Hogwarts’ John Wick 297: Gathering of Naive Kids

297: Gathering of Naive Kids

John found himself sowhat interested in this place.

Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed the bar owner wiping a glass with a filthy rag.

"Dumbledore's brother, huh."

He stared for a mont—on that face, you could indeed see the resemblance to Dumbledore.

Very few people knew that Dumbledore had a brother.

The illustrious, magnificent Dumbledore—and then the other Dumbledore, hidden away in a cramped and shabby bar.

Interesting, isn't it?

Dumbledore always seed unwilling to change certain things.

Like Lupin—for soone as powerful as Dumbledore, if he were willing to vouch for him, Lupin wouldn't have had such trouble finding work.

Things that were well within his ability, things he could fix with the wave of a hand—Dumbledore always managed to overlook them.

But.. The real question is.. Why is his brother here?

Doubt flickered in John's eyes. The Dumbledore family certainly wasn't short on money—that much was clear.

So why, as a mber of the Dumbledore family, was he running a bar like this in a place like this?

Judging from the state of the establishnt, it didn't look like he was trying very hard to run it properly either.

Or was it that Dumbledore couldn't even be bothered to care about those closest to him?

Then what was worth Dumbledore's attention?

He couldn't figure it out.

The crystal-clear rim of the glass touched his lips—John took a sip of the wine.

Suddenly, the place didn't seem quite so dreadful to Daphne anymore.

At a table near the bar, a man wearing a white mask sighed helplessly.

He stood up and walked over. Daphne instantly tensed.

People in places like this weren't as friendly as Hogwarts professors.

John watched as the man sat down. The man belatedly asked, "May I sit here and have a drink?"

He looked like soone whose craving had been stirred by the aroma of wine. John replied with a faint smirk, "Heh~ That cup of yours—I'm afraid it's not suitable."

"Right you are, sir."

The man cast a cleaning charm on the cup, which had been absolutely filthy.

Helping himself, he reached for the silver wine bottle on the table and muttered, "Why did you co like this?"

Just as he poured past the two-thirds mark, John took the bottle back with a chuckle. "Did you really think my identity was still a secret?"

The man was startled and sharply glanced toward the bar owner.

John nodded. The man gave a wry smile. "So, my disguise was pointless."

There was a trace of confusion in Daphne's eyes—these two seed to know each other quite well.

John introduced, "This is Daphne Greengrass, a friend of mine."

The man respectfully extended his hand and said in a low voice, "Tommy Shelby."

"You're Tommy Shelby?" Daphne was a bit surprised.

The na wasn't unfamiliar. She'd heard it ntioned several tis by Mr. Greengrass.

John raised an eyebrow slightly and said flatly, "How are things going with Nagini?"

"All sorted," Tommy removed the mask covering his mouth, revealing his lips. "The situation over there is rather complicated—none of us expected his influence to reach overseas."

"Well, we've got Dumbledore to thank for keeping him tied down," John responded noncommittally.

The two of them didn't bother to avoid Daphne while talking. Her pretty eyes widened.

Her usual lady-like poise gave way to a rather adorably blank stare.

As John and Tommy continued chatting, the door to the Hog's Head creaked open again.

"Three butterbeers, please."

The three little ones stepped inside. When the bar owner saw Harry, a flicker of emotion flashed through his eyes.

What a coincidence.

John noticed the surprise in Daphne's eyes and raised his glass slightly, signaling her to stay quiet.

Tommy comnted in a strange tone, "Do Hogwarts students like to hang out in places like this now?"

Naturally, he recognized the Savior—Harry Potter—so he found it odd.

…

They ordered three bottles of butterbeer from the bar.

"Who do you think is coming to et us?" Harry twisted off the rusty cap of the butterbeer bottle and took a big gulp.

After so discussion, they had decided they couldn't just sit around and do nothing.

They were going to form a Defense Against the Dark Arts group to prepare for the changes ahead.

Whether it was to fight Voldemort or to prepare for the Ministry possibly turning them into soldiers—

They needed stronger magic.

And with that annoying Umbridge being such an unpredictable factor, they had to be ready in case Professor Hilled gave in to pressure and actually bought into her teaching thods.

