"Come on!" Tom led the two dazed-looking people to the fireplace. At this point, Ron couldn't believe it: the school teacher would actually take them out of school to take their chances!
Tom had the courage to take on this mission, and he had something to fall back on. He had brought with him his alchemical puppet, the [Sister], who had been transformed to be more versatile in her magical abilities, and with this puppet, Tom would be able to deal with any kind of danger that came his way.
From the top of the fireplace, Tom took a small silver vial containing some glowing powder. The powder was called Flú powder, and all you had to do was sprinkle it on the fire, and then shout the name of the place you were going to in a clear voice, and you could travel there in the Flú net.
When the first green flames were raised, Tom's quest to "kill demons on horseback" was renewed.
[Mission: "Kill demons on horseback" (Prologue)]
[Act 1 begins]
[Quest objective: Investigate the attack on the luxury train with Harry Potter and Ron Weasley, your first priority is to travel together to London and find the key to the investigation]
[Quest Reward: 20 magical stones, opening act 2 of the quest]
This is the first time Tom's system has issued a series of quests like this. The Prologue - Act 1 reward may seem a bit meager, but after all, it's only the beginning of the quest, and the difficulty of completing it is so low that it's almost like giving away magic stones for nothing.
"Diagon Alley!" Ron was the first to go, grabbing a pinch of glowing powder from the jar, dropping it into the fire, the flames turned turquoise, Ron stood up, shouting "Diagon Alley," and the next second he was gone.
Harry followed, and this time he was not mistaken, Tom heard him clearly, he had shouted "Diagon Alley" and not some other strange place name. Tom stood at the end and waited for the two to disappear and then mimicked Harry and the others doing the same.
Funny to say that the most confident person among the three is the rookie who experienced Flu for the first time: this is Tom's first time using the Flú net.
After throwing the Flú powder, he approached the flame. The flame had no burning or stinging pain, just a warm feeling, like lying on an electric blanket in winter, and a little tingling.
"Diagon Alley!"
His body spun sharply, a deafening whistling sound entered his ears, a sensation that made him a little dizzy, a series of blurry flashes of fireplace doors flashed briefly, and finally he stopped and stepped through a fireplace door.
Tom stumbled forward twice, almost falling, and when he got up he found himself in the Leaky Cauldron, with Harry and Ron standing in front of him.
"Lo..."
Ron made the first sound before Tom covered his mouth, then quickly pulled out a mask and put it on, covering his face completely. He had dyed his blond hair black, so it was hard for an outsider to tell that this was the famous Lockhart.
It was Saturday night and the Leaky Cauldron was full of people, and Tom's presence attracted a few stares, but the drinkers only returned a glance before looking away.
Tom led the two out of the bar door.
"Are you crazy? are you shouting my name in public because you're afraid others won't find us?" He said to Ron. Tom was now a traffic star, Lockhart, and if anyone found out, the consequences would be dire. They would surely be mobbed by rabid fans, which was fine with Tom: it was the weekend, what was wrong with the professor going out into Diagon Alley? But Harry and Ron were in for a real treat.
They were both students, and getting caught sneaking out of Hogwarts meant at least a week's punishment, plus a howling letter from Mrs. Weasley.
Ron reacted with a sense of horror, and now he was very glad that Professor Lockhart had been quick.
Outside the Leaky Cauldron was a depressed street, completely empty of pedestrians. Tom looked back at Harry and Ron, who were dressed in casual clothes, not wizarding robes. They weren't dressed fashionably, but they weren't out of place either. He, on the other hand, was dressed in robes that didn't fit the Muggle world.
But that's not a problem. Tom took Lockhart's wand and pointed it on himself, and the tunic changed into a well-fitting gray suit. All of Lockhart's robes had various incantations, including a useful little spell like self-disguise.
"Professor, shall we begin our investigation?" Ron was getting a little impatient.
"No, let's find a place to stay." Tom looked up at the completely darkened sky and decided to look for a place to stay first. Tom walked out of the street where the Leaky Cauldron was located and into the busy shopping streets of London.
Tom hailed a cab, leaving Harry and Ron in the back and him in the front row of the passenger seat. Tom was dressed in a fine handmade cloth suit, Harry and Ron were two teenagers in jeans and sweaters, all of them fitting well separately, but together they looked odd.
This made the driver take a little more notice of them.
"Please take us to the nearest hotel, the more stars the better." said Tom to the driver. Although it seemed a bit strange to him, but there were so many rich people in Britain that the cab driver didn't mind. He stepped on the accelerator, a puff of smoke came out of the tailpipe and the cab started off at full speed.
It soon took Tom and the others down the street to a hotel. Along the way, Tom chatted with the driver: he wanted to know if there were any supernatural stories. For from the details he remembered, he knew that what Evans had experienced had happened on a London train not long before.
Cab drivers were knowledgeable people, and he might get a surprise from them. Even if he didn't know it, he had nothing to lose: the standard three-stroke mentality, and the opportunity to chat along the way.
All cabbies like to talk, and Tom's cabbie was no exception.
But they soon dropped the subject.
"We have a circle of drivers, we're very knowledgeable, even more so than the Downing Street bigwigs." said the middle-aged, fat, big-bellied driver, tapping the steering wheel proudly and haughtily.
"Really?" Tom wasn't convinced, why were all cab drivers in the world's capitals the same? They talked about national issues with aplomb, and made predictions even more unreliable than those of the big shots.