A magical journey that begins in Azkaban.

Chapter 548 Spark Hotel
Lisa was bored and stayed in the shop, watching the wizards passing by from time to time. Her eyes followed a witch in a cloak and then fell on a little wizard who hurried by holding a flying broom.

The magical atmosphere on Glazed Street is still strong, and there are more and more customers, but it has not changed the fact that the Flash Golem House is deserted.

"Is Granny Jonker still in San Francisco?" Roger's voice suddenly came from upstairs, startling Lisa so much that she covered her heart and screamed.

She turned and looked towards the stairs, only to see Roger standing there with an innocent look on his face.

"Junior, you almost scared the hell out of me." Lisa scolded, with a charming roll of the eyes.

"Can you give me a little warning next time? For example, give me a flower." She gently shook her wavy hair and walked upstairs with an elegant cat step. Each of her steps seemed to be stepping on an invisible melody, light and rhythmic.

At this time, a childish voice came from the house: "Mr. Roger, is this the Flash Golem House?"

Barron's eyes were full of curiosity and excitement. He wandered around the house and exclaimed from time to time when he saw magical products: "Wow, is this a magic camera? It's so small."

Lisa glanced at Barron, and the expression on her face changed from playful to serious, and her voice became serious: "Granny Jonker is still at the Spark Inn."

"Then let's go." Roger waved to Barron who was running in the corridor. On the way downstairs, he secretly patted Lisa.

Lisa's eyes lit up, she bit her thin lips with her pearly teeth, and immediately followed Roger's footsteps.

"I didn't expect that you actually found Barron, junior." She led the way and whispered, "I remember he was captured by the Death Eaters. Did you find him from the British wizarding world?"

"In the Death Eater laboratory on the East Coast." Roger looked at the shops on Glass Street. Most of them had reopened and there were Christmas decorations everywhere.

He asked curiously: "Lisa, how is the business this year?"

"That's terrible." Lisa sighed, her tone filled with helplessness and complaints, "The reward you mentioned turned out to be only 200 Galleons."

"This is just the turnover in half a year? This is too..." He stopped talking halfway, not knowing how to put it.

"It's already a lot." Lisa smiled bitterly, "The first half of the year was even worse. I only sold one roll of photo paper. Can you imagine? One roll! If it weren't for the fact that salary has nothing to do with sales, I would have considered selling pumpkin juice."

The three of them walked and talked, and unknowingly came to an inconspicuous white building. Lisa stopped and pointed to a small plaque on the wall and said, "This is the Spark Hotel."

Roger looked at the building carefully and sighed softly: "If you don't tell me, it would be easy to overlook it. The effect of this design is no less than that of the Muggle Repelling Charm."

The Spark Inn is a low-rise building, with half of its entrance hidden beneath the road. The protruding columnar walls on both sides act as guards, complementing the small flowerbed covered with snow, and cleverly hiding the single wooden door of the inn.

Barron looked at the hotel door just around the corner, his excitement boiling like a crucible, unable to be suppressed. He jumped down the stairs in two steps and pushed open the door impatiently.

Behind the door was a narrow entrance hall. A mannequin that looked like a servant appeared on the wall, which scared Barron.

Seeing this, Lisa chuckled and explained, "Don't be afraid. This is a door attendant who is responsible for keeping guests' clothes." She skillfully handed the coat and scarf to it for safekeeping.

Walk a few steps forward and turn a semi-columnar display cabinet, and the view in front of you suddenly opens up.

The wooden hall was square. In the corner, there was a Christmas tree with golden balls and silver bells hanging on it, and underneath it were piles of colorful gift boxes.

There were four rows of dining tables on the right, each with a magic candle lit, and the warm light danced in the air.

One row of tables is next to a wall of floor-to-ceiling windows. Outside the windows is a snowy park covered in silver, like a dreamlike magical painting.

"There's a real park outside." Lisa took Roger's arm and introduced softly, "The Spark Hotel is not simple. It has five floors and thousands of guest rooms. It is the largest hotel in the American wizarding world."

Rogge raised his eyebrows in surprise: "Thousands of guest rooms? Space magic must have been used."

"That's right." Lisa smiled and turned to Barron. "I'll go to the front desk to ask if Grandma Jonker is in the room."

Barron looked at Lisa's back and felt nervous. He couldn't help wondering if his grandmother had just left.

Compared to the deserted Shining Golem House, the Spark Inn is bustling with people and business is booming.

Dishes of various shapes and aromas flew from the kitchen, nimbly bypassing the crowd and landing accurately and steadily on the designated table.

"Look at that!" Barron excitedly pointed to a plate of flaming ice cream hovering in the air. "How can it catch fire and not melt?"

"Maybe the water of life was added." Roger explained with a smile, "It's a 'sophisticated' cooking technique."

In just a few short minutes, Roger saw the mouth-watering lotus chicken, fresh sashimi, fragrant curry beef, exquisite smoked fish...almost all the cuisines in the world can be found here.

"Wow, this is a food paradise," Barron exclaimed.

Lisa came back with a big smile and announced, "Good news! Mother Jonker is still here. She's in room 0106."

"0106?" Roger's eyes flashed with doubt, "She lives on the first floor? Isn't this a restaurant?"

"No, it's not the first floor, it's the basement." Lisa shook her head and explained quickly: "The first floor of the Spark Hotel is the restaurant, and the first number is 1."

Roger nodded thoughtfully, and caught a glimpse of the code on the table next to him: 1003.

In other words, every table in the restaurant is equivalent to every room on other floors.

Barron asked curiously, "The basement? Is it dark and scary there?"

Lisa winked playfully. "Oh, little Barron, you better be prepared. The basement floor... is the scariest place in this hotel."

"Ah!?" Barron screamed, his eyes wide open.

She led the two of them to the angle between the spiral staircase and the ground, pushed open an inconspicuous little door, and revealed a winding stone staircase that wound downward.

Dim lights emanated from the magical candlesticks on the wall, casting flickering shadows on the stone walls.

"Be careful, it's a bit steep here." Lisa turned back and reminded, "The steps here are much higher than outside."

Barron swallowed, noting that each step was almost as long as his calf. He carefully held onto the rough stone wall and moved slowly.

"Although the Spark Inn is safe and comfortable, the fees are not cheap. At the beginning of the year, Granny Jonker still lived on the second floor. The rooms there, if I remember correctly, cost 1 Galleon per day."

"What about the basement?"

"It's only one-tenth of the price of the second floor, but the living environment, um..." Lisa paused and thought about how to describe it, "It's a bit like a pigeon coop."

Hearing this analogy, Barron couldn't help but feel a little nervous. His attention was distracted and he accidentally stepped on the air. Fortunately, Roger reacted quickly and grabbed the back of his collar, otherwise little Barron would have rolled over on the stone steps.

"Wow!" Barron exclaimed, his heart beating faster. "Thank you, Mr. Roger."

"Don't panic, take your time." Roger smiled and comforted him, "Although the air here is stuffy, at least there is no stench of mold. This shows that the management of the basement is not bad."

Lisa nodded in agreement. "That's right. The guest room is a little small, but there are no other problems. Even the cheapest room at the Spark Hotel guarantees basic safety and hygiene."

She hopped down the last two stone steps deftly and held out her hand to Barron. "Come on, be careful. The houses here are all alike. It's easy to get lost."

Barron held Lisa's hand gratefully and stepped onto the ground carefully. He looked around curiously, only to see rows of identical rooms stretching into the distance with no end in sight.

Lisa pointed to the light spot on the stone slab under her feet and explained, "See this? There is a map engraved on each floor. This green dot is our current location to prevent guests from getting lost."

