Charing Cross Road, Foyles Bookstore.
As one of Britain's most historic and famous bookstore streets, and as its most iconic bookstore, Foyles Bookstore had hosted countless new book launches since its founding.
But even the most senior employee there, someone who had witnessed the street's rises and falls, would dare say this was the liveliest book launch he had ever seen!
Strictly speaking, it was rather late for Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone to be holding a launch event in the UK. Fortunately, news in this world was still relatively slow to spread, so any book released within the past year could be called a new release.
For one thing, it allowed a book to build up some readers after release. Otherwise, if a lesser-known author held a launch event, barely any readers would show up.
For another, it naturally gave the book time to gather some social influence and attract more journalists and media outlets, achieving the greatest possible publicity effect.
For Joanne Rowling, however, the readership and influence her book had accumulated in just three months were already rather excessive.
Not only had the readers flooding in far exceeded expectations, leaving even the world's largest bookstore struggling to cope, but the media from various countries trying to interview Joanne alone were enough to fill every seat that had originally been arranged.
As a result, the launch event, which had been scheduled to begin at nine in the morning, had to be delayed by an hour just to maintain order.
Yet that hour did nothing to dampen the enthusiasm of the readers lining up outside the bookstore under the sun. On the contrary, the crowd only grew larger.
In that wildly enthusiastic atmosphere, Joanne's appearance naturally set off wave after wave of cheers.
"Thank you all so much for coming. To be honest, even though Bulstrode warned me in advance that there would be a lot of passionate readers here, I'm still amazed by all of you," Joanne said, somewhat overwhelmed.
This was not her first book launch, though the previous ones had been held abroad.
What overwhelmed her even more was that every time she held a new launch, the number of enthusiastic readers seemed to grow exponentially.
Now that she had returned to her home base in the UK, the number of readers here was already approaching the turnout from the launch in China, a country with a population several times larger than Britain's.
"Madam Rowling, why did you choose to hold the launch here?" a reporter asked, standing up impatiently as if afraid she would miss her chance to ask a question.
Seeing Joanne's puzzled look, she quickly added, "I mean, with your popularity, you could have chosen a much more spacious venue. It didn't have to be inside a bookstore."
Strictly speaking, it was not time for questions yet. According to the schedule, Joanne was supposed to introduce the main content of her new work first, then chat with a professional host and share a few interesting stories about her writing process.
But Joanne was also eager to answer the reporter's question.
"I think all of you know this is the most famous bookstore street in Britain, and even in the world. But I believe there's one secret about this place that you still don't know."
Joanne deliberately put on a mysterious air, keeping them in suspense. Only after she saw that both the reporters and the readers were fully intrigued did she smile proudly.
"The entrance to Diagon Alley, the Leaky Cauldron, is on a quiet little side street off this road!"
"Of course, you muggles can't see it. Not for the time being."
The reporters immediately burst into laughter.
As professional literary journalists, they had naturally read Joanne's two books and were deeply familiar with the names Diagon Alley and the Leaky Cauldron.
Still, they could only take this absurd blending of fiction and reality as a joke.
"Madam Rowling, if you put it that way, doesn't that mean the wizarding world is right beside us? In that case, I'll have to ask Harry Potter for an autograph!" the reporter said with amusement.
But Joanne answered with a perfectly serious expression, "Harry is taking classes at Hogwarts. You won't find him in Diagon Alley right now."
"As for whether the wizarding world exists..."
She swept her arm out, pointing at the huge crowd of readers gathered around the press area.
"What do you think? Does the wizarding world exist or not?"
The moment their beloved author suddenly turned the question on them, the readers who had originally just been enjoying the spectacle erupted at once.
"Only muggles would question magic!"
"If magic isn't real, then neither am I!"
"I've already received my Hogwarts acceptance letter! Professor McGonagall even came to my house in person to tell me. I'll be starting school in September!" A little boy was lifted high by his father, waving a piece of parchment in his hand.
The readers around him thought it was role-playing and immediately followed suit, claiming they were new students preparing to enroll, students who had skipped class on purpose, or graduates who had already left school.
Only Bulstrode's sharp eyes noticed that the letter looked like, seemed like, probably was... a real Hogwarts acceptance letter?
Emmm...
Although he did not pay much attention to the professor's plan to repeal the Secrecy Act, he had still absorbed many of the planned steps without realizing it.
Given the current situation, the inexplicable explosion in popularity of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone might very well, just like the previous flop of the Young Kid series, cause another unexpected disruption to the professor's plan.
If Bulstrode had known about the internet, he would have discovered that even in the relatively early online world, there were already websites dedicated to investigating magic.
It could even be said that those websites were becoming more and more popular because of the success of Harry Potter.
Joanne Rowling, as a muggle, naturally had no awareness of this. She simply smiled at the enthusiastic readers, very satisfied that her work had caused such a sensation.
And that it had made so many people feel positively about magic.
With things like this, Tver could hardly say she had done her job too well and stop her from exploring the story of his life, could he?
The reporters were startled by the readers' enthusiasm.
As adults, they certainly were not naive enough to believe magic truly existed just like that.
But the fact that Joanne's work could draw so many people in was, by itself, even more astonishing than magic.
So they no longer dared to ask whether magic existed. Otherwise, if the excited readers did something, it would be far beyond their control.
"Madam Rowling, since your work is so popular, could you reveal a little about what happens to Harry and the others in the future?"
Joanne froze for a moment.
Her book had only just been released, and they were already asking about the next one?
But she did indeed already know the plot of the next book, and even the final ending.
Although she did not know why Tver could be so certain about giving her that kind of plot direction, it did not stop her from finding the story wonderful.
Nor did it stop her from growing more and more eager to write the version in which Tver existed.
"The next book is already being written, of course. I can promise you, it's a very exciting story..."
Before she could finish, Bulstrode suddenly strode onto the stage and, with a grave expression, pulled Joanne toward the backstage area.
The abrupt incident immediately made the reporters and readers present sense that something was different, let alone Joanne, who was directly involved.
But before she could speak, Bulstrode warily swept his gaze around, then whispered with a serious expression, "I just received word that Death Eaters are planning to attack this place!"