Chapter 24: Chapter 24 The owner of the ring
"I didn't have a problem, those scumbags used the Exploding Charm together, which merged into a super wide range exploding charm, otherwise they wouldn't have had a chance to hurt me."
Flitwick spoke up somewhat unconvinced even as he was being held up by Slughorn, and he didn't seem like he thought much of his opponent of today.
But of course, Slughorn wouldn't take what he said seriously; with no school healer at Hogwarts at the moment, he and Lily, the two people who are good enough to be called Potions Master, are the best healers around.
Slughorn helped Flitwick to walk first, and Lily and McGonagall both followed Dumbledore along the long corridor as if they were a little confused about something that had transpired during today's attack.
"It's been so many years, this is the first time the Ministry of Magic has found us in the last five years, yet why did they only send a few Aurors after us?" McGonagall asked with a confused look on her face.
Lily also said in a cold tone.
"The Ministry of Magic Auror Office has long become a department without any real power when the Dark Lord became lifetime Minister of Magic, the only force that truly holds the greatest strength in the Ministry of Magic is Death Eaters, they are the central force in the hands of the Dark Lord, and these Aurors, basically made up of half-bloods and purebloods with no connections, they are not equal to even a single Death Eater squad in any sense whatsoever. "
Dumbledore said calmly.
"Don't think that way Lily, although most of the power of the Auror office was gathered away by him before he threw it to Lucius, all those who have managed to join it to become Aurors are the best of the half-bloods nonetheless. Lucius is very skilled in recruiting people now, and the majority of half-bloods were recruited by him, since a number of Voldemort's men still maintain that extreme mindset, at least the half-blood wizards have the right to own wands and to learn magic."
Lily could not deny this statement he made, but she still said it.
"But at least the ones we dealt with today were incompetent people who couldn't give us much trouble, except for that exploding charm that they cast against the Filius at the beginning in a group. It is impossible for the Dark Lord not to know that with you on board, these people have absolutely no possibility of posing a threat to us at all, so why did he let them come? It's been nearly five years since we got located, and now that he has found us, why did he just send a bunch of flies?"
Professor McGonagall also frowned and asked.
"Besides, how did they find us? The charm on the carriage failed?"
Dumbledore shook his head slightly.
"No, the charm didn't fail."
"Then how did they locate us."
"Perhaps they have all been looking for us everywhere all this time, and it was this group of Aurors that found us by accident, it's not beyond the realm of possibility." Dumbledore said with a reassuring smile, "Don't think too much about it, for now, it's been a tiring night, so you should both go and get some rest, let's suspend classes for the day and let the students take a break as well."
Lily and McGonagall clearly had more to say, but Dumbledore was clearly no longer in the mood for conversation.
They were indeed mentally tired tonight, and although the Aurors hadn't given them much trouble, the sudden attack had kept them tense inside.
After the three of them had gone to their separate offices to rest, Hogwarts did not let their guard down.
After treating Flitwick's wounds, Slughorn spent time on the roof of the wagon, and Hagrid became more vigilant than ever, constantly looking around while driving the wagon.
The students woke up from their sleep in the great hall, then briefly ate some bread and milk that had been prepared in advance for emergencies and returned to their dormitories afterwards.
Neville didn't stay in the dormitory for long before joining Ron and the class to play chess in the common room; classes were suspended for the day, and with the events of last night, they needed to distract themselves from other things.
They had similarly invited Jon, but Jon just followed Neville for a short sit in the common room before leaving.
After wandering along the long corridor for ten minutes, Jon glanced at the time which was barely past ten o'clock.
He wasn't in the mood to wait any longer though, after taking a deep breath he walked straight to the door of Slughorn's office.
The knock on the door was not answered, but a passing fifth-year reminded him that Slughorn was currently in the astronomy classroom and that it would be best to go to the roof of the wagon if he wanted to find him.
After thanking that senior girl, Jon headed straight for the astronomy classroom which was located next to the entrance hall without stopping.
He walked up the revolving staircase to the roof, where the desks, chairs, blackboards and telescopes had all been put away, except for a high-backed chair in the middle, where Slughorn sat with his wand in his hand, staring up at the blue sky above him.
"Professor."
Jon's voice pulled Slughorn's thoughts back and the fat old man looked at him with a smile like a walrus.
"I would come here when I happened to be bored, Jon. Why didn't you bring some Crystallised Pineapple with you? My former students always bring me little surprises like that when they want to butter me up for something."
Jon mentally rolled his eyes at the old man's perfectly blunt 'demand for bribes'.
"I'm sorry Professor, but even if I had the money to buy you sweets like that, I don't know where to buy them."
Slughorn held out his wand and nudged it at his side, and a bench appeared in what had been an empty space.
"I was just making a little joke, stop being so humourless, and sit down, I figured you might not be able to wait until noon to visit me."
Jon asked with a serious look on his face as he sat down beside him and pulled the sapphire ring out of the pocket of his robe.
"So, Professor, can you tell me what it is now? Can you take it back?"
"It's no longer possible for me to take it back, Jon." Slughorn looked at him and the words that came out made Jon's heart sink, "Because it didn't belong to me in the first place, it was in my possession only because an old friend of mine once asked me to keep it for him and now, it has found its owner."
Jon furrowed his brow.
"Then why did it pick me?"
"Because it was created to wait for someone who would actualise the value of its existence, and that someone is not the one who created it, nor me the temporary custodian, but you."
Slughorn's voice was calm, but Jon did not understand what he was trying to say.
"Professor, can you speak a little more plainly?"
Slughorn laughed heartily and shrugged his shoulders.
"I've actually always envied Dumbledore's way of speaking with people, like some kind of sage, but it doesn't look like I'm cut out for that. Might as well make it a little more blunt then, Jon, this ring, it will help you to learn a form of spell casting that other folks can't learn."
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