Hogwarts in the shadows

Professor McGonagall looked at Hephis's humble residence, a hint of doubt flashing in her eyes.

Given Hephis's current accommodation conditions, how could he have the money if it weren't for the inheritance from Gringotts and the conditions for accepting subsidies?

But now doesn't seem like a good time to ask, maybe it's the legacy left by his late father.

Hephis did not take out all the things he had robbed. He only took some of the items that had been divided last night and put them into a bag.

He planned to go back to Diagon Alley alone to exchange the remaining items.

This time he just wanted to take advantage of Professor McGonagall's presence to go through the process.

After getting their things, Hephis and Professor McGonagall took a taxi to their destination, the Leaky Cauldron.

This...is really not magical at all.

As soon as Hefes got off the car, he saw a shabby little bar squeezed out between two stores.

Professor McGonagall led him straight into the room, and the oncoming breath made Hephis frown.

The smell was really unpleasant and reminded him of the days when he rummaged through trash cans.

But Professor McGonagall was used to it. There were more than a dozen stained and broken tables in the room.

The wizards, dressed in various styles and with different attires, greeted Professor McGonagall and continued drinking and chatting.

After saying hello to Tom, the boss with a worrying hairline, Professor McGonagall walked out of the bar with Heffers.

We entered a small courtyard surrounded by a wall, which was actually a dead end with a trash can.

"Hephis, remember, if you want to get to Diagon Alley through the Leaky Cauldron, all you have to do is count three tiles up and two tiles to the right on the trash can and tap it three times with your wand, like this."

As Professor McGonagall moved, the brick she touched began to vibrate, and the middle part was wriggling violently.

A small hole appeared—it grew larger—and seconds later an arch lay before them.

The arch leads to a cobbled street that winds its way forward.

"Wow!" Hephis cooperated by making a shocked expression, which made Professor McGonagall very satisfied.

That's right, this is how a child should behave! Then he led the way to Gringotts.

Hephis, who was walking behind, quietly moved the trash can with his foot when passing by it, then quickly retracted his foot and caught up.

He wanted to try and see if the wizards would not be able to find Diagon Alley if they left the trash can.

Gringotts——

As they entered, the goblin bowed to them.

"Those are goblins, Gringotts guards," Professor McGonagall explained softly as they passed by.

These goblins are so ugly.

The second silver door had some words engraved on it to warn the greedy.

Hephis sneered. If someone really wanted to rob, would he care about these warnings?

After passing through the door, we entered a large marble hall where about a hundred goblins sat behind a long counter.

Some use a scale to weigh coins, and some use a magnifying glass to examine gems.

"Hello, this year's freshmen need to exchange Galleons." Professor McGonagall walked up to a goblin who had nothing to do and said.

"Hello, Professor McGonagall, another little Muggle wizard. Well, how much do you need to exchange this time?" The goblin was obviously a little impatient.

"Can you exchange as much as you want? Then give me a small goal - 100 million."

Hephis interrupted directly, looking coldly at the long-nosed goblin who looked like a moldy potato.

"Impossible! Not that many. Each Muggle-born wizard can only exchange 100 Galleons at most." The goblin screamed sharply, "Wizards don't need so much useless Muggle currency."

Professor McGonagall simply glanced at Hephis without saying anything.

She quietly took a step back to make room for him.

"Since those notes are not accepted, what about these? If these are not accepted either, then I really have to start to suspect that Gringotts is deliberately targeting the new students at Hogwarts."

Hephis walked forward without hesitation and threw the small bag he was carrying on the counter.

The jewellery inside the bag, sparkling with brilliant light, fell out, including two thumb-sized bright red rubies.

There was disdain in the goblin's eyes at first, but he soon picked up the two rubies, with a hint of shock in his eyes.

After some appraisal, these jewelry and gems were finally exchanged for 6,000 Galleons.

The two rubies are particularly precious and have magical powers and can be used as alchemical materials.

Its value far exceeds those ladies' jewelry, which only cost one thousand Galleons in total.

If Hephis hadn't been pretending, even with tears in his eyes, he really didn't want to sell those diamond-studded jewelry.

These pieces of jewelry were three fine pieces that he had carefully selected from his inventory last night.

According to the exchange rate between pounds and galleons, they were only sold for five thousand pounds, which was an insult to his intelligence.

However, seeing that Professor McGonagall looked as if everything was normal, Hephis could only swallow his words and reluctantly agreed to the deal.

Perhaps because the two gems could make the goblin a fortune, he also gave Hephis an extra wallet cast with a space-stretching spell.

There was a suitcase-sized space inside, just enough to hold the 500 Galleons (and the 100 Galleons that were exchanged for pounds).

The goblin was very eager to promote the idea of ​​Hephaest opening an account at Gringotts.

However, Hephes refused without hesitation.

The goblin still refused to give up and continued chattering.

Until Professor McGonagall couldn't bear it anymore and showed the key in her hand.

It was revealed that Hephis already had an account at Gringotts, which made the goblin let him go.

The two finally left Gringotts successfully.

"Hephis, I know it may be inappropriate to bring up this topic now. But this is your family's key to Gringotts. It is not just the property left by your mother. I think it should be kept by you."

Professor McGonagall said, taking out the golden key again.

"Family? Professor McGonagall, what's the name of my mother's family? Is there no one else? I need to inherit it." Hephis did not refuse. He took the key. Why not take the free money?

In addition, Hephis knew that even the exchange of precious metals had an upper limit.

And you must be a freshman, and the maximum amount you can earn is only 1000 Galleons per year.

In other words, he can no longer redeem it this year.

"Brian, this is an ancient family that has been passed down in the wizarding world for hundreds of years. You have many relatives, but you are the only legal heir to the Brian family."

Professor McGonagall was very happy to see Heffie accept the key and explained it in more detail.

"The deed to your family's ancestral home is also in the vault. If you want to take a look, I can go with you. If you want to make any changes to your property, I can accompany you to the Ministry of Magic to handle the formalities. You only need to drop a drop of blood on the inheritance tree."

"Thank you, Professor McGonagall. I don't want to accept this just yet. I'll ask for your help once I figure it out."

Hephis looked at Professor McGonagall, his eyes full of gratitude.

This was the second person he met in the world who showed kindness to him.

"Okay, you can come to me anytime. Now, let's continue shopping!" Professor McGonagall showed a warm smile on her face.

-

Not long after, another wizard wanted to enter Diagon Alley, but couldn't find the brick.

They could only call Old Tom and a group of wizards, and they surrounded the wall and tried various ways to break the spell.

Make sure the wall isn't sealed with a spell.

In the end, the wizards had to try each brick one by one before they found the brick leading to Diagon Alley.