Actually, the Dementors departed at night and were transported directly to London via Portkey.
However, the black Dementors could now move freely through the British night sky—this was a major boon for Elara.
She chose not to join in the excitement of the search.
It was destined to be a futile performance, merely to make the wizards of Britain believe they were protected.
She simply used this as a favorable opportunity to move quickly without attracting suspicion.
Because of this, she also chose to dispose of all the magical items she had on her: she sold her wand to Sirius, and sold all the magical artifacts she received in exchange to the interface, gaining ten times the previous profit.
She needed a wand and a reasonable identity.
Seeing the sun rise, she decisively found a public laundromat; she didn’t have any clothes after transforming into a human.
She carefully selected a faded, patched rough cloth shirt and knee-length bloomers.
Walking barefoot was really inappropriate; looking at her tender white toes, she swiped a pair of clogs that looked like they had been washed.
Then she rolled around in the dirt a few times.
A dusty British orphan was freshly minted.
Black, slightly curly, coarse hair—typical Celtic hair.
The face shape was also a typical British Celtic look.
That inhuman feeling, under the dusty face, had also turned into the ravages of long-term displacement.
The pale skin just looked like a lack of color caused by long-term malnutrition.
A typical Celt.
Walking on the streets of London, she couldn’t have looked more ordinary.
Elara walked with light steps to Charing Cross Road.
Between a large bookstore and a record shop, there was a tiny, dilapidated pub that the passing Muggles wouldn’t even glance at.
It was a crooked three-story building, wooden structure, with peeling paint, and a crooked sign hanging on the black wooden door—a broken cauldron.
The windows were covered in thick dust, looking like they hadn’t been wiped in centuries.
Elara turned her head and noticed a few youths about her age covering for each other, deliberately bumping into a hurried middle-aged man and stealing his wallet in the chaos.
She effortlessly took the wallet from the clumsy thief.
Opening it, she saw there was probably a few hundred pounds inside.
She only took one pound, then quickly caught up to the middle-aged man and put the wallet back.
Over there, the thief kid who had walked a few steps and realized his wallet was missing was excitedly targeting a peer who brushed past him—these guys on the streets of London were mostly peers, or didn’t mind if they were.
He happened to see Elara return the wallet to the middle-aged man and even gave them a provocative look.
The few young thieves were furious and wanted to rush up to teach this person a lesson.
In the blink of an eye, the pretty-looking girl had disappeared without a trace.
The few people looked at each other, remembered the terrible rumors here, and hurriedly fled without looking back.
Elara had naturally run into Leaky Cauldron.
There shouldn’t have been many people in the pub right now, but the news of Sirius’s prison break had made all the wizards uneasy, so Leaky Cauldron was instead packed with people.
A dark and dirty place, it seemed even smaller.
It was hard to imagine this was a famous place in the wizarding world.
One could only say the wizarding world was too small.
The smoke was thicker here, the noise louder, yet the atmosphere was deathly silent.
Everyone was nervous, every table was talking about Black, and newspapers were spread out on every bar table.
No one was joking or drinking; they were all whispering, sizing up others—what if the person across from you was Sirius?
Some suspected he had already obtained Polyjuice Potion; otherwise, how could he have escaped from Azkaban.
The front page was naturally Sirius’s face.
A pub owner with almost no hair, looking like a shriveled walnut, sat behind the bar, speaking little, just constantly wiping glasses, but his ears were pricked high, memorizing all the news.
As soon as she pushed the door open, the already oppressive noise in the pub instantly quieted down, and all eyes turned to the unfamiliar face that had suddenly intruded.
Among them were the scrutinizing gazes of the Aurors.
Elara seemed to be frightened as well, her whole body stiffening, subconsciously shrinking back, and she turned to run.
But she was chased back by a tall black Auror in black robes within a few strides.
With a lift of his hand, he picked Elara up.
Elara was almost about to cry.
She struggled a few times, found it was futile, and had no choice but to remain still in cooperation.
Tom, with almost no hair, stopped wiping the glass and walked out from behind the bar.
“Hey, kid, how did you get in here?”
“I, I just saw this was a place to eat, so I came in to look.
I don’t have much money, I wanted to find a cheap place to get something to eat.
I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have come in…
but I’m really hungry.
Everything here is so expensive, I just wanted to save a little.”
As she spoke, Elara rubbed her eyes, her eye sockets reddened, and tears fell down.
The Auror was also a bit at a loss, finally putting her down in front of the bar.
