Chapter 268 A Chance Encounter with Professor Barbling at Gringotts

After hearing the two people's intentions, the old man nodded, with a noncommittal expression on his face. He didn't know how much he believed it.

He stooped into the counter and pulled out a parchment from the box below: "I will give you a free map, which marks some buildings in the Hurghada neighborhood and the newly opened pyramid. Watching Alchemy For your sake, young man, the advice I can give you is to stay away from those unexplored pyramids."

"I have read in the book," Hermione said mysteriously, "In 1916, a British knight opened the tomb of Tutankhamun of the 18th Dynasty of Egypt. It was rumored that they were cursed. Those who entered the pyramid at that time 20 people died in five years."

The old man smiled: "They were not killed by a curse."

Loren's heart moved and he said seriously: "Our purpose is to visit the wizard streets here, and we will not enter the ruins rashly."

The old man didn't say anything more, put the parchment map on the counter, and slowly sat back in the corner, his figure gradually becoming transparent.

"Disillusionment Curse?" Hermione's voice was very soft.

"It's a little different from the Disguise Curse, but the principle is similar." Loren saw clearly the trajectory of the magic power, "Let's go."

Taking the parchment map from the counter, they quietly exited the store.

"I always felt that the atmosphere in that shop was a bit depressing, and people didn't dare to speak loudly." Hermione seemed relieved. "I thought there would be a magic door leading to the wizarding district, just like the Leaky Cauldron. Or platform nine and three-quarters.”

"Perhaps there is indeed a magic door hidden, but we are just not allowed in."

Loren looked back. In his field of vision, the "Hermes Merchandise Store" was still shining with dazzling magic power.

Half an hour later, the two followed the map's guidance and walked along the direction of the tributary of the Red Sea towards the entrance of the Wizarding District.

On the left is the endless sea of ​​sand, and on the right is the gurgling river. The two are clearly distinct. There are no weeds or vegetation growing in the middle. The traces of industrial civilization are gradually disappearing, and there are fewer and fewer road signs. I don’t know how long I have been walking. In the end, only a deserted path remains.

After walking an unknown number of steps, they quickly lost the sense of distance, as if they had gone far away, and yet they seemed to have been in the same place.

Just when Loren was checking the map again, an obelisk suddenly appeared in front of him, standing between the sand and water.

The obelisk on the sand and the reflected obelisk in the water form the tower gate. The entrance is between the two obelisks. Half of the tower gate is in the water, floating with the sparkling waves.

Loren and Hermione looked at each other with surprise in their eyes. The two walked towards the obelisk's folding door, shadows passed by, and a coolness like running water washed over their bodies.

Their eyes suddenly opened up. In front of them was a winding, endless limestone-paved street. The earthy color was the same as the stone of the pyramid. This is a street full of Egyptian style. Most of the shops on both sides of the road are decorated with golden color as the main color, and the style is rough and bold.

Looking back, the door they entered slowly closed and turned into an ordinary obelisk.

The nearest store to them was a shop selling magic materials. A fat, dark-skinned woman stood outside the door, shouting at them in broken English at the top of her lungs: "Salamander tail, ten ounces per ounce! Winged lizard." Tongue, sixteen ounces to an ounce! Come and see!”

Hermione craned her neck to take another look, but Loren stretched out his hand and pulled her away: "Sixteen ounces per ounce, they must be crazy."

"Huh? Is there any problem?" Hermione's expression was confused and a little cute. She was not sensitive to the price of magic materials.

"The liver of a fire dragon only costs this much."

So Hermione's eyes became wary when looking at these shops, but she was quickly dissipated by the dazzling array of exotic colors.

The place was more lively than they thought, with the shouts of merchants one after another, the sound of customers cutting prices with red faces, and even the clatter of camels' hooves on the stone slabs and the sound of bells hanging around their necks.

People in all kinds of strange clothes are walking on the streets, including ordinary wizards in robes; people who are shrouded in cloaks and do not want to reveal their faces; mysterious witches who wear sun hats and use visor silk scarves to play their faces; noisy little witches Dwarves, goblins, house elves...

The most eye-catching ones are the local Egyptian wizards who are bare-chested and wearing white robes. Their wands have a very strange style, with gold ring patterns on the surface, which are somewhat similar to the Pharaoh's scepter in the museum.

