Chapter 181 Knockturn Alley
·
Yun Yin Shen
Chapter 181 Knockturn Alley
If someone rides a broomstick from the sky, they can find a dirty alley in the dark corner of Diagon Alley.
— This is Knockturn Alley.
Another side of the wizarding world.
A dark world that ordinary people cannot touch.
It can be said that it is a lawless place that lives in the cracks.
This place is full of wizards who have fallen for various reasons, and you can even see some wizards from foreign countries, or some dark creatures, werewolves, vampires, etc.!
But even so, the history of this place is as old as Diagon Alley, and it seems that as long as Diagon Alley exists, Knockturn Alley will continue to exist.
Just like the two sides of the same coin, one will be positive and the other will be negative.
Of course there is a reason why the presence here is so ingrained.
First of all, Knockturn Alley can be said to be the most famous, largest, and even the most normal and orderly black market in the entire English magic world.
The biggest controller (shareholder) behind this is
——Gringotts (even from Knockturn Alley, you can see the snow-white buildings towering above the surrounding pavements).
That's right, this is the fundamental reason for the existence of this place, or its value.
Dragon eggs, three-headed dogs, eight-eyed spiders, deep-sea squid ink, unicorn blood, dragon hearts, dragon blood, and even shops that trade Muggle human organs, corpses, and wizard heads soaked in solution at midnight, these dark witchcraft materials that are banned by the Ministry of Magic... All kinds of illegal, side-by-side businesses have earned Gringotts a lot of profits.
Then Gringotts laundered this part of the funds by excavating ancient jewels and put them back into the market.
Although the Ministry of Magic, or even the adult wizards in the entire wizarding world now know the general idea, no wizard wants to touch these abscesses...
The wizards inside are always very dangerous. They don't adapt to the wizarding world of this era. Most of them are very down-and-out, crazy (I don't know if it's because they mostly study black witchcraft), and some mental illnesses.
They are hostile to Muggles, hostile to the Ministry of Magic, and miss the era in the last century when wizards had an absolute advantage over Muggles.
Even among the ten walking here, there will always be a dark wizard who will be wanted, and maybe there will be such dark creatures like werewolves, but they only stay in Knockturn Alley... like a safe haven.
Now, due to the living space provided by Knockturn Alley for these aliens or low-level wizards, this has made other places, even the Muggle world, much more peaceful.
And it also pays a large part of the tax to the Ministry of Magic through Gringotts every year.
So the Ministry of Magic and Knockturn Alley reached a certain tacit agreement.
but……
Now, this balance or tacit agreement has been broken.
Today, an uninvited guest came here.
Arthur Weasley deliberately wore a black trench coat from the ground of the box at home.
This season unexpectedly came to Knockturn Alley.
He didn't mind the hot weather, so he set up such a guy.
(No way, in the end he cast an improved freezing spell on the clothes, which made it much more comfortable to wear with a cool breeze.)
Along with him, Rufus has several other Aurors.
This time, Fauci's Minister of Magic gave them the task of raiding and inspecting the shops here, and searching and confiscating some prohibited magic items.
But no wizards will be arrested.
According to Goodman’s words,—it is to make big news, but not let things get out of control.
Weasley and Rufus had agreed in advance that the goal of this mission was to go to the Borgin-Bock store.
Try to get people's attention if you can, and confiscate a bunch of magic items to divert people's attention elsewhere. (As for diverting attention from other places--Rufus and Mr. Weasley, who have experienced it first-hand, know it well)
Now, they are standing at the entrance of Knockturn Alley, looking inside.
It's a dirty winding alley.
On the nearest pitted black stone brick wall, there is a signboard like a skeleton hand. The index finger points to the depths of Knockdown Alley. On the pale palm, there is a bloody handwriting that reads 'Knockover Alley'.
Those wizards dressed in shabby or ragged clothes found Weasley and the others, and immediately took out their wands and cast the spell [Apparition] skillfully. After a while, there were not many people left in the whole street.
