The auction had been utterly uneventful, so there was no need to dwell on it.
With Aberforth Dumbledore present, no one dared cause trouble there.
Though his relationship with his brother was strained, he was still Dumbledore's younger brother. Dumbledore was the White Wizard even Grindelwald had feared.
What was more, Aberforth Dumbledore himself was also very powerful.
Luna paid nearly a thousand Galleons' worth of Polyjuice Potion, along with a small vial of Felix Felicis she had extorted from Professor Slughorn, to successfully obtain the Norman Dragon Blood Grass.
The appearance of that small vial of Felix Felicis made everyone shake their heads.
The Polyjuice Potion worth nearly a thousand Galleons was the Hog's Head Pub's handling fee.
"No need to feel bad. The ingredients only cost nearly a hundred Galleons," Luna quietly told Cypher.
Cypher's anxious heart finally settled, only for him to find the situation rather amusing.
His entire fortune was worth no more than a large cauldron of Polyjuice Potion Luna had casually brewed. Cypher clicked his tongue and said nothing.
The Hog's Head Pub would protect guests during transactions and provide a place for them to Apparate when leaving.
But neither of them could truly Apparate, so they naturally left through the private room's hidden door.
At that moment, the two arrived at an inn on the other side of Hogsmeade.
It was called the No Broomsticks Inn.
When Cypher first saw the sign, he had to admit that its sheer ordinariness had made it unforgettable.
The inn looked shabby from the outside, but there was more to it within.
Especially when Luna led him to the third floor.
When Cypher had inspected the inn from outside, it had looked like nothing more than a one-story cottage.
They arrived at the agreed-upon room.
Luna stepped forward first and tapped on the door with her wand.
"Butterbeer?"
A muffled voice came from inside the room.
"I don't drink beer!"
What a strange password.
The old wooden door creaked open from within.
"Come in. You're my Galleon Princess. Wait! Who are you?!"
Judging from his voice, he was a middle-aged man.
When he saw Cypher enter, he nervously pulled out his wand.
After all, the people who had traded with him before were two young girls.
"Stop, Swift. He's my friend too. He came with me today."
Luna, with the lower half of her face covered, hurried forward to stop him.
Only after seeing those familiar, lively blue eyes did the man called Swift put away his wand. But his words were far from pleasant.
"All right, all right. As long as it's really you. I'm not interested in your private life."
Luna clenched her silver teeth in anger.
After some haggling, Luna angrily bought a batch of potion ingredients from Swift to replenish her exhausted supplies.
"Oh! Right!"
Swift pulled open the door, then suddenly remembered something. He shut it again and turned to warn them solemnly.
"I'll give you a piece of information. A group of people overseas is looking into the whereabouts of Dragon Blood Herb."
Having said that, the man hesitated no longer and swiftly left the room.
The door closed, leaving only Cypher and Luna sitting in the room.
"How did he know the Norman Dragon Blood Grass was in our hands?"
Cypher narrowed his eyes.
"He was the one who told me about this auction."
Luna looked confused.
Cypher looked extremely tense.
"I have a bad feeling..."
Cypher tried hard to think. Since arriving here, he and Luna had not come into contact with anyone.
At the Hog's Head Pub, Aberforth had been there. If even he could not detect the magical trace, there was nothing Cypher could do about it.
The only thing Luna and he had obtained was the Norman Dragon Blood Grass.
"Luna, let me take another look at the Norman Dragon Blood Grass we bought at the auction."
Seeing Cypher's solemn expression, Luna quickly took the herb from her bag.
Cypher wrapped the Norman Dragon Blood Grass in Mage Hand.
There were no magical fluctuations, yet the feeling that Cypher was sitting on pins and needles only grew stronger.
Not magic? Were we being tracked? That couldn't be possible. Before entering the Hog's Head Pub, we were ordinary Hogwarts students.
Besides, quite a few professors and older students went there to drink real hard liquor.
The herb... Wait, could it be the smell?
Cypher's expression turned ugly as soon as the thought occurred to him.
"Luna! Do you have any potion that can mask our scent?"
"Yes!"
Luna hurriedly opened her bag and took out a grass-green potion.
"Scent-Shifting Potion," Luna said. "It's usually used in forests."
After it was applied, the scent on one's body would change according to the scent of the surroundings.
It was one of the essential potions smugglers used to evade law enforcement.
There was no time to question why Luna carried such a potion.
Cypher hastily sprinkled the potion over both of them, grabbed Luna's hand, and ran outside.
At that hour, only a few shops in Hogsmeade still leaked faint traces of light.
Everywhere the moonlight did not reach was pitch-black.
Yet firm, clanging footsteps rang out through the quiet streets.
"You stole my things and still dared stay here. Let me see who could possibly be so bold!"
Charles walked at the front of the group, a red-eyed Niffler perched on his shoulder.
Not long ago, they had stopped every wizard who tried to Apparate. Caught off guard, many had suffered Splinching and died on the spot. Those lucky enough to survive were grievously injured, and under Charles's team's encirclement, they too soon fell silent.
Cypher arrived at the first-floor lobby.
These old hands who had spent their lives underground must have received some information.
Looking at the empty first-floor reception desk, Cypher's heart sank.
Calm down, calm down. I'm a Hogwarts student. The people in the village shouldn't just stand by and watch.
Wait, we had sneaked in. We didn't have the passes Hogwarts issued. We couldn't prove our identities.
After all, Polyjuice Potion could perfectly transform someone into another person, as long as they had a single hair from the target.
"Cypher..."
Seeing cold sweat bead on Cypher's forehead, Luna anxiously hugged him from behind to comfort him.
After a long while, Cypher let out a deep breath and slowly spoke to Luna.
"The best outcome is that as soon as we leave the black market district, Fawkes receives our distress signal and takes us back to the castle. A slightly worse outcome is that we make it back to the passage in time. In the private room just now, Fawkes didn't receive my signal. The worst outcome is that we run into them on the way and have to hold out until Professor Dumbledore notices we're not at school."
Luna fell silent for a moment before deciding to say it.
"Cypher, no one knows we left Hogwarts. And at this time, we're usually in the Room of Requirement..."
Cypher drew a deep breath and murmured.
"So Professor Dumbledore assumes we're in the Room of Requirement..."
"Let's go to the Hog's Head Pub first and see whether Aberforth will believe us because of Fawkes's tail feather."
"Don't panic. Maybe I'm just worrying over nothing."
Yet Cypher's behavior did not look like nothing had happened.
The younger a wizard was, the more keenly they could sense unusual things.
"You saved Iris once. This time, you can save me too."
Luna suddenly stared stubbornly at Cypher with her blue eyes.
"I'll do my... No... I definitely can!"
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