The Day of the Draw at Hogwarts

"Is there more than one train on the Trans-Siberian Railway?" Tom heard the implication from the conductor's words.

"That's right!" The conductor sister very patiently began to explain the history of the Trans-Siberian Railway to Tom. Civil servants enthusiastically explain and guide tourists, which is extremely rare in Russia. Most of the time, they are like wooden people, unable to answer a question in three sentences. Today, the eldest sister is so serious and responsible. She is only willing to waste her words for the sake of Franklin and the Queen.

From the conductor, Tom learned that the Siberian Railway was not built by the Soviet Union. It was Tsar Alexander III who planned to build the railway, and it was his son Nicholas II who built the railway. He divided the Siberian Railway into seven sections and started construction at the same time. Deploying 70,000 railway workers and 20,000 soldiers, it was completed in 1916 - he was abdicated the next year after it was repaired.

The original intention of the railway design was not only for civilian use, but also for transporting ore and maintaining the Far East region. Therefore, not only passenger trains, but also freight trains run on this railway. Therefore, there is more than one train on this line.

Tom was immediately confused: Which train is the train that the guild needs to take for the mission?

"...The Golden Eagle train is a luxury train specially designed for tourists. It was put into operation a few months ago. It has just been maintained in the past two days. You are here at the right time."

"Maintenance completed?" Tom noticed this meaningful word, "Isn't this train just installed a few months ago? Why does it need maintenance after only running for a few days?"

A look of embarrassment flashed across the conductor's face, "During the previous run, dozens of people disappeared from the train... The police judged that they were planning to sneak across to the train, so for safety reasons, they recovered the train and carried out It took a period of time for safety inspections - but you can rest assured that the current trains are absolutely safe."

Tom understood that this was not smuggling at all, but magic! It can be seen that the Golden Eagle Train is their mission target for this trip.

"Two tickets - in the same compartment," Hermione said before Tom, took out her bank card, paid the fare, and bought two double-room tickets for the Golden Eagle train.

The Golden Eagle train carriages are divided into three classes: Silver, Gold and Royal. Each train can carry 120 passengers and is also equipped with professional chefs and doctors. Hermione thought for a moment and chose the royal box.

The suites on luxury trains are also divided into three, six and nine classes. The most common silver suite is only 5.5 square meters. It is no different from the soft sleeper on ordinary trains, except that the decoration is nicer and more luxurious. The golden suite is 7 square meters and feels like an international student dormitory or a small hotel. The Royal Suite is a full 11 square meters - it's hard to imagine that you can have an 11 square meter box on a train, and the decoration inside is the same as that of a five-star hotel. The lighting is good and the room layout is not cramped at all, which can greatly enhance the riding experience.

Even though we have come, we still have this point, right? Why do you have to sacrifice yourself for a little money? Hermione thought this way: Just adding a few hundred million dollars would greatly improve her travel experience, so why not?

As a result of the comfortable experience, Tom looked at the invoice handed over and took a breath. Hermione, who was standing next to him, smiled and said, "Don't worry, I paid for the ticket."

"Young sister's great kindness will never be forgotten by Yoder. I can only do everything for you in the future..."

Hermione: (﹁“﹁)Contempt.

"I don't want you to work as a cow or a horse, or take care of the grass. I have decided to let you be my assistant, just like Sherlock Holmes and Watson-"

"Miss Holmes and her assistant sound good..." Tom also secretly made a decision. Since Hermione paid for the ticket, he would pay for the other expenses along the way - I hope the car Collect gold.

While the two were talking, the conductor swiped the card and successfully issued the ticket. She showed a happy smile - she would get a commission from Amway's Golden Eagle train ticket, which was also her motivation.

It stands to reason that the most profitable way for conductors is to collude with scalpers, find a way to sell all cheap tickets to scalpers, and then reap the profits from the ticket premium. But isn't the new federal government catching up with shock therapy and the economy is in a sluggish state? More people doing Golden Eagle Train? So titi is very delicious.

