Chapter 2655: Hell

Albus once joked that he had a complete map of the London Underground route on his lap, but he had never shown it to anyone, so no one knew whether what he said was true.

The earliest London Underground was completed in 1863. At that time, there were train stations in the southeast, northwest and northwest of London, but the situation in the city became increasingly worse. First, typhoid and cholera were raging in London, and then there was the Great Stink in London in 1858. That year

The abnormal climate made the Thames stink extremely. It also formed a mist-like gas that would not dissipate for a long time, so that the entire Westminster had to take measures to evacuate.

When members of Congress suffered from inconvenience and their lives were threatened, "efficiency" appeared, and London began its largest construction frenzy. The first was to dig out the sewage system. The railway accelerated the flow of population and tested the city's sewage capacity.

At least the urban planning after the Great Fire of London is no longer suitable for the world's most populous city.

Many residential buildings were converted into banks and commercial offices, and bank stations, with buses and carriages carrying commuters between London Bridge and Blackfriars, caused serious road congestion problems. So some people like to live in the London Underground.

Build a railway to connect Paddington, Euston, King's Cross and the City. But no one had built an underground railway before, so a man named John Fuller used open cut and backfill.

technology, that is to say, first dig a huge trench on the new road, then cover it with bricks, and finally backfill it.

The purpose of this project was to solve traffic chaos in the area involved, but it caused traffic chaos for ten years. Because the subway did not pass through the original train terminal, the above-ground lines could not be connected to the underground lines, and passengers had to walk from the ground to the underground to transfer.

In addition, the households and residents who built the road sections must be demolished. The railway company relied on the support of parliamentarians and acted recklessly under the slogan of "clearing the slums." The 1774 Building Act allowed landowners to lease land to townhouses.

Developers then rent out these apartments through intermediaries or other channels to recover costs. The leases between developers and land owners are often long-term, and some can even reach 99 years.

The railroad company would use money to arrange for the landowners to claim that no residents had been relocated, thus eliminating the need to go through the declaration process. The people who lived there often had to move out within a few days, and what was even worse was that they had to live with thousands of people.

Tens of thousands of railway construction workers were scrambling for a place to live, and the railways built by these workers happened to be the culprit of their homelessness.

The Earl of Shaftesbury, who was engaged in philanthropy, asked the railway company to delineate the area involved in demolition before building lines and study the possible impact on the poor. He thought the railway company would at least feel ashamed.

But as often happens in London's history, money is much more useful than shame. If the Queen wants to go to Windsor, she will take the train from Paddington Station. They have built a luxury suite for the Queen to wait on the bus, and those who are homeless

If we are short of money, we can only find a yard or an apartment nearby and squeeze into a room with other people.

In any case, after the railway craze started, the above-ground transportation network in London was basically completed, and the first underground railway was also opened to traffic. On the first day of trial operation, passengers could see pitch black, surrounded by thick smoke ejected from the chimneys of steam engines.

As for the passengers, they were covered in soot when they got off the bus.

Since then, London has set off a frenzy to build subways, but the parliament soon discovered that this would use a lot of land resources and move a large number of people. When London's traffic and sewage problems were solved, development fell into a virtuous cycle.

The improvement in the market has led to a boom in the construction industry, and the prices of houses and rents are rising. The railway company can no longer send away residents based on a guinea and connections with parliamentarians as in the past.

During this period, Hyde Park held the Universal Exposition, which was modeled after the Industrial Exposition held in France in 1844 by Prince Albert. The exhibits included advanced technologies and crafts from the UK and other countries around the world, as well as the largest pearl discovered at that time.

However, the Queen was more interested in India's "Mountain of Light" diamond, and she went to see it 42 times. In addition, the exhibition hall "Crystal Palace" was like a large greenhouse. It was so successful that the expo

After the war, royal families and nobles from all over the world followed suit and built greenhouses, and the area around Hyde Park also prospered.

Prince Albert plans to build a museum district near Kensington, including the Albert Hall, the Museum of Crafts and Design, the Geology Museum, the Science Museum and the Natural History Museum.

There is the Piccadilly Square, and in the center of the square there is a sculpture of Prince Albert to commemorate him. However, this sculpture caused a lot of controversy because it was a sculpture of the Angel of Charity with no trace of his body.

All in all, that area is located to the north of Buckingham Palace, and Westminster is located to the south of Buckingham Palace. There are also many Victorian and Georgian buildings here, with designs from various schools. Walking through them makes people feel excited and dazzled at the same time.

