Instead of returning to France immediately to find Dumbledore with the vial of golden sand, Jon returned to Spinner's End.
He had guessed where Snape would have gone and had a good idea of where Lily would be based on the feather he had left on her, but Jon wasn't about to get involved in this melodrama.
Heading out along Spinner's End, he soon found the referee amongst the muggles who were still in a state of confusion around him.
Matthew Graves.
He didn't look to be in the best of shape, anxiously wandering through the crowd as if looking for someone, until he met Jon's gaze.
Jon had no intention of hiding his whereabouts, he didn't even hide his identity, the appearance he displayed was his own body.
Matthew, as the man who had personally witnessed Jon completing the Triwizard Tournament and had awarded the title to him, was certainly not unfamiliar with Jon's current appearance.
"Jon Green."
He called out Jon's name.
Jon watched as both their eyes met across the empty expanse of the air.
"Ha, what a coincidence, Mr Graves. Good morning."
Jon acted like a good boy, waving and smiling in greeting.
Anyone would only think of him as a well-educated, obedient and well-behaved 10-year-old boy, yet Matthew knew better than anyone else what kind of person actually hid under this young exterior.
Matthew took a quick step closer to Jon, closing the distance between the two of them, while lowering his voice and speaking sternly in a voice that only the two of them could hear.
"Don't give me that pretence, what exactly do you want? I came here following the Witching Horizon men, but it's a mess here, Death Eaters, that Northern Witching Horizon and you Witching Horizon, there are all kinds of people here!"
Jon acted innocent as he spread his hands.
"I can't answer that for you sir, as you know, I'm just a perfectly ordinary fourth-year student at Hogwarts, if you have any questions about that you can go to our Professor Dumbledore, he should be able to give you a satisfactory answer."
Jon's sincere statement was filled with nothing but sarcasm in Matthew's ears.
"Then why are you here!"
"Hey, I have just finished a tense and exciting tournament, so isn't it only natural that Professor Dumbledore has given me some time off to come out and relax?"
"Come to Britain, your enemy's home base, to relax?"
Jon cleared his throat twice.
"It's normal. My way of relaxing is different from other people, just like what was rumoured in Hogwarts castle before; when I have nothing to do, I like to use the Killing Curse to kill two people to entertain myself, and if I have to kill someone, I definitely can't kill my own people, so there's nothing wrong about being here."
"Don't play me for a fool!"
Matthew suddenly raised his voice, like he was already in a bad mood, and had no patience at all for wanting to keep yanking Jon's strings.
"You are Dumbledore's most trusted student, so these words can also be conveyed to him by you for me! What exactly Grindelwald is doing in Northern Europe, Dumbledore must know better than anyone else! Regarding his departure from that prison, the Congress had already been very tolerant, sort of selling Dumbledore a favour, but he didn't have the slightest intention of stopping! I don't know if there's any of your own stance in this, but the opinion of the Congress is clear."
He stared Jon in the eye, incredibly sternly.
"Grindelwald will always be the enemy of the Magical Congress of the United States of America! Those who stand with Grindelwald will also forever be the enemies of the Magical Congress! Now that Europe's own problems have not even been resolved, I hope that you will think clearly for yourselves about whether you want to set off new troubles!"
The smile on Jon's face also narrowed, he calmly listened to Matthew's statement that was both advice and a threat and didn't bother to interrupt anything, but only asked flatly after he finished.
"Then I would like to know one thing, Mr Graves. If there is really a situation where Professor Dumbledore and Headmaster Grindelwald join forces, and we exclude anyone else but the two of them, do you really have the ability to take care of them?"
Matthew reddened at Jon's question.
The answer was of course obvious, when just Grindelwald alone had brought the entire Magical Congress of the United States of America to its knees, it was ultimately Dumbledore who had stepped in and won that duel that had resolved the threat.
And if Dumbledore had really joined forces with Grindelwald, and then when they waited until after they had really defeated Voldemort, the power they at that time wielded would represent the entire European magical community, so how else could the Congress deal with them?
Matthew gritted his teeth and said in an almost exasperated manner.
"Then why can't we..."
"Unite with Voldemort, right?" Jon picked up on his words without blinking.
Matthew was silent at this moment, he might have been able to speak decisively before about his attitude towards Grindelwald, but on the matter of Voldemort, there was no unified opinion within the Congress, so naturally he couldn't really say something like that.
"It's best to think before you speak. I don't know much about the situation in the United States, but as far as I know, you guys are the ones who have the highest level of Muggle-born and Half-blood wizards isn't that right? Even Ilvermorny had a Muggle presence as one of the founders in the first place, and the families that can be called purebloods can be counted on the palm of one's hand. If you really wanted to unite with Voldemort, you would be having a falling out within yourselves first, wouldn't you?"
Jon shook his head, he hadn't actually intended to put pressure on Matthew, but rather to get him to think clearly about the situation at hand, after all, the wizarding world was not the same as the muggle world, the Magical Congress of the United States of America didn't have that kind of power (nuke) that made it unique in the world.
"Regarding the matter of the Northern Witching Horizon, I haven't had too many exchanges with Professor Dumbledore about this, but what I can be sure of is that within the Witching Horizon; the Order of the Phoenix, the French wizards, and the Northern European Witching Horizon. The connection between the three of us isn't that strong, especially the Northern Witching Horizon. They are only providing us with material assistance from Northern Europe, and they didn't send any personnel to participate in the war. That means that I'm not sure if the professor knows anything about what Mr Grindelwald is planning to do, but he certainly has no intention of getting involved."
Jon then straightened the robes he was wearing, while coughing twice to make his voice seem a little more mature.
"Those words above were spoken by me as a fourth-year student at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry to you, so the next piece of advice is what I'm going to say as a Professor of Transfiguration at Durmstrang School of Witchcraft and Wizardry."
Matthew's face went from pensive at first to a little confused as he watched Jon complete the switch between roles like this.
"It's none of your business what our Headmaster wants! Separated by the Atlantic Ocean, the North Sea, and the Norwegian Sea. You guys from the United States still want to control Northern Europe, do you! Are you the ones who have defeated him? Did you lock him up? Do you really think you're the world's law enforcer; then what about the time when Voldemort was killing innocent people? You weren't even able to make a single fart that time."
----
#Drowz, Thanks for all your love and support.
Read advance chapters on P@treon. If you have some extra pocket money, Support me at P@treon: www.p@treon.com/Crazy_Cat.
Happy Reading!!!
#Drowz, Thanks for all your love and support.
Read advance chapters on P@treon. If you have some extra pocket money, Support me at P@treon: www.p@treon.com/Crazy_Cat.
Happy Reading!!!