Diagon Alley.
Hodge keenly noticed that the number of patrolling wizards had increased significantly. The news of Voldemort's return had not yet been made public, but the shops lining the streets were already feeling the chill.
Hodge, Sirius, Harry, and Ron walked along the cobblestone path. Hodge was drawn to a massive poster: Beware of Outsiders! They stopped and carefully read the colorful text on the poster. After a moment, Hodge looked up with surprise. The Ministry of Magic was using the example of Muggles awakening to magic as an excuse to heighten patrol levels in magical gathering places like Diagon Alley and Hogsmeade.
Next to the notice board was a stack of leaflets. Harry picked one up; the content was similar to the poster.
Sirius strongly disapproved of this approach. Frowning, he said, "The Ministry doesn't seriously think randomly awakened Muggles are as dangerous as Death Eaters, do they?"
"It says to report anyone suspicious to the authorities," Harry pointed out on the leaflet.
Sirius scoffed at that.
Hodge didn't think it would help either. As Sirius said, people treated Muggles and dark wizards differently, even if the Muggle could do magic.
To make it look official, the Ministry had solemnly posted wanted notices on the board—not just the Death Eaters who had escaped Azkaban, but also some Muggles, including the magician Hodge had encountered last year.
Hodge felt utterly speechless. That magician had been locked up long ago.
Still, recalling the information Dumbledore had shared that morning, Hodge had some judgment about the situation—first, Voldemort's whereabouts.
Voldemort was likely not in Britain!
It made sense when you thought about it; he was busy recruiting followers everywhere.
For a wizard of his level, distance was hardly an obstacle, but at least it meant Voldemort's focus wasn't on Britain for the time being. The attack at the station to get Harry's blood, secretly reviving himself, raiding Azkaban to free a batch of Death Eaters, and then running off to recruit giants, werewolves, vampires, dark wizards… He was simply swamped.
This also reminded Hodge that Voldemort hadn't turned his attention domestically yet.
In a way, Dumbledore was doing something similar.
Though vague, Hodge could roughly guess: Lupin had been sent to contact werewolves, Hagrid to the giant tribes. Maybe Dumbledore even knew a vampire? Where was Mundungus—hanging out with his petty thief friends?
Sigh, Dumbledore had slacked off. Hodge let out a long sigh, full of lament.
To prevent Voldemort from suddenly showing up with a dark army, Dumbledore had been exhausting himself lately, spreading out decades of contacts and networks to desperately track Voldemort's movements. Even investigating Horcruxes had been temporarily set aside.
When he heard Hodge's "lock the door and beat the dog" plan, Dumbledore's calm demeanor couldn't help but stir.
Flourish and Blotts.
"Stupefy!Stupefy!"
Two crisp stunning spells.
"Wrap these two books up carefully—don't mix them up," Hodge said, crouching beside a massive iron cage and seriously instructing the clerk. Inside the cage, over a hundred Monster Books of Monsters tore and bit at each other, with torn pages flying everywhere.
The clerk, face twisted in distress, wore thick gloves and seized the moment to snatch out the stunned books. Two particularly aggressive ones lunged forward but were repelled by Hodge's spell.
"Thank heavens," the clerk panted heavily, handing the intact books to Hodge. He couldn't help complaining, "I'm never stocking these again—never! I don't understand—after so many detentions, has old Kettleburn finally lost it?"
Another clerk chimed in: "If you ask me, he's just showing his true colors. When I was in school, there were rumors he kept a fire-breathing chimaera. Heaven knows how he got the paperwork through. I'd bet someone at the Ministry was slacking off…"
Outside the cage, Ron kept thanking them profusely.
Harry stayed silent. Ever since hearing that Hagrid was the new Care of Magical Creatures professor, he'd known exactly what his birthday gift—that biting Monster Book of Monsters—was for. After a while, Hodge, Harry, and Ron each stood at the counter with armfuls of books.
"Wow," Ron whispered in awe.
The stack in front of Hodge towered far above the others'.
"How many classes are you taking?" Harry couldn't help asking.
"All of them, obviously," a familiar voice said. It wasn't Hodge but the clerk beside him, who smoothly rattled off a number. "We get a student like this every few years."
Hodge extended his wand. A flash of white light, and the waist-high pile of textbooks shrank rapidly, ending up palm-sized and neatly tucked into his bag. Harry glanced inside—there was still plenty of room.
"Need help?" Hodge asked.
With almost no hesitation, Harry and Ron immediately accepted.
"Take them out as soon as you get back, or they'll wreck your bag," Hodge warned after casting the spell.
Harry couldn't help imagining his bag exploding on its own. He'd also bought ink, quills, and parchment, all stuffed in haphazardly. If he waited for the books to resize themselves, he'd waste all that money.
Buying textbooks, restocking potion ingredients, picking out new robes… everything proceeded smoothly.
Hodge browsed a secondhand shop. Perhaps due to the sensitive times, even used wands were under strict control. Hearing that beyond registration, he'd have to fill out endless forms, Hodge waved it off and abandoned the idea of a spare wand. After some picky browsing, he settled on two alchemical items. In his words, they were "useless junk."
"Seven silver Sickles," the shopkeeper said, clearly agreeing they were trash and quickly closing the deal.
An old kettle and a talisman—that was Hodge's haul. According to the shopkeeper, the kettle played beautiful music while boiling water, though now it only produced a raspy croak. The talisman was even more wondrous: supposedly, sleeping with it warded off nightmares, keeping you in sweet dreams.
Hodge had thought it contained calming magic, but upon closer look, it seemed a dream fragment was magically embedded inside—damaged and unreliable, but nothing he couldn't fix.
Meanwhile, Sirius stocked up on a generous amount of dragon blood.
A day later.
Hodge, Sirius, Harry, Ron, and Bill gathered again at the cave. This time, there was one more person: Dumbledore stood at a distance, watching with interest as Bill and Sirius worked at the rock face.
With a splash of hot blood, the glowing arch outline reappeared on the wall, finally forming a stone cave entrance.
"Remarkable," Dumbledore said with a sigh.
————
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