days at Hogwarts

Chapter 3 The weird old man and two books

It was another winter and Loren Morgan was 10 years old.

Heavy snow covered the hillside, the branches, and the thatch on the house, all in a vast expanse of whiteness.

Pete stopped herding sheep, and everyone had stockpiled grain for the winter and pastures for the sheep. Residents at the foot of the mountain stayed at home and made some handmade products to exchange for money in the city, and bought some daily necessities by the way.

When the sun came out, Mr. Bates refused to let Loren go up the hill, saying it would hurt his eyes.When Loren is free, he will catch some animals in the woods and search for some plants that can be eaten in winter, but more often he has to go to school.

Mr. Bates prepared some old textbooks and a dictionary in advance. Loren read them in his spare time. He helped the teacher and people in the church to copy some documents and letters, and quickly mastered these contents. Mr. Bates said he would be a great teacher. accomplished people.

The school was in a small town down the mountain. Every morning, Mr. Bates took Loren down on a sled, and at night he carried him back on his back. The days passed like this.

On Christmas Eve, a wandering band came to the town, and Loren made an appointment with Pete to watch their performance.

Red cloth strips were hung on the trees on both sides of the road, small lanterns were hung, and festive music was played in the shops.The restaurants and bars were packed with people, and the warm yellow lights made people feel warm.

Pete and Loren wore baggy sweaters and sheepskin coats, and each a gray and white-striped scarf.

Loren put his hands in his pockets and watched Pete swallow the roasted sweet potatoes bought on the street.

"This band is really weird. It's called the Norn Three Goddesses, but it turned out to be all male musicians." Loren thought for a while. There should be no 80 genders in Britain in the 23s.

"Why do you care about these? It's fine if you can have fun." Pete didn't care at all.

"The show will take a while. There is a small market over there. Do you want to go shopping?" Loren was very interested, and he saved some pocket money himself.

"Go shopping, I'd rather go and sit here than blow the cold wind." Pete shook his head.

Loren goes to the market and asks Pete to hold him a spot.The small market is actually some small vendors who set up their stalls in the alleys behind the performance hall, and sell some small things by relying on the rare bustling time in the town.

Wool socks, gloves, Easter eggs, Russian matryoshka small toys, there are all weird and weird things, and Loren even saw the Chinese Nine Links.But he just walked around and had a look, he didn't want to buy anything, he was just curious.

When approaching the intersection, Loren saw a thin white-haired old man in a neat suit, sitting there with a cup of steaming coffee slowly drinking.

In front of the old man was a blanket of unknown animal fur, on which were two large books.Pedestrians passing by and small vendors who set up stalls seemed to be unable to see this person. Loren felt a little curious, so he walked up.

"Hello, sir. Can I read these two books?" Loren greeted.

Hearing the immature voice, the old man raised his head, as if he was a little surprised by the question of the child in front of him.

Loren looked at the sunken eyes of the old man. It was difficult for him to describe the color of the eyes in front of him. He only felt that the ancient and mysterious meaning almost leaked through the eyes.

"Of course, this is for sale." The old man showed a free and easy smile.

Loren squatted down and reached out to flip through the two books. One was an English book called "A General Explanation of Pictographic Symbols".It is thicker than a dictionary, looks like it was hand-written, the handwriting is very neat, and the material is a bit like parchment.

The other one didn't have a name. When Loren touched this book, his mind suddenly went into a trance. When he opened the title page, the moment his eyes touched it, he felt as if he was about to be sucked into the book.This feeling flashed and disappeared in an instant, as if it was just an illusion.

It was written on the title page that it was written by a man named Abraham, and Loren couldn't understand the text behind it.

There are some illustrations in the back, the material feels like soft bark, very thin, there are not many pages, and they are connected together with copper rings.

The two books seem to be some kind of occult content.

"How much?" Loren planned to buy it for entertainment.

"Oh, are you really going to buy it?" The old man in front of him looked very happy.

"Of course, if the price is right." Loren was afraid that the other party would take the opportunity to raise the price.

"With all due respect, I would like to ask if you are engaged in some kind of copying work." The old man was very interested, and seemed to care more about the person in front of him than about selling books.

Loren didn't quite understand what he meant, but he answered truthfully: "Yes, I will help the teacher and the people in the church to copy some documents and letters."

"Hahaha, yes! It's really interesting." The old man laughed out loud.

When he got the book, he was very happy.As a result, the text on the back of the title page was translated, and it said "except for the high priest and the book copyists, others who read this book will be viciously cursed."

Before sending out the "Book of Abraham", he asked Loren a lot about whether he was engaged in some kind of copying work, and the result was as he expected.

The old man looked at the child in front of him, as if seeing himself hundreds of years ago.

Seeing that Loren looked a little frightened, he added: "Sorry, I remembered something from a long time ago."

The old man did not continue, but reached out to wrap the two books in a blanket and handed them to Loren.

"Then I'll charge you 13 pounds." The old man said casually.

Loren's heart moved. He only had 13 pounds on him.I don't know if it's a coincidence or another reason, this old man is weird.

He handed the money to the old man and accepted the book.

The old man collected the money, stood up and adjusted his clothes, then turned and walked away, "That's it, we will see you again, Loren."

This little guy already has magic fluctuations on his body. The Book of Access must know his name, and they will see each other again.

Loren nodded awkwardly. On the way to the performance hall, he kept wondering where the old guy had put the cup of coffee and the small bench. He was really a magician.

He decided to read these two books as stories, and didn't look up any information if he didn't understand.

TV dramas are like this, a mysterious person gives you a mysterious thing, the more you check, the more you fall into the trap designed by them.This kind of person is no better!

Entering the performance hall, the performance has already begun.Loren looked around and found Pete in the front row on the right side of the stage.

Pete saw him too, stood up, waved, and called out, "Hey! Loren! Here! This band is really interesting."

After the two greeted each other, Loren sat next to Pete and watched the performance.

Almost all male musicians with long hair on the stage are not outrageous rock hip-hop as Loren thinks.There are songs in various styles, and it is a performance by a serious band.

The musicians on stage drove the atmosphere, and the audience clapped, screamed and laughed along with them.Such moments of joy are rare in small towns.

People around Loren commented that most of the songs performed were unfamiliar, but their styles were very special.

"This band is amazing!"

"After the tour, they will definitely release their own record!"

"They will definitely be popular!"

A group of young people were yelling like this.

Loren's restless heart calmed down with the song and dance.

This winter, this Christmas, he began to miss Grandpa Bates' cheese, Joyce's sister's arms, and the biscuits that Mr. Bumble gave him that day...

What does the biscuit smell like? Loren felt that the time passed so fast that he couldn't even remember what Mr. Bumble looked like...