Chapter 734: Epilogue: Weasley

The lift opened in the central area of the floating island, and the people inside came out in a heap, and Ron laughed: “Floating island, I’m back.” He was followed by a short-haired witch, who held a small red-haired girl in one hand.

“Stop it,” Collins smacked Ron on the back as she looked around and asked, “Do we need to meet up with our families first?”

“No worries,” Ron whispered rubbing his shoulders and picking up the little redhead, “Percy won’t be here until this afternoon, so let’s stroll around first and then go to the hotel, I heard that lots of old friends are staying there and there will be a party in the evening.”

The three of them stopped by the busy street and watched the passers-by.

“It’s a shame that little Hugo couldn’t come with us, but one is more than enough to suffer.” Ron said happily, “Let’s snap a few more pictures and tell him about it when we get back.”

“Didn’t you say it might get dangerous?” Collins said without a smile, “That’s why I left him in my mother’s care.”

“That’s what I said, but it’s not like we’re the ones in danger.” Ron puffed out his chest, “You guys can go wherever you want, just don’t forget to use my name.”

Collins was suddenly tempted to roll her eyes.

“So can I go play in Knockturn Alley?” The little redhead asked, sucking on her finger.

“Rose, we’re thousands of miles away from Knockturn Alley, and it’s da … well, of course, we can,” Ron said without thinking: “The next time the Ministry searches for prohibited items, let’s take the opportunity to blend in with the Auror squad — Wait, your mother is in charge of that area.” Rose looked expectantly at Collins, trying to find the slightest possibility of favouritism in her mother’s face, and then she silently withdrew her gaze and stopped talking.

“Can you two stop talking about illegal practices all the time and trying to make it look like I am the bad one.” Collins complained.

“Well Rose, let’s talk about something else, who made you have a Head of Auror office as a mom.” Ron said, “Your aunt raided the Malfoy place some time ago – that’s our family’s arch-enemy, O Merlin, Harry must have wanted to topple the Malfoys as a major step in his career, but unfortunately only a few minions were taken away at the end, but I guess old Malfoy might have been scared enough … he has a popular and influential son. When we went to school, we did not have a good relationship, your father’s grades always crushed him every time -”

Collins looked at Rose, who was listening intently with an adoring expression, and Ron, who was describing it in graphic detail with squinted eyes.

“Are you sure, it’s true? If not, let’s ask others… …”

“Ahem, I mean, I suppressed him in certain subjects,” Ron revised his words at light speed, “It absolutely really couldn’t be any truer, Harry will vouch for me!”

The three of them wandered around the narrow streets aimlessly, sometimes walking to find a wall in front of them and having to use magic to make a narrow stone path; on the island, you can immediately distinguish which plots belong to wizards and which belong to muggle government institutions and research institutes. Like right now – it is obvious that it is not well-planned to normal people’s eyes, but Ron and the group found these obstructions quite entertaining, and they went quite well with the different styles of houses and the wide range of stores around them.

“Four square, perfectly sized, everything required to be symmetrical and measured with a ruler like Crouch Sr.’s beard is actually quite intimidating.”

This is the central area of the floating island, it is believed that the bonfire was held in this vicinity, some iconic landmarks are preserved, such as a group of statues standing in the center of the fountain, each holding a burning torch that will not go out; everywhere you can see magical creature-shaped rubbish cans, just knock on its head, it will open its mouth and eat the rubbish into its stomach, some weird monsters will also burp in a bizarre manner.

In addition to the stores and street view, there are a number of small mobile vendors pushing carts. Ron fell in love with a set of simple scuba gear in front of a stall, “Your grandfather will absolutely love it, but he probably might have already bought it. His personal garage has expanded fourfold since he retired!” In addition to scuba diving gear, they even found merchandise of Weasleys’ Wizard Wheezes.

“Are they selling well?” Ron inquired the vendor.

