Hogwarts 1991

Chapter 182 Bookstore
Skip the twin brothers, even if they are going to be during the summer vacation, they will not forget the strong feelings of falling in love with Filch.

McGuffin met Percy Weasley again in the second-hand junk shop.

The thrift store was the same as before, full of battered second-hand wands outside, some even cracked and looking like they would split in two with just the slightest wave.

——I don’t know why people still buy this kind of thing?

Between the rusty copper scales and the various robes and cloaks that smelled like toilet bowls, Percy was engrossed in his book How Prefects Got Power.

Even Ron didn't respond when he leaned forward.

"Hogwarts prefects and what they do after leaving school..."

"Go! Go! Go……"

Ron yelled loudly like last time, which made Percy very unhappy, and waved his hand to drive this annoying little brother away.

McGuffin saw a copy of the Daily Prophet tucked under Percy's arm.

Although most of it was covered by his arms, he still spotted 'Hua Dian' at a glance.

— There is a photograph that takes up nearly the entire page of the newspaper.

Looks like yesterday's scandal has been reported.

Percy put the books and newspapers in his hands on the pile of books aside, and pushed Ron with an unhappy expression, which made him leave from here.

The corners of McGuffin's eyes twitched at the photo of Fauci and the portrait of [Minister Mustache].

——This minister really gave himself a mustache.

There was no telling when he would find himself involved with one of the biggest and most notorious figures in Muggle history.

"Amen!" McGuffin couldn't help giving the poor minister sympathy and prayer for half a second.

However, immediately Mai Ta felt hairy and broke out in a cold sweat.

——He needs to destroy the evidence, or dirt, collected from the two uncles, Garen and Sick, without leaving any traces, so that it is safer.

"It's so special..."

However, McGuffin suppressed the throbbing pain of laying eggs and tried his best to relax... Anyway, he can't go back now.

Harry, on the other hand, stared intently at a 'lucky' rabbit's foot, said to increase bad luck, which he seemed to want to buy for his cousin Dudley.

Hermione and McGuffin were standing at the counter at the entrance of the store, asking Les Finley, the thrift shop owner, if there were any newly purchased second-hand books.

Les Finley, who somehow replaced his mouth full of gold teeth with gemstones and diamond-colored teeth, with red, blue, green, and white lights flashing in his mouth, making people dizzy with colorful lights.

This made McGuffin suspect that he had cast some [Confusion Curse] or other magic on it to trick his guests into buying things he didn't need.

After all, McGuffin still remembers the last time he pretended to be a big tongue and lied to himself with his accent.

and……

——Where did this treacherous extortionist pay for his gold teeth?

This guy Les Finley seemed to have no interest in the door-to-door business. He was weak and greeted McGuffin and Hermione indifferently.

This made McGuffin even more suspicious that this guy didn't know who he was taking advantage of.

"No, go and look for it in the boxes in that corner!... All the old or newly purchased second-hand books are there!" Les Finley raised his arms and stretched out to the lower left corner behind, where stood a dilapidated box.

——There is an unusually ferocious demon god painted on it, with black blood stains all over the body, covering the surface of the box, which is very scary.

"Hanging on the box is a key, the middle one."

McGuffin felt a little strange seeing this guy's attitude, but he didn't show it. After all, he and this guy only had a few transactions.

They followed the instructions and walked to the box, took the key, put it in the lock, and lifted the lid with the devil's head on it.

Hermione screamed.

The bottom of the box turned out to be a big pit, like a basement.

——Here is a hole. There is a wooden ladder on the edge of the box. It looks a little weak, and it hangs straight into the ground.

A blue-silver crystal ball floated above the basement, emitting a faint light, illuminating the surroundings clearly.

It seems that this place is about the size of an ordinary room, more than three meters high, and there are bookshelves around the walls inside.

Under the fluorescent light, McGuffin and the others saw all kinds of worn-out second-hand books lying horizontally on it.

After standing there for a while, the two climbed down and landed gently on the ground.

Hermione looked very excited, she chattered,

"This is [Untraceable Stretching Curse]!"

"...I have seen the introduction of this kind of spell in the books I borrowed from the library. It is said that we can only get in touch with this aspect in the third grade, but we can't study this magic until we have obtained the wizard level certificate. Even when we want to keep this kind of magic, we must go to the Ministry of Magic for record..."

