In the Harry Potter Without Harry Potter

Chapter 368: Dobby (2 in 1)

Jon was trying to find out if there were any so-called "beauties" among the Thestrals, or perhaps they could be better described as "beautiful mares".

But to be honest, because of the difference in species, he couldn't tell the difference between the Thestrals, not even whether they were male or female.

Of course, what he had to do now was not to choose the "beautiful horse" for Hoss, but to comfort Hagrid, who had been sulking since he had rescued the Centaurs from the Forbidden Forest.

"It's not your fault, you had nothing to do with Aragog and his family's death, they simply couldn't have left the Forbidden Forest with you, there was a whole colony of Acromantula. Pull yourself together, Hagrid, the one who is really at fault is the one who is occupying this castle, not you."

The silent Hagrid raised his head, his eyes visibly a little red, having obviously cried in secret before Jon had come to find him.

Sobbing, he spoke to Jon.

"Of course, I understand all this, Jon, and I was happy to get Firenze and the others out of the Forbidden Forest, but there are only so many of them left. From what Firenze said, Aragog and his family could well be considered extinct, those Death Eaters have taken all the little spiders and bred them separately, they just want to have a permanent supply of Acromantula venom."

All these things, of course, Jon knew.

But to be honest, there was really nothing wrong with doing so if they look at it from Voldemort's side perspective.

Originally, the Acromantula was a forbidden magical creature to breed in Britain, and the venom in its body was very valuable, so instead of wasting these walking gold galleons in the forbidden forest, it would be better to kill them all and leave only the small ones for sustainable draining.

But to Hagrid, Aragog was more than just a magical creature, it was an old friend with whom he had spent over fifty years.

Jon comforted Hagrid for a while, then returned to the wagon.

Three days had passed since the end of the first task, and on the day he had gone to the Forbidden Forest with Kingsley to free the Centaurs, he had at the same time written a letter to Neville, who was far away in Lyons, to ask him about the recent weather patterns in Lyons.

Today, Dumbledore, who had gone back to France to meet with Firenze, who was already settled there, had come back with a letter from Neville.

In the letter Neville said that the weather in Lyons had been fine during the time Jon had been away, with only two cloudy days in between, without the slightest hint of rain, let alone thunder.

This result was expected by Jon, the conditions for developing Animagus Potion were very harsh, otherwise the number of wizards who had learned this magic would not have become that rare throughout the magical world.

It was a short-term goal for Jon to learn this magic, rather than seeking to learn it quickly. If he was impatient and overlooked certain requirements, he would be unable to accept them, as the end result would probably turn him into an inhuman monster like a werewolf.

The various articles about the Triwizard Tournament are still being published in the outside world, and as the magical newspapers continue to report on the various accidents that happened during the tournament in the past two days, more and more European wizards are learning about what really happened during the first task of the tournament.

The dragons' corpses around the castle had been tidied up, and even the crushed grass had been made straight again by the Aurors' magic.

And as for the investigation into why the dragons had gone berserk, Matthew came to the wagon on the evening of the third day after the tournament and stated their findings in front of Dumbledore and Jon.

"Regarding what Mr Green stated, the issue of the dragons going berserk due to catching a golden snitch in the Forbidden Forest with a dark mark and then that snitch suddenly opening up and some suspected dragon egg fluid getting on him, we specifically went into the Forbidden Forest and searched the location that Mr Green reported to us, but after searching for three days we found nothing. "

Jon wasn't the least bit surprised by the result he said, he just said flatly.

"Mr. Graves, don't forget one more thing I reported to you after the tournament, I had a confrontation with Emil Lestrange during the Forbidden Forest tournament and just as I was about to finish him off a manticore came rushing out to save him. As I'm sure you can guess, it's certainly no coincidence."

Matthew didn't hold back here, what was to be published to the world was about proof, but in the private conversation in the wagon, there were things that even without any proof, they knew by heart who had done it.

"The Forbidden Forest is his home turf, and it's not surprising that he would have laid some arrangements in there. But let's get something straight, Dumbledore and Mr Green, this isn't just their home turf, is it? You have been masters of these same woods for just as long, if not longer than he has been in control, and you also received some help in the course of the tournament, right?"

He made his words clear without stating the truth outright, and neither Dumbledore nor Jon had anything to deny or quibble about the matter.

Of course, they weren't going to just open their mouths and admit it either.

"So even if you and I had said something like this happened, we have investigated the appropriate leads, but we can't use this as incriminating evidence to hold the castle side accountable, and everyone is unclean, so this doesn't need to be brought up again."

Matthew looked at Jon and then turned his gaze back to Dumbledore as if trying to see something out of their expressions.

Dumbledore, however, showed little change in expression from start to finish as he simply locked eyes with Matthew and asked.

"I can understand what you're saying, but at the end of the day, whether this matter can be investigated to find out who did it or not, the victim is Jon, right? The golden snitches were supplied by the judging panel, and the dragons were trained by those dragon trainers that you have accounted for, so I'm wondering what kind of compensation we'll get since it's pretty much an outcome of this matter?"

He got to the crux of the matter.

He hadn't thought about what kind of findings Matthew and the others could come up with when Jon had told them what had happened, not to mention that there was no tangible evidence that could be found at the moment, and even if they did, what could they possibly have done against Voldemort and the others, other than publishing it in the newspaper?

Ban the students from the castle and Beauxbatons altogether?

That was obviously impossible, so since the outcome was already decided, all that mattered was the relevant compensation.

