In the Harry Potter Without Harry Potter

Chapter 21: Impressions of Jon

Curls of white steam rose from the cauldron.

Lily carefully tilted a vial containing dark green liquid and put three drops into the cauldron, and instantly the potion in the cauldron turned from purple to grass green.

And just as she placed the vial down, there was a sudden soft knock at the door.

The movement of Lily's hand jerked for a second, and then she spoke.

"Come in."

Slughorn walked in carrying a box of crystallized pineapple, and Lily looked up at him with a noticeably softer expression on her face.

"How come Professor had time to visit me?"

"Just happened to get some from the storeroom, so I brought some over for you too."

He placed the box of crystallized pineapple on the desk while also taking a seat in one of the chairs in front of it, and Lily looked at the content he brought helplessly.

"Eat fewer sweets, you're already very old, so too much sugar intake is not good for your health."

"Okay, okay, don't start teaching me, without this my life would become at least 50% less enjoyable. Well, your cauldron of calming potion is almost ready, but I suggest you put in a tiny pinch of fairy wing powder, it will give you another 0.3 to 0.5 pints of the final finished potion, it's my unique recipe."

Lily did as she was told and found a small vial of fairy wing powder from the cupboard at the side, she tapped it twice and added the powder into the cauldron.

"Thank you for your generosity in sharing the recipe, Professor, but I always felt you definitely came to me with more in mind besides bringing me this box of crystallized pineapple; surely there should be no need to beat around the bush so much between us, right?"

Slughorn laughed dryly twice; when dealing with this once his most favoured pupil, the little thoughts in his mind could always be guessed.

After coughing twice softly, the smile on Slughorn's face narrowed, and he looked at Lily seriously.

"The boy named Jon Green was brought by you?"

Lily heard the shift in Slughorn's tone and turned her attention from the potion in the cauldron to this conversation.

"Yes, what's the matter? What's wrong with him?"

Slughorn asked, shaking his head as he stared into Lily's unblinking eyes.

"There's nothing wrong with him, but I wanted to find out more from you, what's your impression of him?"

A thoughtful look crossed Lily's face as if she was remembering the first time she met Jon.

"He's smart, much smarter even than the boy from the Longbottoms."

She told Slughorn about the incident at the orphanage back then, when Jon, with his observations, had finally chosen to leave with her.

"I've never seen an 11-year-old actually capable of thinking so much in such a short time, amidst the danger."

Slughorn's face also showed a thoughtful look, and he soon went on to ask.

"Is there anything else?"

"He's very concerned about relationships, I looked into his information when I went to find him, he didn't have a good life at that orphanage, he was bullied until he showed his magic talent, and after he showed it, he became isolated. But after escaping the danger following me, he first asked me about the safety of the people in that orphanage, and I could tell that if I had said that the people in the orphanage would be in danger, he would have pleaded for my help to save them."

Jon had made such an impression on Lily that she remembered everything clearly about him.

Slughorn listened to her, tapping his fingers gently on the top of the desk for a long time without voicing a word.

"So, why are you asking all this, Professor?" Lily asked, in confusion.

Slughorn crossed his arms together in front of his body, with a slightly complicated expression on his face.

There was a mixture of joy, relief, and hesitation.

"I was thinking that perhaps, I could teach him something."

Jon was woken up by Neville.

After returning from Slughorn's office, he had laid down on his bed and fallen asleep looking at the ring without realising it.

The nap was peaceful, and he didn't dream anything until he was shaken awake by Neville when it was already dinner time.

"Actually, we can eat dinner a little later today, after all, we can't go to bed before we finish our astronomy class, so we'll definitely be hungry again by then."

Jon said with a yawn as he changed the pyjamas that he had worn in his dorm room.

"The great hall won't specifically keep food for us until dark, and besides, didn't you bring back some snacks, you can eat those if you're hungry tonight."

Neville hadn't slept much this afternoon, he already had a little nap in the morning.

The two left the dormitory together, quite a few students were coming and going in the long corridor, all of them seniors who were getting ready to go to the great hall after class.

They met up with the Ron trio at the table, and everyone else was curious about Jon's whereabouts at lunchtime today, which he brushed off with the excuse that he had gone to give Slughorn a hand.

Astronomy class didn't start until close to midnight, and the five of them stayed in the common room together for a long time after dinner until Flitwick himself led them to the astronomy 'classroom'.

"Follow me and be careful to keep your voices down to avoid disturbing the rest of the people."

Flitwick advised them before leading the group through the long corridor in the direction of the entrance hall, stopping only when they reached a room near the entrance hall.

On the door, there was a sign that read "Astronomy Classroom".

Flitwick pushed open the door and instead of a classroom, there was a stairway with a revolving staircase that went vertically upwards, directly opposite the door.

It was not as large as the space in the wagon, the roof was only comparable to the size of the wagon as seen from the outside, probably an open space three or four metres long and two or three metres wide, with a guardrail around the edge of the wagon up to the waists of the freshmen.

Hagrid was still driving the wagon across the British Isles, and they were passing through a town where the street lights automatically went out every time the wagon passed, and those lights came back on when it left.

The freshmen had just arrived at the roof of the wagon when they were greeted by the marvellous sight around them, which caused Flitwick to tap his wand disgruntledly on a chalkboard that had been set up in front of him.

"I know the view around us is spectacular, children, but tonight our real goal is the wide open sky rather than the land, so it's time for you to find your seats."

Five desks and chairs had been set up in advance on the roof of the wagon, and an astronomical telescope was set up on the side near the guardrail, obviously, these had been prepared in advance by Flitwick prior to the start of the class.

The evening breeze, which was mostly blocked out, blew very gently around them, and Flitwick's voice sounded at the same time.

"In the last lesson in the classroom within the wagon, I only gave you a brief introduction to the basics of astronomy, whereas from this lesson onwards we are going to really start to understand this starry sky above us."

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