Revisiting Diagon Alley

Diagon Alley was a fine place.

A month after his first visit, Andrew had finally scraped together enough money for the round trip to London and his expenses in Diagon Alley.

The price was that his research into textbooks and experiments with magic had not progressed as quickly as he had hoped, but it had been necessary.

When he got off at King's Cross Station, he even spared a glance for the signs—according to Professor McGonagall, he would board the train to Hogwarts from Platform Nine and Three-Quarters in the future. But at this hour, he had no interest in testing whether the platform was open by ramming his head into it.

After changing from the train to the Underground, he successfully arrived at the entrance to Diagon Alley, The Leaky Cauldron, around noon.

"What a wonderful place."

Looking at the pub entrance, he sighed in admiration. Then he took off his backpack, pulled out a cloak and draped it over himself, and took a cup of ice from the bag to tuck inside his clothes.

He had had no choice when Professor McGonagall brought him here last time, but this time, he was not going to wander around a place full of wizards in clothes that made him stand out. He suspected most wizards out shopping knew a spell to lower the temperature inside their robes, but he had not found anything similar in the first-year textbooks.

Because of the unusual circumstances of his previous visit with Professor McGonagall, he had yet to learn how ordinary wizards greeted one another. Still, it was not much of a problem—before Hogwarts started, plenty of people came and went through Diagon Alley. All he needed to do was pull up his hood.

Everything went smoothly, except for the stifling heat.

So, after leaving The Leaky Cauldron, he decisively took off his hood, abandoned his foolish disguise, bought a large ice cream, and hurried toward the secondhand bookstore.

After a brief discussion with the owner, he gained the right to browse every book outside the premium secondhand section for one Sickle per hour—even while carrying around his unfinished ice cream.

But that was all. The discrimination brought by his age could usually only be erased with time. At his age, adults were only willing to seriously talk with him when they did not have to meet him face-to-face.

"This is why I chose to rewrite manuscripts as my first pot of gold..."

Andrew quickly finished his ice cream, put on his mask, and began flipping through the old books.

Unlike last time, when he had mainly selected textbooks, this time he was primarily looking for entertainment books.

Entertainment was human nature, whether one was a Muggle or a wizard.

To put it plainly, everyone loved having fun; they just found it in different ways.

He did not dare claim he could shape how people had fun, but once he figured out what wizards liked, he was confident he could come up with something the Wizarding world would enjoy.

Investigating at a secondhand bookstore had one drawback—the owner would not buy highly time-sensitive reading material, nor would he acquire many secondhand books suitable for adult wizards. Still, everything else should be enough.

Fairy tale collections and bedtime stories were excellent material. Twisted childhood classics were timeless hidden gems; as long as he did not stray too far from the originals, readers would be delighted to read them...

"Focus, Andrew... You knew before coming here that as your grammar improved, you needed to write something with broader appeal."

He reminded himself to use a different pen name, then began looking through biographies.

Biographies that secondhand bookstores bought and resold generally had wide circulation, so rewriting them in a different format would be readily accepted—turning them into an adventure series was not a bad choice.

Then he could add a fantastical reimagining, exaggerate the effects of magic a little, and as long as he did not portray anyone negatively, he could earn excellent reviews.

After roughly investigating the popular magazine series, learning what kinds of fairy tales wizards commonly read, and reading biographies of several famous wizards, Andrew felt that he had gotten the hang of it. He picked out the books he liked, then patted his pocket and realized he had not even had time to go to Gringotts to exchange money.

After paying for the time he had spent browsing, he asked the owner to hold the books for him, then immediately rushed to Gringotts to exchange Galleons. Since he had picked a good day, Gringotts processed his business quickly.

"Actually, Hogwarts' library has a lot of storybooks too."

Perhaps because he had noticed Andrew rushing back and forth, the shop owner kindly offered a reminder. His main profits came from secondhand textbooks; every year after Hogwarts' OWLs or during graduation season, he could buy many books cheaply.

"That's exactly what I need, sir." Andrew nodded. "Can I look through the premium section for secondhand copies of the most popular books right now?"

"I really don't have those," the owner said, spreading his hands. "Lockhart's books are extremely popular right now. His secondhand books are hard to come by and sell fast. Lots of people have them reserved."

"Lockhart?"

"Of course. The most famous adventurer. His stories are practically lifelike."

The owner spoke with admiration. He, too, had an adventurous heart, but the Galleons he earned from buying Hogwarts' secondhand books had tied him down.

All right, looks like I'll need to get a complete set of Lockhart's books... Fortunately, the financial pressure isn't that great. As Andrew packed up the classic books he had selected, he calculated. "Also, I need an owl. An ordinary, common owl."

About ten minutes later, he arrived at the famous Eeylops Owl Emporium.

Another ten minutes later, he left the shop carrying a Barn Owl. According to the books he had read, this was the most common owl in the entire Wizarding world. Even among the school owls, most were Barn Owls.

"Still," he said, glancing at his owl, "I have a feeling the clerk swindled me. You're ugly in a very distinctive way... Hey, don't!"

The owl's beak had already reached his finger. Though it only gave him a light peck, the warning in its eyes was unmistakable. Clearly, if Andrew said another word out of line, it intended to give him a much harder bite.

That immediately made Andrew realize that the clerk's claim that it was very intelligent had definitely not been empty boasting meant to raise its price.

"So the spell on the cage that makes it less noticeable was real too?" Andrew examined the owl. "All right, since that peck was not too hard, I've decided to give you a nice name. But not now. We need to head back."

It nodded slightly, giving Andrew, who had thought he was already used to the existence of magic, another small surprise.

"The right books, the right target, and the right owl..."

Andrew nodded. This trip had gone perfectly. Next, he needed to find an inn at a reasonable price to stay in for the night, then set off the next day and return from London to the orphanage.

"Hey, buddy, I've got a good idea."

Andrew spoke to his owl. "How about The Leaky Cauldron? We can gather some information about the Wizarding world while we're there."

"Hoot."