"Okay, let's go! This is just enough time for them to hide the most dangerous dangerous items that may lead to their arrest...but it won't let us find nothing."
Arthur Weasley saw that the situation was almost developing and said directly.
They deliberately delayed for some time, otherwise, if they rushed in like this, they would definitely arrest many wizards and make the situation out of control, which would not meet the task assigned by the above.
Rufus followed Arthur into Knockturn Alley.
As I said before, because the outside of Knockturn Alley is full of tall houses like Diagon Alley, even in broad daylight, it is very dark here. There are always strange candles burning in the shops on both sides, and the green magic flames, illuminating the path and shops.
It is full of a weird and gloomy black witchcraft atmosphere.
The mess on the road made it even more desolate and dark.
——There are a lot of messy things on the ground, they were left in place by their owners in a panic... What eyeballs, spider legs, skulls, plasma bags, etc.
"Arthur! What are you doing here?" A gruff voice rang out, almost shaking the glass of the entire Knockturn Alley shop.
As those sneaky wizards continued to disappear here, a burly figure gradually became the most conspicuous.
The tall figure also saw them and was walking towards them.
The Aurors under Rufus were suddenly very nervous, and they raised their wands to be on guard.
"Put it down!" After Arthur Weasley saw who was coming, he immediately stopped others.
"This is the warden of the Hogwarts hunting grounds, Hagrid Ruburt..." Weasley introduced to the others.
"What are you doing here?" Weasley asked strangely.
"I'm looking for a cure for the carnivorous slugs," said Hagrid. "They're killing the school cabbages."
"Weasley, what are you?" he asked, looking at the Aurors behind Arthur Weasley.
"Ah! I received an order to make a surprise inspection here... I still have something to do, let's talk later!"
"Harry and the others are also in Diagon Alley today..." Weasley couldn't answer Hagrid's question head-on, so he had to move Harry out.
"Harry, are you there? What happened to him? I wrote him a letter, but why didn't he reply to me?" Hagrid hurriedly asked.
"Okay, okay...I still have something to do, it's time to go! If you want to meet Harry and the others...they should go to Lihen Bookstore to buy books by now..." Weasley didn't have time to greet Hagrid at this time.
He quickly ended the topic, said goodbye to Hagrid in a hurry, and rushed to the shops in Knockturn Alley with the Aurors.
Knockturn Alley is the most conspicuous, and the largest store is naturally the destination of their trip, which is [Bojin-Bock].
The shops on both sides of this alley are full of various transparent glass windows with dim green candlelight, illuminating the dark 'things' inside. On the far left is a rusty, black blood-stained instrument of torture; there is a weird wax figure, its eyes are still turning slightly, staring at the Aurors; It was stocked in a cage outside, and it was dark inside.
And the shrunken 'mummy' heads are displayed eeriely in the window opposite the door, which look like some magical items of black witchcraft.
If Weasley is not mistaken, the skin on it is still a little shiny and elastic. It is not the kind of material that has been in the market for a long time, but the latest one.
So he discussed with Rufus and each sent two Aurors.
Then, when they were about to enter the store, the bell rang and someone came out...they almost bumped into him.
—It was Lucius Malfoy.
There was also a boy with the same pale pointed face and gray eyes as him. His short blond hair was neatly draped over his head, and he was wearing a black student wizard robe.
It could be seen from the appearance that this could only be his son, that is, Harry and Ron's classmate - Draco Malfoy.
The little wizard held a somewhat worn notebook in his hand.
After a glance, Weasley didn't see anything wrong, so he turned his attention to the ornate rosewood box Lucius was holding in his arms.
There are complicated and unusual patterns on it, which makes people dizzy after looking at it for a long time.
——It feels like there is a problem.
"Lucius, what are you doing here!?"
"none of your business!"
The tone of both of them is hard, very tough.
Their faces were extremely ugly, obviously they still remembered what happened in the Ministry of Magic yesterday, and they were very angry.
Malfoy and Weasley each held their wands, as if they were about to do so in the next second.
