Harry Potter: Charlie and the Candy Factory

The carnival lasted from day to night, and from night to midnight.

It wasn't until the early hours of the morning that the wizards, who had drunk to their heart's content, wandered out of the Leaky Cauldron and returned home through the fireplace or other methods.

As for the remaining Muggles, they were sent directly to the second floor. Several people from nearby groups were packed into the room of the Leaky Cauldron and began to rest.

As for the cost of using the room, it is naturally all borne by Charlie Black, which can be said to be a considerate one-stop service...

It was late at night, and the sound of snoring on the second floor was so loud, along with the strong smell of alcohol and the sound of vomiting, that people were afraid to go up easily for a while.

Old Tom skillfully picked up the broom and rag, silently, and quietly cleaned up the wreckage of the "battlefield" under the dim light.

After all, people are old and cannot sleep for long, so even if there is no such thing as today, Old Tom is used to cleaning his cherished tavern at this time.

It can be seen that when the smoke dissipates and the noise disappears, the empty bar is still beautiful under the warm lights... With an ancient meaning, you can still feel it from its decoration and layout.

A color unique to centuries.

Old Tom loved this place so much that when cleaning it, he would never use magic to do something perfunctory. Instead, like a Muggle, he would wipe its corners bit by bit and clean every crevice, inside and out.

Meticulous on the outside.

He has been doing this kind of work for countless days, and it seems that he has been doing this since he was not that old, and did not even have the nickname Old Tom.

Until now, he seems to have become one with the entire bar. Old Tom dares to say that even with his eyes closed, he can clearly find every cup, every bottle of wine, every bench...

The rustle of a broom across the floor became the only music in the entire bar as time went by.

And suddenly, with the sudden sound of the doorbell, this dull rhythm was disrupted.

The door to the Leaky Cauldron opened again, but Old Tom didn't even look at it. He didn't pause in his movements as he spoke.

"Sorry, the Leaky Cauldron is closed, the rooms are full, and we cannot provide any services."

The person who came in did not speak, but walked forward on his own, and finally stopped in front of Old Tom.

Old Tom, who was sweeping the floor, finally stopped. The light on his head was completely blocked by the guy in front of him.

He almost didn't need to raise his head, just by looking at the huge shadow falling on the ground, he could recognize who it was.

Sure enough, when he looked up, Hagrid's big smiling face suddenly appeared in front of him.

"Good evening, Old Tom."

Hagrid waved his hand, and just like before, he randomly found a comfortable seat and leaned on it, causing the chair to make harsh grinding sounds.

Old Tom also laughed, but he did not speak immediately. Instead, he squinted his eyes and looked Hagrid up and down carefully.

The Hagrid who appeared in front of him now could be said to have changed a lot compared to before.

His hair is no longer as messy as before. Although it is still long and fluffy, it can be seen that it is much smoother, and the roots are specially maintained and smooth.

The thick beard has been trimmed even more, and he even tied it into a strand at the bottom with a beautiful bow...

"I haven't seen you come to the Leaky Cauldron for so long, and you seem to be more energetic than before... Not bad, pretty good."

After being praised by his old friend, Hagrid, who was originally simple-minded, couldn't help but blush a little. He stretched out his hand to scratch his hair, grinned and said sheepishly.

"I'm trying to quit drinking recently. By the way, I can reuse the time I spent after being drunk and do other meaningful things."

"fine."

Seeing that Hagrid's life is getting better and better, Old Tom, as a friend, will naturally be happy for him. Although from now on, his bar will lose a big spender... But what does it matter?

Hagrid put his hand into his pocket, felt around, then took out two candies, placed them skillfully in his palm, and handed them to Old Tom.

"Come and have a taste. It's something you can't find in the market yet."

Old Tom raised his eyebrows and carefully looked at the candy in front of him. It was a purple petal-shaped candy with thin frosting on it, and a clear yellow candy that seemed to have liquid flowing inside.

