Situation Was a Little Off

Situation Was a Little Off

The Leaky Cauldron on London's Charing Cross Road was not exactly pleasant. If Diagon Alley's entrance had not been here, Charles felt he would never have come to this place in his entire life.

The letter said to meet here at eleven. The old man and the young one arrived near the pub half an hour early, pretending not to see it as they chatted sporadically.

Jack asked Charles, "Do you want a pet?"

Charles replied, "A Veela."

Old Jack fell silent for a moment, then tugged at him. "Come on, let's go to Azkaban. I'll book you a suite and have the Dementors prepare a sheep for you."

Charles's face darkened at once, because the Old Man had found him in Wales.

"Oh! Charles!"

Several people came over. The bucktoothed girl who greeted Charles was followed by the Granger parents and Professor McGonagall.

Hermione came running over and said happily to Charles, "I never expected you to be a w— I mean, to go to the same middle school as me!"

She remembered how stunned she and her parents had been when Dumbledore had said the name Charles Smith that day.

Charles put on an astonished expression and said with a smile, "I never expected you to be the ones I was waiting for, either. We can be classmates again."

At that moment, he heard the Old Man say with complete seriousness, "Hello, beautiful lady. I'm Charles's grandfather, Jack Smith. May I have the honor of learning your name?"

Charles looked up in surprise as the Old Man greeted Professor McGonagall like a gentleman from the last century. He had never been this enthusiastic when cozying up to the voters.

What the hell is going on?

Professor McGonagall looked somewhat flustered. Charles lightly kicked the Old Man, then asked her, "Hello. Are you a professor at Hogwarts?"

With him interrupting, Professor McGonagall calmly introduced herself. "Hello, Mr. Smith. Charles, I'm Minerva McGonagall, Deputy Headmistress of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. I'm also the Head of Gryffindor and a professor of Transfiguration."

"Oh, Transfiguration?" Jack put on a very surprised look. "Is that turning one thing into another? If Charles misbehaves, you can turn him into a sheep and make him eat grass for all three meals."

He thought he had been humorous, but he frightened the Granger parents badly. They feared that the daughter they had sent out would come home as a white sheep.

Professor McGonagall answered solemnly, "Hogwarts no longer uses Transfiguration as a means of punishing students."

"Is that so?" Jack looked rather disappointed. "What a pity."

Charles rolled his eyes as he listened from the side.

Now that everyone had been introduced, Professor McGonagall led them toward The Leaky Cauldron. Along the way, Jack made an appointment with Mr. Granger to take Charles to have his teeth checked the next day.

The Leaky Cauldron was dark and filthy. Its décor and the guests' clothing were both extremely old-fashioned, making first-time visitors feel as though they had traveled through time back to the Middle Ages.

A pale man sat beside one table, a thick headscarf wrapped around his head. He nervously nodded a greeting to Professor McGonagall.

The Granger family merely glanced at him without much interest. Charles and Jack looked a little longer, faint smiles of unclear meaning appearing on their faces.

The group crossed through The Leaky Cauldron. Professor McGonagall tapped a brick on the wall three times with her wand. As the bricks moved on their own, a street appeared before them.

"Welcome to Diagon Alley," Professor McGonagall said to everyone.

Perhaps because the Smith family had come along, the Granger family, though somewhat nervous, seemed relatively at ease. They quietly discussed the cauldrons, owls, and flying broomsticks sold in the shops.

Charles looked around curiously, occasionally exchanging a few words with Hermione.

Jack walked shoulder to shoulder with Professor McGonagall, asking her whenever he had a question.

"No, that won't do!" Professor McGonagall shook her head as she answered one of Jack's questions. "First-year students aren't allowed to bring their own flying broomsticks to school."

Jack said emotionally, "Charles's birthday is in a few days. I'll never forget the night I picked him up from a roadside trash can. He was so tiny and thin then, and his breathing was so faint it seemed to have stopped."

"This child barely survived. He hasn't been apart from me all these years. I've always treated him like my own grandson, and now he's leaving me. I want to give him a present."

"He's loved airplanes since he was little and wants to become a pilot when he grows up. I think he'll definitely like that flying broomstick."

"I have no intention of challenging the school rules. How about I leave this broomstick in your care for now? Give it to him once he's able to ride it."

Charles, walking behind them, was speechless.

After hearing this, Professor McGonagall thought for a moment before saying, "Very well. During his first year, the broomstick can be kept by the Head of his House."

Just then, they arrived in front of a snow-white building. Professor McGonagall said, "We're here at Gringotts."

Everyone took a few extra looks at the goblin standing beside the bronze doors, dressed in red with gold trim, and began whispering among themselves. Only Jack acted as though he hadn't seen it.

Professor McGonagall asked him curiously, "Have you seen goblins before?"

Jack replied, "After meeting you, I wouldn't be surprised even if I saw a fire-breathing dragon."

Professor McGonagall froze for a moment, then said calmly, "Sorry."

With that, she went over and led the Granger family through the bronze doors.

Charles whispered to Jack, who was being dragged along behind, "Have some self-respect."

The Old Man glared at him.

With Professor McGonagall's help, the two families quickly exchanged their pounds for Galleons, Sickles, and Knuts.

The Old Man simply pulled several stacks of pounds from inside his vest and placed them on the table. As a result, Charles found carrying the coins rather tiring.

After exchanging the money, the first thing they naturally did was buy wands.

Jack was determined to carry his act of pretending to be a Muggle through to the end, so he had not brought his own wand. It made no difference to him whether he had one or not, anyway.

Everyone entered Ollivanders Wand Shop, and Ollivander immediately came out from behind the counter to receive them.

While the two newcomers selected their wands, Jack questioned Professor McGonagall about all sorts of wand-related knowledge, looking like an eager student.

Even the Granger parents noticed that something was wrong this time and tactfully moved aside.

Jack asked his questions so seriously that he did not stop until Charles came over and told him that his wand had been chosen.

"It's ready?" Jack asked blankly. "What does it look like?"

Charles speechlessly raised his new wand for him to see. He had clearly called Jack over just moments ago.

The wand was made of yew wood, with a Phoenix feather core. It was a little over eighteen inches long, which converted to 460 millimeters.

Ollivander came over to explain Charles's wand to Jack. He did this whenever a student from a Muggle family bought a wand. "Your grandson's wand is the longest wand in over a hundred years. The last person to possess a wand of similar length... I dare not speak his name. In any case, he was an exceptionally powerful man. Yew wood wands are extremely rare, and very few wizards use them. Their ideal owners are unusual people, and they also grant their wielders the power to command life and death. This wand's core is a Phoenix feather. Phoenixes are extremely proud creatures and do not readily submit to others. The source of this wand's feather is extraordinary. It did not come from Dumbledore's Phoenix. Supposedly, a hundred years ago, a great man asked my ancestor to make a wand with a Phoenix feather core—the other unusually long wand I just mentioned. This feather was the payment."

"The wand chooses the wizard, just as the wizard chooses the wand. Their qualities are connected. Your grandson will become a great wizard in the future!"

Jack's face lit up with a brilliant smile, and he gave a few extra coins when he paid.