Professor of Gemology at Hogwarts

Gray apparated to Diagon Alley. It was a dark street again at night. The drugstore was located on the north side of Diagon Alley. As soon as he pushed the door open a crack, the pungent smell of rotten eggs and rotten cabbage leaves hit his face. Come on, this is the store he dislikes going to the most, ever since he first bought school supplies when he first entered school.

"Good evening, sir, do you need anything?" The salesperson behind the counter is a thin young man, wearing a pair of glasses and with messy hair.

"Salamander blood, five small parts each of unicorn tail hair, two mouse spleens, four parts African tree snake skin and bicorn horn."

Gray was so overwhelmed by the smell that he had to force himself to speak coherently.

The salesperson lowered his head, deftly took out a few pieces of brown paper and placed them on the counter, then turned around to get some medicine from the jar.

Gray looked around. The dim store was filled with jars, and there was some sticky liquid on the floor. It looked like it had been deposited for a long time. This should have been dripped onto the floor when taking medicine. However, not only did the pharmacy not intend to clean it up, Instead, the sticky floor is regarded as a kind of store culture, telling every customer who steps on it: Our store has a good business and a complete range of medicines.

Gray was the only customer in the store. He looked at the nerdy salesperson in front of him, and an idea suddenly came to his mind. The black shops he had seen in movies before were all legal and unremarkable on the surface, but they were running something secretly. To earn extra money through shady activities, could this drugstore in front of you do the same?

"Also...do you have...uh...some kind of snake eggs here?"

"No, sir." The salesperson glanced at Gray warily and continued to weigh the medicinal materials, "We don't sell this stuff here..."

Well, there is still a slight difference between reality and movies.

Gray turned his head to the side and stopped talking to the salesperson. He observed the jars of herbs, hay roots, er styles and varieties displayed in the cabinet on the wall, waiting for the salesperson to complete the weighing and settlement.

At this time, the bell on the door of the pharmacy rang, and another customer came in. The man was wearing a black robe and had shoulder-length, greasy black hair...

Isn't this Snape?

"Good evening, Professor Snape," Gray said.

"Good evening, what a coincidence." Snape responded shortly.

"Mr. Snape," the salesperson nodded politely, "the medicinal materials you ordered have arrived and are being packaged and mailed to you."

"No, I happened to be passing by here and took it away directly," Snape said.

"Please wait a moment while I pack this customer's medicinal materials." The salesperson was holding a measuring cup. A glass jar on the shelf was opened, and a string of liquid things flew out from it and entered the measuring cup.

Snape glanced at the salamander blood in the measuring cup.

"What do you do with salamander blood?" he asked suddenly.

"Make some enhancers," Gray said in a normal tone. "Sometimes stones also need to have enhancers to function better."

"This medicine should be available for purchase directly, right?"

"Today's medicines are too expensive. You can save a lot of money by brewing them yourself."

Snape didn't respond, but turned his attention to a package on the counter.Gray looked along and saw that it was a packaged mouse spleen. Its blood-stained juice seeped out from the inside and wetted the wrapping kraft paper.

The salesperson behind the counter skillfully waved his wand, and unicorn tail hairs, African tree snake skins, and bicorn horns flew out from the bottles and jars on the shelves, neatly packed into four portions.

When Snape saw the skin of the African tree snake, he glanced at Gray suspiciously.

Gray pretended not to see anything, picked up the settled medicinal materials, said goodbye to Snape, and walked out of the pharmacy with the package.

There were almost no people on the street. Gray glanced at Knockturn Alley. Snape might come out of the store at any time. If he went in to inquire about black market medicinal materials at this time, he would not be able to tell if he saw him.

He returned home directly and decided to wait for news from Claire. On the other hand, he was still thinking about how to get some polyjuice potion from others. After all, he was trading on the black market, so it was best to hide his true identity. .

"Why are you back so late today?" Sante stood at the door of the kitchen. "Did you go to chat with your friends? Do you want a sandwich?"

"It would be better if I had another cup of coffee."

"Just in time, I'm making coffee." Sante said and went into the kitchen again.

As soon as Gray stretched out his hand, Lulu, who was standing on the handrail of the stairs combing his hair, flew over and took the package in his hand into his mouth.

"Go, Lulu, and send it to Mr. Mason." Gray said, "But you should be very tired from using your mouth..."

He carefully tied the packages to Lu Lu's legs.

Lulu bit his finger gently, then spread out its huge wings, Gray opened the window, and it flew out lightly.

Sant was cutting a sandwich when Gray approached the kitchen.

"Did you just say Mr. Mason?"

"Yes." Gray said, "Actually, you should know him, right?"

