bdsm-fiction Chapter 42 Travel
Chapter 42 Travel
At the opening banquet of the second semester of sophomore year, Dumbledore announced the cancellation of all exams except those for fifth and seventh year students. (OWLs and NEWTs exams were held in fifth and seventh year students.)
This cheered up the young wizards who had been tormented by the Chamber of Secrets and the Basilisk incident for an entire semester. Even Draco Malfoy, who usually refused to give Dumbledore face in the Great Hall, stood up and clenched his fists a few times.
"it is good!"
He shouted loudly:
"Hurry up and arrange a Quidditch match; we absolutely must win the championship this year!"
Ron, who had heard Malfoy's voice from afar, nudged Harry with his elbow and said:
"That bastard's acting all high and mighty again. Do you have the confidence to take him down, Harry?"
Mo Ran, who was manipulating Harry's body, glanced around and casually said:
"Well, maybe."
Hermione, who had noticed Harry's unusual behavior for what seemed like the hundredth time, finally couldn't hold back any longer. She leaned closer to Harry and whispered:
"Harry, are you feeling unwell? Or..."
"No, I'm just a little tired lately."
Mo Ran deliberately yawned, then nodded to Hermione.
Ever since returning from Dumbledore's office, Mo Ran had been in a very depressed state. Apart from occasionally studying Nicolas Flamel's alchemical notes with Harry, he rarely communicated with his host.
Harry, unaware of what had happened, assumed that Mo Ran was affected by memories of her suicide attempt. In order to help her alleviate her emotions, he took advantage of the Christmas holiday period to voluntarily relinquish control of his body on several occasions.
……
"Never mind, you do it."
Mo Ran suddenly spoke to Harry in the world of consciousness:
"I think it's best if I don't get involved in what's going on between you and Hermione. If I keep using your body to be indifferent to her, you might have to go to the girls' restroom to find her again."
Harry roughly understood what Mo Ran meant, but being too young, he couldn't fully grasp the other's intentions, so he asked in confusion:
"The washroom? What are we going there for? We've already dealt with the basilisk in the secret room, haven't we? You even sucked its corpse clean."
Mo Ran didn't answer, but just chuckled and left with a "Ha~ It's so good to be young" before disappearing silently into the depths of Harry's consciousness once again.
……
With the Basilisk and the Chamber of Secrets crisis completely resolved, Snape and Dumbledore returned to their respective posts. One continued to tutor Harry in Potions and Occlumency, while the other began to personally teach fire control magic that could be applied to the Ancient Blaze.
Of course, Mo Ran didn't completely slack off during this time. With his help, Harry subtly inquired and learned that Snape, as Draco's godfather, had given him intensive Defense Against the Dark Arts lessons because Lucius was worried about his son's safety. This included techniques like Upside Down and Shadowstep, which can only be used in absolutely dangerous situations.
However, Snape did not answer questions about why he had stopped giving him Potions lessons, or why he casually brought up the question of "how your aunt and uncle are treating you now."
As time went by, most of the Hogwarts students, except for those in the fifth and seventh years, experienced the happiest time of their lives in their carefree school life.
With the entire Slytherin team putting in all their effort to practice flying and their superior equipment, they defeated Gryffindor to win this year's Quidditch Cup.
Harry, meanwhile, started his holiday trip more than two months earlier than planned.
……
On April 6, 1993, a stowaway from Britain appeared in a deserted area on the west coast of North America.
The twelve-year-old boy had visited the United States a few days earlier. However, with the aim of traveling the world, he did not stay long; after casually looking around the airport area, he boarded the next flight to China.
The scene then flashes back to a few minutes earlier.
For wizards enhanced by potions, a continuous voyage of over seventy hours was merely somewhat tedious. By the time Harry and Morgen returned to Britain, they had only consumed one vitality potion.
The familiar No. 4 Privet Drive in Little Wheelingham had changed. Thanks to his recent business success, the Dursleys had made a fortune and bought the neighbor's land, then carried out a major renovation. Now, not only Dudley, but even Harry had his own bedroom and study.
The Dursleys, who were having breakfast, were stunned to see Harry, who had recently returned home on an early holiday, reappear on their lawn after leaving.
Uncle Vernon, his belly even bigger than before, hurriedly stood up and pushed open his specially made double door to greet him.
"Harry? Your trip is over? Um... have you had breakfast? I'll have Penny make you some now?"
Harry rubbed his slightly messy hair and replied:
"No need, I came back to pick up some things. I was just scouting the place before, and the trip hasn't officially started yet."
As they were talking, Aunt Penny had already pulled a reluctant Dudley away from the table, saying:
“Your things are all in the new bedroom. I’ve been cleaning there occasionally, but I haven’t touched anything.”
"Okay, thank you, Aunt Penny. You can continue with your breakfast. I'll pack my things and Apparate away in a bit, so I won't bother you."
