Chapter 3 Observations of Diagonal Alley
"Diagon Alley!" As Ron's words fell, a handful of Floo powder was sprinkled, and a green flame swept through the fireplace, and by the time the flames were gone.
"Cool!" Seeing this way of traveling in the wizarding world for the first time, Harry's eyes sparkled with excitement.
"Harry, come, grab a handful of Floo powder, remember! Be sure to pronounce the words clearly! Mrs. Weasley's voice rang out.
"Slanted Alley!" While this way of getting around looks cool, Harry's user experience for the first time was really poor, and after choking on cigarette ash a few times, he mistakenly pronounced "Diagon Alley" as "Diagon Alley".
……
As the world whirled, Harry slipped out of a fireplace, picking up the squeezed deformed glasses, Harry struggled to pull them to the bridge of his nose and looked around the shop with all sorts of strange things.
A beautiful opal necklace with a card pressed underneath that reads: "WARNING: Do Not Touch!" - Cursed - Nineteen Muggles have died to date for possession of it. ”
Harry walked around a glass cabinet with layers of skulls, walked past the wall of masks with hideous expressions, and saw a shriveled palm, out of curiosity, Harry reached out to touch it, but before Harry's hand could reach over, the hand that looked like a sawn off a dead corpse suddenly moved, and grabbed Harry's hand, and after a long struggle, the frightened Harry finally broke free.
But before Harry could breathe a sigh of relief, a doorbell rang at the door, and a panicked Harry hurriedly hid in a cabinet beside him.
An unfamiliar voice rang out, "What kind of wind brought you here?" Honorable Mr. Malfoy, and, of course, Mr. Malfoy Jr. Through the cracks in the cupboards, Harry could see a half-hunched man with a flattering look on his face talking to Malfoys and his son, who seemed to be the owner of the shop.
"Put away your expression, Bock, I'm not a fledgling boy, and as for my son, I'll bring him to see the world." Malfoy's tone was unkind, but there was no common disgust and disdain on his face, as if the man in front of him was someone who could talk to him on an equal footing.
"Well, you know that lately...... The Ministry of Magic is doing some raids, huh, so ...... I have something I want to make a move. As if he could kill himself by saying these words, Lucius Malfoy managed to hold the words out of his mouth with difficulty, and little Malfoy on the side had already escaped his father's grasp and began to wander around the store.
"I suppose the people from the Ministry of Magic wouldn't dare search your mansion, would they?" Although the elder Malfoy told him to put away that expression, the shopkeeper continued to compliment him with such humility.
"Yes, yes, it does. Malfoy's name is still somewhat useful. Listening to the shopkeeper's words, Lucius Malfoy used three affirmations in a row to prove that the Malfoy family was still as strong as ever, and people dared not invade it.
But then old Malfoy changed the tone and said, "But I still have something I want to sell, although it will not find my head, but once it is found, it is a rotten egg." With that, old Malfoy took out a small box from the crook of his arm under his cloak.
"Let's see, give me an estimate." As she spoke, Lucius Malfoy used his ornate silver snake cane to push the box in the direction of the shopkeeper.
In the process of the boss's valuation, the old Malfoy finally had the energy to take care of his son, and at this time the little Malfoy happened to walk next to Harry, like Harry, a boy of this age has the heart to dare to do anything, and Draco also reached out his hand to the dry palm.
But before the shriveled palm could grasp Draco's hand, the head of the snake on Malfoy's cane hooked Draco's hand back first. "If you still want your life to be intact, you'd better stay by my side and stay still." Lucius Malfoy's tone was stern, but the concern in it could not be concealed.
"Oh, that's the hand of glory, if little Master Malfoy is interested, I can ......" Before the shopkeeper could finish speaking, he was rudely interrupted by old Malfoy, "Come on, unless he is degenerate enough to be a thief, he won't need this, evaluate your value Old Bock." ”
Although he was interrupted, the shopkeeper still had the expression that the customer was God, and said smoothly: "It has been estimated, are you satisfied with the price?" As he spoke, the shopkeeper pushed a stack of gold gallons and a pile of silver nacos and a few bronze nats to old Malfoy.
"This price is not good, old Bock, I still know the market, you profiteer." With that, Lucius Malfoy pulled out a small stack of gold galleons from the shopkeeper's cash box.
"These fractions are yours, and I'm so generous." As he spoke, he searched for his son, and when he saw him touching around again, Malfoy Sr. was so angry that he didn't care about Galleon, so he hurried over to his son.
Through the crack, Harry could clearly see that the shopkeeper was grimacing at Malfoy as he stealthily pulled two gold galleons out of the stack.
When the Malfoys walked out of the shop and it was quiet outside, Harry pushed open the cabinet door and was about to go outside, when suddenly a hand grabbed him, and the shopkeeper's voice rang out again: "Look, what did I catch?" Is there anything I can help you with? ”
"Indeed, Mr. Bock, you do have a place where you can help me." A familiar Harry voice rang out. "Professor Rochefort?!" Harry was delighted.
