The Shopkeeper of All Worlds in the British Wizarding World

Chapter 717 Meeting
The distance from the small hill where the guests stayed to the manor was not very far. Only five minutes later, Ryan and his companions crossed the large meadow and arrived in front of Greengrass Manor.

The first thing that caught their eyes was a bronze-gilded door, which was decorated with a large number of exquisite reliefs. When Ryan and the others approached the door, a man who looked like a powerful wizard on the relief turned his head and looked at Ryan and the others.

"Visitors, please tell us your name and the purpose of your visit." A middle-aged man's voice with a bit of magnetism came out of the relief's mouth. Although the voice was not very ups and downs, like those common artificial intelligences, the voice chosen by the room owner still made people feel good.

"We just showed our friendship, now it's time to show our strength." Ryan smiled at Hermione, then pressed his right hand, which was emitting pink light, on the door. Just a few seconds later, a smile appeared on the relief's face. "Ah, distinguished guest from afar, please come in, I have informed the host, he will greet you in the living room."

"Don't look at me. We're not here for a surprise attack, so we have to inform the host to welcome us." Ryan explained in a low voice to Hermione who suddenly turned her head and looked at him. "Besides, the Sky City is now at the highest level of alert and can jump over through space at any time. Even if there is a mysterious person hiding in Greengrass's house, we don't need to worry."

As Ryan finished his explanation, the door creaked open. Behind the door was a French-style garden filled with shrubs trimmed into various geometric and animal shapes.

In the middle of the garden is a fountain with a sculpture of a girl holding a water bottle in it. A stream of clear water gushes upward from the mouth of the water bottle in the girl's hand, forming the image of a flower in the sky, and finally falls into the pool, making a ding-dong-dong sound like music.

At the back of the garden, a three-story beige building of not very large area stood there. The bronze roof had turned green due to oxidation over time, but it looked very harmonious with the beige building. When Ryan and his friends got closer, they found that there were intricate and exquisite gilded sculptures on top of each column, which decorated the entire building magnificently.

"I feel this place is much better than the Malfoy Manor." As a wizard, Hermione would not simply judge a building based on its appearance. However, after entering the manor, Hermione, who was in a state of preparation, could feel that there were a large number of ingeniously designed magic mechanisms protecting this place. If compared with the Malfoy Manor, in general, the Malfoy Manor was very good in terms of the number of defense systems, but the quality was still a little worse.

"This is normal." Ryan explained in a low voice. "Don't forget that the Greengrass family is one of the 28 oldest pure-blood families in the British wizarding world, and the Malfoy family is just a nouveau riche from France. So many times, even though the Malfoy family is one of the richest in the British wizarding world, there are still some things that they cannot obtain."

Walking up the hard and smooth black marble steps, Ryan and his companions arrived in front of a brown-red door. But before they knocked on the door, the heavy door opened, and a house-elf who looked only slightly more mature than Dobby appeared in the door.

"Welcome, welcome two distinguished guests to Greengrass Manor." After the door was completely opened, the house-elf bowed deeply, his nose almost touching the floor.

Then she raised her hand and made a gesture of invitation, motioning Ryan and the others to follow her, and said in a sharp but not loud voice, "Mr. William is waiting for you in the reception room now. The ladies and mistresses have fallen asleep, so please be quiet."

After that, the house elf led Ryan and the others to a corridor that seemed to be rarely used. Like the Malfoy manor, the stone floor here was also covered with gorgeous carpets. However, unlike Sirius or the Malfoy family's silver-green decorative style, the colors here were mainly blue, white and yellow, and there was no gloomy feeling.

Perhaps for safety reasons, Mr. William, the head of Greengrass's family, activated a room that was rarely used. So along the way, Ryan even found that there was no portrait of the kind that pure-blood wizard families usually had.

"Sir, I have brought the guest." Walking to the end of the corridor, the house elf of the Greengrass family said to a brown door, and soon a tired middle-aged man's voice came from inside. "Okay, Carrie, go do your thing. Don't come here before I call you." "Yes, sir." Carrie bowed, and then disappeared into thin air with a snap. At the same time, the door at the end of the corridor opened silently.

Ryan took Hermione into the reception room, which was a small room with exquisite interior decoration. A blond middle-aged man was sitting on a red velvet high-back chair by the fireplace. When he saw Ryan and the others come in, he pointed to the long sofa opposite the coffee table in front of him, motioning him and Hermione to sit down.

The two men sat down without saying a word, watching William Greengrass brew three cups of black tea, then handed two to them and held one in his own hand.

For several minutes, the whole house was in an eerie silence, with only the occasional sound of drinking tea and the clinking of cups and saucers keeping the room from being completely silent.

Finally, William Greengrass, the head of the Greengrass family, couldn't hold on any longer. He put down the teacup in his hand and broke the silence in the room. "I really didn't expect that you would find me in such a short time."

"It's nothing special." Ryan also put down his teacup and said, although he had won a round by taking advantage of the opponent's eagerness at the beginning. But facing the head of such a pure-blood family, Ryan did not dare to slack off at all. "Don't forget, I can fight that person head-on. The traces you left are enough for me."

"——You are right," William nodded after a brief silence. "That is why I chose to reveal this news to you, because only you and Dumbledore can stop the Dark Lord's next move, but compared to Dumbledore, I prefer to deal with you."

"Is it because I'm younger and easier to deceive?" Ryan said with a proud expression, but unexpectedly, the head of the Greengrass family opposite him did not show any anger or embarrassment, but stated it in a very calm tone.

"No, I won't lie to you." William shook his head. "For wizards, power is everything. Cheating a wizard of your level would be equivalent to bringing endless disasters to me and my family, so I won't do it."

William Greengrass knew that he had to give Ryan an explanation today, otherwise Ryan would never believe what he said next. So he explained after making it clear that he was not lying, "You are completely different from Dumbledore. The headmaster would sacrifice anyone, even himself, to achieve justice. I have a lot of information about the last war at home that proves this point."

"But you are different. You are willing to protect those who rely on you. For example, the Malfoy family. Even if the Dark Lord wants to kill them, he can't do anything to them."

"On the other hand," Mr. Greengrass paused for a few seconds and then said frankly, "I was very scared by your previous attack on those who participated in killing Muggles. I tipped you off for an important purpose, which was to protect my family and my family."

(End of this chapter)