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Chapter 641: Step 1: Contact With the Merpeople

While Hermione and Tonks continued their conversation, Evan and Lupin were also talking.

“Evan, don’t worry about Tonks. She’s one of us. We’ve known each other for a long time. She’s always been like this,” said Lupin with a wry smile, looking helplessly at Tonks, who had changed her hair color on the other side of the room. “You may not know that her mother, Andromeda, is Sirius’s cousin and she had also been disowned by the Black family.”

“Sirius has told me that Andromeda was his favorite cousin. Because she married a Muggle-born wizard, she’d been removed from the Black family tree,” said Evan. “I can trust Tonks … is there anything else? I have to go back!”

He was ready to leave. He did not want to stay here and disturb Lupin and Tonks to be alone and develop their feelings. Besides, Sirius and Harry were still waiting for him and Hermione in the Shrieking Shack.

“It’s not good for you two to stay here for too long, if someone finds out, you’ll be in trouble!” Lupin nodded, took out a cloth bag and handed it to Evan. “These are the gifts you asked me to buy for you some time ago. They are all made by the best craftsmen. They are very exquisite. I personally selected them and the Merpeople should be satisfied.”

“I hope so!” Evan took it and sighed.

It was really difficult to deal with the Merpeople. After several consecutive communications, he worked so hard just to make the Merpeople not turn around and run away at his sight, nothing more. To further deepen their feelings and trust, he still needed to continue giving them gifts.

Fortunately, through this period of contact, Evan found that besides music, the Merpeople also liked all kinds of human-made items, such as furniture, mirrors, all kinds of jewelry and so on, which were very popular among the Hogwarts Merpeople clan.

For these items, they were willing to exchange some herbs and magic materials that grew deep in the lake. Among them, Evan had selected all the precious and rare magic materials to make potions and refine alchemy.

The rest of the ordinary stuff would be handed over to Fred and George, who were used to make prank props.

These materials provided by the Merpeople far exceed the original value of the goods exchanged with Evan, and the profit of the transaction was very high. Even if there was no clue about Ravenclaw’s secret treasure key, he was willing to continue the transactions.

More than ten minutes later, Evan and Hermione Apparated back to the Shrieking Shack.

Sirius announced that Evan could use Apparition alone. He also gave him a copy of Common Mistakes in Apparition and Ways to Avoid Them. It was an exam textbook printed by the Ministry of Magic, which summarized various problems and solutions that could occur in Apparition.

Not sure how long it would take to communicate and trade with the Merpeople, Evan had decided to act after dinner.

He greeted Hermione and asked her to cover for him.

In the eyes of others, the two of them, like other couples, went to a secret place in the castle for a date after dinner. But in fact, Evan was going to dive alone into the lake outside. Because of worry, Hermione wanted to go with him, but he deterred her!

It was not so peaceful under the lake. It was more convenient for him to move alone, and he didn’t need to be distracted protecting Hermione.

He and Hermione slipped out of the castle, mingling in the crowd after supper, before the sky was completely dark.

Many Durmstrang students were leaning on the side of the ship to chat, and there was laughter and noise.

Through the huge shadows of the castle and the statues on the lawn, they bypassed the large ship of Durmstrang, and Evan walked from the other end to the lake.

The lake was very cold, and his rapidly numbing feet were slipping over silt and flat, slimy stones.

When the bitter wind blew, he shivered, took out his wand and cast two spells on himself with the fastest speed.

There was a bubble around Evan’s head. That was the Bubble-Head Charm!

Under the action of the warm-up spell, the lake was no longer cold and piercing, just a little cool. Given the surrounding temperature, it was still uncomfortable to soak in it.

That was one of the reasons why Evan did not let Hermione follow him. On the coldest night of January, it was not a pleasant experience to dive into the dark and cold water of the lake and contact some rather terrifying Merpeople.

If he had a choice, he would rather curl up on the sofa next to the warm and comfortable fire in the Common Room and read quietly.

Evan shook his head and finally glanced at Hermione standing on the shore, turned over and flung himself forward into the water.

Silence pressed upon his ears as he soared over a strange, dark, foggy landscape, avoiding the places where the giant squid often appeared and the large water plants where the Grindylows might be lurking, and went to the Merpeople village at the bottom of the lake. 

The Merpeople colony tonight was very lively. It seemed that there was a ritual activity, and the Merpeople all came out from rough stones.

When Evan approached, he saw more than two hundred Merpeople gathered all over the square in the middle of the village.

They were barely dressed up, all with long hair, and their iron-gray skin was painted with strange patterns of dye. From time to time, their powerful, silver tails were beating the water.

Their dark green hair was long and disheveled, but it was decorated with shells, corals and pearls. They wore thick ropes of pebbles around their necks. The same was true for their bodies that were full of various ornaments.

They were just talking about something and kept spitting bubbles, as though they were waiting for something.

Evan landed at the edge of the circular square, took all kinds of things that Lupin had given him out of his cloth bag and placed them at the bottom of the lake.

While eavesdropping on the Merpeople’s conversation, he was wondering what they were doing.

Noticing Evan’s presence, many Merpeople faces showed a trace of joy. It didn’t take long for some of them to come and trade with him.

They picked out their favorite items from the things Evan brought, and then they went back to their homes and moved out a pile of materials for exchange.

The whole exchange process was going on very fast and easier than expected.

The Merpeople did not bargain at all, and the materials given to Evan were of great value and quantity, far exceeding the actual value of the goods he brought.

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