Chapter 164 162. Set sail
The direction of the ship's sailing does not need to be grasped by Jon. It seems that the target position has been set a long time ago, and the position of the helmsman is obviously just a decoration now.
Jon didn't stay on the deck for long. He didn't forget that there was a group of students waiting for news in the dining room. They didn't know what happened yet.
He groped and pulled the reins of the Thestrals on the deck. Beach, who had circled the deck three times, returned to Jon's head with a jump, and then he opened a wooden door leading to the cabin in front of him. .
The interior of the cabin is no different from the previous carriage compartment. The position where Jon enters the door is the entrance and exit of the previous driver's seat. After entering, it is still a straight corridor.
He took the Thestrals to the room where they were originally raised in the carriage. There was a meadow and a grove here, enough for them to get enough rest after work. Now that the carriage has become a wooden boat, there is no need for them to carry on After work, they can spend a comfortable vacation in the next period of time.
After settling the Thestrals, he returned to the restaurant.
There are still about 50 or 60 students in grades 1 to 5 left here. When Jon came in, most of them were lying by the window. Obviously, the changes outside had already caught their attention.
Hearing the sound of the door opening, everyone in the restaurant focused on him, and many students couldn't wait to ask him about the current situation.
"Are we out of danger?" Colin was the first to speak. He was a student who was rescued from the castle by Jon at the beginning of the year. He just entered the second grade after the start of school this year.
His question is also something that many people want to know, and everyone is looking at him eagerly.
Jon didn't answer immediately, but took out a chair and sat down. At the same time, he also signaled all the students in the restaurant to sit down first.
Next, he must explain everything clearly, although even he still feels that what happened today is so sudden.
"Let me explain our current situation now. Please listen patiently. If you have any questions, I will answer them one by one."
At this time, the reputation accumulated by Jon's feats at the beginning of the year played a vital role.
Before, even among the students of the same level, he was a leader, but in the whole school, especially the senior students, there must be some people who don't even know his name, let alone have any kindness to him. Convinced.
But now it's completely different. The students who stayed on the ship, even the fifth grade, have absolute support for Jon.
"Let me answer Colin's question first."
The students were all looking at Jon quietly, and Jon was also looking at these students seriously.
"Judging from the current situation, we are not in any danger for the time being, but at the same time we also have to face another biggest problem—starting today, there will be no professors on this carriage, or this ship to protect us. , and then we can only rely on ourselves.”
His words caused a commotion among these students. Not many people even paid attention to the transition between the carriage and the boat. A first-year girl asked in a crying voice.
"Yes, the professors don't want us?"
Jon didn't blame her for interrupting his speech, but spoke very seriously in a comforting voice.
"It's not that the professor doesn't want us anymore, it's that the current situation in Britain is very bad. Professor Dumbledore and other professors are about to fight a war with the villains in the Ministry of Magic. In this war, they are not sure that they can guarantee themselves lives, and there is no extra effort to protect our safety, so the professor tried to get us to a safe place."
He looked back at everyone.
"What we can do now is to take good care of ourselves and not hold back the professors."
Finally someone started asking questions about where they are now at this time, and the person who stood up and asked excitedly was George.
"Then where are we now? It looks like a sea outside?"
Jon nodded and said.
"That's right, we are at sea now, the interior of the carriage has not changed much, but in fact the carriage has become a big boat, and it is precisely because of this that we escaped the pursuit of the Ministry of Magic."
This news immediately attracted the attention of most people, and distracted many people from the uncontrollable sense of panic that they had just separated from the adults.
"Can we go out and have a look?" Fred asked excitedly.
The Weasley twins are usually the two most active in the carriage, they can always make some farce for everyone to watch, but they are also the most imprisoned, usually complaining in the lounge boring.
Jon naturally has nothing to disagree with.
"Of course, but you have to be careful even on the deck. I don't know if there is any protective magic on the side of the guardrail to prevent people from falling into the sea."
With his consent, George and Fred were the first to lose their temper, and they rushed out of the restaurant first.
After the other students saw the two of them running out, they couldn't stay in the dining room anymore, and they started running out together. Even Gabriel waved to Jon and greeted him. float by.
The freshmen of the first grade were left behind. They had just arrived in the carriage not long ago, and their life here was not out of the stage of novelty, so they didn't have as much concern as the senior students for the matter of turning into a boat and going out to sea. Many touches.
Jon was at the end of these students, and Neville and Hermione also walked side by side with him, walking along the corridor towards the outside of the carriage.
Neville still has a sense of unreality.
"So... are we really the only ones left?"
Hermione looked at the professors' offices where the doors were closed, and her performance was much better than Neville's. After all, even if the current situation was compared to the environment she was in before, she didn't know that it was any better. How many.
"The youngest among us is 11 years old, and it's not that we can't take care of ourselves, or that we won't be able to learn magic anymore?"
"This can only be figured out later."
They walked out of the carriage, and the students had already arrived on the deck. The wet sea breeze blew the hem of each little wizard's robe, but the cold night wind could not dampen their enthusiasm for sailing at the moment.
Even the first-year freshmen, who were not interested at first, began to show smiles, lying on the side of the fence, watching big fish leaping from time to time in the waves.
