Three twelve-year-olds are gathered in a bathroom, copying a diagram from a book onto the floor in chalk.
"Do you know what all this writing means?" asks the green-eyed boy.
"No," says the bushy-haired girl, "and that worries me too, but we need to find out who the Heir of Slytherin is and this ritual is the best we've got."
Eventually, one or another of them draws the last bit of the outer circle.
That would be more impressive if Cam weren't from Hell. He creates a door inside the door which responds to chiplock, tests it.
This works fine.
"I assume wizards can unlock doors by magic or something," he says, finishing the rest of the inner wall layer. "Can I give you an object which will beep if one does that? - I'm just a little concerned the outer layer may be easier to break into than usual because I don't have a traditional magical signature and I'm not sure how easy it is to conjure matching blood for people other than me."
"Yes, it is possible to unlock doors by magic," she says, giving him another weird look. "Objects for additional alarms are allowed, though we ask that you put your vault number on it for ease of identification." She points at the number 2607 above the outer door.
Cam offers her an object bearing the number 2607. "Thanks! You have great customer service responsiveness." He opens the door he just made and goes in and takes a modest quantity of gold which will fit in a stylish belt pouch.
"Will that be all your business for today?" If it is, they can mine-cart back to the surface.
That is indeed all. Cam only goes WOO one time during the cart ride.
The goblin woman is used to the occasional WOO and does not comment.
Lupin is waiting for Cam in the lobby.
"All right." And they can head back out into the street and browse.
There are storefronts and pushcarts and open-air displays of things! There are bits of magical creatures and bits of normal creatures and a pet store with entire living creatures! There's a clothing store full of robes and an equipment store full of telescopes and cauldrons and bags of holding! There's an enormous bookshop and a sporting goods store with a display of broomsticks and an ice cream shop advertising two hundred flavors! There are potions that do everything from making your hair longer to letting you breathe underwater!
Cam doesn't want any pets but he does want to stroke an owl before moving on. He lingers at the bags of holding - are any of them convenient to stick on his belt loops? - and at the potions - he doesn't need one for his hair or to breathe underwater but surely there's something he does want -
Bags of holding are mostly in the shoulder-bag form factor, but there are some that can go on a belt loop.
The potions store has many other options! Would he like to not have any more boils? How about lots of boils? A potion that makes anything it's poured on smaller? A love potion? A potion for dreamless sleep? A potion to replace any of his bones that have gone missing? One that will make him hover a few feet off the ground? Cures for everything from headaches to dragon-pox? Fire resistance? The ability to see sounds and hear colors? Improved night vision? Increased energy? A tendency to find everything screamingly funny?
He'll snag a shrinking potion and a synaesthesia potion and a night vision potion and memorize exactly what the love potion looks and smells like.
This one looks like pinkish gloop and smells sort of like cinnamon and sort of like watermelons, but the signage implies it's a specific kind and other kinds exist. The ones he buys come with little cards with dosing information and how long they take to kick in and wear off.
He reads all the concerning little cards. "These are legal? I'm never drinking coffee I don't make myself again."
"I suppose the magic you're used to poses a very different set of hazards."
"I mean, I could drug people? But, one, I'm not going to, two, if someone drugs me and it's just a normal non-magical drug it will not work."
Lupin nods, looking envious. "Anything else on the agenda before we go back?"
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