Rufus had to interject, "Arthur, our purpose today is not to conflict with Mr. Malfoy!"
"Okay, I know, but Malfoy, you have to let me see what's in that box in your hand, after all, it's very likely that you bought it from Borginberg's shop..."
"This is handed down from the Malfoy family..." Draco screamed next to him.
"Nothing!" Mr. Malfoy waved his hand, stopped his son from continuing, and opened the box with an ugly face, "If you do this, you will offend many wizards!... Arthur Weasley, you won't be complacent for long!"
Weasley ignored it, he focused his attention on the box, but unfortunately—
The inside is empty, and thinking about what the little Mafu said, it means...
Malfoy had just sold the inconvenient things in his home to this store, and he gave Rufus a wink, so he rushed into the store with the others.
There were only two people and a little wizard left at the door of the store. Lucius Malfoy had a vicious gleam in his eyes. He closed the box tightly, and then sternly put down his harsh words.
"Arthur Weasley, you have to be careful in the future...!"
Then he took his son and left.
Mr. Weasley was still a little skeptical. He felt that Lucius looked a little harsh, as if he was in a hurry to leave and was hiding something.
But at this moment, Rufus called Weasley's name inside, so he put this feeling behind him and entered the spacious and dark store.
……
Meanwhile, on the other hand.
Since Harry had already used Floo powder once, he did not arrive at the fireplace of [Borgin-Bock] in Knockturn Alley like in the original book, and met Mr. Weasley who was searching.
This time, he arrived in Diagon Alley safely with Ron Weasley's family and McGuffin.
And met Hermione and his parents at Gringotts.
.
At that time, Hermione was introducing this place to her embarrassing parents, and the goblin sitting on the counter in the marble hall next to her kept rolling her eyes in disgust.
McGuffin, Hermione, and his parents were trading pounds for Galleons over the counter. .
Now he can also use the spell that Mr. Weasley once cast. Through Gold Gallon, he can use his wand to activate the spell attached to the goblins on his own gold coins, so that these greedy goblins will not seize the opportunity to greedy your money... while the Ron family and Harry went to the underground vault to withdraw money.
After withdrawing the money, the group had their own business to do, so they parted on the marble steps outside Guri Pavilion.
Hermione wanted to take a good look around Diagon Alley with her parents, and it happened that Mrs. Weasley was going to take Ginny to buy outfits for the newly enrolled little wizard, so she was able to walk around here with Hermione's parents along the way.
"How about this, I'll take your parents for a stroll here, Hermione, haven't you talked to Ron and Harry for a long time?..."
The Grangers also said it was better.
——If you happen to be accompanied by an adult wizard, you can avoid a lot of trouble.
Even in Diagon Alley there are many wizards who are not very Muggle friendly.
Percy mutters about buying a new quill, and Fred and George see their Hogwarts school friend Lee Jordan.
"One hour later, we will meet at Lihen Bookstore to buy textbooks for you. It happens to be on sale at that time, so line up early..." After Mrs. Weasley explained, she pulled Ginny and Hermione's parents and left.
The four of McGuffin and the others strolled along the winding cobblestone alleys, happily walking down the alleys.
During the period, the little rich Harry bought strawberry and peanut butter ice cream for several of them. .
Ron and Harry were staring at the things displayed in the window of the [Boutique Quidditch Shop] and refused to leave. Ron was fascinated by a suit of Chudley Cannon robes, and Harry was looking at the latest Nimbus 2001, constantly talking about the comparison with his own Nimbus 2000 broomstick.
McGuffin was a bit bored, and wanted to get the method of making the broomstick from the shopkeeper.
It wasn't until Hermione dragged them to the parchment and ink shop next door that they reluctantly left.
In the bouncing Magical Prank Shop, they meet Fred, George and Lee Jordan again.
They are collecting "Dr. Freebuster's Miraculous Wet Burning Heatless Fireworks". According to them, after school starts, they want to give Filch a big 'surprise'.
