Edward was quite surprised by the sight in front of him, he knew, at least he believed, that he was not the only person in the world who could have these powers since the day he acquired his powers or the day he awakened his magic.
He knew that after leaving the hotel with its medieval atmosphere and design, he would encounter witches and wizards, but, Thousands?
This was quite unexpected for Edward, if there were approximately thousands of witches and wizards in one place, what were their exact numbers?
Edward's eyebrows were raised and his mouth was still slightly open as he examined his surroundings, Alfred was no different from him, they both had similar questions running through their minds.
McGonagall, on the other hand, spoke calmly, without any change in her expression, as she was used to surprised expressions.
''First, we should go to the bank I mentioned, Gringotts, to convert your muggle money into Galleons.'' she said, clasping her hands on her stomach.
Edward was the first to come out of his surprise and nodded in approval, while turning his face back to stoic, then Alfred shook his head nervously after getting over his surprise.
After seeing that the two of them approved of him, McGonagall crossed the street at the crosswalk, they followed her and started walking on the sidewalks towards the building that attracted everyone's attention with its white marble in the middle of Diagon Alley.
While Edward was following McGonagall on the sidewalks, his attention was drawn to the horse carriages pulled by various creatures on the road.
These carriages were simple and elegant, but the one that caught everyone's attention was an extravagant carriage in green and black, practically dripping with wealth.
On the carriage, Edward assumed that it was the house coat of arms, and a shield surrounded by spears, the letter ''M'' was clearly visible, while one of the spears of the shield had two snakes on the end, and on the sides of the shield were creatures that looked like sea horses.
While Edward was calmly examining the carriage, a couple he thought were in their thirties but couldn't be sure, got out of the carriage.
The woman had blonde hair and blue eyes, and had a rather stern face.
The man had blond hair like a woman, his eyes were more gray than blue, and he had a look of disdain for everyone around him.
After the couple got out of the carriage, a third blond head got out of the carriage.
The boy's physical features were a mixture of his parents, but if the arrogant and condescending expression on his face was any indication, his personality definitely took after his father.
As the family got out of the carriage, everyone in front of them made way for them.
When Edward turned his attention from the carriage to McGonagall, he saw that she still had the same calm and stern expression on her face, then McGonagall took her gaze away from that family and continued walking at the same speed towards that white building.
Edward continued to follow her, but since his thoughts were still on that family, he wanted to enlighten himself by asking McGonagall.
"Professor, how important is this family?"
McGonagall answered without even turning her head to look as she continued walking.
''The Malfoys are one of the Sacred 28 Families and although their Guild has lost much of its power, they are still quite influential.''
Edward didn't quite understand what McGonagall meant by the Sacred and the Guilds, but from McGonagall's tone, he could tell that she didn't want to talk much about this family.
Edward picked up the pace to keep up with McGonagall's pace and when he realized that she didn't want to talk much about it, he decided to ask about something else.
''Professor, how many wizards and witches are there in Britain exactly?''
This question caught McGonagall's attention and she stopped suddenly and looked over her shoulder at Edward.
''According to the Ministry's latest census, there are around 40 thousand.'' she said calmly and continued walking.
Edward was surprised by the number again because he couldn't understand why they were still hidden.
Edward had been working hard to discover his abilities since he had awakened his magic at the age of 5.
Since he still didn't have enough knowledge about this world, he was sure that if he put himself at the basic level, the witches and wizards could easily take over the United Kingdom.
Edward continued to follow McGonagall with questions in his mind, but he didn't ask any more questions, after all, asking a question like "Why aren't you conquering the world?" was pretty ridiculous, if they weren't, or rather couldn't, there must be something stopping them, and Edward would find out what it was sooner or later.
They crossed another pedestrian crossing and finally reached the white marble steps of Grigotts.
The thing that caught Edward's eye the most as they climbed the stairs was the statues of the Armored Dwarfs on the right and left sides of the wide stairs.
While Edward was examining the statues, they finally climbed the last step, and saw a large iron door and two armored dwarves guarding the door.
McGonagall walked towards the door without paying much attention to the dwarves, the silver stone on the iron door quickly scanned McGonagall, when it matched, the silver stone glowed green and the doors opened.
Edward entered the bank behind McGonagall, not paying any attention to the dwarves for now.
The first thing Edward noticed after passing through the doors was a wall with the name of the bank written on it, the doors on either side of the reception desk, and the female dwarf at the reception desk.
McGonagall calmly approached the female dwarf who was using her magic to tend to her nails.
Despite being aware that McGonagall was waiting in front of the reception desk, she continued to ignore her.
Edward was surprised by the receptionist's behavior, but he preferred to observe rather than delve into a subject he had no idea about.
McGonagall's eyebrows twitched, she sighed and muttered under her breath, 'Always the same attitude' then cleared her throat.
