Chapter 1131 ? The Most Prosperous Commercial Street in the British Magic World
On the cobbled streets of Diagon Alley, Josephine was wearing a black cloak and the uniform of the Ministry of Magic, and she was wearing a sun hat, and the Department of Management and Control of Magical Creatures under her jurisdiction had many members with certain positions. Today, it seemed that the entire group was dispatched, following behind her, a group of people attracted the attention of shop customers and portraits in Diagon Alley, as if they were about to carry out some important event.
In this area, there are many more Aurors patrolling than usual, and there are even a lot of armed forces from the Red Umbrella Department guarding in front of the shops that have business dealings with the Umbrella—the recent Hogwarts and British Those tough plans of the Ministry of Magic not only made foreigners dissatisfied, but also terrified some purebloods in the country. Although there were no radical incidents in the UK for the time being, they still made some extra arrangements in advance because they were afraid that the embargo issue would be taken advantage of. to deal with emergencies that may arise.
But in fact, most of the ordinary wizards in the British magic world have actually begun to have some nationalism similar to the American magic world. Of course, this kind of thinking is different from the exaggerated sense of crisis of life and death used by the American Gangfushi. It is more from the toughness of the British performance and the sense of superiority brought by having the energy core of the floating city, having the three most powerful wizards in the world (even if one is a mysterious person) and having a true god.
Along the way, most of the shops had low customer traffic, and some of them were even deserted. Only Fred and George's Weasley's Magic and Wheezing Workshop was in full swing. Many wizards directly Apparated here, and many wizards went out Apparating away from here, it became a rare lively scene among the merchants in Diagon Alley.
It's just that it's not the young little wizards who used to go in and out of the joke shop now, but many middle-aged and old wizards. They took out a lot of gold Galleons, and some almost frantically snapped up decoy bombs, portable swamps and other magic items that are easy to get out of. ,
Even the shelves of powerful love potions such as the magical witch have been emptied. As for the stealth smoke bombs, which had to be imported from Peru, they have long been out of stock under the embargo campaign against the UK in the magic world.
On the poster with a purple background pasted on the window, there are dazzling yellow characters printed on it, attracting people's attention:
you protect the world,
we protect you
Fight the Death Eaters,
50% off oddities…
"I know a few..." Sirius was a little puzzled, "They didn't seem like pranksters at school, why did they become playful when they got old?"
"You don't read the news? The Umbrella's quick-response security forces are going to send armed forces to Europe to combat the recent crazy robberies of the Death Eaters. They are the parents of those wizards..." Josephine frowned, "For these forces, Pei Nello has allocated a lot of extra props, these parents are too worried, and they are not sent to fight Voldemort himself..."
"I know a few parents whose children work in umbrellas. They are actually quite proud of it and brag to me every day... But their children will inevitably be worried when they go out to perform dangerous tasks. I can understand their seemingly contradictory emotions... Fortunately, both Cedric and Cho are excellent Quidditch players, they have never worried me...well, I am not saying that I don't support them in fighting, but they are more suitable for playing Quidditch..." Amos felt a little bit in the middle He said something wrong, but then his tone changed back to complacency, "Cedric has already become a star player for the Montrose Magpies, and Cho rejected the guy from the Head Harpies who thought women had an advantage over men." Invited by female captain Gwenger Jones, she went to the Tuthill Tornado team, which she loved since she was a child, and also became the team's substitute..." He looked triumphantly at the single boss and middle-aged male colleague who was still single "You know, as Quidditch stars, their salaries are not bad, and they each have a large number of fans... So they plan to get married soon, and plan to get a house in the floating city. When the wedding invites you Don't come."
"Then congratulate you in advance,
Amos. Josephine nodded and forced a smile on her face, "In addition, I have to remind you that as a member of the Ministry of Magic, you also have some benefits in the floating city, including housing. In name, it's a much bigger discount than those who belong to neither the umbrella nor the Ministry of Magic. "
"That's great, I'll write to Cedric when I get back... er... Director, we need to stay away from that Wonder Zoo... The lady owner with thick black-rimmed glasses is not easy to provoke... She has been Troubling us for compensation..." Amos Diggory pointed to Josephine at a dark-looking store with its doors closed, "The Ella Owl Store is all right... but your nephew, I'm Let’s talk about Principal Harris’ recent feat... The embargo sanctions imposed on us by these countries have made the zoo’s purchase channels a problem. It's cats, toads, and whatnot that make her business suck..."
