Volume 4: The Sea and the Ship Heading North Chapter 280 Sailing North
Lyon, France.
The winter chill had not yet dissipated here, and Lily and Mag were walking through a secluded alley together.
"Has Albus decided to cancel the plan to attack Beauxbatons?" Lily looked at Magg.
Mag's brows were tightly furrowed. Since arriving in France, except for the night of the attack on the correctional facility, her brows had never relaxed.
"There is no other way. We have confirmed that the current principal of that school is one of the Dark Lord's diehard fans - Igor Karkaroff. The school has already completed preparations in advance. If he is sure that there is no hope of defending it, he will activate the method left by the Dark Lord and let all the punk-blood students in the school die together."
Lily moved her lips as if she wanted to say something, but in the end it just turned into a calm inquiry.
"Then we just stand there and watch, pretending that Beauxbatons behind us doesn't exist?"
Mag said in a deep voice.
"Don't worry, Albus won't let this happen. He wants to liberate that school more than any of us. Gathering all of us together this time must be related to this matter."
As they were talking, they had already reached the end of the alley. Facing the mottled wall, neither of them had any intention of stopping and walked straight through the wall.
After passing through the cold, water-like wall, what came into view was a spacious space that was the same as the main hall of the British Ministry of Magic.
There are quite a few wizards coming and going here. During this time, the Wizarding World has basically occupied all places except Paris where the French Ministry of Magic is located. Since Voldemort cannot hide and Dumbledore can show up at any time, they have basically not encountered any major casualties.
Thanks to this, the French wizards who were liberated in the occupied areas began to resume their normal life.
The pure-bloods and half-bloods who had committed heinous crimes were all liquidated, and all the property they had plundered that should have belonged to the Muggle-born wizards was returned. The status of wizards also returned to what it was before Voldemort came to France. Differences in blood no longer constituted a class, and the original slavery and oppression soon disappeared from this land.
This is something that should make the members of the Order of the Phoenix excited and thrilled.
But they all knew that the reason why France was able to transform so smoothly was mainly because Voldemort's rule over this land was very short.
Many people have not adapted to the new rules, so it would be easy to get them to go back to the previous state.
But the situation in Britain is different. Voldemort has ruled there for ten years. Counterattacking is a problem. If successful, how to eliminate the impact of bloodline rule will also be a problem.
Of course, as the Wuping Line has not yet completely occupied France, it is not necessary to think about such long-term issues.
McGonagall and Lily walked straight into the main hall and went deep into a corridor, where they happened to meet Lupin and Tonks, who also seemed to have just returned.
"You really should get new clothes, Senior Lupin. You've been wearing this since the first time you and I went on a mission together. Half a year has passed and you still haven't changed."
Tonks, with her gradient curly hair and dressed like a little girl, was chattering and educating Lupin.
Lupin nodded repeatedly, the gentle smile on his face did not change at all.
"It's only been half a year. When it was longer before, I didn't have new clothes for five or six years."
"How can we compare the past with the present? You are now representing the Wizarding World, and Dumbledore. Wearing such old clothes will make people think that we are still a weak force like before."
While they were chatting, they saw Mag and Lily following them from behind.
After seeing the two female professors, Tonks subconsciously restrained her casualness, secretly stuck out her tongue, and greeted McGonagall and the others.
"Good afternoon, Professor Potter and Professor McGonagall."
Lily and McGonagall looked at her and Lupin strangely, then nodded in response.
Lily smiled at Lupin.
"Listen to her more. You are indeed not young anymore."
There was some profound meaning in her words, which made Lupin look a little embarrassed. Fortunately, at this moment, a big hand suddenly rested on his shoulder from behind to help him out.
"Hey man, after the meeting tonight, shall we go for a drink? We haven't seen each other for two or three months since we've been so busy."
It was Sirius, with a broad smile on his face, as if he had just experienced something happy.
"When you were chasing those Aurors this morning, you had just drunk some wine and violated the rules by using forbidden dark magic. I will report this to Dumbledore later!"
The harsh words came from Flitwick who was with him. He was short and no one noticed him at first.
Sirius casually hugged Flitwick and let him lean against his thigh.
"Hey, professor, don't lecture me like you did when I was in school. I'm sensible now!"
"I don't think so!"
Flitwick said angrily.
"Is it so lively here?"
A hoarse voice called out from behind them, and Moody limped over from the other end of the corridor with Kingsley.
"It seems that tonight is an important combat meeting, and all the important people are here."
Moody exclaimed.
This corridor, which was not spacious to begin with, became crowded. The professors of Hogwarts and the senior members of the Order of the Phoenix did not stay here any longer. They walked together to the meeting room at the end of the corridor, opened the door and walked in.
There was a long table in the conference room that could seat twenty to thirty people. When McGonagall and the others entered, Dumbledore was already sitting at the head seat of the table, and the seats on his right were also filled with French wizards, headed by Iniesta.
After Mag and his group took their seats, the meeting that brought together all the top executives of the Wizarding World officially began.
Dumbledore , as always, maintained his good habit of never talking nonsense in meetings, and the first sentence he opened his mouth was about the main topic of tonight's meeting.
"In the whole of France, except for Paris, where the Ministry of Magic has been shrinking its defenses and stationing, and Beauxbatons, which has used students as a threat, all wizards in other regions have been liberated."
Dumbledore's voice was not loud, but it could be clearly heard by everyone on both sides of the long table.
"The current headmaster of Beauxbatons has been confirmed to be Igor Karkaroff. Although he has always been trusted by the Dark Lord, when we sent people to contact him, he once implicitly stated that if we occupied all of France, he would be willing to automatically give up resistance and hand over Beauxbatons safely. Regardless of whether his words are trustworthy or not, if there is a possibility of peacefully occupying Beauxbatons, we must strive for it."
