Chapter 42: I heard you sell fire dragons here?

As Anne left Ollivanders Wand Shop and began wandering aimlessly again, intending to complete her tour of Diagon Alley, a crisp voice from behind interrupted her, forcing her to stop her curious gazing around.

"Hello, my name is Hermione Granger. Little girl, are you here by yourself?" Hermione's main task in Diagon Alley today was to go to Flourish and Blotts to buy the textbooks required for her second year; in addition to these necessities, some extracurricular reading materials she was interested in were also indispensable.

Of course, that was on the condition that she first went to Gringotts to exchange some Galleons. After all, she currently only had British pounds on her, and one could not use pounds directly in Diagon Alley.

As for her father, Mr. Granger, after bringing her here, he had simply left her to wander alone, calling it "training Hermione's independence," though in reality, he just wanted an opportunity to slack off.

On her way to Gringotts, Hermione had spotted this curious little girl standing in the middle of the street looking around. She had originally thought the girl was someone who had accidentally lost her parents, as she looked several years younger than Hermione herself.

Since that was the case, the kind-hearted Miss Granger naturally felt compelled to volunteer her help. Thus, she stepped forward to greet the little girl to see if she could be of any assistance.

"Eh? Were you just talking to me? Ah, hello to you too! My name is Anne, Anne Hatta. Nice to meet you!" Seeing someone greet her, Anne was not shy; once she regained her senses, she spoke generously.

"It's nice to meet you too. By the way, Anne, why are you here alone? Did you get separated from your parents? Do you need help?" Hermione looked around but found no sign of Anne's parents, so she began to inquire.

"No, not at all! I actually came here by myself." Parents or not, Anne actually wanted to find them, but she couldn't get back. That useless little thing, the Space Gem, would likely take a long time to finish recharging.

"All by yourself?!" Hermione was quite surprised this time.

How could such a small girl dare to come to Diagon Alley alone? And without any parental supervision? Her parents were truly irresponsible! Just like Hermione's father, Mr. Granger, who had also abandoned her to fend for herself—what irresponsible parents, how terrible!

"Hey! Wait for me, Anne!" Seeing Anne turn and head toward the pet shop after only a few words, and knowing that Anne had snuck into Diagon Alley alone, Hermione's maternal instincts kicked in. She decided to spend some time with her and hurried to catch up.

"Anne, are you... looking to buy a pet you like?" Entering the pet shop and seeing Anne staring incessantly at the various animals, Hermione thought the little girl wanted to buy a pet to play with. Speaking of pets, Hermione didn't have one herself right now. Perhaps it was time to pick one out for herself?

"Welcome to the Magical Creatures Pet Shop! Two beautiful young ladies, how may I serve you?" Seeing customers arrive, the shop owner hurried forward to attend to them enthusiastically. "We have all kinds of pets here; we have everything you could possibly want! Whatever you desire, just say the word!"

"Oh? Really?" Hearing the owner say she had any pet, Anne turned her head, no longer looking around. As for pets, although she already had the best Tibbles, she wanted another one to play with. "So, do you have anything like a dragon?"

"Ah? Dra—dragons?! I... I am very sorry, dear customers, but dragons are prohibited from being bought or sold by the Ministry of Magic... We truly do not have any, absolutely none!" The shop owner paused, swallowed hard, and secretly wiped the cold sweat from her forehead.

Her eyes began to wander restlessly as she wondered privately: Had the two small dragons she had smuggled recently been discovered and reported? That shouldn't be possible... She was very discreet in her dealings and maintained single-line contact with her buyers. How could she have been found out? Could these two children be Aurors in disguise using Polyjuice Potion? It was over, it was all over! She shouldn't have been so greedy for that bit of money...

"Um... why don't you try buying an owl instead? Look, they are not only beautiful, but very intelligent! They can deliver mail to you, how convenient? These are all... only 3 Galleons each! Why not pick one?" Having already prepared for the worst, the shop owner continued to introduce her goods with forced composure despite her suspicion. She knew that in times like this, one must not lose their footing.

"I don't want one!"

Anne looked at the various owls hanging in cages and curled her lip in disdain.

"They poop everywhere, they smell terrible, and they look stupid and clumsy. I don't want those feathered beasts!"

"That..."

Hearing Anne call the owls stupid and clumsy, the shop owner was about to say something, but the owls in the shop immediately went wild, flapping and fluttering in their cages.

