanced.

"Um... about..."

Aileen's eyes darted around, and the ahoge on her head swayed.

Just as she was about to estimate Hermione's upper limit of economic views and casually respond, her ahoge suddenly issued a warning.

"Are you making up stories? Aileen, your ahoge is swaying back and forth again!"

Hermione reached out and poked the trembling ahoge, narrowing her eyes and saying softly.

"Don't lie! I'm not a simpleton like Hannah. If you lie, I'll find out sooner or later... You know, according to what we agreed upon earlier, if I directly expose a lie... twenty times, twenty times!"

"N-No... It's the wind..."

Aileen was startled, quickly raised her hand to protect her traitorous ahoge, and sighed helplessly.

"Okay, let's put it this way: all... not just Flourish and Blotts, the entire Diagon Alley, that business street where Gringotts Wizarding Bank headquarters is located, is practically my property. For me, Galleons have no meaning there."

"But most of it is franchised or invested. Many shops are actually leased, and you still have to pay to buy things."

After glancing at Hermione "Calculating Machine" Granger, whose eyes lit up instantly, Aileen quickly added.

"Unless it's a strategic investment project, the control of cash flow is still quite strict..."

As the hidden controller of Gringotts, she naturally wouldn't add any privileges to her fledgling business model.

Even if Aileen "swipes her card" to buy things in Diagon Alley, it would be recorded in Gringotts' books. This is like the CEOs of those business empires in her previous life buying things on their own platforms, which would still promote the actual cash flow in the market.

"Mhm, mhm, I know. I'm not a mindless idiot..."

Hermione couldn't help but roll her eyes at Aileen, happily calculating her book list in her mind.

Although Dr. Granger could barely be considered a middle-to-high-income earner, the allowance she gave her daughter each semester wasn't too much. Even with last year's "Dark Arts Defense dungeon" completion reward, it was far from enough in the face of the dazzling array of goods in the magical world.

You know, just buying a complete set of Gilderoy Lockhart's works had taken up most of Hermione's little treasury.

With Aileen as a sugar momma, she could at least add the books she had painfully crossed off earlier back to her shopping list. For Hermione Granger, this was more practical than Felix Felicis or being top of the class.

Besides, Aileen had also explained the potential cost of taking Felix Felicis.

Perhaps for those relatively mediocre people, sacrificing those fleeting flashes of inspiration to exchange for a good day was a worthwhile trade, but for a little witch like Hermione Granger, it was indeed a poison.

"Then it's settled. You'll cover my book list every month, and you're forgiven for lying to me before."

"Okay, okay..." Aileen agreed with a bitter face. "Hermione, take it easy when you buy. Professor Dumbledore's monthly tolerance, I estimate, won't exceed 100 Galleons. That's the salary of a Hogwarts professor..."

"I know, I can't read that many books anyway. I don't want to suddenly die in the library one day."

Hermione replied unhappily, glancing at Aileen's pained expression, and instantly became a little happier.

Finally, she had poked the black-hearted furball's sore spot, happy heart (*^▽^*)~

It wasn't just because of this agreement; more importantly, Luna Lovegood wouldn't be able to secretly possess Aileen's hidden identity like before.

This time, wisdom and reasoning had finally triumphed over vague luck and intuition.

"She's so easy to fool, this simple-minded little beaver..."

Aileen hugged her schoolbag, stealing glances at the smug expression on Hermione's face.

"As expected, it's easier to communicate with reasonable children like Hermione. If it were Luna, that stubborn little thing, I don't know where she'd catch a Crumple-Horned Snorkack to apologize... I can only rely on Hagrid's unique magical creature hybridization technology."

Since systematically learning magic at Hogwarts, Luna's intuition had become increasingly powerful.

So much so that Aileen had to specifically instruct Xenophilius Lovegood not to expose his whereabouts, and if it wasn't necessary, to communicate directly by letter, lest little Luna sense something was wrong.

After all, according to the agreement, Xenophilius should be a leisurely magazine publisher, not a humble working man.

Even though, strictly speaking, whether it was the "Tarot" identity of the foundation, or the content review of the expanded *The Quibbler*, or the public opinion control involving Gringotts, Hogwarts, and Destiny Group... all these tasks were Xenophilius Lovegood's own choice, and no one forced this old father.

But in the eyes of a little witch who doted on her father, she wouldn't care about so much logic and reasoning.

The only fortunate thing was that at least this time, the metaphysical confrontation was still a father-daughter civil war, and the old Lovegood was still slightly ahead of the nascent "Little Moon" in terms of intuition and sensitivity.

Especially now that Luna was also the class representative of Class B in the second grade, it was even harder to distract her attention.

...

A moment later, they sat down at the Gryffindor table and began to eat their second lunch.

The portion of pufferfish in the Potions classroom wasn't much, and considering the taste and texture, the pufferfish sashimi that Aileen finally sliced out was just enough to satisfy their cravings. She and Hermione ate it clean in no time.

However, this was usually in line with the common logic of Western cuisine.

The first course of a Western meal is the appetizer, also known as the hors d'oeuvre.

Appetizers are generally divided into cold and hot dishes. Common varieties include caviar, foie gras, smoked salmon, cocktail cups, cream chicken puff pastry boxes, and escargots. After that, there are soups, side dishes, and main courses, which are relatively larger portions.

To stimulate appetite, appetizers are generally small in quantity, high in quality, and have a light, appetizing flavor that is mainly salty, umami, and sour.

Due to the unique deliciousness of pufferfish itself, and its characteristic of not relying on other seasonings for assistance, dishes related to it are mostly arranged in the appetizer and soup stages of Western cuisine, mostly playing a role in opening the stomach and moistening the intestines.

