Chapter 46: Chapter 46 - The Hog's Head Inn Hotel
With their documents in hand, Anna and Otto headed towards the exit when they heard a shout again.
"You empty-headed trolls, how many times do I have to tell you?! Don't stay in the center for too long! Do you want some fat ass like Dave Charpinton to land on you!?"
Realizing that Mr. Williams wasn't addressing them this time, they continued walking.
Exiting, as they understood from the sign, "Arrival Gate #2," they found themselves in an even larger hexagonal hall. In the middle of the hall stood a gigantic display board, comparable to what Otto had seen in Berlin airport. Frankly, it was challenging for them to estimate the size of this area—it was just enormous. If not for the continuous stream of people, they might have complained about wasting such a big space.
On each face of the hexagon was an arch with a sign. For example:
"Departure Gate #1"
"Departure Gate #2"
"Arrival Gate #1"
"Reception - Hog's Head Inn"
"Exit - Hogsmeade"
After reading the signs, they walked across the square towards the reception area.
In a couple of minutes, they arrived in an even larger hall, divided into two sections. At the entrance, there was a long hotel reception desk on the left, and on the right, a bar/restaurant separated from the counter by a very wide arch. In reality, it wasn't particularly needed there, as it almost didn't obstruct the view, standing there just to define the space where people ate from the entrance.
Approaching the reception desk, Otto asked the man holding a peculiar-shaped beetle in his hands, "Good morning. How much will a room for two cost for 3 days, and is it possible to extend it later?"
"Just a moment, sir. I'll answer this call and then assist you. In the meantime, you can have free coffee or tea; just sit on the sofa to the right for incoming guests. To order coffee, press the bell."
Otto nodded, though he didn't understand how someone could call on a beetle, and walked towards Anna.
"Let's go, dear, there's a waiting sofa over there."
Anna nodded and followed Otto to the sofa.
Sitting on the couch, Otto decided that free coffee could be enjoyed; in any case, he didn't know how long they'd have to wait. He noticed that behind the hotel counter, not just one person was working, but everyone had a beetle of a strange shape in their hands.
Otto pressed the bell, expecting a random cup of coffee or tea to appear before him. Instead, a creature with huge eyes and a long-nosed attire appeared in front of him, dressed as a butler.
"Morbus, pleased to serve you, sir. What do you desire? We offer 108 types of tea and 56 types of coffee. Here, please take a look," said the house-elf, handing Otto the menu.
Otto recognized the names of two types of tea from the list, and that was only because he had seen them on the news as extremely rare and expensive teas.
"We'll take two of these, and two sugar packets."
"Do you want sugar, sir? Not magical bee honey?"
"Let's have both," Anna said to conceal her husband's embarrassment.
"One moment, ma'am!"
With a snap of Morbus the house-elf's fingers, two cups of fragrant tea and a jar of honey appeared before them. To be honest, the Nelsons were afraid to touch such exquisite cups—they were clearly gold-rimmed and made of an unknown material.
"If the gentleman and lady need anything else, you can summon me at any time by pressing the bell. I'll be delighted to assist you!" joyfully said the house-elf and disappeared.
"And who was that?" Anna said in surprise.
"I'm curious too," Otto replied. Honestly, in the past two days, he had been surprised so many times that it seemed the emotion of surprise might soon atrophy from overstimulation.
Their contemplations were interrupted by the furious cry of a young woman behind the registration desk.
"Merlin's dirty underpants! Why the hell are there so many calls?! I can't answer three beetle-transmitters at once, I CAN'T! I'm going to complain to the owner!! I'll demand an expansion of the staff!! I refuse to work under such pressure!!! AND WHY so many orders for tickets to Hogwarts?! Make a separate line for that!!" She yelled, throwing large beetles in different directions.
"Bzzzz, the sound of the beetle's flight."
A chubby beetle, about 5-7 centimeters in length and round in shape, landed in front of Otto. Before Otto could remove it, he heard a voice coming from the beetle!
