Hogwarts Card System.

Chapter 259: Avoid Twenty Years of Detour

Hogsmeade is really interesting.

Although this place is not big, it has everything.

From owl post offices, to clothing chain stores, to candy and snack shops, to tea restaurants, to large magic equipment stores, to magic material stores...there are even barber shops and shops selling magical animal seeds, basically all the shops that are in demand are available.

When the goblins first rebelled in the seventeenth century, their headquarters were located in this village.

From Ansu's perspective in the sky, Ted saw that the entire village covered a large area.

At least two to three times that of Decamund!
There are quite a few distances between these buildings, so they look rather sparse.

After all, the land here is free, so you can just take it.

Most of the buildings are in local style, with the iconic Scottish peaked roofs, slender chimneys and stepped gables.

But some buildings are particularly weird, crooked, and have very different styles, and they look unserious at first glance!
There are also quite a few buildings that look dilapidated and abandoned, which should have been abandoned by some wizards.

Wizards have a low birth rate, so sometimes when there are no heirs, they are abandoned.

The land here is free, so no one bothers to demolish the house.

Ted guessed that there must be the Shrieking Shack among the ruins.

There are two pubs in the village, one of which is the Three Brooms Tavern, which is said to be a century-old brand.

The current tavern owner is a mature lady with charm - Ms. Rosmerta.

The proprietress stood behind the counter and looked across the landscape, which looked like mountains and peaks, with different heights and distances. It was the best scene of spring on earth, far better than the willows and mist in the imperial capital - it was a beautiful landscape!
That business is really good!
Another pub that was also doing pretty well was the Hog's Head.

In the original book, the owner of this pub is Dumbledore's brother, Aberforth.

It's just that this old man accidentally killed his sister during the battle between Dumbledore and Grindelwald in the early years, so he has never had any contact with him since then.

Oh, by the way, according to the movie "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them", he should have a son, an Obscurus, who was used by Grindelwald and later died of illness. After all, Obscurus usually don't live long.

Although the conditions at the Hog's Head Inn are poor and the service attitude is very bad, it still has business that is no less than that of the Three Broomsticks. That is certainly not because old man Aberforth puts on women's clothes to solicit customers himself, but because the Hog's Head Inn is the "black market trading place" in this magical village!
Remember when Hagrid was drinking and playing cards with others in the first grade and "won" a dragon egg?
It's right here!
If it was an ordinary tavern, how could someone show up with a dragon egg?
This is actually a place where many wizards in the gray area exchange information and facilitate transactions.

This is also why over the past hundred years, all those who attempted to open a pub were defeated by successive generations of beautiful proprietresses. Only Aberforth succeeded and kept his pub open for decades.

Aberforth should be quite powerful and be able to control the situation, so a lot of people gradually came here.

Even some of Ted's experimental materials were purchased through other people who placed orders here.

Unlike Knockturn Alley, this place is mainly a gray area, and the dark wizards' tricks won't work.

As soon as they entered the village, the friends dispersed.

The twins went straight to Zonko's Joke Shop, mainly to copy... oh, no! To borrow each other's ideas.

Then I figured out how to make it myself and sold it to my classmates at a lower price.

No middlemen make a profit! Let students save more money and benefit the masses~
So noble!
Jerry and Ron went straight to Honeydukes Candy Store. When they mentioned the candies in Honeydukes, their saliva almost dripped onto their lapels.

Neville went to Madam Puddifoot's Tea Shop. The hostess of the tea shop was a good friend of Neville's grandmother, so he had to go and say hello.

Hallie also said goodbye to Ted and the others and ran away without saying where she was going.

Ted and Hermione looked at each other and said in unison: "How about going to the Men of Letters?"

Ted: I knew you wanted to go there!
Wenrenju, the literary supplies store, sells magic stationery in the village.

From various models of feather pens to various types of parchment, from magic ink, colorful ink to crystal balls, divination cups, ink correction fluid, photo developer... the things are quite diverse.

Ted has been doing experiments recently and has a huge pile of experimental records. The consumption of parchment has increased several times, so he really needs to prepare more.

The two of them strolled slowly to the Literati Residence. The shop was decorated simply but full of literary atmosphere. Various commodities could be seen in the lattice glass windows.

When I pushed the door open, I saw two or three Hogwarts students already selecting goods.

They would nod or say hello when they saw Ted.

