There is also a highly unique cooking recipe to share on the board—Pig's Blood Curry Pineapple Pudding Pizza!
How can a single culinary dish manage to offend people from several different countries all at once?
This particular dish has been strongly criticized by many furious wizards, who have loudly demanded that it be completely blocked from the board!
They claimed that even if the people of Great Britain ate nothing but mashed potatoes every single day, the nation would absolutely not tolerate such a blatant culinary insult!
An Italian wizard who was visiting the country claimed this recipe was a severe insult to Italian national dignity and even threatened to issue a formal diplomatic inquiry to the British Ministry of Magic.
He went so far as to demand that the inventor of the recipe apologize directly to the very concept of pizza!
But Ted did not care about the controversy at all.
This dish was highly newsworthy, wasn't it?
As long as it generated a massive amount of traffic to the forum, that was more than enough for him!
Besides, this recipe was originally provided by an Indian-British environmental wizard who is physically male but mentally female, making the creator virtually immune to all forms of social or political magic!
And these are our own people, after all!
In just a few short years, the prime ministers will all be hailing from India anyway.
The true British Orthodoxy is practically in India!
Some users also shared their personal travel experiences on the board—for example, one post detailed that there are Vegans operating in a certain red-light area of Spain.
Ted immediately blocked half of this specific message, including the attached URL link!
As a direct result of this censorship, there were nearly a hundred anonymous comments begging for the link under the post in just a few days.
Ted thought to himself: Let them talk privately, lest they accidentally send themselves straight to Azkaban! I hereby solemnly declare that I did not participate in the group discussion, and the users will have to bear all legal consequences themselves!
Some people in the shop were also casually chatting and drinking Butterbeer in a very lively, comfortable atmosphere.
"Samir, guess exactly what I saw in America this time?"
"What did you see?"
"A massive battle between the Aurors and the Purifiers from the US Ministry of Magic! Good heavens, they were fighting right there on the open streets of the Muggles, or as they call them over there, No-Majs!"
"Oh! Aren't they trying to avoid the non-magical people at all?"
"They were fighting right in front of the Muggles! Apparently, among the descendants of those fanatical Purifiers, someone has emerged who can actually use special abilities! They can use certain spells and psionic powers without needing a wand at all, and the two sides are having a huge, destructive fight!"
Such fascinating messages from all over the world kept coming in, and they were meticulously recorded by the psionic crystal servant, Parker, who was embedded deeply into the wall acting as a disguised piece of decoration.
Information exchange among the Muggles is already very advanced; after all, it is currently 1992, and the Win95 operating system will be officially released in just a few short years.
However, communication within the wizarding world remains very closed, isolated, and incredibly slow.
News from abroad takes at least a full week to reach Britain, and even when it finally does arrive, only a very limited number of privileged people actually know about it.
Ordinary wizards only ever read the Daily Prophet and perhaps subscribe to some light entertainment magazines.
If the higher-ups in the government do not tell you what is happening, the vast majority of regular wizards will simply remain completely in the dark.
In fact, many strange and alarming things happen right within Great Britain.
However, the Ministry of Magic, acting in conjunction with the Muggle Queen, has been actively handling the escalating situation and ruthlessly suppressing the news from leaking.
It seems that some strange, completely unidentified beings have suddenly invaded the local black market and are currently fighting a great, secret battle with the dark wizards there.
An unknown magical creature has also mysteriously appeared in a Muggle mining operation, causing the entire facility to shut down immediately.
The Muggles are completely unable to handle the dangerous situation and have had to secretly contact the Ministry of Magic for assistance.
There are also Muggles who are being mysteriously murdered in bizarre, locked-room murder scenarios, leaving absolutely no clues behind for the mundane police.
Additionally, some Muggle-owned antique items have suddenly produced dangerous magical effects, causing quite a bit of trouble and property damage.
Although the Ministry of Magic appears perfectly calm and in control on the surface, it is actually extremely busy and stretched to its absolute limits.
