Chapter 5: Chapter 5 Yuri and the gold (Edited)
At night, Tom wanders into London's Soho, the City of Westminster in Greater London and the city's busiest, liveliest and most chaotic place at midnight. As night falls, a tide of people of all kinds converge on the area, flowing into the casinos, nightclubs and other entertainment venues.
Throughout the area, the roar of motorcycles is incessant, and many men and women ride their bikes down the center of the street in a sickening display of speed and passion, to the sound of their engines.
Tom arrived in front of a casino he often went to for occasional work, and the black-clad security guard standing in front of the premises acknowledged him with a single glance, "Are you here for dinner again, boy?"
"Uncle John, I'm here to try my luck today." Tom smiled and, after a quick chat with the guy at the door, John shook his head as he let him in.
The casino was already buzzing with activity when the lights came on. There were nearly a hundred tables in the lobby, each one packed with people, and downstairs there were private rooms, but not enough for Tom to get in, but that wasn't a problem, and he didn't address the players in the private rooms.
He took out his remaining £30 and exchanged it for chips. Next, he strolled around the casino casually, looking here and there. The casino staff didn't take Tom seriously as a kid, he didn't look dirty, so what did they care?
Tom used to come in to do some work, and also to enjoy the buffet. Yes, this casino also has a buffet. Or rather, most casinos have their own "casino buffet," where they want customers to eat right there when they are hungry, so they don't have to leave the casino because they are hungry. Most casino buffets are very good, with a good selection, good food and, most of all, low prices. Sometimes Tom just has to talk to the backroom guy to help them get rid of the "leftovers" and take home the buffet food.
But today he wasn't here for dinner.
He walked over to a roulette table and took a moment to look at it. Roulette is a very common casino game, usually with 37 or 38 numbers, and the dealer is in charge of spinning the ball around the wheel, and the number that lands on that grid is the winning number. Tom watched for a while and had a vague feeling that the next shot was going to be a 9, so he didn't hesitate to put a £5 chip in the 9's box.
There are many ways to play roulette, but the simplest and most brutal way is to bet that the ball will land in a particular square, usually with odds of 1 to 35, and after tossing the chip, Tom calmed down. He watched silently as the little marble bounced and rolled around the wheel.
"No. 7, No. 8, No. 9!"
Finally, the marble landed in slot 9, and the players around the wheel rejoiced and wailed as the dealer cleanly paid out the winning bets and took the losing chips.
In a matter of moments, Tom's five pounds in his hand became one hundred and seventy-five pounds.
He took a few more laps of the casino, losing a little, winning a little, and ending up with over three hundred pounds.
At this point, one hundred pounds sterling cost one hundred and sixty dollars, and an ounce of gold hovered around three hundred and seventy dollars, so Tom could exchange two hundred and thirty-one pounds sterling for one ounce, or thirty-one grams of gold. His goal was to walk out of the casino with enough money to exchange it for fifty grams of gold.
Gringotts severely restricts the exchange of money, and this year they introduced a rule that only allows young wizards with Muggle parents to exchange 5 pounds for 1 galleon, with a total of five galleons during the school year. Of course, there is no limit on the amount of gold that can be exchanged for Galleons: 5 grams of gold for one Galleon, one way.
Clever Goblins leave no loophole for humans to exploit.
Tom weighed the chips in his bag and headed for another table. This table was playing Casino Royale.
The game Casino Royale, sounds high end, but it is actually one of the simplest games in terms of rules. It is a simple game of chance, where one card is dealt to the dealer and each bettor and the winner is determined by comparing the number of points between the dealer and the player. If the player has more points than the dealer, he receives a pot equal to the amount wagered.
Tom stayed at the table, placing a few bets from time to time, and by the time he left the table, he had over 500 pounds. He was ready to leave the casino as soon as he could. Before he left, however, he overheard an interesting conversation in the casino toilets.
Yuri Orlov was an immigrant from the Soviet Union whose family business was a restaurant, but a chance encounter opened the door to the arms business. Today is the day the budding arms dealer closes his first deal.
