Hogwarts Raven's Claw

Chapter 4 Diagon Alley

Early in the morning, two people, one adult and one child, were walking on the road in North Yankton.

The tall middle-aged man was at least two meters tall, while the other was a child, thin, wearing a pair of black-framed glasses that could not be fixed with tape. His hair must have not been cut for a long time, and it was piled on his head like a pile of weeds, covering his forehead.

This strange group walking on the street attracted the attention of passers-by. Some people even suspected that the child was abducted. After all, the "giant" did not look like a good person.

But no one intervened, not even calling the police. After all, gang activities were not uncommon for residents of North Yankeeton, but it was rare to see such unscrupulous behavior.

These two people are none other than the Hogwarts gamekeeper, Hagrid, and the Hogwarts freshman, Harry Potter.

After a while, the two came to the door of a shack in the woods west of North Yankton. Hagrid cleared his throat and was about to knock on the door, but it suddenly opened.

Mike looked at the giant outside the door and recognized at first sight that the person was Hagrid from Harry Potter.

Before Mike could speak, Hagrid put down his hand that was about to knock on the door and coughed to ease the embarrassment.

"You are Mike Townley, right? Um... let me see." Hagrid seemed to have forgotten his words halfway through, and took out a piece of paper from the pocket of his thick coat and began to read.

"I was abandoned by my parents when I was 2 years old... I escaped from the orphanage when I was 5... I have been wandering in London ever since. Um, I'm sorry!"

Realizing that he had read the contents of the note, Hagrid became even more embarrassed and quickly crumpled up the note and stuffed it back into his pocket.

"Um, in short I'm the gamekeeper at Hogwarts, and I'm here to take you, Harry, to Diagon Alley."

Mike didn't care about Hagrid's rudeness and gave a sunny smile.

"It's okay, Mr. Hagrid, and thank you for coming all the way."

Hagrid didn't waste any time. When he saw that Mike knew why he was there, he took Mike and Harry to London.

Harry was very nervous throughout the journey and never spoke.

He originally thought that Hagrid would use some magical method to take him to the magical world, but he didn't expect that Hagrid first took him to pick up a Hogwarts freshman named Mike, and then took the two of them on the subway to downtown London.

Harry had a good impression of Mike. After all, Harry had always felt that there was no one in the world more miserable than himself, until he met Mike.

Compared with the other person's experience, the suffering I have experienced seems to be nothing.

Of course, it is not denied that Harry still had a little bit of gloating in his heart, but this thought was quickly suppressed by Harry, and followed by a strong sense of guilt. It must be said that Harry is still very simple.

Mike was very talkative along the way, always finding things to do to chat with Hagrid and Harry.

After the conversation along the way, Hagrid's embarrassment soon disappeared, but Harry responded to Hagrid and Mike's topics intermittently, and he was still very nervous.

Not long after, Hagrid led them into the Leaky Cauldron.

The Leaky Cauldron is obviously very famous as a public entrance connecting the British wizarding world and the Muggle world.

But for a famous place, it was too dark and dirty. A few old ladies sat in the corner of the room drinking sherry from small glasses, one of them was smoking a long pipe. A little man in a top hat was chatting with a bar owner who was almost bald.

As soon as the three of them entered the door, they attracted everyone's attention.

Just as the bar owner Tom was about to greet Hagrid, he noticed the two people behind Hagrid. After looking at them carefully for a while, he excitedly stepped forward and shook Harry's hand.

"Oh my god! You are Harry Potter, right? I am so honored!"

As soon as Tom's words fell, the whole bar was boiling, and everyone rushed to Harry's side, hoping that the famous Harry Potter could shake hands with him.

Mike noticed a man dressed like an Indian. He spoke stutteringly and it was obvious that he was Quirrell, the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor at Hogwarts this year.

Hagrid looked very proud, as if he was forced to shake hands with everyone. However, he still played his role, drove away everyone and led the two to a brick wall behind the Leaky Cauldron.

"Three blocks up... and two blocks across..." he muttered. "Okay, stand back, little ones."