Even if he didn't eat it, just looking at it and smelling it, a great sense of satisfaction arose in his heart, giving him a wonderful feeling that he hadn't experienced in a long time.

This is the first time he has seen that sugar can actually do this? It’s no wonder that Hagrid gave up his alcohol addiction for decades because of this...

Old Tom finally chose the yellow candy...as for the reason, because he prefers the taste of lemon.

Put it in your mouth and quietly feel the sweet and sour feeling spread on the tip of your tongue, stimulating the taste buds and making them salivate...

"It's really good..." Old Tom's smile became more obvious and he asked casually

"Is this also a Charlie Black product?"

Unexpectedly, as soon as these words came out, Hagrid suddenly remembered the true purpose of his trip.

He couldn't help but patted his head, seeming a little annoyed at his memory.

"Oh...I just remembered it when you mentioned Charlie."

As he spoke, he took out a heavy bag of Galleons from his other pocket and placed it on the table.

Then he explained to Old Tom

"Charlie asked me to give you money this time... He was in the factory to build a new assembly line or other things, and couldn't leave for a while.

Then I happened to meet him and I gave him something for Principal Dumbledore. He asked me to come and give the money to you specially for him."

"That's it..."

With a clear look on his face, Old Tom put the broom aside, then picked up the money bag on the table, weighed it in his hands, without carefully counting how many there were in total, and walked back leisurely.

Behind the counter, he put it away.

After all, for someone like Charlie Black who dared to ask his family to compensate after a fight when he was in school, Old Tom naturally didn't believe that he would take advantage of him...

After carefully putting away the galleons, he returned to Hagrid's side and began to continue talking about the topic he had not finished talking about just now.

"Are there few things going on these days?"

Old Tom brought a stool and sat next to Hagrid. Under the dim light, he continued to ask

"It should be pretty relaxing."

Hagrid threw the remaining candy in his hand into his mouth, shrugged and said frankly

"Besides feeding my cute little guys and patrolling the forbidden forest every day, there is nothing else."

"Furthermore, the Forbidden Forest has been very peaceful and quiet in the past two days, and nothing strange has happened, so the task of patrolling the forest can be much easier. Even Yaya himself can complete the task perfectly with two students who made mistakes."

Old Tom nodded and listened to Hagrid's words carefully.

Unlike in the past, when he was always in a hazy and drunken state, looking like he was about to go crazy with alcohol, Hagrid, who now has organized thoughts and clear speech, is undoubtedly more likable.

"So how long do you plan to stay today?"

he continued to ask.

Hagrid thought for a while, scratched his head, hesitated for a moment, and then spoke.

"I'll probably have to wait here until noon... Although I didn't come, just by smelling the smell here, I knew that we had just had an alcoholic carnival.

Charlie not only asked me to send you the money, he also hoped that after those drunken Muggles sobered up, I could help him bring these guys to his factory."

"real?"

Hearing this, Old Tom couldn't help but be a little surprised, his eyelids couldn't help but raise a little, and he couldn't help but say

"I never knew that you had such a good relationship with this rich wizard businessman... After all, you know. You are a Forbidden Forest warden, and he is the owner of the largest candy brand in the entire British wizarding world."

"Of course!" Hearing this, Hagrid couldn't help but feel a little proud. He straightened his back proudly and explained.

"Charlie is a very good child. Even after so many years of graduation, he still remembers the earnest teachings given to him by Principal Dumbledore and professors.

So whether it was through letters or in person, he would often be in contact with Hogwarts. As someone who has been running errands for Professor Dumbledore, I would naturally be in frequent contact with Charlie, and we became familiar with him as soon as we came and went.

"

"So how much does he pay you for this trip?"

Old Tom narrowed his eyes and joked with a smile.

"No." Hagrid shook his head, "Even if he gave it to me, I wouldn't take it. After all, we are all friends, and he often sends me so many candies.

So if I can help him to the best of my ability, I will naturally be happy to do so."