(This is true love!)
(End of this chapter)
If someone rides a broomstick from the sky, they can find a dirty alley in the dark corner of Diagon Alley.
— This is Knockturn Alley.
Another side of the wizarding world.
A dark world that ordinary people cannot touch.
It can be said that it is a lawless place that lives in the cracks.
This place is full of wizards who have fallen for various reasons, and you can even see some wizards from foreign countries, or some dark creatures, werewolves, vampires, etc.!
But even so, the history of this place is as old as Diagon Alley, and it seems that as long as Diagon Alley exists, Knockturn Alley will continue to exist.
Just like the two sides of the same coin, one will be positive and the other will be negative.
Of course there is a reason why the presence here is so ingrained.
First of all, Knockturn Alley can be said to be the most famous, largest, and even the most normal and orderly black market in the entire English magic world.
The biggest controller (shareholder) behind this is
——Gringotts (even from Knockturn Alley, you can see the snow-white buildings towering above the surrounding pavements).
That's right, this is the fundamental reason for the existence of this place, or its value.
Dragon eggs, three-headed dogs, eight-eyed spiders, deep-sea squid ink, unicorn blood, dragon hearts, dragon blood, and even shops that trade Muggle human organs, corpses, and wizard heads soaked in solution at midnight, these dark witchcraft materials that are banned by the Ministry of Magic... All kinds of illegal, side-by-side businesses have earned Gringotts a lot of profits.
Then Gringotts laundered this part of the funds by excavating ancient jewels and put them back into the market.
Although the Ministry of Magic, or even the adult wizards in the entire wizarding world now know the general idea, no wizard wants to touch these abscesses...
The wizards inside are always very dangerous. They don't adapt to the wizarding world of this era. Most of them are very down-and-out, crazy (I don't know if it's because they mostly study black witchcraft), and some mental illnesses.
They are hostile to Muggles, hostile to the Ministry of Magic, and miss the era in the last century when wizards had an absolute advantage over Muggles.
Even among the ten walking here, there will always be a dark wizard who will be wanted, and maybe there will be such dark creatures like werewolves, but they only stay in Knockturn Alley... like a safe haven.
Now, due to the living space provided by Knockturn Alley for these aliens or low-level wizards, this has made other places, even the Muggle world, much more peaceful.
And it also pays a large part of the tax to the Ministry of Magic through Gringotts every year.
So the Ministry of Magic and Knockturn Alley reached a certain tacit agreement.
but……
Now, this balance or tacit agreement has been broken.
Today, an uninvited guest came here.
Arthur Weasley deliberately wore a black trench coat from the ground of the box at home.
This season unexpectedly came to Knockturn Alley.
He didn't mind the hot weather, so he set up such a guy.
(No way, in the end he cast an improved freezing spell on the clothes, which made it much more comfortable to wear with a cool breeze.)
Along with him, Rufus has several other Aurors.
This time, Fauci's Minister of Magic gave them the task of raiding and inspecting the shops here, and searching and confiscating some prohibited magic items.
But no wizards will be arrested.
According to Goodman’s words,—it is to make big news, but not let things get out of control.
Weasley and Rufus had agreed in advance that the goal of this mission was to go to the Borgin-Bock store.
Try to get people's attention if you can, and confiscate a bunch of magic items to divert people's attention elsewhere. (As for diverting attention from other places--Rufus and Mr. Weasley, who have experienced it first-hand, know it well)
Now, they are standing at the entrance of Knockturn Alley, looking inside.
It's a dirty winding alley.
On the nearest pitted black stone brick wall, there is a signboard like a skeleton hand. The index finger points to the depths of Knockdown Alley. On the pale palm, there is a bloody handwriting that reads 'Knockover Alley'.
Those wizards dressed in shabby or ragged clothes found Weasley and the others, and immediately took out their wands and cast the spell [Apparition] skillfully. After a while, there were not many people left in the whole street.
