Chapter 1173 Diagon Alley After the War

Harry's nose fluttered when he arrived in Diagon Alley again, and he could vaguely smell the burning smell of war in the air.

Like Fred, George and Ron who arrived at the ruins of Diagon Alley first, he looked at the fireplace he had just stepped out of.

Just like the fireplaces inlaid on two walls of the Ministry of Magic's reception hall.

The ministry set up a half-mile-long, ten-foot-high wall leading to the industrial area, with fireplaces built into the wall as windows to Diagon Alley.

Harry moved a few steps away from the fireplace to make room for Hermione, Ginny, and Mrs. Weasley who were approaching.

The ground beneath his feet was not paved with the stylized cobblestones that Harry was familiar with, nor was it even cement or slate, but simply tamped ruins.

The Ministry of Magic obviously has no spare capacity to compact the entire destroyed Diagon Alley in a short period of time.

The compact land is limited to the drop-off platform area where they are located, and a road that leads straight into the wilderness. As for the location outside, it is still a ruined wall.

The broken support pillars pointing obliquely to the sky silently told people the fierceness and cruelty of the war.

"Diagon Alley"

Ginny murmured silently, and the Weasleys and Hermione were also speechless.

After all, the photos in the Daily Prophet are more impactful than seeing them in person!

Only Harry, who had been to the battlefield in person, was a little dazed by this.

"Don't be in a daze here, everyone, the people behind you are coming out!"

A wizard wearing a green armband saw them looking around blankly in front of the fireplace, shouted loudly, pushed through the crowd against the current, and walked towards them.

"Oh, sorry--"

Harry looked at the armband of the approaching wizard. The words 'Public Security Management' were written in silver on a green background. Presumably, he was hired by the Ministry of Magic to maintain order.

Harry nodded and apologized, then pointed to some wizards climbing up and down the ruins on both sides of the avenue, holding wands to cut molten crystal stones from time to time.

"Excuse me, are those people the owners of the shop here?"

"oh--"

The young wizard with short brown hair and the same scars on his nose as Ron glanced at the people climbing up and down the ruins, and said in a disapproving tone,

"Only a few are, most of them are scavengers who want to try their luck and find something valuable."

"Scavengers?"

Ron squinted his eyes to look at the clothes of those people, shook his head and disagreed.

"They're dressed better than me, Harry -"

Ron suddenly became excited,

"Maybe we can give it a try. There should be a lot of good things buried under the ruins!"

"I don't think that's necessary, Ron--"

Harry shook his head and said in a low tone,

"If you saw the battle between Professor Brain and Voldemort, you would know that there can't be anything left there."

The security warden had seen too many people pointing at Diagon Alley after the war these days. He was a little irritated and dropped everyone like Harry off at the exit of the platform and lined up in the passage surrounded by two rows of fences.

The buzz about Diagon Alley after the war came together like the buzzing of bees' wings.

Harry and the others listened carefully to people's opinions on the war and the fact that the commercial center of the British wizarding world was in ruins.

Unexpectedly, the majority of people's views are still optimistic.

Perhaps it was the Ministry of Magic's tough attitude towards the enemy and the fact that in recent days, the Daily Prophet had published numerous articles praising the victory in that war.

Everyone began to believe that the Ministry of Magic, with the support of Amosta Brain and Albus Dumbledore, was able to control the situation on a large level.

"You know, honey, it's a blessing that he--"

A woman wearing a yarmulke with several colorful feathers in her yarmulke didn't mind having her thoughts on the situation heard. She told her companions,

"I had been planning to leave London for a while but after the war I wasn't too worried.

A friend of mine is a reporter for the Daily Prophet. He was hiding in the rice field in front of him at the time. He told me that the mysterious man never took advantage of him from beginning to end. They were at least evenly matched, and, Dumbledore hasn't joined in yet! "

The three Harrys looked at each other and smiled.

They all knew who the 'him' in this woman's words was.

Some opinions about Diagon Alley surprised Harry even more.

"To be honest, nothing has changed here since I was born!"

An old lady with a cane and her gray hair tied into a bun like Professor McGonagall said to her equally old partner,

"Now this is somewhat new!"

Harry grinned and chuckled,

"Oh my god, does she really think Diagon Alley is good now?"

"Oh, of course not-"

Hermione didn't agree with the old lady's opinion. She looked at a marble pillar stuck in the ground with an outline of four or five feet in awe.

The pillar obviously belonged to Gringotts, but the original site of Gringotts was still hundreds of feet away. It was most likely blown over.

"The most important reason people can stay optimistic is that they know the Ministry can't just leave Diagon Alley alone."

Harry nodded, agreeing with Hermione's opinion.

"Hey, it's you!"

As soon as they followed the team out of the platform passage, someone waved their arms to greet them.

"Harry, Ron, Hermione!"

The people around them immediately glanced at them, and Harry was so scared that he quickly lowered his head.

"Ernie?"

Only Ron didn't have any psychological burden. He waved happily to their classmates in Hogwarts.

"Are you here to buy things too?"

"certainly!"

Ernie trotted over and said hello to everyone again.

"I came here with my mother. She was buying me a robe over there. I was a little bored, so I went out and walked around -"

Ernie said excitedly. He pointed at the stretches of ruins not far away and tried his best to lower his excited tone.

"This is really amazing, isn't it? It was all done by Professor Blaine. Oh, what a pity, our physical education class is going to end next semester, and we are not old enough to take the NEWTS course in physical education!"

Before they could answer the question, Ernie continued to talk,

"Hogwarts is about to start school. I'm so happy. I can finally see the Quidditch match this year. There are a few vacancies on the Hufflepuff team. I plan to persuade my mother to buy me a broomstick to play. Try your luck.

Harry, it goes without saying that you will still be the Seeker of Gryffindor, and Fred and George will not change. So, what about you, Ron, what are your plans? "

"Wood graduated, didn't he?"

Ron's heart was pounding, he bit his lip and muttered.

Harry nodded,

"I guess Angelina will become Gryffindor captain, Wood left. So that means we need to add a goalkeeper."

Ron's heart skipped a beat. He turned around and looked at Mrs. Weasley longingly.

A broomstick is expensive, Mrs. Weasley frowned unconsciously.

"Just a sweep, mother, no need for nimbus or firebolt."

Ron said pitifully.

"Oh, you're still counting on the Firebolt?"

Seeing Ron's miserable look, Mrs. Weasley smiled,

"Well, I don't think there's anything wrong with it, Ron. After all, it's all your money. You can go pick out a broomstick."

Ron had never cheered with such excitement all summer!

Ernie still needed to try on robes, and Harry and the Weasley family also needed to go to Gringotts to get money. Ron and Ernie made an appointment to go to the Quidditch boutique to look at brooms later.

They officially entered the post-disaster neighborhood of Diagon Alley.

Merchants set up magic tents on both sides of the road leveled by the Ministry of Magic. In order to let people know what they were selling, there was a large banner on the top of each tent with their original store name written on it.

They were pleased to find that most of the original shops were still doing business.

They strolled down the street and looked at the tent shops of different shapes on both sides of the road. They felt like they were back at the campsite during the Quidditch World Cup.

"It's quite amazing,"

Ginny also expressed the same opinion as Harry,

"I think it would be nice to retain this feature after Diagon Alley is rebuilt -" (End of Chapter)