Leaky Cauldron

Annie was standing on a London street in Britain. After watching the outdated clothes, hairstyles, and accessories of the passersby for a while, as well as the old-fashioned cars roaring down the road while spewing black smoke, she knew that after passing through that misty teleportation portal, she had not returned to Valoran as she had wished. Instead, she had arrived somewhere else that felt unfamiliar. Fortunately, the one thing she could be certain of was that she was still on Earth, as could be seen from the English letters on the shop signs and advertisements.

At first, when Annie saw all the various signs along the street, she naively thought that she had merely Teleported from New York in America to London in Britain.

But how could she have expected that when she angrily took out the advanced-agent communication phone produced by S.H.I.E.L.D. from the little backpack she always carried on her back and planned to secretly contact Uncle Coulson and Aunt Melinda, she would discover that the phone screen was displaying: No signal recognized?

Annie blinked and stared at the conspicuous "No signal recognized" message on the screen, completely baffled. This had never happened before. Hadn't Uncle Coulson and the others said that S.H.I.E.L.D.'s specialized advanced communication phones used signals provided by military satellites? He had even guaranteed that no matter where Annie went, she would always have a signal and could always be located by S.H.I.E.L.D.'s satellites.

But look at this! She was standing right in the middle of an empty street. Where was the signal they had promised her? How could there be no signal? They were all liars! Or was the S.H.I.E.L.D. satellite a fake? Maybe it had gone to play on the other side of Earth and been blocked by the planet?

Annie seriously and unhappily pondered the matter for a while. Unwilling to accept defeat, she found a public telephone booth and dialed the numbers she had memorized again. To her surprise, the recorded messages from that antique receiver told her that every number she had just dialed was out of service. How was that possible?

It was only when Annie happened to notice an expired newspaper someone had thrown into a metal trash bin beside the telephone booth that she finally came to her senses. The date printed on the newspaper was August 1, 1992...

Annie finally realized that after passing through that unreliable misty portal, she had arrived in another Earth—one that might even exist on a different timeline.

Terms such as timelines, spacetime, and alternate planes were not entirely unfamiliar to Annie. On the Valoran Continent, the various magic books described such subjects in considerable detail. Some mages even specialized in researching those strange categories of magic. Supposedly, there was an old man named Zilean who was especially skilled at studying time. He had actually become lost within the timeline and gained immortality as a result, making who knew how many people green with envy!

Annie had never been particularly interested in such things, but she had read quite a few similar books. Thus, she found it fairly easy to accept that she had arrived on a different Earth in a different timeline, without making too much of a fuss.

At present, Annie only knew that the timeline she was in should be Earth's 1992. Her current location was presumably a street in London, Britain. More importantly, there seemed to be no S.H.I.E.L.D. in this timeline!

"Ah~! How annoying, Tibbers... We seem to have ended up somewhere unfamiliar again." Annie sighed dejectedly. Finding her way home clearly would not be easy; she still had a long road ahead of her... But Annie would never give up!

Fortunately, Annie had been farsighted. At the instant she was about to pass completely through the portal, she had instinctively and secretly snatched the Space Stone with all her speed. Thinking back on it now, she felt that decision had been truly brilliant and decisive! She deserved full marks, plus a hundred likes, for it!

Since she still possessed the Space Stone, her chances of getting home were quite good! At worst, she would just have to try a few more times. She could open a few more portals—she would eventually stumble upon the right one! To Annie, that was no problem at all.

The thing that made Annie angriest was that the Space Stone, which was said to possess infinite energy, had actually run out of energy! What happened to the infinite energy? Annie felt that the most abundant thing in the world really was liars! Based on what she knew about the conservation of magical energy and the principle of equivalent exchange, infinite energy should not exist in the first place!

Although her Little Bear Tibbers had just said that perhaps the Infinity Stone had lost its ability to draw energy directly from the world because it was in a different world governed by different rules, it could still slowly absorb the free energy in space. Once it had charged to a certain level, it could be used again. Of course, that might take a little time... All right, actually, it would take quite a long time.

After understanding that the Infinity Stone no longer possessed infinite energy and realizing that she could not return home for the time being, Annie began wandering aimlessly around this unfamiliar London. It was not as though this was her first time in a strange place, so she might as well stay here for a while!

Annie felt that she should have gotten used to this long ago! She would play for a while first. As long as she found a satisfactory place to stay before nightfall, after she became tired of playing, everything would be fine. Her Spatial Pocket contained plenty of money, so she was not afraid of anyone trying to rob her! Annie was already holding a bellyful of anger. If anyone was bold enough to provoke her, they could just try!

