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Chapter 241: Store Planning and Design

“He used to be like this, very stubborn! But as long as it is a reasonable advice, he will most likely give in…”

Looking at Sirius’s back, Lupin told Evan, Harry, and Hermione a few anecdotes about Sirius’s schooldays and made everyone laugh.

In laughter, they came to 36 Diagon Alley, the Black family’s shop.

It was a three-storey street-front shop, located on the corner of the other side of the street, just across the street from Ollivanders Wand Shop, next to the Apothecary, and across a dark alley north of it was the Eeylops Owl Emporium.

That was where Hagrid purchased Hedwig, Harry’s pet, and gave it to him.

In addition to the pet store, the Apothecary was also a famous potion ingredient shop in Diagon Alley.Because the prices were low, Evan often mail-ordered a lot of magic potion ingredients from them.

The outer wall of the magic store was a dark brown brick with only a narrow window. Inside, Barrels of slimy stuff stood on the floor; jars of herbs, dried roots, and bright powders lined the walls; bundles of feathers, strings of fangs, and snarled claws hung from the ceiling.

The goods inside were fascinating, but because of their nature, the store smelled horrible, like a mixture of bad eggs and rotted cabbages.

Worse than that, 36 Diagon Alley was right next to it.

The old bricks were incomplete, and they looked extremely desolate and worn. The two semi-circular windows were covered with dust thick enough to make the inside invisible from outside the shop. Between the windows laid a black, bruised wooden door, covered with worm holes and traces of people scratching it with sharp objects, giving off a rotten smell.

Evan wiped the dust off the window and stood on tiptoe to look inside.

Through a curtain full of dense dust, he saw scattered pieces of furniture and trash everywhere. In a crack in the top corner of the window, there was a brown spider the size of a saucer. The whole place looked like a haunted house.

“It seems like this shop has been idle for more than ten years and has never been used.” Lupin explained, “A lot of people wondered if there was something wrong with it, so it’s been idle, but they didn’t expect it to be the Blacks’ property!”

He pulled out his wand and knocked on the wooden door of the shop.

With a bang, the door opened.

At the very moment of opening the door, a great deal of dust splashed.

Everyone hurriedly covered their nose and stepped back several steps.

Seeing the unexpected intruders, inside the shop, a frightened mouse scurried past, squeaking.

They walked in and left clear footprints on the creaking floor.

The store was decorated with the usual luxury of the Blacks, and its shabby furniture was made entirely of precious mahogany and teak.

Perhaps because of this, it was also the object of thieves’ focus.

Everything of slight value in the store disappeared or was destroyed, and the wreckage of various gorgeous ornaments and furniture was scattered on the ground.

The rear windows were also smashed, and a cold wind blew in. No doubt, the thieves crawled in from there.

From the outside, this shop was bad enough; the inside was terrible to the extreme.

If they wanted to use it and open it for business, almost everything needed to be renewed.

“It really takes a lot of effort to clean this up.” Hermione wrinkled her nose, took out her wand and said to a carpet, “Scourgify!”

Pink soap bubbles immediately appeared on the carpet, but it didn’t work. There was so much dust that the bright soap bubbles instantly turned black and muddy.

Hermione was not willing to give up. She waved her wand and read the spell several times.

“Don’t waste your efforts, Hermione, throw the carpet away.” Evan said covering his forehead, “Furniture and office supplies can be purchased. But you’re right, and as you just said, this place really needs a cleaning. This is not a small workload!”

“This house has been empty for many years, enough for a lot of things to breed. You must be careful when you clean it up.” Lupin squatted in front of a cupboard and peeped through the keyhole. “It seems to be a Boggart here. You’d better let him out before you clean it up.”

“It’s crazy to clean up a place that’s been abandoned for more than a decade. I don’t want to spend the rest of my Christmas vacation here.” Harry walked upstairs and gasped. “This store is much more spacious than it looks from outside. The space above is very large, and there is even more garbage than there is downstairs.”

“Do not worry, Harry! I think three days should be enough. We can get Dobby and Kreacher to help. House-elves are very good at doing this kind of thing.” Evan also went upstairs and looked around, nodding with satisfaction. “We will visit Ron in a moment, so we can also ask the Weasley family to help with the cleaning. Here’s what I’m thinking the first floor and the second floor are enough for the newspaper headquarters. The groung floor can be used for other purposes, for example, selling Fred and George’s joke products…”

“Both of them will be happy. Since last semester, they’ve started owl mail-order services at school!” Harry said, “The products they developed are very interesting and very popular.”

“They’re also very dangerous and disgusting.” Hermione disagreed. “Look at what they did last semester. They made big Dungbombs that smelled all over the hallway. The whole corridor was full of stink. It was hard to clean them up!”

“That’s for Filch to worry about. Besides the Slytherin Tower, they have not used that kind of thing anywhere else in school.” Evan said with a guilty conscience.

He did not dare to tell Hermione that the birth of Dungbombs was actually his suggestion. The theory used, however, was inspired by Hermione’s contribution to a newspaper article on metamorphosis, to find a way to activate Dungbombs in a way that makes them obey the user’s instructions.

“There is a lot of space here; lots of counters can be placed. In addition to Fred and George’s joke products, they can also sell whatever other young wizards need for their studies.” Seeing Hermione still wanting to continue on the joke products, Evan hurriedly said, “For example, with potions made by our Potion class; besides taking out a little for Snape to score, all the rest is thrown away, it is such a waste. We can put them here, and sell them at a much lower price than the competition.”

“That’s a good idea, provided that Snape can agree with us.” Harry interrupted.

“He will agree. The potions are originally made by the students themselves. He has no reason to refuse.” Evan walked down to the ground floor of the store, contemplating future plans and projects. “In addition to the potions, everything made by the young wizards can be sold. Hogwarts’ name should be the ideal promotion tool!”