First-tirs in the Underworld definitely needed a guide, but the prerequisite was that the guide had to be soone they could trust.
Otherwise, things could get a lot more troubleso.
There was no need to say what the consequences would be if you brought a guy with ulterior motives into a dangerous place like that.
Did the bartender want money, or did he have other intentions?
Evan refused his offer directly. Neither he, Harry, Hermione, nor Ron trusted this man. They decided to go down on their own. Under the malicious gaze of the bartender, the four of them walked through the bar and entered the ssy kitchen.
“I don’t like that guy, and I don’t like this place even more,” said Ron bluntly.
“Keep your voice down, Ron, I have a bad feeling about this,” said Hermione. “Did he figure out who we are?”
“Probably not. We were wearing hoods, but he must have suspected sothing. The four of us don’t fit in here.”
“Yeah, it’s too obvious. The wisest thing to do is to leave here imdiately,” said Hermione.
“You’ve said this many tis, Hermione. We’re just going to take a look. Aren’t you curious about what’s going on there?” said Ron disapprovingly. “Even if he knows who we are, so what? With Evan here, what do we have to worry about?”
“If Malfoy knew that the four of us were following him because of this…”
“That would be great! I’d love to give him a good beating and make him spill everything about whatever plot he’s cooking up with those werewolves,” said Ron, covering his nose in disgust. “Bliy, this sll! It’s so disgusting!”
In front of them was a cave-like kitchen surrounded by rough stone walls.
Most of the light in the room ca from the fire at the back. The stairs leading to the basent were next to the fireplace. Particularly hideous-looking soot-covered pans and other cooking utensils hung from the dark ceiling.
There were also lots of things that looked like dried chunks of at.
But the most striking thing in the kitchen was the pile of blood and flesh on the chopping board that gave off a pungent sll.
From a distance just earlier, they couldn’t see it clearly, but now they could clearly see the ssily torn animal carcass.
“This place looks like a slaughterhouse!” said Ron. “Do they directly slaughter animals? Look at this, it’s disgusting.”
“It looks like they didn’t even use a knife — it was torn apart by hand,” said Harry, staring at the at in surprise.
“What kind of person would do that?” said Hermione, glancing at it before quickly turning away.
“It seems to be true, strange…” Evan squinted and moved closer to carefully observe the pieces of flesh and blood on the chopping board.
Not only were there signs of being torn, it also looked like it had been bitten by sothing.
Judging from the traces, it seed that not long ago, soone in this bar was actually eating raw at in this way.
Kitchen, raw at, werewolves… Suddenly, a horrifying thought crossed Evan’s mind.
He turned around and saw the bartender looking at them. In the dim light, only his outline was visible.
“Here are the stairs, co on,” said Hermione, holding out her wand. “Lumos.”
In the light of the wand, they walked down the stairs. There were many huge wine barrels in the basent, and no one was there.
Evan thought about the idea he had just had and asked, “Did you notice the eyes of the bartender?”
“I saw that his eyes were bloodshot, like he didn’t get any sleep last night,” Hermione recalled.
“It’s obvious, how can you sleep well living in a place like this?”
“It’s not the bloodshot, but the color of his irises and his pupils…” said Evan, “Those weren’t normal human eyes. I’ve seen signs like that before — on Lupin. That guy might be a werewolf.”
“Werewolf!”
As soon as Evan said this, Harry, Hermione, and Ron all turned to look at him in shock.
If that were true, it was terrifying — a chilling realization.
The bartender had just warned them to be careful of werewolves here, but now Evan said that he himself might be one.
“I’m not sure. After all, werewolves are no different from ordinary people before they transform, with only so subtle differences. The light just now was too dim, and I didn’t see other features,” said Evan. “But the piece of at in the kitchen upstairs reminded — normal people don’t tear apart at like that, and those bite marks… I can’t think of any creature besides a werewolf that would eat raw at.”
“There were definitely bite marks on that piece of at,” said Harry. He turned around and saw nothing behind him.
He had an indescribable strange feeling, as if he was being watched. This bar was really eerie and strange.
“Besides, he reminded us that Malfoy was picked up by a werewolf, which in itself is suspicious, isn’t it?”
“I was just thinking about that,” Hermione analyzed. “If the werewolves here are really as powerful as he claims, and if the bartender were as afraid of them as he said, he wouldn’t have risked telling us that information for just a few Galleons.”
“Exactly, that’s what makes him suspicious,” Evan agreed. “Be careful, stay alert. If the bartender is not a werewolf, he must be a pervert with special hobbies. He won’t do nothing. We shouldn’t be too lonely from here on.”
Knockturn Alley was still technically under the Ministry’s control on the surface, so if they planned to make a move, it would happen once Evan and his friends entered the Underworld. The four of them looked out of place, making them perfect targets for a robbery.
This outco seed inevitable, but the bartender’s true identity gave them all an eerie, unsettling feeling.
Harry, Hermione and Ron were still discussing this topic. The three of them kept looking back to make sure no one was following them.
Evan ca to the north wall of the basent, looked at the wall carefully, and then tapped a brick lightly with his wand.
Like the thod of entering Diagon Alley from the Leaky Cauldron, this was a very common magical chanism of that era.
The brick he had touched quivered — it wriggled — in the middle, a small hole appeared — it grew wider and wider — a second later they were facing an archway onto a winding corridor paved with marble glowing with an ominous green light.
They stepped into the Underworld, following the passage to the caverns below. Contrary to their expectations, it wasn’t as dark as they’d imagined; in fact, the lighting here was better than inside the Murderer’s Bar.
The area was a hollow, circular space divided into three levels. From the top, they could see all the way to the bottom level in a diagonal line. Each level had nurous passages stretching outwards, leading deeper into the caverns or connecting to other underground areas.
This was the central area of the Underground World and was more lively than Knockturn Alley above.
Along the circular corridor, many wizards were setting up shabby stalls, and from ti to ti there were bursts of hawking sounds. The things sold were varied and of all kinds, not just limited to Dark magic items. Evan even saw soone selling cauldrons.
The prices of the cauldrons were much lower than those sold in Diagon Alley, so they were obviously not from a legitimate source…
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