Chapter 7

Of course, I didn't go to any orphanage, I went straight to the The Leaky Cauldron by the fireplace. It's closer to the ingredient shops and drugstores than the fireplaces in front of the bank. Tom waved and said with a thirty-two-tooth grin that the gentleman's room was free. Humorist, damn. Mandrakes were bought up all at once, of course, they are in almost half the potions.

 Few people use them to grow, there are more expensive plants, and noticeably more expensive, and there is just as much trouble, if not less. In general, this useful tuber in a very interesting niche lives in a very interesting niche, beginners herbologists-amateurs, usually housewives, planning to improve a little budget, or needy young people like me last year to them do not reach, choosing the simpler. And those who are ready to hump prefer to get more gold coins for their work. And it's not me who is so smart, it's the pharmacist who bought all the goods in bulk, who talks.

Tom took payment and gave me a discount as a regular customer. A one galleon, "dog slouching" thanked him mentally. The well-known bookstore was glad to see me and set my wages at one galleon and two shekels a day. Considering that there are seventeen pieces of silver in gold, my income hasn't increased much. I don't care, as long as I can read for free. In fact, I just need to rest, but not too relaxed. And if I still have to overcome the attack of laziness, then fighting procrastination is very difficult, and sometimes just impossible.

The summer flew by, the textbooks on the program of thirty years ago were all read, the calculation was made. According to tradition, the owner of the shop, where I had been working as a house-elf for two and a half months, presented me with a book about the customs and magical laws of magical England. I was almost given clothes, ha-ha, but the folio, published in the late forties, was written in a high clerical style, but it was meticulous and described the smallest nuances in detail.

After shopping according to lists and updating wardrobe, I spent most of the remaining money on dragon skins, raw. I bought a barrel with expanded space, but without stasis charms, but with protection against spoilage of the contents. They are used for wine and other drinks that need to be infused. I bought the ingredients for the potion, a few bags, an additional cauldron, and a whole shelf enchanted vials. All this was perfectly placed in the new chest, which differed from the old one only by the spell of invisible expansion of space and complex protection. Oh, yes, there were weight-lifting spells, though I was already quite proficient with them. I'd learned to use them after the incredible experience of carrying my last suitcase.

I hadn't forgotten the sweets for the Dean. It'll be a good excuse to stop by. Even though I don't really need it. It's my third year and I have to take a few extra classes. I'll definitely take Magical Beasts, but I'll have to give up Arithmetic, so runes are all I need. I don't need to take Divination. Magic arithmetic has its own peculiarities, but frankly, the Muggle Tower is noticeably inferior. I don't remember much, but when I read the textbooks, I saw a lot of ways to improve the methods of calculation. Nothing fundamental, but a little here, a little there, and life will be easier. Soon, ordinary people will have computers at home that can calculate a nuclear reaction. But the Wizards had not yet progressed beyond calculations.

Sprout didn't mind the choice, she was glad for the help in growing mandrakes, but she couldn't count it as a graduation project. It was already done. But there was nothing stopping her from giving Wagtail a piece of land and a germinated seed. We decided to share the seed boxes as brothers, one for me and two for dean. They cost only a few galleons, but you can get up to three hundred of them from one bush. And unlike mandrake, this member of the magical flora is much less fiddly. When it goes into effect, and it's still capricious, you'll have to run to it for six months, almost telling fairy tales and singing lullabies.

Okay, we'll make it, but we'll have to keep looking for the roots. That's how it went. The skins are soaking in the barrel with the potion, I was too tired to brew it, it took me almost a month to get the necessary volume. There's even an excess of blood. It's okay, we'll pour it into the ink, it's stored somewhere outside of our reality by the Grimoire, just like any expanded space. There's nothing that's going to suck the magic out of me every time I manifest a book. It may be small things, but it's better to do it with minimal effect. Otherwise, study, study and more study. Only the rituals and the greenhouse with the seedlings fell out of this framework. And the latter was very tentative.

The headmaster began to appear at the school more and more often, even spending the Christmas holidays there. His face was satisfied, his eyes shone, his robe shone, it seemed that he had overcome all ideological opponents. He spoiled the holidays with his presence. Actually, I haven't noticed any unhealthy impulses behind him yet, but his image in folk art is still the same, and rumors, as they say, the earth is full of rumors. And they do not put Dumbledore in a good light. He's an ambiguous person, we should stay away from him, or we might get hurt.