Leaky Cauldron

"Apparition!"

Professor McGonagall swung her wand and spoke the incantation.

Li Wei immediately felt as if an invisible force had seized and crushed his body, as though all his internal organs had been knocked out of place!

Amid dizzying, disorienting vertigo, blurry flashes of light swept past his eyes. The entire process was astonishingly fast!

It was like being shoved into a narrow pipe and violently ejected. By the time he came to his senses, he and Professor McGonagall had appeared in a secluded corner.

Before he could steady himself, a powerful wave of nausea and dizziness hit him. Li Wei had to brace himself against the wall and dry-heave!

Thankfully, he had not eaten breakfast that morning. Otherwise, he probably would have thrown everything up in a complete mess.

"There, there, child. You're all right now!"

Professor McGonagall patted Li Wei on the back, produced a piece of candy from nowhere, and placed it in his hand.

"Have some candy. You'll feel better after eating it."

Li Wei gradually recovered as well. He unwrapped the candy and popped it into his mouth. Mint-flavored—the fresh taste immediately made him feel much better.

Only as he ate the candy did he notice that, with the end of the Apparition, mist had gathered before his eyes again, and a new prompt appeared:

[Spatial teleportation detected. Loading Space MOD...]

[Loading complete. Congratulations, host, you have obtained the Space MOD!]

Another new MOD. Unfortunately, Professor McGonagall was right beside him, and he had not even had time to properly inspect the Spell MOD from before!

"Feeling better, child?"

Professor McGonagall looked at Li Wei with concern and asked kindly.

"Much better, Professor. Thank you for the candy," Li Wei answered with a broad smile. His innocent expression put Professor McGonagall at ease.

"Come with me." Seeing that Li Wei was truly fine, Professor McGonagall led him out of the secluded corner.

Only then did Li Wei realize that he and Professor McGonagall had arrived on Charing Cross Road in London.

The street was crowded with people and traffic, yet Professor McGonagall led him toward a shabby bar squeezed between an upscale bookstore and a classical record shop—

The Leaky Cauldron.

This was where Li Wei Keynes would begin his journey into the Wizarding World!

Li Wei murmured to himself inwardly as he followed Professor McGonagall into the Leaky Cauldron.

The moment he entered the bar, Li Wei felt as though he had traveled through time again. Outside the door lay the modern streets of London, England, lined with towering buildings.

Yet the instant he stepped into the bar, it felt as though he had returned to the Victorian era of the Industrial Revolution.

Whether it was the decorations and furnishings or the customers who came here to meet, chat, and drink, everyone's clothing and appearance seemed forever frozen in that distant age.

The moment Professor McGonagall entered, every wizard who noticed her immediately stood respectfully and greeted her politely, like schoolchildren greeting their teacher.

Li Wei even noticed a young wizard who seemed to have only recently come of age quietly hide the glass on his table, too afraid to look at Professor McGonagall.

Only after quite a while did he remember that he had already graduated and begun working, and was old enough to drink legally.

Professor McGonagall, your authority as a teacher was seriously overpowered!

Li Wei sighed inwardly. The customers drinking at the Leaky Cauldron were probably all Hogwarts graduates!

"Welcome! Welcome to the Leaky Cauldron, Professor McGonagall!"

Boss Tom, who looked like a shriveled walnut, hunched his back with a filthy rag draped over his shoulder and respectfully greeted Professor McGonagall.

"It is truly an honor. May I offer you a Butterbeer?"

"I'm afraid not, Tom. I still need to take this year's new student to Diagon Alley."

Professor McGonagall shook her head in refusal, then nodded slightly as Tom looked toward Li Wei beside her.

"Right, right, right! Time really flies! It's time for another batch of new students to start school!"

"A couple of days ago, Hagrid brought the Boy Who Lived here too! That child was so thin and small. It's hard to imagine he accomplished such extraordinary things at such a young age. Once he starts school, he'll need to build himself up properly!"

"Oh, right, Professor. Our Abbott Family's little darling Hannah is starting school this year too. Please take good care of her when the time comes!"

Tom agreed in sudden realization, chattering on without pause. Yet Li Wei picked up a great deal of information from him and suddenly remembered, as though waking from a dream, that it was now 1991. He would be starting school alongside the story's protagonist, Harry Potter!

Trouble.

Li Wei frowned inwardly. If possible, he truly did not want to get involved in that whole series of events surrounding the savior, Harry Potter.

To him, the truly important thing was studying magic steadily at Hogwarts while taking advantage of his golden finger to become stronger and gain greater benefits.

Asking him to behave like a child—innocent and lively, reckless and mischievous, thinking about adventure every day—would be asking too much of him!

Though he looked like nothing more than an eleven-year-old child, his heart and soul had long since matured. Or rather, he had experienced too much, and his thoughts had long become heavy.

Teasing his schoolmates was one thing, but truly treating him like a child was impossible.

Just as he had faced the adults at the orphanage, when dealing with Professor McGonagall earlier, he had rarely shown his genuine feelings. Most of the time, he wore a mask and acted.

"Rest assured, Tom. I will carefully look after every young wizard who enters Hogwarts."

After hearing Tom's request, Professor McGonagall answered seriously, then called to Li Wei.

"Come, child. Follow me. Diagon Alley is behind the bar!"

Li Wei followed Professor McGonagall through the Leaky Cauldron and into the bar's small courtyard.

Against the outermost wall stood a rusty garbage bin. Professor McGonagall walked over to it and explained to Li Wei.

"Beyond this wall lies Diagon Alley, the most prosperous shopping street in England's Wizarding World!"

"Count three bricks up from this garbage bin, then two bricks inward. All you need to do is tap it with your wand, and the wall will open."

As she spoke, Professor McGonagall demonstrated herself. With a tap of her wand, the bricks in the wall before them moved like parts of a mechanism, gradually opening into an archway. Beyond it, the bustling clamor rushed toward them, and a lively, prosperous commercial street appeared before Li Wei!

At the same time, the Fantasy MOD System released dreamlike mist before Li Wei's eyes, and a new prompt appeared:

[Wizarding World commercial street Diagon Alley detected. Loading Shop MOD...]

[Loading complete. Congratulations, host, you have obtained the Shop MOD!]

Another brand-new MOD. He wondered what he could buy in the system's shop!

Li Wei gazed at bustling Diagon Alley and the system prompts before him, unable to stop his excitement as he thought inwardly.