Heard You Sell Fire Dragons Here?

When Annie left Ollivanders Wand Shop and resumed her aimless wandering, intent on completing her tour of Diagon Alley, a crisp voice from behind interrupted her, forcing her to stop gawking at the curious sights around her.

"Hello, I'm Hermione Granger. Little girl, are you here alone?" Hermione's main task today in Diagon Alley was to buy her second-year textbooks at Flourish and Blotts, and besides those essentials, she couldn't miss out on some interesting extracurricular reading as well.

Of course, the first step was to exchange some Galleons at Gringotts, since all she had on her now were pounds, and Diagon Alley didn't accept them directly.

Her father, Mr. Granger, had dropped her off here and then left her to wander off on his own, claiming it was to "train Hermione's independence," but really he was just looking for an excuse to slack off.

On her way to Gringotts, Hermione spotted the curious little girl standing in the middle of the street, looking around. She initially thought this was a child who had accidentally gotten separated from her parents, since she looked several years younger than herself.

Since that was the case, the kind-hearted Miss Granger naturally felt compelled to step up and help, so she approached the little girl and greeted her, to see if she could lend a hand.

"Huh? Were you just talking to me? Oh, hello to you too. I'm Annie, Annie Hastur. Nice to meet you!" Not shy about being addressed, Annie snapped out of her daze and replied generously.

"Nice to meet you too. By the way, Annie, why are you here alone? Did you get separated from your parents? Do you need help?" Hermione looked around but didn't spot anyone who might be Annie's parents, so she began to ask.

"No, not at all! I actually came here by myself." As for parents, Annie really wished she could find them too, but she couldn't go back. That useless little Space Stone would probably take ages to finish charging.

"By yourself?!" Hermione was a bit shocked now.

How could such a young girl dare to come to Diagon Alley alone? And without any parents accompanying her? Her parents were truly irresponsible! Just like Hermione's father, Mr. Granger, who had abandoned her and run off. Such irresponsible parents, how awful!

"Hey! Wait for me, Annie?" Hermione saw Annie turn and head toward the pet shop after just a few words with her. Knowing that Annie had sneaked into Diagon Alley alone, Hermione's compassion kicked in, and she decided to spend some time with her, so she quickly caught up.

"Annie, are you... thinking of buying a pet you like?" Stepping into the pet shop, Hermione saw Annie staring intently at the array of animals on display. She assumed the little girl wanted to buy a pet to play with. Speaking of pets, Hermione didn't have one herself either. Maybe it was time to pick one out?

"Welcome to the Magical Menagerie! Two lovely young ladies, what can I do for you?" Seeing customers arrive, the shop owner hurried over to greet them eagerly. "We have all kinds of pets here—everything you could want! Just name it, and we've got it!"

"Oh? Really?" Hearing the owner claim she had any pet imaginable, Annie turned her head back, no longer looking around. As for pets, she already had the best one—Tibbers—but she wanted another one to play with. "Then, do you have anything like a dragon here?"

"Huh? A, a dragon?! I'm, I'm terribly sorry, dear customer, dragons are banned from sale by the Ministry of Magic... We really don't have any, absolutely none!" The owner paused, swallowed hard, and secretly wiped the cold sweat from her forehead.

Her eyes began to dart around nervously as she wondered to herself: Could it be that the two little dragons she had smuggled a while back had been discovered and reported? That shouldn't be... She had been very discreet, dealing only through single-point contacts. How could she have been found out? Could these two kids be Aurors disguised with Polyjuice Potion? Oh no, oh no, this might really be the end! She never should have been greedy for that money...

"Well... why not try buying an owl? Look at them—they're beautiful, very smart! And they can deliver letters for you, how convenient? All of these are just 3 Galleons each! Pick one?" Already bracing for the worst, though still suspicious, the owner forced herself to stay calm and introduced the shop's wares. She knew that in times like these, she couldn't afford to lose her composure.

"No way!"

Annie glanced at the various owls hanging in their cages and curled her lip in disdain.

"They crap everywhere, it stinks, and they look stupid and dumb. I don't want any of those feathered beasts!"

"Well..."

