บท 47: Vacation
As Neal and others landed in HongKong airport, they were received by a Chinese wizard named Lei Zen. He greeted Edward, "it's been a while, Mr. Edward".
They boarded Mr. Zen's enchanted car and began to tour around. Neal then asked Edward to take him into wildlife as he was extremely curious about what kind of animals exist in this vast country.
Upon his insistence, after touring around the city, they traveled to the mountains, lakes, etc, they ended up at Xuantou, one of the wizarding towns in china. Their group attracted people's attention because of their western appearances.
Tracey saw people are whispering to each other while watching them. She asked Mr. Zen, "are western people that rare, here?". Neal replied in place of him, "obviously. Didn't you know, their population is around 1.2 billion people that is almost like 1.5 times greater than our entire population of Europe.
That means we can safely assume that the number of wizards here is at least greater than all the European wizards combined. I bet their Ministry also don't have control over all the wizards like us. In this kind of situation, why would they consider outsiders joining them?".
Mr. Zen then said, "yeah, you are right. The Ministry sure had lots of trouble in the past few centuries. Here, you can never know which muggle will turn out to be a Wizard but most of them don't care about being a Wizard as it doesn't pay much. So, they just stay in muggle society and use wandless magic for household things.
There are a lot of magic schools being set up in secret across the country and the Ministry just permitted them to do so. But, two of them stand out from the rest. One is Glerons, School of Witchcraft and the other is Yoniams, School of Magic".
After they roamed around and bought various magic items as souvenirs for Draco and Daphne, they checked into a nearby inn in the town. As the midnight approached and the street before the inn was empty, five to six hooded figures stood before it and waiting for the leader's command.
The leader of the group spoke, "ok, everyone remembered the plan, right? We don't need to cause a scene here. And if those western wizards discover you, make sure they stay dead".
Just when they were about to move, suddenly, every building in the street disappeared and appeared very far away. One of them shouted, "it's a trap". They tried to move but they were paralyzed as a mist dispersed in the surroundings. The leader growled, "first, the huge scale Illusion magic, then Paralysing Mist magic?". He roared, "Li Su".
As the mist cleared, a huge dome of barrier conjured around them. They saw a few monks appeared wearing the traditional saffron and ochre robes. A peaceful-looking old man walked slowly towards them with a huge smile on his face.
He spoke, "I guess Bai Tengfai became greedy again. It's rude to try to harm the guests of our nation. Well, it doesn't matter. Return to the ministry and tell him that the boy is under my protection, Li Su's protection. As long as he is in China, he and his acquaintances shall not be harmed by you guys.
Tell him if he tries to harm the boy again, this old man will be forced to use his five hundred years experience as a wizard on the Ministry". Li Su and the rest then captured the rest leaving the leader alone.
As everyone disappeared, Li Su looked at the building at far away distance and mumbled, "the philosopher's stone has been destroyed. I can only prolong my death for a few years more. I hope I'll stay alive to see Llama's prophecy becoming true". Then he thought, "should I also send a gift to the boy?".
The next day morning, as Neal went downstairs, the innkeeper looked at him and asked, "excuse me, you are the ones who checked in last night, right?". Neal looked at him in confusion as he doesn't understand what he is saying.
The innkeeper then realized that the guests don't know Chinese and spoke in his broken English, "You, Neal Slytherin?". Neal nodded, "yes, I am". The innkeeper gestured him to wait for a second and went inside and later returned with a package.
He pushed the package towards him, "this, yours. package came. morning". Neal thought for a while to arrange the words, "oh, someone sent this package in the morning for me?". Neal didn't know whether he understood or not as the innkeeper just put it in his hands and went away.
Neal looked at the package. "From Li Su, headmaster of Yoniam, School of magic".
"Hmm, strange. How did he know me?". As a cautious person, he didn't opened the package and went straight to Edward's room and knocked on the door. After a while, the door opened and Edward came out and asked as his eyes laid on Neal's hands, "what is that package in your hands? Is it a gift for someone you want to send?".
Neal shook his head, "no, I got this package from the headmaster of Yoniam, Li Su, this morning. I guess we're under their watch for a while". Edward was taken aback in surprise, "did you just say, Li Su?". As Neal nodded, he replied after calming down, "I guess it's expected. Dumbledore must have asked him to look after you".
After hearing Dumbledore's name, Neal sighed in relief and thought the sender is not an enemy. He immediately went to his room and opened the package to find a glossy green egg inside the box and a small letter.
He opened the letter and read, "consider this as a present from this old man. Take care of it, well". He looked at the egg once again, "hmm, this color and little patches around the broader end is familiar. I think I read it in some book in the restricted section. After returning to Hogwarts, I should look over it, again".
A couple of weeks later, they returned to London and saw their mailbox has some letters. After reading letters from Draco and Daphne, Neal wrote back to them. Then he opened the letter from Hogwarts and looked at the contents of the letter, "Hmm, oh, a consent form".
Then after Edward signed both of their forms, they went to Diagon Alley together to buy the books. They weren't able to meet Draco and Daphne to shop at Diagon Alley together because of their trip to China.
As they went to Flourish and Blotts, Neal asked Tracey, "what electives did you choose for the upcoming year, again?". Tracey replied, "Muggle Studies and Divination. Yours is Magical creatures and Study of Ancient Runes, right. Can't believe you have chosen that boring subject".
Meanwhile, the British Ministry of Magic is in chaos as Sirius Black, the betrayer who handed over the Potters to Lord Voldemort, escaped from the jail to finish the job he failed to do last time.
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