Hogsmeade Shopping

Honeydukes Sweetshop was the full name of Honeydukes.

It specialized in chocolate and all kinds of magical sweets, and was immensely popular with Hogwarts students.

The shop was packed with Hogwarts students today. Since almost everyone was wearing school uniforms, no one noticed Silan suddenly slipping out.

Silan sidled through the crowd, his gaze drawn to the rows upon rows of shelves inside the shop.

The wall on the left displayed hundreds of kinds of chocolate. A barrel of Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans as tall as half a person stood by the wall, with another barrel of Fizzing Whizzbees beside it.

The opposite wall held some specialty sweets.

There was Drooble's Best Blowing Gum, which could fill a room with bluebell-colored bubbles, Sugar Quills woven from spun sugar, and Exploding Bonbons.

The dazzling array of colorful sweets left Silan almost overwhelmed.

Silan thought that old bumblebee Dumbledore was probably a regular at this shop.

After all, he even liked Cockroach Clusters...

There were simply too many people in the shop, all shoving and squeezing about, making Silan feel a little uncomfortable.

Still, he spent two silver Sickles on some cream almond fudge and several kinds of specialty sweets.

The owner, Flume, bundled the sweets into a paper parcel with twine and handed it to him to carry.

Silan did not actually like sweet things very much, but Hermione did.

Besides, he felt birthdays needed at least a little candy.

Only after leaving Honeydukes with the sweets did Silan truly see Hogsmeade Village.

This was the only village in England inhabited entirely by wizards, founded by Hengist, a renowned Hufflepuff alumnus.

The village had a history of a thousand years, nearly as long as Hogwarts itself.

Just from its name alone, one could tell that the village had close ties to Hogwarts.

It was a picturesque village, with wooden cottages and shops neatly lining both sides of the road. A few green trees dotted the scene. When sunlight broke through the clouds, it cast a pale golden sheen over the village.

From afar, it looked like a greeting card.

Only third-year students with permission from their parents or guardians were allowed to visit Hogsmeade.

For a first-year like Silan to come here was a violation of school rules.

But it was no big deal.

After all, it only counted as breaking school rules if you got caught. If no one caught you, then nothing had happened.

It was the weekend, and many students had come here.

Silan walked through the crowd with his head lowered, utterly inconspicuous.

He followed Hogsmeade's main street to the end, pushed open the door of a shop bearing the sign "Dervish and Banges."

"Welcome."

The moment Silan entered, the owner warmly came over. "Do you need something repaired?"

This shop mainly provided repair services for magical artifacts, though it also sold magical items.

"Hello."

Silan greeted him politely, sweeping his gaze around the shop before settling it on the owner.

He was a burly, muscular man, yet he wore a delicate little microscope over his left eye. It looked somewhat out of place on him.

"Do you have a Mokeskin Pouch here?"

Silan did not waste words and stated his request directly.

This was one of the main purposes of his trip.

A Mokeskin Pouch was a magical item used to store things.

It looked very small from the outside, but it could hold a great many items.

Moreover, only its owner could take out what was inside.

Silan considered that absolutely necessary.

While Silan examined the shop's displays, the owner was also studying him closely.

This young wizard's face was unusually youthful, yet he carried a composure that did not match his age.

What surprised the owner, however, was that his school uniform looked somewhat worn, while the item he had asked about was a valuable magical tool.

Though he sold magical items here, none of them came cheap.

Young wizards from ordinary backgrounds mostly came to him to have magical items repaired.

"Though it may be presumptuous of me to say so..." The owner hesitated for a moment. "The item you want isn't cheap."

What he meant was to remind Silan to check whether he had enough money.

Silan paid no attention to the question and merely waved a hand. "Bring it out for me to see."

"All right."

Naturally, the owner had no reason to turn away a customer. He went behind the counter and took out a small box.

When he opened it, there was a small leather pouch inside.

The pouch was somewhat dull in color, but its stitching was fairly neat.

"This is a new item. The color isn't particularly attractive, but it's sturdy and holds plenty of things."

The owner handed the Mokeskin Pouch to Silan for him to examine.

The pouch looked sturdy, but it felt soft and smooth in his hand without lacking texture. Its interior space was indeed quite large.

Silan was very satisfied with it.

"How much?"

"Twenty-one Galleons."

That price was enough to buy three wands. It was not cheap, but it was within Silan's expectations.

"Fine."

Silan counted out twenty-one Galleons and set them down on the counter.

After taking the Mokeskin Pouch, he left without another word.

The owner stared blankly at his departing figure.

He had clearly seen Silan carrying a pile of gold Galleons, and the boy had not even blinked while spending them.

Then why was he wearing old clothes?

Had some young master from a pure-blood family come to experience ordinary life?

The owner shook his head, put the gold Galleons away beneath the counter, and thought no more about it.

After all, many of those wealthy pure-blood aristocrats had strange quirks.

Afterward, Silan went to Pippin's Potions and bought some potion ingredients.

In total, he spent four Galleons and nine Sickles.

Only then did he enter the main destination of his trip: Scrivenshaft's Quill Shop.

The shop had a huge display window filled with the finest quills.

Among them was an exceptionally beautiful pure gold quill.

Its price tag was enough to make anyone shrink back.

He had come here to buy Hermione an Augurey quill as a birthday present.

That cost him another seven Galleons.

"Please put it in a gift box."

"Of course. Looks like someone lucky is about to receive a beautiful gift."

The young owner spoke lightly as he deftly chose a gift box and cut off a length of lovely colored ribbon.

While the owner worked, Silan glanced over the stacks of parchment in the shop.

"You have quite a lot of parchment here," Silan said, pretending to ask casually.

The owner glanced at the shop's stock and said with a troubled expression, "When Hogwarts had just started term, parchment sold very quickly, so I urgently brought in a batch."

"Those black-hearted bastards raised the price several times over!" The owner looked both furious and helpless.

"But after I stocked up, hardly anyone bought any. I can't sell this batch at the high price, but if I sell it at the original price, I'll lose money. It's driving me mad."

The owner tied the ribbon in his hands into a beautiful bow and shook his head.

"I'll never rush to restock again. Those black-hearted bastards squeezed every last bit of money out of me!"

"Heh. The moment they opened their mouths, even the price of parchment shot into the sky."

Clearly, the owner was extremely annoyed about it. Silan did not even need to ask further before he poured out everything on his mind.

The consumer market in Hogsmeade was directly tied to the number of Hogwarts students.

At the start of term, the arrival of new students caused demand for parchment to rise for a short while, but it soon returned to normal.

Clearly, this young owner had only recently taken over the business and had not yet grasped the market's fluctuations.

"All right, your quill."

The owner handed Silan an exquisitely wrapped gift box.

"That's seventeen gold Galleons."

"You've counted wrong." The owner repeatedly waved his hands at Silan. "This quill only costs seven gold Galleons. You're giving me too much."

"No, I haven't counted wrong."