Volume 5: The Burning Golden Flame Chapter 367 Dobby
Jon is observing whether there are any so-called "beauties" among the Thestrals, or should we say beautiful horses?
But to be honest, due to the difference in species, he couldn't find any difference between these Thestrals, and couldn't even tell the males and females apart.
Of course, what he had to do now was not to choose some "beautiful foreign horse" for Fox, but to comfort Hagrid, who had been depressed since rescuing the centaurs from the Forbidden Forest.
"This is not your fault. The death of Aragog and the others has nothing to do with you. They couldn't have left the Forbidden Forest with you. There is a whole tribe of Acromantulas. Cheer up, Hagrid. The one who is really wrong is the one who occupies this castle, not you."
The silent Hagrid raised his head, his eyes were obviously red, and he had obviously cried secretly before Jon came to find him.
He sobbed and spoke to Jon.
"Of course I understand all of this, Jon. I am also very happy to have rescued Firenze and the others from the Forbidden Forest, but there are only so many of them left. I heard from Firenze that Aragog can be said to have no descendants. Those Death Eaters have captured all the little spiders and raised them separately. They want to have a long-term production of spider venom."
Of course, Jon knew all these things.
But to be honest, if you stand on Voldemort's side , there is really nothing wrong with doing this.
Originally, the eight-eyed giant spider was a magical creature that was forbidden to be kept in the UK, and the venom in its body was very precious. So instead of wasting these walking gold galleons in the Forbidden Forest, it was better to kill them all and only leave the small ones for sustainable fishing.
But to Hagrid, Aragog is not just a magical creature, but also an old friend he has been with for more than fifty years.
Jon comforted Hagrid for a while and then returned to the carriage.
Three days had passed since the end of the first project. On the day when he and Kingsley went to the Forbidden Forest to rescue the centaurs, he also wrote a letter to Neville who was far away in Lyon, asking him about the recent weather conditions in Lyon.
Today, after Dumbledore returned to France and met with Firenze who had settled there, he also brought Neville's reply.
In the letter, Neville said that during the time Jon was away, the weather in Lyon had been very good, with only two cloudy days, and there was no sign of rain at all, let alone thunder.
This result was expected by John. The conditions for making the Animagus potion were extremely harsh, otherwise the number of wizards who had learned this magic would not have become so rare in the entire magical world.
Jon did not regard learning this magic as a short-term goal. Compared with striving to learn it as quickly as possible, if he ignored certain necessary conditions due to impatience and an accident occurred, that would be the most unacceptable thing for him. The final result would most likely turn him into an inhuman monster like a werewolf.
Various reports from the outside world about the Triwizard Tournament are still continuing. Over the past two days, magic newspapers have continued to report on various accidents that occurred in the competition. More and more European wizards have learned what happened in the first event of the competition.
The dragon corpses around the castle have been cleaned up, and even the flattened grass has been straightened again by the Aurors using magic.
As for the investigation into why the dragons went crazy, Matthew came to the carriage on the evening of the third day after the game and reported their findings in front of Dumbledore and John.
"Regarding what Mr. Green said, in the Forbidden Forest, a golden snitch with the Dark Mark was caught, and then the snitch suddenly opened, and something resembling dragon egg liquid got on his body, which caused the dragons to riot. We went into the Forbidden Forest specifically to search the location that Mr. Green reported to us, but we found nothing after three days of searching."
Jon was not at all surprised by the result he mentioned, he just said it calmly.
"Mr. Graves, don't forget that I reported one thing to you after the game. During the Forbidden Forest Tournament, I had a conflict with Emil Lestrange. Just when I was about to deal with him, a man-headed lion-body scorpion-tail rushed out to save him. I think you should be able to guess that this is definitely not a coincidence."
Matthew did not hide anything here. Things that were to be made public required evidence, but in private conversations in the carriage, even if there was no evidence, they all knew who did it tacitly.
"The Forbidden Forest is his home ground, so it's not surprising that he would have made some arrangements there. But let's be frank, Dumbledore and Mr. Green, this is not just their home ground, right? You were also the masters of this forest, even longer than he was. During the game, you also received some help, right?"
He made his words very clear, but did not state the facts directly. Neither Dumbledore nor John had anything to deny or quibble about the matter.
Of course, they wouldn't just admit it.
"So even if you told me that this happened and we found relevant clues, we can't use this as evidence to hold the Castle accountable. We are all guilty, so there's no need to mention this matter anymore."
Matthew looked at Jon, then turned his gaze to Dumbledore, as if trying to read something from their expressions.
Dumbledore's expression did not change from beginning to end. He just looked at Matthew and asked.
"I understand the problems you raised, but in the final analysis, no matter whether we can find out who did it, the victim is Jon, right? The Golden Snitch was provided by the referee team, and the dragons were trained by the dragon trainers you instructed. I want to know, since the results are almost the same, what kind of compensation can we get?"
He hit the nail on the head.
When John told the story, he hadn't thought about what kind of investigation results Matthew and the others might come up with. Not to mention that they haven't found any solid evidence yet, even if they did, what could they do to Voldemort and the others?
Ban all students from the castle and Beauxbatons?