In the past, it was very crowded, full of animal sounds, and the noisy pet store seemed very clean at this moment.
"That's great!" whistled Sirius. "Amos, that's good news for us, it makes our jobs easier!"
"Shut up! You've been working for so long, why are you acting like this!" Josephine couldn't help scolding Sirius, then turned to Amos and said, "I'll tell Magic Zoo later, we know about her, I will contact the umbrella side and give them some preferential compensation and support measures..."
"That's the best... Director, their store has always been law-abiding..." Diggory glanced at Josephine secretly, "Actually, quite a few businesses of this type have been troubled..."
Josephine narrowed her red pupils and stared at this subordinate, then comforted her black cloak to keep it from moving: "Hogwarts is prepared for this, the umbrella will carry out statistics And give some compensation and support.”
"Amos, did you take the favors from those shops?" Sirius said casually with his hands in his pockets, making Digory's face flush red, but his eyes were on the dazzling sunlight that cast F On the magic parasols of the Lorraine Cold Drink Shop, "Josephine, it seems like summer is back today...Let colleagues from other departments go first? I invite everyone to drink something cold...."
"We are ahead of them!" Josephine, who is usually known for her calmness and coldness, felt a bit of a headache. She seemed to feel some heat in her body, as if she had generated some heat out of thin air without drinking other people's fresh blood-this was after she became a vampire. lost ability.
Fortunately, as the busiest commercial street in the British magic world, Diagon Alley is actually not that big, at least when compared with the commercial district of Floating Void City. Soon, the members of the Department of Management and Control of Magical Creatures They arrived at their destination, which was the only Gringotts Wizarding Bank in Diagon Alley that had a traffic comparable to that of the twin brothers' joke shop.
Gringotts is also the largest and oldest building in the entire Diagon Alley Commercial Street. It's centrally located at the top of the Diagon Alley T-junction, facing a street down, and it's in a great location. The pillars of this magnificent building are crooked and very distinctive. At the top is a sculpture of a fire-breathing dragon with wings spread out. It seems to deter those wizards with ulterior motives and also to provide depositors with confidence in security.
At this time, in front of this imposing white building, other shops looked gloomy, because only it had sufficient customer flow, and customers of all shapes and sizes came out in groups of three and four. Serious and cautious.
Josephine and the others stood in front of the tall, snow-white building towering over the surrounding shops, beside the shiny bronze gate, stood three goblins in scarlet and gold uniforms, the leading goblin was in charge of guiding, The other two guards in charge each held an honesty detector with a slender gold rod. Seeing the unified uniform of the Ministry of Magic on Josephine and the others, the goblin in the lead winked at a guard next to him. Seeing this, the goblin guard immediately ran into the bank. They came as a much larger guard of goblins and wizards poured from the gates of Gringotts.
Different from those ordinary goblin employees who wear white shirts, black suit vests and black sleeves, the two leading goblins, Nagnack and Griphook, are all wearing formal black striped suits with black sleeves. A royal blue silk shirt, and large black leather shoes polished to a shiny finish.
Seeing Josephine and her party, the two leading goblins paused for a moment. They thought that the Ministry of Magic was going to make trouble with the mysterious man's horcrux. When the goblins heard the news, they wondered if the other party wanted to rely on him. The Goblin Liaison Office under the Alien Office let this department in charge of magic economic affairs and coordinate the relationship between goblins and wizards handle this matter, but now it seems that the other party is the Department of Management and Control of Magical Creatures.
"Could it be that the Ministry of Magic wants to use them to inspect Gringotts..." No matter what he thought in his heart, Nagnak remained calm. After walking over and bowing politely to Josephine and the others, he showed a big smile, The pointed beard trembled, and he asked tentatively: "Director Josephine Harris, why did you bring so many people to Gringotts today? The fire dragons and other animals we are responsible for guarding have all been registered with the Ministry of Magic. Recently, there is no opportunity and necessity to introduce new species..."
Josephine did not take off her hat as usual, but she returned the gift politely, showing a polite smile and said calmly: "Nagnok, don't be nervous, this time we are not here for business, we are here They are all here to handle private business... It just so happens that there are more people in the Ministry of Magic today who need this, so I gave myself and my colleagues in the department a half-day vacation and came here together."