Silvan and Garrick left the dragon sanctuary at five in the afternoon. A few minutes later, they appeared in a room at the Ministry of Magic.
That was the downside of official Portkeys. Whenever they returned to the United Kingdom, they had to stop by the Ministry first.
Romania had no such tedious rule. When they went there, they had appeared directly at the entrance to the sanctuary.
"Five-oh-three, from the Romanian Dragon Sanctuary," a voice announced.
"Good afternoon, Basil," Garrick said familiarly. He used Portkeys often and was long accustomed to them.
When the Ministry employee saw that it was Garrick Ollivander, he did not even ask any questions before letting them through.
"Good thing it wasn't Lambert. Otherwise, we would have had to wait at least another ten minutes before leaving." Garrick looked delighted, clearly very satisfied with what they had gained from this trip to the dragon sanctuary.
It was also Silvan's first time learning that his grandfather had to rely on "snatching" to obtain high-quality dragon heartstrings and heart nerves from the sanctuary.
With Dumbledore's help this time, he had clearly "snatched" quite a lot from his peers. According to him, Gregorovitch and Akayor had both left with green faces, looking deeply displeased.
The two left the room, crossed the bustling Ministry atrium, and returned to the Leaky Cauldron through the Ministry fireplace.
After that, Garrick shut himself in his room again. Silvan did the same, only occasionally going down to sit in the Leaky Cauldron for a while.
Although the wizard in the cowboy hat had not appeared again for several days, the place was never short of drunks who started bragging once they had too much to drink. Everyone could always find fresh entertainment.
They waited until the end of July, when owls began