In the Harry Potter Without Harry Potter - Chapter 512: Gaunt's Old House

Jon didn’t leave the locket in his hands unattended.

He directly used the Phoenix’s Apparition to return to Hogwarts, then found Dumbledore and placed the locket in front of his desk.

Dumbledore was not surprised that Jon’s trip had gone well, he just stared oddly at Jon who had appeared directly in his office just like that.

“Even though I’ve already witnessed such a fact, I still remain a little disbelieving that someone’s Animagus can actually turn out to be a magical creature, especially a Phoenix.”

Jon had already experienced this kind of surprise, it was indeed an extremely abnormal thing in the magical world, almost as if some kingdom in the middle-age society had suddenly mastered the technology of controlled nuclear fusion.

However, Jon did not say much about the root of this kind of magic, and Dumbledore naturally did not have the intention to ask about it.

Soon after that, their attention shifted to the locket, and it was obvious that before the journey to look for Sirius, Jon had already spoken to Dumbledore beforehand, letting him know about Regulus as well.

“In fact, many people have always misunderstood the true spirit of what the Slytherin house stands for,” Dumbledore said softly.

“A large part of that stems from the rise of Riddle in recent years, who has led some of the opportunistic purebloods to extremes, and along with it, the entire atmosphere within Slytherin has changed. But those who possess the true qualities of the Slytherin House have never disappeared, like Regulus.”

Jon nodded in recognition, in fact, it wasn’t just Regulus, it was the same even in the original story, even from Slytherin, there were still quite a number of students who participated in the Final Battle.

After keeping the locket and diadem in a safe place, Dumbledore gathered up the materials on his desk and stood up from his chair.

“Come on, I have nothing more to do for the rest of the day, let’s go find the next Horcrux together.”

And just as they had stepped out of the Headmaster’s office, they saw a torn and hesitant Harry standing in the doorway of the Headmaster’s office, as if he wanted to find Dumbledore but had been stopped by the stone gargoyle because he didn’t know the password.

Upon seeing Dumbledore and Jon coming out of the headmaster’s office, a look of delight instantly appeared on his face.

“My mum, is she back? Professor Dumbledore!”

Dumbledore said shaking his head.

“She had to find the correct location in the middle of a forest, it’s not an easy task Harry, I suppose she won’t be back to the castle until late evening for a well-deserved rest, she won’t be able to finish this task in a day.”

Harry had a disappointed look on his face, but then he could tell that Jon and Dumbledore were in a posture of readiness to go out of school right now and couldn’t help but blink his eyes and ask.

“Can I join you guys? I want to learn more about my mum from Jon.”

To this, Jon was certainly up for anything, and instead of making a decision, he turned his gaze to Dumbledore.

It was unknown what Dumbledore was thinking, he pondered looking at Harry’s expectant apprehensive gaze and eventually nodded.

“If you don’t have any other classes scheduled later on.”

“Today it’s just one Herbology and Potions class in the morning, both of which I’m already done with!”

At the mention of Potions class, Harry’s face was clearly filled with pain, but after receiving such an answer from him, Dumbledore naturally had no other reason to refuse and added Harry to the group for the upcoming trip.

They left the confines of Hogwarts Castle together and then waited for Dumbledore to lead the way, using Apparition to bring Jon and Harry together to a remote hillside.

Harry didn’t ask what they were planning to do by coming here, as he had said at the beginning, wanting to join Jon and Dumbledore was just a way to learn more about Lily from Jon.

“When I first got the admission notice to magical school it was your mum who snatched me from a professor of another Hogwarts controlled by Voldemort, you should know that Hogwarts professor as well, his name is Barty Crouch Jr.”

Jon didn’t put on any kind of airs in front of Harry, recounting all that had happened to him since he had met Lily, and Dumbledore stepped forward to lead them towards a wooden shed four or five miles away from Little Hangleton.

Harry was certainly no stranger to Barty Jr. It was also around this time last year that he, along with Cedric, had sabotaged Barty Crouch Jr.’s plans, captured him and brought him to the Ministry of Magic.

To be shocked at the fact that he was actually a Hogwarts professor in another world at the same time was somewhat marvellous.

Because, in this world, Barty Jr. also pretended to be Moody for a year as a professor in Hogwarts, during which time he was unexpectedly nice to Harry to fulfil his plan.

Jon also talked afterwards about how during the second school year, Lily, Lupin and Sirius had come together to capture Peter Pettigrew to avenge both James and him from the other world personally, and so on.

Harry had been listening, but he obviously didn’t show much excitement on his face, he could hear that in the other world, Lily hadn’t been happy at all, she had become a loner and her whole being was completely just taken over by the emotions of vengeance, even more lonely than he himself had been in this world.

And in the background, Jon didn’t say much more about Snape.

There was a separate meeting between him and Dumbledore last night, during which he gave Dumbledore the list of names that Kingsley had asked him to bring with him as a favour, and also chatted about Snape’s choices and eventual end in the other world.

Dumbledore listened and was silent for a long time, surprised but not surprised by such a part of the story.

He knew Snape better than anyone else and certainly wasn’t overly shocked that he ended up in such a situation.

It was also while Jon and Harry were chatting that Dumbledore had led them to such a dilapidated wooden shed.

Calling it a house was a stretch; the walls were covered in moss and many of the tiles on the roof had fallen off, revealing the inner rafters here or there. Thick nettles were growing around the house, tall nettles all the way up to the windows, which were very small and accumulated a thick layer of old dirt, and there was a dead snake nailed to the door.

It was obvious that no one had been here for a long time, and as soon as Dumbledore pushed open the door staring at the dead snake, the pervasive dust was swept out from within by the wind.

Jon and Harry both frowned and covered their noses, and it was at this point that Harry finally asked.

“What are we doing here?”

Dumbledore had stepped inside.

“To find a gem that has the same root as your Invisibility Cloak.”

—-

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