A shopping spree and a familiar!

After taking care of the business in Gringots, Konrad went out shopping. His first stop was a shop specialized in selling magically enchanted trunks and bags, like the the mokeskin pouch he purchased from the goblins. He needed somewhere to put his purchases. He spend over fifty gallons on a trunk similar to the one Newt Scammander possessed, but not as big. It was only the size of a bigger room but it should be easily enough for the foreseeable future. He also bought another mokeskin pouch with a notice me not charm applied to it. He wanted to give it to Hermione with a book of basic spells inside. He was sure she would love it.

After taking care of the carrying space, Konrad moved to the closest book shop. It turned out to be a second-hand book shop. Konrad instantly went looking for basic books of spells and started memorizing them one after the other and before two hours passed, he had memorized all the spell books normally used through the seven years of Hogwarts, he still needed to process the information inside his head but he would have much easier time now with the knowledge of actual spells. But he realized he didn't have so much time to just stay here reading all the books and the shopkeeper was starting to look at him weirdly. Konrad decided to just take them home so he just bought the spell books and a few books about potions and went for Flourish and Blotts to look for books he missed.

In the end he went out of there lighter by three hundred gallons, but his trunk was filled with many many books about different subjects he thought necessary. He would made a library inside the trunk later, because now it's all just stuffed in a big pile in the center of the trunk.

He was reading through the potion book on the way to the apothecary. He wanted to start his potion making journey so he needed ingredients. The clerk was more than happy to sell him a little of everything and then little more. Konrad put it in a neat pile beside the books and then spend 10 minutes looking for the stasis charm in his mind and then learning it quickly. He had to go through the memorized books quickly and finally found it in the "fifth year repository of spells". He of course didn't want the ingredients to go bad and he always wondered why the wizards never used this spell for that.

After buying al the necessary equipment like cauldrons in Potage's Cauldron Shop, Konrad went for the Magical Menagerie. The shop sold pets and other magical supplies, and Konrad of course wanted to get a familiar. But the more he looked through the different cages the more disappointed he was, nothing caught his eye, the normal pets like cats, dogs, rats, and toads didn't grab his attention at all. He saw many snakes in the cages, he was a parseltongue, so he could understand them but quickly realized that the snakes in this shop were just rude... they didn't like wizards who caught them, and all the time they spend just cursing and laughing at people who walked around. The reason why he didn't go for an owl was because he simply didn't want one, he had no need for her now and it would be problematic if he brought her home. He was just about to call it a day and go back home when something caught his attention. A tiny snake maybe a little over ten inches long was looking at him curiously. It was all black with a dark grey belly, on his head it had small white horns and on the tip of its tail, similar white spikes could be seen. It's eyes were green just like konrad's and in the middle of his forehead a purple crystal was situated.

'No way!' Konrad thought 'wouldn't that be a horned serpent?!' Konrad quickly searched in his trunk for a book on magical creatures, he passed through briefly in the shop. Soon he found a page about Horned serpents. A horned serpents were large magical snakes with many magical properties. They usually inhabited bodies of water but this one here didn't have any water other than a small bowl to drink from. Horned serpents were very smart and the crystal on their forehead is supposed to have flying and invisibility properties. That's why horned serpents were mostly hunted for. 'But what I'm most curious about is what is it doing here in the shop where any student can buy it? This is an XXXXX beast! Well I guess I can just ask...'

§"Hello?"§ started Konrad in parseltongue.

§"sssHello Ssspeakersss."§ Replied the small snake.

§"I'm sssory but what sssuch a powerful ssspecie like you isss doing in a place like this? Aren't you a horned Ssserpent?"§ Konrad asked.

§"I don't know about thatsss, I was born here from my egg a few dayssss ago and from that time I hid under the rock right heressss"§ said the snake, Konrad realized that the snake was only a little child and she seemed scarred. Then he asked what make him curious.

§" then how do you know about me being a Ssspeaker, and aren't you sssscarred of me?"§

§"Sspeaker is Sspeaker I don't understand your quessstion."§ replied the snake.

§"I Sssee... doesss the wizard who tendsss to the creaturesss here knowsss about you?"§ Konrad asked.

