December 27, 1992.
Just after Christmas, Oxford Street in London's West End was already bustling with people, and piles of Muggles took to the streets wearing brand new clothes. The children were laughing and playing, and the young people who met each other sent sincere New Year blessings to each other. Everyone held a yearning for a better life in their hearts, and even the heavy snow could not extinguish the smiles on their faces.
For wizards, Christmas is also the most important holiday of the year, but the way wizard families celebrate Christmas is completely different from that of Muggles.
They prefer to stay in a warm room, listening to the crackling sound of the fire in the fireplace, sitting under the Christmas tree covered with silver frost and decorated with mistletoe, discussing Quidditch or the latest news.
Therefore, Diagon Alley, as the commercial center of wizards, is always particularly lonely during the New Year's Day, not to mention Knockturn Alley, which is sparsely populated on weekdays.
Bang, bang, bang, click!
Amosta, who was hidden under a wide black cloak, stepped out of the Gringotts-style trolley. Even though his stomach was churning, in order to maintain his indifferent persona, he could only act calm and relaxed.
The air was filled with the smoky smell of fermented slug mucus soaked in rotting frog entrails. The uneven ground was wet. Rows of inverted torches were neatly suspended in the air. The radiant green fire light illuminated this huge area. The fan-shaped underground cave reflects the ghostly atmosphere.
Amosta's eyes wandered around. In the 'pet' market 200 feet away to his left, the giant monster, which was fully fifteen feet tall and whose limbs were tightly restrained by iron chains as thick as the mouth of a bowl, sat limply on the ground, almost To blend in with the dark rock wall.
Its owner is an old witch with gaping teeth from Moldova. The purpose of bringing it here is to sell the troll for a good price, so that she can use the money to treat her dragon pox sores.
But it's a pity that it has been sold for two years and there is still no one interested.
At this moment, the old witch was leaning on the slave's toes, cursing at a large group of house elves nearby, cursing them for polluting the environment.
They were a group of free house elves who had lost their masters.
Of course, using the word 'free' to describe an elf is like using the word 'beast' to describe a centaur, and you will definitely not get gratitude.
Most of these poor little guys once belonged to some small wizard families or secret witch sects. Their owners disappeared in the river of time for various reasons, which resulted in the elves being forced to be free.
Not having an owner is a very terrible thing for house elves, which almost deprives them of the value of their existence. Therefore, the little guys gathered here spontaneously, hoping to find themselves a new owner.
But to be honest, except for some dark wizards who need living materials to experiment with the effects of spells and potions, generally no one will pay attention to them.
The trolls are very friendly to the elves. Amosta once saw the hungry troll kill several of them with his own hands, then stuffed them into his mouth and ate them deliciously.
In addition to trolls and elves, you can also see many other interesting people in the 'pet' market, which smells like a toilet. For example, centaurs who have lost the protection of their tribe and were accidentally captured as Veela (hot goods) , a vampire locked in a cage, or an Irish leprechaun and other very good living materials.
Basically, except for the particularly taboo magical animals such as fire dragons and unicorns, you can find most of the existing magical animals in the magical world in the pet market in the underground world.
The trading market under the rock wall on the right still maintains the simple style of the European Middle Ages, but the things sold on the stalls randomly placed on the ground are not that simple.
Books that record black magic originating from ancient Greece, potions that greatly increase a person's magic power but have unclear side effects, alchemical items that can instantly wipe out life on a large scale ---, in short, compared with those things, the items sold in Bojin's shop The products can only be regarded as prank products loved by little wizards, and the devil's net is only suitable as a decorative potted plant here.
Amosta even saw the curse of the Black Death that killed all of Europe from an Italian wizard. According to the wizard who sold it, the curse in his hand was weakened, but if it spread, , killing Muggles in a city won't be a big problem.
Of course, the cursed seed has an astonishing price that matches its effect. Otherwise, Amosta would really want to buy it and study it.
And this is the dark side of the magical world, a true lawless land.
After a while, Amosta, who felt better, took a step forward and walked towards the center of the cave, gradually joining the sparse crowd.
Most of the people who move here wear black robes and don't want to be seen.
Only a small number of unscrupulous madmen and wizards who happened to be passing through Britain dared to show themselves in front of the Ministry of Magic's infiltrated surveillance personnel.
Yes, you heard it right.
There are Aurors stationed secretly in the underground world of Knockturn Alley. However, their existence is only to monitor that nothing 'out of line' will happen here, not to exterminate, unless the Ministry of Magic wants to fight with all the ancient British people who still exist. Genre wizards and dark wizards go to war.
A square area in the center of the cave surrounded by a low granite wall is the commission market of the underground world. At one end of the wall stands a tall notice board. On the snake-grained wood sign, hundreds of commission letters glowing with red magic contracts are posted. , waiting quietly for someone to take them off.
Amosta stood under the sign and glanced around. He didn't find any valuable commissions, so he turned around and found a stone bench to sit down, waiting for the transaction target to arrive.
Maybe it was because of the arrival of the New Year, but there was also no one here. In the huge area, there were only two people whispering ten feet away from the back right side.
One of them was wearing a brown linen robe, and his bald head was covered with pustules and scabies. He looked like an eighty-year-old wizard and raised his head when he heard the movement and glanced at Amosta.
It seemed that he was disdainful of Amosta's approach of hiding his true appearance under the twisted vortex of magic power. He opened his mouth with only a few yellow teeth left, and spit out the fishy wind. The mouth was half like a charcoal grill. The back part was as black as old tree bark, but the other half of the face was covered with pink, tentacle-like small fleshy sprouts that were wriggling crazily, making it look very ferocious.
However, when the old wizard noticed the golden snake embroidered on Amosta's collar, he quickly suppressed his disgusting smile, nodded politely and looked away.
Amosta was somewhat interested in the old wizard's interesting face.
If his guess was correct, it should be that when making the Horcrux, he failed to release the soul-cutting curse, and suffered severe magic backlash resulting in injuries.
As far as Amosta knew, there was only one thing that could slow down the spread of damage caused by this curse, and the following conversation between the two people also verified his guess.
"It's very difficult and very dangerous. You should know the only place in the UK where you can find unicorns!"
The wizard who was as thin as a bamboo pole opposite the old wizard took out a glass from under his black robe. The silvery liquid in the glass was very conspicuous in the dark underground world, and he said carefully.
The old wizard understood what this meant. He sneered sharply and took out a piece of mithril as big as a fist from his arms and threw it on the table.
"Of course, of course, even here, not many people are willing to get into Dumbledore's troubles. I have been waiting for this for a while. You are very courageous and I admire you--"
Transactions in the underground world are always straightforward, with little bargaining. If you really can't reach an agreement, just kill the other party.
Amosta watched the old wizard with great interest. After seeing him take the glass, smell it carefully and then pour it into his mouth, his face behind the blurry light and shadow showed a bit of amusement.
Here, one thing has to be mentioned,
Because of the shortcomings of traditional magic education, wizards of a certain school can often be extremely proficient in certain aspects, but on the other hand they may be as horribly ignorant as apprentices who have just come into contact with magic. Modern magic education based on schools will most likely fail to teach them. What a shocking talent, but at least balanced.
Knowledge balance is very important.
At least for the current deal, any qualified student of Hogwarts OWLs will not be fooled by someone using a transfiguration spell and two unicorn feathers added to the confusion potion.
ps: Please collect and recommend, thank you!
