Chapter 325 Return to Our Castle (2 in 1)

"I certainly wouldn't try to help her if that was her attitude the whole time." Jon said casually, "But that diadem holds a special significance not just to her, it's an important relic to the entire Hogwarts, and if I had the chance to get my hands on it, I'd certainly get it back."

Nick wasn't much surprised by this answer from Jon, it had been clear to him from the start that Jon is typically a soft person, but that's not mean he would help anyone who wanted his help with something when they had the kind of attitude Lady Grey had when she was in a position of seeking help.

After finishing communicating with Jon about the matter of Lady Grey, Nick left Jon's dorm room.

There were less than three weeks to go before the start of the new academic year in September and the start of the Triwizard Tournament, and in that time Jon had not been idle, even though he had completed the second step of making the Animagus Potion.

Apart from the necessary preparations that he had to make every day at sunrise and sunset, when he insisted on reciting the incantation with his ring against his heart, he continued to delve into the forbidden book area in the second gem, constantly gaining more and more magic knowledge.

After this trip to the North Pole, the magic on the slab originally drawn from the tower had been exhausted, but as the magic ran out, the knowledge of the forbidden books in the gem still continued to be retained.

It was with its contents, combined with Grindelwald's teaching, that Jon had previously mastered the three unforgivable curses in their entirety, and now he was drawn to two other spells that are not dark magic, yet are more terrifying than dark magic at most of the time.

The Memory Charm and Legilimency.

These two spells have the effect of modifying and reading a person's mind respectively, which is much more insidious than the spells that inflict damage on the surface.

Voldemort's reign in Britain was becoming more and more firmly rooted thanks to the Memory Charm; he never feared the emergence of fierce resistance, and even the strongest human will was no match for absolute magic.

And under the British Ministry of Magic, the division that disgusted wizards of all bloodlines is the Obliviator Headquarters which is part of the Department of Magical Accidents and Catastrophes.

Any ideological heretic will eventually face the wizards of this division and have his or her very perceptions and memories tampered with.

Human feelings are sometimes so simple, all and everything in their minds is related to their memories, and once the memories are altered, then their very nature would naturally change with it.

The current head of the Obliviator Headquarters is a rather famous guy - Gilderoy Lockhart, former best-selling author, adventurer, now mind-manipulating demon and valued lapdog under Voldemort.

His Memory Charm was so out of this world that almost all stubborn elements would eventually come to an end at his hands, and he is also one of the most highly regarded wizards in the Ministry of Magic by Voldemort.

Of course, Jon remembered this con man, and it had to be said that Voldemort had a good eye for talent these days, and the Memory Charm was probably the only good thing that Lockhart had in his entire body that that man could find, and it had served his cause so well.

It also showed how powerful the Memory Charm could be, and Jon even felt that if this charm didn't have a remedy, then it would surely be more terrifying than the Imperius Curse, one of the three Unforgivable Curses.

Then there's Legilimency, which, unlike the Memory Charm that modifies a person's memory, is a spell that can read a person's memory, as well as pull it out of their brain and change it into substantial silver threads for everyone else to view.

In terms of destructive power, these two spells certainly couldn't compare to a spell like the Blasting Curse or Invisible Sword Curse, but they are unique in their functionality in a way that no other spell can match them.

Jon felt that he might be able to use these two spells on his second trip to Hogwarts Castle.

The good thing was that the Memory Charm was considered a relatively generic spell, and it wasn't all that difficult to learn, the difficulty lay in becoming skilled at it afterwards.

On the contrary, Legilimency is a spell that is difficult to learn, but once you've learned it, it's easy to master it with just some experience.

So at first, he focused all his energy on the Memory Charm, and after he was basically able to use it, he then began to shift his focus to the Legilimency spell.

As Jon delved much deeper into his studies, Hermione, Ron, Neville and the others returned to Hogwarts in the last week of August, and it was only when Neville returned to his dormitory that Jon learned that Lady Grey had not left after her encounter with him, but had stayed here, apparently like Nick, she would continue to stay on afterwards.

Jon had nothing to say about this, this lady was not a bad person even though she was a bit overbearing, otherwise, she wouldn't be one of the resident ghosts at Hogwarts.

And just a little less than three days before the start of their fourth year in September, Rosier, the Deputy Headmistress of Durmstrang, arrived at Hogwarts with a dozen students and their school's champion, Diane Rosier.

This time, although four schools are participating in the competition titled the Triwizard Tournament, they are actually only split into two camps.

Regardless of whether Jon or Diane ended up winning, it would represent a win for Dumbledore on the bet and a defeat for Voldemort, so of course there was a certain amount of intercommunication between the two schools.

Diane was very respectful upon seeing Jon, or rather all the Durmstrang students was respectful upon seeing Jon.

"Professor Green."

