Under everyone's joint persuasion, Sirius finally agreed to change a wand.
Sighing, he followed Mr. Ollivander into the wand shop, ruffling his messy hair feebly, like a little wizard just coming of age.
"He used to be like this, he looks very stubborn, but as long as it is a reasonable suggestion, he will take it most."
Looking at Sirius' back, Lupine told Ivan, Harry, and Hermione some embarrassing things about Sirius' student days, which made everyone laugh.
Amidst laughter, they came to No. 36, Diagon Alley, a shop belonging to the Black family.
This is a three-storey shop facing the street, located at the corner of the other end of the street, across the street from Ollivander's Wand Shop, next to a potion material shop, and passing through a dark small street to the north of it. Lane, is the Yila Owl Shop.
Harry's pet Hedwig was given to him by Hagrid after buying it there.
In addition to the pet shop, even this potion shop is very famous in Diagon Alley. Because of the cheap price, Ivan mail-ordered a lot of potion materials from their house.
The outer walls of the potion shop are brown-black bricks, with only one narrow window. Inside were rows of barrels of goo on the floor, and near the walls, assorted jars of powders, herbs, and bundles of feathers, fangs, and claws hung from the ceiling.
The merchandise inside looks fascinating, but because of the potion ingredients, the shop smells bad outside, like a mixture of rotten eggs and rotten vegetables.
Worse than this is 36 Diagon Alley next to it.
The old bricks are incomplete, and it looks extremely desolate and dilapidated. The two semi-circular windows were covered with thick dust, and the inside could not be seen from the outside. Between the windows is a scarred black wooden door, covered with insect eyes and traces of people scratching with sharp objects, exuding a decaying smell.
Ai Wen wiped the dust on the window, stood on tiptoe and took a look inside.
Through a curtain full of dense foxes, he saw furniture debris scattered on the ground and rubbish everywhere. A brown spider the size of a saucer was hidden in the gap in the uppermost corner of the window. The house looks like a haunted house.
"In my impression, this shop has been idle for more than ten years, and no one has been using it." Lupine explained, "Many people speculate whether there is something wrong here, so it has been idle, but I didn't expect it to be Black. Family property!"
He pulled out his wand and knocked on the wooden door of the shop, and with a puff, the door swung open.
Almost as soon as the door was opened, a large amount of dust splashed up.
Everyone hurriedly covered their noses and took several steps back.
Seeing the unexpected intruder, inside the shop, a frightened mouse ran across the house, squeaking.
They walked in, leaving clear footprints on the creaking floor.
The decoration of this shop continued the usual luxurious style of the Black family, and the dilapidated furniture inside were all made of precious mahogany and teak.
Perhaps because of this, this place is also the object of concentrated patronage by thieves.
All the valuable things in the shop disappeared or were destroyed, and the wreckage of all kinds of gorgeous decorations and furniture were scattered on the ground.
The windows at the back were also smashed, and there was a gust of cold wind blowing in. Not surprisingly, the thieves crawled in from there.
From the outside, this store is bad enough; when you feel it up close, you can feel that it is extremely bad.
If you want to use it and sell it to the outside world, almost everything needs to be bought new.
"It really takes a lot of effort to clean this place up!" Hermione wrinkled her nose, took out her wand and said softly to a carpet, "Clean it up!"
Instantly pink soap bubbles appeared on the carpet, but to no avail, there was so much dust that the bright colored soap bubbles instantly turned into black goo.
Hermione waved her wand reluctantly and said the spell a few more times.
"Don't waste your efforts, Hermione, just throw that rug away." Ivan said, clutching his forehead, "You can buy new furniture and office supplies, but you're right, this place really needs a big cleaning, It's a lot of work!"
"This house has been empty for many years, and many things have grown and multiplied in it. You must be careful when you clean it." Lupine leaned in front of a cabinet and looked in through the keyhole. Gert, better get him out before cleaning this closet."
"It's crazy to clean up a house that has been abandoned for more than ten years. I don't want to spend the rest of Christmas here." Harry came down from the upstairs, panting, "This shop is better than It looks much more spacious from the outside, with a lot of space above, and a lot more garbage than here.”
"Don't worry, Harry! I think three days should be enough. We can ask Dobby and Kreacher for help. House elves are very good at doing this kind of thing." Ivan also went upstairs to look around and nodded in satisfaction. , "When I go to visit Ron later, I can also ask the Weasleys to help clean up. I have an idea that the second and third floors are completely enough space for the headquarters of the newspaper, and the first floor can be used for other things. , such as selling Fred and George's joke products"
"The two of them will be delighted, they've been running an owl mail order service in the school since last term!" said Harry. "The products they develop are very interesting and very popular."
"It's also very dangerous, and also disgusting!" Hermione said disapprovingly, "Look at what they did last semester, they actually made a remote control dung egg, which made the whole corridor full of stench, those dung are very difficult was cleaned."
"That's something Filch needs to worry about. Except for the Slytherin basement, they haven't used that kind of thing anywhere else in the school." Ivan said guilty.
He hadn't dared to tell Hermione that the birth of the remote-control dung egg was actually his suggestion. And the theory used, how to activate the big dung egg to obey the command of the user, was inspired by Hermione's contribution to the newspaper on a research article on transfiguration.
"There is a lot of space here, and many counters can be placed. In addition to Fred and George's joke products, you can also sell the things researched by other little wizards." Seeing that Hermione wanted to continue talking about the joke products , Ai Wen hurriedly said, "For example, the potions we boiled in the potions class, except for taking out a little to give Snape a mark, all the rest were poured out. It's too wasteful, and it can be put here For sale, the price is much lower than the normal market price.”
"That's a good idea, if Snape can let us do it," interrupted Harry.
"He will agree. Those potions were originally brewed by the students themselves, and he has no reason to refuse." Ivan walked down and carefully observed the first floor of the store, while contemplating future plans and designs, "In addition to potions, All the things made by the little wizards can be sold here, the more the better. This matter can be publicized through the "Hogwarts Ministry of Magic", and it should attract a lot of attention." (.)