"Professor Dumbledore, you should know that I am only eleven years old. Normally, a young wizard of this age should be a first-year student at Hogwarts, not a new professor taking up a job."

Dumbledore disagreed: "But the Earl's magic level has long exceeded the legal level, right? If you become a professor at Hogwarts, our school's teaching level will undoubtedly be the best in the world, far surpassing the other ten peers."

"That is beyond doubt. However, when Hogwarts becomes the best in the world, the International Confederation of Wizards will probably be furious. Have you forgotten that for two centuries, the voices calling the Forresters 'wizard traitors' have been heard in the wizarding world."

When Lin You talked about those "voices", he had the kind of mocking look that an adult has when looking at an ignorant child;
"By the way, doesn't Hogwarts have a year system like Muggle schools? A year is divided into two semesters. Now that the first semester hasn't even finished, how come Professor Moody is leaving? Could it be that Voldemort's resurrection has strengthened the curse of the Defense Against the Dark Arts professorship?"

Dumbledore shook his head and explained, "No, Alastor is fine. But the Ministry of Magic... to be more precise, the Auror Office urgently called him back to work, and Alastor agreed after considering it. Scrimgeour is fully preparing for war, and Alastor feels that under the current circumstances, he can play a greater role if he returns to the Auror post."

The old wizard explained the reason for the temporary vacancy of the professor position, but intentionally or unintentionally skipped the attitude of the International Confederation of Wizards and the topic of "wizard traitors".

"Auror Office rehiring?" Obviously, this news interested Lin You more than the topic of Hogwarts professor recruitment. "Has the Ministry of Magic finally publicly acknowledged Voldemort's resurrection?"

"Fudge still wants to delay, and some people support his approach, but there are more people who oppose it. In any case, this is no longer a crazy, weak old wizard who is nostalgic for his glorious life; more than 200 professors and students from three schools witnessed Harry being kidnapped, plus Moody's testimony and Ludo Bagman's testimony after he woke up - Fudge can no longer deceive himself."

When Dumbledore mentioned "a crazy, weak old wizard who misses his good life", Lin You couldn't help but laugh; these words were exactly what Fudge's supporters had used in the media to describe the headmaster of Hogwarts.

This time, the situation Dumbledore faced was indeed much better than in the original plot. After all, Harry Potter was kidnapped with a portkey in public, instead of disappearing deep in the maze of the Tournament; there were multiple sources of evidence about Voldemort's resurrection, and direct and indirect evidence corroborated each other, and it was no longer just a one-sided statement of "a 14-year-old wizard who had a mental breakdown due to the loss of his classmates and friends", or "fabricated a lie to try to cover up the malicious death in the competition".

After laughing, Lin You suddenly changed the subject: "You said that Fudge's tricks can no longer be played, but he himself has not yet planned to admit defeat, or those former Death Eaters who pushed Fudge to the front to fight are still trying to resist stubbornly, right?"

"You already know that?" The smile on Dumbledore's face quickly faded.

"Didn't you tell me that?"

Dumbledore was stunned: "Me?"

"Yes, you." Lin You said as a matter of course, "If those people were not still resisting, why would you rush to find me, under the banner of hiring a professor, to trick me into taking sides? Do you think that I, a child of only eleven years old, am easy to deceive?"

A person's face is like the bark of a tree, the older they get, the thicker and tougher they become. Having lived for more than a hundred years, Dumbledore's face has long been tougher than the bark of a tree; when his little tricks were exposed, he was not embarrassed at all, but sighed as if it was natural: "Most of the Death Eaters who support Fudge are pure blood, and many of them have business dealings with the Forresters..."

"Are you worried that I would be lured over by those Death Eaters for just a few million gold Galleons a year? Just for that little bit of money?" Lin You's "unbelievable" expression at this moment could easily be interpreted by others as "rich and inhumane".

Well, in the eyes of Count Goff, a few million gold galleons can indeed be prefixed with "a mere sum".

