During the previous school year, almost everything had revolved around Sirius Black, to the point that everyone had overlooked Voldemort—until he appeared at the Quidditch World Cup in such an unexpected manner.
There were noticeably fewer people in Diagon Alley than before. Perhaps the World Cup had ended, and the tourists had all gone home.
"You, stop." A drunk suddenly charged at Pomona, and she hurriedly raised her wand.
"Go back!" she snapped. The drunk stared at her wand with disgust.
"Come on," Snape said. Then, dragging the hem of his robes, he strode through Knockturn Alley without the slightest concern that Pomona had to jog to keep up.
Pomona pulled her cloak tighter around herself. Once they had passed through an alley, a torrential downpour came crashing down. The raindrops were as large as beans and stung when they hit her, but fortunately, the distance was not far. They soon arrived at Borgin and Burkes.
"Ah, Professor Snape." Borgin and Burkes, who was appraising antiques, looked up at the people entering the shop. "What brings you here today?"
"I'm returning something."
"Returning something?" Borgin and Burkes said in confusion.
"This," Snape said, placing a small wooden box on the counter.
When he opened the box, three round eyes appeared inside, their irises green, red, and yellow respectively. At first, they did not move, but after a while, they began to tremble. At the same time, a blue eye in a glass display case inside Borgin and Burkes also began to tremble. It lightly tapped against the glass, producing a jingling sound.
"Whoosh, whoosh."
One by one, the eyes in the wooden box flew up. They circled the eye in the glass case as if old friends were being reunited.
"It seems they belong together," Snape said with a smile.