Damn It, I'm Surrounded by Weasleys!

"Sold out! Sold out! Our Black Bamboo Mark I has sold out!" Zhang San announced loudly, holding up the compiled order list.

Applause, whistles, and cheers echoed through the empty classroom, every face glowing with the joy of making money.

Ever since Gryffindor crushed Ravenclaw in that match, orders for the Black Bamboo Mark I had poured into Hogwarts like raindrops.

To boost sales further, Zhang San set the final price of the Black Bamboo Mark I at 1,500 Galleons. Though their brand recognition could not match the Nimbus Company's, the 500-Galleon price difference was enough to erase that gap.

The Black Bamboo Mark I was a broom that had appeared on the pitch. That Quidditch match had already proven that the Black Bamboo series possessed performance comparable to Nimbus brooms. Its fine control, in particular, was even better than the Nimbus 2000's.

By Christmas Eve, their workshop had received orders for thirty-seven Black Bamboo Mark Is. At the workshop members' production speed, they needed only one week to complete every order.

Making brooms was the kind of job that was easy once you knew how, but impossible if you did not. Moreover, as the number of orders increased, the production team's proficiency grew by the day.

When they had made the brooms for the Gryffindor team, they could produce at most three a day. But now, if they went all out and worked overtime, they could turn out ten Black Bamboo Mark Is in a single day.

The main reason was that the Black Bamboo Mark I followed an entirely natural design style. Its broomstick was simply a straight bamboo tube, requiring no shaping or polishing, which greatly shortened production time.

The most time-consuming part was actually the enchantment process. Ron and Hermione from the enchantment team simply could not keep up with Fred and George's hardware production speed.

So, if they wanted to fulfill more orders, recruiting outside help was an absolutely necessary choice.

Ron, Fred, and George jointly recommended their eldest brother to Zhang San—Bill Weasley.

"Bill got twelve Outstanding grades in his O.W.L.s, and he served as Head Boy from 1988 to 1989," Ron said as he introduced Bill to Zhang San. "After graduating, he worked as a Curse-Breaker for Gringotts in Egypt. He's extremely skilled at breaking curses and applying enchantments."

Zhang San rubbed his chin. "He sounds like a good candidate. But can a tiny workshop like ours really hire someone that talented?"

Fred guaranteed, "Our broom workshop is making money hand over fist. As long as we offer a high enough salary, Bill will definitely be willing to work for us."

"And Mum doesn't like him working in Egypt anyway. It's far too far away, and it's quite dangerous. If he can find a job in Britain, Mum will help us persuade Bill," George added.

Zhang San suddenly realized that his little workshop had an extremely high Weasley concentration.

Aside from himself and Hermione, every other member was part of the Weasley Family. And if the future was counted too, Hermione Granger would also become a member of the Weasley Family...

Damn it, I'm surrounded by Weasleys!

But honestly, Weasleys really were useful. The Weasley Family's seven children of this generation were all exceptional talents—Ron might have been nothing more than a sidekick in the movies, but he was still an outstanding wizard.

After all, he became a Gryffindor prefect in his fifth year, a position only the best students in a year could hold.

His brilliance was either overshadowed by Harry Potter at his side or stolen by his overly outstanding brothers. The fact that Ron had painstakingly studied broommaking solely to craft an excellent flying broom for himself was already proof of his ability.

Forget it. A higher Weasley concentration was fine. After all, wasn't the future orthodoxy of the wizarding world in the hands of the Weasley Family?

Even the Chosen One, Harry Potter, became the Weasley Family's son-in-law; Hermione Granger, the Minister for Magic, became their daughter-in-law. Zhang San figured a few more Weasleys in his workshop would not hurt.

"I agree to hire Bill Weasley as a technician. His base annual salary will be 2,000 Galleons, and he can also receive piece-rate commissions—fifty Galleons for every broom he makes," Zhang San decided.

If the workshop could recruit Bill, production of the Black Bamboo Mark I could enter the fast lane. Zhang San and the others still had classes to attend, so broom production could only take place during their after-school breaks.

During those days when Black Bamboo Mark I orders exploded, Ron and Hermione could only stay up late by lamplight making brooms. Their daytime classes could not be delayed, so they had no choice but to work overtime deep into the night.

If they had not relied on potions to keep themselves going, they would not even have been able to attend class the next day. They would have slept through everything.

Having a full-time professional to help shoulder the workload was simply wonderful. As a top student, Bill's mastery of spellcasting far surpassed that of first-year Ron and Hermione.

When processing brooms, the procedures Ron and Hermione had to handle with painstaking caution were effortless for Bill. Adult wizards surpassed school-age wizards not only in magical power, but also in experience and technique.

Even if Hogwarts was merely a magical vocational school that taught spellcasting rather than theory, its outstanding graduates still carried plenty of value.

Moreover, Bill's work as a Curse-Breaker at Gringotts also required vast stores of knowledge. It was a high-risk profession. The pharaohs' burial goods excavated from pyramids were no simple things; one careless mistake could land you under an ancient curse.

"With Bill joining us, Hermione and I can devote more attention to researching the Black Bamboo Mark II. I think there's still a lot of potential to be uncovered in the Black Bamboo series. This time, we didn't completely defeat the Nimbus 2000. The next generation of Black Bamboo brooms will definitely surpass it," Ron said firmly.

Nearly half a year of magical technology research had transformed Ron completely. He was no longer the lazy, timid Ron Weasley who had first entered school. He had grown into an outstanding magical researcher capable of standing on his own.

Within the magical research group, Ron was the one leading the research. Hermione had always been positioned as his research assistant, helping Ron look up information, organize his thoughts, and cooperate with his spellcasting.

Through their constant collaboration, the two had developed considerable chemistry. The mutual disdain they had felt at the start of term had long since faded away. Hermione found Ron's thinking exceptionally flexible, while Ron admired Hermione's diligence and intelligence.

Zhang San felt that they would not need to wait until the end of the story to get together. Once their first feelings of love awakened, that tacit understanding would naturally rise into another kind of emotion.

Heh... humans!

Bill's reply soon arrived at Hogwarts. After repeated persuasion from his younger brothers and mother, Bill decided to give up his job as a Curse-Breaker at Gringotts, return to Britain, and open a broom shop in Diagon Alley.

The Black Bamboo Mark I needed a fixed channel for external sales. Zhang San and the others were all studying at Hogwarts, and only Bill could serve as the actual manager of the Diagon Alley sales location.

Bill's 2,000-Galleon base salary already included his wages for minding the shop in Diagon Alley. This model was a front shop with a back factory: Fred and George at Hogwarts handled the hardware production, while the semi-finished brooms were delivered by owl to Diagon Alley for further processing.

Bill was responsible for enchanting the brooms, then handing them over to customers who came to collect them according to the sales orders.

The process was perfect, and Zhang San was extremely satisfied. He only needed to provide enough bamboo; after that, all he had to do was lie back and make money.