For the next few days, Jon stayed in the Leaky Cauldron, in a seriously ill state.
It's not known whether the half bottle of "The Recovery Potion" Hannah gave him was effective or not, but his condition was getting better little by little.
Fearing that he would lose control again, he dared not use magic anymore, and once again threw his wand to the bottom of the suitcase...
With nothing to do every day, he had to go to Flourish and Blotts, the bookstore next to Madam Malkin's robe shop, to read some books.
Over the next few days, he finished reading Modern History of Magic, Important Magical Events of the 20th Century, The Rise and Fall of Dark Magic, Major Discoveries in Modern Magic, and Life and Social Habits of British Muggle Families.
Honestly speaking, the works published by wizards are generally not well written; many things are not explained clearly, and common sense errors often appear... Especially the last one, there are too many flaws, which gives Jon a feeling of "I can do it too".
In his spare time, he would occasionally go to Florin's Ice Cream Shop to eat some ice cream; the cold drinks here tasted really good.
He'd also stop by to say hello to his neighbors at the Leaky Cauldron.
Harry Potter, who lived in Room 11 of the Leaky Cauldron, happened to be Jon's neighbor. He spent most of his time in basking in the sun while completing his summer homework.
...
...
The two people only met once and were not very familiar with each other. They said hello and then parted ways.
And because of Mr. Potter's presence, the defense of the Leaky Cauldron became tight... Jon saw people dressed as Aurors searching the surroundings several times; at first he thought they were here to arrest him and was frightened.
However, these Ministry of Magic staff did not disturb the residents of the Leaky Cauldron.
In the last few days of August, the Weasley family moved into the Leaky Cauldron in large numbers, and they almost booked half of the rooms here.
However, among their family of nine, Jon was only slightly familiar with Ginny Weasley, so they didn't have much interaction.
On the last day of August, Jon received a letter.
Among them, there was a letter sent by a very beautiful white owl, which was from Astoria Greengrass. In the letter, Astoria asked Jon to take the train to Hogwarts together.
Jon wrote a line on the note: "Okay, wait for me tomorrow!"
Then he tied the note to the owl's leg; but the owl did not leave, but continued to hover over him until Jon threw it a small piece of bread, then it bit it and flew out the window.
Frankly speaking, Jon felt that the owl communication method was OK a hundred years ago, but now it was extremely backward. Not to mention the telephone, mobile phone, and email, which were several dimensions beyond, it was far inferior even to the telegraph and fax.
Then, as usual, he went to the telephone box on Charing Cross Road and called home.
Eric told him on the phone that he would drive to the Leaky Cauldron tomorrow and take him to King's Cross Station.
…
A little after eight the next morning, Jon had just finished breakfast when Eric's car arrived at the door of the Leaky Cauldron.
"Is everything okay, son?" Eric asked as he got out of the car and checked the tires, "Am I late?"
"It's quite early. I guess I won't have to wait for more than an hour at King's Cross Station!" Jon said with a smile, "Isn't Mom here?"
"She really wanted to come...it took me a while to convince her!" Eric explained.
The car started moving, but it was not heading towards King's Cross Station.
"Where are we going?" Jon asked curiously.
"Don't ask, the answer is going to Rome!" Eric said jokingly.
The car stereo began playing the famous song "Let It Be" by the Beatles. Eric hummed along in tune while stepping on the accelerator.
The car kept driving north, and more than half an hour later, Jon knew from the signs on the side of the road that they had arrived in Camden Town; he was wondering why Eric brought him here, when suddenly he found a grandparents and grandchildren standing on the side of the road, as if waiting for them.
Eric stopped the car, rolled down the right window, leaned out, and shouted to the grandparents who were halfway across the street, "Good morning, Mrs. Longbottom!"
"You are so punctual, Mr. Hart." Lady Augusta Longbottom quickly took her grandson's hand and walked over. "Thank you so much!"
"You're welcome, it's just on the way!" Eric smiled, then got out of the car and opened the door.
"Hello, Mrs. Longbottom!" When Neville Longbottom and his grandmother got into the car, Jon turned around quickly and said, "And Neville."
"I think you must be Jon!" Mrs. Longbottom shook hands with Jon gracefully. "Neville often mentioned you at home, saying that you have good grades and are very smart. Even Professor Snape, whom he feared so much, has praised you."
"I think Jon has mentioned Neville quite a few times this summer!" Eric said as he drove, "A very kind, honest and simple boy."
Jon could have sworn he had barely talked to his parents about any of his classmates the entire summer.
"Yes!" Mrs. Longbottom nodded with a smile: "This child is just like his father when he was a child, very kind and simple... just a little slow!"
