“What?” He asked as he looked at the professor’s offered arm.
“Take it.” She said, a little mirth in her eyes as she saw the young boy hold her arm before they immediately disappeared from the cave.
Feeling as if he was water and was being forced down a drain, the young brown-haired finally took a deep breath when he felt his feet touch the ground.
Yet despite everything, he kept to his feet, not dropping to his knees in search of air.
Taking a few deep breaths of air to calm himself down, he looked up to his left seeing the teacher’s calm expression as if waiting for him to come back to his senses.
However, as he saw her eyes beneath the brim of her pointed hat, he felt as if she was already expecting this situation.
“This is Charing Cross Road in London.” She started as she pointed at an unsanitary pub that stood out from the other shops around.
“And this is the Leaky Cauldron.
A bar and an inn with one of the few direct paths to Diagon Alley.
If you need to enter the magical shopping street in the future, you will have to pass by here.” She explained as Lux nodded his head, keeping calm and silent, listening to everything she said and committing them to memory.
With a dark exterior, dirty windows that prevented anyone from seeing the interior and vines creeping up the side of the building, the building looked anything but welcoming.
Yet, as they pushed the creaking door, a new world seemingly presented itself to his eyes.
With multiple dozens of witches and wizards sitting around the dirty tables, each with a glass in hand, most likely alcohol, the atmosphere reeked of an odor he couldn’t recognize.
Yet, despite the obvious shows of magic, no one took the time to clean up the spiderwebs in the corner of the room nor take the time to clean up the tables that felt sticky simply by staring at them.
Looking at the bar where the owner seemingly cleaned a dirty glass with an even dirtier rag, his brows slightly frowned.
This was certainly not what he had been expecting the magical world to look like.
With creaky steps, the professor led him to a door in the back which she pushed open, leading to a garden overgrown with weeds and trash.
A single trash can, empty despite the trash all around, stood against the brick wall.
With a raised eyebrow, the witch took her wand as she pointed at the bricks.
“Remember.
Whenever you wish to enter Diagon Alley, you must point your wand on these exact locations.
It will open the portal for you.” She explained as she showed him the exact sequence to follow. Visit g.com for the full chapter.
WIth a nod showing he understood the importance, the bricks soon started to move, creating an arch into the bustling and bright Diagon Alley.
If previously the Leaky Cauldron had been disappointing, he was now finally seeing the magical world for what it truly was.
With colorful lights all around, spells being released here and there, none malicious, various magical items that floated by themselves, projections and even weird potions and materials he recognized thanks to his storage area, Lux was now for the first time feeling the majesty of magic.
“Alright, the first step will be to head to Gringotts so that you can take the Hogwarts loan for your materials.” She said as she headed straight towards the largest building while explaining.
“The Hogwarts loan is a loan of fifty galleons which can be taken every year by the students.
For your seven years of school, you will not have any interest on the loan but once you graduate, interest will start accumulating until you pay it back.” She explained before being stopped by Lux.
“Actually, I brought a few items hoping to sell for money.” He said as he showed her his bag holding fourteen vials.
“Oh?
And what are they?” She asked as she knew that he might have gained these items from the cave he gained his inheritance from.
“Those seven are vials of acromantula venom.” He said, showing the vials with a greenish liquid inside before changing to five other vials.
“Those are Norwegian Ridgeback dragon blood.” He said, pointing at the five vials before finally pointing at the two remaining ones.
“As for those, they are willingly given unicorn blood.” He finished as her eyes seemingly grew as wide as saucers at his final words.
“Willingly given unicorn blood?
Are you certain?” She asked as she looked at the two vials holding a shiny golden liquid.
Thinking back to the few pictures she had seen of unicorn blood, golden-black and eluding a sense of darkness, she could only tell that this wasn’t the same.
As for whether it was truly willingly given unicorn blood it was another matter entirely.
After all, this was so rare that only a few people had seen it and even fewer shops had ever gotten some for sale.
“Yes, that was what was written.” He said, not mentioning that he had a bit more than a thousand vials of such liquid.
If he went by her reaction, it was not only rare but also precious so it was better not to mention it.
“Alright.
In that case, we better stop at the Magical Material Trader Shop.
It is a shop specialized in buying and selling magical materials.
In there, you can find anything you might need for the right price.
If you can’t have it, they can even send people to get the item you need.
For a high price of course.” She explained as this shop was held by a group of minor nobles who made profits by buying and reselling items at a price. Follow the newest chapters on g.com.
Walking for a dozen minutes, the duo finally arrived near a relatively large shop compared to its surroundings.
With three floors high and most likely a basement or two as well, this shop that took the area of the equivalent of four shops truly stood out on the marketing street.
Yet, this was also a shop highly frequented by the wizards as there was a constant stream of people entering or leaving its premises.
“Hello professor McGonagall, what can I do for you today?” Asked a young man who wore a black robe with hints of gold in its seams and a name tag was attached above his right breast pocket.
“Hello Mr.
Alura.” Started the professor as she greeted a wizard who had most likely been in her class a few years prior.
“We are here to sell a few magical materials.” She said, stating her purpose as she pointed at Lux and had him bring out the various vials he had with him.
“Alright, let’s see what we have here.
I’ll give you the best price I can since you came with professor McGonagall.” He said with a small grin as Lux immediately understood that receiving these words were only possible thanks to the professor.
“Thank you.” He said as he placed the vials on the counter for the man to look at.
“What are they?” He asked before starting his own inspection.
Receiving this information would at least send his inspection on the right track.
“They are acromantula venom, dragon blood and willingly given unicorn blood.” He stated as the young man’s eyebrow raised slightly as he glanced at the young boy next to his old professor.
“Well then, it’s a rare find.” He muttered as he waved his wand a few times before the first twelve vials, leaving the two golden liquid for last.
“For every vial of acromantula venom, I can buy them from you at a price of 38 galleons.” He began as each vial held about 400 milliliter of venom and a full liter was worth about 100 galleons.
If he bought the venom at this price, he would make a profit of about 2 galleons per vial which was the maximum he could offer the young boy since the store still had to make a profit and store it until it was bought.
Looking at the old witch next to him, he saw her give him a subtle nod which wasn’t lost by the store clerk.
With a small smile, he continued.
“For the dragon blood, I can offer you 15 galleons per vial since there is about 300 milliliter of blood in each vial and each 100 milliliter is worth about 5 galleons.”
With a nod from Lux once again, he made the exchange, giving Lux a total of 341 galleons, more than enough to buy all of his equipment and books for the next few years as long as he lived frugally.
It was a little less than the loan he would otherwise receive for his seven years.