Annie wandered around aimlessly. At first, she thought this world was merely an ordinary Earth without S.H.I.E.L.D. But when she drifted into a slightly more secluded old street, she made a new discovery: a somewhat shabby little house stood by the roadside, looking completely out of place among the surrounding buildings.

If it had merely been unusual in style, that would have been one thing. What made Annie curious was that the building gave off faint magical fluctuations. Even more surprising, none of the other pedestrians or tourists passing along the street seemed to notice the old house at all. In their eyes, it was as though the building did not exist!

Even when someone's path brought them too close to it, they would unconsciously detour a little farther outward before continuing on the other side. Curious, Annie used origin-tracing magic to analyze the fluctuations for a while. She discovered that they resembled a mixed spell of expulsion and concealment. The application was rather simple, yet it was unexpectedly effective, achieving an almost perfect result with the minimum amount of magic!

After observing for a while longer, Annie discovered that the magic seemed to target only ordinary people without any magical power. Did this Earth on this timeline also have mages? And did they deliberately avoid ordinary people? Had they hidden their magical world within an ordinary city?

After discovering this, Annie closed her eyes and rapidly scanned all of London with her enormous magical perception. As expected, she found many places similar to this building. This place was truly interesting!

Annie suddenly felt that she might not be bored while waiting for the Space Stone to recover in this world. Beneath the outer shell of the ordinary world, there was actually a moderately sized magical world hidden here! That was much more fun than fighting aliens alongside S.H.I.E.L.D. back then.

"Huh? The Leaky Cauldron? Or... the Leaky Cauldron? It looks so dirty!" Annie tilted her head and examined the shabby sign hanging above the building's entrance. The word was unfamiliar and difficult to spell, but now that she had found something interesting, she naturally had to go inside and take a look.

After making up her mind, Annie walked to the entrance of the building ordinary people could not perceive. The expulsion magic was naturally completely ineffective against her.

Standing before the wooden door, Annie looked at the flimsy thing and thought it over. In the end, she raised her leg and kicked it open. Who could blame her when the door knocker was so high? She could not reach it! Besides, the door looked filthy and smelled awful, with some disgusting, unidentified sticky substance smeared across it. She would never touch it with her hands!

"Oh, Merlin's beard! I've said it countless times before—don't kick my door! Don't kick my door! Can you penniless bums afford to pay for it if you break it? It's an antique! Uh..." The Leaky Cauldron's owner, Tom, saw someone kick the door open and was about to erupt in anger, but the person who entered turned out to be a neat, clean, adorable little blonde girl. The vicious curses he had been about to unleash immediately died in his throat.

The situation surprised him. Generally speaking, most wizards came to the Leaky Cauldron directly through the fireplace, since it was convenient and fast. Few people came in properly through the main entrance. After all, it was far too troublesome to detour onto the street and enter from there. Perhaps only Muggle-born Wizards without access to the Floo network would do such a thing.

Frowning suspiciously, Tom looked at the little girl who had entered, then behind her. She did not seem to have any family accompanying her. This puzzled Tom, the bar owner. Since when could children casually come to a bar to play?

More importantly, look at her! She did not seem to have any parents with her. Had she secretly run here alone? Merlin! This was no place for innocent people. Was it really all right to let such a young girl come here? Were her parents not worried that some dark wizard might abduct her?

"Wow! There are so many mage... apprentices!" After entering, Annie casually swept her gaze across the slightly dilapidated bar. Apart from being somewhat gloomy, it was full of mages drinking and chatting. Although many of their magical fluctuations were weak, and some were only at Valoran's apprentice level, they could still be considered mages!

But they looked far too dirty. Ugh! How disgusting! When Annie's gaze passed over a scruffy-haired wizard, the man even smiled at her, revealing a mouthful of yellow teeth covered in plaque. Annie was so disgusted that she almost burned him on the spot.

Annie frowned and warily examined the people in the dim corners. Were they the dark wizards her mother had mentioned? They really looked disgusting! How long had it been since they had bathed? What was that strange smell...? She really wanted to burn them all right away!

"Hello, distinguished little guest! What can I get you?" Tom bowed slightly and leaned halfway out from behind the bar. He smiled ingratiatingly at Annie. A customer was a customer. Since the little girl had come, he might as well do some business first.