"Ah!" Mrs. Longbottom sighed, "And he's so careless and stupid... The last few times I took him to London using Floo Powder, he always misread the words and ended up in the wrong fireplace, so it took me a long time to find him. Fortunately, Mr. Eric is willing to help!"
"On the way!" Eric said, "Boys are like this. They don't know much when they are young... but when they grow up, it happens overnight! So don't worry, it won't be long before Neville grows up overnight."
"Thank you for your good words!" Mrs. Longbottom sighed again, and then patted Neville on the head: "Neville, why don't you thank Uncle Hart."
"Thank you..." Neville Longbottom said in a timid voice.
Eric continued driving, talking to Lady Longbottom in the back, and Jon occasionally interrupted him. Only Neville huddled in the corner of the car, saying nothing.
The car continued to move forward, and Jon's eyes became slightly moist.
Because Jon knew very well the purpose of his father's doing this... He was struggling alone in the magic world, but he couldn't help at all; so he tried every means to get to know some wizards and build good relationships with them. In the future, these wizards who had a good relationship with him would become his "connections"...
It is easy to imagine how much discrimination and contempt an ordinary person would encounter if he wanted to succeed in getting to know wizards.
The car stopped at King's Cross Station, and Mrs. Longbottom and Neville got off first.
Jon unbuckled his seatbelt and moved closer to Eric: "Thank you, Dad!"
"It's okay!" Eric winked at him and said, "Study hard."
Jon nodded solemnly.
…
Eric did not follow him into the station, and Jon followed the Longbottom duo alone.
After passing through the 9th station, Lady Augusta Longbottom was still instructing and even criticizing Neville. Jon seemed to hear his name several times in her words.
Speaking of which, Neville can be said to be a very miserable child.
Because he witnessed his parents being tortured to insanity, he was cast with the Forgetting Spell at a young age, which permanently damaged his memory. He also had poor talent and often had difficulty casting magic. He was even treated as a Squib by his family for a long time. The most important thing was that he was not holding his own wand, but his father's, which meant that he could not exert much of his strength...
Mrs. Longbottom's scolding seemed to be over. She helped Neville straighten his collar and gave Jon an approving look.
They boarded the train together.
When passing by Luna Lovegood and Ginny Weasley's compartment, Neville walked in timidly; Jon declined Ginny's invitation.
He continued to move forward, and two minutes later, he finally pushed his suitcase and arrived at the private room he had agreed to meet with Astoria.
"Sorry, there's someone here!" He heard Astoria's lazy voice when he pushed open the door of the cubicle.
But soon, the voice changed to surprise: "Jon!"
"Good morning, Astoria!" Jon said as he pushed the suitcase onto the step.
Jon turned around and saw Astoria's golden hair was tied into a ponytail and she was wearing a beautiful white dress.
"Does it look good?" Astoria winked at him.
"Where did this come from? Is this a Veela or an angel? I almost didn't recognize you..." Jon said with a smile.
"Hmph!" Astoria snorted, her cheeks slightly red.
"How was your summer?" she asked.
"Not so good!" Jon said with a wry smile, "Not able to use magic for more than two months, and the headmaster even paid me a home visit?"
"Professor Dumbledore's home visit?" Astoria suddenly became interested: "Oh my God, Professor Dumbledore actually visits students' homes, Jon, you are so lucky!"
"Maybe!" Jon forced a smile. "How about you, your summer vacation?"
"My mother took my sister and me to Alsace for a month. That's her hometown," Astoria replied. "She took us to find a nest of moonbeasts. Their dance was so lovely. There were also the sound-deaf birds. It is said that their feathers have extremely high medicinal value. One of her French friends also gave me an Appaloosa puff. Unfortunately, I didn't bring it back to England..."
Astoria talked endlessly about her experiences during the summer vacation.
As they talked, the Hogwarts Express started moving.
...
...
...
The Hogwarts Express was heading steadily north.
The view outside the window became more and more interesting, the sky gradually darkened, and the clouds above their heads became thicker and thicker.
Outside the door of their cubicle, people kept walking back and forth; however, it did not have any impact on the inside of the cubicle.
Astoria continued to tell her story in eastern France.
"The weather there is much better than in England, and the sun is very warm; but I suspect I am a little tanned."
"Also, French food is delicious. Although they don't like fish very much, their oysters, foie gras and mussels are all very good."
"I bought this dress when I passed through Paris..."
Jon listened with a smile, occasionally interjecting.
At one o'clock, the food truck arrived at their cubicle door.
...
...
Jon bought a row of large pot scones, while Astoria only took dried fruits and vegetables and pumpkin juice.
"I need to lose some weight!" she said with a troubled look on her face, "I gained several pounds during the summer vacation..."