"For 106, it's in the third row." The three of them walked along the narrow corridor. The houses around them seemed to have been copied and pasted countless times. Each room had an iron door and two small windows. The exterior was a smooth stone surface without any decoration, like a giant neatly arranged matchbox.

They were arranged in a 50×20 matrix, with the stone steps landing right on the first row, erasing a room.

"If there are 999 rooms here, what about upstairs?" Roger asked curiously, "There should be fewer than here."

Lisa nodded. "As far as I know, there are 500 on the second floor and 100 on the third floor. As for the floors above, I'm not sure."

"If you can raise my salary a bit, maybe I can help you find out more details." She looked at the identical buildings around her and couldn't help trembling in her heart, "This place is too depressing, like a maze."

Fortunately, Mother-in-law Jonker's room was not in the last row, and they soon arrived at Room 106.

This door was as plain as any other door, but Barron felt an inexplicable excitement and nervousness. He looked at the oval nameplate above, took a deep breath, mustered up his courage, and knocked hard on the door with his trembling little hands.

"Room fee?" An old but somewhat gentle voice came from the room, "I'm checking out tomorrow."

When Barron heard the familiar voice, his heartbeat quickened and he shouted excitedly, "Grandma, it's me, Xiaoba."

The room suddenly fell into a dead silence, as if time had frozen. In this brief silence, there seemed to be some indescribable strong emotions accumulating. Then, a series of hurried footsteps broke the silence, coming from far away and getting faster and faster.

The iron door was suddenly pulled open, making a harsh friction sound. A short, kind-looking old woman appeared at the door. Her silver hair was scattered messily on her shoulders, her eyes were wide open with surprise, and the wrinkles on her face were trembling with excitement.

"My little Ba, my little Ba." Grandma Jonker's eyes were filled with tears and her voice was choked with sobs. She rushed forward desperately and hugged her grandson tightly with her old but strong arms.

The grandparents and grandchildren hugged each other and cried, too excited to say a word. Barron buried his face in his grandmother's arms, and finally found an outlet to vent his longing and grievances for many days. Grandma Jonker gently stroked her grandson's back, as if to confirm that all this was real.

Lisa stood aside, watching this warm and touching reunion scene, tears welled up in her eyes. She turned her head away quickly, not wanting Roger to see her vulnerable side, and also worried that her eyeliner would get smudged.

She quietly wiped away the tears from the corners of her eyes with her fingers, but a smile unconsciously appeared at the corners of her mouth.

Roger stood quietly with a relieved expression on his face.

The iron stove in the room whirred, emitting warm heat, as if welcoming the new guests. The blackened cast iron kettle on the stove made a harsh hissing sound, and streams of hot steam bubbled up, making the lid of the kettle shake.

Grandma Jonker slowly loosened her arms and looked at her grandson with tears in her eyes: "Let me take a good look at you, Xiaoba. You have grown taller and thinner."

She gently stroked her grandson's cheek, her eyes full of love and heartache.

Barron wiped his tears and tried to force a smile: "Grandma, I miss you so much."

Mother Jonker took his hand, looked up, and said, "Come in, Miss Lisa, and the kind gentleman."

"My name is Roger, old lady." Roger bowed slightly and closed the door gently.

The room was extremely simple, with a single bed, a small table, an iron stove and a few wooden stools. A painting of the ocean hung on the wall, adding a touch of freshness to the room.

Although Granny Jonker and Barron were small in stature, the four of them standing in this small space still made the room seem a little crowded.

She looked at her grandson again, then turned and walked to the head of the bed, where a seemingly ordinary leather bag was hanging.

"This seamless expansion pack contains our family's notes and tools for making wands, as well as some precious materials passed down from generation to generation." She grabbed Rogge's wrist and solemnly stuffed the bag into his hand.

"Thank you, Roger." Grandma Jonker smiled sincerely, with no reluctance in her eyes, only deep gratitude. "If it weren't for you, I'm afraid I would never have seen Barron in my life. This is our family heritage, and now it's yours."

