Chapter 98 Diagonal South District
Time quickly came to August 11, 7 days before the 422nd Quidditch World Cup.
Schelling took out a peep mirror from the space of the suitcase. The peep mirror is a mirror that releases illusion magic, and it also involves some advanced space magic, which allows people to transcend the limitations of space and peek into the distant picture.
Because the peep mirror is a surveillance weapon with the potential to be abused, it is strictly controlled by the Ministry of Magic. This peep mirror was bought by Schelling when he went to Borgin and Burke's last month, together with the vanishing cabinet, and he spent a full 100 Galleons.
Schelling is not Doraemon's Nobita. He bought the peep mirror for a serious purpose. He asked Dobby to run errands for him and set the peep mirror's screen to the Riddle Mansion in Little Hangleton.
This old mansion is still called "Riddle Mansion" by the townspeople of Little Hangleton, even though the Riddle family has not lived here for many years. The house is located on a hillside, and the whole town can be seen from here. Several windows of the house were sealed, the tiles on the roof were incomplete, and the ivy was crawling all over the house.
Riddle House was originally a beautiful mansion, the most spacious and imposing building within a few miles, but now it has become damp, desolate, and uninhabited all year round.
The current owner of the mansion is a wealthy man who bought the building for tax deduction and did not spend any time to take care of the house, except continuing to employ the original gardener of Riddle House.
In the courtyard of the dilapidated mansion, there stands a small wooden house. The gardener of Riddle House, Frank Bryce, lives in it.
From the picture in the peephole, Schelling can clearly see that Bryce, who has a lame leg, is working slowly in the flowerbed, even though the weeds are creeping around him and he can't stop them. He also saw a few naughty little boys riding bicycles and crushing the lawn that Bryce had finally built flat. They also threw stones at the windows of Riddle House, and old Bryce limped through the garden, waving his cane and shouting at them in a hoarse voice.
If Shailling remembered correctly, in a few days, to be exact, on August 16, the upcoming Saturday, old Bryce's suffering days would end.
Today, Shailling was going to Diagon Alley, where he and the girls had an appointment to meet.
He had already informed his parents that he would spend the rest of the summer vacation at his friend's house, and then go directly to Devon with them to watch the Quidditch World Cup.
After knowing that the so-called friend was the daughter of the Greengrass family, both parents were happy to see it happen.
Lucius told Shailling that he had booked a place in the most advanced camp, and Narcissa and Draco would also be there, and the family might meet at the stadium.
Shailling knew about this a long time ago. As early as a month ago, Lucius donated a considerable amount of gold galleons to St. Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries, adding a beautiful political achievement to the management of Fudge's government. Fudge specially booked seats for the Malfoy family in the highest box at the stadium.
You should know that there are only 20 seats in the top box. Those who can sit in this box are either rich or noble, which is a symbol of top status.
Then, Lucius told Sherin with a serious face to be careful and pay attention to safety.
Sherin understood Lucius's hint - he knew that many quiet pure-blood families would be unwilling to be lonely in this Quidditch World Cup and planned to make trouble under the banner of Death Eaters. As early as a month ago, he noticed that his father had close contacts with many pure-blood families, and seemed to be plotting something.
After stepping out of the fireplace of the Leaky Cauldron, Sherin gave himself a fresh look, slightly fixed his hair, said hello to the bar owner Old Tom, and left.
Diagon Alley is the largest commercial area in the British wizarding world. The entrance is the Leaky Cauldron located on Charing Cross Road in London. The entire commercial area is divided into three parts.
The first part is the "Northern District", which starts from the Leaky Cauldron at No. 1 and goes all the way south until you reach Gringotts Bank. There will be a side road diagonally opposite Gringotts Bank, which leads to a place called "Knockturn Alley", which belongs to the second part of the commercial area. If you choose not to turn and continue forward, you will come to the third part of the commercial area, "Southern District".
Diagon Alley is worthy of being one of the best wizarding commercial streets in Europe and is very prosperous. Even though Schelling has been reborn in this world for 14 years, he has never walked through the entire street.
