In the morning, just after the sun rose, Albert opened his eyes and woke up from his sleep. He turned his head slightly to look at the door, and heard a familiar sound of footsteps in the corridor.
The next moment, there was a knock on the door and Nia's voice sounded outside the door.
"Get up, Albert, get up quickly!"
Albert got up from the bed, just as he was trying to hold back a yawn and stretching his body, the door was opened, and Tom came in through the crack in the door, trotted onto the chair, then with another jump, landed on the soft cushion on the table and lay down comfortably.
"It seems that Tom likes this cushion very much." Albert reached out and touched Tom's head, then said to Nia with a smile: "You go out first, I will change my clothes."
"Hurry up, Dad said we have to arrive in London before ten o'clock." Nia called Tom to leave, and before leaving, she did not forget to take away Tom's cushion.
"So early?" Albert was a little surprised.
"He said to come earlier so that we have enough time to visit Diagon Alley." Nia said while leaning against the wall. She obviously agreed with Herb's approach.
After all, this time the Anderson family went to Diagon Alley together, to put it bluntly, the family went shopping in Diagon Alley.
If you don't make time in advance, the rest of your trip will be very rushed.
When Albert went downstairs to eat, Nia suggested taking a camera to take some pictures, but Albert directly rejected it.
"That makes you stand out, and that's not a good thing."
"They..." Daisy frowned slightly and chose her words carefully: "... 'look down' on ordinary people?"
She didn't use the word discrimination after all.
"Yes, some wizards are like this." Albert did not deny this. "They think they are superior to others because they have extraordinary powers. In fact, the entire wizarding world is very backward. You will know it when you go to Diagon Alley, but sometimes you cannot deny that magic is really good and can solve many problems. But the thinking of most wizards is too backward, or they have low self-esteem and are afraid of being persecuted. Well, ordinary people also have to bear a lot of blame in this regard."
In fact, if magic and technology can be combined...
Albert immediately shook off this unrealistic idea.
Reformers are usually the unlucky ones who die on the front lines.
For a small person like Albert, the most important thing is to live a short life well. Even if the world will explode in three hundred years, it has nothing to do with him.
They didn't continue talking about that unpleasant topic until the end of the meal, but just talked about some things to pay attention to when going to Diagon Alley.
At half past eight, Albert and his family set off for London by car.
In the UK, this time is considered very early for most people.
It took the Andersons a while to get to London, but Herb soon led them to the big book and record stores.
"Are we there yet?" Nia asked, looking between the big bookstore and the record store, "Where's the bar?"
"We're here." Albert nodded.
"I came here several times while you were at Hogwarts, but I couldn't find the bar no matter what I did." Herb couldn't help but sigh, "Magic is really a magical thing."
"Because there is a spell nearby that blocks ordinary people." Albert explained, "The effect of this spell is to make ordinary people ignore certain things, which can prevent ordinary people from mistakenly entering the Leaky Cauldron."
“How do we get in?” asked Daisy.
"Come with me." Albert took Nia's hand, "Don't be nervous, make yourself look natural."
With Albert's help, the Anderson family finally entered the Leaky Cauldron.
"I didn't even notice there was a bar here!" After Nia followed Albert into the Leaky Cauldron, she was frightened by the scene inside. She shrank her body, hid behind Albert, and held his hand tightly.
There was no way. It was too dark and dirty here. There were a few strange guys sitting in the bar, an old woman smoking a pipe, a bald and sloppy old man, and a middle-aged man who was already drunk. No matter how you looked at it, these guys were different from the people Nia came into contact with in her daily life.
Albert nodded slightly to the bar owner Tom, ignored the gazes from others, and led his family to the backyard.
"Don't be nervous, you are here to go shopping." Albert noticed that Daisy was biting her lip, so he comforted her.
Although Daisy looked as calm as usual, Albert knew that she had a habit of biting her lips when she was nervous.
"The environment here is more... shabby than I thought." Daisy looked around the backyard and asked, "Is the entrance here?"
Ever since Albert came to Diagon Alley last year, the Anderson family all knew that the entrance to Diagon Alley was in the backyard of the Leaky Cauldron.
"Yes." Albert took out his wand, knocked on the third brick from the left above the trash can, and then signaled everyone to step back.
Looking at the archway in the wall leading to Diagon Alley, Nia looked extremely excited and screamed: "It's amazing."
Albert smiled and said, "Welcome to Diagon Alley."
"I didn't expect Diagon Alley to be a street." Daisy looked at the wizards coming and going and the old shops on both sides of the alley, and she began to understand Albert's description. It did look like this place had been around for some time, and it wasn't an exaggeration to describe it as backward.
"Where do we go next?" Daisy asked.
"Go buy some books first," said Albert.