The two of them were like this, in the extraordinarily quiet Leaky Cauldron Bar, talking about what they had and what not, until it was really late and Old Tom, who still had to work, yawned and went upstairs.

I found a place for Hagrid and then went back to sleep myself.

………………………………

The next day, around ten o'clock, Dursley woke up from the bed in the bar room, accompanied by buzzing in his head and dizziness.

The decoration in the old wooden house was extremely simple and had no sense of modernity. In a daze, he almost thought he had traveled back to England in the 16th century.

"Well……"

Accompanied by a somewhat painful groan, Dursley opened his eyes, which were still bloodshot.

Reluctantly leaning on his round body and getting up from the bed, he began to sort out his chaotic thoughts and recalled what happened last night.

Dursley only remembered that he drank many glasses of beer, one after another, one after another.

This is also due to the fact that the brewing technology in the British wizarding world is not as professional as that in the Muggle society, so the alcohol content of the beer is actually not very high, but it just looks a bit intimidating. In fact, compared with what he drank before, it is worse.

A thousand miles away...

However, even so, he couldn't help but keep the quantity there. Even though Dursley didn't remember how much he drank, he would have had at least seven or eight glasses...

After drinking, for some unknown reason, bursts of exclamations broke out from the crowd, and then they surrounded him, toasting to him enthusiastically, and shaking hands with him excitedly... It seemed like he

It seems that I have never been so respected in my life.

Dursley thought, and couldn't help but have a proud smile on his lips.

But soon, his smile suddenly stiffened... because as he became more awake, he gradually recalled the reason why they were so excited - it was because he was Harry Potter's uncle!!

"How could it be?" Dursley only now had the chance to think about the crazy performance of those guys.

"Is it possible that that little... boy Harry Potter has such a great reputation in the wizarding world?"

Just as I was thinking about it, there was suddenly a "dong dong dong" knock on the door.

"Brother, are you awake?"

Helpless, Dursley had to interrupt his thoughts and responded.

"I'm already awake..."

There was obviously more than one person outside the door. They were talking and their voices sounded very cheerful.

"Wow, man, you are really amazing! I have never seen a guy drink fifteen beers in a row..."

Before this person finished speaking, another person interrupted him and then said

"And after drinking fifteen glasses, you could still endure it until the show was over before you poured out the water! Are you a monster?"

"hey-hey……"

Listening to everyone's admiration and compliments undoubtedly made Dursley feel a lot better.

He immediately dropped the question of Harry Potter, quickly got out of bed, and responded while getting dressed.

"There are many things you haven't seen before! This is just a piece of cake for me. Anyway, we will have a long time to work together in the future, so let's wait and see!"

Then, he opened the door and joined a group of Muggles who were like him, wearing wrinkled suits and looking like they had the afterglow of last night's carnival. They all walked downstairs and arrived at the Leaky Cauldron.

layer.

When they arrived, Hagrid, who had also just woken up, was yawning slowly.

Then he rubbed his eyes and looked around at everyone.

"Wow...this guy is so tall!"

Most of the Muggles who didn't know Hagrid were as surprised as anyone who saw him for the first time.

Only Dursley raised the corners of his mouth and smiled as if he had come before.

"I knew him... He was the one who picked up our Potter when he was in school!"

Dursley's unique figure was very conspicuous in the crowd. Soon, Hagrid glanced at them aimlessly and quickly noticed this male Muggle in the crowd who he remembered particularly deeply.

But he didn't say anything, but his expression became a little strange.

After everyone arrived and no other Muggles came down from the second floor, he didn't talk nonsense, but said directly

"It's time for us to leave. The next stop is Mr. Charlie Black's candy factory, which is also where you will work."

"What about the interview?"

One guy raised his hand and asked a question

"Interview? There is no interview! Charlie's Candy Factory accepts everyone who comes. As long as you get here, he will take all orders. Yesterday's carnival was Charlie's entry gift to you!!"