The Golden Eagle Train proposal is also a major failure of the Federation - the economy is in a sluggish state and the government is trying to develop the tourism industry in the Far East. As a result, there are not many people on the designed luxury train, and it can only barely maintain a balance of payments. If you really want to make money, you may have to wait until the political situation stabilizes, the economy grows, and there are more tourists - this may not be possible until the new century.

The sluggish occupancy rate has gradually reduced the number of trains. Only a handful of people like Tom and Hermione come to the train station to buy tickets. Most passengers have booked their tickets in advance.

Today is a coincidence, it happens to be the day when the Golden Eagle train departs. If Tom and the others had arrived a few hours later, they might have missed the train.

After taking the tickets, Tom and Hermione were taken to the station where the Golden Eagle train was parked by the specially sent stewards. The stewards of the Golden Eagle train were all blond and blue-eyed Slavic ladies with excellent temperament. They were collectively dressed in light blue and had an ethnic style. beautiful uniform. Under their leadership, a steam train with a sky-blue carriage appeared in front of them.

"The blue carriage matches Ravenclaw very well," Hermione praised as she looked at the sky-like color.

Under the guidance of the flight attendant, they boarded the train.

However, the moment he approached the train, Tom heard a crisp silver bell, and he couldn't help but stop, and Hermione also stopped. She didn't react at first, but later she realized that the sound was coming from the anklets tied to her ankles.

Tom's expression suddenly became serious. He originally thought that this mission was just a formality, and the real big boss had been eliminated by the elite Aurors, but he never expected that he met someone with malicious intentions towards Hermione as soon as he arrived at the platform.

But who could it be? Why would anyone have bad intentions for Hermione? Tom was a little confused. If the remnants of the purifiers on the train knew that they were wizards and were here to clear the train, they would definitely be hostile to them - but that would also require them to know that they are wizards!

How were he and Hermione exposed? Tom continued to step forward, while his brain was running rapidly: Is it because of what Hermione just said? Did the term "Ravenclaw" give away their whereabouts?

Then these two flight attendants are very questionable. After all, these two were the only ones who could hear their conversation.

"Will you accompany us on this trip?" Tom asked seemingly unintentionally the moment he stepped onto the car door.

"Of course, sir, we will be a member of the crew and accompany you on your journey." The two ladies gave a very official answer.

Tom knew it well and decided to keep an eye on the two stewards in the car to avoid falling into a trap.

They were taken to their private room by the stewardess.

"It's so big!" This was Hermione's first reaction after walking into her and Tom's box. How big is this private room? There is a very intuitive view: there are actually two windows in a private room, each of which is the size of a coffee table, making the carriage extremely bright.

"What a luxury." This was the second reaction. The basic color in the carriage is blue, and other than that there are all kinds of solid wood furniture: a sofa bed that looks very soft, and two tables - a dressing table and a dining table, and there are also Flowers, fruits and chilled champagne.

Chairs, sofas, toilets, showers, bathtubs...things that seemed out of reach of the train all appeared in this box.

Tom and Hermione put their luggage under the table, and then heard a "click" and "click" from the window. When Tom looked up, he thought "fuck" in his mind: he saw a big fiery red bird standing outside the car window staring at him, trying to get him to let him in.

After settling in Fox, the two headed to the train's luxury dining car amid the pleasant ringing of bells. What surprised them was that even though the two flight attendants had gone away, the bell on Hermione's anklet kept ringing with her footsteps.

"Is it broken?" Hermione came up with this idea. Although saying this somewhat hurt Tom's self-confidence, his alchemy level really did not reassure Hermione.

"Well, it makes sense." Not to mention Hermione, even Tom himself had little confidence in himself. After all, looking glasses are notoriously easy to break. Hermione's looking glass would make noise wherever she went. That's outrageous.

"Let me do the repair later. Now let's go eat."

They haven't eaten yet today and are already hungry. When Tom and Tom entered the dining car, they found that there were already several people scattered in the car.