"It's so magical, completely different from Diagon Alley." Hermione looked at the magical street in front of her, her eyes full of curiosity.

A piercing scream came from a shop with a simple front. Hermione raised her neck and squinted her eyes for a long time, but she couldn't see what the Egyptian words on the sign meant.

Standing at the door and looking inside, the store is also very simple. The stone house has many beams built with wood, and various bird cages are hung below - black-headed ibis, crested ibis, black ibis, falcon, vulture.

The vulture flapped its wings and screamed again, making Hermione shrink back in fright.

Continuing to walk forward, after getting far away, the little witch became bold again, and explained to Loren with a professor's face: "Owls are not adapted to the desert climate. The wizards here use ibises and falcons to deliver messages, and occasionally Use vultures. A long time ago, the Egyptians saw wizards using sacred ibises and falcons to deliver messages, so they believed that these birds were messengers of the gods. They added these birds to the objects of sacrifice, and even derived eagle-headed human beings from them. The god - Horus."

"How knowledgeable, Professor Granger."

Several boys with local faces had their noses pressed against the glass of the display window, where broomsticks were displayed. There are several posters of new flying broomsticks on the outer wall of the store, with product introductions written in several languages:

This latest high-speed broomstick features a streamlined design, high-quality ash wood handle, diamond polishing, and hand-engraved registration number. Each carefully selected birch branch at the end of the broom is ground into a streamlined shape, giving the broom unparalleled balance and exquisite accuracy. The Firebolt can accelerate from 0 to 150 miles per hour in ten seconds and can brake like magic. Price negotiable.

English is rarely seen here. Hermione read this product introduction carefully and turned around and said, "Let's prepare a birthday gift for Harry here. He likes broomsticks anyway."

"birthday present……"

Counting that Harry was in summer vacation, the time was indeed very close.

Loren looked at the other broomsticks with clearly marked prices in the window, and pointed to the price tags with three digits upwards and the currency unit was galleons, "Are you sure?"

"Of course it's not a broomstick!" Hermione pulled him into the store. "They also sell broomstick-related care products here. Let's pick something with Egyptian characteristics and give it to him."

"But..." Loren thought for a while, "The Weasley family is also traveling in Egypt. They will also buy Egyptian specialties, right?"

"Ah?!" Hermione patted her head, "I forgot about this! But... Ron probably won't buy the same thing as us."

In the end, Hermione picked out a broomstick care kit for Harry and a retired Bludger autographed by Egyptian Quidditch team seeker Raoja Zaglule for Ron.

When they came to the counter to check out, Hermione finally remembered that they didn't have enough gold galleons on them. The galleons they exchanged last semester were almost spent, and they hadn't gone to Gringotts to exchange money this semester.

Fortunately, the clerk at the counter had a very good service attitude. Even if they couldn't pay, they still looked at them with a smile. Although this may be due to language barrier.

She blinked and looked at the selected products for a while, then sighed sadly: "Why doesn't Gringotts have a check service?"

Loren couldn't help but smile. He had thought of this problem when he first entered the store. Let alone a three-digit broomstick, they couldn't even afford a single hair on the broom.

Moreover, they were in Egypt, and Gringotts here had not reached an agreement with the British Ministry of Magic and would not exchange Muggle currency for Hogwarts students like them.

But it's not impossible. There are many valuable materials in his pendant, such as unicorn hair, basilisk scales, basilisk fangs, and even finished potions. These things can be sold to Gringotts. Those greedy goblins will take anything valuable.

"Let's go to Gringotts here first, change some money and then go shopping." Loren comforted.

"But this is Egypt, can we switch to galleons?"

"Don't ask any more questions, I have an idea." Loren smiled and nodded to the clerk, then turned around and left the broomstick shop with Hermione, heading towards Gringotts at the end of the street.

Among the many shops with golden yellow as the main color, the snow-white building Gringotts stands out, which is almost identical to Gringotts in Diagon Alley. The shiny bronze door, the goblin waiter in scarlet and gold uniforms, the slight difference is that the warning on the silver door is written in Arabic.