In Aileen's memory, several Michelin three-star restaurants liked to arrange pufferfish dishes as appetizers.

Perhaps because her own taste was too picky, and she was too influenced by Chinese cuisine, she didn't quite like this arrangement at the time, but Hermione's reaction accurately showed that it was just a matter of culinary culture.

The little beaver, back at the Gryffindor table, ended the conversation instantly and quickly plunged into a gluttonous feast.

The scene of her almost ambidextrously wielding her knife and fork made Aileen wonder if her pot of "Nettle Liver and Kidney Fish Soup" had some kind of appetizer effect, and Luna and Hannah, who were coming from not far away, were also a little surprised.

"Um—I heard you guys ate something in Potions class, didn't you?"

Hannah asked curiously, "It is said that Aileen was also punished for it. Did Professor Slughorn empty your stomachs with the Entrail-Expelling Curse? Or did the white-haired furball secretly give Hermione some appetizing potion?"

Class B of the second grade finished class earlier than Class A, so Luna and Hannah had arrived at the hall half an hour earlier.

If it weren't for waiting for Aileen and Hermione, the two of them could have returned to their respective common rooms like the other students, rested for a while, conserved their energy, and prepared for the two Potions classes in the afternoon.

"No, I guess it's just that she has a good appetite and is hungry?"

Aileen said, handing Hermione a glass of juice to prevent her from choking, then looked at the other two little wings.

"You'll know later, anyway, your Potions class in the afternoon should also be taught by Professor Slughorn. Compared to Professor Snape, Professor Slughorn is actually easier to get along with—I just went a little overboard."

Aileen didn't feel anything special about being punished.

Just like the famous saying of the Weasley twins—a Hogwarts career without detention is an incomplete Hogwarts career. Because she had been too high-profile before, she almost thought she would always have regrets.

Moreover, in Aileen's opinion, the closed, solitary detention environment was a perfect place for an oath of office.

"A little overboard?" Luna sighed helplessly, "Aileen—the first deduction of points for Ravenclaw in the new semester was born on you! Many people in the academy are discussing that you are deliberately retaliating and smearing the academy!"

"Is that so? Then why doesn't anyone say that the first points added were also because of me?" Aileen snorted unhappily.

"The first points added... um, it's me..."

Luna blinked her eyes and pointed a little embarrassedly at the hourglass at the back of the hall.

Due to the inheritance of the reward points from the last semester, Ravenclaw Academy's points were in an absolutely leading position. Compared to the other empty hourglasses, the small pile of water-blue gems looked particularly conspicuous.

"Okay, it looks like I've been marked as an iron mole..."

Aileen shrugged her shoulders, ate the delicious and juicy thinly sliced beef tongue in her plate, and said unperturbed.

Anyway, she had offended most of the Ravenclaw Academy in the morning. It didn't matter if she carried some more blame, after all, as the villainous dark lord who forced people to unite and crusade, the deeper and firmer the hatred attracted, the better the effect.

Casually glancing at the little eagles pointing and whispering in the distance, Aileen withdrew her gaze and looked at the class representative and vice-class representative of Class B.

"Putting that aside, I forgot to ask just now... How did the two class representatives spend this morning?"

"Um... not very well—"

Hannah and Luna looked at each other, with drooping faces, and said gloomily.

"Professor Umbridge has too many rules. It's like she's treating us like children. The homework is also memorizing and writing reading notes. There's almost nothing where we can use spells and wands."

"You are children in the first place..."

Hermione said, her mouth stuffed with sprouts, but she still tried to ensure the clarity of her speech.

"As a senior official from the Ministry of Magic, I think Professor Umbridge's method must have some truth to it. At least in my opinion, at our age, increasing knowledge reserves is more important than simply practicing spells."

"Maybe, but I don't think she's a good person..."

Luna shrugged her shoulders indifferently, tilted her head and thought for a few seconds, and commented softly.

"Professor Umbridge, um... she smiles hypocritically, which is different from other professors. She doesn't seem to like the school very much."

Of course, she knew the reasoning that Hermione said, but compared to objective logical analysis, Luna still trusted her feelings more—besides, her father had already commented that there were few clean people who reached the level of minister and deputy minister.

Seeing Hermione raising her eyebrows and swallowing the food in her mouth, seemingly preparing to argue with her.

Luna stuck out her tongue, tugged Hannah's sleeve, and said, "See you at dinner!" and ran away.

As long as she said the conclusion in advance and didn't give Hermione a chance to organize her words and refute, then she would always be invincible.

This was still the "Hermione Restraint Manual" that Aileen had secretly taught her, and in exchange, Luna also promised that she would not help the other two little wings in the future, and would directly provide "seeing through" services when Aileen cast illusion magic.

"Ugh, wait for you…ugh, um…uh…”

Hermione widened her eyes, struggled to swallow the food in her mouth, and stretched out her hand towards Luna’s back.

When did this "lucky" airhead become so slippery and sprite-like? Situations similar to running away halfway through a sentence have happened several times in the past few days, each time giving her an indescribable feeling of chest tightness.

"Alright, alright, Luna and the others are rushing to class..."

Aileen gently patted Hermione’s back, while kindly handing the refilled iced orange juice to Hermione's side.

"You focus on eating lunch first, don't choke... There's a chance in the evening, take it slowly."

Joining forces vertically and horizontally, befriending distant states while attacking those nearby...

Luring one faction, dividing one faction, suppressing one faction...

These are the thousand-year wisdom heritage of ancient Eastern civilization.

The little wings want to secretly form gangs, wings knotted together, and play infighting with her—too young, too immature.

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Hooray~ Big chapter~ Request monthly tickets~ It's been almost a month of big chapters~~