"If you are here to find out whether the Death Eaters have tried to win me over, then I can tell you clearly that they have not." Lin You said with a teasing smile, "Those pure-blood families are all sensible people. They know that their business relationship is not enough to help them gain face with me. The fools among them have been kicked out long ago. I am quite surprised. Why do you have such worries? I remember that in the last war, my father stood on your side."

Dumbledore's eyes showed a nostalgic look at the right time; "Yes, not only in the last war, but also when Grindelwald was wreaking havoc in Europe half a century ago, old Earl Goff provided us with a lot of help. But I also remember very clearly that he told me that the only request of the Forrest family was to maintain stability between the wizarding world and the Muggle world; if necessary, or if Grindelwald was not so radical, he might not necessarily support the other side in return."

"Well, this is indeed what the patriarch of the Forrest Family would say." Lin You commented, nodding.

"So you should understand my concerns. Fudge previously insisted on denying the news of Voldemort's resurrection, and the main reason he gave was to maintain stability. Of course, I know that you look down on people like Fudge; but those former Death Eaters are not honest gentlemen. They neither want to continue to follow Voldemort nor do they want to be regarded as traitors by Voldemort. They only want to keep everything they have. They are now like drowned people, and they will grab every straw at all costs."

Lin You smiled and said, "Then what do you think those Death Eaters would do if I were willing to help them?"

"If necessary, they will not hesitate to put you higher than Voldemort did."

"Compared with Voldemort? That's too shabby." Lin You smiled contemptuously.

Dumbledore saw Lin You's expression, but did not say anything. Instead, he smiled with relief and asked again, "So what do you think, Lord Earl?"

"what?"

"I mean, the invitation to be the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor."

"Don't joke." Lin You shook his head like a rattle. "Do you think I don't know how hard the professors at Hogwarts work? Defense Against the Dark Arts is a compulsory course. There are seven grades. Even if we exclude the advanced classes for grades six and seven, the remaining five grades still have more than 30 classes per week. And that's just the time in class, not including lesson preparation, grading homework and exams. I'm giving up my leisurely life as a noble to work for you?"

"Oh, that's a pity." The regret on Dumbledore's face did not seem fake; not only because he failed to take the opportunity to "trick" Lin You into taking sides, but also because he regretted not being able to find an outstanding professor for his students.

Although Hogwarts is only a secondary school in terms of the age of its students, its curriculum arrangement and the teaching methods of its professors are very close to those of a Muggle university.

To put it simply, the professors have a strong sense of autonomy. The teaching process of the professors does not necessarily strictly follow the textbooks. In many cases, they will add their own understanding of magic to the lectures - this is very consistent with the strong "idealism" contained in magic.

What Dumbledore values ​​is the professor's personal understanding of magic.

The Forrest family is undoubtedly the number one family in the current wizarding world; the current patriarch is personally certified as the number one in the wizarding world by the old wizard. With such a family and such strength, what a rich treasure of knowledge it is? Any little bit of it leaked out in class or outside of class is enough for Hogwarts students to benefit from for a lifetime.

Therefore, even without considering the political significance of the title "Earl Goff", simply from the perspective of improving teaching standards, it is worth the old principal's invitation to the position.

It's a pity that Hogwarts can't afford such a good professor with a salary of 180 gold Galleons per week.

"But you don't have to be discouraged. Although I am not interested in the suggestion of being a professor and working twelve hours a day in and out of class, it does not prevent me from being interested in Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry."

Lin You's words made Dumbledore feel happy and relieved. "What are you going to do?"

"It's nothing, actually. I just heard that due to the last Death Eater prison break and the subsequent turmoil in the wizarding and Muggle communities, two seats on the school board became vacant. So I wanted to ask, how many gold Galleons would it cost to bid for one seat?"

Dumbledore's eyes lit up at first, and then he didn't know whether to laugh or cry: "Your Excellency, seats on the board of directors are obtained through election, not bidding."

