Felix politely but firmly declined the request for exchange from the current Dean of St. Mungo's, "I'm sorry, sparing one morning a week is the limit from my free time, and I have to spend time summarizing the Longbottom couple's treatment plan too."
Standing at the entrance of St Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries, Felix revealed the latest treatment progress to the old lady Longbottom, "Three treatments at most before they will reach a critical point of recovery.
At that time, I will use Frank and Alice's emotions as a bond to tie the process of their memory recovery together.
As soon as one of them is stimulated to self-recovery, the other will benefit along with it."
Old Lady Longbottom hands intertwined, she forcefully held back her inner excitement, remained rational and asked, "There will be no accident, right, will this bond drag down the other one?"
Felix smiled and said, "Don't worry, Lady Longbottom. If it is two strangers, this practice is really not appropriate, but Frank and Alice are different, after treating them for so long, I am sure of one thing, they are the most important people in each other's lives ..."
After parting with old Lady Longbottom, he made a quick stop to Diagon Alley, where the L.C.A. building is now in a new shape, the shabby and outdated surface of the building is repainted in bright rainbow colours, constantly attracting the eyes of passers-by.
On the re-erected sign, a young boy peaking from a small window of the Ferris wheel smiled joyfully.
He could also see several little children as young as seven or eight years old gesturing at the huge sign beside him, squirming with excitement as they pulled their parents over. 'Looks like Andys and Dobby did a good job.'
The lobby on the first floor being repurposed, a young witch offered a greeting as Felix entered the building, "Hello, sir, how can I help you?"
"I'm looking for Andys," Felix said briefly.
"And you are-"
"Felix Hap, a shareholder of this company."
The young witch's eyes lit up, "Mr. Hap, please take this way up to the second floor, Mr. Andys told us that no matter what time it is, you can go straight to him."
"Isn't his room on the first floor?"
"The first floor has been converted into a production studio, and it is occupied by twenty skilled painters, all of them used to be veterans of L. C. A. Comics." The witch introduced.
"You know quite well?"
"My father used to work for Mr. Andys's grandfather, but then the publishing house declined and many people quit. Now, well, the company has been rejuvenated and quite a few people have been recruited back." The witch said cheerfully.
Felix nodded as he got led to a long, narrow office on the second floor, where Andys, with a full beard, is having a lively discussion with an old witch who is glaring and shouting, "We need to speed things up! Three more publishers from three countries have come seeking cooperation."
The old witch also replied loudly in a thick voice: "Not enough manpower, little Andys! I wish I could speed things up, but skilled painters are hard to find, and I've already gathered as many veteran employees as I can."
"We can train them ourselves."
"Good idea, but distant water can't extinguish a nearby fire."
When they finished talking, Felix walked up, and Andys brightened up, opened his arms to hug him firmly, then said without grumbling, "Oh, my, our great meritorious shareholder is finally willing to come over to have a look!"
"Honestly, how long has it been since you've taken a shower?" Felix subconsciously took a step back, the smell is just too strong, and he gave Andys a cleaning spell. "It's not that I don't care, isn't that what Dobby is for, he can represent me, and by the way, where is he?"
"Downstairs now, he works several jobs, he is willing to work ... Where did you find your house-elf, introduce me to one as well."
"Don't be ridiculous." Felix shook his head, "I came here today to see if you were in trouble and if you needed my help to solve it."
"As you can see," Andys shrugged, "understaffed, that's the biggest problem. Unless you can find a large number of employees."
"Are there any specific requirements?"
"Skilled painters with experience would be best, of course, if not, we can train them ourselves, but they should be hard-working ... After all, the job is somewhat boring."
Felix thought for a while and called Dobby over.
Dobby is still wearing his little suit, and his spirit has improved considerably, "Great and generous Mr. Hap!" He excitedly shouted.
Felix automatically translated his words into a greeting, "And you too, Dobby." With a straight face, he said, "Listen, Dobby, I have an idea that I need your counsel on."
"Happy to be of service, it would be Dobby's pleasure!"
Felix paused for a moment, he's still uncomfortable with the elf's style of speech: "At present, the publishing house is short of staff, I want to ask you, do you still know some house-elf, the type without a master?"
Dobby gave him a tangled look, his tennis-big eyes filled with hesitation as he wriggled his body uneasily, "Yes, sir. Yes ..."
"Is there anything holding you back?" Felix asked calmly.
"They are not in good shape, and for house elves, losing their master means losing everything, and they are often devastated and broken."
"Dobby, can you convince them to work for me?"
Dobby's eyes widened, "Can I? Dobby has always wanted to ... oh, Dobby is too greedy, but Dobby has been hesitant to bring it up ... all this time"
Felix smiled, "They work for me and I pay them, sounds fair."
He had more in mind than that, from his previous conversation with Andys. He had found Dobby's status is somewhat awkward, it is difficult for the elf to command the wizard directly - they are usually the one being commanded, so Dobby does more of a support job or got dragged out by Andys to act as a front to deal with the pureblood family wizards temporarily.
It isn't what he is looking for.
"Dobby," Felix looked at him seriously, "you help me get those free elf, wild or banished, I don't care. You'll be responsible for convincing them, bringing them to me whenever you get a bunch, and if there's no problem, they'll get a proper job, and all of them will be under your management."
Dobby blinked his big eyes and nodded his head repeatedly, he got so excited that he burst into tears -
" Dobby… Dobby is honored!"
This caused Felix to have a few strange thoughts.
'It's just a matter of taking what you need. For repetitive work, the elf is perfectly capable of handling it. And using Dobby to manage the other house-elf is even better.'
...
At three in the afternoon, amidst the snow, Felix arrived at Hogsmeade's Hog's Head Inn.
It's a small inn in a hidden alley, and the Hog's Head's sign creaks and shakes in the cold wind.
Standing in the doorway, cloaked, hooded and masked, Felix can not help but want to smile, why does he always think of this place first when it comes to underground trading?
Maybe it's because it's a trend for the customers here to hide their faces?
The Hog's Head Inn is equivalent to a semi-public black market, where the owner of the inn doesn't mind much and allows some unseen transactions to take place here, possibly even using such indulgences as a way to woo customers.
He also saw dementors from a distance, a pair of them patrolling constantly to and fro.
Somewhat hilariously, some Dementors were clearly shorter than their companions, though.
"I didn't expect to run into a familiar oddity ..."
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