Everyone’s gaze no longer stared at the pathetic little girl, only glancing with peripheral vision.
“Sweetheart, don’t cry.
I’ll get you a toasted flatbread, with extra butter, and a cup of hot tea.”
Tom directly served a soft, porous toasted flatbread covered in butter, along with a cup of hot tea.
“Thank you.”
Elara huddled on the stool.
“This is on me, as an apology for frightening you.”
Elara, barely stopping her tears, devoured the food.
Tom immediately served her another toasted flatbread and a small Scotch egg.
“Eat slowly, no one is going to snatch it from you.”
After eating three portions, Elara finally sat up straight in embarrassment.
“Sorry, I ate a bit too much.
I have money on me.”
She took out the only one-pound note she had left, “This is my last bit of money.”
In reality, that was indeed the case—those Galleons had all been sold by her, and the two pieces of jewelry were also hidden nearby.
Now she was truly penniless.
Tom took the money without looking into Elara’s pathetic eyes.
At this moment, the tall Auror stepped forward: “Sorry, but I still need to ask you a few questions.”
“Are you a policeman?”
Elara asked timidly.
“Something like that.”
The Auror sighed helplessly, roughly guessing the situation.
“Your name?”
“Elara.”
“No surname?”
“No.”
“Alright then.”
The Auror didn’t continue pressing, “Do you have any family?”
“I don’t know, we got separated.”
“Separated?
Where did you get separated?”
“Berlin.”
A German word.
“Berlin?”
The Auror repeated, confused.
“Berlin.”
Elara realized something and said it again in English.
“Berlin?
Then how did you end up here?”
“Mom took me to the west, but we got separated, and Mom disappeared.”
“How long ago?”
“A long time.”
“Then why come to Britain?”
“Mom left me an address, said it was in Britain, and that as long as I got to Britain, I could live a good life.”
“Do you still remember the address?”
“I remember, it’s on this.”
Elara took a crumpled note from her pocket, on which was written a partial address—only “Westminster District”.
“Nothing more specific?”
“Only this.”
“Then how did you get in?”
The Auror asked the key question.
“I saw this pub was smaller, so I wanted to see if I could find something to eat.”
“You can see it?”
“I can see it.”
“How old are you this year?”
“I should be eleven.”
Elara answered fluently.
“By the way, when did you come to Britain?
How did you come?”
“About ten days ago…
I…”
Elara was a bit hesitant.
“Just tell me, I won’t send you back.”
The tall Auror guessed Elara’s concerns.
“I snuck onto the boat, I don’t want to go back.”
Elara had already started yawning.
“Thank you for your cooperation.”
Tom spoke up: “You can go to the back room and sleep for a while.”
He opened a hidden room behind the bar, which had a small table and two uncomfortable chairs.
Tom moved the small table away, put the two chairs together, put a wooden board on top, and spread a blanket, letting Elara lie down to rest.
It was also to keep her under his nose; Tom continued wiping glasses, while the tall Auror turned his gaze to the new guests, waiting for the little girl inside to fall asleep.
Soon, the little girl’s even breathing came from inside.
“Kingsley, what do you think?”
Kingsley asked for a cup of tea.
“Obviously, a Muggle who has awakened her wizarding talent.
The real tricky part is that she has no relatives.”
“Send her to an orphanage?”
Tom was also very serious.
“But she is going to Hogwarts soon.”
“A little wizard from Germany, really tricky.”
The two looked at each other, tacitly leaving these matters for Hogwarts to worry about.
“I think she guessed that she is different.”
Kingsley said suddenly.
“What makes you say that?”
Tom stopped wiping the glass.
Kingsley explained the scene he saw before Elara came in.
“Her heart isn’t bad, but why did she only take one pound?”
“Probably because she saw the difference in this place and wanted to gamble it all.
Besides, she might not be able to hold onto such a large sum of money.
A smart child.”
Kingsley sighed.
“Let her stay with me for a while and do some chores.”
Tom said suddenly.
“Since when are you so kind?”
Kingsley teased.
“I’m just short-handed.
With that murderer outside these past few days, business here is surprisingly good.”
Kingsley looked around—basically no one was ordering drinks, everyone was occupying seats and talking—and couldn’t help but laugh: “That is really good.
It’s also good, such a young child outside, if she happened to run into that guy, I wouldn’t be at ease either.”
“I’ll tell her when she wakes up.
She looks like she hasn’t had a good sleep in a long time.”
And inside, the sleeping Elara couldn’t help but stick out her tongue; that onion slice used to induce tears was really too spicy.