Hogwarts: Harry Returns from Azeroth

Chapter 150 149. Trip to Diagon Alley

Hermione couldn't help but sigh.

If Harry's disciple could already talk to the elements, and even let the elements guard the door and give him information, then she really couldn't compare to him... After all, during the holidays when wizard magic could not be used, she could devote all her energy to studying shamanic spells.

But unfortunately, the earth element is very cold and aloof. It always looks indifferent and becomes unresponsive at the slightest provocation.

Hermione even sought inspiration from Muggle myths and legends as well as rituals of worshipping gods, either by learning how priests in churches communicated party elements, or the rituals of many strange small sects - there were even mysterious ritual processes that came from a great country in the Far East, with yellow incense, and burning paper money.

Very proactive and willing to work hard.

It would be even better if it worked.

"Good, you get along well with them." Feeling that the elements were becoming active near the Lovegood family, Harry said with great satisfaction, "Keep up this momentum. I will teach you totemism after school officially starts. But you have to strengthen your body first. It's a physical job."

Luna is a little too thin. Let alone fighting with a totem, if she doesn't exercise well, she might even have trouble moving a totem.

Although it would be possible to use earth elements to directly condense totems for combat in the future, as a traditionalist, Harry always felt that a shaman had to have some muscles.

"I will," Luna said, tilting her head. She looked quite expectant. "Can I be as strong as you, mentor?"

As she said this, Luna bent her arms and gestured a few times, then pinched her muscles - compared to Harry's muscular body, Luna's arms looked soft.

"Well, I think... girls don't need to have muscles, right?" Ron scratched his head and said. He imagined that the girl in front of him was as muscular as Harry and could kill Snape with one punch.

Then the next second, I was frightened by this horrific fantasy.

That's a bit scary.

"Exercise is a good thing. At least it helps you have a healthy body," Hermione said in a fake serious tone, "but it's not necessary to exercise like him."

Hermione clenched her fist and knocked on Harry's arm. She felt like she was knocking on the wall. It was hard, but without the crisp sound.

Then she tapped Ron's arm next to her.

"Hey, what are you doing!" Ron immediately covered his beaten arm and hid to the side, protesting with wide eyes, "Why are you hitting me all of a sudden!"

"You should exercise more, Ron," Hermione said righteously, then looked at Luna and said, "Hello? Nice to meet you. We are friends of Harry. My name is Hermione, Hermione Granger."

"Well, I'm Ron, you know, we're neighbors." Ron nodded towards the southern hillside, but the Burrow couldn't be seen from here.

"Neville Longbottom" Neville introduced himself briefly. He was not very good at dealing with strangers.

Especially this stranger is a pretty girl.

"Hello, I'm Luna Lovegood, Harry's apprentice - well, it doesn't seem right, can I not call you Harry?" Luna suddenly became uncertain as she spoke.

"Yes, you are different from other apprentices. You should call me mentor regardless of whether it is class time or not," Harry said seriously.

After teaching Luna for so many days, Harry was sure that although his disciple seemed to have no expression now, he was actually in a very good mood. Was it because he felt that he had made some new friends?

"I remember, mentor," Luna said obediently.

"Very good," Harry nodded in satisfaction. He said to Hermione and the others, "Luna grew up alone, so her way of getting along with others is rather unique, but she is indeed a good child."

"My God, Harry, that's something a wizard in his teens would say!" Ron exclaimed. "You're only one year older than she is!"

"I'm her tutor! I'm different from you!" Harry rolled his eyes and said to Luna, "Is Mr. Lovegood home? School is about to start. Do you want to go shopping with us in Diagon Alley?"

"Diagon Alley? Of course." Luna tilted her head, "Dad is at home, wait a moment."

I was led to the living room and sat down. The entrance hall of the Lovegood family was small and dimly lit, with peeling wallpaper and worn carpets with threads showing. There was only a spiral cast iron staircase leading directly upstairs. The stairs were piled with shaky books and moldy newspapers, and the living room was on the second floor.

The living room also looked low and crowded, with pickled onions, herbs and rusty copper pots hanging from the ceiling, and some covers of outdated Quibbler magazines pasted on the walls. All kinds of things were piled together in a mess, which really made Hermione frown.

"Luna's mother died a long time ago," Harry explained to Hermione in a low voice, "It would be difficult for Mr. Lovegood to take care of her completely by himself."

Hermione didn't say anything, just nodded, but her heart was full of sympathy for Luna, and she even felt ashamed for her previous unwillingness to admit defeat.

Harry and Ron have become frequent visitors to the Lovegood family during this period. To them, old Mr. Lovegood is no longer a stranger, especially Ron. Except for the fact that he could not understand what the father and daughter were saying at the beginning, he quite enjoyed listening to the strange things that old Mr. Lovegood talked about.