“Excellent, especially these two items. There’s a discount for buying them together, sir, ma’am.” The vendor enthusiastically promoted the two items to them, one being an underwater firework, while the other being some kind of smoke cloak, which by the logo appeared to be a collaboration product between Weasleys’ Wizard Wheezes and Diggory. Ron paid and asked Collins as they walked away, “I heard Fred and George talking about working on a firework designed to be used underwater a long time ago, but since when did Cedric enter the trick market?”

As a fellow Tournament of Champions team member, Collins has maintained a good friendship with Cedric and Roger Davies and knows more about their recent developments.

“He didn’t. He and Cho Chang.” Collins said, “The two of them have focused on public welfare in recent years, Cedric invented the transfiguration smoke for extensive utilization in the medical field, and for various functions in magic dolls, though later he joined the ‘Floating Island Commercial Security Agreement’ to ensure that his research results will not be used for military or illegal Use, which is guaranteed by the two thousand investigators of the International Pan-Magic Alliance around the world.”

“There are goblins in there!” Their daughter Rose shouted.

“There must be hundreds of goblins here, you know, they take their property very seriously.” Collins explained to her daughter, “It’s said that many Muggle doctors are proud to own a set of goblin-made scalpels, though I’ve heard they’re relatively uncommon …”

“Why?” Rose asked.

“This, well, it falls under the controversial issue of ownership. The Alliance allows goblins to keep their own racial traditions, but when trading with other races, they must make a written notification about this point, otherwise, the trade will not be protected; and goblins are known for their stubbornness.”

“Don’t be fooled, those goblins are smart,” Ron interjected: “I have dealt with a batch of prohibited items, which includes a few pieces of silver jewellery made by goblins, but the goblins refused to admit it because those pieces are not marked!”

Collins was a little surprised, “This is completely against the goblin’s concept of ownership, are you sure it’s a goblin creation?”

“Of course,” Ron affirmed, “just look at the look in their eyes. Think about it, when their addiction to money-making and traditional concepts clash … it’s not surprising for a group of goblins to decide not to inscribe their names and sell their products on the black market; what a bunch of sneaky guys! But sometimes goblins will deliberately carve some mean words on it, I remember a doctor mentioning it in a newspaper some time ago, he was holding a scalpel inscribed with ‘Scrooge’ … or maybe the goblins’ naming style has changed, all I know is one long beard and grubby goblin.” He added.

Collins and Rose laughed out loud and at that moment, Ron’s attention was suddenly drawn away by something, and Collins followed Ron’s gaze and saw a tall, broad-chested man at a stall that sold hats not far away.

Ron withdrew his gaze and grunted, “Might have mistaken, I don’t even remember much about …”

“Who did you have in mind?”

“Harry’s cousin! The one who sent a gift at Harry and Ginny’s wedding.”

Collins immediately gave a look of realization as she looked once again at the hat stand, which was already swarmed with crowds. They walked in the opposite direction and saw huge posters in front of a theatre. “François Clutoy special recital,” Ron read the words on the poster, “Would you like to give it a try?” Rose nodded repeatedly.

Collins pointed to the date of the recital on the poster, which was yesterday.

“Oh, crap.” Ron and Rose said at the same time. Ron looked for a reason and tried to change the topic, “Actually, it’s good that we missed it, we can save our energy for the mascot show, but unfortunately, there’s no Veela this year, I saw it once a long time ago, and the feeling–”

“Ron!”

“Ahem, nothing to see.” Ron said with a straight face to Rose, who was blinking curiously, “You’re a girl, if your brother had come over-” “Her brother is only three.” “– Oh, yeah, you reminded me … want ice cream?” He hastily changed the subject, and Collins’ eyes were on the verge of spitting fire.

The family of three exhaled as they stood in front of a mobile ice cream truck.

“How’s business?”

“Not bad.”

As Collins and Rose selected their ice cream, Ron chatted with the store owner, and within two minutes they were talking about the price of the ice cream truck. “I’ve always wanted one.” Ron said with some envy, and the vendor replied to him, “Five hundred galleons. But you can rent it for just two galleons a day by registering on the island.”

Ron’s eyes lit up, by which time Collins had already picked her choice, “One strawberry and peanut butter ice cream, and one floating island chocolate & nut ice cream. How about you, Ron?”

