The Prince's Tale

【7】Delivery□□

[…Wizard pharmacies must sell herbal medicines and medicines purchased by prescription, and can optionally sell cosmetics with medical effects. Please refer to the appendix for a detailed list; pharmacies must provide purchase guidance, preparation of medicines, preliminary diagnosis and door-to-door services.Pharmacies can recommend at least two hospitals or three therapists to customers at the same time with reasons, but no rigid requirements are allowed. ——"British Wizarding Pharmacist Practice Guidelines (No.20 Revised Edition)"]

This time, neither Edward nor I mentioned what happened that night.Nothing of that night—Sirius Black's grievous wound, the milky ointment I made, and the sentence I didn't finish—had left no trace in our lives.

Edward didn't tell me any more about James Potter and Sirius Black, as if that night was just a dream of mine.Edward and I are like two hedgehogs in the cold wind, cautiously getting closer to keep warm, but cautiously keeping a distance, for fear that the thorns on our bodies will pierce each other if we are not careful.

I don't know if it's because we have been deliberately keeping a distance, but the relationship between us is actually very stable.In the blink of an eye, the stormy [-], Edward is still my boyfriend.We've become the model couple of Diagon Alley.The neighbors all started to care about when we were going to get married.

Neither of us mentioned marriage very tacitly.Although I am used to this warm relationship with each other, I am not sure whether I want to live with Edward Jones for the rest of my life.To be honest, I have always been repulsed by the matter of marriage.Maybe this sense of rejection came from when I decided to run away from marriage seven years ago, or maybe it was even longer before—in those broken memories that I buried deeply and didn't want to recall.

Although the war has started, life still has to go on.In the past three years, the tax policy of the Ministry of Magic on Diagon Alley shops has been constantly changing, and the general trend is that the tax point is getting higher and higher.But these extra gold Galleons and silver Sickles paid every month did not stop those vicious incidents from happening.

But wool always comes from sheep.With the increase in tax points, prices in Diagon Alley are rising.This phenomenon is not obvious in Edward's Quidditch boutique or Anna's silver shop, but it is very obvious in my drugstore.A small bottle of white fresh essence that originally cost fifteen Sickles has now sold for three Galleons.

Every few days, I raise the price of the in-demand drug again.People from the Trading Commission came to see me, but they couldn't do anything - because most of the shops in Diagon Alley do that.

Listen to all my stories before you jump up and yell at me.

Almost all stores will have a "home delivery" service.This kind of service is a piece of cake for bookstores, Quidditch boutiques or clothing stores.They just need a few more owls to solve all the problems.But working in a pharmacy, I can't leave everything to a flying owl.

the reason is simple.Some of the potions we make are extremely delicate.A little extra magic or a little extra shock will have an effect on the medicinal properties of the potion.So we will not give this delicate potion to owls.In my limited knowledge of the history of pharmacies, pharmacies had to use broomsticks or Muggle transportation to transport medicines before Dagworth Granger invented the medicine chest for apparation.

I wasn't overly impressed with the service when I was still an apprentice at a pharmacy.On the one hand, I was really squeezed by Tiffany; on the other hand, the service was outsourced at the time.Every day at two o'clock in the afternoon, a person in blue overalls will come to pick up the medicine that needs to be delivered. They have all undergone professional training and hold the qualification certificate for medicine transportation.

In 1980, the delivery fee of the transportation company was one Galleon three times; in [-], the delivery fee soared to three Galleons once; and in [-], the transportation company that signed the delivery agreement with us closed down.It's not that they don't make money.It's just that at the beginning of that year, a drug delivery worker was shot and killed while delivering the medicine, and then they couldn't recruit anyone who was willing to be a drug delivery worker.

I thought hard all night, and finally adjusted the delivery fee to five Galleons once wisely, thinking that customers would not choose home delivery.However, orders to deliver medicines continued to pour in.

I didn't give up, and set the time to deliver the medicines on Mondays and Thursdays every week, but the orders kept coming.I was dumbfounded, completely desperate.

It seems that everyone takes their own lives very seriously.I, who scurry around with a medicine chest twice a week, look like a fool by comparison.

One day in March [-], it was cloudy and rainy.At this time, the delivery fee has risen to seven Galleons once.I packed the medicine box as usual, opened the door and walked out of the pharmacy.

I locked the door, listened to the jingle of the wind chimes in the house, and sighed, wondering if I could hear such a crisp and beautiful sound again.