London brings together everything in the world, as bright as a jewel box.

In addition, there are Gothic churches and the cemetery of Westminster Abbey, where celebrities including Newton are buried. You can't hear vulgar language, curses, boos, screams, and children crying here.

The voices, the dirty boys, the women with numb eyes, the men addicted to alcohol, those people belong to the East End of London.

Unless there is an interest in Jack the Ripper, few tourists will go to places like Whitechapel, and London's entertainment activities are rich and colorful from top to bottom.

Keats once described it this way: If a person is trapped in a city for a long time, he is happy and can see the clear and open sky.

There is also such a description in "Oliver Twist": five or six houses share a rickety wooden corridor behind the house. Through the holes in the wooden board, you can see the mud below. The rooms are small and dirty, and the interior is airtight.

It's full of stench, and it's too dirty to store dirt.

People with different worldviews will have different cognitions and different views and experiences on a thing, which will lead them to behave differently. To put it simply, they live in different worlds.

When Pomona returned to Hogwarts from London, it was already dark. She returned to her residence in the greenhouse, and then sat on a stool in a daze.

"How was the journey?"

Pomona turned around and found that Albus had arrived at some point, and there was Fawkes the Phoenix standing on the shelf behind him.

"Do you want to hear good things, or do you want to hear the real thing?"

Albus smiled and walked next to her from the next door.

"The truth is a beautiful and terrible thing. When something unpleasant is waiting in front of you, time will not slow down."

"You're saying confusing things again." She complained.

"Please say what you want to say." Albus said calmly.

"I saw Remus." She whispered. "Because he drank the wolf juice, he still has a clear mind. He can choose whether to drink the wolfsbane potion or not."

Albus didn't answer, so Pomona continued.

"He drank it without hesitation... Then he lay on the ground, as quiet as death. I almost thought he was dead. It was more painful to suffer like this than to die." She said in a daze, just like that.

The scene reappeared before my eyes.

Maybe other Potions Masters also understood, so many people didn't come the next day. The Quidditch World Cup was much more interesting than it looked, and it wouldn't ruin their mood.

"Do you want to hear truth or fiction?" Albus asked.

Pomona looked at him.

Albus placed a letter in front of Pomona.

"This is an invitation letter sent to Severus from the Alchemy Center in Cairo. I hope he can be a visiting scholar next semester. You can decide whether to give it to him or not."

"Why……"

"He once knelt down and begged me not to kill him." Albus said, "And he also made a deal with me. As long as I help him protect Lily, he can do anything for me."

Pomona opened her eyes wide.

"He loves a woman and is willing to protect her son for her. If the Dark Lord is really resurrected as he wants, we need the strength to deal with future wars." Albus removed his hand from the envelope.

When the war is over, we still need to rebuild, and the missions you have to undertake are different."

She looked at Dumbledore in horror.

"He asked me not to tell anyone, and I also asked you to keep my secret. You are a real Hufflepuff. Do you remember the academy rules?"

"If someone asks you to keep a secret..."

"No." Albus shook his head at her, "It's about commitment."

"Yes, Principal." Pomona whispered. "I won't tell anyone."

Albus smiled. "Learn to love, Pomona. I told you, love is a poison."

"I know." Pomona said almost impatiently.

"I just want you to be happy," Albus said softly, "and not to get lost."

She felt very strange, why did Albus have such an understanding of "love"?

"Have you ever loved anyone?" Pomona asked him.

Albus didn't answer.

"Don't promise easily." He stroked her hair. "You will find that it will constrain you."

"Like the blood oath you and Grindelwald made?" Pomona asked, "Why did you make the oath?"

Albus's eyes flickered behind his half-moon glasses.

"For what?" Pomona continued to ask.

"To avoid hurting each other." Albus sighed. "Otherwise, we will only hurt each other."

Pomona thought of the famous duel. How could the duelists not hurt each other?

"I don't want you to get hurt." Albus said in pain, "I'd rather it be me who gets hurt."

She felt that she couldn't bear it, but when she looked at Albus, she felt that he was looking at someone else through her.

It was too lonely to be alone at this time, so she stood up and hugged Dumbledore.

He patted her back lovingly, like a father.

"I hope you can be happy." Albus said in her ear. "Do you want to go to the ball like this?"

She didn't say she thought about it.

"Let me think of something." He said softly.

Pomona hoped it wasn't a promise, because Albus promised a lot of things, but none of them came true.

Such as protecting Lily and not harming Grindelwald.

Therefore, she should regard it as a joke on his part.
Chapter completed!