There are actually acquaintances inside! The man in sunglasses they met on the street before was sitting with his female companion at a table by the window in the middle of the dining car.

When he saw Tom and Hermione coming in, an unnatural look flashed across his face, and he immediately looked away as if he hadn't seen anything.

Tom didn't bother to talk to this man. He chose a table in the corner and sat there with Hermione, quietly waiting for the waiter to arrive.

Sitting next to them was an elderly couple, both with Asian faces and wearing simple gray clothes. But since they can appear on this train, it means that the family background of these two people is not as poor as their clothes. In front of the old couple, there sat a thin young man with curly hair, small eyes, a pointed nose, and high cheekbones. He also had an Asian face.

In addition to these few people, there were still six or seven tourists sitting sparsely. It was already dinner time, but there were still only a dozen or so people in the dining car. Although there are few people, the entire train's passengers may be here.

"What would you like to eat?" A steward dressed like a stewardess appeared next to Hermione and handed over the menu for this train.

"Let's have some black tea and a piece of cheesecake first," Hermione wanted something sweet, so she ordered a dessert as an appetizer. Tom chose a French baked escargot - the snail meat was picked out, cut into pieces, marinated with butter, spices, and parsley, then stuffed back into the snail shell, and finally sealed with cheese and grilled. That's it. How to make a famous French dish. It’s spot-on and perfect as an appetizer with sliced ​​baguette.

"Please bring the chicken we ordered in advance." The old couple in the front seat did not order, but asked for a portion of the food they had ordered.

After ordering meals one by one, the waiter came back and brought back a cart full of food. He first placed a small plate with Russian-style paintings and a small palace-style silver spoon in front of Hermione, and then placed a very delicate small cream cheese cake firmly on the plate. After serving Hermione's meal, he placed a small snail-shaped plate containing six snails in front of Tom, along with a small basket of baguettes.

Immediately afterwards, he took out the food ordered by the old couple - two roast chickens! Wrap tightly in oil paper and put in a sealed jar. When the waiter took them out of the jar, tore off the oil paper and put them on the plate, a fresh and slightly salty aroma came out.

Tom couldn't help but swallowed: chickens and trains are a perfect match!

Perhaps feeling a little embarrassed, the old couple tore off a chicken leg and a large piece of chicken and handed them to Tom.

"Try it, this is a famous dish from our hometown," the elder of the old couple said, speaking fluent British English. The braised chicken on his plate was wrapped in seven or eight layers of oil paper inside and out, but it was still soaked by the oil that comes with the braised chicken. Now that it has been exposed in the carriage for a while, the smell of meat has lingered on the tips of several people's noses.

"The authentic Texas braised chicken is made from fat chickens that have been raised by farmers for three years. It has enough ingredients and is stewed for a long time. The aroma is soaked into the meat." Not only did he share the chicken, the old man was also very proud. After introducing the origin of the chicken in front of him, he suddenly narrowed the distance between himself, Tom and Hermione.

"Dezhou Braised Chicken, Daokou Roasted Chicken, Goubangzi Smoked Chicken and Fuliji Roasted Chicken are the four famous chickens in our area. You cannot miss them when taking the train. There are even greedy young people who miss the train in order to buy chicken. ..." The old man began to ramble on about the origins and historical stories of the four famous chickens, "...In my opinion, Texas braised chicken is the best - the chicken is firm, not greasy, and best eaten cold. The smoked chicken is the best, but Goubangzi is the best..."

While they chatted, the waiter served the guests. After the last dish was served, he took out a bouquet of flowers from the bottom of the trolley and placed it in the corner of the dining car for decoration.

Tom glanced at the bouquet of flowers and felt that the flowers were extremely beautiful and looked very strange.

"What kind of flower is that?" He poked Hermione next to him, but Hermione didn't know either.

In the fragrance of flowers, they enjoyed the feast in front of them.

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Happy New Year to everyone!