"So? How do you like her?" Loki asked Hermione after Daphne stepped out of the room.
"Hmm…are you sure there will be no problem with her being a pureblood?"
"I don't think so. I've spoken to her occasionally but all the times I've spoken to her she didn't try to demean or mistreat me."
"Huh. I see. That's alright then, I'm fine with her, she's a little emotionless and comes off like a delicate doll but, I doubt we'd find any other student among our classmates that's as good as her at art."
"True. So should I inform her of her success?"
"Yes, but let's increase her pay to two Galleons per week."
"Are you sure?"
"Yeah, I don't want her to feel we're treating her poorly. I read somewhere that all three factions in Wizengmot think highly of the Greengrass family."
"Really?" Loki wondered thinking why Walburga hadn't told him about it.
"Yes."
Seeing Hermione agree to his pick, Loki peeked out of the room to call Daphne inside and greeted her with Hermione.
"Miss Greengrass, we've accepted your application for a pay of Two Galleons per week that you work on publishing the paper. Is that agreeable?"
"Yes.", Daphne said in the same emotionless tone that she used all throughout the interview.
"That's great then, we have a few stories ready for you to draw comic strips for and once they're finalised we can publish them in the paper."
"I understand." Daphne nodded without any reservations and immediately moved towards Hermione to get her work from her.
Loki felt happy since the stories for the comic strips were nothing but various stories that Loki had read or watched in the form of animated shorts in his last life.
Among the many a special story that Loki chose to be drawn first were the stories that fell into the category of 'Choose your own adventure.' Loki had read several Goosebumps books that employed the tactic and hence plagiarised several stories to be drawn in the newspaper.
The public was encouraged to vote on what would happen next in the story through Owls so that the audience could decide the next course of action.
Overall Loki used this to improve the engagement of the newspaper and in turn its sales numbers.
Days slipped by as the number of subscribers to the Hogwarts Honest Mill grew to larger and larger numbers as word of mouth spread, causing Loki to begin increasing and expanding the number of newspapers they printed each week.
To supplement the growing numbers, Loki had even purchased a second printing machine so that they could print faster and take more time to arrange and edit their newspaper.
Overall the bond between the three people, Hermione, Daphne and Loki grew by quite a bit as they worked together to work through the challenges of running a newspaper that published weekly.
'Damn. I'm no longer getting any feedback for digestion for my potion. It's stuck at about twenty-five per cent.' Loki wondered sitting inside his room.
'Is there a way I can swindle more people?'
'Or perhaps I can use the sefirah to set up the Tarot Gathering and swindle people using that? By acting as the Error God?'
'If by the end of this week, I find nothing else, I will turn toward starting the Tarot gathering.'
Loki spent his time brushing through classes, doing homework, and visiting the animals in the forbidden forest while doing his best to think about something he could do to swindle the masses.
He went through ideas like becoming a sensational thief like Kaito Kid but found none that called out to him.
Loki was walking through the castle grounds when he came about the quidditch pitch where he saw the Slytherin and the Gryffindor teams arguing.
'I'm the new Slytherin Seeker, Weasley.' Draco said, smugly. 'Everyone's just been admiring the brooms my father's bought our team.'
Ron gaped, open-mouthed at the seven superb broomsticks in front of him.
'Good, aren't they?' said Draco smoothly. 'But perhaps the Gryffindor team will be able to raise some gold and get new brooms, too. You could raffle off those Cleansweep Fives, I expect a museum would bid for them.'
The Slytherin team howled with laughter.
'At least no one on the Gryffindor team had to buy their way in,' said Hermione sharply. 'The got in on pure talent.'
The smug look on Draco's face flickered.
'No one asked your opinion, you filthy little Mudblood.' Draco spat.
Instantly the pitch turned rowdy with Fred and George jumping at Flint who was trying to protect Malfoy while Ron pulled out his wand and aimed under Flint and launched a spell that emerged with a green light and hit Malfoy.
But before that could end, a bright blue flash of light emitted from Loki's wand and hit Malfoy square in his chest.
It all happened in an instant and no one was able to react to anything that happened.
"Are you alright Malfoy?" Marcus Flint asked as he turned around to look at Draco.
Draco raised his head and attempted to speak but he coughed up a slug instead, and along with the slug sliding down his dress, boils began to appear on his face that turned his face unrecognisable.
"My father- *belch* -will hear- *belch* -about this." Draco said before collapsing into Flint's arms like he'd fainted from having to vomit up slimy slugs.
The Slytherin wanted to fight back and launch their own spells at the Gryffindors but Flint held them back when he saw Loki.
With Malfoy vomiting slugs and the Slytherin team gathering around him to take him away everyone on the Gryffindor team turned towards Loki.
Ron shouted, "You're one of them too aren't you!?", before anyone could respond or say something a crimson light shot out of Ron's wand and fired towards Loki like a firecracker.
Not knowing what spell Ron had just cast wordlessly, Loki used Finite Incamtatem to disarm the spell and knock it away by swiping it from the air.
"No!! Ron!! What are you doing!?" Hermione shouted and immediately came in between Ron and Loki.
Loki had a frown on his face but he lowered his wand out of respect for Hermione.
"How can you help a snake like him!!" Ron shouted.
"Ron! You're not thinking straight! How could you tell that about Loki! He's helped you and he even helped me! And you keep playing that god forbidden game in the newspaper which was made by him!"
"Why would he be here then!? If not to support the Slytherin team?" Ron asked in a foul tone causing everyone to turn and look at Loki.
"I was walking around Weasley. Now if you'll excuse me, I have other things to do other than listen to the ramblings of a mad child." Loki said and sent an imperceptible nod towards Hermione for standing up for him even if the entire Gryffindor team was distrusting of him.
To be noted though were the reactions of the twins who wanted to pummel their brother, but held back just barely because they saw Loki meet their gazes and shake his head.
Loki picked his next destination to be Hagrid's hut and moved toward it.
"The pumpkins are growing nice and big Hagrid." Loki said after he found Hagrid tending to the pumpkins in the garden.
"They are, aren't they!? They should be nice and big by the time it's Halloween." Hagrid said patting a pumpkin, causing it to make hollow drum-like noises.
"Have you met Norberta recently? I think she's missing you."
"Ey, had a bit too much to take care of last week so I couldn't go to her, but with the children feeding her I reckon she's growing up nicely isn't she?"
"She is." Loki said with a soft nod, "The last time I saw her she had grown a nice tummy from lying in the room on her pile of gold."
"Haha! I heard about that from Professor Dumbledore too! That the students have started treating her like a wishing well."
"They have! You won't believe the amount of gold she's already collected!"
Hagrid and Loki then talked until evening after which Loki left to go back to the castle and work with Daphne to help her finish the comic strip for this week and write articles since Hermione wasn't here yet because of the previous incident.
"Is this not weird?" Daphne asked looking at the script Loki had given her.
"How's it weird? It's fantastic."
Daphne looked at Loki and then back at the script and shuddered a little.
'Did he really believe the ghost that said unicorns are controlling humans in the ministry of magic to fight against you-know-who?'
'I miss Hermione's sanity.'
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