Hearing Harry say that, Dudley, who was already so fat he didn't look like a minor anymore, muttered under his breath:
"You better be."
Unexpectedly, this sentence directly angered her parents, who had previously spoiled her.
Snapped!
Vernon Dursley slapped Dudley on the back of the head and lectured him with considerable disappointment:
"What did I tell you before? You need to respect your cousin! You're even older than him! How can you be so insensible!"
These words made the chubby boy both angry and aggrieved. He instinctively wanted to burrow into his mother's arms, but even his mother didn't seem to be as doting on him as she usually was.
"Dali, your cousin finally gets a holiday and comes home, you can't say such rude things."
Harry thought Aunt Petunia's voice was already very gentle, but based on Dudley's reaction, it sounded like he was being threatened with the end of their mother-son relationship.
Helpless, Harry, who was already somewhat tired, didn't say much and headed straight for the bedroom in the attic.
"I always carry my wand with me. As for other things... well, although I have a leather case with the Unseen Stretching Charm, it doesn't have any concealment magic to deceive Muggles. I can't possibly cast a Confusion Charm every time I'm discovered, can I? I should just use a regular leather case to pack some essentials..."
Bang, bang, bang...
"May I come inside?"
The gentle knock was a stark contrast to what had happened two years ago outside the closet on the stairs. Harry, who was folding his Invisibility Cloak, casually used magic to open the door, then turned and asked:
"What's wrong, Aunt Penny?"
Aunt Petunia, who had entered Harry's bedroom, stood ramrod straight. She gently closed the door, walked to a spot not too close to Harry, and said in a low voice:
“You’ve been here for over ten years. I should have found an opportunity to tell you some things over these years, but unfortunately, I’ve never been as brave as your mother.”
Aunt Penny's voice was calm, which seemed inconsistent with what she was saying.
"Actually, before Lily received your school's acceptance letter, I was very close to her, even though I had already discovered her special talent at that time."
"When I first learned that a magical world existed, I longed to become a witch like Lily. I even wrote to Dumbledore, hoping he could find a way to let me study at Hogwarts."
"You can probably guess what happened next. I am a person without magic, but my sister suddenly became the only special person in the family."
“You might think this is just an excuse, but I really couldn’t stand it back then. Lily took away all the care, expectations, and love that should have been shared equally among us from our parents.”
"So... when you, still an infant, appeared at the door of this house that night, I subconsciously wanted to treat you in the same unfair way, to prove that ordinary people who don't know magic can also have an advantage over wizards."
Aunt Petunia gripped her apron tighter and tighter. Almost every word she spoke was accompanied by an inner struggle, and for some reason, she told Harry the truth that she would rather deceive herself than face.
“Lily tried to repair our relationship many times, but I refused. I don’t know when it started, but my life seemed to have become a competition. I had forgotten that she had never stopped loving me, because I was always trying to outdo Lily in every way.”
“Sometimes I wonder, if I could support her instead of seeing her as an adversary or a threat, would things be different? Perhaps your mother is living in Godric Valley right now, waiting for you to come home, and my sister…”
Aunt Penny suddenly turned and left. For some reason, she had a change of heart and still held onto her last bit of pride—that is, she couldn't shed tears in front of her nephew.
Harry didn't know how to respond to his aunt's venting, but it was always good to feel more kindness from family. So, just like at the start of his second year, he simply left some of the potions he had originally planned to take with him in his bedroom.
"Let me see... Beauty potion, blood tonic, burn ointment... these are all safe. Let's skip the sedatives; too much of that can be dangerous. Also, avoid the mind-altering drugs and tranquilizers. Should we keep a little euphoria? If I only give them the minimum dosage, they should be fine, right? Hmm, anything else? Eh? That's all? Okay..."
……
After leaving behind a note with the name and description of its function, Harry, with Morgen's help, immediately activated Apparition. (Harry can now use regular Apparition, but for long-distance teleportation across continents, using the Obscurus's power is safer.)
Britain is eight hours ahead of the western United States, so when Harry "smuggled" himself back to the North American continent, the clear sky overhead had completely disappeared.
"Actually, we should have gone to Egypt or the Mesopotamian plain first..."
Mo Ran's voice suddenly rang in Harry's mind.
"Learning alchemy is not something that can be done overnight, but we should still try to speed things up as much as possible."
Harry didn't object to Moran's words, but there was a reason why he chose to come to America first.
He said:
"Exploring ruins is all about timing. I don't have that feeling right now, so I can't act rashly."
Mo Ran was amused by Harry. As an adult whose mental age was almost twenty years older than Harry, it was always him who fooled the host between them. When did it become Harry's turn to fool him?
"Stop giving me that crap. Get to the point. What exactly do you want to do in America?"
Hearing the coldness in Mo Ran's voice soften, Harry chuckled, then took out the notes he had used when studying with Professor Newt Scamander and read aloud: