Chapter 160: Paddington Station (Edited)

The receptionist took a short time to check him in, she handed Tom his room key, bowed and said, "Sir, your room is A114, the elevator is on the second floor, turn right and go straight ahead to the seventh room on the left, welcome to the St. Conrad Hotel."

The layout of the hotel was interesting, the first floor, which they called Level 0, was where the reception was located, Tom was on Level A which was the second floor, the floor layout was a zigzag pattern with the even numbered rooms on the left and the odd numbered rooms on the right.

The three of them entered the room they had just rented, A114, a triple room at the St. Conrad Hotel, also known as a business suite, which had two bedrooms, a master and a secondary bedroom, and a bathroom, and was spacious, tastefully decorated and had plenty of privacy, although the price was not very affordable. Tom chose the second bedroom, leaving the master bedroom for Harry and Ron.

Along the way, Ron kept quiet as much as possible, for fear of revealing his identity if he misspoke. After entering the guest room, he was finally able to speak freely.

"Wow!" Ron opened his mouth in surprise, "This place is even better than the dormitory conditions at Hogwarts!"

In Ron's mind, Hogwarts was already one of the fanciest places in the world, and he was under the impression that the hotel was a youth hostel like the Leaky Cauldron, but he had no idea that Muggle hotel rooms were like this.

"Is this the best hotel in the Muggle world?" Ron flicked the light switch in the room, "I can't believe you can adjust the brightness!"

Harry remembered, not really remembering the St Conrad, "It's definitely not the best hotel, it's only four stars, there are five star hotels above it, and five star hotels aren't the best, they're building a seven star hotel in the United Arab Emirates."

"Hiss," Ron gasped, he couldn't imagine a seven star hotel, maybe everything there was made of gold.

It was true, the lobby, the atrium, the suites, the bathrooms on the sailboat ... Everything was gold, even the doorknobs, the faucets, the ashtrays, the coat racks and even a piece of note paper was covered in gold.

Ron looked around the room, noting everything that intrigued him.

"Ha! This is the phone, isn't it? Dad's always been very interested in this." Ron spotted the phone on the bedside table, which led him to the fridge in the closet as well.

"Is this how Muggles store their food? Mom used to use the freezing spell." Ron pulled out a Coke, "What's this?"

"Coke, a very popular drink." Harry helped Ron open the coke.

-£5

The money in Tom's wallet evaporated some more.

"So it's the butterbeer of the Muggle world?" Ron took the coke and tasted it, "Tastes amazing!".

"According to the exchange rate at Gringotts, that can of Coke was worth a galleon right now." Tom scoffed at Ron. In fact, no wizard would exchange galleons for pounds, the goblins at Gringotts were insane and had set a price of five pounds for a galleon, and there was no limit on the amount of galleons to pounds....

No wizard in his right mind would go to Gringotts to change pounds.

Ron almost dropped the Coke on the floor when he heard that Coke was worth a gallon, but he reacted quickly.

"The goblins at Gringotts are simply stealing money..." muttered Ron, taking a large swig from this can of Coke with a "sticker price" of a Galleon.

"Seriously, purebloods should know the Muggle world, it's outrageous that they don't even know about phones, coke and fridges." Tom shook his head, he felt that if the magical world remained so isolated, it would end sooner or later.

The three of them took a short break, washed up and went to bed, the next day they had to get up early to investigate the case.

...

There was no sleep all night, the three slept soundly and the air in the room seemed to be filled with the scent of pounds.

The next morning, a refreshed Tom woke Harry and Ron.

"Do you have any ideas about the investigation?" He dragged an armchair over and sat down.

"We could go around the precinct and find out which precinct took over the case." Harry was familiar with the Muggle world and was quick to think of an entry point.

"But the problem is how to access the data, we're not cops, we don't have access to it."

"Are you a wizard or not... We can go straight to the police station and get the information! You have an invisibility cloak, don't you?" said Ron wordlessly, holding his hand to his forehead.

Harry: "..."

He still hadn't quite adjusted to being a wizard, and was still in the habit of using the Muggle way to solve problems.

There were eight main railway stations in London: St Pancras, Paddington, Euston, Liverpool Street, Victoria, Charing Cross, Waterloo and King's Cross, which would take them to Hogwarts, and Paddington, which had been in operation since 1838 and had witnessed the development of British railroads, as well as being the terminus of the Great Western Railway in London. The Great Western Railway was a very important railway line linking London, the west of England, the southwest and Wales.

Evans' memory indicates that the accident took place on a train from Paddington station.

The three took the tube and headed for the station.

When they arrived, Harry and Ron were somewhat stunned: their plan was simple enough to say, but difficult to put into practice.

For example, they were now confused: who should they ask for advice on that question?

Ron, being the man of action, went straight to a counter and asked the counter staff, "Hi, excuse me, which police station was responsible for the train bombing a while back?".

Tie him up! That was Harry and Tom's first thought.

Tom immediately pushed Ron away. At that moment the receptionist's hand had reached the back of the desk and he said, with a smile on his face and in no hurry, "I'll check and get back to you."

"Thank you very much!" Tom used his Legeremancy powers and one of his eyes turned into the basilisk's pupil.

The middle-aged man at the desk had his hand on the alarm button, but the next moment he saw the basilisk's eye. His hair stood on end and he felt great fear, but he could not move or even make a sound.

He began to recall the events of the day of the attack, and his memory flickered back and forth like a lightning rod, until finally he noticed the image of a group of policemen rushing into the police station.

"Obliviate!"

After those words, he couldn't remember anything else.