Hermione spent a long time choosing and finally picked two quills made from the tail feathers of the same pheasant. They were very beautiful, with a black background and gold edges that looked very cool.

"Here's one for you!" After paying the money, Hermione handed Ted a slightly longer one.

Ted took it with a smile: "Thank you~"

In return, Ted offered to buy Hermione a drink.

Although there are seven or eight kinds of drinks in the Hogwarts kitchen now, there is no butter beer after all. So the two of them planned to relive this delicious drink.

At first Ted planned to go to the Pig's Head Tavern. After coming out of the post office on Central Avenue, he turned into a small road next to it and found it at the intersection.

A tattered wooden sign protruded from a rusty iron bracket on the door, with a picture of a chopped-off pig's head, blood seeping through the white cloth wrapped around it.

When I pushed the door open, the scene suddenly went dark. Visibility was a bit low~
There were not many windows in the pub on this floor, and they were small. It looked as if the glass had not been cleaned for a long time. There was thick dust and the light transmittance was extremely poor.

So much so that many candles were lit in broad daylight.

But the candles also increased the area of ​​the shadows and the contrast between light and dark, making it look like night.

On the wall opposite the door, there is a huge wild boar head specimen that looks very ferocious, with messy hair and looks dirty.

The floor beneath my feet is a bit sticky and greasy. I don't know how long it has been since I mopped it!
Isn't it just a matter of cleaning up? Is it necessary to make such a big deal about it?

Plus there was a strong smell of goat in the air, which was really disgusting!

As a waiter working at the Leaky Cauldron, Ted almost couldn't help but pull out his wand to clean it up!

An old man with a long beard behind the bar was slowly arranging the oak wine glasses. He glanced at Ted and the other man at the door, and then ignored them.

The other seven or eight guests who were drinking were all hiding themselves, either wearing hoods, hiding in the shadows, or even wearing masks. It didn't look very serious!
forget it!
Ted: "It seems like we are in the wrong place. Let's go first."

Fortunately, I came here just to get to know the place, so I wasn’t disappointed.

After a while, the two of them arrived at the Three Brooms, where there were more people.

Maybe because schools are open on weekends, there are still quite a few students there.

As Ted and his companion entered the room, four or five people greeted them.

Ted even saw Jerry and Ron.

Jerry: “This way~”

The two walked over and sat down.

Ted responded to the greetings of his classmates one by one, and then said to the proprietress who walked gracefully, had a very charming manner, had a very fashionable hairstyle, and had distinctive facial features: "Two cups of butter beer, thank you!"

"Haha, okay, handsome boy. You are really popular~"

Hermione suddenly pursed her lips and looked at the proprietress with the eyes of a fire elemental in the Land of Fire.

Of course, the proprietress didn't care about the girl's attitude. She smiled and went to take the beer.

"It's really beautiful!" said Jerry.

Ron nodded, his face full of fascination and his eyes fixed on her.

Ted was smarter. He didn't even look at the landlady, but talked to Hermione about the beautiful quill.

This put Hermione in a very good mood.

Jerry waved his hand in front of Ron's eyes and said with a sly smile, "Hey! Lavender is here!"

"Ah? What? No, no, I didn't see anything..." He immediately picked up the wine glass and looked towards the beam, pretending to look at the scenery.

Ron glanced around quietly and found that there was no sign of Lavender. He immediately realized that he had been tricked and went up to strangle Jerry.

Jerry was also smart, and quickly whispered, "The boss lady is here, the boss lady is here!"

When Ron heard this, he immediately withdrew his hand and shrank back obediently like a quail. But when he glanced around, he realized that he had been fooled again!

Just as he was about to do something else, the proprietress, Ms. Rosmerta, came over with two glasses of butterbeer.

She twisted her slender waist and put down the butterbeer, "I hope you enjoy your drink." Then she twisted away.

Well, it’s not easy for a small branch to bear great fruit!

The boss lady is also good at showing her advantages.

Moreover, Ted smelled the scent of various magical cosmetics that he had developed. It seemed that the boss lady still paid great attention to her own maintenance.

Ron was a little distracted, his soul had been twisted away by that flexible waist.

Ted: I didn't expect you to like big ones!
Young man, you have avoided taking twenty years of detour!
However, how would he feel if he knew that Ms. Rosmerta had been the proprietress here when Sirius and his friends were in school?
That’s not just a twenty-year detour, that’s a forty-year straight line of overtaking!
(End of this chapter)