In the Harry Potter Without Harry Potter

Chapter 549: The Rein That Was Handed Out (2 in 1) (End)

"Hey, if you sleep any longer you're going to miss it."

The familiar voice ringing in his ears made Jon open his eyes.

He was currently sitting on the wagon, it was exactly Hagrid's driving seat, and in the small cupboard in front, Jon even found the half-eaten and half-unfinished rock crust cake he had eaten.

The wagon was galloping along, and those eight Thestrals were spreading their wings that looked like batwings, galloping with the help of the wind.

All around him were boundless white roses, the whole world seemed to be occupied by these flowers. No matter how fast or how far the wagon ran, these were the only sights he could see.

A pale hand brought him a glass of lemonade soda, bubbles rising from the clear liquid, and a brightly coloured lemon slice pinned on the rim of the glass.

"Couldn't be a better time to have a glass of this. Let me find out what Hagrid usually hides in here. Hmm, rock crust cake you probably won't like, then. Ooh, how about a creamy cupcake."

Dumbledore placed a portion of cupcakes in front of Jon, his hands holding the reins as he looked out at the endless white before him, with a cosy, soothing smile all over his face.

Jon rubbed his forehead, where Voldemort had just pressed down hard, and turned his head to Dumbledore, whom he had never seen so relaxed before, and eventually chose to pick up the glass of lemonade first.

"Are we meeting in the world of the dead here? Professor."

"If you are using a power from the Three Deathly Hallows, then we do indeed meet here."

Dumbledore shook the reins to slow the Thestrals down a bit, then picked up the lemonade soda he had in front of him as well.

He leaned back comfortably in Hagrid's wide seat and looked over at Jon.

"I've always stressed love to Riddle, but when it comes to you, you're a little too much of it, Jon."

"Too much?"

Jon scooped a small spoonful of the cupcake's whipped cream into his mouth, the satisfying sweetness making him squint involuntarily.

"Yes, love is giving, it's selfless, it's about being willing to give, but we can't spend every ounce of our heart on someone else can we?"

Dumbledore smiled.

"Riddle's desires are such that everything he does is solely for his own benefit alone. You're the opposite of him, a lot of the time you do things for the sake of others."

Jon turned his head to him quizzically.

"Is that bad?"

"Any kind of thing once taken to an extreme will never turn out too well, and there are times when you should think for yourself."

Dumbledore murmured, his gaze had strayed from Jon to the patch of sky in front of him.

Jon followed his line of sight along with him, and the blue sky, which clearly had no sun but was still bright blue, somehow filled with shining meteors at some point in time!

The meteors covered half of the sky, they waved their long tails and crossed through an unknown number of metres in the sky, and eventually faded back into the edge of the white roses.

"These are the souls of the dead." Dumbledore said softly, "Those who have no more attachment to the world of the living will use this place as a starting point for a new journey."

Jon looked around in surprise.

"We are now."

"We?" Dumbledore burst out laughing, "We haven't even reached the starting point yet!"

He regained his grip on the reins.

"So, have you got something to think of for yourself? You've done enough. What about leaving the world of the living for them to sort out their problems on their own, and how about we look at something else here?"

Dumbledore extended an invitation to Jon.

That meteor shower seemed to be boundless, it really was like a heavy rain constantly streaking across the sky.

Jon looked at that sky in a daze, as if he was thinking very seriously about Dumbledore's words.

Indeed, since he came to this world, it seems that he has always been on the move, in the wagon, in Hogwarts castle, on the ship, at the North Pole, in Durmstrang, in the Triwizard Tournament.

It seemed as if he had made the decisions for himself in every single case, but every single one of them had not been purely for his own sake.

But in the end, Jon shook his head.

"I'm sorry, Professor, I still feel like I didn't finish something."

Dumbledore didn't look like he was going to continue his persuasion either, he just got up from his seat, waved the reins in his hand, and suddenly threw them towards the location of the meteor shower in the sky!

The reins looked as if they were of infinite length, constantly lengthening towards the sky.

Jon followed the sight of the reins and looked over, but realised that it was impossible to see where it would eventually land.

"There's no need to be sorry, students will always have ideas of their own, and as a professor, of course, I won't try to obstruct their own wishes, as long as they don't endanger anyone else, I'll tell them to just do what they want."

Dumbledore turned his head and smiled as he handed Jon the rein.

"As you choose to love others, Jon, then you must also trust that those you love will love you back. All the strength they give you contains their expectations, doesn't it? Don't go rejecting those expectations, they are not your burden, and they will never want to be your burden."

