The Real Hogwarts Chapter 99 Contacting Dumbledore
Hermione had of course noticed Jon's silence.
She pursed her bloodless lips and a forced smile appeared on her face at this moment.
"Don't feel embarrassed, Professor. I understand. After all, his power is too strong. No one can fight him now. We can wait. I will keep telling them to believe that there will be hope in the future..."
At this time, Jon suddenly interrupted her.
"You don't have to keep telling them, and you don't have to think too much about it. I didn't say anything just now not because I was thinking about how to tell you that we are not prepared for this, but because I was hesitating whether to tell you about this plan."
Hermione was stunned. She looked at Jon, and Jon looked at her with a smile on his face.
"We had a plan from the beginning. You don't need to ask any more questions. All you have to do is keep the secret."
The air fell into silence. It was not until a long time later that Hermione sniffed. She tried hard to hold back the tears that were already wandering around her eyes and asked in a sobbing voice.
"Are you...are you telling the truth?"
Jon replied quietly.
"The professors at the other Hogwarts never lied."
Hermione raised her hand and used her sleeve to wipe away her unshed tears. Her eyes were red and the smile on her face was finally not as forced as the last time. She said in a firm tone.
"I believe you!"
…
Late at night, after coming out of Hermione's dormitory, Jon did not go directly back to his own dormitory.
After calming down the agitated girl, Jon leaned quietly against the wall beside Hermione's dormitory door. He held the Marauder's Map in one hand and the Invisibility Cloak in the other, and just stood there silently, not knowing what he was thinking .
The corridor in the basement dormitory was pitch black. He stood quietly in the darkness for twenty to thirty minutes before he finally moved.
Jon put on an invisibility cloak, kept looking at the Marauder's Map in his hand, sneaked to the statue of the blind, hunchbacked old witch, used a spell to open the entrance to the secret room and went in.
When we arrived at the town of Hogsmeade, it was completely covered with snow. The thick snow on the streets had not been cleared yet. The bright moonlight was reflected by the snow on the ground, making this quiet wizard town not seem dark.
Jon was very careful about his whereabouts. After coming out of the cellar of Honeydukes Candy Store, he would turn back and clean up his footprints every time he took a step forward to prevent any possibility of leaving any suspicion.
He walked very slowly this time, but from a distance, he could see that in the Pig's Head Bar, where even the door number looked a little dirty, there was still a faint candlelight burning, as if it was specifically pointing him in the direction.
When Jon approached the Hog's Head Inn and reached the steps in front of the door, before he could reach out to knock on the door, Aberforth had already opened the door from the inside.
He welcomed Jon into the warm tavern with a roaring fireplace, and then served him a cup of hot cocoa. He knew that Jon actually liked this better than butterbeer and pumpkin juice.
Without asking, Aberforth waited for Jon to finish the first sip of hot cocoa before speaking.
"I killed the basilisk, but I didn't get the thing."
This was a situation that Aberforth had speculated with him about before the Christmas operation began, so he didn't seem disappointed, but just asked.
"Are there other guards guarding the room where those two items are hidden ?"
Jon nodded.
"Three portraits, all staring at those two items, are similar to what we guessed before. He will still keep something behind. Also, before I found the room where those two items were stored, I saw four items placed on the desk in the principal's office: a sword, a cup, a locket, and a crown. I suspect there must be something wrong with these four items, otherwise the Dark Lord would not have placed them here."
Listening to Jon's story, Aberforth looked thoughtful. After thinking for a moment, he spoke.
"The portrait issue is not unsolvable. After all, it is a magical creation. In the wizarding world, apart from the three unforgivable spells, all other magic has counterspells, and the portraits in the wizarding world are no exception. The only difficulty we face now is how to solve the problem before the three portraits can send out their information. As for the four items you mentioned... they are likely to be very important magical items to Voldemort."
"I was found while I was cleaning up the basilisk's corpse."
"Oh, you've been discovered... You've been discovered!" After repeating Jon's words twice, Aberforth was shocked to realize what he had heard. He looked at Jon and spoke in a hurried tone, "Who discovered you?"
Jon said silently.
"She is a student in the same grade as me. She didn't just discover me today. She had noticed something was wrong with me long ago. Dolohov, who was supposed to attend the Dark Lord's Christmas dinner tonight, returned to the castle early and discovered that I was not there. She helped me find an excuse to cover it up, and then she found it and prevented me from being exposed."
Aberforth was relieved to hear that the person who found Jon was not a faculty member in the castle.
"I noticed something was wrong with you early on? What's going on?"
John told Aberforth the whole story of how Hermione initially questioned his identity, then confirmed his origins and finally helped him. Aberforth couldn't help but admire him at the end.
"She is a very smart girl . She would definitely shine in peacetime."
After Aberforth finished his praise, Jon took a deep breath and said the following.
"She finally asked me if we had any plans to rescue them during our planned mission to infiltrate Hogwarts Castle."
The pub fell silent.
It was so quiet that they could only hear each other's breathing. After a long time, Aberforth slowly spoke.
"Is she threatening you?"
"She's asking me."
Jon leaned back in his chair and murmured, the little girl's face with pursed lips, expectant and fearful, still in his mind.
Aberforth sighed. In fact, he should have been the one to make the decision on such matters. After all, he was nearly a hundred years older than Jon. But he still asked Jon subconsciously.
"So what do you think?"
Jon didn't speak immediately, but looked at the ceiling of the tavern and paused for a few seconds before speaking calmly.
"Can you help me contact Professor Dumbledore? I want to talk to him."
