In the Harry Potter Without Harry Potter

Chapter 12: Orientation Dinner on the Coast

The beach is very wide, and on the outskirts of the beach there is a rocky shore, with a ragged path crookedly splitting the rocky shore into two halves, it looks like a place rarely visited by people.

Hagrid has long ago stepped off the wagon, he found a suitable open space near the sea and set up a firewood and iron frame to light a campfire.

In such a high summer, the night sea breeze blowing made people feel very comfortable, and the seniors who ran out early on gathered together in groups, looking for some entertainment on the beach.

"Hogwarts will find a place with a great view to hosting dinner on the night of orientation and Christmas."

Ron, who knew more about the school on the wagon than the others, explained to Jon and the group.

"My three older brothers all went here, and they told me that Hagrid always surprises people when he picks a dinner party location. They once had an orientation banquet on the top of Mount Ben Nevis (the highest mountain in the British Isles) and also spent Christmas Eve together on the Isle of Man. We also got a nice orientation dinner this year, it is surprisingly on the beach."

His voice held a note of excitement, and everyone else also shared a look of curiosity and excitement on their faces, even Justin, who had been sullen, had an obvious look of relaxation on his face.

While Ron, Justin, and Lavender couldn't resist walking toward the beach, Jon noticed the door of the wagon being opened from the inside once again, and a short, childlike old man came down from the wagon.

He is wearing a well-fitting wizard's robe, his hair is meticulously groomed, and as he steps off the wagon, he shouted at the two crab-catching boys in the distance.

"Don't run too far, Lee Jordan, and be careful when you use the Full Body-Bind Curse on the crabs! Your pronunciation is always wrong, try not to burn yourself to a crisp again!"

The dark-skinned boy in the distance agreed loudly and then went on to poke the crab with the wand he held.

The short old man's attention shifted back to the students who were chasing the waves barefoot on the beach, and he admonished them to be careful not to fall and got swept into the sea for real as he walked toward Hagrid, who is raising a few bonfires.

"That is Professor Flitwick." Neville, who noticed Jon's gaze, introduced him, "He's our Professor of Charms and part-time Astronomy class, and he was the last Head of Ravenclaw House before Hogwarts Castle fell."

Neville thought of Jon as a muggle who had never been exposed to magic and prepared to enthusiastically go over the four previous Hogwarts Houses in detail when he suddenly noticed that his attention had actually been on Professor Flitwick's empty right arm sleeve.

"How did Professor Flitwick's right hand gone?" Jon asked quietly.

The relaxed expression on Neville's face tightened, and he said in a low voice.

"It was severed by a spell from one of the Dark Lord's men. When the professor was young, he won Dueling Championships by wielding his wand with his right hand before."

"Is there no solution in magic to put his severed arm back together?"

"From what my father said, the battle at that time took too long, moreover, he didn't get his arm back after it was cut off. If it didn't take too long, magic could help you to connect the limb that was severed once again, but there is no way to help you to grow a new one."

Jon remained silent.

He looked at the short old man who is helping Hagrid to set up the campfire, his heart for some reason flooded with a heaviness.

This heaviness is not just due to the one-armed old man in front of him, but also due to the Hufflepuff Head Sprout who had sacrificed her life, Alice, the mother of Neville who died under the Killing Curse, and the people who had sacrificed their lives for this Hogwarts.

As if sensing Jon's change in mood, Neville patted him on the shoulder comfortingly and said with a smile.

"But actually Professor Flitwick didn't think much of it, after learning about the permanent loss of his right arm, he was laughing and said to Dumbledore, 'Luckily I still have my left arm to use', my father told me this. It turns out he was right, he can still cast spells with his left arm and be our best Charms Class professor."

Jon let out a long breath as he turned his head to look at Neville and smiled at the boy who is truly a child in every sense.

"It's okay, I'm just sighing a little. So what can we do now?"

Neville looked at Jon and smiled back.

He had actually sensed the difference between Jon and the other guys when he first saw him, he was acting much more mature than Ron, Justin and the rest, giving Neville a hunch that they could be friends.

It's not that he and Ron couldn't be friends, after losing his mother when he was young, he has always been more mature and understanding than his peers, and when facing Ron and the gang, he always subconsciously has a mentality of helping adults to take care of their children.

Whereas when interacting with Jon, there is obviously no such feeling.

"We can go to help the senior students to clean up the food ingredients to eat tonight, Hogwarts daily meals are prepared by the students themselves, and when we are officially started, a senior student will specifically teach us how to cook. In this wagon, the professor and the others usually have a very rough schedule already, so we should try to take care of ourselves and give them less stress."

Neville said briskly as he led Jon towards a group of senior girls who gathered at the side.

There they were handling crabs and fish that the boys had just caught, as well as some ingredients that had been prepared in advance on the wagon.

Jon exchanged a lot with Neville, in fact, there was some deliberate-hidden intention behind it.

The round-faced blond boy obviously knows a lot about the current Hogwarts, and Jon wants to get along with him to get more information from him after their relationship gets familiar.

For example, whether the Potions class professor Lilly Potter has a son.

Although his purpose is not pure enough, Jon is willing to be sincere when he gets along with him.

Jon is doomed to be bound to this load on the Hogwarts wagon, this place brought together the last group of people who firmly cling to the righteousness and light in their hearts throughout the whole British wizarding world, so when getting along with these people, he could not and did not want to keep a hypocritical faade all the time.

When he and Neville were helping the sisters with the fish and seafood, Jon suddenly saw Lily, who he hadn't seen since she brought him to the wagon, she walked towards them along the path from the rocky shore at some point, leading a chubby, elderly male wizard with a walrus-like moustache.

Jon wasn't the only one who spotted this sight, there were also other students who saw the fat old man.

"It's Professor Slughorn!"

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