It seemed they had understood Anne's words and wanted to break free to peck at her. They were magical pets, after all; they possessed intelligence! This human brat actually dared to call them stupid, clumsy, and smelly? If they were let out, they would definitely peck her head until it was covered in bumps!

"Then, how about these cats, ladies? They are considerate and well-behaved! Each... each is only 2 Galleons and 10 Sickles! If you each buy one, I can even waive those twenty Sickles for you." After the shop owner exerted great effort to calm the owls, she turned her attention to the cats.

"This cat looks quite nice!" Hermione took an interest in a large ginger cat.

Its fur was a brilliant gold, and it had a flat face, as if it had once charged headfirst into a wall and been crushed, along with a fat, bushy tail that stood out like a bottle brush.

Hermione felt she had taken a liking to this cat at first sight because, unlike other cats, it sat there quietly, possessing a sense of lonely, weathered melancholy. Looking so pitiful, Hermione's compassion flared up again. She immediately decided to set aside two months' worth of pocket money to buy it!

"I don't want one! Cats shed hair! And they have lice, they're filthy!" Anne certainly wouldn't want such a thing!

Wait? Just as Anne finished speaking, she noticed that among the group of cats, one black cat actually dared to glare at her? It looked quite defiant!

Anne immediately glared back! Her eyes said: *What are you looking at? Keep looking and I'll buy you and eat you!* Then, the black cat seemed to sense Anne's malice and immediately cowered, its ears drooping as it turned its head away.

"Fine, in that case, how about a toad? Only 1 Galleon!" The shop owner felt a bit discouraged, seemingly having little hope for the toads as well. Aside from the older girl who seemed to want a cat, this little one was far too difficult to please.

"How disgusting! I really want to stomp on it!" Looking at the toad sitting on the table, covered in warts and looking slimy, Anne hurriedly took two steps back. How could she buy such a revolting thing?

"Don't you have anything decent here?" Anne looked around; there truly seemed to be nothing worth buying. As for the rats over there, don't even get her started! How could anyone keep a rat as a pet? The thought of someone holding a rat all day as a pet made Anne shudder; the person doing that must be a pervert!

"Sigh... it seems there really isn't anything else." The shop owner helplessly took off the reading glasses from the bridge of her nose and began to wipe them, feeling utterly dejected.

She had introduced all the mainstream pets in her shop, yet the girls hadn't taken a liking to any of them. Anything she hadn't introduced would likely be even less appealing to them. She even became somewhat certain of her suspicion: were these two little masters truly undercover investigators? Had they actually received a report? Merlin's pants! She had only done two smuggling jobs in total; how could she have been caught so quickly?

"Don't you have any special pets? Like big ones, such as dragons?" Anne asked again, unwilling to give up. If you don't even have a single dragon, how dare you open a magical pet shop?

"Dragons?! Our shop does not engage in such illegal business! No dragons, there are no dragons, absolutely none!" The shop owner was nearly scared to death again! This little girl was actually thinking about dragons? As expected, she must be undercover to gather evidence! It had to be! Just as she was about to drive them away, she suddenly remembered she had one good item left, and crucially, it was not illegal!

"Wait, I have one more pet that you might be interested in. Please wait a moment, I'll be right back!" Having said that, she rushed to the back of the shop, seemingly rummaging for something.

At this moment, the shop owner didn't want to worry about the girls' true intentions. If they were indeed undercover, driving them away might make them think she was guilty and hiding something, which would only lead to more trouble later! In that case, she would simply bring out her shop's treasure and use a high price to scare them away.

After a short while, the shop owner brought out a box. This immediately deflated Anne, who had been somewhat expectant. Anything that could fit in such a small box was bound to be something tiny, right? She wouldn't like small things; at the very least, they had to be as tall, mighty, and domineering as Tibbles! Something like a dragon would have been great—able to fly, breathe fire, and looking fierce and massive—it was just a pity this pet shop didn't sell them!

"Take a look. Do you know what this is? I'll tell you, this is a phoenix egg! Impressive, isn't it?" The shop owner carefully opened the box and presented it to the two girls like a treasure. If it weren't to drive away these suspected Aurors as soon as possible, she wouldn't have easily brought out her shop's prize.

