#297 - Stealing electricity

"William, long time no see. Reading," Anduin pushed open the door of a shop, and sitting behind the counter was William, his good friend from the Muggle orphanage.

"Haha, Anduin, my boss, after a few years, you've grown taller than me." William was still the same as before, rubbing his hands as he greeted Anduin.

"Looks like you guys are doing pretty well now." Anduin saw that William was also dressed in a suit and looked like a talented person, and smiled with satisfaction, "I haven't had time to thank you for coming to help."

"When you call, I naturally come to report as soon as possible. We owe our success today to your guidance in the past few years. We don't dare to invest in any projects or buy any stocks. As long as we listen to you, we're sure to be right." William grinned.

"Well, we are all brothers from the same orphanage, so naturally we share the blessings together." Anduin also grinned slightly.

In fact, during his time at Hogwarts, he had been in contact with these old buddies from the Muggle world, and under his guidance, these childhood friends had also made a lot of money in the past two years, and of course, he also had a share in it.

"It seems that you have taken care of the things I asked you to do. This shop now belongs to us?" Anduin looked around the inside of the shop. Besides the counter and a few shelves, it was currently empty and looked like it was still under renovation. →

"It belongs to you. I bought it in your name, but is there anything special about this shop? I don't think the surrounding area is very lively. What do you plan to sell here?" William only suddenly received a letter from Anduin at the beginning of the year, asking him to help buy a designated shop, but he only had a vague understanding of what he was going to do.

"It doesn't matter what we sell, whether it makes money here or not. As long as it's open, it can help me." Anduin smiled slightly, without explaining it to William in detail.

Then, under William's leadership, he inspected the shop inside and out, especially the electrical equipment in the shop.

"Okay, next you help contact a construction team to install the main power switch in the basement, and then get me a high-voltage power application certificate, and then purchase and install several high-frequency varistors according to the drawings I drew. As for the shop, just put some electric lights and appliances or something, you don't need to care about how the business is, just keep it open and use electricity normally." Anduin tilted his head and instructed William one by one.

"Understood." Although William didn't understand, he nodded obediently. People from their orphanage had always relied on Anduin's guidance to make money. If Anduin didn't say anything, they wouldn't ask too much.

After explaining everything to William in detail, Anduin parted ways with him and turned back to Diagon Alley from the Leaky Cauldron at the end of the street.

As soon as he entered his home in Diagon Alley, Anduin saw Hogg, who had returned earlier, struggling with the stairs.

Anduin's sudden appearance obviously startled Hogg. He was originally gnawing on the first-floor stair pillar, but after being startled, he jumped forward and squeezed his dog's head into the gap between the stair railings.

This time, his neck was stuck tightly by the railings, and no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't pull it out. He could only watch Anduin walk towards him step by step with a dark face.

"Master, I, I didn't do it on purpose." Hogg looked at the approaching figure, with a flattering look on his face.

But Anduin ignored him and walked straight to the stairs.

This made Hogg even more panicked, and he quickly covered his head with his dog paws, "I'm sorry, Master, I was wrong..."

Hogg thought Anduin was angry, so he could only beg for mercy from the other party, trembling all over, but after a while, he didn't feel any movement, so he carefully opened his dog paws and looked at Anduin.

With this look, Hogg realized that Anduin was no longer there. The other party didn't even bother with him and went straight down to the basement along the passage next to the stairs.

"Master! Don't go, what will I do if you leave? My head is still stuck, help, help, Master!"

Listening to Hogg's wailing above his head, Anduin pouted in disgust, then closed the doorway leading to the basement and went straight to his alchemy laboratory.

"I'll have to find a chance to clean up Hogg sooner or later, but now is not the time to worry about these trivial matters." Anduin muttered a few words, then quickly came to the workbench.

He first took out a large sheet of parchment and spread it out. On it was a street plan. If someone was familiar with the wizarding world, they would soon be able to recognize that this was actually a map of the shops in Diagon Alley, or rather, a plan of this block including Diagon Alley.

Anduin took out various drawing and measuring tools and constantly surveyed and mapped on the drawing. Soon, several lines covered the plan.

Then Anduin kept groping on the walls of the basement, measuring something, and then took out a charcoal pencil and began to draw on a stone wall, and soon outlined a door-shaped pattern.

"The position and depth have been confirmed by the magic locator, there is no problem, as long as the shop is renovated, I can start arranging it." Anduin nodded with satisfaction after confirming it again and again.

The reason why he used Muggle world connections to buy the shop outside Diagon Alley, and why he was fiddling with these things as soon as he got home, was because he had finally completed the design and preliminary testing of the magic lathe at Hogwarts.

The newly developed magic lathe can use the Wild Lightning Charm as its core to convert electricity into magic power. With magic power, the lathe can automatically process, enchant, and engrave alchemical items.

But another problem that needs to be solved after having a lathe is the source of electricity. It's not impossible to directly generate electricity with a diesel generator in the laboratory.

But Anduin has tested it. The magic lathe has a great demand for electricity. After all, it is a reverse conversion, and there will be some loss. It would be too troublesome to supply it with a diesel generator alone. He would have to add oil constantly, and it is not good to have a generator in his own laboratory, it takes up space, and it smells bad. He doesn't plan to use it for a long time.

But there is no circuit connected in Diagon Alley, so if he doesn't want to generate electricity directly at home, he only has one choice, and that is to steal electricity from the Muggle world.

The Muggle world has plenty of electricity. It's no big deal for Anduin to take a little bit to use, but in order not to be discovered by the Muggles, he has to do some disguises, otherwise he will violate the Secrecy Act.