The owner was about to say something when Annie called the owls stupid and dumb, but the owls in the shop immediately erupted, flapping wildly in their cages.

It seemed they had understood Annie's words and wanted to break free to peck her a few times. They were magical pets, after all—intelligent! This little human brat dared to call them stupid, dumb, and stinky? If they got out, they'd peck her head full of bumps!

"Then, how about these cats? They're considerate, well-behaved, and obedient! Each one... each one is 2 Galleons and 10 Sickles! If you both buy one, I can waive the twenty Sickles." After struggling to calm the owls down, the shop owner turned to introduce the cats.

"This cat looks really nice!" Hermione had her eye on a large ginger cat.

Its fur was a brilliant gold, with a flat, squashed face, as if it had once run headfirst into a wall, and a thick, bottlebrush-like tail that puffed out.

Hermione felt an instant connection to this cat. Unlike the others, it just sat there quietly, exuding a lonely, world-weary air that seemed pitiful. Her compassion flared up again, and she decided right then to save up two months' allowance to buy it later.

"No way, cats shed fur! And they have fleas—disgusting!" Annie wouldn't want something like that!

Huh? As soon as Annie said that, she noticed a black cat among the group glaring at her, looking defiant!

Annie glared right back, her eyes saying: What are you looking at? Keep staring, and I'll buy you and eat you! The black cat seemed to sense Annie's malice and immediately cowered, its ears drooping as it turned its head away.

"Alright, then, how about a toad? Only 1 Galleon!" The owner was getting a bit deflated. She didn't hold out much hope for the toad either—aside from the older girl who seemed interested in a cat, the little one was hard to please.

"So gross! I'd love to stomp it flat!" Looking at the slimy toad covered in warts lying on the table, Annie quickly stepped back two paces. How could she ever buy something so disgusting?

"Don't you have anything decent here?" Annie looked around. There really didn't seem to be anything worth buying. And those rats over there? Forget it! Who would keep a rat as a pet? The thought of someone cuddling a rat all day gave Annie the creeps. Anyone who did that must be a pervert, right?

"Alas... it seems that's all we have..." The owner sighed helplessly, taking off her reading glasses from her nose to wipe them, feeling utterly dejected.

She had already introduced all the mainstream pets in her shop, but the girl hadn't taken a liking to any of them. The ones she hadn't mentioned would probably be even less appealing. She was starting to feel certain that these two little terrors might really be undercover investigators. Had someone actually filed a report? Merlin's saggy trousers! She had only done two smuggling jobs in total—how could she have been caught so quickly?

"Don't you have any special pets? Like something big, a dragon or something?" Annie asked again, unwilling to give up. No dragons, and you call yourself a magical pet shop?

"Dragon?! Our shop would never engage in illegal business! No dragons, none at all, absolutely not!" The shop owner nearly had a heart attack again! This little girl was still thinking about dragons? She must be an undercover agent gathering evidence, for sure! She was about to kick them out when she suddenly remembered she had one good item left, and crucially, it wasn't illegal.

"Wait, I do have one more pet. You might be interested. Please wait a moment, I'll be right back!" With that, she hurried to the back of the shop, rummaging through things.

For now, the owner decided not to worry about the true intentions of these two. If they really were undercover, kicking them out might make her look guilty and suspicious, which would only cause more trouble later. So instead, she would bring out her prized possession and scare them off with a high price.

After a short while, the owner came back with a box. Annie, who had been a bit hopeful, immediately deflated. Anything that could fit in such a small box had to be something tiny. She didn't like little things like that. At the very least, it had to be as tall, mighty, and imposing as Tibbers! A dragon would have been perfect—able to fly and breathe fire, fierce and huge—but unfortunately, this pet shop didn't sell them.

"Take a look. Do you know what this is? I'll tell you—it's a Phoenix Egg! Impressive, right?" The owner carefully opened the box and presented it to the two like a treasure. If it weren't for wanting to scare off these suspected Auror impostors, she wouldn't have brought out her prized possession so easily.

"They say if you wrap it in phoenix fire, it can hatch quickly. Amazing, isn't it?" Now they couldn't say she didn't have anything decent, could they? This was far rarer than a dragon. She had stumbled upon it years ago, stealing it from an unknown nest in a sycamore tree. After having it appraised, she learned it was a rare Phoenix Egg.