Before apparating, I pulled out a note from my pocket and read the long list of addresses carefully.

The first address is a small town in the south of England, the second is a cottage by the sea, the third is in the Scottish Highlands (I'm glad I'm wearing a thick sweater), and the fourth is in Hogsmoor De... No. 20 an address (and last) in London that looked like a Muggle street, which I didn't pay much attention to at the time.

I didn't expect that the problem happened to be the No.20 address that I didn't pay much attention to.At 05:30 in the afternoon, I rejected a kindly old witch's tempting offer to save me a cup of honey citron tea, reluctantly stepped out of the warm house, and apparated into that street.There was no one on the street, and the weeds on the side of the road were half as tall as a person.

I looked at the house number and found that the house I was looking for was at the end of the street. After 3 minutes, I walked to the door of the house and rang the bell.I noticed that the paint on the black railing next to it had started to peel.

I rang the doorbell for about 5 minutes, but there was still no response from the people in the house.I finally couldn't help shouting at the top of my voice: "Is there anyone in there? I'm here to deliver medicine! If you have anyone, please open the door. If there is no one, I will put it at the door. I may lose something. Irresponsible! I'm still waiting to go back for dinner!"

The house remained motionless.Cursing, I took a crystal bottle from the medicine cabinet, trying to resist the urge to throw it in the yard.It was at this point that things took a turn for the better——

The door of the house opens a crack, creating the illusion that someone is about to come out of the house.

It was at this time that seven or eight hooded figures jumped up from the weeds.In the open space outside the house, spells in different directions and colors became denser and denser, as if they were going to weave into a dense light net to cover me.

It took me two seconds to realize what had happened.I hastily closed the medicine chest, ready to Apparate away before the men got close.

Unfortunately, I failed to get my wish.A hooded man pointed his wand at me. Before I could react, another man rushed up and clamped my arm tightly. Immediately, I felt the darkness around me, as if I had been stuffed into a piece of rubber In the tube, all the air in the lungs was squeezed out.

The man took me to apparate to a river—what I expected to be a dark dungeon filled with dark magic.I fell down on the wet river beach, breathed the fresh air greedily, looked at the quietly flowing river and the sparkling river surface, and suddenly had an illusion, as if those killings and pains were far away in another world .

The man who led me away from that chaotic battlefield stood quietly beside me.I raised my face and cast my eyes on this man who was either a Death Eater or a member of the Order of the Phoenix.Honestly, I'd rather be from the Order of the Phoenix.The man's hood fell down, revealing smooth chestnut hair like mine, eyes the same color and shape as mine.

Two pairs of almost identical eyes meet together.Shock came out of my eyes.

William Prince.

His appearance has not changed much, but he has completed the transformation from a boy to a man.He looks mature, stable, resolute, and dependable, but the fatigue and oldness that he sometimes reveals startle me.

From mine to 25, I hadn't seen him for almost seven years.In the past seven years, we have each experienced so many things that when we meet again, there is no way to talk about it.

We just stared at each other's familiar faces for a long time, silent as two marble statues.The sound of running water in the distance seemed to have magical powers, which relieved the tension and embarrassment of none of us talking, and slowly soothed my beating heart.I have many, many things I want to ask him, but I hesitate and never have the courage to break the silence.I'm terrified that the answer I'll end up with isn't the one I want, but the reality I've been avoiding.

After an unknown amount of time, he looked away and said in a low voice:

"I have to go now."

"Wait!" I finally shouted in a panic, but he didn't look at me anymore, he just stared at the golden river, leaving me with a perfect profile, "You...are you okay?" I muttered He said, asking such a silly question.

He seemed to have taken a lot of effort to curl the corners of his lips. "It couldn't be better." He replied.

After speaking, he did not leave me any more time to cry or say goodbye. He turned around gracefully and decisively, facing the sunset by the river, his body was covered with golden divine light.With a crack of air, he disappeared before my eyes.

I closed my eyes, feeling the outline of him still on my retina, and finally the cold liquid slid down my cheek silently.I put my arms around my legs, and then I felt a pain in my arm-it was just left by William.I can almost conclude that bruises have been left, but I am still very grateful for the continuous pain. It seems that only in this way can I prove that this person once existed and that he is not my illusion.

Not everyone who played a major role in your life will have a grand farewell when they choose to leave.At that time, you will feel that the day is ordinary and no different.When you finally discover the difference on that day, those people and things in the past really become an incomplete past that can no longer be pieced together.