24 Fireside Chat(1/2)
The girl standing at the door was still looking around. When she heard Hoffa's call, she looked over with wide eyes and saw a young man waving his arms.
She quickly walked down the stone steps, walked over to Hoffa, lay on the table and looked him up and down.
"Oh my God, Hoffa!?"
"It's me." Hoffa chuckled.
He also looked at the other party. Miranda still wore the round glasses with no prescription, just for showing off, but compared to last year, she had grown a lot taller, and she no longer looked like that little carrot head.
Her short maroon hair is now shoulder-length, and her fair complexion has turned into wheat-colored skin, which seems to have been tanned during the summer vacation.
Compared with the enchanting Aglaia, she has an indescribable neutral mysterious beauty. This temperament keeps her at a certain distance from herself, but she is undoubtedly one of Hoffa's only friends.
.
"You're tanned." Hoffa said with some resentment, "I heard that you ran away to New Zealand. I really belong to you."
"You already know this, did Aglaia tell you?"
"She didn't tell me, but I could tell just by looking at it." Hoffa pointed to the small wooden sign hanging on her chest. "What is this? Is it the evil-proof treasure you got from the indigenous people?"
"It also wards off evil spirits. This is a magic tool to prevent mosquito bites. Do you want to give it to you?"
"Forget it, you go out a lot, just keep it."
"You haven't seen each other for two months and you are now more polite? It seems that work can really change a person."
She squinted her eyes and smiled, then picked up the black tea in Hoffa's hand and drank it without any politeness at all: "What are you doing here? Are you working again?"
"work to earn a living?"
Hoffa pointed to himself in an exaggerated way: "I opened this store! I'm the boss!"
Miranda chuckled, black tea spilled from the corner of her mouth, she wiped her mouth and teased: "Why are you bragging? You are not the material at all."
Ha! Hoffa took the cup from his hand and asked Joseph, who was settling accounts at the dining table in the distance: "Hey, Weasley, am I your boss?"
Joseph raised his head, narrowed his eyes and glanced at the girl with the backpack next to Hoffa, touched his chin, and showed a connotative smile: "You are not."
Hoffa was shocked.
But then Joseph said exaggeratedly: "You are the king here."
Seeing his flattering look, Hoffa raised his forehead and regretted asking him.
Miranda laughed and said she couldn't even straighten her waist. She held on to the table.
"It's really interesting...Okay, okay, His Majesty the King, arrange a guest room for me in your palace. And, if you can, please give me a palace dinner. Okay?"
Hoffa's face turned red with embarrassment. He glared at Joseph, threw away the registration list in his hand, picked up the lantern, and said angrily: "This way!"
The two walked from the lobby to the second floor of the basement, which is close to the kitchen and is where Hoffa and other employees usually rest. The environment is much better than upstairs.
In the clean and deep masonry corridor, niches, cabinet rooms, cabinets and other items are neatly placed. There are several round-arched white rooms under the stone roof.
Walking to the room at the end of the corridor, Hoffa opened the door, hung the lantern on the wall, and then used the fire to light the fireplace.
Under the light of the fireplace, the room has a marble bed, a row of wooden wardrobes, and a small painted ivory table. It is very elegant and unique.
Miranda looked around: "The environment here is not bad. Did you decorate it yourself?"
"No," Hoffa grinned: "This was originally a church. Although the top was blown up by Muggles, the tomb below is still relatively intact."
Miranda was stunned for a moment, then smiled and bumped into Hoffa: "It's true that you let me sleep in the grave, and my heart is dark."
"Okay, don't embarrass me. I only earn twenty pounds a month, and I can't even pay my salary." Hoffa smiled bitterly.
"Oh, my, I wanted you to give me a free bill just now, but it seems I don't have that chance anymore."
"Free of charge," Hoffa was shocked, "Are you human?"
Miranda laughed heartily. After laughing, she put her backpack on the bed, pulled out a chair, and sat on it:
"That's weird, I thought you were doing an internship at St. Mungo's Hospital."
Miranda rolled her eyes: "Did you quarrel with Aglaia again?"
"No." Hoffa immediately denied, "Am I that kind of person?"
"really."
Miranda rolled her eyes and said, "Without me being the peacemaker, you two would never have any contact with each other in the first grade."
Hoffa thought that this was really Miranda's misunderstanding. The reason he was not at St. Mungo's was just because he had offended Aglaia's mother.