"No, I don't know him, but your mother knows him. Well, your mother often mentioned Mr. Mason to me before. They are both teachers and friends, but I have never seen him in person." Sante said calmly. Cut the sandwiches and put them on the plate, "But since the accident, I haven't heard anything about it. I thought you didn't know this person."

"Then what did my mother say to you before? About Mr. Mason." Gray leaned on the bar.

"It's nothing more than some research progress. There was a new discovery yesterday, it went smoothly today, and it was blocked tomorrow. That's it. I don't remember the details." Sante picked up the plate. "I never wonder about those things, after all. This is not in my field of study and there is nothing I can do.”

He meant he was a Muggle, which was putting it mildly.

Gray saw the familiar expression on his face again, a feeling of inferiority that was curious about something but restrained his expectations.Every time he saw this expression, Gray knew that he didn't want to talk about this anymore.

Throughout dinner they talked about ordinary things, nothing more about his mother and Mason.

At night, Gray was in his bedroom. The whole room was filled with the smell of soap and aftershave. He took a bath and tried to calm down and think clearly about the next plan. There were too many things to do later, little one. Sirius escaped from prison, Peter Pettigrew escaped, Voldemort was resurrected... We haven't thought of a way to collect the remaining Horcruxes, but now a group of French gangs have arrived, and it's getting more and more chaotic.

Sirius needs to turn over, but if Peter Pettigrew is not released, Voldemort will continue to wander in Albania. He cannot be resurrected with Harry's blood, so he cannot die completely.Even if he is finally resurrected after a long, long time, it will disrupt the plot plan, and there will be too many uncertain factors later. Isn't there a way to get the best of both worlds?

Looking at the situation in front of us, the French gang is a potential threat. They have already targeted Claire and may take action at any time. Now that the enemy is in the dark and he is in the open, the situation is very unfavorable.

Gray felt that Claire's friend was very smart. After learning that the attackers were targeting Claire, she decisively contacted two places - the Ministry of Magic and newspaper reporters.

Find the Ministry of Magic for help in investigating the case, and then publish it in the newspapers to let everyone know that the Ministry of Magic is investigating.In this way, even if the Ministry of Magic doesn't care, at least they will take some measures that everyone can see: sending manpower to patrol and strengthen security.

And this just restrained the French people and made their next move difficult.

Now they have to take advantage of this quiet time to find all the raw materials.

I don’t know what’s going on with Claire.

Gray looked out the window. At this moment, he wished that the owl Leah would fly in with a letter and tell him that everything was solved and the Ministry of Magic sent out Aurors to capture the French people.

It was like a hallucination coming true. He really saw a dark shadow gradually flying towards his window in the sky dimly illuminated by street lights outside the window.

Claire's owl Leah brings a letter:

"Dear Gray:

The situation is not good.

Rufus Scrimgeour decided to investigate the French gang, but because the group left no clues, the investigation was very difficult and it could be said that there was no progress.

Also, when I was talking to Rufus Scrimgeour, I ran into Minister Fudge, who said that this was a matter for the French Ministry of Magic and that the Department of Magical Law Enforcement should not get involved.Perhaps the Department of Magical Law Enforcement will be restricted to a certain extent by Cornelius Fudge in terms of operations.

Regarding the hunter wizard, I have contacted a person who seems more reliable and ordered the hair of the invisible beast and the horn powder of the horned beast from him, but the five-legged monsters said that hunters would never provoke that kind of thing. Things, that's a tricky thing, no one wants to gouge out their eyes.As for purslane, I have it in my greenhouse, and I thought you should have found the rest, so I didn’t go to the drugstore.

There are also rune snake eggs. I will find a way to contact the merchant, but don't think too easily. There is a task waiting for you later.

Finally, pay attention to safety.

loyal

Claire”

Gray put the letter away and leaned against the window sill. The evening breeze blowing in from the window behind him made his mind relax a little.

The attitude of the Ministry of Magic is not surprising. Rufus Scrimgeour spends most of his energy dealing with dark wizards. He will never let anyone slip through the net. Claire came to him to explain the situation of the French gang. It was indeed a statement that he wanted to find out those French people.

But the problem lies with Cornelius Fudge. The French Gang was basically active in France before, and it should be under the control of the French Ministry of Magic. Now even though they have moved to the UK, they have not done anything bad. They are just a street gang. Cornelius Fudge didn't care at all about being attacked.

Our place is very safe and stable. The French Gang is a matter of the French Ministry of Magic. Britain is very safe, and he can't see any reason why the French Gang would come to the UK to cause trouble - not to mention that he has never heard of the French Gang.Someone attacked on the street?It's enough to strengthen manned patrols. Everyone can see the measures taken by the Ministry of Magic for safety. This is a very safe era. This is what Fudge wants.