He tapped the wall three times with the tip of his umbrella.

The brick he knocked on began to shake and move, and a small hole appeared in the middle. The hole became larger and larger, and soon there appeared in front of them a wide archway wide enough for Hagrid to pass through, leading to a winding, endless cobblestone street. Mike looked at everything in Diagon Alley excitedly. This is the wizarding world!
Mike and Harry wished they had eight eyes. They kept looking around, trying to see everything around them clearly.

Hagrid laughed heartily when he saw the two men, who looked like country bumpkins coming to the city.

"Don't worry, we'll go to Gringotts to get the money first, and then we'll take you for a good look around, Harry." Hagrid noticed Mike beside Harry. "And you, Mike, don't worry. Hogwarts has prepared your school supplies for you, and we can just go to Gringotts to pick them up.

Mike smiled and nodded. He could clearly feel that Hagrid treated him and Harry differently.

As they were chatting and laughing, they came to a snow-white building that stood tall above the surrounding shops. Next to the shining bronze door, an elf wearing a scarlet uniform inlaid with gold bowed to them.

Harry was obviously curious and kept staring at the goblin.

Seeing this, Hagrid possessed Harry and said something, but he was afraid that the goblin would hear him so he spoke in a very low voice. Even Mike, who was standing next to them, couldn't hear it clearly.

Not long after they walked, a silver door appeared in front of the three people, with words written on it:

Come in, stranger, but beware the consequences of greed, for undue demands and unearned gains will be punished most severely, so if you want to take from our underground vault a portion of the wealth that never belonged to you, thief, you have been warned, beware that you will not attract treasure but retribution.

Mike shrugged it off, he was a bank robber in his previous life, this kind of bank warning sign could only scare simple-minded people like Hagrid and Harry.

They walked through the door and into the hall. There were about a hundred goblins sitting on high stools behind a long counter. Some were weighing coins with copper scales, while others were examining gems with eyepieces, while they were hastily recording in a large ledger. There were countless doors in the hall, leading to different places, and many goblins pointed bows to guide people in and out of these doors. Hagrid and Harry walked towards the counter.

Hagrid spoke to one of the goblins at the counter and said to Mike, "Mike, just give him the Hogwarts acceptance letter and he will give you the things. Harry and I need to go to the vault to get something."

Mike nodded in greeting and watched them walk away, led by a goblin.

"Hello, sir." Mike turned around and handed the notice to the fairy.

The fairy didn't speak to Mike. He took the notice, looked at it with a magnifying glass for a while, and then took out a large box from behind him.

Mike opened the box and saw many learning items written on the notice inside.

But they all show signs of use, especially the crucible. The inner wall of the crucible is uneven, the bottom is obviously much thinner than other parts, and there are large black stains on it.

Mike even suspected that its previous user had used it to cook shit, so that it still emits a foul stench today.

Mike closed the box and looked at the fairy who was looking down at the color of the gem.

"Can you exchange pounds for gold galleons?"

"Of course, 5 pounds to 1 gold galleon, up to 100 gold galleons."

The goblin raised his head, somewhat surprised that a poor fellow like Mike would ask this.

"Keep it a secret for me." Mike threw out a small bag containing British pounds of various denominations.

The goblin opened his pocket and counted the coins inside with such speed that Mike was startled.

After a while, the goblin put a bag of gold Galleons in Mike's hand.

"We have a rule that every transaction where Hogwarts students exchange Muggle coins for gold Galleons must be reported to Hogwarts."

The little goblin spread his hands on the counter as if he was helpless, but the smile on his face betrayed him.

"What a greedy fellow." Mike took out five gold coins from his pocket and discreetly placed them in the hand of the goblin, which was spread out on the counter. "Also, tell the guys who just came in that I'm going to go shopping and meet at the Leaky Cauldron when the time comes."

The little goblin received the bribe and nodded his head as if he was pounding garlic.

"Don't worry sir, you've never exchanged gold galleons."

…………

(End of this chapter)