"You are too polite, old lady." Roger did not refuse, but accepted it calmly: "But please rest assured that I do not intend to make wands for wizards. In the future, the Jonker family can still continue to run the wand shop."

"Ah?" Mother Jonker's face suddenly showed a look of surprise and confusion. "Are you telling the truth?"

Lisa also showed a look of surprise, obviously not expecting Roger to make such a decision.

He nodded heavily and said with a smile, "Let's go to the restaurant and talk. I have something to ask you."

Mother-in-law Jonker smiled knowingly. The cramped and small guest room was indeed not suitable for a long conversation. She lovingly pulled Barron up, and the four of them walked upstairs together.

Just as they were leaving, the door of the next room 0105 suddenly opened a crack. A pair of vigilant eyes peeked through the crack, staring at the package in Roger's hand.

There was greed in his eyes. However, when Roger noticed something strange and turned around, the door had already closed silently, as if nothing had happened.

"It's really weird." Rogge touched his arm and felt an inexplicable chill. "The basement is really not a place for people to live."

"Huh, the air here is a lot fresher." Rogge breathed a sigh of relief after returning to the restaurant.

The vast, white snow park outside the floor-to-ceiling windows is like a clear spring, cleansing everyone's eyes and soul.

Mother-in-law Jonker was about to speak, but Roger gently interrupted her: "Don't worry, let's talk while we eat."

He walked straight to the dining table next to the French window and turned around and said, "Today is Christmas, don't be unhappy."

He waved over the waiter for a menu, glanced quickly, selected a few light dishes, and then handed the menu to the others.

"Look, do you want to add anything else?"

"Junior, I'm going to make a big profit from you this time. Give me back my bonus." Lisa had a sly smile on her face. She turned the menu to the back without hesitation and selected the last 6 dishes.

“And this.” Her eyes suddenly lit up, and she pointed to a name on the wine list and said, “1320 Rhone Valley wine.”

The waiter was stunned for a moment when he heard this, and couldn't help but look at Roger. As a frequent customer of the restaurant, he knew the female manager of the Flash Golem House quite well.

Lisa's monthly salary was about several thousand galleons, but she spent most of it on enjoying life. A bottle of Rhone Valley wine worth 100,000 galleons was an astronomical sum for her.

"Another bottle of Zweigert." Roger glanced at the waiter, who quickly took note.

"Don't be polite to me," he said.

Grandma Jonker smiled and nodded, handing the menu to her grandson. Barron's eyes quickly scanned the menu, trying to suppress the saliva at the corners of his mouth. Finally, he chose a few desserts that he had always wanted to eat.

The waiter looked at the densely packed list in his hand and was secretly shocked: "In three minutes, that man spent 18 gold galleons." This number is extremely rare even in this high-end hotel.

Lisa propped her head up on her arm and said with a smile, "Is it because the Rhone Valley is too expensive that you ordered Zweigert?"

Rogge smiled calmly, with a gleam of confidence in his eyes: "Hehe, although you have sold 200 Galleons worth of goods in half a year, I will not be stingy with the money for a bottle of wine. Don't regret it later."

"What do you regret?" She looked at Roger, her eyes full of confusion.

"French red wine has a delicate taste and complex aroma, but it tastes..." He deliberately dragged out the tone, "It's not suitable for my taste."

Roger leaned forward slightly, faintly pressing Lisa, and his tone concealed a hint of something else, "Sometimes expensive doesn't mean suitable."

Lisa snorted and turned her head to look out the window. The snowy scene outside the window was picturesque, but the people who saw it had very complicated feelings.

She reached furtively for the medicine bottle in her arms, gritting her teeth as if she had made some kind of resolution.

There was a smile hidden in the wrinkles on Granny Jonker's face. This old wizard, who was over a hundred years old, seemed to know what the young people in front of her were talking about.

(End of this chapter)