Chapter 332: Good News (2 in 1)

Chapter 332: Good News (2 in 1)

Early the next morning, after breakfast settled in the wagon, Jon followed Rosier to the great hall in the castle with Diane, the Durmstrang champion.

There were a number of people standing here, but apart from Draco and Emil, all were adult wizards.

Even while the Triwizard Tournament is in progress, the students in Hogwarts Castle are expected to continue their normal classes, and at this time of day, they should all be in class.

The three judges of the Confederation, and the Deputy Headmaster who would serve as Beauxbaton's representative judge, except for Voldemort and Dumbledore, who are not present here, all gathered around an old man.

That old man was holding a wand in his hand and waving it around, leaving brilliant silvery filaments of light in the air as he pronounced.

"Just about ten inches, Hawthorn wood, Unicorn hair core. I remember when I handed him over to you, Mr Malfoy, it was on a less than bright sunny afternoon when you and your father came to my shop."

Draco had little interest in listening to him reminisce about the past here as he looked at the old man's hand that held his wand.

"If there are no issues, can I have it back now? Mr Ollivander."

Ollivander heard the indignation in his tone, but only smiled slightly and returned the wand back to Draco's hand.

"I can appreciate that someone proud enough to have a strong sense of possession of their wand as well, it has been well cared of by you."

Draco held his head high and took the wand, which had been fully inspected, and put it back into his sleeve.

By this time several of the judges as well as Ollivander's eyes settled on Jon and Diane who had just arrived in the great hall.

"You're all that's missing, why couldn't you have come sooner." The deputy headmaster of Beauxbaton said in a sharp voice.

Rosier gave him an expressionless glance like it was insulting to her to show even the slightest emotion of disgust at such a person.

"If I remember correctly, the time Mr Graves gave last night was supposed to be ten o'clock, and it is just about ten o'clock sharp."

"Sorry, Mr Ollivander arrived early, and I let these two champions start first. You came at the right time and didn't delay anyone, Professor Rosier, which of these two will start first?"

Matthew could only step forward to smooth things over, the Confederation's judges had to not only ensure fairness for this tournament but also regulate the relationship between the two sides in the process.

After he laid his eyes on Jon and Diane, the two looked right at each other, with Jon nudging Diane in Ollivander's direction.

The Durmstrang girl then pulled out her own wand and took a step forward, handing that wand over to Ollivander's hand.

"Willow wood with a Dragon's heartstring core, nine inches, such craftsmanship would be a piece of Gregorovitch's work from the eighties?"

Ollivander's eyes went to Diane, who nodded to indicate that he was not wrong.

"Despite the conflicting philosophies, one has to admit that Gregorovitch is also an excellent wandmaker." He praised, then waved the willow wand, "Avis."

The next moment a flock of small birds fluttered their wings and flew out of the wand head, they circled the great hall and then flew through the open window into the pale sunlight.

"No problem at all."

Putting Diane's wand back in her hand, Ollivander finally turned his gaze to Jon. The source of this content nov(el)bi((n))

With what looked like anticipation in his eyes, his gaze shifted down to look at the old wand that Jon had pulled from his sleeve while reaching out to take it.

"Mr Green, I have heard so much about you and have always wondered what kind of wand should be a piece that would match your soul."

He uttered this with a smile, his left hand gently stroking over the well-worn body of the wand.

"Well, it's seen a long life, 14 inches, that's a length you don't often see, even in my career I can count on a palm the number of wands that I have made of that size, chestnut wood shaft, phoenix tail feather core."

Suddenly, he froze.

His voice, as smooth as a stream, came to a screeching halt, and Ollivander looked at the wand in his hand in awe, as if he had discovered something remarkable.

The few people around him, who had been waiting for him to make a final judgement on Jon's wand, noticed the change in expression on his face.

Emil was displeased.

He felt like Jon was showing off his uniqueness in every way no matter what he did, even a normal wand test could make people focus all their attention on him.

"So what's the matter? What's wrong with this wand? Has a cheating enchantment been cast on it by Dumbledore?"

He looked towards Ollivander, wanting to hear a positive answer from him.

The words on the parchment soon began to take on a new form, the inked lines rearranging themselves.

[I hope that when you open it, it is not seized up from the hands of some good student. Oh, yes, we are good students too!] --Prongs.

Dumbledore watched in silence as the line of text slowly faded away, and finally countless lines spread around like a spider's web, illustrating Marauder's Map.

He did not speak, nor did his eyes focus on the map, his expression frozen in place as if hit by a full body-bind curse.

After a long while, just as Jon wanted to speak to wake Dumbledore up, the old man slowly reached out his hand and touched the few codenames at the top of the map.

He murmured as if he could penetrate the distance between space and time, and the young male wizard, who wore glasses, was bold, enthusiastic and had grown from a naughty child to a fearless warrior, stood smiling at his side.

"I've never been a great headmaster, but you've always been a good student."

Jon didn't say another word as he silently watched the headmaster, who had never looked so dispirited and sad, not wanting to disturb his thoughts at this moment.

He didn't have to wait long before Dumbledore had recomposed himself, taking off his glasses and carefully polishing the crescent-shaped lenses before looking over at Jon with a small smile.

"It may be rumoured by the students a lot of the time that I'm a bit of a crazy old man, but even old men in their right mind tend to get emotionally disturbed at a time; reminiscing past and getting spaced out."

There was a little embarrassment in his tone, and there was even some urging in his voice.

Jon shrugged as he chuckled.

"I'll tell Neville and the others when we meet them again that Professor Dumbledore is not only demented at times, he's also an old man who likes to cry."

"Ha, that would be a bit of an embarrassment to me."

Dumbledore muttered, putting his glasses back on and then looking up at the Marauder's Map that had been activated.

All the locations throughout Hogwarts were marked on the map and the names of everyone who was in this school were presented on it, as they were moving their names moved along with them.

Jon also glanced at the map.

Well, Voldemort's name didn't appear in the entire school.

"Stunning Homunculus charm," Dumbledore said with admiration, "It's the result of their shared wisdom but the parchment itself contains a magic like no other."

He looked up at Jon.

"May I know how you obtained it?"

Jon didn't hide it, other than describing his deliberate search for this Marauder's Map as an inadvertent discovery and that he had worked his way out to open it.

After hearing Jon's narration, Dumbledore nodded with unmistakable seriousness.

"It is very crucial, Jon, and I thank you for being willing to take it out and lend it to me."

Even now, Jon hadn't asked Dumbledore what he intended to do by asking him to borrow the cloak of invisibility, but with the feeling that the Marauder's Map could help him a great deal with what he would be doing next, he had brought it out without hesitation.

It had been made by the Four Marauders, so Jon didn't intend to keep it to himself by hiding it from them forever as it held some sentimental value for them.

Dumbledore then put both the Marauder's Map and the cloak of invisibility away after Jon had told him the incantation to dispel the magic on the map, and he looked at Jon.

"If you want to know, I can tell you what I need both of them for."

Jon, however, waved his hand.

"You might as well tell me that good news when you finally get it, there's only so much energy I have left in my mind, and it's time to put all my energy into the tournament next."

Dumbledore laughed heartily.

"Then may we have more good news by the end, the good news that is worthy of comforting the living, and putting the dead to sleep!"

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