"Let him go, Mr. Bock! Harry, why don't you come to me quickly, how did you get to this place? With that, Bernard took a few steps forward and tapped Harry's glasses and robes with his wand, and with a "whoosh" the glasses became new and the robes became clean.
"Harry! Why are you here? Didn't we meet at Gringotts?" Hermione said questioningly.
"Well, that's a long story." Harry began to talk to Hermione.
Regardless of the two children's heads-to-mouth, Bernard looked at the shopkeeper, "Mr. Bock, I'm here to deliver the goods, and by the way, see if what I want has arrived." ”
As he spoke, Bernard took out a box from a small pocket around his waist and placed it on the counter, Bernard counted the box with his wand, and with a "click", a flash of golden light flashed on the box, and the lid turned over.
"It's a pity, Mr. Bock, that some of your items have really subtle spells on them. I really can't do anything, you put them away first, there are children here, and if one is not good, it may be a little troublesome. Bernard said apologetically.
"Hmm, let me see, you can't do anything about that set of scarlet cards, it looks like I'm going to contact some high-level spell solver, the nail from the ancient East? Can't you do anything about this? As far as I know, you're pretty good at purifying evil energy?! The shopkeeper said with some meaning.
Damn this profiteer, Bernard scolded in his heart, and explained with a smile: "Mr. Bock, you should have known for a long time, there is not only one kind of energy on this nail, this corpse's breath is easy to deal with, but that energy against the bloodline is not something I can deal with, this bloodline curse is too old and too powerful." ”
"Huh? Is it? Hearing you say that, I think it's true that there are some very strange things about this nail. As if he didn't know that Bernard was sarcastic, it was as if he had noticed the strangeness of the nail for the first time, and he actually gave Bernard a grateful smile as he spoke.
Speaking of which, in this pile of prohibited contraband, Bernard's most fearful thing is this nail, the curse on the nail is obviously aimed at the bloodline, this level of curse is not something that a wizard of Bernard's level can touch at all, and even Bernard feels that even Dumbledore may not be able to solve this curse, fortunately this power is now asleep, otherwise Bernard would have finished playing a long time ago, for this, Bernard scolded the "profiteer" many times.
"Very good, except for these two, you have solved the rest, very good, these are very valuable antiquities, according to our agreement, please accept these twenty gold galleons." Bock's face was happy, but the words he said were still so cold.
After scolding the profiteer a few more times in his heart, Bernard did not move the gold galleon on the table, but asked, "Mr. Bock, I don't know if you have found the music box I want?" ”
"Well, do you mean the music box that has been circulated several times, and both wizards and Muggles claim to have seen a little girl in red next to it? I did find it, and you know, I want to collect such a precious thing! After Bernard's reminder again, Bock said reluctantly.
Pushing the gold gallons on the table, Bernard said with certainty: "You know, I have no money on me." After saying that, Bernard said no more, and just stood there, looking like he was ready to be slaughtered.
"Okay, Mr. Rochefort, thanks to your patronage, these twenty Galleons are just right." Bock grinned and put the gold gallon on the counter back into his cash box, turned around and fumbled under the counter, and after a while took out a pink music box and put it on the counter.
……
"Harry, how did you come to Diagonal Alley? There are a lot of fallen wizards here, and a little wizard like you shouldn't be here. Bernard asked knowingly.
"Professor Rochefort, I ......" Harry asked his own question after some explanation, "Professor, what kind of store was that, I saw Malfoy and his son there before, but instead of buying things, they were selling?" ”
After saying that, Harry also looked around with frightened and puzzled eyes, and could see that in the dim alleys, there were all kinds of wizards, some of them were devouring the internal organs of unknown animals, and some were trading in the depths of the dim alleys, which was completely different from the wizarding world that Harry usually came into contact with.
Following Harry's gaze, Bernard muttered softly, "It doesn't have to be animal entrails......
"What did you say, Professor?" Harry asked, confused.
"It's nothing, Harry, I mean this is the underground world of the wizarding world, there are a lot of contraband here, the store just now is called the Bogin-Bock shop, which has the largest trading volume in this underground world, and the profiteer Bock has a lot of good goods in his hands, and although he is greedy for money, he is really a good dealer, as for Lucius, I guess he came here because of the recent raid by the Ministry of Magic, it seems that he is also a little panicked."
Although it seems that Bernard has been chatting with Harry, but the hand hidden under the cloak has been holding the wand tightly, and it has to be like this here, unlike Hagrid's stupid big man, as a half-blood giant, he is born with a high magic resistance and is not afraid of most potions and blood pollution, you know, there are werewolves in Diagonal Alley, carefully protecting the two little guys, and the three of them finally came to Diagon Alley.