Chapter 52 52. Teacher and students
While Filch and most of the students in the restaurant were being attracted by Justin who suddenly said he was feeling uncomfortable, Jon gently opened the door and left the restaurant.
There is no one on the promenade, and it is as quiet as a path in a haunted house.
The sound of Jon's shoes falling on the floor was very clear. He didn't deliberately hide the sound of his footsteps, but walked quickly towards a door.
He pushed open the door with the number plate of the storage room, and entered the empty compartment that divided the other rooms.
It is also quiet here, the shaking caused by the speed of the carriage makes the lights flickering on and off barely illuminating this space.
After arriving here, Jon's footsteps slowed down significantly. He quietly drew out his wand and stared at the door that was punished by Ron for opening it in the first week of school without any sign. door.
Taking a deep breath, Jon pushed open the door hard.
In the always empty room stood a boy.
The boy has the same black hair as Jon, the same height, the same body type, and the same... face!
Besides the different clothes on his body, the other boys who were completely carved out of Jon's mold also heard the movement in front of the door, turned around and looked at Jon.
On the ground next to another "Jon", there is another opened entrance that looks like a cellar.
Jon looked at "Jon", no one spoke first, and the room was silent.
After a long time, Jon, who was standing in front of the door, tightly held the wand in his hand, and asked in a voice trembling with sadness.
"Why? Teacher."
"Jon" standing opposite him didn't make a sound, just looked at him with a smile.
At the entrance of the cellar at his feet, there was a "swish" sound, and then Beach suddenly jumped out of it!
Its two little paws held a bright red stone and jumped onto the shoulder of "Jon", and then sent the stone to his hand as if taking credit.
"I wanted to make a good impression on you at the end, Jon."
Old, a voice that was all too familiar to Jon sounded.
"If you don't call out my identity, I will use your face to take the Philosopher's Stone away, and by then Horace Slughorn will have died in the ongoing battle outside, and The infiltrator who concealed his identity will also completely disappear from the carriage."
The body and face of "Jon" are being reshaped like kneaded plasticine. He has changed from thin to tall and fat, from young to old.
The gray robe draped over him and the worn-out leather boots under his feet were also obviously enchanted in advance, and they became looser and more suitable as he changed.
"This matter has nothing to do with you from the beginning to the end, Jon. Even if someone finds me pretending to be you, there will be no suspicion on you. Everyone knows that this is just a disguise. No matter how talented you are, a first-grade child can't do this."
Looking at the smiling face, Jon's knuckles turned pale because of too much force holding the wand.
He asked the question again, only this time the sad voice had grown quieter.
"Can you tell me why? Why did you betray Hogwarts? Teacher."
Slughorn didn't seem to be eager to leave the carriage immediately after completing the task. He looked at Jon and said with interest.
"Why don't we make an exchange, how about it? Tell me how you found me, and I will tell you what you want to know."
Jon knows exactly what he needs to do now.
He is absolutely impossible to be Slughorn's opponent. As long as the fat walrus wants to leave, no one in this carriage can stop him.
He needs to delay, the longer the better, as long as Dumbledore and the others can be delayed, then Slughorn will not be able to leave!
As for his own safety... Jon knew very well that even if Slughorn was an undercover agent, he would most likely not harm himself.
Otherwise, he wouldn't have spent so much time teaching him about the magic on the ring in the first place, and he wouldn't have waited until now to stop doing it.
"I never thought of you at first, teacher."
Jon opened his mouth slowly, his eyes met Slughorn's. He still couldn't believe that all his guesses were true. That one brought three attacks and finally stole The man of the Sorcerer's Stone will be the old man in front of him!
"I saw you walking down the aisle on Christmas night, and I really thought the thief lurking in the carriage might be a leprechaun or a house-elf. Until after Christmas, by chance, I learned from Filch that on the night of the first attack in the second week of school, he was locked in his office by someone who didn't know, and you took him out of it and returned to the restaurant until very late."
"He guessed it was you who locked the door with magic, but just thought you were trying to scare him to embarrass him because he was a Squib. But I remember well that you were out of the restaurant for a long time that night, Whether you locked Filch up or not, where did you go and what did you do during the time you left the restaurant before you let him out?"
The expression on Slughorn's face remained unchanged, he said with a smile.
"Just because of this you suspect me?"
"I didn't doubt you because of this, teacher." Jon looked at him calmly, "You are my teacher, and I trust you very much. Even if your behavior was suspicious that night, it still can't shake my trust in you." Trust. But when I went to your office to tell you about my significant progress with the Levitation Charm, I saw the potion you concocted."
"You put a dried snake skin in it, and later told me that the ingredient in the potion contains rune snake skin as an auxiliary material, but I know that snake skin, it is not a rune snake skin at all, but an African tree snake skin! "
When he said this, Jon couldn't help raising his voice.
"I read a lot of books in the library, especially after Professor McGonagall gave me permission to borrow banned books. In a banned potion book called "Strong Potion", I saw about African tree snake skin Introduction to the use of it! It has only one medicinal use that has been discovered so far, and that is to make compound soup! A potion for human body transformation!"
"I found out that you lied to me, teacher. If you told me directly that you were making compound potion, I wouldn't doubt your purpose for making this potion, but you told me that it was a pot of tonic!"
(end of this chapter)