As they approached, the two goblin waiters bowed to them and led them into the tall marble trading hall. On the high stools behind the rows of long counters, many goblins were conducting transactions with various customers...

After two years of currency trading, both of them were familiar with Gringotts and walked straight towards the counter.

"Hello," said to an idle elf, "I have something to sell."

"Hello, sir!" the goblin greeted warmly, "Whether it's gems, precious metals, or other treasures, Gringotts will give you a fair price."

"Do you want to collect unicorn hair?"

Loren didn't use much of the unicorn hair that Hagrid gave him that contained impurities in his first grade. Later, in order to thank him, the unicorn gave him better and higher-quality hair, and the inferior products remained. .

It would be a waste to keep them in his own hands, so Loren planned to exchange them for galleons.

"Unicorn hair! Oh!" The goblin's gaze became more intense, and the smile on his face became more enthusiastic. "Of course we need it, distinguished guest..."

"It's just," it rubbed its hands as if embarrassed, "I need to see it first before I can bid based on its quality."

"Of course." Loren reached into her collar and pulled out a large ball of unicorn hair and placed it on the counter.

To be honest, it didn't look very good. It was dirty, stained with moldy dirt from sawdust, the original white color was dyed a bit gray, and there was a faint smell from Yaya's saliva.

The goblin wrinkled his nose, carefully pulled out a piece of hair, and took a magnifying glass to look at it carefully.

"It is indeed a unicorn hair." The goblin put down the animal hair and rubbed his thin hand on the rag next to him. His posture was no longer as enthusiastic as before, and he even felt a little disgusted. "Guest, according to the market price, if it is a unicorn We can give you 10 galleons for each mane on the beast’s head.”

"Ten Galleons each!" Hermione raised her head in surprise. There were probably hundreds or thousands of Galleons in the mess here, which was nearly ten thousand Galleons.

"It's just..." The goblin plucked the hair balls with his nails, "These unicorn hairs of the guests are just ordinary hairs, and they have been for several years and have lost some of their activity. Adding them all together, I can come up with - three Bai Galleons!”

Before Loren could counter-offer, an elegant female voice sounded first:

"Has Gringotts become so shameless?"

A woman wearing a female black wizard robe with a hood covering her head sat in the seat next to her. She put the hood down. Her beautiful face and curvy figure with an elegant and mature temperament made Hermione I couldn't help but take a few more glances.

The observant little witch quickly noticed the badge on the right arm of the robe. Four animals, a lion, a snake, a badger, and an eagle, surrounded the letter "H", which was the school emblem of Hogwarts.

Loren wanted to say something, but Hermione caught him in time and shook her head at him.

The transaction was suddenly interrupted, and the goblin panicked: "Guest, if you have any needs, you can find a free counter and don't interfere with my normal work."

The beautiful lady in a wizard's robe looked at the goblin quietly, tapping her slender fingers on the counter with red nail polish: "I'll give you a chance to bid. Think carefully before speaking."

The goblin's tone became stronger: "Guest, you cannot interfere with other guests' transactions."

"She is our elder and can complete the transaction on our behalf!" Hermione said simply.

What a smart girl... Bascida Barbling had a pleasant smile on her lips, and her nails tapped on the wooden counter, making the sound even clearer.

Loren noticed that her nails were not tapping randomly. If the nail placement points were connected, a simple rune could be vaguely formed - representing the gaze of a lion and the deterrence of a predator.

He couldn't help but show a hint of surprise that the magic text that affected the soul could be so lightly and yet displayed without leaving any trace. This required fine control and a deep understanding of the magic text.

Loren slowly moved a few steps and saw the Hogwarts school emblem on his sleeve.

Is this the Professor of Ancient Runes, Bastila Barbling?

He regretted not taking Ancient Runes as an elective.

"Okay, okay, please wait a moment, distinguished guest." The demon's forehead was sweating, and his speech was no longer as sharp as before. He hurriedly combed the messy hair ball and counted the value of the hair ball. "According to the market price, alone The mane and high-quality tail hair on the head of the horned beast cost 10 galleons each, and the hair on the other parts of the horn cost 7 gallons each. Here is a total...a total..."

In panic, it lost count of the hairballs and its body slowly began to tremble.