Inside the crowded Hogsmeade pet shop, groups of girls gathered excitedly around the counter.
Through the noisy crowd and glass display case, Evan looked intently at the group of Pygmy Puffs bouncing around inside.
They were spherical in shape and covered in soft, custard-colored fur, and they hopped energetically within the glass enclosure.
Behind the counter, a clerk was explaining to Hermione, Elaine and other interested girls the latest in a wave of pets that had become very popular among young witches: the Pygmy Puff. The Pygmy Puff was a scavenger that would eat everything from leftovers to spiders, hardy and very easy to care for.
It was cute in appearance and docile in character. It had no objection to being cuddled or thrown about.
In addition to its cute appearance and docile nature, the Pygmy Puff had a particular preference for sticking its long pink tongue to lick things. This was also the main reason why many girls liked this strange creature, because this peculiar habit made it look even cuter and more lovable.
By the way, the Pygmy Puff also liked to crawl into holes, such as crawling into the noses of sleeping wizards and eating their bogies…
Young Pygmy Puffs often did this, waking up their sleeping owners, but they stopped doing it when they grew up.
Adult Pygmy Puffs grew to about the diameter of two or three fingers — too large to fit into nostrils or other small spaces.
The clerk told them that Pygmy Puffs had been popular as pets more than a decade ago, but were now becoming popular again.Many girls gathered around the counter, excitedly choosing their favorites. After observing carefully for a long time, Evan wasn’t particularly impressed. He thought a proper pet, like an owl, would be far more practical.
After all, thanks to their newfound popularity, Pygmy Puffs were selling for almost the same price as owls! But owls could deliver mail — what use was a Pygmy Puff, other than hopping around and sticking its tongue out?
For his question, the shop assistant’s concluding remark served as the perfect answer: “With their adorable looks, gentle temperament, soft and plush fur, cleanliness, affectionate nature, quiet demeanor, ease of care, unique talents, and portability, what’s not to love about Pygmy Puffs?”
It seemed that there was really no reason for it to be unpopular. From this point of view, the Pygmy Puff was really a good pet.
About twenty minutes later, the three of them left the store.
Elaine held a Pygmy Puff carefully in her palm, clearly very fond of it.
Hermione was also very interested in the Pygmy Puff, and the two were discussing what name to give it.
On this topic, Evan had no say at all.
Fortunately, this did not last long. The bitter wind was like knives on their faces. Hermione and Elaine did not continue the discussion for a long time. They tightened their hoods and hurried to the Hog’s Head Inn at the other end of the street.
Just as they arrived at the inn’s entrance, Evan saw a short wizard being roughly thrown out onto the street.
He seemed to be explaining something, but Aberforth, the gruff owner of the Hog’s Head Inn, had no intention of listening. With a forceful shove, he slammed the tavern door shut, cutting off the man mid-sentence.
Just before closing it, Aberforth glanced briefly at Evan, Hermione, and Elaine, who were not far away.
“Mundungus!” Evan shouted.
The squat, bandy-legged man with long, straggly, ginger hair jumped and dropped an ancient suitcase, which burst open, releasing what looked like the entire contents of a junk shop window.
“Oh, hello, Evan, it’s you. You scared me!” said Mundungus Fletcher, with a most unconvincing stab at airiness. “I’ve been waiting for you in there for a while.”
“What happened? Kicked out?”
“Nothing, just a little misunderstanding between me and the owner here from… back in the day,” He answered vaguely, appearing sneaky.
It was then that Evan recalled that Mundungus was an unwelcome customer at the Hog’s Head.
When they had formed the D.A. in the same bar the previous year, Mundungus had been present — though not in his usual appearance. Sirius had later explained that Mundungus had been banned from the Hog’s Head over two decades ago.
He could only enter the bar in disguise to avoid being recognized by Aberforth.
Evan thought that this might be because Mundungus was always doing illegal business in the Hog’s Head, and perhaps causing some trouble, which Aberforth could not tolerate, so he refused Mundungus to enter his bar.
This speculation was well-founded, as Evan was about to trade him for the corpse of a house-elf.
No normal bar owner would allow customers to trade such things in his bar.
“Is the thing I want ready?” Evan asked, thinking it would be better to finish the business quickly.
“It’s ready!” Mundungus said almost flatteringly, “Getting my hands on a house-elf… uh, on this wasn’t easy, mind you. Especially with all the conditions you set! Took a lot of effort, time, and Galleons. You wouldn’t believe how much these things fetch as magical materials in the underground market.”
Evan had his doubts. It was the first time he’d heard of a house-elf’s corpse being worth much, and Mundungus’s words were undoubtedly inflated nonsense.
“If it meets my requirements, you’ll get your payment,” said Evan. “Let me see it.”
“Wait, not here, let’s go that way!” said Mundungus, looking around and pointing in a direction.
That was the road leading to the Shrieking Shack, which normally had very few people, but in this kind of weather it was not impossible for someone to visit.
After he finished speaking, he began scrabbling on the ground to retrieve the contents of his suitcase with every appearance of a man eager to be gone.
“What are these?” Elaine asked curiously, “They look like a pile of junk. Are you selling them?”
“Oh, well, gotta scrape a living,” said Mundungus, and then he raised his voice and shouted to Hermione, who was squatting to pick up something silver, “Don’t touch that. Give it to me!”
“This tall goblet…” Hermione looked at the silverware in her hand, “this is the Black family crest! Oh my God, I finally know why it looks familiar. Did you steal these things from Sirius’s house?”
Mundungus stopped immediately, his body swayed a little, as if he wanted to run, but he held himself back.
“No, I didn’t steal!” he stammered, his tone flustered. “I was just helping Sirius clear out some rubbish. These are all things he didn’t want. You know, he threw them all away, and I just picked them up — repurposing junk…”
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