"Hey, are you still there? What about the ticket for the Hogwarts tour?!"
Otto was stunned. He already understood that this was something like a Muggle phone, but damn, how on earth do you even reject a call? And why did the beetle fly to him??
Yes, the beetle-phone was a recent purchase by Asmodeus. He bought a couple of them for 150 points each to make it easier to communicate with Grindelwald and organize the brigade. These beetles worked on the principle of pagers, but instead of an operator, there was a beetle in the middle. This way, you could communicate through them. More than that, they reproduced like crazy. They didn't even need to feed—they fed on sound waves, gradually accumulating them to bring new offspring into the world. Plus, they were very easy to tame, and some people even managed to keep them as pets. The downside was that each beetle could only keep 200 so-called contacts and remember them. Although Asmodeus considered this a downside, none of his acquaintances said he had too few available contacts. So he bought a couple of powerful speakers in the Muggle world and figured out how they worked. Thus, he and Nico created something like a magical speaker—though playing music on it was not possible, they managed to make it produce the sounds of waves crashing against rocks. That's how the first beetle phone farm was formed, and after a couple of weeks, Asmodeus opened branches throughout England. By the way, Asmodeus noticed that these beetles were gradually evolving, so some of them could have more contacts and occasionally different shapes and colors.
Otto took the beetle in his hand and tried to find something like a reset button. While he searched, he accidentally pressed the beetle on its belly and heard, "Call ended."
"Oh, interesting. How do you accept a call?" Anna said.
"You need to pat the beetle's belly three times," replied a female voice behind her. It was the woman who asked them to wait on the couch while she finished talking.
"Oh, sorry. It flew to us by itself, and we decided it would be better to just end the call, considering your colleague's condition..."
"Yes, thank you very much for that. Honestly, we can't handle such pressure. After the beetles spread across Europe, we have to deal with a couple of hundred calls a day, and sometimes several at once. On top of that, with each passing day, more and more wizards who used to be Squibs come to Hog's Head Inn, and we're also preparing to host the alchemists' congress organized by Nicolas Flamel... because of him, we're now overloaded with work. Every week, the boss hires another employee, but that's not enough. So, please forgive us for the inconvenience.
I've finished the call and am ready to assist you. Regarding your questions: the price for three nights will be 20 galleons without meals. If you include a buffet, then the price will be 30 galleons for three nights. Unfortunately, I can't answer about the possibility of extending your stay. Currently, we have the last double room available, and if you don't pay for it within an hour, it may be rented to someone else. Therefore, I can't say whether you'll be able to extend your stay later. Although there's a chance that other rooms will become available, and you may move to them if absolutely necessary. Are there any other questions you'd like to ask?"
"Not for now, but maybe later. For now, please give us a double room with meals for three nights, here are 30 galleons," Otto said, counting out 30 golden galleons from his pouch.
"All right, follow me to the registration desk. I'll check you in and give you the key to your room. The room is protected by anti-apparition magic, so no one can enter without a key. Well, except for house-elves, but they've never stolen anything from a wizard in history. So your belongings will be perfectly safe," said Rose, the woman behind the registration desk.
After a couple of minutes, Otto was already holding the key. If it weren't for what Rose said about the anti-apparition magic, he would never have believed that this old-style key could protect against any burglars.
"Follow me," said Rose, exiting the desk.
Otto and Anna followed her. After passing through the restaurant/bar area, they arrived at a wide staircase. Climbing to the third floor, they saw a corridor that seemed to stretch on forever. Frankly, they still couldn't grasp the size of this building. Based on what they saw inside, it felt like their hometown was smaller than this structure.
"Go straight down the corridor; your room is 19. For any questions, you can contact the registration desk through the beetle-phone in your room. To call, just say, 'Connect to the registration desk,' and we'll answer immediately. You can order lunch in your room, but I'd recommend having dinner downstairs. Since we're currently overwhelmed, the housekeepers can't manage to deliver dinner to the rooms. Sorry for the inconvenience," Rose explained, bidding farewell to the Nelson couple.
