The interview went even more smoothly than expected. All three of Harry's group passed on their first try and successfully qualified to travel to Dalaran. This rendered the Order of the Phoenix's many contingency plans completely unnecessary.
Of course, that was a good thing. At the very least, Harry had no desire whatsoever to resort to any of those messy emergency measures.
Entering the building together, the three of them did not hesitate. They promptly used Side-Along Apparition and arrived near the Leaky Cauldron.
One of the Teleportation Arrays leading to Dalaran had been set up in Diagon Alley. It was, in a way, one of the conveniences Bell had provided for Britain's Wizards.
Entering the Leaky Cauldron, Harry nodded to a Wizard drinking alone in a corner, then headed straight for the pub's back courtyard without slowing down.
After skillfully passing through the wall, the three of them were met by an extraordinarily surging crowd.
Harry swore he had never seen such a densely packed crowd. Even outside the stadium during the Quidditch World Cup, there might have been more Wizards in total, but the density had definitely not been this high.
"Damn it, why are there so many people? It's just some lousy magical city. What's there to see?"
Looking at the line stretching as far as the eye could see, Ron curled his lip in displeasure.
In his view, this Dalaran was nothing more than a somewhat larger Hogsmeade. It might not even compare to Hogsmeade. So why were so many people scrambling to go there?
What Ron did not know was that the three of them were far from the only ones with ulterior motives.
There were spies from other countries' Ministries of Magic, Dark Wizards lurking in the shadows, informants bought off by Muggle governments—every