"Just a few people," Hermione said as she checked her watch. She wasn't sure how many would show up. "I told them to co around this ti. I think they all know where to go."

As she spoke, Hermione exclaid in delight, "Look, that's probably them!"

The pub door swung open, and the dusty sunlight that poured in was like a sword, slicing the room in half—only to be quickly blocked by a large group of people.

It was the group they had been waiting for.

Quite a few had co—Harry's roommate Dean and Hermione's roommate Lavender, the Patil twins Parvati and Padma were there too.

Surprisingly, Cho was also present, and she brought along a chirpy girl friend.

And there was Luna, who looked like she had wandered in by accident.

John's gaze swept across the group. Sitting near a window in the corner, with Tommy at the sa table, their presence went unnoticed by the crowd.

"Look at that. Other than Slytherin, students from all the other houses seem to have shown up," John remarked with a faint smile, as though watching a group of kids playing at a ga.

A quick glance revealed twenty-four people—quite a large turnout.

Fred, one of the Weasley twins, spoke up, "Could we get, uh… 24 bottles of butterbeer?"

The twins had always been interested in this kind of gathering, especially when it was organized by their younger brother and Harry.

Harry was a little dumbfounded. This was supposed to be just a few people?

He was starting to suspect Hermione had said sothing that gave the wrong impression.

Fred passed out the dusty bottles of butterbeer to the others as they were still pooling their money to pay the bill.

Hermione rolled her eyes—she wasn't so shady cult leader running a scam.

As the organizers, they were expected to say sothing.

Hermione started, mainly explaining the nature of this organization.

A Defense Against the Dark Arts study group, or perhaps a Learn Magic with Harry Club—sothing along those lines.

These students were quite interested in Harry's skills. One girl in particular was the niece of Alia Bones, and she was very curious to see whether Harry could truly cast a full-fledged Patronus.

"But Professor Hilled is going to teach us all that," said Michael Corner.

They were all quite fond of that beautiful professor.

"Of course she will," Hermione jumped in, "but that's not enough. I think we need more advanced training, because… because…"

Hermione took a deep breath. "Because Voldemort is back."

That na had the effect of a squeaky toy being violently squeezed—instant chaos.

A few girls scread, and soone shivered uncontrollably.

Their reactions weren't exactly great—save for a few individuals.

John looked genuinely surprised. So this little gathering was actually ant to deal with Voldemort?

Was this so kind of elite training camp?

A bunch of ...little shits—ehm—naive kids?

Across from him, Daphne blinked, seemingly also wondering—are these people actually serious?

John let out a silent laugh.

Tommy was quiet for a mont before asking, "Are Hogwarts students always this brave nowadays?"

"Maybe the Savior gave them the courage," John replied with a wink.

Savior?

Tommy didn't comnt. He was an adult, not so naive kid.

He was just about to say that if he went over there right now, these kids would probably be too scared to even think about fighting back.

Over at the other table, the discussion continued, though not everyone in the group was on the sa page.

For example, Zacharias Smith—he was that kind of person.

He questioned whether Voldemort had truly returned. After all, no one from the Ministry had said anything, and he also doubted whether Harry was really capable of teaching them.

But soone quickly fired back, citing the Savior's past accomplishnts.

He protected the Philosopher's Stone—well, John helped with that one.

Fought the basilisk and seriously injured it—well, John helped with that too.

Summoned a Patronus—okay, John didn't help with that one.

And then there was placing first in the Triwizard Tournant… well, two out of the three tasks, anyway.

Harry seed to be back in the spotlight again, becoming the center of attention.

They forgot their earlier disagreents and began discussing where they could conduct their Defense Against the Dark Arts training.

In the end, each person signed their na and got ready to leave.

John hadn't expected Luna to be interested in this sort of thing, but oh well—he figured it was just kids playing around.

He wasn't too keen on letting Luna join the Constellation Society; the Society was too dangerous, and Luna wasn't suited for that place.

Once most of the people had left, John glanced at the hesitant-looking Tommyi and said, "If you've got nothing else, I should be heading out."

Tommy gave a dry cough, shoved a box into John's hands, and asked him to pass it along to Oz, then got up and hurried off.

John looked at the box, speechless. Who exactly was the boss here?

He turned to Daphne and said, "Shall we go?"

Daphne had no objections.

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