——This place really looks like a basement, not only does it look like this, but even the smell has a damp and cold smell.

Looks like it's because of those old battered wands, scales, medicine bottles, or the mummy that's stacked somewhere in the corner of the bookshelf?for the sake.

mummy?
engage!
McGuffin took a closer look, leaving a few black lines on his head, took a few steps away from the suspicious and dangerous thing, and focused his attention on those second-hand books.

Most of the second-hand books here are gossip about the European wizarding world, legends and myths, and a large part of them are conspiracy theories about the British Ministry of Magic.

McGuffin tried to look through it.

——Well, it looks disgusting!

The books have not been well maintained, and even some old books can not only smell the musty smell floating inside, but even see large pieces of rotten and moldy pages when flipping through some old books.

Some are even broken into pieces, or there are circles of yellow marks in the middle as if soaked in water, and the handwriting is covered and blurred.

The content inside feels unnutritious to read.

Some books are not in a hurry and say that the Department of Mysteries of the Ministry of Magic is a place where wizards are used for experiments, and there are people who specialize in researching how to make Muggles have magic power, or immortality, ancient magic such as the Philosopher's Stone;

There is a conspiracy theory written in the book "Wizards in Red Robes". The British magic world is actually still like in the Middle Ages. It is controlled by those invisible secret societies and powerful upper-class magic families. That's why many ministers of the Ministry of Magic died for no reason.
Hermione even found a booklet advocating support for Voldemort [Pure Blood Superiority Theory], which contained various insults against Muggles or Muggle-born wizards... This made Hermione so angry that she threw the book on the ground.

However, there are also some useful books, such as introducing the main wizarding places in Europe and America, places where people live together, and the Ministry of Magic in each country... The cover of this book was torn off for some reason.

Only from the content, there are some pictures that look like a travelogue of a wizard.

The two kept picking and flipping through the books.

Time passed quickly, and when McGuffin was reading a half-volume fragment of [Witches, Magic Carpets, Immortality], Harry lay on the edge of the box and called the two of them from the upper hole.

"Hermione, McGuffin! An hour is almost up, we have to go to [Leihen Bookstore], you two hurry up!"

Under the urging of Ron and the others, McGuffin and Hermione selected a large stack of books, and Les Finley helped them cast a [Levitation Curse] on the books they took.

After all, technically speaking, they can't cast magic yet.

After buying the books, Hermione and McGuffin sorted out the books they were interested in and divided them into two piles, then left here, and walked to Lihen Bookstore with Ron and Harry.

At this time, the people outside the bookstore were far beyond Harry Ron's expectations.

Just now, a clerk waved his magic wand and pulled out a large banner above the second floor, which read:
.
Gerald Lockhart
Autograph session

"I Can Magic"

12:30-4:30 pm today.
A large group of people crowded outside the bookstore, all wanting to go in.

They're all witches.

Most of them seemed to be witches of Mrs. Weasley's age, and they all crowded into the bookstore with frenzied faces.

The previous wizard who pulled up the banner looked very tired. Even if he cast [loud voice] on himself through magic, he still couldn't suppress the voices of these witches' excited discussions. He even sounded a little hoarse and weak.

"Ladies, be quiet... don't be crowded,... you, yes, you, don't push down the new book at the door..."

After finishing speaking, he tried, or in vain, squeezed into the bookstore.

But almost like bungee jumping, he was bounced hard again.

The wizard scratched his hair irritably, but in the end he had no choice but to shout to the other employees inside, and threw out a huge life-size poster of Gerald Lockhart.

With the wave of the wand, the poster fluttered and landed on the ground, and then the wizard stood it at the door of [Leihen Bookstore]—more witches gathered here.

The man depicted on the poster is Gerald Lockhart.

He was wearing a purple-red wizard robe, with a badge (Sir Merlin's third-class badge) shining like Percy on his chest, which was extremely conspicuous.

Of course, the most dazzling part of the entire poster is the 'smirking' face and the eight white teeth that are exposed accordingly.

-'Gerald Lockhart' is holding an ornate book with one hand and pointing at it with the other.

And kept blinking his blue eyes at the few people in front of him, showing his 'charming' smile.

A voice came from the crowd.