"Wow! A Phoenix Egg? Is it real?" Hermione naturally knew about the legendary phoenix. She had even seen one a few times—their headmaster Dumbledore's pet, Fawkes! But she had never seen a Phoenix Egg before. It was truly rare!

"A Phoenix Egg?" Annie stared intently at the fiery red egg, probing it with her magic. After sensing the life energy within, radiating a scorching magical aura, she nodded, convinced the owner wasn't lying. This did seem like a good find!

"Alright! How much?" Since there were no dragons here anyway, Annie decided to buy this egg for now. She couldn't leave empty-handed.

"Huh? Well... are you sure you want to buy it?" The owner looked at Annie's clothes and demeanor again. Had she been wrong earlier? Were they not Auror agents after all?

The owner pondered for a moment, calculating the possible financial capability of the little girl's family. Now that things had come this far, if they were willing to pay, she might as well sell the egg and be done with it! Today's scares had rattled her badly, and she needed some gold coins to soothe her wounded nerves.

"Five thousand Galleons! Do you want it?" The owner didn't think Annie could afford that, but maybe her family would cave in to the little girl's tantrums and buy it anyway?

After all, she had been sitting on this egg for a long time, and she didn't even know if it had gone bad from being stored too long. Selling it now would be a good thing! Because this kind of item was not only expensive but also harder to move than a dragon... ahem, dragons—she shouldn't think about those anymore. Her shop didn't sell them, and there was definitely no smuggling going on!

"Five thousand Galleons!? That's way too expensive!" Hermione exclaimed in shock.

How could she even say such an outrageous price out loud? Five thousand Galleons could buy over a thousand owls, couldn't they? Even if this really was a living phoenix, it shouldn't be worth that much, right? Hermione felt she absolutely could not accept this price! And on top of that, it was just a Phoenix Egg, not an actual phoenix! Who knew if there really was a phoenix inside? For all anyone knew, it might hatch into nothing more than a cuckoo or a peacock.

"Here!"

To the surprise of both Hermione and the shopkeeper, Annie didn't hesitate at all as she pulled a large bag of gold coins from her spatial pouch. With a "thump," she dropped it onto the counter.

Annie had just grabbed a handful roughly with her pouch—it should be enough for five thousand, right? Anyway, she had plenty of this stuff, piled up like a small mountain in her spatial pouch! These were all from the hoard of that old dragon back in the Voodoo Lands, so she didn't feel a bit of pain spending them!

Folding expansion space? The shopkeeper wasn't particularly surprised by Annie pulling coins out of her pouch; she just sighed a little at how different rich kids were, casually carrying so much money around. But when she opened the bag, she froze.

"These don't seem to be Galleons, do they?" The shopkeeper picked up a few more coins to examine them—sure enough, they weren't Galleons!

"What Galleons? These are gold coins—is there a difference?" Annie didn't know what Galleons were. Earlier at the Leaky Cauldron, she'd used these same gold coins to buy food, and no one had said she couldn't!

"Sorry, child, but I'm afraid you'll have to go exchange them at Gringotts first."

The pet shop owner's morals weren't as rock-bottom as Old Tom's. Even though these coins had more gold content than Galleons, she still gave Annie the advice. Of course, smuggling fire dragons had nothing to do with morals—that was just a means of making a living. Lately, her shop's cash flow had been tight, and smuggling was something she'd been forced into.

"Annie, I was actually planning to go to Gringotts anyway. How about we go together?" Hermione finally remembered that she also needed to exchange her pounds. On the way back, she could even buy that big-faced cat she'd had her eye on.

"Alright then." Annie looked a little reluctantly at the Phoenix Egg boxed up on the shelf.

"Don't worry, children! I'll definitely keep it for you, I promise!" The shopkeeper saw Annie's concern and quickly smiled to reassure her.

It looked like she was going to make a big sale today! Maybe after this, she could give herself a few days off to rest? And lie low for a while? Once this deal went through, maybe she'd never have to worry about funds again, and never have to risk her life smuggling fire dragons anymore, right?