A day at Hogwarts

The night of the full moon has a special meaning for vampires.

Charles was taken aback by Marlene, and he subconsciously took it seriously.

After breakfast, Marlene directed Charles and Erica to keep busy.

Charles was assigned to cut firewood and burn charcoal. After asking about the situation, he simply went to a nearby town to inquire, and then bought it directly.

When he returned to Erica's house, he saw two girls moving a set of distilling tools to the lake.

Then Marlene gave him a map and a note, asking him to fetch 10 barrels of wine.

The place is easy to find, just walk along the upper reaches of the waterfall and see a waterwheel by the river.

There was a wine shop, and the owner was an old vampire man. He shook his head after glancing at the note and said, "Are you stupid, you don't charge for drinking blood and you work for her?"

Charles just smiled and said, "We are friends, and we should help."

The old man just sneered, moved out ten wooden barrels of about 30 liters, and said before Charles left: "I watched Marlene grow up, if you have any unreasonable thoughts about her, I advise you to give up as soon as possible." .”

"We're just friends," Charles said with a smile as he put the wine in his bag.

The old man ignored him and waved his hand to tell him to leave quickly.

When Charles came back, he saw that the still had been set up, and that the pipes had been connected to the condenser from the water tank at the side of the house, and it was now being filled with water, and the drained water was piped into the lake.

Then Charles and Erica got the charcoal ready and the wine aside and started washing the bottles and corks.

Marlene came to the flower field and carefully inspected almost every flower.

At dusk, the three ate dinner by the still. This is a particularly rich meal, in addition to pork knuckles and blood sausage, it indicates that this night will be very hard.

As soon as the sun went down, they started to get busy.

All the wine in the barrel was poured into the still, and the charcoal in the hearth was also ignited.

Ma Lian was waiting beside the flower field with a big basket on her back, looking up at the night sky.

When the full moon rose to a certain height and there was faint music coming from the direction of the village, she began to pick flowers quickly.

Flowers as raw materials are time-sensitive, too early or too late.

When picking flowers, you can’t bring too many flower stalks. Some flowers can’t even bring the receptacle and calyx. Some only need petals, and some only need ovaries and buds. live.

And when to add which flowers are in order, it is said that if you add a mistake, it will be blown up for you to see.

Erica is watching the fire, and the temperature of the wine in the still cannot be too high for now.

Charles helped a lot today. After Marlene picked a flower, he immediately took it to Erica and poured it into the vaporizer, saving the girls from running back and forth.

The physical strength of the vampire is somewhat lacking, not to mention that Erica is only two years older than Charles, and Marlene is only three years older.

The three of them worked for about an hour, and finally a basket of flowers was poured into the evaporator. Marlene took a look at the color of the wine, then closed the lid and locked it tightly, and started to increase the firepower.

Marlene stood by and sniffed the scent carefully. When the scent suddenly changed a little, she turned an hourglass over.

At the same time, Erika pulled out some of the burning charcoal, closed the valve on the vent pipe, and let the flowers and wine in the still simmer.

During this time, they checked the condenser again to make sure the cooling water was fine.

When the time came, the valve of the ventilation pipe was opened, and the ignition was turned on, and after a while, a transparent liquid began to flow from the other end of the pipe.

Marlene took some in a small cup, tasted it, nodded with satisfaction, and handed it to Erica.

Erica drank a little too, with a big smile on her face, and handed it to Charles.

Charles could smell the strong floral aroma of the wine left in the empty glass, but the smell of wine was vague.

He thought for a moment, then poured it directly into his mouth.

The taste of the wine surprised him. As the saying goes, sheep's blood is stinky, pig's blood smells bad, chicken blood smells bad, and human blood smells salty, but this wine actually smells like human blood.

"You shouldn't drink it," Marlene teased Charles, "you'll have to wait until you're older."

Charles just smiled and asked, "What kind of wine is this?"

Marlene replied: "This is my favorite work!"

"These are all for Erica. We only have time to make two batches in July and August, and save them to sell before the full moon night. Erica's most important income in a year is selling these wines."

Charles was a little surprised, glanced at the empty wine bottle prepared next to him, and asked with some concern, "How much can you sell for a year?"

"Not much," Marlene replied, "Barely enough for Erica to live on. If the full moon night falls in August, it will make a lot less."

Charles understood that the vampires celebrated the Mid-Autumn Festival, and the wine they made was like moon cakes, and they only made them on two nights a year.

Erica was reluctant to talk about money, especially in front of Charles.

Charles thought about it, but didn't say anything about expanding the scale.

The recipe for this wine is Marlene's. She uses it for Erica and helps produce it. This is the relationship between them. If it rises to the business level, Erica will also provide raw materials and labor.

The next step was to divide the distilled wine into glass bottles, cork the corks, wipe the bottles clean, put labels on them and put them in the cellar. Finally, the distiller was disassembled, cleaned and put back into the warehouse. The three of them worked until midnight.

Everyone was sweating profusely. Like yesterday, Marlene dragged Erica into the bathroom to wash together.

Naturally, it was impossible for Charles to be together. He waited for a long time by the lake and returned to the house after the light in Erica's room was turned on. He also took a shower before going to bed.

But just as he lay down, the bedroom door opened again.

Overnight, the book will not repeat.

At noon the next day, the three of them closed the doors and windows after having lunch, made sure that all the locks were locked and the fire was extinguished, and they left together.

Erica originally wanted to ask for leave to come back, but Charles came and asked her to take an extra day off in advance. Now that she is busy, she has to go back to the bar to work, after all, it can save a lot of money with food and lodging there.

She and Marlene walked hand in hand on the path in the forest, whispering whispers between them from time to time.

Charles walked aside, his face a little pale, holding a wooden barrel in his hand, which contained the last wine distilled last night. The quality was not as good as that in the glass bottle, but it was not bad, and it was given to the bar owner.

The time for parting came, and Charles was going to go to the German Ministry of Magic first, then to the British Ministry of Magic through the fireplace in the bar, and finally back to No. 3 Privet Drive.

"See you next month."

"See you next month."

Charles disappeared into the green flames of the fireplace.

He made an agreement with the girls that he would come to help on the night of the full moon next month.