Jon looked into Dumbledore's eyes as the old geezer, who was over a hundred years old, squeezed his eyes towards him, and he grumbled dully, clearly having heard what Dumbledore meant, yet still grumbling.

"Your riddles are always so infuriating, Professor."

"There are times when life always needs those sorts of witty spices."

Jon took the reins, and he could distinctly feel a force at the other end of the rope trying to pull him out of the wagon.

He couldn't resist the force and staggered and stumbled two steps towards the edge of the wagon in his stride.

Jon did his best to steady himself, though he still hadn't let go of the reins in his hands that were pulling with increasing force, and he looked into Dumbledore's sapphire blue eyes that seemed to be forever clear and bright.

"Will you walk on by yourself? Professor."

Dumbledore waved his hand at him and simply smiled.

Jon was no longer able to contend against that force, and the other end of the rein carried him and flew away from the wagon and into the vast sky to the swarm of meteors that were falling like a torrential downpour!

The speeding Hogwarts wagon grew smaller and smaller in his eyes, soon becoming a black dot, and eventually, he was no longer able to find its shadow amongst the white roses across the land!

Jon passed through the shower of starlight, and across the azure sky, and it was as if the whole world was shrinking under his eyes, and he eventually plunged into a complete silence of darkness.

Then the tumultuous thoughts came flooding back to him again, and the incessant whispering sounded like it was trying to drive him mad!

Jon didn't try to tear those black mists that were getting more and more sticky as if they were about to completely solidify and seal up, he stilled his mind and tried to listen to what those whispering voices were saying with unparalleled attentiveness.

"."

"-So sad ."

"-Really sad."

"-Dad said Mum would come back later, but I know she's gone for good. She died at the end to protect the students of Hogwarts."

"-Why wasn't I the one who died?"

"-Pomona. You shouldn't have let me go."

"You were the best Hufflepuff Head."

"-I'm sorry. I'm sorry, Dedalo. I didn't get you out of that prison alive ."

"-Ah...The perfect starry sky is so mesmerizing."

Listening to that one all-too-familiar voice, listening to the accents full of sadness and softness, Jon couldn't feel the noise half as loud anymore.

These were their most unforgettable pasts and their most anticipated visions of the future.

These emotions would not affect Jon, because what they expected was what Jon expected.

Finally, the voice lingered on that kiss in the moonlight.

"Jon, Please be safe."

The fusion of two Voldemort's wills had created a scenario where he stood at the very pinnacle of wizardry.

At this point, Jon, who was being pined hope of by a myriad of wills, no longer knew what kind of condition he found himself in nowadays.

After he stopped rejecting, let go of his own thoughts, and took the initiative to accept and understand those complicated emotions, he realised that everything was actually here.

All the people he loved, loved him too.

His own strong emotion and desire to win mobilising his magic, and the black fog that originally bound him completely, quietly melted away as if it was snow and ice under the sunlight.

Voldemort, who had cut off his right arm and thought he had won the battle, suddenly turned his head in shock to look at Jon, who had reappeared from the black mist.

"Tom Riddle, you owe a lot of people, a lot of valuable things, and it's time for you to pay your debt."

Jon stood beneath the clouds as he looked at Voldemort and extended one of his hands.

Countless spells surfaced in his mind. The current him, seemed like if he wanted to, then no matter which one he used he could make the most fundamental changes to the world, and the Voldemort in front of him was even as small as a small boat in a tsunami amid that unrivalled will.

Soon, as if a decision was made, an incantation was recited from Jon's lips.

"Expelliarmus."

This incantation was like an iron law of truth. The moment it was uttered from Jon's mouth, everything on Voldemort's body that could cause harm to the outside world, magic power, wands, black mist, even the long untrimmed, sharp and pointy nails on his hands all disappeared!

Voldemort became a completely defenceless man, he fell from mid-air, and the Death Eaters, who had been on the ground cheering for their lord's victory and constantly keeping the Witching Horizon squad in close proximity, looked at the scene in disbelief.

Jon followed him to the ground, without the support of magic, Voldemort seemed to have broken more than half of his bones!

But he still clenched his teeth and stared at Jon, who had reappeared in front of him, without a single scream coming out of his mouth.

"A moment's trickery cannot represent ultimate victory, Jon Green! Nothing is over yet!"

Jon approached him slowly.

"Are you counting on your newly made Horcruxes?"

After hearing Jon's words, Voldemort's pupils constricted sharply.

