In the Harry Potter Without Harry Potter

Chapter 31: Intruders

The week before Christmas, snow began to fall in most parts of Britain.

Jon occasionally went over to Hagrid's in his spare time to spend some time sitting over there with black tea and biscuits, watching the snow fall outside the wagon.

But most of the remaining time was still spent in the wagon studying.

He had already surpassed Slughorn's original expectations with the Occlumency and had already built a rudimentary 'wall' in his head before Christmas.

Although he couldn't yet build a false memory outside the wall to make the magic more advanced, he still met Slughorn's initial teaching requirements.

Slughorn did not intend to start teaching how to use the ring before Christmas, and gave Jon a week of holiday, telling him not to push himself so hard, and to combine work with rest, to not tire himself out by working hard.

Of course, Jon is also aware of such reasoning.

So he spent the week chatting with Neville and the others in the common room after dinner or playing chess, the entertainment for wizards was scarce, especially on the wagon, and with even the most famous sport in the wizarding world, Quidditch, not being held, the students had to find their own entertainment.

After a few games of wizard's chess, which is essentially chess that moves on verbal commands, Jon found it boring and used Hagrid's help to find a number of stones of the right size on the road while the wagon was in motion, then went to Professor Flitwick for help in cutting the stones into squares of the same size using his superior Severing Charm, and then Jon carved circles and other patterns on the square stones as he remembered them. He used the English alphabet and words instead of Chinese to make a simple mahjong set.

Of course, it would have been easier to make a set of mahjong directly by using the Transformation Magic, but it was simply not possible for Jon to remember the patterns on every single mahjong piece clearly, and there was still a time limit on the duration of the Transformation Magic, so it took him three days of effort to make a set of mahjong with an incomplete number of pieces.

The rules of mahjong are very simple, in fact, there are many mahjong enthusiasts in the United Kingdom and from time to time a few tournaments are organised, but the rules are somewhat different from those in China.

But of course, mahjong was not introduced in the wizarding world, and the set that Jon had made was probably the first mahjong set created by a British wizard.

After just a few rounds of hands-on play, while recounting the rules to Neville, Ron and the two, they all basically figured out how to play this type of square tile.

The five freshmen then quit wizard's chess altogether and indulged in playing square tiles in the common room every day after class.

"Two circles."

In the warmth of the common room, Lavender hesitated for a long time before pointing her wand at one of the tiles in front of her and using a levitation charm to make it fly to the centre of the table on its own.

And the very moment her words fell, Ron flicked his wand with a burst of excitement and pushed all the tiles directly in front of him.

"Haha! I've got a deal!"

A look of happiness then appeared on Justin's face, even if he hadn't won, he hadn't lost by much.

Neville, on the other hand, was torn as he looked at Ron's tiles, he was only one tile short of a hand.

Lavender had a frustrated look on her face, even if they were just playing casually when they were bored without actually betting anything at all, she was still upset about constantly losing today.

After teaching them the ropes, Jon, who had basically been watching the game with rapt attention, coached Lavender.

"You're all still just winning by luck right now, but you can't play all the games based on luck like this, you have to guess someone's operational mentality by the hands they play."

He actually just has more theory on his mind, his real skills in mahjong stink beyond belief, and in his previous life, he had only played a few times with his college roommates in the dormitory. The reason why he is now acting all high and mighty and not playing anymore, is purely because he has the self-knowledge that he simply can't beat them anymore as Neville and the rest of them are getting more and more skilled at playing, and he doesn't want to break his founder's undefeated status.

"Shuffle! Shuffle!"

Just as Ron shouted, the door to the common room was suddenly and forcefully pushed open from the outside.

Filch's old wrinkled and age-spotted face was incredibly unsightly as he glared hard at the jumpy Ron, and then his sharp voice hollered at everyone in the common room.

"Everyone come out and assemble in the great hall!"

With that, he turned and left in a huff, as if he was heading off to inform the other students who were still in their dorm rooms.

It wasn't just Jon and the gang, every student in the common room looked at each other, wondering what was going on.

"Let's go, let's head over to the great hall first."

Jon led the way towards the great hall, and Neville and the gang followed him there, where the vast majority of the students had gathered, with Professor McGonagall standing in front of them with a serious look on her face.

Upon seeing Professor McGonagall, it became clear to Jon that this was not a minor issue, as anything that required the Deputy Headmistress to appear could only be a major issue.

It was only after Filch had gathered all the students on the wagon that Jon and the others realised what was going on.

Someone had broken into the unmarked and locked room again!

This time the intruder had been clever enough not to reveal anything, but after what had happened last time, Filch had asked Professor Flitwick to cast a small spell on every door that did not allow students to enter privately and whenever a door was opened, it would definitely leave a mark on it.

Now Filch had apparently found a mark on one of the doors, and he did not hesitate to report it to Professor McGonagall.

This was no small matter; the rooms that students were not allowed to enter privately were either housed with some dangerous magical creatures or plants, such as Thestrals or contained some magical items brought from Hogwarts Castle that were dangerous but also equally valuable.

Now that these rooms had been broken into twice in a row without a sound, it is definitely time to find out the truth.

After frowning at all the students in the room, McGonagall's stern voice rang out through the great hall.

"I believe this may have been an innocent action on the part of someone who was not trying to steal anything, but just broke in by accident. Now, as long as this individual comes forward and admits guilt, I will not punish them too severely."

McGonagall had always been very authoritative among the students, and no one would doubt what she said.

But the students at the scene were all looking at each other, and no one had any intention of coming forward to take responsibility for the incident.

After seeing this scene, Professor McGonagall's frown deepened.

"Filch, please make one more trip and invite Filius over for me."

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