Chapter 242: St Mungo's Hospital for Magical Sickness and Injuries

Ivan, Harry and Hermione eagerly discussed the future design and planning of the store, the products that could be sold there, prices, etc.

Lupin was alone on the premises to check for latent dangers and hazards. In less than ten minutes, he discovered two Boggarts, a dozen mice and spider nests, a large group of Doxies, plus Bundimuns.

Bundimuns are a kind of miracle creature that could survive and thrive with ease.

At rest, Bundimuns resemble a patch of greenish mushrooms to the eyes. Skilled at crawling under floorboards and behind baseboards, they infest homes.

The presence of a Bundimun is usually announced by a fetid stench of decay.

Once it appears in a house, the Bundimun oozes a secretion that rots the very foundation of the dwelling in which it is found.

"Too bad, we need to deal with these Bundimuns as soon as possible!" Lupin opened a piece of floor, indicating to Ivan, Harry and Hermione to look inside.

Ivan saw a bunch of Bundimuns under the rotten floor, and as they were alarmed, they scurried hastily away on their numerous spindly legs.

"In general, cleansing charms rid a house of an infestation of Bundimuns." Lupin clapped his hands and stood up. "But there are too many Bundimuns here, and it's not easy to take action. It's likely to have extremely serious consequences, and the place may even collapse. We need to contact the Pest Branch of the Department of Magical Creature Regulation and Control. They will send someone to deal with this matter."

As Lupin said, the premises had been abandoned for a long time, and unlike 12 Grimmauld Place, it was not protected by magic and was in very poor condition.

Just as they were studying how to deal with the troublesome creatures living in the store, Sirius walked in.

He had replaced the wand with a new one: a beautiful black wand, hawthorn wood and Dragonheart string core. In addition to the new wand, he carried a cage in his hand. Inside was a beautiful owl that hooted excitedly at the sight of Ivan and the others.

"I went to the owl store next door and bought this owl, ready to give it to the Weasley boy named Ron." Sirius said, "He might be willing to raise this owl. After all, because of me, he lost his rat..."

"He'll be delighted. Ron has always wanted his own pet," Harry said.

"As long as he likes it!" Sirius smiled, put the cage on the floor, walked into the tent and looked around. "Ivan, how do you feel about it?"

"The design is very good. It's similar to what I imagined, but it needs to be cleaned. Before you came, we found a lot of Bundimuns," Ivan said.

"This store hasn't been used for a long time, so it's not surprising to have such things." Sirius opened the floor and looked at it. He frowned and said, "These things are not easy to handle. We should go to lunch first, and then visit your friend. During this period, I'll have Kreacher clean up here."

"The Bundimuns can be left to me." Lupin said, "I have an acquaintance in the Pest Branch. He is an expert in dealing with this aspect of biology."

They talked for a while and then went back to the Leaky Cauldron for lunch.

Then they headed off to see Ron at St. Mungo's Hospital for Magical Ailments and Injuries. This time, they didn't take the Knight Bus, Sirius and Lupin took Ivan, Harry and Hermione with them with the apparition.

After a loud crackle, they appeared on a wide Muggle street.

"Where's St. Mungo's Hospital?" Harry looked around curiously. "Why didn't we appear there?"

"When the hospital was first established, people used to be able to Apparate there. But as the number of patients gradually increased, the Ministry of Magic banned apparating at the hospital, as in many cases it caused accidents." Lupin explained, "As for the location, we are now at the hospital gate."

In front of them was a large old-fashioned red brick warehouse called Purge and Dowse Ltd. The place had a shabby, shabby air; the windows consisted of a few chipped mannequins with crooked wigs, standing haphazardly and modeling fashions that had been outdated for at least ten years. Large signs on all the dusty doors read CLOSED FOR REFUND.

In the vicinity of a particularly ugly female doll, Ivan felt a strange magic.

"Go this way!" muttered Sirius, pushing Ivan, Harry and Hermione in front of him. "There are too many Muggles here. There's not enough land in Diagon Alley. The Ministry of Magic had a hard time finding this address to build a hospital so patients could come and go and fit in with the crowds."

Next to it was a Muggle shopping street, with an endless stream of people and cars, in stark contrast to Diagon Alley.

"Aren't these Muggles going to spend Christmas at home?" Sirius asked strangely. "Why are they all running around?!"

"There's a business district nearby, where people can meet, dine, shop, sing, watch movies and so on during the holidays." Ivan noticed Sirius' confused face. He went on to explain, "A movie is recording people's specific actions through a machine, to be played back later on a big screen...."

"I know, it's special Muggle magic, the effect is almost the same as the Pensive!" Sirius looked around and placed his right hand unconsciously on the wand at his waist. "We'll discuss this later. You three had better get closer to me. If anything happens, I'll take action."

Looking at Sirius' appearance, Ivan was very doubtful if he really understood what he had said.

In fact, apart from rare cases like Mr. Weasley's, pureblood wizards knew very little about the Muggle world and most people knew only a few hundred years ago.

For the rapid development of science and technology in the Muggle world, the magic circle basically took a dismissive attitude.

Ivan came up with the idea that he might try to work with Mr. Weasley to bring some of the more advanced machines from the Muggle world into the wizarding world, which could have unexpected effects.

Unfortunately, Hogwarts' defensive magic forbade the operation of all electronic devices and they could only be promoted in Diagon Alley.

Ivan thought about the feasibility of this idea as he followed Harry to the mannequin in the green nylon dress that he had just sensed was abnormal.

"We need to go in. Are the three of you ready?" asked Sirius.

They all nodded, clustering around him.

Ivan saw Lupin, standing in front of him, leaning close to the glass, looking at the ugly doll, his breath steaming through the glass.

"We're here to see Ron Weasley," Lupin said.

For a split second, Ivan felt that Lupin looked funny, talking quietly through a sheet of glass, when there were buses rumbling behind him and all the noise of a street full of shoppers.

So did Harry and Hermione, who looked at Lupin and Sirius dubiously, then opened their mouths in shock when the dummy gave a little nod and waved an articulate finger at him.

The next second, they stepped forward through what felt like a sheet of cold water, emerging quite warm and dry on the other side.

There was no sign of the ugly doll or where it had stood. They entered St. Mungo's Hospital for Magical Ailments and Wounds.