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.
Chapter 7: Chapter 7: Return to Diagon Alley (Edited)
"Look at that trash can, count three bricks up, two to the other side and three taps with your wand, and you will open the passage to Diagon Alley." said Tom to Mr. Granger and Hermione, who were standing next to him.
Mr. Granger was Hermione's father, kindly looking, with gold-rimmed glasses and a refined appearance. Of course, as a dentist running a practice in London, Mr. Granger is definitely an intellectual. Doctors in the UK are different from those in China, where the status of doctors in public hospitals is definitely higher than that in clinics, and where doctors are more likely to work in tertiary and secondary hospitals as attending physicians than as general practitioners in clinics. Unlike in the UK, where private practice physicians are the big players, physicians in public hospitals are worse off than those in private practice.
Mr. Granger, as a dentist with a practice, was certainly effective, but such status was of little use in the magical world, being a doctor or a plumber made no difference in the eyes of a wizard: both were Muggles. Naturally, Mr. Granger was apprehensive about facing the magical world. So he welcomed Tom's help with open arms.
As they entered Diagon Alley, the Grangers were amazed to see the stores full of owls, the women buying dragon livers, the shop windows with flying brooms.... They were like Alice entering Wonderland, curious and amazed by everything.
"Shall we go to Gringotts first to change our money?" Tom offered his advice. Visiting the Wizarding World was no different than traveling across the border, first getting a visa, then exchanging money.... The process was the same.
Tom's suggestion eased the tension in the minds of Mr. Granger and his daughter, and they suddenly calmed down.
Tom led the couple to the most imposing building in Diagon Alley, Gringotts.
It was a snow-white building that towered above the surrounding stores. Standing by its bronze doors was a goblin in a scarlet and gold uniform.
"Yes, it's a leprechaun." explained Tom quietly to Mr. Granger and his daughter. They watched as the small, thin boy in front of them walked towards Gringotts, and they followed him, up the white stone steps to the Pavilion doors, where the goblin bowed to them. Above the bronze door was a silver door with a poem engraved on it.
"Is that a giant?" asked Hermione quietly in Tom's ear, seeing that the giant of a man who had entered a little before them was already at the counter.
"No, that's just a hybrid giant, the real one is taller." muttered Tom in reply. The three of them walked straight in.
Guided by two goblins, they arrived at a marble room. There were a hundred goblins sitting behind a row of long counters, weighing coins, examining gems and writing drawings. There were innumerable doors in the hall, and every now and then a few goblins would come out of them or take customers away.
Tom walked up to the counter and greeted one of the goblins who was idle, "Good morning, we need to change some money."
The goblin looked up, noticed the trio's attire and showed a hint of imperceptible disappointment. "Could you show me your ID, sir? The student exchange limit for a semester is ten galleons."
"Here's my acceptance letter," Tom said, pulling out his Hogwarts acceptance letter and placing it on the counter, then pulling out some bills. He then pulled out three gold bars, and the goblin's expression softened as the glint of gold appeared on the counter. He respectfully took the bars from Tom and carefully weighed them on a scale. As for the pounds, he just looked at them and put them in the drawer.
The gold had been bought on the black market after Tom and Yuri separated, and since it came from an obscure source, it was cheaper than what was sold in the banks, as 500 pounds sterling was enough for 70 grams of gold. He then did the same and obtained 180 grams of gold,
Adding to his ten-gallon limit for the year, Tom was able to collect 46 gallons directly from Gringotts, instantly earning a lot of money, 20 gallons of which he had to pay back to Hogwarts, of course, and which had already been transferred to the Hogwarts account, as Tom is not in the habit of owing money.
Mr. Granger behind him was no exception, and took 200 grams of gold and 50 pounds for 50 galleons, Hogwarts had done a good background check, and with Hermione's family, there was no need for an allowance, some of the purebloods didn't have as much money as his family.
The elf behind the counter was grinning from ear to ear as he handed Mr. Granger a card, hoping to work with him again. Under his gaze, the three of them walked out of Gringotts.
"Well, what are we going to buy now?" asked Tom once the group was back on the sunny street.
"I want to buy books!" Hermione's eyes were full of stars, she had been looking forward to magic books for so long that she couldn't wait to spend the rest of her vacation reading them.
"Well, I don't have all my textbooks either." Tom took her up on the offer and led Hermione to Flourish and Blotts Bookshop.
"Standard Spells, Elemental, History of Magic, Theory of Magic, Thousand Herbs and Magic Mushrooms, Potions and Magic Potions, Fantastic Animals and Where to Find Them, two galleons each, and Black Magic: A Guide to Self-Defense, one galleon, for a total of thirteen galleons." The clerk handed the packed books to Tom.
"You forgot to buy the Beginner's Guide to Transfiguration!" Hermione knew the list of books by heart and immediately realized that Tom had forgotten to buy one.
"Professor McGonagall gave me your old book." Tom smiled at Hermione.
At the news, Hermione perked up, "Really?! That's great, it's a teacher's book, can I look at it with you?"
Mr. Granger also kindly invited Tom to stay at his house for the vacations, so that we could all go to King 's Cross station on September 1. To this, of course, Tom agreed: why live under a bridge when you have a house? It wasn't stupid.
When they left the bookstore, Hermione went shopping for robes at Madame Malkin's store, Robes For All Occasions. They then bought many other things, such as quills, cauldrons, scrolls, etc.
They met the big guy again, and his conversation with a thin, black-haired boy reached Hermione's ears.
"...There are four houses at Hogwarts. They say Hufflepuff has a lot of food, but..."
"I think I'm going to be assigned in Hufflepuff."
"I'd rather be in Hufflepuff than Slytherin! The dark wizards are all from Slytherin, and the Dark Lord is one of them..."
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