"Okay, let's go! This is just enough time for them to hide the most dangerous dangerous items that may lead to their arrest...but it won't let us find nothing."
Arthur Weasley saw that the situation was almost developing and said directly.
They deliberately delayed for some time, otherwise, if they rushed in like this, they would definitely arrest many wizards and make the situation out of control, which would not meet the task assigned by the above.
Rufus followed Arthur into Knockturn Alley.
As I said before, because the outside of Knockturn Alley is full of tall houses like Diagon Alley, even in broad daylight, it is very dark here. There are always strange candles burning in the shops on both sides, and the green magic flames, illuminating the path and shops.
It is full of a weird and gloomy black witchcraft atmosphere.
The mess on the road made it even more desolate and dark.
——There are a lot of messy things on the ground, they were left in place by their owners in a panic... What eyeballs, spider legs, skulls, plasma bags, etc.
"Arthur! What are you doing here?" A gruff voice rang out, almost shaking the glass of the entire Knockturn Alley shop.
As those sneaky wizards continued to disappear here, a burly figure gradually became the most conspicuous.
The tall figure also saw them and was walking towards them.
The Aurors under Rufus were suddenly very nervous, and they raised their wands to be on guard.
"Put it down!" After Arthur Weasley saw who was coming, he immediately stopped others.
"This is the warden of the Hogwarts hunting grounds, Hagrid Ruburt..." Weasley introduced to the others.
"What are you doing here?" Weasley asked strangely.
"I'm looking for a cure for the carnivorous slugs," said Hagrid. "They're killing the school cabbages."
"Weasley, what are you?" he asked, looking at the Aurors behind Arthur Weasley.
"Ah! I received an order to make a surprise inspection here... I still have something to do, let's talk later!"
"Harry and the others are also in Diagon Alley today..." Weasley couldn't answer Hagrid's question head-on, so he had to move Harry out.
"Harry, are you there? What happened to him? I wrote him a letter, but why didn't he reply to me?" Hagrid hurriedly asked.
"Okay, okay...I still have something to do, it's time to go! If you want to meet Harry and the others...they should go to Lihen Bookstore to buy books by now..." Weasley didn't have time to greet Hagrid at this time.
He quickly ended the topic, said goodbye to Hagrid in a hurry, and rushed to the shops in Knockturn Alley with the Aurors.
Knockturn Alley is the most conspicuous, and the largest store is naturally the destination of their trip, which is [Bojin-Bock].
The shops on both sides of this alley are full of various transparent glass windows with dim green candlelight, illuminating the dark 'things' inside. On the far left is a rusty, black blood-stained instrument of torture; there is a weird wax figure, its eyes are still turning slightly, staring at the Aurors; It was stocked in a cage outside, and it was dark inside.
And the shrunken 'mummy' heads are displayed eeriely in the window opposite the door, which look like some magical items of black witchcraft.
If Weasley is not mistaken, the skin on it is still a little shiny and elastic. It is not the kind of material that has been in the market for a long time, but the latest one.
So he discussed with Rufus and each sent two Aurors.
Then, when they were about to enter the store, the bell rang and someone came out...they almost bumped into him.
—It was Lucius Malfoy.
There was also a boy with the same pale pointed face and gray eyes as him. His short blond hair was neatly draped over his head, and he was wearing a black student wizard robe.
It could be seen from the appearance that this could only be his son, that is, Harry and Ron's classmate - Draco Malfoy.
The little wizard held a somewhat worn notebook in his hand.
After a glance, Weasley didn't see anything wrong, so he turned his attention to the ornate rosewood box Lucius was holding in his arms.
There are complicated and unusual patterns on it, which makes people dizzy after looking at it for a long time.
——It feels like there is a problem.
"Lucius, what are you doing here!?"
"none of your business!"
The tone of both of them is hard, very tough.
Their faces were extremely ugly, obviously they still remembered what happened in the Ministry of Magic yesterday, and they were very angry.
Malfoy and Weasley each held their wands, as if they were about to do so in the next second.