However, Minister for Magic Cornelius Fudge somehow acquired a highly binding contract spell and actively put a strict gag order on the entire Ministry of Magic staff.
If they even accidentally mentioned the ongoing crisis, their tongues would physically hurt, and the breach of silence would be immediately recorded by the headquarters.
That is exactly why all of this chaos has been successfully kept secret from the public until now.
Last year's Arcane Exchange enthusiasts were mostly just idle street hustlers who had absolutely nothing better to do than sit on their small wooden stools all day long, drinking hot tea, eating melon seeds, and occasionally cheering and making a loud fuss over minor things.
It was exactly the kind of thing you do to kill time when you are profoundly bored.
However, right now, the Arcane Exchange's user base has increased dramatically, and the demographics of the crowd have become much healthier and more diverse.
Witches now make up a quarter to a third of the total customer base.
They often sat closely together and enthusiastically talked about the specific "witch section" that Ted had thoughtfully created just for them on the boards.
After all, as someone wise once said, a woman's overall spending power is vastly greater than that of children, the elderly, dogs, and so on...
Female customers, of course, absolutely cannot be ignored in any business model.
What kind of knitting technique exchange was this?
These were all ordinary books that Ted had found among the Muggles, which he then disguised heavily and posted online to the magical community.
After all, there are so many Muggles in the world; they can create a huge number of interesting patterns and techniques in no time at all.
There was also a complete guide to home magic!
Many of the featured spells were small and highly practical, and Ted himself had never even heard of them before.
It was quite an eye-opening learning experience.
The magical world is rather inactive in terms of sharing; many older wizards invent useful spells that are only known and used by themselves and their immediate families.
It is completely unknown exactly how many brilliant spells have been permanently lost to history as a direct result of this hoarding.
How do I effectively prepare ingredients and recipes for five days starting on Monday?
Pre-made food! This was another incredibly useful recipe concept that Ted had directly copied from a Muggle source.
Yes, the Muggle world is a massive treasure trove of convenience!
We need to gradually let the pure-blood wizards realize this fact.
How can I effectively get rid of annoying magical pests in my home?
"Lockhart Teaches You How to Get Rid of Household Pests"—let us give a sincere shout-out to those poor, unfortunate teachers!
He will be permanently staying at St. Mungo's Hospital from now on, which will undoubtedly cost a considerable amount of gold.
After all, his other published books were forcibly taken off the store shelves because of the damning English translations of his plagiarism.
There are also heavily debated issues related to children's education posted on the board.
Hit him! If the child simply won't eat their dinner, a good beating will fix it!
If a child stubbornly doesn't want to study, just give them a good beating!
If a child misbehaves in any way, a good beating will certainly fix it!
If one beating isn't enough to correct the behavior, then two beatings will surely do the trick!
If the standard stinging curse doesn't work effectively, use the transmutation and torture curse. As long as you don't use the Unforgivable Cruciatus Curse, it's technically not illegal.
Ted even saw many wizards coming to the Arcane Exchange as entire families—arriving very early in the morning, dressed neatly in their robes, first buying the delicious elf treats for their breakfast, then checking out the item appraisals and guessing games (betting on the stats of unidentified equipment, everyone has played that, right?) and the secondhand goods listings (I highly recommend the auction house for this), then finally chatting on the public forum with their friends.
Then they had a lovely lunch at the Arcane Exchange, and afterwards, they went their separate ways to casually stroll around the surrounding cobblestone streets before finally meeting up again to go home and conclude a wonderful, fulfilling Saturday.
Many of the people who initially came were just Ted's school classmates and their parents, but after coming to the shop just once, they became completely addicted to the experience.
Where else can you possibly find a place like this where you can eat, drink, chat, and even gossip on a magical forum?
If we could only find a wandering poet or bard to sing a couple of entertaining songs, that would make the atmosphere absolutely perfect!
The Arcane Exchange is now successfully starting to move towards becoming a massive, comprehensive community forum.