Since Herb had exchanged a large amount of Galleons last year and had not spent them all, they did not go to Gringotts this time. Nia was disappointed that she could not meet the goblins.
However, the magic shops on both sides of this cobblestone street soon attracted Nia's attention.
Albert was pulled by Nia into Flourish and Blotts. Herb and Daisy looked at each other and followed him in.
Nia's attention was immediately attracted by those different magic books.
After entering the bookstore, Herb had a brief conversation with the owner and bought the books that Albert needed.
Well, actually, we only need to buy one book, which is the Standard Book of Spells, Level 2 for Charms. The rest of the books will be from last semester.
"Is this book not for sale?" Albert asked the owner, pointing at the books on the display shelf.
"Yes, it's not for sale." The owner explained, "This is a new work by Mr. Mog McDougal. It is said that he only printed a hundred copies."
"All 100 copies sold?" Albert was a little surprised. He originally thought that Mr. Mog McDougal's book would not sell well. "Why don't you continue printing?"
"I heard that the content is very difficult and ordinary people can't understand it at all, so Mr. Mog McDougal thought that it wouldn't sell even if he printed it, so he stopped printing it." The owner explained, "If you are interested in magic runes, I recommend you buy Mr. Mog McDougal's "Basic Magic Runes Explained", which is simple and easy to understand."
"So, those 100 books printed by Mr. McDougal are probably meant to be given away as gifts?" Albert muttered. That's right, no one can understand this book, so how can you buy it? Spend five galleons to buy it and keep it as a collection
"Don't you have a book about this?" Nia asked in confusion.
"Okay, let's go!" Albert took the book, paid the other party a Galleon, and left with Nia.
There are still many things that need to be purchased.
For example, going to a pharmacy to restock the ingredients of a medicine.
By the way, Nia really doesn't like pharmacies. The strange ingredients there scare her to death.
Before leaving the drugstore, Albert asked Herb to buy a bottle of Dictamni essence. With this thing, if he accidentally got injured in the future, he could use Dictamni essence to heal him quickly without leaving scars.
After Albert's introduction, the Andersons were deeply moved and bought another bottle to give to Grandpa Luke. This is a good thing that cannot be bought in the Muggle world.
Because the school uniform was several inches too short for his limbs, Albert needed to go to Madam Malkin's robe shop to order some new robes.
Here Albert met acquaintances, the McDougal sisters and their mother, who were there to pick up custom-made robes.
The two sides did not speak to each other from beginning to end. Mrs. McDougal paid the money and left with her daughter.
"Do you know each other?" Daisy asked curiously.
"I guess we know each other. We're in the same club." Albert replied casually.
This time, Nia did not clamor to have one customized for herself, but just watched curiously the whole process of Madam Malkin helping Albert customize clothes.
While Albert was restocking his ink, quills, and parchment in Wieseacre's magical supply store, Nia's attention was drawn to a wonderful moving constellation model, a large glass ball that contained a model of the solar system.
However, Herb did not buy it for her because he thought that thing had no value except as a decoration, and it cost 15 Galleons, which was too expensive.
Nia was a little depressed.
However, Albert secretly told her that as long as Nia performed well in school, he would help convince her family to buy it for her.
Nia's face immediately turned from gloomy to bright, she smiled happily and said that she would study hard.
After buying the necessary items, the Andersons continued to wander around Diagon Alley. When they passed by the Magic Menagerie shop, they went into the store to buy some rations for Tom.
If you are tired of shopping, you can have a bite to eat under the parasols outside the cafe and chat with your family about what you saw in Diagon Alley.
During this period, Albert also met Wood who came to Diagon Alley to shop with his family. The goalkeeper reminded him to remember to buy a flying broom.
"A broomstick?"
Albert briefly explained the sport of Quidditch to his family, and Herb asked Albert if he wanted to go to the Quidditch boutique, which they had passed by earlier.
In the eyes of Herb and Daisy, their son was the best. Simple Quidditch was obviously not a problem for him. And judging from the tone of the person just now, they thought Albert was qualified to join the Quidditch team.
"No thanks." Albert declined politely. "If you succeed in joining the team, it won't be too late to buy a broom."
"Oh, okay." Herb respected Albert's opinion, but on the way back, he couldn't help asking, "You don't seem to like Quidditch very much?"
"To be precise, I don't really like Quidditch training." Albert thought about it and answered honestly, "It's a waste of time. I think I can do other things."
"I think Albert just finds Quidditch training troublesome." Nia couldn't help but complain, "In the past, he simply gave up basketball and tennis, and he only persisted in learning karate for a few months."
The Andersons were silent. They all knew this. Albert knew a lot of things, but he was too lazy. He gave up on many things without ever learning them in depth. Otherwise, he would have been able to achieve good results in some field.
Well, it seems that the Andersons’ brains have actively blocked Albert’s desire to enter the financial world.