Looking at the cleanly dressed little girl before him, Old Tom immediately saw that she was no ordinary person.

Just look at the material and workmanship of her clothes. And look at those exquisite little leather shoes on her feet. Could an ordinary wizarding family afford such things? How many Galleons was this outfit worth?

After years of working in bars, Old Tom was an expert at saying one thing to one person and another to someone else. If a filthy old wizard had walked in, he would have said only, "What'll it be?" while holding out a hand for payment. No money? Then get lost! If they wanted to go to Diagon Alley, they could walk around the bar and turn right. No need to loiter in front of him and annoy him!

"Just bring me something tasty!" Planning to observe the situation for now, Annie tossed a Valoran gold coin onto the bar before walking to an empty table. She felt a little hungry too, so eating something first seemed like a good idea. She just had no idea whether it would taste good.

Old Tom's eyes lit up when he saw a flash of gold flying toward him. He hurriedly reached out with both hands and caught the coin Annie had thrown.

After steadying it, he took a closer look. It was a gold coin! It was not a Galleon, and he could not understand the writing on it, but it was very heavy. Perhaps it could be exchanged for two or three Galleons? If it was an ancient gold coin, it might be worth even more! It looked like he was going to make a fortune today.

After putting away the coin, Tom was about to place a cup of Butterbeer on a tray, but he paused and quickly took it back. He had been so delighted that he had actually thought of giving a little girl alcohol.

He immediately set aside the Butterbeer and replaced it with a glass of fruit juice and milk. Then he added a large slice of cream cake, took out a large plate with a glass cover, carefully placed several Chocolate Frogs inside, and finally carried everything respectfully to Annie's table.

"Your food is here. Please enjoy it, distinguished guest!" As he spoke, Old Tom used his filthy rag to vigorously wipe the table twice before bowing and scurrying back behind the bar.

"Huh? This is so much fun! They're frogs that can move?! And they look like they're made of chocolate! These are moving Chocolate Frogs!"

Annie's eyes widened as she leaned almost against the glass cover and watched the several brown frogs hopping around inside. They could not only croak, but also breathe by puffing out their gills. Their skin looked incredibly lifelike, with different patterns on each one. Huh? Every single one was different? Wow! They could even jump up and hit the cover, trying to escape! What an amazing object! What an innovative application of magic! What a marvelous concept for Transfiguration!

With one glance, Annie saw through the essence of the Chocolate Frogs. Only now did she feel that the magical world here was truly interesting!

It looked like so much fun! Did they even make their food this interesting? She had also noticed that the figures in the photographs posted on the walls moved as well. The applications of magic in daily life seemed to be extremely widespread here.

After finishing her observations, Annie prepared to eat. She had just lifted the glass cover and swiftly grabbed a struggling Chocolate Frog. Holding it before her eyes, she wondered how she should eat it. Was she supposed to bite its head off directly? Looking at the frog struggling and shrieking in her hand, Annie hesitated, feeling as though she were about to eat a live frog. Should she... roast it over a fire first?

At that moment, the other frogs on the plate finally found their opportunity. They immediately squeezed through the gap in the open cover and scattered. Before Annie could react, they bounced off the tabletop in twos and threes and leaped high into the air. They were about to land...

"Hmph!" Annie had noticed the frogs' little tricks long ago. Escape? Not a chance! She had not had enough fun yet—how could she let them get away? Besides, the floor was so dirty. How could she eat them after they landed?

After Annie snorted, every escaping frog instantly froze in midair. It was as though an invisible hand had seized them and clamped them rigid. Annie's magic left their limbs completely unable to move. They could only croak frantically before slowly floating back to the plate on Annie's table.

The wizards nearby who had been watching Annie and were preparing to enjoy her embarrassment when the frogs escaped were now so shocked that they could not speak. If they had not seen wrong, that had been Wandless Magic, hadn't it? And it seemed to have been a silent, wandless, instantaneous casting of multiple Levitation Charms! That "hmph" could not possibly have been an incantation, could it?

Merlin's beard! Where had this little girl come from? How could she be so monstrous? Could she be some centuries-old monster transformed with Polyjuice Potion?

Seeing the trick Annie had casually revealed, the other dark wizards who had noticed the little girl's extravagant spending and been plotting to attack her immediately abandoned their unrealistic ideas. While secretly congratulating themselves, they no longer even had the courage to look at her. Rob her? Their legs were still trembling! Fortunately, they had not made a move. Otherwise, it would have been anyone's guess who robbed whom!