Without including Knockturn Alley, the North and South Districts of Diagon Alley alone add up to nearly 300 shops. Of course, Schelling has never carefully counted the total number of shops. He is not that bored. He only knows that Ms. Preppenner's Beauty Potions Shop is No. 275, and it is far from the last shop in Diagon Alley.
As far as Schelling knows, the only place in Europe that can rival Diagon Alley in terms of prosperity is the Secret Witch Lane in Montmartre, Paris, France.
The North District of Diagon Alley is mainly populated by shops targeting young children and students, such as pet shops, joke shops, bookstores, stationery stores, etc. This is why the protagonists in the original book usually wander around the North District, making it easy for readers in the previous life to form the impression that there are only more than a dozen shops coming and going in Diagon Alley.
The commercial activities in the South District are much more exciting, targeting adult consumers above the middle class. Harry, Ron and the group of poor boys may not have set foot here before the end of the original book.
Sherin came to the fork in the road in front of the Gringotts gate and saw Daphne, Astoria, and Meredith waiting there.
The girls were obviously dressed up carefully. Daphne was mature and beautiful, Astoria was pure and beautiful, and Meredith was noble and elegant. When they saw Xie Lin, they all smiled happily and walked towards Xie Lin. come over.
It was a rare trip to Diagon Alley. Instead of rushing to Greengrass Manor, they were led by Xie Lin to the south area of Diagon Alley.
After passing a "magical shrinking house", several people walked in despite Astoria's strong request.
A magic is released at the door of the Magic Shrinking House, and everyone who comes in will be shrunk to the size of a mouse, giving a sense of seeing the Muggle masterpiece "Alice in Wonderland" that he read in his previous life.
Several people passed through a mouse hole in the room and came to a flower bed. They crossed a small waterway on a leaf, climbed up the dandelion flower along the branch, and then floated across a large grassland on the dandelion in the wind. Finally, They came to an inconspicuous tree hole. After passing through the tree hole, several people returned to their original body size and left the shrinking house happily.
The next stop was the House of Illusions, which was actually an entertainment that copied the concept of a Muggle movie theater. Illusion magic, as the name suggests, is magic that uses crystal balls or skulls to present the images in the caster's mind. The original intention of this magic is to allow diviners who have a glimpse of the future to share the divination results with customers through the images in their minds. Watch.
Later, some clever wizards who knew something about the Muggle world found business opportunities. They invited screenwriters to use illusion magic to transform the stories into dynamic pictures for the audience to see. They became very popular immediately, such as "Wizards vs. Aliens", "Let the Spells Fly", "How to Train Your Dragon" and other popular movies The works were published one by one.
Xie Lin walked to the ticket office. Sitting there was a sweet-looking young lady with a sweet smile. She looked at the Gringotts limited edition entertainment VIP card that Xie Lin took out from her arms, and a smile suddenly appeared on her face. Even cuter.
There are only 500 of this black gold VIP card made of pure black gold in the UK, and as far as Schelling knows, he is the only underage cardholder in the UK. Use this card to spend at high-end restaurants or entertainment venues, and you will not only enjoy a 20% discount, but also a free upgrade to a VIP seat. In addition to wider, softer and more comfortable seats, you can also order meals and drinks delivered to your seat. .
Xie Lin bought four tickets. Today they are going to watch the latest love movie "Time Traveler".
The play tells the story of Tim, a man who cracks the secret of time magic. Tim is 21 years old and he has discovered the secret to time travel and can go back in time. So he gave it a try and returned to the summer, where he tried to change his relationship with his crush, but found that no matter how he traveled through time and space, he couldn't make someone who didn't love him fall in love with him. Later, he met another girl and fell in love with her, which triggered a series of butterfly effects and caused a series of disasters in the future world. In the end, he used up all his magic power to clean up the traces of time and space travel, but this also caused a series of disasters in the future world. Lost this relationship. The girl never knew him and ended up remarrying someone else...