Rufus had to interject, "Arthur, our purpose today is not to conflict with Mr. Malfoy!"
"Okay, I know, but Malfoy, you have to let me see what's in that box in your hand, after all, it's very likely that you bought it from Borginberg's shop..."
"This is handed down from the Malfoy family..." Draco screamed next to him.
"Nothing!" Mr. Malfoy waved his hand, stopped his son from continuing, and opened the box with an ugly face, "If you do this, you will offend many wizards!... Arthur Weasley, you won't be complacent for long!"
Weasley ignored it, he focused his attention on the box, but unfortunately—
The inside is empty, and thinking about what the little Mafu said, it means...
Malfoy had just sold the inconvenient things in his home to this store, and he gave Rufus a wink, so he rushed into the store with the others.
There were only two people and a little wizard left at the door of the store. Lucius Malfoy had a vicious gleam in his eyes. He closed the box tightly, and then sternly put down his harsh words.
"Arthur Weasley, you have to be careful in the future...!"
Then he took his son and left.
Mr. Weasley was still a little skeptical. He felt that Lucius looked a little harsh, as if he was in a hurry to leave and was hiding something.
But at this moment, Rufus called Weasley's name inside, so he put this feeling behind him and entered the spacious and dark store.
……
Meanwhile, on the other hand.
Since Harry had already used Floo powder once, he did not arrive at the fireplace of [Borgin-Bock] in Knockturn Alley like in the original book, and met Mr. Weasley who was searching.
This time, he arrived in Diagon Alley safely with Ron Weasley's family and McGuffin.
And met Hermione and his parents at Gringotts.
.
At that time, Hermione was introducing this place to her embarrassing parents, and the goblin sitting on the counter in the marble hall next to her kept rolling her eyes in disgust.
McGuffin, Hermione, and his parents were trading pounds for Galleons over the counter. .
Now he can also use the spell that Mr. Weasley once cast. Through Gold Gallon, he can use his wand to activate the spell attached to the goblins on his own gold coins, so that these greedy goblins will not seize the opportunity to greedy your money... while the Ron family and Harry went to the underground vault to withdraw money.
After withdrawing the money, the group had their own business to do, so they parted on the marble steps outside Guri Pavilion.
Hermione wanted to take a good look around Diagon Alley with her parents, and it happened that Mrs. Weasley was going to take Ginny to buy outfits for the newly enrolled little wizard, so she was able to walk around here with Hermione's parents along the way.
"How about this, I'll take your parents for a stroll here, Hermione, haven't you talked to Ron and Harry for a long time?..."
The Grangers also said it was better.
——If you happen to be accompanied by an adult wizard, you can avoid a lot of trouble.
Even in Diagon Alley there are many wizards who are not very Muggle friendly.
Percy mutters about buying a new quill, and Fred and George see their Hogwarts school friend Lee Jordan.
"One hour later, we will meet at Lihen Bookstore to buy textbooks for you. It happens to be on sale at that time, so line up early..." After Mrs. Weasley explained, she pulled Ginny and Hermione's parents and left.
The four of McGuffin and the others strolled along the winding cobblestone alleys, happily walking down the alleys.
During the period, the little rich Harry bought strawberry and peanut butter ice cream for several of them. .
Ron and Harry were staring at the things displayed in the window of the [Boutique Quidditch Shop] and refused to leave. Ron was fascinated by a suit of Chudley Cannon robes, and Harry was looking at the latest Nimbus 2001, constantly talking about the comparison with his own Nimbus 2000 broomstick.
McGuffin was a bit bored, and wanted to get the method of making the broomstick from the shopkeeper.
It wasn't until Hermione dragged them to the parchment and ink shop next door that they reluctantly left.
In the bouncing Magical Prank Shop, they meet Fred, George and Lee Jordan again.
They are collecting "Dr. Freebuster's Miraculous Wet Burning Heatless Fireworks". According to them, after school starts, they want to give Filch a big 'surprise'.
(This is true love!)
(End of this chapter)