§"He knowsss I'm here but he never sssaw me"§.

'Ahh that explains what is she still doing here' Konrad though.

§"Then would you like to become my friend and come with me? I can show you the world outside and give you whatever food you want?"§ Konrad asked the snake. The snake perked up at that and started waving his head quickly. Konrad could hear a sound of happy hissing that he could translate into:

§"Yessyessyessyessyessssssss! Pleasse I'd like to come with you, I don't want to sssstay in this trap any minute longer"§

§"haha then wait a minute and Don't ssshow yourself, when the cage opensss you would quickly jump into whatever container me or the clerk usessss."§

§"okaysss"§ replied the snake.

Konrad went to the clerk.

"Excuse me, I'd like to have the snake from this terrarium." Konrad pointed at the terrarium where the horned snake hid.

"Oh it hatched only a few days ago and i didn't yet manage to se him good enough to discern its species. We got his egg after an auror raid on a breeding facility which commenced an illegal species crossing" said the clerk. 'Oh so there's a chance it's a hybrid? Interesting but it would explain its unnatural coloration.' Konrad thought.

"Since you want to buy it, I assume you saw it could you tell me what is it?" Said the clerk, he most likely wanted to know it so he could measure the price. Konrad took out a pouch with fifty galeons, many times more than most of the creatures in the shop. A little wandless confundo to make the clerk easier take the bribe. And went to open the terrarium.

"Keep the change."

Konrad opened the top and hissed quietly.§"into the sssleeve"§ The snake did just that and Konrad felt it wrapping around his arm.

"Have a nice day!" Konrad said and left the shop. The clerk looked in his direction with a blank expression "...you too..."

——-

As much as Konrad wanted to visit Knockturn alley, he decided to postpone it until he could really take on an adult wizard. He would learn all he could from the books he bought and train a bit before he would try anything like that. That's why he was at the moment going in the direction of the abandoned building where he wanted to establish his apparition point. On the way he chatted with the snake. He first realized it was a she, so he wanted to give her a proper name. Different ideas came through his mind, he thought about her horns and snickered when he thought about calling her Horny, then he thought about the most obvious choice.

§"I'll call you Cristal!"§ Konrad hissed. Cristal hissed happily moving inside Konrad's sleeve.

§"I like it, Crisstal, my name isss cryssstal hehehesss"§. Said Cristal.

Suddenly Konrad felt magic moving between them. When he focused his mage sight he saw a thin wispy magical line between them 'it's must be the familiar connection' Konrad thought.

They spend the rest of the road learning about each other... well mostly Konrad telling Cristal about himself, since Cristal was only a few days old. Finally Konrad stood again in front of the abandoned building. He checked that the place was empty and then looked through his trunk to find a book with wards so he could cast a Muggle repealing one and a similar for wizards other than himself, he needed to engrave some runes on a stone or something, he didn't know runes but he just followed instructions and after a few tries while using his own intent magic to engrave the runes on a lose brick he activated the runes and cast the spells (of course he didn't forget to add himself to the wards)

.

.

.

'I think it works' Konrad watched as a ward bubble similar to the one around the Leaky Cauldron grew around the property. He checked by asking a random person very ,,convincingly,, if he could check inside and the guy just turned away on the door murmuring something about leaving his iron on.

'Yep it works' Konrad thought.

§"what did you do?"§ asked Cristal.

Konrad explained to her what he did and she listened attentively.

§"I sssee ssso we can now live here unbothered!"§ She exclaimed.

§"oh, no it'ss jusst a sssafe place to move from home to here and back"§ Konrad said and then apparated home.

§"where are we?!"Asked surprised Cristal.

§"thisss isss my room. we jussst apparated here, and sssorry, apparition isssn't exssactly pleasssant but at leassst my isss probably the most comfortable among all the wizards... Anywaysss, My friend isss coming tomorrow, ssso. . .

Konrad and Cristal spend the rest of the day chatting with each other and getting ,,familiar,, with each other, while also preparing placing and composing the stuff he bought inside the trunk.

When the day came to an end, there was a six year old boy sleeping In his bed with a small snake curled beside him both of them, even the snake seemed to have a happy expression. That's how Konrad's trip to Diagon alley came to an end.