Chapter 316 Weasley's Invitation

With the majority of the school year spent at sea, the third years at Hogwarts have embarked on their end-of-term exam week.

Although most of the time was spent studying on their own, there was no gap in what they were supposed to learn.

The exam week lasted until the beginning of July and ended with a sumptuous end-of-term dinner, signifying the end of Jon's life as a third-year student.

The arena of public opinion in the wizarding world was still hotly contested between the Voldemort and Dumbledore sides, though with the Triwizard Tournament wager in place, the clash of arms had largely been eliminated in France.

The Witching Horizon have taken effective control over all but the French Ministry of Magic and Beauxbatons, and are also functioning temporarily as a provisional government, with a part of the administration re-structured by the French people of Witching Horizon to handle the affairs of France.

Except for the purebloods of France, who had already been purged, and those who had submitted to Voldemort's rule but had not behaved badly and received minor sentences, most of the other purebloods had gone into hiding in Paris, awaiting the possibility of their turnaround.

The list of those who had gone into hiding had all been recorded by Inishta, the leader of the French Provisional Magic Council.

Whether they had persecuted Muggles or not, they would eventually be liquidated in the strictest terms.

Overall, the whole situation in France had been stabilised for the time being, and because of this, they no longer had to hide in school and go nowhere as they had before once Hogwarts' summer holidays began.

Because of the temporary suspension of the war, the Order of the Phoenix had a lot of free people, so Lupin and Sirius were given the task of looking after the students during the holidays and could take them out around Lyon during the holidays, as well as assuming security duties.

Neville and Ron, who had families, were naturally able to go home with their parents for the entire holiday.

In the case of Lavender and Luna, whose parents are living abroad in hiding and have temporarily entrusted them to Hogwarts, Professor McGonagall has also contacted their families abroad, and they have been able to come to France to settle in, which means that they can go home too.

Little by little the situation was moving in a good direction.

And before Ron and Neville left school, they had also extended an invitation to Jon and Hermione, the two of them were planning a trip around France this summer and wanted Jon to go with them.

They had invited Jon and the others to their home when they were in the wagon previously, but at the time Jon had declined because of other commitments, and it was Justin and Lavender who had made a trip to the Longbottom house, so this time Jon didn't refuse any further.

He had finally had some time off this holiday, and with nothing else to do but study how to become Animagus, he had agreed to go out with Ron, Neville and their two families on a trip, a sort of relaxation before the start of the Triwizard Tournament.

So at the start of the holiday, Jon and the boys agreed to head over to the Weasleys for a few days before meeting up with the Longbottoms in the middle of July.

In addition to Jon and Hermione, Gabrielle was also invited to go with them, while Hanton and Ariel had stayed in Lyons where Lupin and the others had already planned a summer trip for the students who would be staying at the school after a week.

Nick wouldn't go with Jon either, as an old ghost friend from Hogwarts had found him and they had gone off somewhere to catch up.

The person responsible for picking up Jon and the gang was Bill Weasley, the eldest son of the Weasleys.

He had graduated from Hogwarts several years earlier and had sort of gone through the transition of school life from the castle days to the period of escaping by wagon, and had now joined the Order of the Phoenix where he is now a key member just like his father.

When they first met, Bill gave Jon the impression of being part of a rock band, with a long ponytail and a cool-looking earring with a small fan-like thing dangling from his ear.

His performance upon meeting Jon was very enthusiastic.

"It's nice to meet you, Jon, I suppose I can call you that? My name is William Weasley, but my family all call me Bill, and you can call me that too. Our family heard about you back when Ron was in his first year and had him invite you to the house at that time, but it took until now to get the chance."

Jon shook his hand and said in a slightly slurred voice.

"Hello, Bill."

He still had a new mandrake leaf in his mouth, a new one he had got from Lily last night, and it was in the light of a full moon that he had put it in his mouth; even if a month wouldn't be enough to wrap up the trip, he could make an impromptu trip back to Lyons and take the next step if the weather met the requirements.

After all these days, Jon had become generally familiar with speaking and living with a foreign object in his mouth, which was still a little odd, but basically made nothing unusual anymore.

Bill showed complete enthusiasm for Jon, certainly because his name had now spread throughout the European magical community.

After a month or so of festering, almost any wizard who wasn't hiding in the deep woods knew that a boy named Jon Green had killed two members of the Lestrange family, still in front of Voldemort.

That's why the story of Rabastan's death had been suppressed by the British Ministry of Magic and wasn't spread, otherwise, Jon would have been labelled "Lestrange's nemesis".

Bill didn't leave Hermione and Gabrielle out in the cold either, offering to help them move their luggage into a room with a fireplace.

With the Witching Horizon firmly established in France, the Weasleys had temporarily ended their hiding life in Britain and moved their family to France.

Ginny, Ron, George, Fred, Jon, Hermione, and Gabrielle were lined up in order in front of the fireplace, listening to Bill tell them where they would end up after using the floo powder.

"Burrow Number Three, make sure you don't mispronounce it, Charlie said it as Number One once before and ended up back at our old house in Devon. It took him a lot of wasted effort not to be spotted by the stationed Aurors there and escape back."

By the way the place was named, Jon could easily guess that the Burrow No. 2 at the front would be where the Weasleys had lived when they had previously been in hiding in Britain, while No. 1 was naturally their original old home.

With suitcases in hand, they stepped into the fireplace one by one, then read out their destination and were taken to the Weasley's house amidst green blazes.

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