Back in Hampshire, Southampton, at 86 Eastleigh Road, Jon Hart's summer vacation began.
On the first day after returning, he threw the Wand into the innermost layer of the suitcase and wrapped it in a towel.
Because of the existence of "tracing thread", you cannot cast spells at home.
The Trace will record the magic released by underage wizards and their surroundings. Once magical fluctuations are detected, the Ministry of Magic's Misuse of Magic Office will immediately write a letter to warn you. In serious cases, you may even be expelled from Hogwarts. Given the density of wizards in the British wizarding world, you may be the only wizard in the entire city of Southampton.
Since he is not the protagonist, he will not get any preferential treatment; Jon does not want to have his wand broken and his memory erased because of an accident, and then come back to be an ordinary person.
But he was not completely idle.
Magic can't be used, but potions can still be prepared...
After all, preparing potions does not require waving wands or chanting spells.
As early as the day he returned, Jon, using Snape's "name", went to the Potions Shop in Diagon Alley and bought a lot of magic materials and several slightly more advanced magic books.
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In addition, in mid-June he rented a cottage on Eastleigh Road, about 500 yards from his home.
Then he moved all the crucibles, glass bottles, potion materials, etc. over.
After all, there may be some accidents or even dangers in the preparation of the potion, so it is not safe to keep it at home.
…
When the summer vacation started, the first thing Jon started to prepare again was a pot of Polyjuice Potion...
After many transformations last semester, a lot of the stock of Polyjuice Potion had been used up and needed to be replenished; but with the experience from last time, the configuration was obviously much more proficient this time.
At the same time, he also began to try to configure "Warrior Potion" and "Enhancement Potion".
These two potions are important contents of the OWLs exam. Generally speaking, only third and fourth grade students at Hogwarts will try to learn them.
The effect of "Warrior Potion" is similar to adrenaline, and can enhance a person's reaction, speed, and strength in a short period of time. For wizards, it can make their spellcasting easier; however, it has certain side effects, and the body will fall into a weak state after taking it for a period of time.
The "enhancement potion" needs to be used together with other potions. It can significantly enhance the effects of other potions. For example, when used together with the polyjuice potion, it can increase the transformation time, and continuous use of the polyjuice potion can prolong the transformation effect (no longer restore the original form).
These two potions were the simpler ones Jon had found, and they also had some practical value (most of the potions learned in first, second and third grade Potions classes were only worth practicing for young wizards).
As for more meaningful potions like the Felicis, Veritaserum, or Aphrodisiac... although Jon had read about them before in the book "Powerful Potions", the tedious and complicated preparation steps still stopped him from even thinking about them.
He was just a first-year graduate of Hogwarts. Even if he had some talent in potions, he still needed to continue learning and practicing before he was qualified to explore deeper aspects of potions.
…
In addition to preparing the potion, Jon also took some time.
After transforming into the form of "Urian Wrynn", he went to the hardware store of Mr. Robert Wilson at 21 Winchester Road.
After giving Mr. Wilson another sum of money, Jon asked him to help him customize a batch of silver bullets.
"Silver bullets?" Mr. Wilson asked puzzledly, "Silver is very soft, and bullets made of it can't cause any harm at all... Why did you make such a strange request, Urian?"
"If I say I'm doing this to deal with werewolves, do you believe me?" Varian Wrynn said with a smile.
"Don't be ridiculous!" The owner of the hardware store shook his head. "How could there be werewolves in this world... What type of bullet do you need?"
"Give me some .357 Magnum and 5.45mm pistol bullets!"
"Okay, I'll get it done for you within a month!"
There didn't seem to be much to prepare for the 1993-1994 school year. Apart from some silver bullets, all Jon could think of was a high-powered flashlight (werewolfs are afraid of strong light and silver).
However, except for the Room of Requirement, all electronic products in other areas of Hogwarts are inoperable, so it is better to bring a few candles.
Of course, Jon did not forget to find a calendar and, referring to what he had learned in astronomy class, circled all the full moon nights for the coming year on the calendar.
Finally, he went to Waitrose supermarket and bought two bags of high-quality dog food with a longer shelf life, just in case.
He also moved all the prepared things into the newly rented cottage and put them away.
…
When Jon was not preparing the potion, he was bored and had to start reading the white booklet that Lockhart left for him.
Although the Oblivion Spell was more profound than any spell Jon had ever learned, it was not a very complicated spell in the strict sense.
After all, it is the most widely used spell by many Ministry of Magic staff.
However, the Oblivion Charm used by Gilderoy Lockhart was obviously different from the ordinary one.
For those ordinary Ministry staff who need to use the Memory Charm, their spell only needs to make Muggles forget the events of the past few hours.
If Lockhart wants to achieve his goal of stealing the target's results, he needs to delete the target's memory of the past few years or even more than ten years.
Not to mention that the workload is completely different; more importantly, once such a long period of memory is roughly deleted, even the dumbest person will probably quickly notice the abnormality after losing several years or even decades of memory.
Once exposed, Lockhart's reputation would have been ruined...
Therefore, when Lockhart used the Oblivion spell, he would usually create a set of false memories first, and then replace them with the part of the memories he wanted to delete.
After modifying the target's memory, the target will not have any strange thoughts.
This method is obviously much more difficult and complicated than the ordinary method.
If it were in school, Jon probably wouldn't spend too much time on a spell that wouldn't have much effect in a short period of time (after all, he wouldn't become a charlatan like Lockhart).
But now he couldn't use magic and couldn't find any books at hand.
I was bored, so I had to bite the bullet and force myself to memorize the contents of the white booklet.
Fortunately, Lockhart made a lot of remarks and notes on the booklet, so that Jon's understanding was not too difficult...