In the second week after the business model change, the total number of active users reached more than two hundred and forty, and the newly expanded magical storefront was still simply not enough to hold everyone comfortably.
Ted acutely felt that things were rapidly getting out of his direct control.
This is the magical world of Great Britain, with a total population of just over thirty thousand individuals.
Moreover, they all live widely scattered throughout the entire country.
Even if Diagon Alley, where he was currently located, is the most bustling and only major commercial street, this sheer number of regular visitors is ridiculously high—it represents nearly one percent of the entire nation's weekly visitors.
Even famous Muggle tourist traps aren't nearly that big of a market share!
Leaving aside the pressing question of revenue—this specific profit model doesn't actually generate very high monetary profits, at least not when directly compared to those massive monopolistic businesses—this kind of immense social influence is not something that Ted, a mere twelve-year-old student, can safely control by himself.
It is exactly like a certain popular website on the internet.
Although it doesn't make much actual money, it has a huge, terrifying amount of traffic and active users.
That raw data is its greatest intrinsic value, and someone powerful will always care about seizing it.
If this current situation continues unchecked, someone might easily see the value in the shop and resort to underhanded, illegal means to seize it for themselves.
That will undoubtedly cause massive trouble!
Last year, when the Arcane Exchange was still just a small, online-only operation, its main competitor, Borgin and Burkes, was already secretly causing trouble for them.
However, Ted found a clever opportunity to add fuel to the fire, and things quickly calmed down.
Now that the physical operation has expanded significantly and its true effects and market value have emerged for all to see, it is very hard to say what kind of greedy people it will inevitably attract.
In this precarious situation, Ted definitely needs to plan ahead for his own safety.
He doesn't actually care much about holding onto this specific influence because he fundamentally wants to follow the path of true magical power returning to himself.
If he truly grows and develops to the age of twenty or thirty, he could easily take down all the ruling wizards in Great Britain with just one single wand!
He simply wanted to stir things up early on and try to bring some necessary, modern changes to the stagnant magical world.
Therefore, it would be far better to bring in more powerful allies now and willingly share some of the financial profits in exchange for protection.
For example, the ancient Longbottom family.
Neville's famously stressful grandmother had formally invited him to their ancestral house before the term ended, so he thought he would finally go and see what they wanted.
Ted never expected in a million years that he would receive such a grand, overwhelming welcome when he actually went there!
Just how grand was it?
The massive iron gates of the Longbottom Estate swung open smoothly, and Neville's formidable grandmother, Augusta Longbottom and his uncle Algie, both dressed impeccably in their absolute finest formal attire, greeted him personally right at the main entrance—and his grandmother wasn't even wearing that ridiculous eagle helmet, or rather, that stuffed vulture hat!
This highly unusual situation left Ted feeling completely bewildered.
He didn't even say exactly why he came to visit.
Besides, even if he had said something important, it wouldn't have naturally come to this extreme extent, would it?
The intense way they were handling this reception was making him a little bit scared!
But Mrs. Longbottom did not put any pressure on Ted at all; on the contrary, she was incredibly kind and welcoming.
She did not beat around the bush and directly dispelled Ted's lingering concerns.
"Ted, please allow me to call you that. I want to sincerely thank you for taking care of Neville…"
Mrs. Longbottom was always very worried about Neville.
Because Neville's uncle Algie had no children of his own, the ancient Longbottom family now only had one single heir left to carry on the name.
The main problem was that this sole heir was a boy who had miraculously survived a terrible tragedy.
Although Mrs. Longbottom had been consistently putting immense pressure on Neville to succeed, over the long years, the one person who had been under the absolute most pressure had actually been herself.
She was constantly worried to death that she wouldn't last more than a few more years, and that if she passed away, Neville would likely suffer the unmitigated malice of the entire wizarding world all alone.
By then, Neville would probably only have Albus Dumbledore to rely on for protection.
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Word count: 2426
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