At the end of the film, the melancholy melody of the ending song sounded, waking up Xie Lin from his deep sleep. He opened his eyes, only to see three girls with red and swollen eyes, holding a large package of "Parfit brand tissues" "It's all used up. Astoria even cried uncontrollably and was still sobbing softly intermittently.
Xie Lin was a little embarrassed, so he used a magic spell to clean the girls' faces, and then stuffed each of them with a happy gummy, just as the advertisement said, keeping them happy every day! Really, I’ve already told you, wouldn’t it be good to watch “Doctor Strange vs. Wagadu Black Panther Animagus”? Girls love to find fault...
After lunch at a fancy restaurant, Schelling took out his special watch and checked the time. (Author: Old readers may have to re-read Chapter 9 of Volume 1 to learn about the special watch)
There are still many unexplored places in Diagonal South District, such as the "Wonderful Flying House" that simulates a gravity-free environment in the universe, the "Magical Plant Aromatherapy SPA" for women, and the "Dream Massage Club for Beautiful Girls" for men... Thanks Lin still has one more place to go, and all these locations will have to be saved for next time. (The last one, with his girlfriend nearby, he just doesn’t dare to go)
It’s not that the wizarding world doesn’t have entertainment, or that I don’t have money, it’s just that I don’t have enough time! Xie Lin couldn't help but sigh.
Who says wizards lack entertainment? If someone said that, Schelling would tell him, it must be that poverty has limited imagination!
Xie Lin led the three girls to the last destination of the day.
This is an inconspicuous little shop. Surprisingly, there is no sign on the storefront, except for a pair of crossed silver spears painted on the side of the door.
At the entrance was a young witch with a hot figure wearing a leopard-print tight-fitting battle suit. She clenched her wand when she saw a few people coming in. She looked at Xie Lin with a strong sense of wariness in her eyes.
Xie Lin quickly took out the identity plate given to him by the Medieval Wizards' Federation from his arms and handed it over.
The witch still didn't let down her guard, holding the wand tightly while checking the nameplate. After checking over and over again to make sure there was nothing wrong, she returned the nameplate to Xie Lin, with a smile on her face, and said: "Are you the Malfoy who has been very popular in recent years? It's better to be famous than to meet him. You are really young. ah!"
"Thank you for the compliment, young lady. I'm just a little lucky. I've been taken care of by many big shots along the way. I came here today to bring my friends to try to challenge the Silver Spear test level and enhance their combat capabilities." Xie Lin explained his intention.
The witch looked at the four people with a scrutinizing look, "Oh, okay, please follow me."
The witch led the four people through the reception room and came to the inner hall. In the deepest part of the inner hall, there are five doors. The doors on the left and right are open, while the three doors in the middle are closed. These three wooden doors are very old, with mottled marks, showing that they have been around for a long time, exuding a kind of quaint atmosphere.
The witch explained: "The three doors in the middle require the hand order of one of the four witch masters of Silver Spear to open. They represent the difficulty of hell level. The door on the left represents easy, and the door on the right represents medium. Which door do you want to challenge?"
"Medium, can the four of us go in together?" If they can't go in together, Xie Lin doesn't intend to let Astoria take this risk.
"Sure." Then she took out a key and opened the wooden door on the right, extending her hand to make a gesture of inviting people in.
In the official setting, Diagon Alley is much larger than what is revealed in the original book. Starting from the north, the Leaky Cauldron is the first store (so the house number is 1). The actual size of the entire street has never been stated, but it is definitely not the more than ten stores in other fan fictions. The stores with known house numbers are Obscurus Books (house number 18), Terror Journey (house number 59), Wesley's Wizard Wheezes (house number Hard Books (house number 129), and Ms. Preppenall's Beauty and Potion Shop (house number 275). The lack of entertainment in the wizarding world is even more nonsense. Don't the more than 200 stores have entertainment venues? This is obviously impossible. The author believes that a better explanation is that Harry and others don't have the money to get in touch with the other side of the wizarding world.