It was Ginny, struggling to make her way through the crowd, beckoning them with a hand from the doorway.

It looked like Mrs Weasley was at the front of the line.

After finally coming out, Ginny, who hadn't caught her breath yet, saw the poster of Gerald and then looked at Harry, her face flushed again instantly, and the base of her ears became red.

I don't know what to think of.

At this time, the crowd in the bookstore suddenly became noisy and lively, and wave after wave kept crowding in and colliding with each other.

This scene made Harry, who was relatively thin, turn pale.

"Are we really going to squeeze in?"

Not just Harry, even McGuffin and Ron were somewhat reluctant.

Finally, under the urging of Hermione and Ginny, they managed to get in through the cracks.

Several people almost passed out due to lack of oxygen in the brain.

However, with the help of the bookstore staff, the line gradually got some order. People began to line up in a long and winding line, extending from the bookstore to the entrances of other shops until the end of the line could not be seen from here.

Gerald Harlott signed books right there on the first-floor facade.

All kinds of his books are piled up in stacks on the edge of the bookshelves for people to pick up.

They quickly took a copy of "Break with the Ghost", and sneaked to the place where Mrs. Weasley and the Grangers were queuing.

——Mr. Weasley was also there. McGuffin heard that he went to search today, but he didn't expect to have time to come here.

Mr. Weasley was discussing with Hermione's father, Mr. Granger, the Muggle doctor's method of treating toothache, and the various tools needed to use it.

—he was especially interested in how to make a hole in the top of the tooth.

"That's amazing, Muggles are so much fun!"

"Can you imagine, Molly! They actually figured out a way to cure toothache without magic..."

Turning his head, he saw Mrs. Weasley's flaming eyes. He immediately felt a little sluggish, and he stammered and hurriedly ended his conversation with Mr. Granger.

At this time, the personnel moved forward a lot, which made Mrs. Weasley's face become very flustered immediately. She was short of breath, and kept patting her hair, trying to make it softer.

"Great, we'll see him soon."

Soon they caught sight of Gilderoy Lockhart.

From McGuffin's point of view, it is no different from the previous poster outside, but it is more flamboyant. He put on a blue robe like a forget-me-not flower and a wizard hat with a peak.

There are pictures of him on the wall behind, and they are full of them.He was blinking at the crowd, showing a charming smile, his teeth gleaming brightly.

"Get out of the way, everyone out of the way, little wizard."

A short man who looked very irritable held up a big black antique camera, jumped back and forth, and scattered the already crooked team even more.

Every time a photo is taken, the flash will flash blindingly, and puffs of purple smoke will be ejected from the camera.

It's not choking, but it smells like chemicals like paint.

—smells a bit to the MacGuffin.

"Ow!" Ron was stepped on.

He didn't care about it, but looked at Mr. Girod enviously, his eyes full of longing, probably hoping that he would be so famous and rich in the future.

However, McGuffin's face was very ugly, and he grabbed the short wizard.

"You should apologize!"

"This was taken for [Daily Prophet]." The short wizard did not explain, nor did he apologize but said proudly.

After speaking, he bent down again, not taking McGuffin seriously at all, and took another photo.

This caused the evil fire in McGuffin's heart to only rise.

McGuffin's depressed mood, on the one hand, came from the fact that he had to waste time here to endure such a "famous" wizard who looked glamorous but was actually an idiot, instead of going back to the Burrow to deal with the "criminal evidence".

On the other hand, he is hesitating...

Do you want to stop it, or interfere with the original plot - take away the Horcrux, keep it or destroy it to prevent the opening of the secret room event from the root.

——Because according to the original plot, the next semester is much more dangerous than the last semester, and even Ginny Weasley's life may be in danger in the end.

In case, like the first semester, a little butterfly effect occurs, which changes things in the original work and leads to unacceptable consequences.

McGuffin didn't know if he would forgive himself for not doing anything in the past, that is, for being able to change now.

But the [Blood Curse] on him now must be dealt with by Phoenix Tears, Basilisk blood and poison (suspected), as long as things develop smoothly according to the original plot, it will almost certainly be enough in the end.

It's like two balls colliding and attacking each other, extremely entangled, and both sides suffer.

——No matter the choice, it will be extremely painful!

(End of this chapter)