As an important place responsible for connecting the Muggle world and the magical world, the Leaky Cauldron is open almost 24 hours a day.
But of course, even if the bar owner Old Tom doesn't think this responsibility is so great, he probably won't reduce the bar's business hours.
After all, it is precisely because many people will pass by him to stay, dine, or provide travelers with afternoon tea or something. Even if it was just to get more gold Galleons, he would not be willing to close the shop.
At this moment, Pansy, who had just gotten off the bus, and Eluli, a half-elf, pushed open the black wooden door of the bar and walked in gently.
Probably because the wound on her back shoulder would be affected from time to time, her brows were always frowning slightly involuntarily, making her look unhappy.
"Boom!"
"Karl, are there any rooms left upstairs?"
Pansy reached out and knocked on the table of the bar, waking up the middle-aged wizard who was dozing inside. Old Tom, the owner of the Vixen Bar, is usually responsible for entertaining customers during the day, and late at night, he is responsible for the night shift. Usually it is replaced by this Carl.
However, compared to Old Tom, who was clumsy but always very enthusiastic, the guy in front of him was somewhat absent-minded.
"Well?"
I saw the middle-aged wizard opening his eyes in a daze, sitting behind the bar with dull eyes and shaking his head. Then he nodded with a groan and said:
"Oh, yes. There are five more rooms upstairs... No, no, it seems to be four? Ah, do you want to open one for you? How many days do you plan to stay here?"
"Just one night will be enough," Pansy said without saying anything and directly paid for the accommodation, "I'm going out for a while, just give me the key."
"There's no need to help you with your luggage... Oh, it looks like both of you are alone, so that saves trouble!"
Karl hummed rather vaguely, took the coin with one hand, and immediately took out a bunch of keys from the drawer under the bar with the other hand and handed it over.
"The third room on the right hand side of the stairs... ah no, it seems to be the second room? Anyway, you will know when you try it yourself!" He was talking with his eyelids drooped, and suddenly he added as if he remembered something, "Yes. Yes, there is still some bean soup cooked by Old Tom in the kitchen. I will bring it to you two to warm yourself up later..."
Before he finished speaking, Karl's heavy eyelids finally could no longer be opened and he fell asleep again.
"You go up first!"
When Pansy saw this, she curled her lips slightly unhappily, and then handed the key to Iluli.
"I'm going out right now and will be back soon."
"Oh, no! How is this possible?" Iluli said sharply, "It's because of me... If I hadn't dragged you down, you wouldn't have had to suffer this! Buying... shopping, or... Let me come and go!”
Although it was late at night, there were still many drinkers in the bar drinking and chatting in twos and threes, so that Iluli did not dare to speak too clearly.
After volunteering to buy Pansy's medicine for treatment, she carefully added:
"And... Miss Parkinson, although you have cleaned the blood stains on your clothes, you can still smell a bit of blood if you smell it carefully. I think it would be unsafe to move in Knockturn Alley at night. "
"Then it will be safe for you to go?" Pansy couldn't help but ask, "Your wand was lost at the church a long time ago. Now you are almost like a squib, aren't you?"
But in response, Iluli shook her head silently, and then flipped her hood behind her back.
"Look...it's rare that someone can't get along with a goblin, right?"
Like house elves, goblins' talents allow them to cast powerful magic without relying on wands, and they also have bad tempers that are completely different from house elves.
Therefore, although most wizards think goblins are inferior creatures, they are not willing to provoke them casually. After all, no one wants to have a vengeful goblin target them for the rest of their lives.
It's a pity that it would be nice if Iluli could be more proud when she said this - looking at her lack of confidence, it always makes people feel that she might as well directly inherit the character of the elf.
At the very least, the goblins' unreasonable arrogance and contempt for others are very similar to those pretentious purebloods among wizards.
However, Iluli said this because she undoubtedly wanted to get a chance to repay Pansy. Thinking that this might deepen the friendship between the two, Pansy finally agreed to her request.
"Okay!" Miss Parkinson smiled and said, "Well... then you take my wand first! Although it may be a little inconvenient, it's better than nothing... I'll go to the room and wait for you."
Seeing Eluli hurriedly walking toward the back door with small steps until she was out of sight, Pansy finally let out a long breath as if she had been holding it in for a long time.
