Chapter 3: Diagon Alley and Gringotts.
Diagon Alley, this long, winding cobblestone street is filled with the most alluring wizarding shops in the world.
How noisy, bustling and vibrant!
Draco used to scoff at such noisy environments, and even today, he still frowned at the sight of crowded crowds.
To a Malfoy, noise meant a lack of order, neither elegance nor decorum.
However, having experienced the period of high-pressure rule of the Dark Lord in his memory, he learned to appreciate and cherish this long-lost prosperity.
Groups of black-robed wizards, with silly, happy smiles on their faces, walked noisily on the streets. Occasionally, a stream of people walked into the various shops.
Those underage wizards didn't even need to look up to see the shop signs. Through the spotless windows, they could see a wide variety of magical items: brooms, robes, telescopes, silverware, medicines, potion ingredients, spell books, quills, parchment, medicine bottles, pets, lunar globes...
Draco quietly watched the bustling scene of people coming and going, and a sense of unreality suddenly hit him. Diagon Alley in his dreams was not like this.
He clearly remembered the desolate and bleak appearance of the place. The scene was so vivid and clear, as if it happened yesterday:
Large notices posted by the Ministry of Magic covered the glitzy shop windows, showing pictures of wanted Death Eaters, usually laughing maniacally, with distorted faces that horrified all the wizards who saw them - his mad aunt Bellatrix had been one of them.
And the streets, which were once neat, clean and orderly, became filthy because of the chaos and pollution caused by the Death Eaters. The shops were also washed away by the repeated attacks of the mob and were in tatters. Even the Florin Fosco's ice cream shop, which he loved to go to as a child, was closed - also done by the Death Eaters.
For some reason, the Dark Lord in his previous life didn't even let go of a peaceful ice cream shop owner.
Fusco was kind to all the little wizards who liked his ice cream, no matter what their backgrounds were: Muggle-borns, pure-bloods, even Death Eaters.
Even when Lucius was imprisoned in Azkaban, when Draco's life hit rock bottom, Fusco would hand him ice cream with a smile instead of spitting at him like other shopkeepers.
Before his death, Fosco appeared in the dungeons of Malfoy Manor, where he had been tortured by the Cruciatus Curse and was insane.
With a complex feeling of reciprocity, Draco once secretly sent him food. At that time, he vaguely heard Fusco muttering fragmented words such as "The Elder Wand... Ravenclaw's Diadem..."
That's something to ponder, Draco thought.
The Dark Lord is looking for the Elder Wand? What is that?
The Dark Lord was never willing to waste time on useless people; he would not hesitate to use the Killing Curse immediately. The Dark Lord would not torture someone for no reason unless that person knew information that was very important to him.
Most wizards only knew Florin Forsco from the ice cream shop he ran. Only a few pure-blood wizard families might remember that the owner of the ice cream shop was a descendant of Dexter Forsco, a former headmaster of Hogwarts.
That being said, it's not impossible that he knows some exclusive little secrets.
Obviously, the Dark Lord cares a lot about what Fosco mentioned, and this thing does not just exist in the story, but is real.
This was a breakthrough. He recalled how the Dark Lord frequently changed wands in his later years. After his own wand was broken in the battle with Potter, he even took away the wand of destiny that his father, Lucius, cherished as his life.
Sadly, however, the wand was only used once by the Dark Lord before it was ruthlessly destroyed. Draco remembered that it was damaged during the Dark Lord's battle with Potter.
The Dark Lord called Lucius's shattered wand "a supreme honor, a great sacrifice"; but Draco thought this was pure bluffing and the sacrifice was meaningless.
Although Lucius never commented on this to his son, Draco had seen his father's expression pause as he handed in his wand. He had hesitated.
After learning that the wand was damaged, Lucius had a blank expression on his face, but Draco saw him tighten his grip on the snake-head cane with an empty core. He felt distressed.
But the Dark Lord didn't feel bad. He was anxious to find a new wand.
Later, the wand of the deceased Dumbledore appeared in the hands of the Dark Lord. Draco still remembered the smug smile on the Dark Lord's face after he got the wand.
It seemed necessary to establish some familiarity with the smiling Fusco, hoping to extract some information from him. Draco, holding his mother's hand, hurried past the ice cream shop, a gleam in his eyes.
The Malfoy family was walking along the winding cobblestone path, standing out among the many wizards in simple clothes.
The whole family was elegant and noble, and their gait was different from that of ordinary people. They all exuded a sense of confidence, arrogance, and self-centeredness. In addition, the sun was so bright today, and their platinum blond hair was so eye-catching, it was hard not to notice them.
"Attracting attention" means that you should always remain dignified and walk with your eyes straight ahead, rather than looking left and right.
For example, at this moment, when Draco heard several boys by the window saying enviously, "That's the new Nimbus 2000 - the highest speed -", he had to keep his eyes straight instead of opening his mouth and staring at the broom with envy like a fool who had never seen the world.
