Chapter 447: Meeting (2 in 1)

Chapter 447: Meeting (2 in 1)

Jon looked at the American wizard who, half a month ago, had officiated the entire Triwizard Tournament at Hogwarts Castle as a judge - Matthew Graves.

He was dressed in a simple thin jacket and a normal muggle outfit and was walking briskly along the street, unaware that a gaze from Jon was already on him.

Jon didn't venture to follow him, in fact, the moment he saw Matthew, something could be ascertained.

As far as he knew, Matthew had already returned to the International Confederation of Wizards after the end of the Triwizard Tournament, but Jon had received some information from Dumbledore as well, that the judge's Graves family and Grindelwald were at odds with each other, and these odds were even extended to the Congress, so within the Magical Congress of the United States of America, the danger rating of Grindelwald is higher than that of Voldemort.

Therefore, Matthew's presence here could not be a coincidence.

Either he was representing the Magical Congress of the United States of America and was equally interested in Snape, or he was actually investigating and tracking another group of people and had followed them here.

Either of those two possibilities was enough to make Jon's heart sink slightly, could Snape alone really have attracted so many people?

What exactly had Dumbledore discussed with him? And what deal had been made that made him willing to set him free?

Jon had always felt that Dumbledore had a bad habit of not telling the whole story, but he wasn't in the mood to go back to France and ask for clarification.

Dumbledore hadn't asked him to interfere too much, nor had he said that he had to help Lily get Snape back, so Jon returned to the inn with nothing more than a few curses in the back of his mind.

By the next day, they had already spent three full days in this Inn and were ready to move into a new one, using their other two new identities.

Jon was careful this time, so he asked Lily to switch to her new identity in the Inn's bathroom after checking out and to leave without showing their faces any further, to escape the surveillance of the other group of Death Eaters.

Then he accompanied Lily to that grassy field during the day for a few more days before Jon snuck a feather of his own into Lily's possession and left the industrial city for one night.

He didn't go too far, still within Britain, but just switched his identity and appearance and arrived at the Leaky Cauldron pub.

As the most well-known wizard bar in the whole of Britain, even in the dead of night, some noisy and lonely wizards would come here to drink away their sorrows, so Jon wasn't really conspicuous after arriving here.

Declining Mr Borgin's hospitality, he swept a glance around the bar and soon spotted a wizard in a grey robe with a wide hood sitting in the corner near the back door.

Jon walked over and sat down across from the wizard with a swoop, then picked up the apparently untouched glass of cider in front of him and downed most of it with a "gulp".

"The law has been changed within the Witching Horizon to allow underage wizards to drink?"

The male wizard, whose entire face was hidden under his hood, asked in a low voice that could not be heard by a third person.

Jon, however, smacked his lips without a care in the world, the fruity wine wasn't really as good as plain juice.

"Do you care about us? Go to France now and report me for drinking if you can, I'll raise my hands in support."

Lucius gave Jon a deep look, every time he had a conversation with Jon he didn't feel like this fifteen-year-old teenager was half a minor, instead he was more than an old greaser.

"How's my son doing over in France?"

"He should have just seen a big public trial (show trial), news shouldn't be coming through yet, but I reckon you'll know about it in a few days, so it's okay if I give it to you now in advance."

Jon raised an eyebrow.

"It's a good thing while you didn't teach him to do anything good, you didn't make him vicious either, he wasn't dragged up on stage for a public trial, he just had to be given some proper education, but he must be scared to death that day, watching eight whole classmates he spent time with hanged."

Lucius looked like he was stunned by Jon's words, he was so shocked he didn't speak for a long while, and it was in that space that Jon finished the glass of cider straight away.

"You guys! How dare you kill those students!"

He shuddered, and it took immense fortitude to restrain himself from exclaiming, those eyes under the hood staring deadly at Jon.

Jon shrugged.

"What do you expect otherwise? You mean all of your colleagues think that their children are in no danger at all being taken to France, that Dumbledore will feed them well and provide them with good hospitality, just because of the phrase 'they're all just children' and then forgive them for the wrongs they've done? I had no idea purebloods could be so naive in their thinking."

Lucius ignored Jon's taunts, he hadn't recovered from the staggering amount of information.

Jon spread his hands.

"You can keep it to yourself, of course, but get a grip on the situation yourself, Mr Malfoy, and don't end up plunging into trouble yourself before we can judge you in the future."

Jon's words sounded meaningful, causing a wave of annoyance to rise in Lucius' mind as he didn't want to deal with it, and he cleared his throat.

"If you still want to talk about trading intelligence then we can continue that too, even though I'm no longer in Auror Offic-"

Before he could finish those words, Jon interrupted him with a wave of his hand.

"My answer is still the same, to you, we have no consideration in that regard. If there is nothing more you wish to ask, then I think we can go about our business now, Mr. Malfoy."

Lucius looked uncomfortable, Jon had always had the upper hand in their exchanges with him, and he had been held back at every turn.

But it was true that they had to get down to business now before the end of the day.

At such a sensitive time when the British Ministry of Magic and the Witching Horizon were at a stand-off, Jon and Lucius were certainly not meeting undercover just to taunt each other with a few words; there was a deal that needed to be completed between them.

The promise to keep Draco alive in the Triwizard Tournament had been kept, and Jon had fulfilled it after all.

If he hadn't finally driven Voldemort's soul away, then when Voldemort did succeed in his plan, Draco's life would definitely be in jeopardy, and according to his level of caution, he certainly wouldn't have left any of them alive.

So, in return for Draco's survival in this tournament, Lucius had to fulfil his promise.

To take Jon to where Adrien, the wizard who had created the ring, lived in Britain.

They left through Diagon Alley, then in a deserted corner, Jon was taken to the middle of nowhere by Lucius, who used Apparition to take him there.

Jon was not afraid that this was a trap set by Lucius unless they had researched magic to counter the Phoenix Apparition, even Voldemort would not be able to keep him if he wanted to leave.

After they landed, Jon didn't notice any buildings in front of him, but after Lucius took out his wand and tapped it against the grass, a magic spell was removed and an old, dilapidated courtyard appeared in front of them.

Jon scrutinized the courtyard for a moment, then turned his head to look at Lucius.

"Are you sure this is the place?"

Lucius grimaced.

"We made a pact before, and unless that Adrien I speak of is not the same person as the one you know, there is no chance of me lying."

"Then why are you staying here?" Jon asked as he looked at him.

Lucius took a deep breath as he gave Jon one last look and spoke hesitantly.

"As long as you can take care of Draco, anything can be done in the future."

Jon waved a hand.

"Then we'll talk about everything else later."

After receiving such a reply, Lucius looked like he was a little reluctant, but in the end, he didn't dwell on it any further and simply used Apparition to leave the place.

Jon waited for him to leave before turning his head and pushing open the gate to enter a small, deserted courtyard, which he could see had been well cared for by its owner, but had now been abandoned for over ten years.

Without stopping in the yard, he came to the door of the house, which was unlocked, and easily pushed it open and entered a dusty living room that had been rummaged through.

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