It's a very imaginative idea, and it's really interesting regardless of its authenticity.

Without letting the others wait too long, Luna came down with old Lovegood. After learning about Harry's purpose, old Lovegood agreed without any hesitation. This man is indeed a generous person.

After confirming that the elemental magic Harry described was real and learning that Luna had officially become Harry's apprentice, old Lovegood really regarded the relationship between Harry and Luna as a traditional wizard master-apprentice relationship, and did not care at all that Harry was only one year older than his daughter.

Since it was a master-disciple relationship comparable to that of a father and son, it was only right for Harry to take Luna to Diagon Alley to buy things for school - so after old Lovegood handed Harry a small bag of money, he handed Luna to him unrestrainedly.

"…Is this how a man raises a child?" After leaving the Lovegood house, Hermione couldn't help but sigh as she recalled how old Lovegood was still covered in ink and had hurried back upstairs just now.

"Because he knows I won't hurt Luna," Harry shrugged and said, "Luna and her father have a unique heart. They can always put aside the cover of appearances and find the essence and key of things."

"That's enough. Now that you know your disciple is very capable, you don't have to praise her in front of us all the time," Hermione said with a roll of her eyes.

"Well, is it that obvious?" Harry said with some embarrassment, "Sorry, this is my first time accepting a disciple. Um... I'm not quite used to it."

The first time he accepted a disciple, he accepted such an incredibly talented one. If this wasn't another world, Harry would have run to the Earth Ring to show off long ago.

It didn't take long for them to return to the Burrow, and the Weasleys had gotten dressed. They were about to head to Diagon Alley via the Floo Network.

As a neighbor, Mrs. Weasley was well aware of what happened in the Lovegood household. She knew that Luna lost her mother at a young age, so the more she saw that Luna was well-behaved, quiet and sensible, the more she liked this child - there was no way around it, for Mrs. Weasley, the three words "well-behaved, quiet and sensible" were really too many extra points.

She first gave Luna a big hug, then stuffed her with some snacks, and even when she set out for Diagon Alley, she asked Luna to follow her and repeatedly reminded her several times of the things she needed to pay attention to when using Floo powder.

The outburst of maternal love made Ron so upset.

As the green flames rose, when Harry walked out of the fireplace, he found that the destination of the Diagon Alley Floo network was the Leaky Cauldron. The dim light and the narrow space were no different from when he first arrived last year - even the reactions of the bar owner Tom and the drinkers were the same as last year.

But last year, the people who gathered around were amazed by the boy who survived a catastrophe, while this year, they were amazed by the youngest Quidditch player, the one who sued the Ministry of Magic and won, the founder of a new magic, etc. So much so that Mr. Weasley had to put on a fierce face and force his family to rush forward to squeeze out, so as not to waste too much time in the Leaky Cauldron.

"Oh my God, I swear, it's definitely not normal to have so many people in Diagon Alley today." After finally rushing out of the crowd, Mr. Weasley wiped the sweat from his head and sighed.

He was right. There were indeed too many people in Diagon Alley today. You couldn't even see the shop opposite through the gaps between people like usual.

It was still as lively as when Harry first came, and the shops on both sides were doing their best to attract customers.

"I think I know why there are so many people." Fred looked like a dead goblin, and said in a long voice: "I saw a bright face--"

"A huge face - like it was on ecstasy," his brother added.

Several people's eyes swept over a passing witch who was holding a book to her chest with a mysterious smile on her face.

Everyone knew what the twins were talking about because on the cover of the book, a wizard was unscrupulously showing off his white teeth, which were even shining in an unscientific way.

"Gilderoy Lockhart!" Hermione said excitedly, "He is a real wizard! A master of magic!!"

"Molly?" Mr. Weasley looked at his wife.

"Oh, I know what you are going to say," Mrs. Weasley smiled awkwardly. "Lockhart has a signing event in Diagon Alley this week. Well, it's at Flourish and Blotts... It's in the Daily Prophet."

"Damn Lockhart!" When the name was mentioned, Fred and George shouted in unison. They felt like they shared a common hatred for the enemy.

"Shut up, Fred, George!" Mrs. Weasley glared, "Don't talk about Lockhart like that!"

"Five sets of books! Seven books in each set!" Fred, who rarely disobeyed so openly, said angrily: "There has never been a class that requires five books as teaching materials! Merlin's socks!"

"That's none of Lockhart's business!" Hermione stood on Mrs. Weasley's side. She said seriously, "It wasn't Lockhart who asked us to buy so many books."

"Really? I don't think a professor would ask us to buy so many books from the same person for no reason."