In the great hall where lunch was being eaten, Lupin and Sirius, who had remained behind to look after the students during the holidays, watched with an odd look on their faces at the sight of a group of Durmstrang students giving Jon a short bow.

"I thought that school was up to something else until now, but it turns out they're really trying to drag Jon in as a professor?" Lupin said softly.

Sirius shrugged.

"To be honest, I've never heard of a fourteen-year-old professor."

"Let alone heard of one, even if you looked through the history of magic now you couldn't find one under the age of eighteen."

Sirius narrowed his already sharp eyes.

"But even if they did want Jon to be a professor, that doesn't mean they don't have other intentions, and I've always felt that Headmaster, who joined forces with Dumbledore, didn't intend to help us."

Lupin said calmly.

"We don't have to worry about that, I think Professor Dumbledore should know more about it than all of us."

Faced with the respectful attitude of the Durmstrang students, Jon had a bit of a headache.

He had agreed to be a professor of Transfiguration because he wanted to learn from Grindelwald, not to mention the fact that so far he had only held the title of professor and hadn't actually given a single lecture to these students.

Gaining respect like that for no reason at all was a little less acceptable to Jon.

"You can just call me Jon, at least you don't have to address me as Professor when you're not in class."

Before the students could reply, however, Rosier spoke first with a frown.

"Those are the rules, Professor Green, the rules that the Headmaster laid down for Durmstrang, and since you have accepted this position as a professor, you have to abide by its rules while enjoying its conveniences."

Jon could only say helplessly at this.

"Well, then, since that is your rule."

The Durmstrang students had certainly arrived early for their intended purposes, and Rosier had already taken Diane to meet Dumbledore a few hours before, but apparently, they hadn't got the results they wanted there.

"We asked Headmaster Dumbledore what kind of co-ordination the two schools should have for the rest of the tournament, but he said we each simply needed to do our best and try to help each other out during the tournament."

At lunch, Diane, who is about a forehead taller than Jon due to the girls' earlier development than the boys, the head girl of Durmstrang who is now in her seventh year sat next to Jon.

However, the age difference between the two did not change the primary and secondary relationship between them, not just the status of professor that Jon held at Durmstrang, but anyone who had seen Jon on the night of the Triwizard Champions Selection would never be able to see him as an ordinary fourth-year student.

Jon was not much surprised by Diane's words; in fact, even now he did not understand what Dumbledore's reasons were for agreeing to Voldemort to use the Triwizard Tournament to decide the winner of this war in France in the first place.

Maybe it was for fewer casualties, maybe it was because he trusted him enough, maybe it was because he had some scruples about Voldemort, but Jon felt that these could only be secondary reasons, and Dumbledore had not spoken to anyone else about the main purpose, including him.

"Just do as Professor Dumbledore has suggested." Jon said, "Let's put victory or defeat aside, and keep both of our lives safe first during the tournament. If there is a time when it is necessary to fight with each other we also need to prioritise each other's lives, not victory or defeat."

The expression on Diane's face was a little stunned.

Even if she was more amiable, she is still a student who came out of the Rosier family and was educated by Grindelwald.

She had been deeply influenced by the phrase "for the greatest good", and although she wouldn't go so far as to do anything for the ultimate victory, she felt that if she could sacrifice herself to achieve the final goal she would do it, and that should be the common consensus between the headmasters of the two schools.

Yet neither Dumbledore nor Jon himself had apparently grasped such a consensus and were still putting their personal well-being above the collective good, which was somewhat less acceptable to Diane.

She had even wondered if Jon and Dumbledore felt that she was just a complete add-on to the tournament on behalf of Durmstrang, with or without her there would be no problem, and that was why they were using such rhetoric to deal with her.

Jon didn't think about what Diane was thinking, he was thinking about the trip to Hogwarts Castle.

There are more secrets in that castle than what he found there previously, and the last time Jon had infiltrated there he couldn't go into more than that because he had a clear goal.

This time, on the other hand, the Triwizard Tournament would keep him there for at least an academic year, which meant that he would have plenty of time to dig deeper into things that he otherwise wouldn't have the energy to explore.

After all this time, Jon had gained a proficient grasp of the Memory Charm and was barely able to use the Legilimency.

The Memory Charm was certainly easy to learn, but to what extent he could use it, he could only use it to erase memories most crudely, but not to modify them as precisely and finely as Memory Masters could do.

As for the Legilimency spell that he could barely use, with his current mastery, there is no way to use it in reality, he can only pull out a tiny silver thread of thought when a person actively and completely drops their guard in their mind.

But in any case, to be able to use it from nothing to something is the greatest progress, and after that, if one wants to become proficient at it one just has to keep practising, and it will always come to fruition.

Jon never slackened off in training his magic casting skills, and as he grew older, so did the magic in his body.

