"Make way."
Pomona dodged two Muggles carrying a large wardrobe. The bustle of the London Transport Museum surprised her; it was nearly as impenetrably crowded as Diagon Alley.
Diagon Alley's streets were very narrow, while the streets here had originally been quite spacious. Yet delivery vehicles and laborers loading and unloading goods had packed them to bursting. Looking carefully, she discovered the reason was the "open-air market" beside the transport museum.
She took out a map and saw that it was a garden called Covent Garden. Then she pulled out her travel guide and found its entry under C.
This market had existed since Ancient Rome and was London's first market. During the Middle Ages, it had become a monastery garden. In the fifteenth century, it was rebuilt as an upscale residential district fit for gentlemen, later became a fruit and vegetable market, and was now a market for antiques and artworks.
Its main structure was a Victorian wrought-iron arcade painted green, with glass outer walls and a stone entrance. The two men carrying the wardrobe had come from that direction.
Pomona caught the scent of food and bypassed the transport museum, heading straight for the market. Before long, she noticed that many "strange" people frequented the place.
The Muggles seemed accustomed to it. Many artists had stalls here, and artists often dressed in bizarre fashions.
Yet Pomona discovered that wizards were mixed into the crowd. One woman wore an emerald-green hat, with a young boy beside her. They were none other than Minerva McGonagall, who was supposedly visiting her nephew, and Ravenclaw's Quirinus Quirrell.
"What the hell," Pomona muttered, unable to resist following them.
She remembered Quirrell because he had given a speech at last year's Celestial Ball. Unfortunately, he had been so nervous that he stammered through it,