Diagon Alley

Li Weide and Tom walked silently along London's muddy streets.

Still shaken, Tom pressed down on his newsboy cap, surprised that the oversized hat had not been lost in the sewers.

Li Weide, meanwhile, tightened the backpack full of money on his back, secretly relieved that the gold had not been lost.

"That snake... said she used to be a human woman and was drawn here by my Snake Language... But how is that possible?" Once Tom had calmed down, he was the first to break the silence.

"Tom, you have to admit that there are many incredible things in this world... Just because we don't know about them doesn't mean they don't exist," Li Weide said calmly.

In truth, Li Weide knew Nagini's story very well, but he had no way to tell Tom, because he could not explain how he knew any of it.

Nagini had originally been a kind and gentle woman, but unfortunately, she was a Blood Curse Werewolf.

Because of a blood curse passed down through the maternal line of her family, she had been born cursed, able to shift back and forth between human and snake forms.

But as she grew older, the curse would eventually cause her to completely lose her humanity, forget every memory of being human, and become a beast for good...

Of course, the current Nagini was not yet the vicious giant snake Voldemort would turn into a Horcrux decades later.

Li Weide guessed that Nagini was now on the verge of completely falling into bestiality, only able to regain her senses on rare occasions.

And just now, Nagini's true consciousness had awakened in time during that critical moment.

Tom fell silent for a while before saying, "I have a feeling I'll meet her again someday."

Li Weide looked at Tom, surprised to catch a flash of pity in his eyes.

"Perhaps... But we need to get stronger quickly. Otherwise, the next time you meet her, she might swallow you whole."

As Li Weide spoke, he jumped onto a tram that had just stopped, and Tom hurriedly followed him aboard.

Since they no longer had to walk, the two of them quickly reached their destination.

Li Weide watched as the pedestrians ahead took a strange route around a stretch of road.

Beside that stretch hung a battered sign—the Leaky Cauldron.

Li Weide and Tom exchanged a glance, then quickly headed over.

Tom nervously patted the dust off his clothes. After falling into the sewers and struggling around, both of them looked rather bedraggled.

More importantly, they carried a faint but lingering stench...

Just as Tom frowned and began considering where to change clothes.

He suddenly felt a faint chill sweep over his entire body, as though a gentle breeze had brushed past him.

Then, to his surprise, he discovered that all the dust and odor on him had vanished!

Tom immediately turned to look at Li Weide.

Li Weide was looking at his own clothes, silently chanting an incantation in his heart.

"Scourgify!"

The next second, he too became spotless from head to toe.

"Weide, I've actually wanted to ask this for a long time. Did you already know that you were a..." Tom looked around, and only after confirming that no one was paying attention did he continue in a low voice. "Did you already know you were a wizard, and that you learned how to use magic somewhere?"

"No, I figured all this out through experimentation... Don't you understand by now? The power of magic is determined by the mind."

Tom's suspicion did not surprise Li Weide, but of course, he would never admit it.

In truth, even without obtaining the Spellbook, he really could have experimented his way into discovering many magical effects...

"Magic is determined by the mind..." Tom repeated, deep in thought.

"All right, we should head in. A new world is beckoning to us." Li Weide patted Tom on the shoulder, then took the lead into the Leaky Cauldron.

The inside of the Leaky Cauldron was exactly as Li Weide had expected—dirty and cramped.

Even so, the pub was still bustling with activity, though its patrons looked like quite a mixed bunch...

Li Weide walked up to the bar, where a somewhat balding middle-aged man was wiping down a cup.

"Hello, may I ask how we get into Diagon Alley?" Li Weide asked.

The middle-aged man set down the cup and lowered his head to inspect Li Weide and Tom.

"Oh... You're this year's new Hogwarts students, aren't you? Never been to Diagon Alley? All right, follow me."

Tom and Li Weide exchanged a glance, then followed him.

Along the way, people kept greeting the man.

"Tom, is there anything to eat? Get me a roasted flatbread! I'm hungry enough to eat a cow! Oh, and bring me a glass of sherry too!"

"Wait a moment, Chom. I still need to take these two new students to Diagon Alley."

"Oh? Young Wizards from Muggle families?"

"Yes, yes..."

As they spoke, the owner of the Leaky Cauldron, a man named Tom, led Li Weide and the other Tom into the small courtyard behind the pub.

Suppressing his discomfort, Tom asked the owner, who shared his name, "What does Muggle-born mean?"

"Hm? It seems the professor who explained things to you didn't make it very clear. Muggles are the general term for people who don't understand magic. Muggle-born means a wizard born into a Muggle family. Hm... Aren't you two? If you came from a wizarding family, there's no way you wouldn't have been to Diagon Alley before." Tom the owner eyed the two boys suspiciously.

"No, we really are Muggle-born. We were just curious about what the word Muggle means," Li Weide explained.

"Oh, I see..." Tom the owner did not think much of it. Turning around, he took out his wand and pointed it at the wall beside a trash bin. "Starting from this bin, count three bricks up, then two across, and knock..."

"Tap!"

The next second, the brick wall began moving rapidly. One brick after another hopped aside, and an entrance appeared before the three of them.

Li Weide stepped through first, and a long cobblestone street came into view.

The first thing he saw was the assortment of bizarre shops lining both sides of the street, along with the bustling crowds.

The entire Diagon Alley was brimming with life.

"All right, now you know how to get in and out of Diagon Alley, so I should head back."

"Oh, right. Don't ever leave the main street. If you accidentally wander into Knockturn Alley, that could be dangerous." After giving them this warning, Tom the owner left.

After the entrance behind them reverted to a wall, Tom suddenly said, "I don't think I'm Muggle-born. I think my father must have been a wizard, while my mother wasn't. Otherwise, she never would have died so easily outside the orphanage..."

"No matter what, we came from an orphanage now... That still counts as being Muggle-born."

"All right... But sooner or later, I'll find information about my father!" Tom took out the shopping list and did not mention his father again. "What should we buy first?"

"Of course, we should buy a wand first. But... we need to exchange some money first." Li Weide patted his backpack.

Several kilometers away from the Leaky Cauldron, a crowd of police officers had gathered outside a detached house.

The two-story house was now leaning slightly, looking as though it might collapse at any moment.

"Chief, we found those tied-up traffickers, but..."

"But what?" asked the chief with a thin mustache.

"Well... For some reason, the floor in the house collapsed. Several of those traffickers fell through and were injured, and... they all seem to have been scared mad!"

"That really is strange..."

A tall, thin man suddenly stepped out from the crowd. The police officers beside him acted as if they could not see him, allowing him to walk into the building that looked ready to collapse at any moment.

Dumbledore frowned at the horrific scene inside the house, his brow furrowing deeper.

He closed his eyes and carefully sensed the surroundings, because he found the traces of magic at the scene somewhat familiar...

Suddenly, Dumbledore opened his eyes, his face full of confusion. "It was them? How could it be them?"

A trace of worry flashed across Dumbledore's face. He then followed the large hole and jumped into the sewers.

Ignoring the sewer's foul stench, Dumbledore searched carefully before suddenly bending down to feel around in a corner of the sewer.

When he straightened up, a dark green scale was in his hand...

"This is... Nagini?! Has she finally fallen completely? Wait! If they encountered Nagini..."

The worry on Dumbledore's face deepened. He slipped the scale into his pocket.

"Pop!"

Dumbledore vanished from the sewers.

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