The intensity of his magic is now at least three times stronger than when he was a first year, and even without the magic stored in the second gem of his ring, he can still use the levitation charm to fly for a short period of time.

The intensity of the various spells he used had also increased significantly.

And the day after the Durmstrang students arrived in Lyons to join the Hogwarts students, Dumbledore also came back to the school from his headquarters in Witching Horizon.

Today was already the last day of August, and tomorrow was not only the start of a new academic year, but it was likewise the official start of the Triwizard Tournament season.

That meant that early tomorrow morning, Dumbledore would be leading the students from both schools to Hogwarts Castle. On this night before he left, he had gathered all the students of Hogwarts in advance.

This year's intake of new students had ended during the summer, and compared to previous years, the number of new students this year was even far greater than before.

This was because with the Book of Admittance and the Quill of Acceptance, not only could all the British muggle students have been brought to the school early, but now with Witching Horizon having taken substantial control of all the regions in France except Paris, it was also possible to enrol the French muggle students in the school as well.

So there was a large intake of new students for this year, going up to even half the total number that had previously been there during the toughest period on the wagon.

The welcome dinner for the new students also took place tonight, as tomorrow would also be the official start of classes at Hogwarts.

In addition to the usual banquet, Dumbledore announced that he would be taking ten Hogwarts students to Hogwarts Castel. The students who wanted to go were asked to sign up voluntarily, but ultimately only those who are third years or older would be chosen.

The students were enthusiastic about this, and almost every eligible student threw their name into one of the stone basins used for registration, except for some who had been rescued from the castle by Jon and already had a psychological fear of that school.

Eventually, McGonagall selected ten at random from among those slips of paper to determine who would be going to Hogwarts Castle this time.

Of the students in Jon's year, only two girls, Hermione and Lavender, were picked, and while Lavender was full of cheers when her name was drawn, Hermione's face looked calm, and it was hard to tell what she was thinking.

From the Weasley twins only George's name was drawn, Fred was crestfallen at this and discussed with George if they could change place with each other, as no one would notice it anyway, only to have George poke him in the arm with a fork.

With all the preparations set, they spent the very first and possibly the last night of the new academic year at Hogwarts.

Then at dawn the next day, the Durmstrang students, led by Rosier, joined the Hogwarts students led by Dumbledore in the Hogwarts wagon that had been turned back from the ship.

It had been sent along with the Durmstrang students when they arrived, and after Jon had reached the ice at the very centre of the Arctic in Hogwarts, it had returned to the lake at Durmstrang on its own.

For the Hogwarts students, this wagon is the place they are most familiar with.

As Jon and the others started to board the wagon, Hagrid was already sitting in the driver's seat, just as he once had been.

Hagrid was much more excited than the students, and the flush of excitement was still evident on his face, which was mostly covered by his thick beard.

Instead of following the other students into the wagon, Jon sat down directly in Hagrid's wide chair, just as he had done in the first year when he first arrived.

"I remember what I was serving you, black tea and cream rock cakes, you said you weren't hungry at the time and just had a cup of black tea."

Hagrid smiled and offered a cup of black tea, which was steaming hot to Jon, who took it from him and watched as he made the final preparations before setting off on his journey.

Jon held the cup of tea in his hand and took a gentle sip.

Directly in front of him, instead of being invisible to his gaze as they had been three years ago, the Thestrals were clearly showing their original appearance.

A somewhat subtle smile appeared on Jon's face as he looked at the black horses with bat-like fleshy wings.

"It is nice to know that it doesn't only need grief or mourning to see you all."

His voice was so quiet that even Hagrid, who was sitting beside him, didn't hear what he was saying.

"What did you say?"

Hagrid questioned as he waved the reins, and the next moment, instead of running, the Thestrals who would be pulling the wagon simply unfurled those wide black wings!

The wagon, which would only turn its wheels on British soil, took to the skies as the Thestrals pulled it into flight!

The breeze, filtered by the wind-proof enchantment, ruffled the bangs on Jon's forehead as he clutched his teacup, took a fresh sip of the black tea in it and replied softly.

"I can still remember what we talked about back then; Do you know what words you said have stuck with me most, Hagrid."

"Hmm?"

The wagon passed through the low clouds, but the broad black wings of the Thestrals did not stop, and they continued their ascent until they had leapt completely out of the highest of the clouds.

Jon squinted at the sky, the rising sun was brighter and more blinding than ever.

"Back then I asked you if we had a final destination for this journey."

Hagrid said with a smile.

"Ah, I answered you with that Dumbledore line."

Jon stood on the bench as he propped himself up against the high table in front of him that was attached to the entire wagon, the breeze whistled in his ears, the puffy clouds leapt at his feet, and the sun shone with festive light.

"There would be only one end to this journey, and that would be to return to that Hogwarts castle that was originally ours."

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