"Mr Grindelwald has gone to sort it out, he'll deal with it cleanly, while the Horcruxes in the other world, have all been disposed of. You no longer have any means of resurrection, Tom Riddle."

Voldemort could no longer maintain the viciousness that he showed, he stared at Jon dead in the face, his features had twisted up, but soon, he suddenly laughed again.

"Do you think killing me will solve all this? I don't know where you got your powers from, but could you solve all the hatred in the wizarding world by relying on that? Settle the relationship between wizards and muggles. Voldemort is just a name and title; when the next Voldemort appears, will you be the next Dumbledore?"

He laughed out loud as if he had told some extremely funny joke.

Jon, however, was still looking at him with a calm expression on his face.

"I just need to solve this one problem of yours."

He bent down and tapped Voldemort's forehead with his finger.

In the next second, the expression on the face of this Dark Lord who terrified the entire magical world was fixed, he stopped breathing, his heart stopped beating, and there was no longer the slightest possibility of resurrection.

The entire battlefield went quiet as if everyone did not expect this kind of end to unfold in front of their eyes.

Only after the majority of the Death Eaters who had already understood the situation, fell to their knees and threw down their wands, and all the Death Eaters who resisted were eliminated, did the wizards of Witching Horizon erupt into a deafening cry!

***

Six months later.

Inside the Hogwarts castle, which had been redecorated, Jon sat in the seat at the very centre of the faculty long table in the Great Hall, wearing the tuxedo that Hermione had specially picked out for him, and he helplessly repeated for the third time to McGonagall.

"I really think you're the better Headmaster Professor. No one ever said that whoever has the greatest amount of credit should be Headmaster of Hogwarts."

McGonagall, however, replied seriously.

"But it's not us who chose you, it's this castle, and if I become Headmaster, I wouldn't even be able to get into the Headmaster's office."

While what she said was indeed the truth, Jon still propped his chin up and looked at the students in the great hall who were happily sitting in their seats already.

These were both new students who had just been enrolled this year, as well as those who hadn't yet finished their studies during the course of exile.

Now they were finally able to return to the real Hogwarts castle and were able to start a normal campus life.

Today, was the first dinner to celebrate the return to Hogwarts, and Jon was naturally thrust into the position of Headmaster.

Although he thought he would be fine just being a professor of some sort of Defence Against the Dark Arts class, everyone else had said that being Headmaster and being a professor didn't conflict and that he would be perfectly capable of doing both.

Hermione was sitting next to him. Now that it was time for the European magical world to be in a state of rejuvenation, the faculty and staff were lacking, so she had stayed on as well, filling in as Astronomy professor for the time being, and then considering whether or not to stay on at the school afterwards.

"My mum and dad asked me to check whether you're still going to be over there this weekend?"

She asked, whispering in Jon's ear.

Jon shrugged.

"Where else would I go? You're not going to make me settle with going to the Leaky Cauldron pub or staying in Hogwarts for a weekend, right?"

"Didn't Mr Grindelwald ask you to make a trip to Durmstrang?"

"I've been there yesterday, he's still preparing for his plan right now, but it was agreed that there would be no large-scale experiments until we were sure that it was completely feasible."

Hermione grabbed Jon's hand and the two interlocked their five fingers under the table.

"Professor Dumbledore has no intention of waking up yet."

Jon, however, didn't look much saddened by this, he just brushed it off.

"He just hasn't had enough fun yet. But he's already so old, he can be as wilful as he wants to be."

Beneath the faculty long table, before the feast began, one by one, the students who had never taken part in the sorting ceremony were making up for it by going through the ceremony they had missed, and Neville, Ron and the rest of them all put on the battered hat with gusto, identifying the Houses where they were meant to be.

They looked at Jon, calling out to him to come down as well, so they could see exactly where the Headmaster of Hogwarts was supposed to be sorted.

Jon, at their urging, just had to let go of Hermione's hand for a moment and put on the sorting hat as everyone in the entire great hall watched.

"Ha, it's been a long time since I've communicated with so many young minds!"

"You'll get your share every year from now on."

"Thank you for that! Well, let me see your qualities before we talk about the rest. Think about it. What was your most profound experience?"

Most profound experience?

Jon went through his mind, almost everything he had experienced since he had arrived in this wizarding world had been unforgettable.

What could be more unforgettable than the experience of escaping in a wagon school of wizardry and eventually making it back to the castle?

As if the Sorting Hat had also sensed what Jon was contemplating at the moment, it cleared its throat and shouted out in front of everyone in the entire great hall.

(End of the book)

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