Perhaps influenced by Harris, on the first weekend of the new school year, Kael decided to go to Hogsmeade with the others.
Although Kael was no stranger to the place, he had always sneaked over through the secret passage before.
But after reaching third year, he could go openly... He had already submitted his permission slip to Professor Sprout during the last Herbology class before the weekend.
Filch, the caretaker, stood in the entrance hall, checking a long list to make sure no one who wasn't supposed to go out sneaked through the gates.
But clearly, Kael and the others didn't need to worry about this and walked out confidently.
...
Unlike Ottery St Catchpole, Hogsmeade is a true wizard village, where the residents are all wizards without exception.
However, the land prices here aren't cheap... Kael had inquired, and even building a house in the most remote corner would cost twenty thousand Galleons... and that's the price now.
Because of the existence of the Hog's Head Pub, some wizards of unknown origin often appear in Hogsmeade, and these unstable factors seriously lower the quality of the place.
This has also led to a significant decline in property prices.
If you look back decades ago, before the Hog's Head Pub, forget two thousand, even fifty thousand Galleons might not have been enough to live here.
A posh area of the Magic Realm, indeed.
Although the Hog's Head Pub is a potential danger... Kael and the others didn't need to care at all.
After all, with them in Hogsmeade were Professor McGonagall and Professor Flitwick, so no one dared to cause any trouble at this time...
It's not an exaggeration to say that this is when Hogsmeade is at its most harmonious... even those wizards of unknown origin had to think twice before casually littering, considering how it might negatively impact the young wizards.
If they didn't consider it... the accompanying professors would help them.
At least outside the Hog's Head Pub, this was the case.
And as the most popular wizard village, it is naturally very interesting... Starting from the entrance to the village, you can see the shops on either side of the road hanging various signs.
The first is Zonko's Joke Shop.
This is also Fred and George's favorite shop, where they spent almost all of their pocket money.
Behind Zonko's Joke Shop is the Owl Post Office and Honeyduke's Candy Store...
"Even though we can come every day... Open Days are always the most special," Fred said with a smile.
"Yeah." George sighed, "It would be great if we could come every week."
Knowing that today was an "Open Day", they decisively took some Skiving Snackbox to make themselves vomit non-stop, successfully skipping Quidditch practice.
"The professors don't have that much time."
Cedric, counting the Galleons in his pouch, looked up and said, "It's not too bad now; don't forget last year's first Open Day was in late October."
"Yeah, those days were really tough." Fred laughed, "Kael, you're here at the right time."
"We're planning to go to Zonko's... how about you guys?"
"We'll go together then." Kael thought about it and said.
The others didn't have any objections either.
After all, it's an Open Day... there's no rush to return to school, they had plenty of time to stroll around slowly, anywhere would be the same.
The group walked into Zonko's.
Fred and George, as if returning home, greeted a bespectacled clerk behind the counter.
"Hi, Zola, got any rare stuff?"
"Of course..." The clerk adjusted the round glasses on the bridge of his nose,
"It's this... Maze Glasses, anyone who wears them will inadvertently get lost, even in the place they're most familiar with."
"Sounds good..." Fred rubbed his chin, "We could prepare a pair for Marcus, that big oaf, so he might throw the Quaffle into his own goal."
"That's a good idea." George laughed, "But the shape of these glasses is too conspicuous. Even though Marcus's brain might be closely related to a Troll, he probably wouldn't wear something like this."
"Don't worry, how could we have overlooked that..."
The clerk tapped lightly on the glasses' arms, and the original round glasses transformed into a regular square frame.
One more tap, and snake patterns coiled around the eyeglass frame, followed by lions, badgers, eagles... round frames, frameless ones, monocles...
"We designed a total of thirty-nine styles."
The clerk adjusted the glasses again, "There must be a suitable one."
"We'll take it!" Fred and George said in unison.
"How much?"
"Five Galleons and ten Sickles."
"That's quite expensive."
"It's a new product, that's the standard price." The clerk said, "But I can give you a discount."
"Ten Sickles?"
"No, it's five Galleons and nine Sickles!"
"..."
Fred and George still bought the Maze Glasses, and besides that, they replenished their fireworks stock in the store.
Unlike them, others were mostly just looking around.
Conna and Cho were whispering while pointing at a pile of biting hair clips, and Cedric stopped in front of a broomstick.
Of course, the broom was fake. If anyone sat on it, it would spray glue, sticking to the person's legs, and emit a series of loud "pfft" noises.
It was clear that Cedric was very tempted to buy it, but the twenty Galleon price made him hesitate.
Too expensive, not worth it.
By the time they left Zonko's, aside from Fred and George, only Kael had bought a box of Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Bean.
Zonko's Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Bean was definitely different from the candy store's... there wasn't a single sweet one inside, all had awful flavors, and you could hardly tell the difference from the packaging.
Kael planned to give it as a Christmas gift to some lucky person.
Afterwards, they went to Honeyduke's Candy Store, and there, their Galleons could not be saved.
The shelves were filled with all kinds of delicious, tempting candies, large chunks of buttery yellow cream almond toffee, shiny pink coconut marshmallow balls, honey-colored toffee, countless chocolates, and a big tub of normal Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Bean...
Along another wall were the "special effect" candies.
Super Blowing Bubble Gum (can fill the room with bubbles that last for days),
small, black Pepper Imps (which let you breathe fire after eating),
Mint chocolate toads that actually leap in your stomach, Exploding Bonbons that truly explode, and Sour Burst Candy that burns a hole in your tongue.
Kael also saw Dumbledore's favorite Cockroach Clusters there, placed in a jar in the corner.
Honeydukes was crowded with students everywhere, only that corner was deserted.
But then again, who in their right mind would buy that stuff!
...