He felt that after a month of hard work, he had some understanding of the Oblivion Spell... although he had not conducted any experiments and was not sure to what extent he had understood it.
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.....
The early morning sun shines into the room on the second floor of 86 Eastleigh Road, with windows facing the sun.
The time stopped at 6:59 in the morning. A boy who looked about twelve or thirteen years old was lying on the bed, covered with a cotton blanket, snoring softly.
The boy has a slim build, with neat short dark brown hair and a pair of grey eyes, and his facial features are still somewhat childish.
This area on the south coast of England can be said to have the mildest climate in the whole of the United Kingdom; and Southampton Port, with the Isle of Wight as a natural barrier, is the best among them; at least on this morning in mid-July, the weather did not feel hot at all.
Eighty-one years ago, the giant ship that was known as "unsinkable" and had a displacement of up to 46,000 tons chose to start its maiden voyage from Southampton Port because of the mild and comfortable weather here... Then it collided with an iceberg four days after it went to sea, and more than two hours later the hull broke into two and sank to the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean.
At the corner of the bed where the boy slept there was a newspaper: the Daily Prophet of July 11, turned to page 3.
The headline reads: "Ministry of Magic staff wins big prize"
There are a few more lines below: Arthur Weasley, Director of the Ministry of Magic's Misuse of Muggle Objects Department, has won the Prophet's annual award, the Galleon Award. The jubilant Mr. Weasley told the Prophet's reporter, "We will spend the money on a summer trip to Egypt. Our eldest son Bill is working on breaking spells for Gringotts Magic Bank in Egypt."
The more eye-catching part is a photo that takes up half of the page, a movable photo.
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...
In this photo, you can see nine Weasleys standing together in front of the pyramid, all smiling and waving at us. Mrs. Weasley is a bit short and fat, but the bald Mr. Weasley is very tall. Their six sons and one daughter all have fiery red hair (although it is not visible in the black and white photo).
The only girl among the seven children is a classmate of the owner of this room; she is on the far right of the photo, with her right hand on her youngest brother's left shoulder, supporting a mouse standing there.
There was a copy of The Quibbler magazine lying on the ground next to it.
The magazine had been opened to page 24, which showed a picture of a tall, thin, elderly wizard with a distinct wizarding temperament.
The title is even more eye-catching: "Shocking, the real reason why a Hogwarts headmaster likes purple!"
The author is Xenophilius Lovegood, editor-in-chief of The Quibbler magazine.
Unfortunately, the rest of the magazine has been covered by the bed and cannot be seen...
Finally, we can see the name of the owner of this room written on the doorplate:
"Jon Hart".
…
"Ding ding ding..." As the alarm clock rang, Jon Hart quickly got up from his clothes.
Putting on his shirt, he kicked the day-old Daily Prophet off the bed and went to the bathroom.
After spending a few minutes washing up, Jon walked down the stairs.
There were many balloons and ribbons decorated at the staircase and in the hall downstairs; on the wall of the restaurant, the words "Happy Birthday" were written in large letters.
"Happy birthday!" Mr. Eric Hart came out of the kitchen, holding a chocolate cake in his hand and smiling: "Your mother and I have specially asked for leave today!"
"Ah..." The boy seemed to take a few seconds to react and took the cake: "Oh, thank you, Dad!"
Today seems to be July 15, 1993, my twelfth birthday.
In other words, it has been twelve years since I traveled to this world... Although I encountered some setbacks in the middle, but overall, I have lived a very happy life in these twelve years.
"Would you like to go and take a look at your presents? I took out about a dozen from your mailbox this morning..." Eric asked.
"No need, I'll go and see it later!" Jon had already glanced at the mountain of gifts in the living room. It would take a lot of effort to move all these things upstairs to his room, so he shook his head quickly.
There was a click in the mailbox outside the door.
"Another letter?" Eric smiled and walked out.
Soon, he came back with an envelope in his hand and said to Jon, "There is only one, for you!"
"Whose card is it?" Jon was already preparing to eat breakfast. "Put it with the presents. I'll collect them later."
"No!" Eric shook his head. "It says on it. It's a Report Card!"
…
While silently complaining in his heart, Jon put aside the thought of eating and opened the letter.
The first page lists his grades and rankings in each course.
He got full marks in Herbology and Defense Against the Dark Arts.
What surprised Jon even more was that he got full marks in Potions... He had thought that Professor Snape would find fault and deduct a few points from him.
Although he didn't get full marks in Astronomy and History of Magic, he was still the top scorer in the class.
He also got very high marks in Charms and Transfiguration.
The only thing is that there is a bright red "D" (Dreadful) written behind the Quidditch class.
"It's a good thing it's not 'T' (Troll)," Jon said to himself.
However, even though Quidditch was holding me back, my overall score was still top of the grade.
This is something to be proud of.
Jon happily put the report card into his pocket, then glanced at the second page.
"Mr. Hart,
Unfortunately, I have to inform you that since you failed the final exam of Quidditch, you will need to retake this course with freshmen next semester.
The retake form must be returned to the Dean of the College by September 15th.
Rolanda Hodges
The smile on his face froze in an instant.
"What the hell? Why didn't anyone tell me that I failed Hogwarts and needed to retake the course?" Jon couldn't help but curse out loud.
In fact, the teaching at Hogwarts is not that strict. Even if you fail other subjects, the teacher will just assign you more homework and scold you more in the next semester... The problem is that Quidditch class is only offered to first graders, and if you fail, you have to retake it. There is no room for leniency.
In fact, in the thousands of years of Hogwarts' history, very few students have ever failed in Quidditch classes.
Jon, with a sad face, turned his eyes to the third letter, which was even shorter:
"Dear Jon,
If it is convenient for you, I will coming to Eastleigh Road for a home visit at seven o'clock this evening.
Yours faithfully
Albus Dumbledore."