The Magical Food God of Hogwarts

Chapter 36: Opening the Stall!

On the morning of July 31, Diagon Alley was still crowded. Lucas pushed his cart forward, repeatedly calling out, "Excuse me, could you please make way? Thank you!"

On his cart, various wooden planks, metal plates, large and small buckets, pots and pans clanged and clattered, attracting the attention of passing wizards.

Lucas tossed his wet red hair, wiped the sweat from his forehead, and his eyes burned with intense excitement.

The blow from that contract is over, and with hard work and a bit of luck, he has achieved several breakthroughs in succession.

On one hand, they found a worker for their own farm. He was one of the many sons of the neighboring farm, who had dropped out of school early to farm, but his family was too large and their finances were strained. Hearing that Lucas was going to study in another city, he took the initiative to offer himself up and became a worker for his family.

This man was someone they knew well, so both Grandpa and he were quite at ease, and their biggest worry was successfully resolved. Finley simply urged Lucas to go to Diagon Alley to implement his money-making plan and stop worrying about the family.

On the other hand, after another round of negotiations with Tom Abbott, a new contract was signed.

The Leaky Cauldron will provide Lucas with all the raw materials he needs to make the snacks, and will guarantee that these materials come from sources that meet the requirements of the magical world.

In addition, Tom will provide an extra guest room for Lucas to stay in.

The amount Lucas had to hand over to him daily increased from a quarter of the profits to forty percent of the revenue.

Although the fees required have increased significantly, the Leaky Cauldron covers the cost of raw materials, and this allows Lucas to spend the rest of his summer vacation in Diagon Alley without having to travel back and forth every day. This extends the time he can set up his stall and increases his income.

Now, Lucas is pushing his food cart through the crowd toward his chosen spot. Hannah is writing furiously in the Leaky Cauldron, preparing to send many letters to her friends, inviting them to come and try Lucas's cooking.

Strictly speaking, Diagon Alley is just the main thoroughfare of this wizarding community, connecting to many other alleys. But most of the time, "Diagon Alley" is a general term for the entire area.

The number plate that Lucas received from the Diagon Alley business management office allowed him to set up a stall in a designated location throughout the area.

After some investigation and listening to Tom's advice, Lucas finally chose the location where the stalls were gathered.

He stopped the cart near the imposing, towering marble building.

Gringotts.

There was a large flow of people here, and the wizards passing by all had plenty of Galleons in their pockets. Although people were in a hurry, Lucas was confident that his stall would make them stop.

On a clearing a hundred feet away from Gringotts, Lucas unfolded his cart and began assembling planks and metal sheets, then bottles, jars, pots and pans, and finally several large and small buckets.

Several stalls had already been set up on this open space. The male and female wizard stall owners couldn't help but look surprised as they watched the very young red-haired wizard set up his stall by himself, playing ping-pong.

"Child, are you from the Weasley family?" a wizard asked.

Lucas, puzzled, shook his head: "No, my name is Lucas, Lucas McGregor."

"Darling, are you all alone?" a plump witch asked after watching for a while. "Hasn't your husband arrived yet?"

"I'm the stall owner." Lucas deftly set up the fryer. "My parents are gone, I can manage on my own."

"Oh..." The stall owners' eyes changed, and a skinny wizard quickly picked up his wand: "Come on, child, let me help you."

"No need, sir. I understand the structure of these parts better than anyone else. I—"

But the wizard had already waved his wand and chanted a spell.

With a gentle shake, the boards on the cart floated up, as if many invisible hands were assembling and piecing them together. In less than ten seconds, the entire cart stall was fully assembled and set up.

Lucas was stunned: "How did you do that? I mean, I built the assembly structure for this car, and there are many mechanisms that only I know how to assemble. You can certainly make it float, but how did you manage to assemble it so precisely?"

"I don't need to know its assembly principles, just casting the spell is enough," the skinny wizard laughed. "That's magic, a cleansing spell. What year are you in at Hogwarts?"

You don't need to understand the principles; as long as you cast the spell, the magic will work.

Lucas suddenly recalled the words on the opening page of "The Theory of Magic".

"Magic is the power to make your wishes come true—Abed Wolflin."

And Lily Evans's annotation: "Magic is the process by which a wizard turns his or her emotions and will into reality, and the most important thing is the power of the 'heart'."

Seeing some understanding, Lucas replied, "Not yet. I just received my acceptance letter recently; school starts on September 1st. I need to earn some money to buy school supplies; the stall management fee was borrowed from my friend..."

The stall owners were immediately speechless.

The fat witch watched Lucas busily setting out the ingredients, then pulled out a handkerchief and wiped her eyes. "Oh, poor thing, poor child. No parents, all you can do is rely on yourself, and you can't even afford school fees... I should really show my little monkey what self-reliance and independence really mean..."

With tears in her eyes, she waved to Lucas: "Darling, come here, let's switch places, this spot is more noticeable."

Lucas gave a bright smile: "Thank you, ma'am, but it's alright."

He patted his little cart; the oil pan was already steaming from the continuous heating.

"I have great confidence in my skills. Ladies and gentlemen, you'd better watch out, or I might steal all your business!"

Faced with such a pitiful yet self-reliant child, the stall owners all chuckled kindly. The fat witch glanced at Lucas's stall, her eyes full of pity: "Welcome to steal my business, dear. I'll recommend you to my regular customers later."

Oh, poor child, you're so young, what can you possibly accomplish? I'll definitely try to find more business opportunities for you, but I'm afraid that if your cooking isn't good enough, people will come once out of pity and never come back a second time.

Lucas thanked her repeatedly and glanced at the fat witch's stall with pity in his eyes.

Poor British folks, with so little food culture, what can you possibly make? It's still just fish and chips, as expected.

Why are Muggles eating this, and wizards eating this too? When will we finally see real magical food...?

Once he had placed the two large metal cans filled with ice in the ice bucket, the entire food stall was ready.

On the metal-covered countertop, on the left are a cooking pot, a frying pan, a cutting board, various kitchen utensils, and spice jars of all sizes; on the right are two chilled soup jars, stacked cardboard boxes, paper cups, paper bowls, and other disposable tableware.

A huge parasol was spread out above, with the number "77" hanging below the ribs, making a crisp sound as it gently bumped against the ribs in the breeze.

Lucas took a deep breath.

My culinary adventure in the magical world has officially begun!

Just as he was about to hang the sign, he suddenly saw a familiar, strikingly large figure emerge from the doors of Gringotts.

Isn't that Hagrid?

Beside Hagrid was a small, thin figure.