He met the dealer in the bathroom of a small casino, put gel in his hair and shaved.
Everything was going well.
He opened the briefcase and handed the new Uzi machine gun to the grim-faced young man.
"Sir, the new Uzi automatic, smaller but no less powerful, with nine-millimeter concave-tipped bullets, extended 25-round magazine, adjustable grip, standard silencer, very little recoil...", At the end, Yuri made a little joke: "Even if you fired a whole magazine at me now, no one outside would notice."
But then, to his surprise, the buyer loaded the gun and pointed it directly at his chest.
Yuri was stunned. But it didn't take him long to react and he said calmly, "Of course, so you won't have a chance to do any more business with me."
The young buyer smiled, gave Yuri the money, took his suitcase and left the bathroom.
Yuri felt as if he had come back from the dead, his whole back was covered with cold sweat, now he felt that selling a gun for the first time was like having sex for the first time, you didn't know what you were doing, it was exciting but it was over very fast.
He came out of the bathroom and saw a young boy coming out of the cubicle next to him, looking at him with a playful expression.
He tried to leave, but the boy behind him called out to him.
"Do you have any more guns like that? I need one that even a little kid like me can use," Tom said.
Yuri was a professional businessman, which meant he didn't discriminate against customers, even if it was a child, if it had pounds and a need, then it was his customer.
So the two of them appeared together in a small warehouse.
Yuri handed Tom an Uzi and a box of bullets.
"It's not new, but it's cheap, 25 pounds, you get the gun and the cartridges," Yuri said.
A fair enough price.
Tom took the box, handed the money to Yuri, thanked him and was about to leave, but Yuri stopped him, pulled out a business card and handed it to Tom.
"Who the hell are you?" asked Yuri, although curiosity was not his thing.
Tom didn't answer him immediately, but picked up a wilted flower from the ground and handed it to him.
"Apprentice."
Tom walked away. Yuri looked at the brightly colored flower in his hand and pondered.
Chapter 6: Chapter 6: Vacation in London (Edited)
Yuri went after him anyway. He waved the flowers in his hand with some excitement, "What the hell are you? is this magic?"
Tom just looked at him with a smile.
Yuri's breath caught, his instinct telling his that this was the most important and unmissable opportunity of his life, and he felt the urge to give Tom all the money he had, but he refused, taking only the twenty-five pounds he had given Yuri.
"I owe you." Tom waved his hand and walked away.
Yuri watched the boy's back fade, sat down on the floor and smoked a cigarette.
...
Hermione stood in front of the open window, looking out at the familiar, intimate garden, feeling the scent of the grass coming in through the window. She couldn't believe it until today: the day before yesterday a cat had turned into a human being before her eyes and told her that she had been accepted into a wizarding school called Hogwarts. It was more than a fairy tale.
She was standing by the window, holding a furry tiger doll in her arms, looking so peaceful that, if her arms weren't trembling slightly, anyone would have thought she was a young girl contemplating the scenery.
She was nervous, because her future was uncertain, because she would be leaving her parents to study and live in a strange world. Her life had been completely altered by this inexplicable school. The Grangers had planned for young Hermione to either grow up and go to a prestigious medical school and become a decent doctor or come home and inherit the practice and become a good dentist.
Hermione looked at the neatly trimmed raspberries, the clean paths, the bushes with her mother's favorite flowers and reflected that the scenery, which had brought her so much pleasure, had only made her feel bored.
Looking at the bushes, a figure suddenly flashed through her mind: I wonder if that person has received a letter of acceptance...
Hermione picked up a copy of her unread novel, left the bedroom, exchanged her slippers for sandals at the door and went straight out into the garden. She intended to go to her newfound "secret base" to rest.
It was a pond, but the water was clean because it was connected to a small river, and because the environment had been tended for decades. The pond was surrounded by vegetation and was an ideal place to spend the summer.
She turned onto a tree-lined path, under which was the pond, surrounded by thick willow bushes swaying in the wind.