To be honest, she was really not used to the seemingly gentle tone before.
Not to mention, she grew up under a standard pure-blood education. Although her views on hybrid offspring like Iluli, who are born between humans and magical creatures, are not as extreme as those of her parents, they are still somewhat contemptuous.
"Dong dong dong!"
Suddenly, Pansy reached out her hand again and knocked the bar table as loudly as a gong.
"Carl, a Belgian raspberry beer with ice!"
"Huh? Oh...you need to add ice in this weather? Miss...are you serious?"
This humid spring night in London, England, may be colder than people imagine.
…
Not to mention that Pansy planned to have a drink with her injuries at the Leaky Cauldron, so that the cold and bubbly wine could clear her slightly depressed heart. On the other side, Draco, who had completed his mission, had returned to Hogwarts and stood in front of Maka's door reluctantly.
In fact, he had been standing here for more than three minutes. Every time he wanted to reach out and knock on the door, he couldn't help but put his arm down again at the last moment.
In the room, Maka was staring at the flames that kept licking the bottom of the flask, and did not show much concern for Mr. Malfoy standing outside the door.
In the condenser tube connected to the flask, thick steam rolled through the serpentine tube, turning into droplets of clear water and flowing to another sealed flask next to it.
As long as it goes through several rounds of distillation and purification, the concentration of the ingredients in the truth serum may be several times higher than that of the potion refined from the crucible. I believe that even with the resistance of the basilisk, it will be attacked.
Of course, repurifying truth serum in this way requires very high temperature control. Even with his ability to sense magic, it took all his concentration to maintain the fire under the beaker.
At the moment, it was just right for Draco to be in a daze outside the door, because even if the other person knocked on the door as soon as he came, Maka didn't have the time to open the door and let him in.
However, Mr. Malfoy outside the door was almost impatient with waiting.
"That woman Parkinson... didn't she say that McClain could spot people in the corridor through the wall? Why haven't you opened the door yet... Do you have to ask me to knock on the door?"
Yes, out of his rather inexplicable pride, he still had to fight some inconspicuous struggles even over such trivial matters as whether to knock or not.
But then again, precisely because he couldn't match Maka's level in big things, he could only seek some satisfaction in such details first.
When Draco continued to wait stubbornly for a moment, with a soft sound, the door in front of him finally opened automatically. And then, he heard Maka's voice coming from the room.
"Mr. Malfoy, please come in!"
Maka was somewhat understanding of Draco's little thoughts, and he didn't think there was anything wrong with it.
In fact, apart from the biased values that have been cultivated since childhood, Maka still admires Draco's perseverance in persisting in his own ideas.
Today's Draco Malfoy is at least much better than his father who was not very popular on the stage.
"Maclean," Draco walked into the room expressionlessly and said as equally as possible, "Parkinson has escaped with the wizard named Martin. In addition, I saw her between me and my father. During the operation, I helped a "companion" who was both relatively short. Presumably the two of them are still together... "
After explaining Pansy's situation first, he turned and said:
"As for the underground church, my father is still checking it with others there. If there is a possibility of detection, I believe that my father will secretly interfere with the test results."
"Oh, really?" Maka nodded immediately after hearing this, "Thanks to you, it seems that the plan is progressing very smoothly... Well, there is also Miss Parkinson, she is doing a pretty good job too!"
"Her?" Draco snorted softly, "My father and I teamed up to deal with that Martin, originally to create a chance for her to intervene, but she chose an unimportant person to help! How could this happen? Can you say it's 'not bad'?"
"Oh, it's actually pretty good," Maka waved her hand and said with a smile, "It would be too abrupt to start directly with Martin... Don't worry, it's good to just do it step by step. I believe you It is understandable, after all, the person standing behind the opponent is the 'despicable Haierbo', so it is better to be more cautious."
Having said that, he didn't care about Draco's awkward expression and raised his hand to wave lightly.
Immediately, a letter placed on the table began to fly automatically, spinning in mid-air, and leisurely slid in front of the other party.
"For the agreed upon reward, you can choose a time to hand it over to your father... In this way, your Malfoy family can restore good relations with the Ministry of Magic at any time."
Draco took the envelope casually, but there was a complicated expression on his face.