In his previous life, he had been spanked by his father in front of this window for behaving "too unpromisingly". In this life, it would never happen again.
Besides, Porter already had a Nimbus 2000 this year, and he didn't want to have the same model as the Savior.
Be patient. Once the Nimbus 2001 comes out next year, the Nimbus 2000 will be a mere little brother. He pouted and decided to make do with his Comet 260. Hogwarts doesn't allow first-years to bring brooms anyway.
As for Potter? That was the treatment of a favored Gryffindor Seeker, Dumbledore's special treatment for the "Boy-Who-Lived." Draco didn't think he could get such a big honor.
As he was thinking, he had already entered Gringotts with his parents.
It was a snow-white building that towered over the surrounding shops. You had to pass through two doors to reach the marble hall. Behind the gleaming bronze door and the silver second door engraved with words, goblins with dark faces, pointed beards, and long arms and legs bowed to greet them and respectfully led them to the Malfoy family vault.
At Gringotts, goblins use the location of the vault and the method of opening the door to define the wealth of the vault owner. High-security vaults are located deep underground, and the doors are often enchanted with advanced magic, not just by a simple key.
As one of the oldest wizarding families, the Malfoys' belongings were stored in the deepest levels—miles beneath London. As soon as the Malfoys boarded the mine cart, it began to wind its way down through a maze of corridors, twisting and turning in the biting cold air, between giant stalactites and stalagmites, seemingly hurtling towards the depths of the earth.
The car slowed down as it passed a giant dragon tied to a huge stake, allowing Draco to catch a glimpse of the sleepy dragon - one of the main reasons why he had come to Gringotts in his previous life to ride such a dizzying and unfortunate mine cart.
Draco had loved dragons since he was a child, but looking at it now, he really couldn't appreciate the fire dragon.
It looked anything but impressive. Its face was covered in horrific scars, and the loose scales were pale instead of shiny silver-gray. Its eyes were a cloudy pink instead of crimson. Its hind legs were heavily shackled, and its huge, spiked wings were folded at its sides.
The noise of the minecart seemed to irritate the dragon, which turned its ugly head towards them and uttered a roar that shook the very stones, but it flinched at the sound of the "jingle pieces" in the goblins' hands—small metal instruments that made a loud, sharp, jingling sound.
A truly majestic dragon should be fearless. It had clearly lost its pride as a dragon under the goblins' violent domestication. Draco stared at it and let out a slight sigh.
The minecart finally stopped at the deepest part of the ground. A goblin knocked gently at the ornate and ancient door, and the door gradually disappeared.
In the vault, piles of coins, gold and silver, gemstones, rare furs, and potion ingredients piled high. Of the wealth accumulated by the Malfoy family over ten centuries, those Galleons were perhaps the most insignificant. For them, the most precious things were perhaps those that money couldn't necessarily buy.
Lucius proudly brushed off the non-existent dust on his body, and casually swept his snake-head cane, and a large number of gold galleons automatically flew into several palm-sized dragon-skin storage bags in Lucius's hands.
"Draco, take these and use the money wisely," Lucius handed the storage bag to Draco and leisurely walked out of his vault. He advised Draco, "A qualified Malfoy must learn to invest and spend money where it's needed. You'll soon find that most friends in this world can be bought with money."
"Yes, father," Draco replied just as he had in his previous life.
This philosophy of life is effective to some extent, as it has enabled the Malfoy family to maintain many connections in the Ministry of Magic over the past decade.
Ironically, after Lucius was imprisoned in Azkaban, those friends avoided him as much as possible and even took advantage of his misfortune - it was obvious that a relationship maintained solely by money was not reliable.
Malfoy's family rules say there are no eternal friends, no eternal enemies, only eternal interests. Of course, interests are not limited to material things.
Draco pursed his lips slightly, thinking to himself. He wasn't about to give up on using money to win people's hearts. Properly utilizing the power of others could accomplish many things with minimal effort.
However, don't forget to remain vigilant amidst the peaceful days of extravagance and drinking. Don't forget that relationships bought with money are mostly paper-thin—they can be bought with a higher price. As for the hearts of those who cannot be bought with money, they are even more unpredictable.
"Dear little dragon, I also transferred some money to your private treasury." Narcissa smiled and touched Draco's platinum head, interrupting his thoughts. She said to him lovingly, "Don't let your father know."
In addition to the family vault that only the head of the family can open, every member of the Malfoy family has his own private vault. Draco's private vault has existed since he was born, and it already contains a considerable amount of wealth.
Grandfather Abraxas would give his beloved grandson an education fund every year, and maternal grandfather Cygnus Black - because of his preference for Narcissa - would also transfer a sum of gold Galleons to his grandson every year.