"I think you're thinking too much!" Jon said as he stuffed a large pancake into her hand. "Eat well or you'll develop poorly..."
In the afternoon, it began to rain, and the outlines of the continuous hills outside the window became blurred.
"I hate rainy days like this!" Astoria said sleepily.
"No one likes this kind of weather." Jon agreed.
He touched the wand in his cloak... If the original plot had not changed, judging by the situation, the Dementors would have appeared soon.
Astoria took out a three-sided mirror from the suitcase and loosened her newly tied ponytail in front of the mirror.
With her golden hair hanging down, she leaned back in her seat, closed her eyes and muttered:
"Jon, I'm so sleepy..."
Jon did not respond, because he noticed that the train was moving slower and slower. The sound of the wheels became quieter, and the sound of wind and rain outside the window became louder.
The train suddenly shook and stopped... There was a ping-pong sound in the distance, indicating that some luggage had fallen from the luggage rack.
Then, all the lights suddenly went out, and they were plunged into complete darkness.
"What's going on?" Astoria stood up in a panic.
"Don't panic!" Jon said, and a light flashed from his hand, shining on Astoria's panicked face: "Are you okay?"
"Not bad." Astoria nodded, and then looked at the light source in Jon's hand with some curiosity: "What kind of magic is this? The Luminescent Charm...Shouldn't the Luminescent Charm be a course we will learn in the third grade spells class?"
"No." Jon shook his head. "It's just a powerful flashlight."
Although a high-intensity flashlight may not be of much use when encountering a werewolf, it can still provide some lighting in this pitch-black train.
Jon motioned to Astoria not to move, then moved the flashlight away, opened the door of the compartment, and observed the situation in the corridor.
People were sticking their heads out of the cubicles along the corridor to look around.
Then, a squeaking, short and sharp sound came from outside the window.
Jon closed the door of the compartment and moved the flashlight to the window. Astoria wiped a clean spot on the window glass with her handkerchief and looked out: "There is something moving outside, and it seems to be floating towards the train."
Jon ran over quickly and looked at the blurry shadows in the window.
"Don't be nervous!" He put his hand on Astoria's shoulder and said calmly, "It's okay."
Astoria nodded somewhat woodenly, and she quietly moved a little closer to Jon... because she felt a little cold.
…
He held a flashlight in his left hand and drew his wand in his right.
Jon could almost feel Astoria trembling beside him, but he himself felt nothing unusual.
The door of the compartment was suddenly opened... and then a monster wearing a cloak and as tall as the ceiling slowly floated in.
"Jon, I'm so cold..." Astoria hugged him tightly from behind, her body shaking violently.
The monster's face was completely hidden under the turban, and a hand stretched out from the cloak. The hand was a terrible gray, very thin and even scabby, like a dead person's arm that had been soaked in water for half a month and rotted.
"Dementors!"
Even though Jon was prepared, a chill still swept through his body at this moment.
His mind began to recall the Defense Against the Dark Arts exam a few months ago, and two Albus Dumbledores appeared in front of him.
"Brain block!" He whispered in the smallest voice that only he could hear.
The images in his mind disappeared instantly, and his consciousness returned to the car.
In just a second or two, the Dementor had floated to a location only a few yards away from him.
Astoria behind him had lost consciousness and all he could hear was her weak breathing.
The powerful flashlight shone on the face beneath the Dementor's cloak: there were no facial features, and where the mouth should have been there was a horrible, bottomless hole...
The hideous face seemed to glance at Jon, then quickly turned away, as if with some disgust; then, the bottomless hole turned to Astoria behind Jon.
It seemed to start sucking something, and a trace of white air began to flow into its mouth...
"Expecto Patronum!" Jon shouted without hesitation.
Strands of silver threads emerged from the end of the wand one after another and gathered into a ball of gas... Then, a ball of turbid silver aura hovered in front of Jon and Astoria.
Jon did not dare to summon his true patronus, because he had no control over the cat...if the magic got out of control again, the train would probably be blown up, and he and his group would have to walk to Hogwarts.
A silver aura stood between the two and the Dementors.
However, to Jon's surprise, the Dementor did not leave the compartment.
It was still moving, albeit slowly, its face fixed on the unconscious Astoria.
Although he was a little afraid of this "false patron saint", the girl seemed even more delicious...
The turbid silver aura began to weaken little by little.
The horror of the Dementors was even beyond Jon's expectations...
He took a deep breath and began to recall his truly "happy" memory -
"Chocolate Dream"
"Expecto Patronum!" A majestic voice came from outside the compartment.
A real Patronus flew into the compartment, standing between the two and the Dementors...
The Dementors retreated rapidly, then drifted further and further away.