"Yes, so there must be some hidden deal between them."

"Fred! George!" Mrs. Weasley's eyes widened even more.

A few people walked towards Flourish and Blotts while arguing. People passing by were either parents accompanying their children and carrying bundles of books, or excited witches.

Harry had seen the list of books that the Hogwarts owl had sent him this year, and the name Gilderoy Lockhart was listed seven full lines on it.

Mr. Weasley's salary was not low, but because they had many children and did not have the habit of saving money, they always lived a tight life. Ron occasionally mentioned this last year.

No wonder Fred and George were so annoyed. After all, the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor at Hogwarts was a one-year professor, which meant that there was a high possibility that the new professor next year would not use Lockhart's seven books as teaching materials.

In addition, these books have never appeared as textbooks in the past, so the Weasley family cannot even buy cheap second-hand books.

"Harry, are we just going to watch?" Neville came closer and asked quietly: "I mean...well, we can actually..."

"Help them?" Looking at the Weasleys on the other side, Harry whispered, "Mr. and Mrs. Weasley won't accept it."

"That's right," Neville sighed.

Even Ron wouldn't accept it if it was given directly, even though he had been complaining for the past year that he always used Charlie's hand-me-downs.

The group went to Gringotts to withdraw money first. Harry and Neville could only pretend that they did not see the empty safe of the Weasleys. When the car arrived at the Potters' vault, Harry directly opened the suitcase and shoveled the piles of Galleons and various magical items or books into the box - he did not intend to leave the things in the hands of the goblins, sorry, goblins for safekeeping.

Last year I didn’t have the means to take so many things away and nowhere to store them, but this year is different.

Even shoveling Galleons with a shovel was a physical job, so not only Harry's friends, but even Mr. Weasley and Mrs. Weasley came in to help - the matter of the suitcase world Mulgore was not hidden after all.

After all, when Mrs. Weasley pushed the door open at night to check if the three boys were sleeping well, she was almost scared to death when she found the bed empty.

But there was really nothing to hide. Although he had not met Charlie and Bill yet, Harry felt that the Weasley family had a good tradition and they were all good people with character.

"To be honest, this is my first time to experience this." After shoveling the last shovel of gold galleons into the suitcase, Ron threw the shovel in his hand into the suitcase and said with lingering satisfaction, "It feels really good."

"It's really nice to get along with these golden little cuties," Fred came over and winked, saying, "I feel better."

"Thank you. Here, have some ice cream," Harry said with a smile, and then gave a gold Galleon to each person who helped.

Neither Mr. Weasley nor Mrs. Weasley said anything. They accepted the gold Galleons with peace of mind. Mr. Weasley was even arguing with Ron about which flavor of ice cream was the best in Florin's Ice Cream Shop, and they seemed to be impatient.

After leaving Gringotts, Mrs. Weasley mercifully announced that they would meet at Flourish and Blotts in an hour, giving everyone some free time. She also specifically warned Fred and George not to go to Knockturn Alley.

Knockturn Alley is a part of Diagon Alley, but the people and things inside are not very decent. Aurors and strikers are often there to raid it, and those who are not smart enough will be sent to Azkaban.

"What do you mean? Do you want to go shopping first or go shopping?" After watching the Weasleys walk along the cobblestone road to their own world, Harry asked Luna, "And you, Ginny, don't be so polite. I have a good relationship with your brothers. Just tell me what you think."

Just as Mrs. Weasley expected, Luna and Ginny really got along well. The two little girls kept whispering to each other along the way, and no one knew why they had so much to talk about.

"Let's do some shopping first," Hermione interrupted, "It will take some time for Madam Malkin to make the robes, and it will also take time to choose the wands. We can go to Madam Malkin to order the robes first and then do other things."

"I have no objection, but we have to go to Florin's Ice Cream Shop first." Ron shrugged and said, "Matcha jelly ice cream is the most delicious ice cream in the world. Dad doesn't know anything at all."

"Oh, I think cranberry ones are good," Neville muttered, "sweet and sour."

"Sure," Luna said cheerfully, "What about you, Ginny?"

"I have no objection," Ginny said, lowering her head as she met Harry's gaze.

Although it was the largest commercial street in the British wizarding world, Diagon Alley was still too small compared to the Muggle commercial streets - so small that Harry and his friends were just strolling around with ice cream in their hands and they ran into people who said they were going to go their separate ways.

Fred and George were jumping and frolicking in the Magic Joke Shop to stock up. They made a lot of money last year using Harry's name, and were now stuffing several bundles of fireworks that were said to ignite automatically and explode when exposed to water into their bags.

They longed for a good fight.

(End of this chapter)