"In most cases, there is no essential difference between the two. The highest bidder wins. The only difference is that in auctioning, you have to pay actual money, while in election campaigns you can write blank checks first. Compared with auctions, election campaigns can more easily default on their debts afterwards." Lin You made a very responsible evaluation based on his own life experience in the British Empire.

Dumbledore was speechless. He had lived for more than a hundred years, and had seen everything in both the wizarding and Muggle worlds. How could he not know what Lin You was talking about?
“I’m sorry, but I can’t argue with your point, but I just can’t follow your lead and measure school board seats by price.”

Lin You jokingly opened his palm and said, "Donate 500,000 gold galleons - every year; of this money, a special amount will be used to order candies and other desserts. The specific types will be decided by the principal."

Dumbledore was at a loss for words again: "Your Excellency, you know that I never interfere in the internal affairs of the school board."

"That's a pity. You won't be able to eat so many candies." Lin You laughed, but only denied the "special fund" for candies, but did not deny the donation of 500,000 gold galleons.

The two of them smiled and ignored the topic.

With such a huge sum of money, and the fact that a lot of people in the wizarding world now need the Forresters' help, buying not only a seat on the school board, but even a Minister of Magic is not out of the question.

It’s just a matter of extra money.

There is naturally no need to discuss matters that have been set in stone.

"You don't want to waste your time as the professor of Defense Against the Dark Arts, so do you have time to watch the next event of the Triwizard Tournament?" Dumbledore made a second invitation.

"That's true, and I should go there as a school director." Lin You did not refuse the invitation.

Dumbledore said cheerfully, "That's good; but unfortunately, I have to continue to worry about the selection of professors."

Lin You was surprised and said, "Don't we have a ready-made candidate? The werewolf wizard I saw in the Shrieking Shack last time seemed quite capable. He should have graduated from a professional school and received formal education. He is rare for a werewolf."

Remus Lupin was supposed to be the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor in Harry Potter's third year, but John Constantine came in and took away the professor's position for that year.

But since Lupin has never held the position, he is not cursed by the position, so he can reuse this manpower, right?

Lin You was very puzzled as to why Dumbledore had not thought of this, resulting in idle resources.

The old wizard shook his head and sighed with helplessness: "Remus can't do that, his identity as a werewolf has been exposed; parents will not accept a werewolf appearing on campus, it is a potential safety threat to the students."

"How did he get exposed?" Lin You was even more curious; how could Lupin's identity be exposed if he hadn't experienced the great inventory of grudges and love-hate relationships in the Shrieking Shack at the end of Harry's third year?

"Lupin was implicated by me. In order to undermine my credibility, Fudge deliberately revealed Lupin's identity as a werewolf and the fact that he concealed his identity when he entered Hogwarts. In the words of the Daily Prophet, 'This fact fully proves Dumbledore's absurdity and irresponsibility.' Although Fudge has lost his power now, the secret that has been leaked cannot be recovered."

Lin You sneered, "They harm others to benefit themselves, make personal attacks, and attack opponents in every possible way. This is exactly what I think of politicians. These people want everything, but they are shameless."

"Yes, the most pitiful one is Remus. He is a very good wizard. It's just because his father offended a werewolf when he was young... Alas!"

Lin You asked, "What about the other one, the other wizard who was in the Shrieking Shack at the time?"

"Are you talking about Sirius?" Dumbledore smiled bitterly with a disapproving expression, indicating that he had also considered this possibility. "I can safely hand over the students to Remus, but if it is Sirius... I think if he is allowed to return to school, he seems to be more suitable to be a student rather than a professor."

"A professor who acts like a student? That's not impossible!" Lin You seemed to be trying to persuade and comfort him, but in fact, he was just watching the fun. "A professor with this style will definitely get along well with the students and may be more likely to be respected by the students. At least, Mr. Porter will be very happy."

"Then I can't let Sirius be the professor." Dumbledore said resolutely. (End of this chapter)