George and Fred were very happy. They found a hooked glove and a one-eyed eye patch from nowhere, and they were dressing up as pirates. They stood on a chair with one foot and looked up at the wooden boat sailing ahead, muttering to themselves. A parrot that can speak human language is missing.
Jon didn't have much of such a mood at this time. It wasn't that he lacked any enthusiasm for the ocean, but that he knew that there were still many problems that he needed to solve in the next voyage.
For example, they still haven't figured out which sea area they are in, and what direction they are sailing.
For another example, don't look at the students who are very enthusiastic about sailing at this time. I don't know how many of them will get seasick. There is no Lily on the boat who can come to make potions for them. They need to figure it out by themselves. Method.
As well as the fresh water and food in the storage room, they also need to be counted to find out how long the reserves allow more than 50 of them to last on the sea.
The magical plants in the greenhouse also need to be taken care of by special personnel, and some magical animals kept in specific rooms can’t be left alone, and they have to find a way to get in touch with Dumbledore and the others as soon as possible, but this needs to wait for Fox’s news.
In general, although they are not in any danger for the time being, there are many things to be resolved later, and before that, Jon must do one thing first.
He called all the students on the deck together, and a kerosene lamp on the mast swayed gently under the sea breeze, illuminating the space on the deck.
"Everyone, none of us know the end of this voyage for the time being, and we don't know how long it will take. But no matter what the future holds, now we must determine the leader among us."
Jon's voice was not drowned by the waves, and all the students present heard his words.
"Professor Dumbledore entrusted me with the task of leading you before leaving this carriage. However, at the beginning of the voyage, I still want to make sure to you whether there is anyone who is responsible for me to lead this voyage." Do you have any doubts or questions?"
Younger children will definitely not have any problems, and the fourth and fifth grade students who are older than Jon have been living in the carriage for so long. These children who are more sensible than their peers know very well , it is not a good job to take over the leadership of Hogwarts under such circumstances.
And what Jon did in the second grade is enough to prove that he has the ability to lead them, not to mention that he has been recognized by Dumbledore.
No one suggested any meaning, and George and Fred even smiled and put a pirate captain's hat on Jon's head together.
"We absolutely obey your leadership! Great Captain Green!"
With the Weasley twins around, you never have to worry about how depressing the atmosphere will be.
The students below all smiled and shouted together.
"Yes, Captain Green!"
Jon also showed a smile on his face. He didn't refuse the hats on his head and the blindfolds that George and Fred gave him, he said loudly.
"Does anyone have a better suggestion for the name of our ship?"
"Our name has never changed, Captain!" Some students responded loudly.
Their gazes looked at the old and yellowed school badge on the long sail together.
Yes, whether it was in the castle, the carriage, or the current ship, their names have never changed.
【Hogwarts】
No one can tamper with or cover up this.
The wind filled the long sails. Under a brilliant starry sky, Jon looked at the endless sea and said softly.
"Then, let's set sail!"
"We've searched all of Wormtail's memories," Lupine said.
On the cliff full of tombstones, the wizards of the Order of the Phoenix are resting here, and at this time, Lupine, Lily, and Sirius are reporting the clues they got from Wormtail to Dumbledore.
"After the Dark Lord took control of the entire British magic world, that is, seven years ago, he sent his most trusted men to France. They used various methods to imprison those who were not so famous at the time. Adele Roland, Eric Amalric and others who had a high status, and then used their identities to start operating in the French Ministry of Magic, and Wormtail was among these people."
"Through the help provided to them by the Dark Lord in the dark in the UK, coupled with sufficient financial support, and their personal minds. During these seven years, they quickly reached the original planned position. This At that time, they had already grasped enough power, that is, after Rodolphus Lestrange pretended to be Amalric and became the French Minister of Magic more than a year ago, they began to carry out a campaign against pure-blood wizards in France. Intimidation and temptation."
"During this period, the Dark Lord personally appeared several times. Before that, his attention was never on us. It is very likely that he was trying to win over these people in France."
"Among these pure-blood wizards, there are some characters who would rather die than submit, but they were all dealt with in private, and then arranged for Death Eaters to replace their identities, and other people who chose to surrender, such as Wormtail, were also very cautious. Temporarily use the Forgetting Curse to block this memory, and then lift the spell when needed, so as to prevent someone from obediently obediently obscuring it."
Dumbledore listened to Lupine's narration with a calm face, and here he asked.
"Those key positions in the French Ministry of Magic are all held by the Dark Lord's own people?"
Lupine nodded.
"Bellatrix Lestrange pretended to be Adele Rowland, her husband Rodolphus Lestrange was her ostensible political opponent Eric Amalric, and There was his younger brother, Rabastan Lestrange, who became Auror Chief of Staff, and Igor Karkaroff, who became Ivan Gallas and became Beauxbatons earlier this year. principal."
Voldemort's erosion of the French magic world is almost comprehensive. The justice, the minister of magic, the head of the Auror office, and the principal of the magic school control almost all aspects of law, politics, military affairs, and education.
He has only started to close the net now, which means that the current situation is completely irreversible, and the whole of France will fall into his hands.
(end of this chapter)