Harry Potter: The Golden Viper

December 27, 1992.

Christmas had just passed, and Oxford Street in London's West End was already bustling with people. Muggles dressed in new clothes walked on the streets, enjoying the festive atmosphere and the dazzling window displays. Children laughed and played, throwing snowballs at each other or admiring the colorful lights and decorations. Young people who met each other gave sincere New Year's greetings, exchanging hugs and kisses. And everyone had a longing for a good life in their hearts, even if the snowstorm could not extinguish the smiles on their faces.

For wizards, Christmas was also one of the most important holidays of the year, but wizard families celebrated Christmas differently from muggles.

They preferred to stay in the warm indoors, listening to the crackling sound of the fire in the fireplace, sitting under the Christmas tree covered with silver frost and mistletoe, and discussing Quidditch or the latest news.

Therefore, as the wizarding business center, Diagon Alley was always very lonely in the first few days of the new year, let alone Knockturn Alley, which was also sparsely populated on weekdays.

Clang, clang, clack!

Bryan, who was hidden under a large black cloak, got off the small cart of the same model as Gringotts, and even though his stomach was churning, he had to act calmly in order to maintain his cold persona.

The air was filled with the stench of fermented mucus worm slime soaked in rotten frog guts. The uneven ground was wet and sticky. A row of inverted torches hung neatly in mid-air, emitting a green light that illuminated the huge fan-shaped underground cavern as gloomy as a ghost.

Bryan looked around. On the left side of the cave, two hundred feet away from him, there was a 'pet' market. There was a giant creature that was fifteen feet tall and had its limbs firmly bound by iron chains as thick as a bowl. It lay on the ground listlessly, almost blending in with the dark rocks.

Its owner was an old witch from Moldova with broken teeth. She brought it here hoping to sell it for a good price, so that she could use the money to treat her dragon pox.

But unfortunately, it had been on sale for two years and no one was interested.

At this moment, the old witch was leaning on the slave's toe, cursing at a large group of house-elves next to her, accusing them of polluting the environment.

They were a group of house-elves who had lost their masters and gained their freedom.

Of course, using the word 'freedom' to describe house-elves was like using 'beast' to describe centaurs. They would not be grateful.

These poor little fellows mostly belonged to some small wizarding families or secret Schools. Their masters had disappeared in the river of time for various reasons, which forced them to become free.

Having no master was a very terrible thing for house-elves. It almost deprived them of their value of existence. So they gathered here spontaneously, hoping to find new masters for themselves.

But to be honest, apart from some dark wizards who needed living materials to experiment with curses and potions, few people would pay attention to them.

The giant creature was very friendly to the house-elves. Bryan had once seen it slap several of them to death with its palm when it was hungry and stuff them into its mouth with a crunch.

Besides the giant creature and the house-elves, you could also see many other interesting creatures in the 'pet' market that smelled like a toilet. For example, centaurs who had lost their clan's protection, veelas who were accidentally captured (hot commodities), vampires locked in cages, or Irish leprechauns who were very good living materials.

Basically, except for dragons and unicorns that were particularly tabooed magical creatures, you could find most of the existing magical creatures in the wizarding world in the underground pet market.

On the right side of the cave wall, the trading market still maintained the simple style of medieval Europe. But the things sold on those stalls that were casually placed on the ground were not so simple.

Books containing black magic from ancient Greece, potions that greatly increased one's magic power but had unknown side effects, alchemical items that could instantly wipe out life on a large scale - in short, compared with those things, the products sold at Borgin and Burkes could only be regarded as prank products that small wizards liked. The Devil's Snare here was only suitable for being used as decorative plants.

Bryan even saw a curse seed of the black death that had slaughtered all over Europe in an Italian wizard's hand. According to him, his curse seed had been weakened. But if it spread out, killing a city of muggles would not be too difficult. Of course, the curse seed had an amazing price that matched its effect. Otherwise, Bryan would really like to buy it and study it.

And this was the dark side of the wizarding world. A place where there was no law.

After a while, Bryan felt better and walked towards the center of the cavern, gradually joining the sparse crowd.

Most of the people who were active here wore black robes and did not want to be seen by others.

Only a few reckless madmen and wizards who just happened to pass by from Britain dared to show their faces in front of the surveillance personnel who had infiltrated from the Ministry of Magic.

Yes, you heard that right.

The underground world of Knockturn Alley had secret Aurors stationed there. But their existence was only to monitor that nothing 'out of line' happened here, not to eradicate it. Unless, the Ministry of Magic wanted to go to war with all the ancient schools and dark wizards that still existed in Britain.

The square area surrounded by granite walls in the center of the cavern was the commission market of the underground world. On one end of the wall, there was a tall signpost. On the snake-patterned wooden sign, hundreds of commission papers with red magic contract glows were posted, quietly waiting for someone to take them down.

Bryan stood under the sign and looked around. He didn't find any valuable commissions, so he turned around and found a stone stool to sit down and wait for his trading partner to arrive.

Maybe it was because of the arrival of the new year, there were not many people here either. In the large area, there were only two people talking in a low voice ten feet behind him on the right.

One of them was wearing a brown hemp robe. His bald head was covered with pus-filled blisters and scabies. He looked like he was eighty years old. He heard the noise and looked up at Bryan.

He seemed to disdain Bryan's practice of hiding his true face under a twisted magic vortex. He grinned his mouth with only three or four yellow teeth left, spitting out a foul wind. His face was half black like charred old tree bark, and half covered with pink, tentacle-like little flesh buds that wriggled madly. It was very hideous.

But when the old wizard noticed the golden snake embroidered on Bryan's collar, he quickly retracted his disgusting smile, nodded politely and looked away.

Bryan was interested in the old wizard's interesting face.

If he guessed correctly, it should be the damage caused by a failed attempt to release a curse that cut off one's soul when making a Horcrux, which resulted in a severe backlash of magic.

According to Bryan's knowledge, there was only one thing that could temporarily slow down the spread of this curse damage. And the conversation between the two people next verified his guess.

"It's very hard to get, and very dangerous. You should know where in Britain you can find unicorns!" The wizard opposite the old wizard took out a glass cup from under his black robe. The liquid in the cup shone silver in the dim underground world. He said cautiously. The old wizard understood what he meant. He let out a sharp cold laugh and also took out a piece of mithril as big as a fist from his chest and threw it on the table.

Because of the loopholes in traditional magic education, wild school wizards often could achieve mastery in some aspects, but they might be as ignorant as novices who had just touched magic in other aspects. They lacked a systematic and comprehensive understanding of magic theory and practice. And modern magic education based on schools had a high probability of not producing any amazing talents, but at least balanced. They ensured that every student had a solid foundation and a broad vision of magic.

Knowledge balance was very important.

At least for now, any Hogwarts O.W.L.s level qualified student would not be fooled by a potion that had been transfigured and added with two unicorn feathers. They would know that unicorn blood had a distinctive silver color and a sweet smell, and that it could not be mixed with any other substance without losing its effect.

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