Ron really didn't have to be squirming, and he even had to consider Hermione's emotions as well as Jon's when he said those words.
No matter how poor the Weasleys once were, they were still a complete family.
Whereas both Hermione and Jon are now basically no different from orphans.
Ron led them around the yard and around the Burrow before re-entering the house and taking the two into his room.
"We've only moved here a short time ago, in fact, it's only my second time being in this room of my own, I was at school when we moved and Bill helped pack everything, he's a lot more meticulous than George and Fred, he has never missed any of my things and knows to protect my privacy and not rummage around."
You could tell that his room was indeed quite simple, apart from the Quidditch team posters on the wall, an old flying broom, and models of the Quaffle, Bludgers and a Golden Snitch were all the decorations there.
"This is how my room looked when I was in Britain before though, and Bill has managed to replicate it here, so how's it? Not too bad?"
Ron shrugged at them.
Jon walked around the room and commented.
"Not as messy as I thought it would be, it does feel like a nice place."
"Hey, are you undermining me? I told you Bill was the one who helped me move in here, Mum would scold me if I messed it up by now already."
Hermione looked intrigued by the books on the shelves in Ron's room, pulling one out and leafing through it, then said afterwards.
"I saw the ghost that came for Nick when we were at school."
Her words clearly caught the attention of both Jon and Ron.
"You know her?"
"I saw her in the book, and according to the picture in it, I shouldn't be mistaken."
Hermione flipped through the book in her hands, which was titled 'The Legend of the Ghost', then paused to reach one of the pages and spread it out to the two boys.
"See? It's the very same lady."
The page in question featured the Hogwarts Castle's Ravenclaw resident ghost - Grey Lady.
Jon couldn't help but raise an eyebrow, he hadn't forgotten what Nick had told him back on the Hogwarts ship when they first received him. After Voldemort had taken over Hogwarts Castle, the ghosts in the castle had all lost their restraints and left the school that had lost its founding meaning.
"Are you sure it was her?"
Hermione said with a nod.
"I'm sure, that lady had just arrived at the school when I happened to be looking for a suitable place to read a book in front of the school gates because the sun was shining at quite the right temperature that afternoon and Professor Potter had suggested that I shouldn't stay cooped up in the library all the time and need to get some sunlight. Then I saw a ghost float in through the gate, and she stopped to ask me where Nick was, she looked just like the illustration in this book, with her wide-brimmed pointed hat, she was pretty and a little cold."
Her description did match the exact appearance of the Grey Lady, Ron said with a big grin as he sat up in bed after hearing it.
"It's not that strange, Nick and this Grey lady are both former resident ghosts at Hogwarts, they must both be hundreds of years old, maybe they've been apart for a long time, and now we have a big advantage and as long as Jon plays steady we'll have the castle back in a year, so old friends want to meet and catch up. "
Even though Ron had planted flags all over his body like the old general on the stage, Jon just glared at him and went on to think about matters concerning the Gray Lady.
He certainly didn't think it was as simple as Ron made it out to be; the true identity of the Grey Lady was in fact the real daughter of one of the four founders of the former Hogwarts - Rowena Ravenclaw.
Even if she was an ungrateful daughter, that didn't overshadow her unusual background and identity.
As Nick had said before, she had left Hogwarts with the constant mumbling that she had made a second mistake, a second mistake.
This second mistake wasn't hard to guess; the biggest mistake in the Gray Lady's life had been stealing her mother's diadem, and it was this incident that had ultimately led to her death.
The other mistake she made after her death was being baited by Voldemort who was a student to not only reveal her true identity but also to tell him where she had hidden the Ravenclaw diadem.
Jon surmised that after Voldemort had defeated Dumbledore and taken over Hogwarts castle, the second mistake she had been referring to would have been delivering the diadem to Voldemort indirectly.
It was indeed an extremely foolish move, and Jon couldn't help but spit out the drink when he saw this bit in the original book in his previous life, just how charming the young Voldemort had been that he had managed to seduce an old ghost who had lived for thousands of years.
Now that she had come to Nick, the biggest possibility that she had come to Nick would have something to do with the Slytherin portrait is high.
After all, even if it was just a portrait, as a former close friend of her own mother, Salazar Slytherin was one of her elders, a sort of uncle figure, and with the news about him, it didn't make sense that she wouldn't come and meet him.
"If you're curious, just ask Nick when you get back."
Jon said as he picked up the golden snitch on Ron's desk.
"Nick certainly won't hide it if he could tell us."
Hermione was looking at him with unblinking eyes as he said this, and Jon noticed her gaze and asked suspiciously.
"What's wrong?"
"I have a question too, why have you started talking a little weird since a month or so ago?"
Hearing Hermione's question, Ron reacted as if it only occurred to him at this time, he walked over to Jon with a strange look on his face and cupped his chin in thought.
"I realized it too when Hermione said that, Jon does have a bit of a strange accent now, it's like having toffee stuck to his teeth."
Jon looked at them helplessly, in fact, he didn't really aim to hide it from them on purpose.
He opened his mouth to reveal the leaf of mandrake that he always held inside, and then explained.
"I'm preparing to learn an unusual form of magic, one of the requirements for learning it is to hold this leaf in your mouth all the time first."
Ron gazed blankly with ignorant eyes.
"What magic requires you to keep the leaf in your mouth?"
"A magic that requires you to drink your own saliva!" Jon said with a disgusted look on his face.
Ron's face was full of indifference.
"It's not like we don't drink our own spit every day, it's no big deal."
"Let you spit your saliva into a little vial and bury it in the ground for six months or even a year before you have to drink it, and you still think it's not a big deal?"
Following Jon's words, Ron thought about that scenario for a moment and instantly had a look of disgust, shaking his head over and over like a rattle.
Hermione, on the other hand, looked at Jon and blinked her own eyes.
It was not a pair of ignorant eyes.
----
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.
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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!!!