Volume 3: A Tombstone Stained with Sin and Blood Chapter 124 The Carriage That Could Not Leave British Land
The Knight Bus' third level offers a great view.
Jon leaned against the head of the bed and could see through the window beside him that the bus was passing through a Muggle city.
This modified magic car travels at an incredibly fast speed, and the way it moves forward is very unique. Compared to rolling forward on four wheels, it is more like jumping forward, which also causes it to move forward abnormally bumpy.
The houses blocking the bus jumped to the sides of the bus's path before the bus hit them, and then returned to their original positions after the bus left without attracting the attention of the Muggles on the roadside or the people in the houses. It looked very magical.
As Jon passed between the houses, he could almost hear, through a window pane, two boys plotting to steal grapes from a neighbor's vines.
The feeling was very novel, a bit like the scene when Jon was sitting in the driver's seat of the carriage and watching Hagrid driving the Hogwarts carriage, but there were also obvious differences.
"I went to see Professor Potter the next day after I came back and planned to return the invisibility cloak to her, but she refused to accept it." Jon and Dumbledore told about their experience when they returned the invisibility cloak. "She said she would give it to me for safekeeping for the time being, and if she needed it, she would ask for it back from me."
Dumbledore was also lying comfortably on the bed, and it seemed that this trip with John was just an ordinary one.
"That thing is a memory worth remembering for her, but it is also extremely painful to remember. It is a good thing that you help her keep this invisibility cloak."
Jon quickly changed the subject and turned to look at Dumbledore.
"Professor, even if we were to travel, instead of Apparating directly to France, why would we have to go through the official Ministry of Magic channels? Wouldn't that risk exposure?"
"If we leave the country privately, there will be risks." Dumbledore explained softly, "Of course, the Order of the Phoenix can set up an independent and safe temporary Floo network, and also leave some Portkeys all over Europe. If we really want to avoid it, we can also use these methods."
"But the Ministry of Magic, controlled by the Dark Lord, has been strictly restricting the entry and exit of British wizards in the past two years. The Floo Network Management Branch in Wales was also a new department established two years ago. I am very interested in seeing what preparations two half-blood wizards with clear backgrounds and legitimate reasons to leave the country need to make if they want to leave the UK."
Jon could tell that Dumbledore was not hiding anything, he really just wanted to learn about these things for himself, but why did he want to know about the issue of British wizards leaving the country? There must be a deeper reason. He didn't say it, and Jon didn't ask.
However, his answer reminded Jon of another question that he had always wanted to know since he was brought onto the carriage, so he asked curiously.
"Then why do we have to stay in Britain, Professor Dumbledore? I think it is impossible for every magical government to accept the Dark Lord's rule over the British wizarding world. Why don't we just leave Britain and go to a country that can accept a new Hogwarts? Isn't it safer ?"
Dumbledore shook his head calmly.
"It's not as simple as you think. The carriage we live in now is not just a mobile teaching place. It is actually the successor of the Hogwarts Castle before it was conquered eight years ago. It has a very special meaning to this land. This means that its wheels can only turn on the ground of Britain forever, but it has no way of touching the land outside the British Isles."
When he said this, he seemed to have thought of something, and his eyes became a little deep.
"Of course, nothing is absolute. No one can see clearly where our future is headed..."
Just as Jon was thinking about what he had said, the Knight Bus suddenly stopped.
The curly-haired wizard, who had already been dropped off in Devonshire, was on his way to Scotland to take Mrs. Viera to have a quarrel with her husband. The roadside where they stopped was a desolate suburb, and there was no sign of a wizard raising his staff to hail a cab.
Just as Jon was about to sit up from the bed in confusion, a cold, icy atmosphere of despair and deathly silence suddenly enveloped the entire bus!
Dumbledore, who was lying peacefully, couldn't help but frowned slightly. He put his hand into the sleeve of his robe, and when he stretched out his hand again, there was an ordinary-looking applewood wand in his palm.
The deadly atmosphere became thicker and thicker, and even made Jon subconsciously pull the quilt to wrap his body.
And just two seconds later, he saw from the spiral staircase a monster covered in a gray cloak that looked like it had been soaked in water. The monster was extremely tall and exuded an aura that made people feel despair from the bottom of their souls.
Dementors!
A dark magic creature unique to the British magical world, it survives by sucking the passion in people's hearts, leaving only endless despair. Apart from being afraid of the Patronus Charm, it has no other weaknesses and cannot be eliminated.
Dementors existed on Azkaban long before it became a prison for wizards.
Because the British Ministry of Magic had no way to deal with these monsters, one of the ministers decided to find a different way to appease these emotion-sucking monsters.
Azkaban Island is used as a prison, and the Dementors living there are hired as jailers. Wizard prisoners who have committed serious mistakes will be locked up here and become a source of food for the Dementors, in order to appease these monsters and prevent them from going to the British mainland to cause riots.
Although this measure has been used by the Ministry of Magic to this day, there has always been controversy during its implementation. The key point is that creatures like Dementors are the purest evil, and the Ministry of Magic being associated with them is really a loss of justice for the magical government.
Of course, Voldemort has no such worries. Under his control, the current Ministry of Magic has become the magical government with the most in-depth communication with Dementors in history.
So much so that they are now allowed to come directly into the UK to search for escaped prisoners.
"We don't have the person you're looking for here."
Dumbledore emphasized in a calm tone the first time he saw the Dementors.
But the Dementor didn't seem to want to listen to him. It continued to float slowly forward, and the cold and desperate aura it exuded became increasingly strong, almost suffocating Jon.
At this moment, a silver thread flashed on the tip of Dumbledore's wand, and he spoke slowly in a tone without any threat.
"I suggest you... leave now."
