For the next few days, Tom concentrated on carving runes. Before long, half a month had passed and he had mastered all the basic runes on the parchment, the strokes were even and consistent, and his job was to keep practicing, making the runes smaller and smaller.
Ollivander was quietly minding his own business, and only came to comment after Tom finished carving the runes. Although he seemed unperturbed on the surface, at first he was extremely surprised, then from excitement came numbness: Tom was learning too fast! It had taken him the same amount of time as it had taken Tom to learn to carve runes. But he had been exclusively studying carving, and Tom is working in a bookstore and learning to carve at the same time, so there was a big difference.
Ollivander was very frustrated for a while, and sometimes wondered if his talent was mediocre.
But when he thought about the level of people creating wands abroad, he regained his confidence.
However, as the day of admission for first-year students approached, the work of the Flourish and Blotts Bookshop gradually became more intense.
Although Hogwarts had not yet announced the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, other teachers had already announced the textbooks for the new term. So Mr. Lawrence began stocking them in bulk, and gave Tom a new task: Packing the textbooks.
Since the Flourish and Blotts Bookshop was primarily for Hogwarts students, the textbooks needed were similar for each year. In the first and second years, each student needed exactly the same textbook. From the third year onwards, there would be small adjustments depending on the chosen subject.
So Tom's job was to put the textbooks in cardboard boxes according to grade, and then sort the boxes one by one. This way, students can go to the bookstore and make their purchases as quickly as possible.
Of course, textbooks for elective subjects also figured prominently.
Everything is ready except for Defense Against the Dark Arts.
One afternoon in late July, Mr. Lawrence received a letter from an owl, his source of information. He was always the first to hear about Hogwarts' new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher and his choice of textbook, and to acquire it as soon as possible.
This time, when he opened the letter, his whole face turned strange: the new professor was really Lockhart! Best-selling author Gilderoy Lockhart.
Mr. Lawrence wondered what was going through Lockhart's mind. It was a sinkhole he had dug himself into, knowing that not only had one or two teachers been buried in Hogwarts' Defense of the Dark Arts, but two figures had fallen into it.
And what a man, asking his students to buy seven books as textbooks right out of office, that's a terrible thing to do. As a bookseller, Lawrence knew a little of what was going on. For every book Lockhart sold, he got 20% of the profits, which meant that for a 5-gallon book, Lockhart got 1 gallon.
For every student who buys seven books, Lockhart takes seven galleons from a student, and with hundreds of students and teachers at Hogwarts, it is conservatively estimated that Lockhart will make at least 3500 gold galleons from textbooks.
Mr. Lawrence shook his head, and although he considered what Lockhart was doing inconceivable, he could say no more. It was to his advantage, too: as the manager of the largest bookstore in London, the more books he sold, the higher his commission.
His face froze, however, and he suddenly realized something crucial: he had promised in his contract to cover a set of Tom's textbooks! And Lockhart was to be paid for seven books, all of them expensive, at five galleons each, which amounted to a week of Tom's salary.
How many weeks' work did Tom do in all? That would double his salary.
Lawrence looked at Tom's back and had to admit it: the boy was lucky. As for reneging? He wasn't that angry, he wasn't going to pay for it anyway.
In the afternoon, the bookstore had a distinguished guest: a high official of the Ministry of Magic, head of the Hogwarts school board, son of Abraxas, and the current head of the Malfoy family: Lucius Malfoy II (there was a Lucius Malfoy in the Malfoy family in the 16th century, so in the family tree, Draco Malfoy's father was actually Lucius II).
Incidentally, there is plenty of evidence that Lucius Malfoy I was a suitor of Elizabeth I, even though later generations have vehemently denied it. So all it took for Draco Malfoy to break his guard was to say Elizabeth a couple of times.
Upon seeing Lucius arrive, Lawrence immediately stood up, smiling flatteringly as he bowed his back and said respectfully, "Good morning, my lord, if you want any books, just send an owl with a letter, and I will send them to you."
Lucius stroked his pale blond hair with dignity, which had been carefully maintained at first glance, in style, then pushed his cane into the bookshelf and said slowly, "The Malfoy family's thirst for knowledge knows no bounds, and when it comes to books, it's best to come and browse through them in person."
Lawrence said yes, admiringly.
"I need a set of textbooks for second year Hogwarts students." Lucius looked at Lawrence, who immediately bowed and went to order the textbooks for Lucius himself. Lucius also wandered around the store, looking as if he wanted to pick up some books to look at.
However, no one noticed that, as he rounded a corner, Lucius slid an ancient-looking diary into the corner of the shelf when no one was looking. He had come to Diagon Alley today for several reasons, one of which was to get rid of this diary.
Of course, he also wanted to get rid of part of his family's collection in Knockturn Alley. In early July of this year, the Ministry of Magic had issued an order compelling the authorities to conduct raids on black magic items and illicit goods. Lucius hadn't taken it seriously, there had been similar raids before, but never on purebloods like them.
But this year was different, he had heard a rumor that the search party included Arthur Weasley. Lucius remembered his relationship with Arthur, so he felt that his family would not be able to escape.
To make matters worse, the head of the Department of International Magical Cooperation, Barty Crouch, had invited Arthur to his home for a search to prove his law-abidingness and enhance his reputation. This was a bad start for the purebloods, they had no reason to refuse Arthur's searches.
So, seeing the bad situation, Lucius decided to get rid of any potentially forbidden objects in his house in advance, and Lucius inherited the Malfoy family ethic perfectly: you will never see a Malfoy at the scene of a crime, even if his fingerprints are all over the wand.