Chapter 15: Diagon Alley
Theo and Tom walked silently along the muddy streets of London.
Tom, still shaken, pressed his newsboy cap, somewhat surprised that this large hat had not been lost in the sewer.
Theo tightened the money-filled backpack on his back, secretly rejoicing that the gold hadn't been lost.
"That snake... said it was once a human woman, attracted by my Parseltongue... but how is that possible?" Tom, having recovered, was the first to break the silence.
"Tom, you have to admit, there are indeed many magical things in this world... What we don't know doesn't mean it doesn't exist," Theo said calmly.
In fact, Theo knew Nagini's story very well, but he couldn't tell Tom because he couldn't explain why he knew these things.
Nagini was originally a kind and gentle woman, but unfortunately, she was a Maledictus.
Due to a blood curse inherited from her family's matrilineal line, she was born with a curse, able to switch back and forth between human and snake forms.
But as she grew older, this curse would eventually make her completely lose her humanity, forget all her memories as a human, and then completely turn into a beast...
Of course, the current Nagini was not the ferocious snake that Voldemort would turn into a Horcrux decades later.
Theo speculated that the current Nagini should be on the verge of completely falling into a beastly state, only able to regain consciousness occasionally.
And just now, Nagini's true consciousness had awakened in time in a moment of crisis.
Tom was silent for a while before saying, "I have a feeling I'll meet her again in the future."
Theo looked at Tom, somewhat surprised to see a fleeting trace of pity in his eyes.
"Maybe... but we have to become stronger quickly; otherwise, next time we meet, you might be swallowed into her stomach."
As he spoke, Theo jumped onto a tram that had just stopped, and Tom quickly followed.
Because they didn't have to walk, the two quickly arrived at their destination.
Theo watched the pedestrians in front of them, using a strange route to bypass a section of road.
And beside that section of road, there was a tattered sign hanging—The Leaky Cauldron.
Theo and Tom exchanged a look and then walked quickly over.
Tom nervously patted the dust off his clothes. After falling into the sewer and going through a series of troubles, both of them were a bit dishevelled.
Most importantly, there was a faint, lingering smell on their bodies...
Just as Tom began to frown, wondering where to change his clothes.
He suddenly felt a slight chill all over his body, as if a gentle breeze had blown over him.
Then he was surprised to find that the dust and smell on his body had all disappeared!
Tom immediately turned to look at Theo.
At this time, Theo was looking at his own clothes and then silently reciting a spell in his mind.
"Scourgify!"
In the next second, he was also spotless.
"Theo, I've actually wanted to say this for a long time; did you know you were a..." Tom looked around, and after finding that no one was paying attention to him, he continued in a low voice, "Did you know you were a wizard a long time ago, and also, did you get the method of using magic somewhere?"
"No, these were all things I figured out through experimentation... Don't you still understand that the power of magic is subjective?"
Tom's suspicion was not beyond Theo's expectations, but of course he would not admit it.
In fact, even without getting the spell book, he could indeed experiment and figure out many magical effects...
"Magic is subjective..." Tom repeated this sentence thoughtfully.
"Alright, we should go in; the new world is beckoning us." Theo patted Tom on the shoulder and then took the lead to enter The Leaky Cauldron.
The internal environment of The Leaky Cauldron did not exceed Theo's expectations. It was really both dirty and narrow.
However, despite this, the bar was still very lively, but these guests looked like they were of complex backgrounds...
Theo came to the bar, where a somewhat balding middle-aged man was holding a glass and wiping it.
"Hello, excuse me, where do we enter Diagon Alley from?" Theo asked.
The middle-aged man put down the glass and looked down at Theo and Tom.
"Oh, you're this year's Hogwarts freshmen, right? Haven't been to Diagon Alley? Okay, please follow me."
Tom and Theo exchanged a look and followed him.
Along the way, people kept greeting the man.
"Tom, is there any food left? Give me a roasted flatbread! I'm so hungry I could eat a cow! Oh, and give me a glass of sherry!"
"Please wait a moment, Jom; I have to take these two new students to Diagon Alley."
"Oh? Are they Muggle-born wizards?"
"Yes, yes..."
While speaking, the owner of The Leaky Cauldron, also named Tom, led Theo and the other Tom to a small patio at the back of the bar.
Tom, enduring his discomfort, asked the owner, also named Tom, "What does Muggle-born mean?"
"Hmm? It seems that the professor who explained the situation to you didn't make it clear. The so-called Muggle is a general term for people who don't understand magic. Muggle-born refers to wizards who appear in Muggle families. Hmm... aren't you two? If you were from a wizarding family, you couldn't possibly have never been to Diagon Alley." The owner, Tom, looked at the two boys somewhat suspiciously.
"No, we are indeed Muggle-born. We were just curious about the meaning of the word Muggle." Theo explained.
"Oh, I see..." The owner Tom didn't take it to heart, turned his head, took out his wand, pointed at the wall where a trash can was placed, and said, "Start counting three bricks up from this trash can, then two bricks across, and then knock."
Tap!
In the next second, the brick wall quickly moved, the bricks jumping to the side one by one, and then an entrance appeared in front of the three of them.
Theo took the lead and walked into the entrance, and a long street paved with pebbles appeared before his eyes.
What first caught his eye were the various strangely shaped shops on both sides of the street, as well as the bustling crowd on the street.
The entire Diagon Alley seemed extraordinarily lively.
"Alright, you know how to enter and exit Diagon Alley now; I should go back."
"Oh, and by the way, never leave the main street. Otherwise, if you accidentally enter Knockturn Alley, it can be dangerous." After giving some advice, the owner Tom left.
After the entrance behind them returned to the wall, Tom suddenly said, "I feel like I definitely wasn't born into a Muggle family. I think my father must be a wizard, and my mother wasn't; otherwise, she would never have died so easily in front of the orphanage."
"In any case, we are now from the orphanage... This also counts as Muggle-born."
"Alright... but I will find out information about my father sooner or later!" Tom took out the shopping list and didn't mention his father again. "What should we buy first?"
"Of course, we should first buy a wand. But... we have to exchange some money first." Theo said, patting his backpack.
...
A few kilometres away from The Leaky Cauldron, in front of a small detached house, there were many police officers gathered at this time.
The two-story detached house was now somewhat tilted and seemed to be about to collapse at any time.
"Chief, we found the kidnappers who were tied up, but..."
"But what?" The chief, who had two moustaches on his mouth, asked.
"Well... the floor of the house collapsed for some reason, and several of the kidnappers fell down, suffering some injuries, and... they seem to have all gone crazy!"
"That's really strange..."
Among the crowd, a tall and thin man suddenly came out, and the police officers next to him seemed not to see him, allowing him to enter the building that could collapse at any time.
Dumbledore frowned as he looked at the tragic scene inside the building.
He closed his eyes and carefully sensed it because he found the magic traces at the scene a bit familiar...
Suddenly, Dumbledore opened his eyes, a look of doubt on his face. "It's actually them? How could it be them?"
A trace of worry flashed across Dumbledore's face, and then he jumped into the sewer through the large hole.
Dumbledore ignored the stench of the sewer, and after carefully investigating it, he suddenly bent down and groped in a corner of the sewer.
When he straightened up, he had a dark green scale in his hand...
"This is... Nagini?! Has she finally completely fallen? Wait! If they encountered Nagini..."
The worried look on Dumbledore's face was even stronger, and he put the scale into his pocket.
"Bang!"
Dumbledore disappeared into the sewer.
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(End of this chapter)