The female Dwarf continued to ignore her for a few short seconds, but finally stopped working with her nails and looked at McGonagall.
"How can I help you?" she said calmly.
''We need to convert Muggle money into Galleons,'' Minerva replied calmly.
''Door on the right, 4th elevator from the right,'' the receptionist dwarf replied, clicking a few things in the mirror on her desk and chewing her gum noisily.
As soon as the dwarf finished speaking, the doors on the right opened and McGonagall began walking without waiting another second.
Edward continued to follow McGonagall calmly, as they passed through the elegant black wood doors, a corridor with many golden elevator doors appeared in front of them.
McGonagall walked towards the elevator the dwarf had mentioned, the elevator door opened as McGonagall, Edward and Alfred appeared in front of the door, and the trio quickly entered the elevator.
After the trio entered the elevator, it automatically started to descend to the floor specified by the receptionist dwarf.
After a short journey, the doors opened and they were met with Muggle parents or witches and wizards dealing with dwarf bankers.
McGonagall quickly exited the elevator and headed towards a banker's desk that was currently available, with Edward and his servant following her.
Seeing the trio approaching, the dwarf looked up at them and asked in a bored, almost hostile tone.
"How much muggle money do you want to convert into Galleons?"
Edward asked calmly. "How much can I convert?"
"Muggleborns can convert up to 100 Galleons worth of pounds or muggle money into Galleons per year," he said in the same tone.
Edward nodded and extended his hand towards Alfred, who quickly took a few bundles of pounds from one of his bags and placed them in Edward's hand.
Edward placed the stacks of pounds on the table, the dwarf dragged the coins across his desk and opened one of his desk drawers and poured them all in there but surprisingly the stacks of money weren't piled up in the small drawer, Edward was curious so he tried to look a little closer and succeeded, the drawer looked like a black hole, it seemed to have no end.
While Edward was distracted by the drawer, the dwarf had already filled a pouch with 100 Galleons and when he put it on the table, Edward's attention was finally drawn from the drawer to the pouch that made a noise when it fell on the table.
Edward reached for the pouch and lifted it off the table and didn't feel any weight, it seemed like it was empty and also the pouch looked a little small but when Edward shook the pouch he could tell that it was full from the sound it made.
After examining the pouch enough, Edward handed it to Alfred and McGonagall, who was silently examining everything, spoke.
"Then let's go do your shopping Mr. BlackHeart."
Edward looked at McGonagall and gave her a calm, closed-eyed smile before speaking.
''I'm sorry, but unfortunately not yet Professor,'' Edward said and turned his attention back to the dwarf.
''It's quite normal for paper money to have little value in the Wizarding World, but is the same true for these?'' Edward said and took a briefcase from Alfred, placed it on the table and opened it.
The handbag The bag was opened to reveal 10 gold bars that were carefully placed inside, shining brightly.
The dwarf's eyebrows raised when he saw the gold bars, then he pulled himself together, it was not befitting of dwarven honor to lose himself in front of a wizard.
"You're right little wizard, gold is gold everywhere," said the dwarf after he finished examining the reality of the gold with his magical tools.
Edward smiled at the dwarf's words and asked calmly.
"And how much are you willing to buy these gold bars from me, Mr.?"
"Grumpion," he said his name to Edward.
"Mr. Grumpion," Edward finished his sentence.
"You have 10 bars, I can give you 40 Galleons per bar."
"Done," Edward said as he closed the handbag and gently pushed it towards the dwarf on the table. He wanted to shake hands, people usually made this gesture to seal the deal, but he didn't want to risk trying to shake hands in the magical world because he still didn't know enough about this world.
The dwarf took the bag from the table and put it on the floor, then took out another bag and put a total of 400 Galleons in it and put it on the table, this time he was more gentle than before and didn't throw it away, after all it wasn't every day a Muggleborn thought of selling them gold.
Edward took the bag from the table and gave it to Alfred again, he continued to tolerate the dwarves' disrespect and didn't let his pride cloud his thinking because the most important thing he realized was that he was in a completely new world right now.
McGonagall watched Edward's interaction with the dwarf with interest, after all it wasn't every day that a Muggleborn sold gold to a dwarf, but the boy in front of him was no ordinary Muggleborn, he was the Grand Duke of the Blackheart Dynasty, which had been around for almost 2000 years, and a member of the Royal Family through his mother.
"Are you done, Mr. BlackHeart?" McGonagall asked as she watched Edward hand the purse to Alfred.
"Yes, I'm quite ready to go shopping for school now, Professor."
***
Author :
English is not my native language so please let me know if you see any spelling mistakes.
Please comment a lot, reading comments really motivates me to write. Also, I always welcome your suggestions, complaints and questions.
If you haven't read the supporting chapters in the Auxilary Volume, please don't forget to read them. I think you will get a little idea of what the Fanfic will be like and how it will progress.