"Therefore, our next strategic goal is now clearer than ever before."
"That's how you take Paris!"
…
On the same evening, the top executives of Wu Pingxian were holding this crucial meeting.
Durmstrang, Jon is fully prepared.
He did not refuse Grindelwald's task, nor did he have any reason to refuse.
As a natural born prophet, Grindelwald can often see fragments of the future that others cannot see, including the route of the Hogwarts this time, which is enough to demonstrate the power and accuracy of his predictive ability.
And this time, he let himself continue to the North Pole, and Jon didn't think it would be wrong.
As for the possible dangers in the Arctic...
Opportunities always coexist with dangers. If he didn't even dare to take this risk, he would not have agreed to Dumbledore's request to sneak into Hogwarts Castle.
What's more, this time Jon was not without a backup plan. One night, Fawkes suddenly appeared from Durmstrang and gave him one of his own feathers.
Jon never went to Dumbledore to tell him that he was going to leave Durmstrang, and now Fawkes came to give him this feather himself. It could only be that another insider leaked the news.
A warm feeling welled up in Jon's heart. After spending more than a month with Grindelwald, he didn't know whether it was because his personality was too extreme when he was young and he has become much more normal now, or whether some of the rumors about him in the outside world were untrue.
At least towards him, this old man who had once been frustrated was really kind. Jon would certainly not forget such help.
Just as Grindelwald said, he would not bring any Hogwarts students with him on this voyage. Even Jon planned to keep it a secret in case Hermione and the others felt uneasy staying at Durmstrang and wanted to go with him.
But Jon planned to take Nick with him instead of taking anyone alive.
No matter what , ghosts are much more convenient to move than living people. After all, Nick has existed for so many years. He is experienced and can provide a lot of help to Jon.
After everything was ready, just as Jon was planning to set off tonight, a small accident happened.
The surprise came from Nick. Jon had an appointment with him to meet at the lake behind Durmstrang Castle, but he came with another "person", or to be more precise, a ghost.
Gabrielle was carrying a small school bag and flying happily over Jon's head.
"Travel! Travel! The North Pole! The North Pole!"
Jon ignored her and looked at the culprit with empty eyes.
"We agreed not to tell anyone about this, didn't we?"
Nick looked guilty as he defended himself.
"It's not my fault. Gabrielle overheard our conversation and followed us here on her own initiative."
Gabrielle floated in the air and touched Jon's hair, making him feel a cool chill on his scalp.
"Why doesn't Jon want Gabrielle to tag along? Gabrielle isn't a bad kid who likes to cause trouble."
"What if you get lost in the Arctic?" Jon said helplessly, "That area is huge. If you get lost and can't cast spells, it will be hard for us to find you."
Gabrielle raised one of her arms with a serious look on her face.
"Gabrielle, promise that you will never disappear from Nick and Jon's sight for even a second!"
"It's no use for you to promise, go back!"
"Ah! Gabrielle is bored in the castle every day."
The little girl's eyes were red, and I didn't know whether she was using a self-torture tactic or was expressing her true feelings.
"Ginny and Luna have classes during the day, and there's no one Gabrielle knows at Durmstrang. The ghosts in this school all speak in an old and fierce voice. Nick won't play with me, and you can't find anyone, Jon..."
She looked like she was about to cry, which made Jon unmoved, but after hesitating for a while, he changed his mind.
Gabrielle is basically safe in her ghost state. Even if something happens to her, Nick can bring her back. The only unsafe moment is that she might get lost while running around on the Arctic ice field. Nick just needs to keep an eye on her.
With hundreds of years of experience in dealing with Peeves, Nick is pretty good at taking care of children. Besides, it was he who caused the trouble in the first place.
After finally confirming the crew for this trip, Jon did not stay any longer. He and Nick Gabriel boarded the Hogwarts again, which was stationed on the shore of Lake Durmstrang, after nearly two months.
No one came out to see them off this time, and no one knew that Jon would take such a long voyage.
Grindelwald, the only person in the castle who knew about this, just stood quietly in front of the window of the headmaster's office, watching the Hogwarts, which had already begun to sail towards the center of the lake. In his mind, the scene that he had accidentally seen from the near future appeared again.
In the magnificent hall, under the gaze of wizards from all over Europe, scarlet blood bloomed like strange petals...
While he was thinking, the huge Hogwarts disappeared silently on the surface of Lake Durmstrang in the falling night.
…
At the same time, on Norway's northernmost coastline, near the border of the Arctic Ocean, an old wooden ship suddenly jumped out from the sea, its tall sails slowly dropped from the top of the mast, and four animals surrounded the "H" mark, shining brightly in the moonlight.
Gabrielle was wearing a pirate's tricorn hat that Jon had conjured up for her. She was standing on one foot on the bow with a high spirit. The sea breeze blew up her white dress, making it rustle like a cloak.
"Gabriel! Let's go!"
Her childish voice could not penetrate the sea breeze, and did not even scare away the seagulls resting on the rocks.
"First Officer Nicholas! Be alert and stay alert!"
Nick's powerful voice came from the mast.
"No problem, Captain Delacour!"
"Second Officer Green! Maintain course! Target north!"
Jon, who had been demoted two ranks from captain to second mate, also controlled the rudder and responded weakly.
"Yes, Captain!"
"What! Jon, you're not cooperating at all! I'll punish you by not allowing you to drink rum for a week!"
"I'm underage and can't drink."
"Then I'll punish you by making you eat salted fish for a week!"
