South Shore of the Firth of Forth, Edinburgh.
As the best-developing capital of Scotland, the Christmas atmosphere in Edinburgh is particularly rich.
The piercing cold wind from the North Sea did not quell people's enthusiasm for Christmas. The best circus in Scotland has recently toured to Edinburgh, with twinkling colored lights connecting the Christmas trees along the entire street, and the sound of jingling bells spreading through every alley.
"...Dad was, and Mom too, so if you enroll next year, you'll most likely be sorted into Slytherin," said the girl with light blonde hair, sitting in a motionless carriage. She spoke softly to the girl beside her, who seemed just a size smaller.
"But you said, the Slytherin common room is in the dungeon," the smaller girl shrugged, somewhat disagreeing with her sister's statement, "I'd rather go to Ravenclaw, or Gryffindor - their common rooms sound much more comfortable."
"Gryffindor!!" The girl's expression was exaggerated, and she instinctively repeated heavily, "Last year, Gryffindor snatched our House Cup. Before that, Slytherin had won seven times in a row. It's all those stupid lions' fault. If you get sorted into Gryffindor, then we are enemies..."
"You just started last year, as if those seven consecutive championships had anything to do with you..."
"?"
"...Daphne?"
Meanwhile, a voice called out from outside the carriage, and the girl paused her "punishment" of her sister to stick her head out of the window, "Mom, we're here!" She waved vigorously to a tall woman standing by the street.
"Bring your sister down with you - we've got the tickets ready -"
The woman waved the tickets in her hand. The man beside her wore a deep black coat, with platinum blonde hair slicked against his scalp, a long aquiline nose, and light gray eyes that made his overall appearance seem somewhat sinister.
But when he looked at his wife and two daughters, the malice in his eyes dissipated considerably.
"Coming right away!" Daphne Greengrass held her sister's hand and jumped off the carriage. Her deep red boots crunched through the accumulated snow on the road. The group quickly crossed the somewhat crowded crowd, squeezing in front of a small tent where the lights were much dimmer.
The surrounding people instinctively ignored this direction, not even casting a glance.
"Knock knock."
The man leading at the front knocked on the ticket counter's table. The next moment, the man who had been bent over writing and drawing abruptly lifted his head, scanning the few people in front with a dazed look—
"Hello, please give me the tickets."
The man extended his hand, his ashen face making him look excessively haggard.
"...Are you alright?"
After the ticket check, the few of them lifted the cloak's veil and entered one by one, with only the girl at the back of the group raising her head to look at the man, asking with a hint of concern in her voice.
"Oh, it's quite alright, little miss," the pale-faced man looked at the heavily edited letters in his hand, shook his head somewhat helplessly, tossed the letter paper into the nearby garbage pile, then groped in his pocket to find a candy, "Merry Christmas."
He flattened the crumpled candy wrapper, then reached out to hand the candy to the girl.
"But you look..."
"Astoria—" Noticing her sister hadn't followed along, Daphne came out from the tent, eyeing the simply, even shabbily dressed man with a hint of disdain, "Why aren't you coming? Hurry up—I just saw the mermaids!"
Saying this, the girl unceremoniously dragged her sister into the tent.
"Uh, Merry Christmas—"
Unable to resist her sister, the girl clutched the candy in her palm, hurriedly greeted, and then disappeared into the tent.
"Heh..."
The gray-haired man chuckled, sat back upright, and listening to the noise behind him, watched the snowflakes drifting down from the sky, letting out a deep sigh.
...
This was a wizard's circus.
Any of the animals or people performing in this tent would cause a massive upheaval in the Muggle World's scientific community if taken outside. Thus, the owner placed a Muggle-Repelling Spell around the tent, ensuring only genuine wizards could approach.
The lively interior of the tent appeared much larger than outside, with the towering ceiling rising five to six stories high. The circular exhibition halls on three to four levels resembled a shopping mall built by Muggles, and the center was the viewing area for animal performances.
"Mom and Dad have already gone down." Daphne pointed to a side staircase and spoke to her sister.
"Where are the mermaids you mentioned earlier?"
Astoria was clearly not interested in this. She stuffed the candy in her palm into her pocket, her eyes continuously scanning around.
"This way."
Daphne led the girl in another direction. They weaved through the lively crowd, stopping in front of a large aquarium. The deep green water looked somewhat murky, with a "person" having a fish tail suspended in the center, facing away from the tourists behind.
"It looks... different from the books." Astoria observed the deep green scales and frowned in confusion.
"I told you, those Muggle fairy tale books are obviously unreliable—" Daphne seemed unfazed, crossing her arms and speaking smugly, "Once you get sorted into Slytherin, you'll see schools of mermaids—I've told you..."
"Your common room can directly see the Black Lake—" Astoria sighed, "Of course, you told me five or six times last year already."
"Did I?"
"Of course..."
The girl ignored her sister, took two steps forward, and gently knocked on the seaweed-covered aquarium. Instinctively, the girl stepped back two paces—the menacing face surfaced from behind the seaweed, completely different from the image in "Andersen's Fairy Tales."
Covered with scaled green skin, savage fangs, and murky yellow eyes...
Tsk, the girl felt like she would never trust Muggle fairy tales again...
"Come on, the performance is starting—"
Watching the crowd around her begin to move in the same direction, Daphne quickly grabbed her sister, moving toward the stairs on the side.
......
"...Two tickets."
"The performance has already started, you'd better hurry..." The gray-haired man raised his head, but the next moment, instinctively frowned, "Wait... Franky? How dare you come here? And your face."
"Remus..."
Having just gotten off the Knight Bus, Mundungus rubbed his hands and deliberately lowered his voice, "I'm here to see the owner—"
"You know he wishes he could kill you."
Remus Lupin gathered the letter papers on the table—he noticed the boy behind Mundungus, "Wait, why is there an underage little wizard? Child, have you been kidnapped by him?"
William: "..."
Can I say it was actually him who I kidnapped?