This is obviously impossible, so since the result is already determined, what matters is the relevant compensation.
Matthew was obviously prepared for this, and he spoke.
"Before coming here, I also communicated with the other three referees of the Federation, and they agreed that Mr. Green should add another 30 points to your score in the first event."
Jon was not surprised at the outcome, because this was all the referees could do. Apart from controlling the scores, they could not do much else in this game.
Adding thirty more points is not too much, but not too little either.
With these points, even if he performs poorly in the second event and does not get a good ranking , he will still have a chance to secure his first position.
However, Jon didn't really care how many points he could get. He asked Matthew with interest.
"Does the castle know about your decision?"
Matthew's expression remained unchanged and he nodded.
"Because that gentleman is not in school, we communicated with Mr. Snape, who was in charge of the overall situation on his behalf. However, the vice-headmaster did not agree with our decision. He said that since the current investigation has nothing to do with them, they should not bear such adverse consequences for such compensation. However, since the three of us have passed this resolution, even if he has objections, it will not change the result."
Just as Matthew said, the power of scoring was jointly granted by Voldemort and Dumbledore to the three wizards from the Union. Unless one of them takes the power back, Snape's opposition alone will not have any impact at all.
That’s the end of the matter regarding the fire dragon riot.
John encountered some dangers and almost suffered some losses, but Voldemort's side obviously suffered greater losses, especially when John indirectly helped Hermione complete her task in the castle by accident, which let Dumbledore know what Voldemort was doing in the castle.
This was their biggest gain from this incident. As for the dragon attacking Hogwarts Castle, that was just some interest they got back.
As the first competition came to an end, Jon's life began to become easier.
There are still more than two months before the next project starts. During this period, he has enough free time to rest and not have to think too much.
As for the layout of the castle, even though he had learned some relevant things, Dumbledore had no intention of letting him intervene. Letting Hermione find the Chamber of Secrets was obviously not the end, but a beginning. However, the security in the castle was obviously much stronger than before, so this matter was put on hold and there was no rush to continue.
After relaxing, Jon returned to his life in Lyon during his previous holidays. He spent a lot of time in the library on the carriage. Although most of the books here had been moved to the temporary school in Lyon, there were still some more common books left in the carriage. In addition to reading these books, Jon would also use this time to copy the contents of the banned books in the gem.
The knowledge in these banned books requires a lot of carriers to ensure their uniqueness. Jon selected some banned books that were not so demanding and that he could express with magic himself, and re-express the knowledge from the gems, which would also be very helpful for him to master the magic in the books.
Apart from that, he spent the rest of his time wandering around the Black Lake and trying to catch some fish.
And every time this happened, the students in the castle would stay away from him, pointing at him from a distance with strange and obviously fearful looks, as if Jon was a monster in human skin.
Jon didn't take it seriously. In Voldemort's camp, it was normal for him to be demonized. He had nothing to say to these students who were used to being ruled by bloodline.
But one evening, Jon continued to fish by the Black Lake, seemingly trying to find the legendary giant squid in the Black Lake, but he got nothing.
On a tree by the lake, a pair of big eyes hidden in the lush leaves suddenly caught his attention.
When Jon raised his head and met those eyes , the owner of the eyes seemed to be frightened and dodged away the next second. The movement was so large that the entire tree crown shook for a while.
"Hi."
While Jon put away his fishing rod, he greeted the little guy.
As if sensing that he had no ill intentions, the pair of eyes hidden in the leaves reappeared, along with a pair of pointed ears.
It was a house elf with a torn tea towel wrapped around it.
"Hello, Mr. Green."
The house-elf seemed to muster up the courage before greeting him.
Jon was a little surprised that he could call out his last name, and raised his eyebrows and asked.
"Do we know each other?"
"Of course, Dobby couldn't possibly know a young and promising person like Jon Green...Mr. Green didn't know Dobby, but Dobby knew Mr. Green."
Dobby held the trunk of the tree with one hand, with only half of his face exposed.
When Jon heard his name, he was even more surprised. If there was no other house-elf with the same name, then Dobby should be the one he knew.
"Are you a house-elf serving Hogwarts Castle?"
In the face of Jon's question, Dobby did not remain silent. Instead, he looked eager to try, as if he had wanted to communicate with Jon for a long time.
"No, Mr. Green, I do not serve this castle. My ancestors have served the noble Malfoy family for generations."
He spoke of nobility, but Jon did not hear any pride in it. Instead, there was a hidden hatred mixed in.
Hearing him introduce himself, Jon's guess became more certain.
"Malfoy family? That means Draco Malfoy is your little master. We are in a hostile relationship. Since you are his servant, why did you take the initiative to find me?"
Yes, Jon was sure that his meeting with Dobby was not a chance encounter, but Dobby took the initiative to approach him.
And logically speaking, no matter how much Hogwarts Castle favors pure-blood students, it would not go to the extent of allowing the elves in these students' homes to come to the school to serve personally. Dobby's appearance was obviously premeditated.
Dobby, who was standing on the tree, was still looking at Jon with his big eyes. He raised his voice but deliberately lowered it.
"Because Dobby is carrying out the task of observing Mr. Green. This is an order given to Dobby by the master and the young master!"
