Chapter 4

"Albert, are you sure we didn't go to the wrong place?" Herb was checking the map in his hand but couldn't find the bar that Professor McGonagall had mentioned.

"We need to find the bookstore first. The next door to the bookstore is a record store." Albert pointed to the big bookstore in front of them, and next to it was a record store.

"Is this it? But I..."

"Can't see where the bar is?" Albert finished Herb's sentence.

He wouldn't have noticed the small bar next to the big bookstore if it weren't for his special observation skills. People passing by in a hurry didn't even look at it, of course, including Herb.

"I have seen the bar. Do you remember what Ms. McGonagall said?"

"Muggles can't find the bar." Herb muttered, "I hate the word Muggle."

Herb held his son's hand and was led forward by Albert. A few seconds later, he saw the legendary Leaky Cauldron.

"I hate it; it's so dirty."

"I know, let's go in!"

Both of them tried to hide the disgusted expression on their faces as they pushed the door open and entered the bar. Dirty, messy, and dark were the first words that came to mind. Inside were some men and women who didn't look normal. Most of them were elderly. They also had ridiculous top hats on their heads, which looked very funny.

If this group of people walked down the street, they would definitely attract the attention of countless people, but now they seemed even more out of place, like a ray of fire in the dark.

Herb immediately calmed down and walked towards the counter. He looked at the bald old man and asked tentatively, "Are you Tom?"

"Ah, a young wizard from a Muggle family." Tom looked at Albert, then smiled at Herb. "You want to ask how to get to Diagon Alley?"

"Yes, Mr. Tom. Professor McGonagall said you could take us to Diagon Alley." Albert also looked at the old man in front of him, barely managing to force a polite smile on his face.

"Of course, please follow me." Tom walked out from behind the bar and beckoned the two to follow him.

The three of them came to the backyard of the bar, which was empty except for a brick wall, a dustbin, and a few empty wine barrels.

"The dustbin will stay here all the time. You need to count three bricks on top and then two bricks in the horizontal direction. This is the brick you need to tap." Tom pointed his finger at the place he had just tapped with his hand and then turned to Albert. "When you have your own wand, you can open the entrance to Diagon Alley by yourself. Remember, tap the brick three times with your wand."

The brick that Old Tom had pushed began to tremble, and the brick wall moved strangely. A small hole appeared in the middle, and the opening of the hole became bigger and bigger. It only took a few seconds to form a passage in front of the three people. They walked through the archway.

A cobblestone street stretched out before them, flanked by shops, and there were many wizards and hawking stalls on the street.

"Welcome to Diagon Alley." Tom smiled at the two.

"Mr. Tom, how will we go back later?" Herb asked.

"After you finish shopping, you can open the door just like I did. By the way, I suggest you go to Gringotts to exchange your Muggle currency for galleons. If you keep going forward from here, the white building is the Gringotts Wizarding Bank." Tom answered Herb's question patiently and reminded them.

"Thank you for your suggestion, Mr. Tom."

"I'm happy to help." Tom smiled and waved to the two of them, then turned back to the bar and returned to his work. After Tom left, the entrance disappeared and turned back into a wall.

"Let's go and exchange money." Herb took a deep breath.

"It feels very different here." Albert looked at the surrounding shops and smiled at Herb. "It gives me the feeling that we have travelled back in time by a century."

"To be honest, I now doubt the legitimacy of letting you go to Hogwarts. Maybe Daisy's perspective is right." Herb sighed lightly. Although the magical world was magical, it gave him the impression of technological stagnation.

"Dad, I don't necessarily have to live in a magical world." Albert couldn't help rolling his eyes and reminded him, "I need to go to Hogwarts to study how to master my magical powers."

"Oh, you're right." Herb's mood improved a bit, and the two of them made their way through the crowd and headed to Gringotts.

As Tom had said, it was a white building, and there was a small figure standing beside the bronze gate—it was a goblin.

"They are so different." Herb's facial expression was a bit stiff. This was the first time he had seen other humanoids other than humans.

Albert didn't seem to care. He looked at the goblin's face—a short, sharp beard, slender hands and toes, and a dark face—a creature with no sense of beauty at all. When they entered the door, Albert noticed the goblin bowing to them.

There was a second door in the back, made of silver, with lettering on it. When Herb came closer, he took a closer look and read the words aloud:

[ Enter, stranger, but take heed

Of what awaits the sin of greed,

For those who take, but do not earn,

Must pay most dearly in their turn,

So if you seek beneath our floors

A treasure that was never yours,

Thief, you have been warned, beware

Of finding more than treasure there. ]

"I really don't understand. How many times have wizards tried to rob the bank before they needed to engrave a warning sign on the door?" After reading the sign, Herb couldn't help but mutter.

Albert wanted to laugh a little when he heard that and quickly cleared his throat and asked, "How much do you need to change?"

"This much?" Herb thought for a while and then whispered, "One thousand pounds. If it's not enough, we can come back later."

One thousand pounds is equivalent to one month's salary for most people. Albert estimated that it was about two hundred galleons. He nodded and said, "I think it should be enough."

After entering, the two goblins bowed to them and led them into a tall marble hall. Herb said that he needed to change some galleons.

The goblin led them to the counter on the right again and handed Herb a piece of parchment. The parchment was about the exchange rate between pounds and galleons and the concept of money in the magic world.

1 galleon is equal to £4.95. 1 galleon is equal to 17 sickles, and 1 sickle is equal to 29 knuts.

Herb handed the parchment to his son and asked, "How many pounds do 200 galleons cost?"

"£990."

"Please, can you help me exchange 200 galleons?" Herb took £990 from his wallet and asked the goblin to exchange it for galleons.

"Okay, hold on for a moment." The goblin took the pounds and started counting.

"Excuse me, Mr. Goblin, what is the maximum limit for currency exchanges between pounds and galleons?" Albert asked, curious about the doubts he had from his previous life.

"In theory, there is no limit, but we don't handle a lot of Muggle currency at one given time." The goblin rang the bell and called another goblin to give instructions. The goblin took a bag of gold coins and handed it to Herb. Then they led them aside to verify the number of galleons they received.

"I didn't expect it to be a gold coin." Herb fiddled with the galleon at his fingertips and couldn't help but sigh.

After counting the galleons and confirming that they were correct, the two of them took their galleons and left Gringotts. Walking onto a sunny street, the galleons in the two people's pockets collided with a pleasant jingle, as if urging them to spend the gold coins quickly.