Staring (Seeking Comments and Suggestions, Seeking Favorites~)

The auction experience was unremarkable, so there's no need to elaborate.

With Aberforth Dumbledore present, no one would dare cause trouble in that place.

You should know that although he and his brother had a strained relationship, he was still Dumbledore's younger brother. That's the White Wizard even Grindelwald was wary of.

Moreover, Aberforth Dumbledore's strength was also considerable.

Luna paid nearly a thousand in value of Polyjuice Potion and a small bottle of Felix Felicis she'd pilfered from Professor Slughorn to successfully acquire the Norman Dragon Blood Grass.

The appearance of a small bottle of Felix Felicis caused everyone to shake their heads.

The Polyjuice Potion, worth nearly a thousand, was the handling fee for the Hog's Head Pub.

"Don't worry, the raw materials only cost about a hundred Galleons," Luna quietly told Cypher.

Cypher's heart, which had been hanging in suspense, finally settled, followed by a wave of amusement.

His entire fortune was merely a large cauldron of Polyjuice Potion casually brewed by Luna. Cypher clicked his tongue, speechless.

The Hog's Head Pub would protect the safety of customers during the transaction and provide a location for Apparition upon departure.

However, the two of them couldn't actually Apparate, so they naturally left through the secret door in the private room.

And now, the two of them arrived at an inn on the other side of Hogsmeade.

It was called the No Broomsticks Inn.

Upon first seeing the sign, Cypher admitted that he remembered it vividly because it was too ordinary.

The exterior of the bar was simple, but the interior was surprisingly spacious.

Especially when Luna led him to the third floor.

You should know that when Cypher was examining the inn from the outside, it looked like only a one-story house.

They arrived at the agreed-upon room.

Luna first stepped forward and knocked on the door with her wand.

"Butterbeer?"

A muffled voice came from the room.

"Don't drink beer!"

They matched the strange password.

Creak—

The old wooden door opened from the inside.

"Come in, you must be my Galleon Princess. Wait! Who are you?!"

The voice belonged to a middle-aged man.

When he saw Cypher walking through the door, he nervously pulled out his wand.

Because the people who used to trade with him were two young girls.

"Stop, Swift, this is also my friend, he's here with me today,"

Luna, who was covering the lower half of her face, quickly stepped forward to stop him.

Seeing those familiar and intelligent blue eyes, the man called Swift put away his wand. But the words he spoke weren't very pleasant.

"Okay, okay, as long as it's you, I'm not interested in your private life."

Luna gritted her silver teeth in anger.

After some haggling, Luna huffily bought a batch of potion ingredients that she had used up from Swift.

"Oh! Right!"

Swift opened the door, but suddenly he seemed to remember something. He closed the opened door and turned to solemnly warn the two of them.

"I'll give you a piece of information. There's a group of people abroad who are tracking down the whereabouts of Dragon Blood Herb."

After saying that, the man didn't hesitate and left the room nimbly.

The door closed, leaving only Cypher and Luna sitting in the room.

"How does he know we have Norman Dragon Blood Grass?"

Cypher narrowed his eyes.

"He was the one who gave me the news about the auction."

Luna looked puzzled.

Because Cypher seemed very nervous.

"I have a bad feeling..."

Cypher tried hard to think. He and Luna came here and hadn't been in contact with anyone.

The Hog's Head Pub, with Aberforth present, if he couldn't even detect the magical traces, there was nothing he could do.

The only thing Luna and I managed to get our hands on was the Norman Dragon Blood Grass.

"Luna, let me take another look at the Norman Dragon Blood Grass we bid on at the auction."

Seeing the seriousness on Cypher's face, Luna quickly took the herb out of her satchel.

Cypher used Mage Hand to envelop the Norman Dragon Blood Grass.

There were no magical fluctuations, and the feeling of pins and needles that Cypher felt grew stronger.

Not magic? Are we being tracked? Impossible, before entering the Hog's Head Pub, we were normal Hogwarts students.

What's more, many professors and older students go there for a real drink.

The herb... wait, is it a scent?

Thinking of this, Cypher's expression turned ugly.

"Luna! Do you have any potion that can mask scents?"

"Yes!"

Luna quickly opened her bag and took out a grass-green potion.

"Scent-Shifting Potion," Luna said, "It's usually used in the jungle."

After applying it, the scent on your body changes with the scent of the environment.

It's one of the essential potions for stowaways to avoid law enforcement.

There was no time to dwell on why Luna had this kind of potion.

Cypher hurriedly sprinkled the potion on both of them, grabbed Luna, and ran outside.

At this time, Hogsmeade was mostly dark, with only a few shops still emitting a faint glow.

Where the moonlight didn't reach, it was pitch black.

However, the sound of powerful footsteps echoed on the quiet streets.

"You stole my things and dared to stay here. Let me see who's so bold!"

Charles walked at the front of the group, a red-eyed Niffler perched on his shoulder.

Not long ago, all the wizards who tried to Apparate had been stopped by them. Caught off guard, many of them suffered splinching, dying on the spot. Those who survived were seriously injured and lost their lives in the encirclement of Charles's team.

Cypher arrived in the first-floor hall.

The old-timers who had been underground for years must have received some information.

Looking at the empty counter in the first-floor hall, Cypher's heart sank.

Calm down, calm down, I'm a Hogwarts student, the people in the village shouldn't sit idly by.

Wait, we came here illegally, without a pass from Hogwarts. We can't prove our identities.

After all, Polyjuice Potion can perfectly transform you into someone else, and all you need is a strand of the target's hair.

"Cypher..."

Seeing the sweat on Cypher's forehead, Luna anxiously hugged Cypher from behind to comfort him.

After a long while, Cypher breathed a sigh of relief and slowly said to Luna.

"The best-case scenario is that as soon as we leave the black market, Fawkes will immediately receive our distress signal and take us back to the castle. The next best thing is that we can get back to the secret passage in time. Just now in the private room, Fawkes didn't receive my signal. The worst-case scenario is that we encounter them on the road and hold out until Professor Dumbledore realizes we're not in school."

Luna was silent for a while, then decided to speak up.

"Cypher, no one knows we left Hogwarts, and at this time, we're usually in the Room of Requirement..."

Cypher took a deep breath and muttered.

"In other words, Professor Dumbledore assumes we're in the Room of Requirement..."

"Let's go to the Hog's Head Pub first and see if Aberforth will believe us because of Fawkes's tail feather."

"Don't panic, maybe I'm just worrying too much."

However, Cypher's performance didn't suggest that nothing was wrong.

The younger the wizard, the more they can sense different things.

"You saved Iris once, you can save me this time too."

Luna suddenly stared at Cypher with her stubborn blue eyes.

"I'll try my best... but... I'm not sure I can!"