Regarding this, Matthew had obviously been prepared for this as well, and he spoke up.

"Before coming here, I also communicated with the other two judges from the Confederation, and they agreed that Mr Green could get an additional thirty points for your score in the first task."

Jon was not much surprised by this result, because that was all these judges could do, they couldn't do much else in this tournament other than their power to control the scores.

And adding an extra thirty points is not much, but no less too.

With those points, even if he played poorly in the second task that followed and didn't get a good ranking, he could still have a chance to secure first place.

But as for how many points he could get, Jon didn't really care much, and he asked Matthew with interest.

"Does the Castle side know about this decision of yours?"

The expression on Matthew's face remained the same as he nodded.

"Since that gentleman is not within the school, we have communicated with Mr Snape, who is presiding over the situation in his place, except that this Mr Deputy Headmaster does not approve of our decision very much, saying that since the investigation so far has revealed that it has nothing to do with them, then they should not be made to bear such adverse consequences as a result of such compensation. It's just that since all three of us have voted for this decision, then even if he has an objection, it doesn't change anything about the outcome."

As Matthew had said, the power regarding the scoring was given to these three wizards from the Confederation by Voldemort and Dumbledore together, and unless one of the two took that power back again, Snape's opposition alone would not affect anything at all.

That was the end of the story about the dragon riot.

Jon was in danger and nearly sustained some injuries, but Voldemort's side clearly suffered more, especially given that, by mistake, Jon had indirectly helped Hermione with her mission in the castle, which gave Dumbledore knowledge of what Voldemort was doing in the castle.

That was the biggest gain they got out of this one, and as for the Hogwarts Castle that the Dragons attacked, that was just a bit of revenge in the process.

With the first tournament task completely over, Jon's life had begun to get easier.

There were still more than two months to go before the next task began, and in the meantime, he had enough free time to rest and relax without thinking too much about it.

And as for the arrangements in the Castle, even though he had now learned something about it, Dumbledore had no intention of letting him interfere. Having Hermione find the Chamber of Secrets was clearly not the end, but rather the beginning, it was just that the guard in the castle was clearly much stronger now than it had been before, so the matter was put on hold with no rush to continue.

He spent a lot of time in the library on the wagon, from where most of the books had been moved to the temporary school in Lyon, but there were still some of the rare non-standard books on the wagon, which Jon read while also taking the time to copy out the contents of the forbidden books in the gem.

Much of the knowledge in these forbidden books required carriers to ensure their extraordinary nature of them, and Jon selected some of the forbidden books that were not so demanding and which he could fulfil by his own magic and re-transcribed that knowledge from the gem, which also helped him to master the magic in the books.

Other than that, he spent the rest of his time wandering around the Black Lake and trying to catch any fish he could.

Whenever this happened, the students in the Castle would stay away from him, gesturing at him from a distance with a strange and obviously fearful look, as if Jon was some kind of monster in human skin.

To this Jon acted unconcerned, it was only natural to be demonised in this way in Voldemort's camp, and there was nothing he could say to these students who had become accustomed to the rule of the bloodline.

But one evening when Jon continued to look like he was fishing at the Black Lake, but in fact, he was trying to see if he could spot the legendary giant squid in the Black Lake and had no luck.

A pair of large eyes hidden in the lush foliage of a tree by the lake suddenly caught his attention.

As Jon raised his head to meet those eyes, the owner of the eyes looked like he was startled and ducked away the next second, a movement that was a little too wide and made the entire canopy of the tree shake for a moment.

"Hey."

Jon greeted the little fellow out loud as he put the rod away.

As if sensing that he meant no harm, the eyes that were hidden in the leaves resurfaced, along with a pair of pointed ears.

It was a house elf with a tattered tea towel around its body.

"Hello, Mr. Green."

The house elf looked like it had gathered enough courage before greeting him.

Jon was a little surprised that it could call him by his last name and raised an eyebrow in wonder.

"Do we know each other?"

"Of course, Dobby couldn't possibly be acquainted with a young and talented man like Jon Green; Mr Green doesn't know Dobby, but Dobby knows Mr Green."

Dobby had one hand clasped around the main trunk of the tree, showing only half his face.

Hearing his name, Jon acted even more surprised; if no house elf had a similar name, then this Dobby would be the one he knew.

"Are you a house elf that serves Hogwarts Castle?"

Instead of showing silence in the face of Jon's question, Dobby looked more like he was a little jumpy like he had wanted to have some interaction with Jon for a long time.

"No, Mr. Green, Dobby do not serve this castle, Dooby's family have served the Noble Malfoys for generations."

He spoke of nobility, but Jon did not hear any pride in him, but rather a hidden hate mixed in.

Hearing him announce the family he serves, further reinforced Jon's suspicions.

"The Malfoys? That means Draco Malfoy is your young lord then; we have an adversarial relationship, so why did you reach out to me if you are his servant?"

Yes, Jon could be sure that this meeting between him and Dobby was not some sort of chance encounter, but that Dobby had taken the initiative to approach him.

And it stood to reason that no matter how partial Hogwarts Castle was to pureblood students, it wouldn't go so far as to allow the elves from those students' homes to still come to the school to serve them personally; Dobby's appearance was obviously premeditated.

Standing in a tree, Dobby was still looking at Jon with those big eyes from high above, he raised his tone but deliberately lowered the sound of his voice.

"Because Dobby is on a task to observe Mr Green, which was given to Dobby by Dooby's lord and young lord together!"

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