At this time, there was a knock on the door. Hoffa went over to open the door. It turned out that chef Leon had prepared dinner and delivered it. He handed the dinner plate to Hoffa and winked at him, as if to imply something.
Hoffa quickly took the silver tray from his hand and pushed him away.
Place the tray on the small painted table and open it.
It actually contains four exquisite foods, including lamb tripe stuffed with meat, fried rice balls, bacon sandwiches, corned beef bagels and iced pear slices.
Hoffa sighed, what are these guys thinking? He has never enjoyed these things.
Miranda was not surprised. She picked up her fork politely and said while eating: "Speaking of which, I sent a letter to Aglaia some time ago, and she replied to me, saying that she would invite you to her birthday. Later I sent
I wrote to her, but she ignored me. Do you know what’s going on?”
"she......"
Hoffa thought that the guy had probably been grounded by her mother, maybe locked in a closet right now.
"You can ask her yourself tomorrow."
Hoffa changed the topic: "By the way, why do you want to live here? It's such a coincidence."
"Where can I live if I don't live here?" Miranda shrugged and ate a piece of ice pear slice.
"The Leaky Cauldron is closed, and many Muggle hotels are also closed. I couldn't find a place to stay, so after asking around, I was told that there was an underground hotel on the Strand. The environment was average but the food was free, so I came.
"
After a pause, Miranda sighed: "I never expected that this store actually belongs to you."
After hearing this, Hoffa frowned: "Wait, you said, the Leaky Cauldron is closed?"
"Don't you know?" Miranda picked up the stuffed lamb tripe, "that thing about Helzburg."
"What?" Hoffa frowned, "Does the closing of the Leaky Cauldron have something to do with Healzburg?"
"Healzburg is one of the main industries of goblins. Healzburg was destroyed and Gringotts announced its closure. The London Wizarding Market was paralyzed, and 90% of the shops in Diagon Alley were unable to open."
"What?" Hoffa was shocked. In the past few days when the business was just starting, he had been dealing with Muggles and knew nothing about wizard news. "You mean, Gringotts has closed?"
"Yes, I heard from the gossip that half of the goblins died in Helzburg. It's already very difficult for Gringotts not to announce its closure."
Miranda swallowed the food in her mouth.
"Now, gold galleons have depreciated by half, and many wizards have begun to use Muggle pounds. I'm afraid that before this battle is over, the wizarding financial system will collapse first."
Hoffa opened his mouth slightly and listened to the call in stunned silence. For some reason, the words of the man riding a dragon came into his mind again. This month, he tried his best to keep himself busy, enrich himself, and stop himself from thinking about that.
thing, but now, he can no longer ignore this problem.
After thinking for a while, Hoffa walked to the door of the room and locked the door.
She looked solemn and said, "Miranda, let me ask you something."
"What's up."
"What kind of person is Grindelwald?" Hoffa asked bluntly.
Miranda was eating rice balls. When she heard this, she felt as if someone had pressed the pause button on the video playback. The rice balls were placed in front of her mouth and she didn't put them in for a long time.
After a while, she put down the food and asked, "What did you say?"
"What kind of person is Grindelwald? I mean, you met him as a child, didn't you?"
"Why are you asking this?" Miranda stopped eating and put her hands flat on the table, "I want to know the reason."
Hoffa sat across from her and recounted in detail what he saw with dragons during his summer vacation and what he saw and heard in Healzburg.
Miranda listened without saying a word. After listening to Hoffa's story, the expression on her face gradually became solemn, and her frown deepened.
"You mean, it was Grindelwald who controlled the dragon and destroyed Helzburg. And he asked you to find him?"
"Yes, tell me, is that him?"
After thinking for a moment, Miranda shook her head: "I don't know. The last time I saw him was seven years ago. My memory of him is very vague."
"Then why is he looking for me?"
"Maybe it's because you have some talent in transformation. He originally came to me because of my talent in spells." Miranda speculated.
Hoffa rubbed his head, as if there was a cloud of chaos floating in front of him, making it impossible for him to see anything clearly.
After thinking for a long time, he asked repeatedly: "Can't you describe him? His general image."
A trace of struggle flashed across Miranda's face, but in the end she said: "I can't answer you, but someone can answer this question for you."
After saying that, she sighed softly, lowered her head, and took off her glasses. The fire in the fireplace swayed without wind, and then the light in the entire room dimmed.
When she raised her head again, the lines on her face became very blurred and unfamiliar. The mental force field around her completely changed, from gentle and indifferent to very sharp and cold.
To be continued...