“I’ll have the chocolate one.” Ron said, Collins pouted and glared at him, so he hurriedly said, “We can switch.”

The vendor got busy, and he pulled out his wand – Ron looked at the row of gems on his wand and couldn’t help but let out an audible gasp – “I’m a magic-insensitive wizard.” The shopkeeper said with little to no interest, then the gems on the wand lit up one by one, he waved his wand and soon three ice creams were made, the strawberry one looked like a flowing volcano, the chocolate one looked like a full ice cream had been slapped flat with some flowery candy particles sprinkled on top, but there is one key feature: a little chocolate snake spitting its tongue and glaring at them.

“I kind of understand, the little chocolate snake, but it didn’t bite its tail – what’s that?” Ron asked, pointing to the splattered debris.

“A house on a floating island.” The vendor said, “The little snake does not bite the tail because it has another purpose, it will compete with you to grab -” he stopped talking abruptly.

“What did you say?” Ron asked as he handed one chocolate ice cream to Rose, and bit off the snake’s head in the process.

The vendor was speechless.

Probably sensing the vendor’s inner turmoil, Collins took the initiative to ask: “The wand you’re holding is a custom-made one? I am referring to the magic on it, your spell casting is very smooth and instant …”

“Ah, yes,” the vendor said with a sigh of relief, “Future World offers a custom order service, but now they have distributed this business to several other companies, there are some wizards who specialize in this, what do they call, call it … Magic Path Design, which uses a limited amount of magic to achieve a series of complex effects. It’s not just ice cream making, you can create one for all walks of life. It’s very impressive.”

At this point, there was a sudden clamour in the street, and a large group of people gathered around there.

“There’s a fight going on!”

The ice cream truck owner calmly pressed the red button on the truck in front of Ron’s family, and then said with no small amount of satisfaction, “This is a locator-cum-alarm device, it will only take twenty seconds for someone on duty to come – what are you doing?”

Ron and Collins raised their wands high at the same time, ready for battle. But after a few seconds, they realized it seemed to be just an ordinary drunken fight.

“Leave it to me.” Ron said confidently as he lowered his wand, a black chess piece somehow appeared in his hand, and after aiming in that direction he threw it towards the crowd. The ‘knight’ piece came to life in mid-air and became larger and larger – “Bang!” The knight landed heavily with his horse, smashing a deep crater; the obsidian-like tall horse excitedly grinded on the ground, half of its body was protected by the extension of the knight’s steel armour, which was 12 or 13 feet high, and everyone was startled by the sudden appearance of this big fellow.

“Unrelated individuals – Retreat!” The knight shouted majestically from his horse.

The surface of his armour shone with a metallic sheen, and then the mask of the knight’s helmet popped open, revealing a face that looks similar to Ron’s face inside. The crowd gave space and two drunken men stared dumbfounded at the black knight approaching them on his horse, as they shivered in place – the broadsword in the knight’s hand looked like a huge door plank, seemingly capable of slapping the two men flat in one fell swoop, he walked slowly, but no one doubted how violent the force would be when the knight launched his attack.

Both troublemakers sobered up completely and loosened up their hands at the same time.

“Look.” Ron said smugly as he walked over and just when he was about to speak, two wizards descended from the sky.

“What’s going on?” One of them asked in a serious voice, no one in the crowd of tourists said anything, instead, they looked behind him in silence, the male wizard turned his head a little stiffly, “Hiss!” He took two steps back and fumbled to pull out a walkie-talkie-like gadget, ready to call for backup.

“Don’t!” Ron and the other wizard shouted at the same time.

A few minutes later, the knight disappeared with a bang, reverting back into a chess piece, and Ron and Tonks walked together, though Ron’s expression was a bit downcast.

“Let’s see if you will keep showing off blindly in the future.” Collins lectured.

“He did sort of help,” Tonks said objectively, and Ron raised an eyebrow in disbelief when he heard Tonks continue, “At least he didn’t throw out a full set of wizard’s chess pieces, from that point of view … ”

————–

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