Not to mention Narcissa, as one of the rich and powerful ladies in the wizarding world, she would definitely spoil her child's temper. She always gave her son a large amount of pocket money, fearing that her beloved son would lack food and clothing.
Draco looked up at his mother. Her smiling eyes revealed genuine love. His mother might not be the one who understood him best, but she was always the one who loved him deeply. She had always been there for him, protecting him and accompanying him through countless uncertain, dark, and gloomy days.
Looking back, his mother, seemingly the most fragile, had become the backbone of the family when the family was about to collapse. If it weren't for her, Draco couldn't imagine how miserable he and his father would have become.
Even when his wand was taken away by Potter, his mother even "lent" him her own wand.
A wand is a wizard's life. By giving him her wand, she was, in a sense, sacrificing her own life to protect her son's. She was exposing herself to all sorts of mortal dangers, leaving no room for retaliation.
Like her father, she had to face the dangerous and rude Death Eaters at Malfoy Manor unarmed. Draco couldn't even imagine how terrified his mother must have been in that situation.
They are just lambs to be slaughtered.
This time, let me protect you, mother. Draco never wanted to see her tired and melancholy face again, nor did he want to see her panic-stricken look.
In his previous life, due to his naiveté, ignorance, and vanity, he hadn't put this wealth to good use. By the time he finally decided to do something, that wealth had become, in a sense, a tool for the Dark Lord to win over people. By then, the Malfoy family had fallen on hard times, and the three of them were considered by the Dark Lord as abandoned pawns, trembling with fear and being exploited at his will. The Malfoys had tragically become the Dark Lord's "running dogs" and "money bags."
It's a shame.
Not this time. He clutched the purse tightly, as if clutching his own destiny.
Draco raised his head and gave Narcissa, who was still radiant, an innocent smile, "Thank you, mother."
I'll prepare well before I face all that trouble, Draco said to himself.
He followed his parents into the mine cart, which sped through the maze-like winding passages for a while, and then stopped for a moment in front of the Lestrange family's vault.
Lucius wasn't too happy about this.
He didn't want his wife to be associated with the prisoners serving time in Azkaban. To outsiders, that was a stain on history. Lucius had gone to great lengths to clear his family's name, and Narcissa's actions undoubtedly exposed his weakness.
However, Narcissa could not ignore her own blood relatives. This was the request made by her weak father. She had to take care of everything in Azkaban, at least not let Bella and her cowardly husband die there.
Fortunately, she always had a way of convincing her husband. When her son turned his head and asked the goblin, "Is that tethered dragon a Ukrainian Ironbelly?" she gave Lucius a light kiss on the cheek.
"I'll be back soon, Lucius," she said with a smile. This trick worked, and Lucius's expression immediately softened.
He shook his head helplessly and watched Narcissa follow a goblin named "Griphook" into the vault door.
Not long after, she came out again carrying a small package.
Draco casually glanced through the gap in the doorway that was about to close. Although the vault inside was not as luxurious as the Malfoy family's, it was not much inferior: from the floor to the ceiling it was filled with gold coins, golden wine cups, silver armor, the fur of various exotic animals with spines or wings, potions in bottles, and skulls with crowns...
The Lestranges were wealthy, after all. His aunt Bellatrix, holding the key to the vault, could easily have been a wealthy woman, but Draco curled his lips in regret. It was a shame that she had such poor taste that not only did she dress like a lunatic, she also followed a lunatic.
She was also a lunatic. And she was cruel. Draco shared the same idea as Lucius. He also didn't want his mother to have too much contact with Bellatrix anymore. It was too dangerous.
Bellatrix was undoubtedly gifted. Unlike her mother, she was a master of the Dark Arts and a master of Occlumency, even teaching Draco at Narcissa's request.
But she was also a lunatic who turned her back on her friends. For a fleeting compliment from the Dark Lord, she would sacrifice everything, without mercy. She would even kill her cousin Sirius Black without hesitation, without a care in the world.
Having different positions does not mean having no bottom line.
All wizards hold a basic consensus: wizard bloodline is a gift from Merlin and is extremely precious.
For aristocratic families that value inheritance, expulsion from the family is already the most severe punishment; for those families with small populations, even if there is a traitor to the bloodline or even if there are conflicting ideas, they cannot kill each other, let alone kill all the members.
But Bellacrite could cross that bottom line and kill people without any psychological burden.
She killed people who shared the same blood with her without batting an eyelid, and she even laughed out loud about it.
Absolutely cold-blooded and absolutely unscrupulous.
She also tortured Granger.
Merlin, that experience was so horrible that even though he was just watching, he almost suffocated to death.
That was probably one of the most terrifying nightmares on his list, tied for first place with the horrific scene of Dumbledore's death.
He couldn't wait to get his wand.
The first thing I did after getting it was to perform brain closure on myself, sealing up all these suffocating and horrifying memories and never thinking about them again.