"It is said that if you wrap it in phoenix fire, it can hatch very quickly. Magical, isn't it?" Now, surely they couldn't say she had nothing decent! This thing was far rarer than a dragon. She had stolen it years ago from an unknown nest in a silk cotton tree; it was only after she had someone help identify it that she learned it was a rare phoenix egg.

"Wow! A phoenix egg? Is it real?" Hermione naturally knew of the legendary phoenix, and she had even seen one a few times—it was their Headmaster Dumbledore's pet, Fawkes! But this was her first time seeing a phoenix egg; it was indeed incredibly rare!

"A phoenix egg?" Anne focused her gaze on the fiery red egg, using her magic to peer inside for a moment. After sensing the life energy carrying a scorching magical aura within, she nodded, feeling that the shop owner was likely not deceiving her. This did indeed look like a good thing!

"Fine! How much?" Since there were no dragons here anyway, Anne decided to buy the egg for now; she couldn't have come all this way for nothing.

"Ah? This... are you sure you want to buy it?" The shop owner looked at Anne's clothing and mannerisms again. Had she misjudged just now? Were they not agents sent by the Aurors?

The shop owner pondered for a moment, secretly calculating the potential purchasing power of this little girl's family. Since it had come to this, as long as they were willing to pay, she planned to get rid of the egg as soon as possible! Today's scare had unsettled her greatly, and she desperately needed some gold to soothe her wounded soul.

"Five thousand Galleons! Do you want it?" The shop owner didn't think Anne could produce such a sum, but perhaps her family wouldn't be able to resist the little girl's tantrums and would eventually bite the bullet and buy it?

After all, she had been holding onto this egg for a long time. She didn't even know if the egg had gone bad from being kept for so long. Selling it now was the best option! Because such a thing was not only expensive but also not as easy to sell as a dragon... *Ahem*, dragons, she shouldn't think about dragons anymore; her shop didn't sell them, and there was absolutely no smuggling going on!

"Five thousand Galleons?! That's too expensive!" Hermione was shocked.

How could she dare to name such an absurd price? Five thousand Galleons could buy over a thousand owls! Even if this truly were a living phoenix, it shouldn't be worth that much! Hermione felt she absolutely could not accept this price! Moreover, it was just a phoenix egg, not a real phoenix! Who knew what was actually inside? For all she knew, what hatched might just be a cuckoo or a peacock!

"Here!"

To the surprise of both Hermione and the shop owner, Anne reached into her spatial pocket without hesitation and pulled out a large bag of gold coins. With a "thud," she dropped it onto the table.

Anne had just roughly grabbed a handful from her pocket; it should be enough for five thousand, right? She had plenty of these things; her spatial pocket was piled up like a small mountain! These were all collectibles from that old dragon in the Voodoo Lands; she wouldn't feel any heartache spending them!

Folded expanding space? The shop owner wasn't particularly surprised by Anne pulling gold coins from her pocket; she only felt a slight sense of awe that children from wealthy families were indeed different, casually carrying so much money when they went out. However, she froze when she opened the bag.

"These don't seem to be Galleons?" The shop owner picked up a few coins to inspect them; indeed, they were not Galleons!

"What Galleons? These are gold coins, is there a difference?" Anne didn't know what a Galleon was. Previously at the Leaky Cauldron, she had used these gold coins to buy food, and no one had said she couldn't use them!

"I'm sorry, child, I'm afraid you'll have to go to Gringotts to exchange them first."

The pet shop owner's character wasn't as bottomless as Old Tom's. Although these gold coins were heavier than Galleons, she still suggested it to Anne. Of course, smuggling dragons had nothing to do with character; it was just a means of making a living. Recently, her shop's cash flow had been tight, and smuggling was a matter of necessity.

"Anne, I was originally going to Gringotts too. Why don't we go together!" Hermione finally remembered that she also needed to exchange her pounds; she could buy that large-faced cat she liked on the way back.

"Alright then." Anne gave a somewhat reluctant glance at the phoenix egg in the box.

"Don't worry, children! I will definitely save it for you, I promise!" Seeing Anne's concern, the shop owner quickly offered a smiling guarantee.

It looked like she was definitely going to make a huge deal today! Perhaps she could take a few days off to rest afterward? And perhaps avoid some trouble while she was at it? Once this deal was finalized, perhaps she would never lack funds again and would never have to engage in the dangerous business of smuggling dragons!

(End of Chapter)