"Thank you," said Otto, taking Anna's hand, and they continued down the corridor.
"16"
"17"
"18"
"Here we are, 19."
Otto inserted the key into the lock and opened the door.
The couple stood in astonishment.
Was this really a double room in a hotel? Not a three-room apartment?
Opening the door, they saw a huge living room; the area of just this room felt like at least 80 square meters. Beautiful and sophisticated decorations adorned the space. Not the kind you usually find in expensive hotels—too flamboyant and garish—but elegant and stylish.
"Darling, maybe we should buy an apartment in the magical world?" Anna asked, sitting on the couch in the middle of the living room.
"I had the same thought," replied Otto.
For the next half hour, Otto and Anna enjoyed the splendid room. However, they didn't forget why they came to England: to buy a magic wand and understand the magical world. Otto decided it was time to leave; it was already 13:10, and he wanted to make it to the bank before 15:00.
"Did you forget anything in the room?" Otto asked, closing the door with the key.
"No, I have my bag with everything I need. Let's go quickly; I want to see the flying carpet Miranda mentioned!"
Descending again, Otto approached the registration desk.
"Could you tell us where the nearest parking for flying carpets is?"
"At the exit, turn right and walk about 150 meters. The parking is on the left. Although I'm not sure if there will be available drivers today."
Otto frowned. "Why do you think so?"
"Because of the alchemists' congress. They shuttle back and forth in search of materials and equipment. Drivers know there's no such thing as poor alchemists, so they try to serve only them. But I can order a taxi for you right from the hotel, though we charge a 3-sickle commission. So the ride to Adastra shopping street will cost you 28 sickles, around 2 galleons."
After some thought, Otto decided that, although he would pay a bit more, it was better than being left without transportation. He didn't want to use the portal for such a short distance. As Miranda said, it's better to enjoy the views here.
"Order it, here are two galleons. We'll wait at the entrance."
"Alright, in a couple of minutes, a dark blue flying carpet will pick you up. I'll inform the driver about your clothing and appearance so he can recognize you."
"Thank you, goodbye," Otto said, heading towards Anna, who was sitting on the couch.
"Let's go; I've ordered a taxi since they mentioned we might not find available drivers in the parking lot. They're busy with some alchemists' gathering."
"Oh, well, let's go," Anna said, getting up from the couch.
They headed towards the exit, and upon leaving the building, they were once again astonished.
"Dear, doesn't it seem strange? Did we really come out of there?"
"Yes, exactly..."
"Then why does this building look so... disproportionate?"
"I don't know," Otto said, entering and exiting the building.
They couldn't understand why what they initially imagined as a massive hotel turned out to be more like a mansion, albeit larger than ordinary houses. But it was certainly not as extensive as it appeared from the inside; at first glance from outside, it shouldn't be more than 1000 square meters. But only the restaurant area in the middle of the hotel seemed to be over 1000 square meters.
"It's the Discreet Expansion spell!"
They heard a voice from somewhere above.
Raising their heads, they saw the dark blue carpet and a middle-aged man sitting on it.
"Are you the Nelson family?"
"Yes, we are."
"Then I've come for you. Get on board; I'll take you quickly and safely!" The man said, gradually lowering the carpet to Anna's knee height.
Sitting on the flying carpet, they ascended into the air and leisurely flew towards a small village in the distance. While Anna enjoyed the scenery, Otto asked the driver about the Discreet Expansion spell.
"Actually, its application used to be strictly limited by the Ministry of Magic. But recently, it seems Fudge has been replaced, and he started passing good laws. Now you can use the Discreet Expansion spell as much as you want, as long as Muggles don't notice you.
Because of this, most wizards now live in huge houses, and the shops have become larger. You know, when I bought my wand, Ollivanders' store was three times smaller, and as a child, I thought if I slammed the door hard enough, his wand boxes would collapse like a house of cards."
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