Hermione was about to sit down in the shade of a tree and read a book when she suddenly saw a fishing rod raised on the bank of the pond below, so she stopped short.
She approached the fishing pole, ran her hand along the branches of the bush and a familiar figure appeared before her. She recognized the young man, Tom.
Tom was sitting with his pants rolled up, on a small wooden dock, with a broken can beside him. He was so engrossed in his fishing that he didn't even notice Hermione approaching.
"Can you still fish here?" asked Hermione curiously. The sudden voice made Tom almost drop his rod. He looked toward the source of the noise with some irritation.
He saw Hermione standing on the shore, a book in her hand. She was wearing a beige top and light shorts, white stockings tight around her calves, brown sandals on her feet and her brown hair pulled back in a ponytail.
Tom's anger subsided a bit. At that moment, the fish in the water scattered and suddenly the water fluctuated a couple of times, sending a ripple through the water.
Hermione exclaimed from behind Tom, "It's biting! The fish, it's hooked..."
Tom was a bit stunned, but somehow, he managed to catch a palm-sized fish.
The fish was yellowish brown, with three spines on the back and next to the gills.
"What kind of fish is this?" asked Hermione curiously as she walked over and looked at the struggling fish on the hook.
"It's a Yellow Surgeonfish." Tom carefully unhooked the fish from the hook and prepared to put it in the bucket.
"Can I touch it?" Hermione looked very happy, even though she had no idea what a "Surgeon Yellow Fish" was, that didn't stop her from being very excited.
She reached out to touch the fish, but underestimated the fish's determination to resist. So.
"Look out!" exclaimed Tom.
"Ah!"
A fin from the Yellow Surgeonfish hit Hermione's index finger, and Tom hurried to restrain the fish and toss it into the bucket, taking Hermione's hand to check the wound.
It wasn't very deep, but Hermione was still frowning in pain. It wasn't that Hermione was being petulant, it was just that the spines of the yellow surgeonfish had a poison that caused severe pain, and the wound swelled and itched after a while.
Tom looked at the wound with a grave expression. Hermione was so terrified by his expression that she couldn't help but squint her eyes and asked, "Is he going to be okay? It's just a small cut, it's not even bleeding...ouch!"
As she spoke, Tom pressed the cut on Hermione's index finger, drawing a few drops of dirty blood.
"The sting of the Yellow Surgeonfish is poisonous, and you may suffer today, but there are two ways to detoxify..." said Tom.
"What should I do?" Hermione was surprised by the word poison.
"Piss on the wound...," Tom hesitated a bit and said.
"No!" Hermione's eyes widened, she thought Tom was playing a joke on her.
"Or rubbing yellow surgeon fish slime on the wound may also relieve the pain," Tom said.
It was the second statement that soothed Hermione, although the goo also looked gross, it was better than urine! No comparison can hurt, so Hermione quickly took some of the slime and put it on her finger, and she didn't know if it was a psychological effect, but it didn't seem to hurt that much.
"After all, it's a lifetime of water, so you should get some iodine or something to clean the wound when you get home." instructed Tom seriously after treating Hermione's wound.
"Okay!" Hermione nodded, then asked as if remembering something, "Did you get your Hogwarts acceptance letter?"
Tom nodded and asked, "Yes, have you been to Diagon Alley yet?"
"Not yet, Professor McGonagall gave us the address to Diagon Alley, dad will take me there in a couple of days," Hermione smiled knowing that the teenager in front of her was also going to Hogwarts, and felt a sense of reassurance: a sudden warmth in the cold world of magic.
Tom looked at her and realized: Professor McGonagall hadn't taken her to Diagon Alley, and it seemed that not all new students had the privilege of being shown the way by a member of staff.
'I'm afraid there's going to be a lot of trouble...', Tom muttered in his mind, 'with a family of Muggles trying to find their way to Diagon Alley.'
With that in mind, Tom looked at Hermione, 'If you don't mind, I could take you on a tour of Diagon Alley, I've been there once before.'
"Really? That's great." Hermione laughed gleefully, and their laughter echoed along the river.
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