In the Harry Potter Without Harry Potter

Chapter 446: Not enough people (2 in 1)

Jon's first thought was that this old man with a clean appearance and especially with such neatly groomed hair could never be Snape.

But then again, a transfiguration potion like Polyjuice Potion didn't require Snape to groom his hair at all before transfiguring, he just had to drink the potion himself that's all.

So Jon didn't let that put his suspicions out of his mind but turned his head to look at Lily.

Lily didn't meet Jon's eyes, after taking a quick glance at the old man she looked down as if nothing had happened and patted the grass clippings from Jon's shirt.

"Don't bother looking, it's him, I'd recognise him instantly even if he had turned to dust."

Jon thought silently to himself, if Snape had heard this, he doesn't know whether he would be happy or sad.

"So what are we going to do now?"

Lily sat back down on the cloth, she looked like she was restraining her inner emotions.

"Wait, there are too many people here, and it's easy to get them involved in a fight by mistake."

Jon couldn't help but look at Lily a few more times, no matter how much hatred was weighing on her heart, Lily's heart certainly hadn't changed, she was still a kind person after all.

However, just as Jon had rummaged through the food basket for a small piece of cake and smacked his lips ready to enjoy a pre-dinner snack, Lily suddenly continued to speak again.

"We're too far away from him, and it would be easy to alert him by just venturing closer, didn't those little girls just call you over to play? You go and join them now."

Jon, who was holding up a spoon and had just taken the cream dotted with half a strawberry into his mouth, was frozen still as if he had been petrified.

What happened to the promised holiday?

He had to go play with a silly wee girl, now?

Sensing Jon's instantly sulky gaze, Lily smoothed a few strands of hair behind her ear.

"Tough job, Jon."

Jon just had to reluctantly get up from the cloth and put the cake with a piece of cream already missing in his hand back in its place.

"Well, well, then let me meet those little girls!"

He gathered his expression on his face and in the next second gave a sunny, cheerful boy-next-door smile before heading in the direction of the bench where Snape was sitting and where a group of little kids were bunching up.

Only when Jon got closer did he realise that it was actually a sandy area where seven or eight kids were all piling up sand.

"Hey! Do you guys still need a reliable helper to join you? I don't have any tools at hand, but I'm pretty sure I'm a pro."

Jon was decaying on the inside, but on the outside he was acting like a social cow, greeting those little kids with a sunny face.

The three little girls who had originally invited Jon were delighted after seeing his willingness to volunteer to join.

"Haynes is building a castle! We can give you the naming rights to the castle if you would like to join in! What's your name?"

"Alpa Blake, just call me Alpa." Jon naturally stepped into the sand.

"Wait, didn't we decide it would be called Haynes Castle?" A boy whined as he chimed in.

"Alpa!" A little girl enthusiastically took Jon's hand, "Alpa Castle is a great name!"

"Let's call it Haynes, I like that better."

As Jon dealt with the socialising of the children, he glanced out of the corner of his eye at the old man, whom Lily had identified as 'Snape', sitting just five metres away from him.

He took the toy shovel handed to him by the boy who considered him his best mate because Jon had acknowledged the name Haynes and decided that if he didn't do anything unusual, the old man wouldn't be able to spot anything abnormal from a close distance.

But just as Jon was about to turn his attention to the sand beneath him, and stare with an aching heart at what the children called a castle, but which was more like a mud hut, a clear and obviously sarcastic voice suddenly rang in his ears.

"The captain of the Hogwarts, Dumbledore's prized pupil and winner of the Triwizard Tournament would be playing in the sand here with a bunch of Muggle children."

Jon's face didn't waver, he acted as if he hadn't heard the words, glancing first in the direction of where Lily was, who was discreet enough to only occasionally turn her head and look over towards the pile of sand as if she were a concerned mother, the rest of the time she was busy preparing their meals on a tablecloth.

And the children around him looked as if they hadn't even heard anyone talking, still excitedly charting their castle.

Jon didn't bother to look at the old man sitting on the bench who was absolutely 100% sure to be Snape, as he used his toy shovel to bring together the floating sand on the surface of the sand.

"You're doomed to never find a wife in your life with that kind of talking habit."

He couldn't see the expression on Snape's face at the moment because he didn't look up, but the brief silence was enough to show that the words killed Snape in more ways than one, even if Jon didn't mention his name.

"I mean, what the hell are you trying to do here like you're playing hide and seek? Do something about it, will you, I was thinking of going to the beach while summer is still young."

Jon turned sideways and kept his head down so that Lily in the distance couldn't see his mouth moving and avoided being caught by her as the two exchanged words.

Snape finally managed to speak honestly, his voice was still as dull as ever.

"There aren't enough people."

Jon transported all the sand from his output to the group of children, pawing around and having a little fun passing his time.

"What people aren't enough, can't you see how many Aurors and Death Eaters are looking for you in that alleyway in your old house? How many more of them do you expect to come?"

"There are only two groups present now."

Jon was taken aback.

"How many more groups do you want to come looking for you, when there's no one in the British wizarding world needs you but the two groups that are looking for you right now?"

"Shallow-sighted."

Being taunted by this old bachelor like this, Jon was a little offended.

"Shallow if it's shallow, don't give me that mumbo jumbo, what's the point of deliberately showing your presence here again today? Want Professor Potter to know that you are still alive?"

"Where you live has been discovered by some people, don't treat them like fools, they are the British Ministry of Magic now."

Snape stood up calmly from the bench after those words, looking like he had appeared for the sole purpose of giving Jon and Lily such a reminder.

"Honestly, can you tell me why you're willing to help us now? Don't tell me you were actually on our side all along and were working as a spy before."

Snape didn't answer Jon's question first, he stood up from the bench and locked eyes with Lily who had noticed him over here from afar, then left a promise for Jon before disappearing.

"Wait for the time when you catch me, I can answer that question for you then."

After those words, he disappeared.

Disappearing without anyone around even noticing him in this space except Lily and Jon, not even the children on the sand who were so excited to create a castle, noticing that the old grandfather who had been sitting on the bench was gone.

Lily, however, couldn't stay, and she dropped the packed meal, which hadn't been prepared yet, and walked quickly over to Jon.

"He found something?"

Jon shook his head.

"No, I felt like his time to go out and relax for the day was up, so he just left."

Lily's face was hard, today it was tantamount to Snape showing up in front of them and leaving in front of them.

Jon reassured her a few times before the two of them rejoined the camping tablecloth, no matter what happened the meal had to be eaten after all.

But it was clear that Lily's mood wasn't going to improve overnight; they still didn't even know if Snape had found them yet, and who could guarantee that he would be here next time?

While Jon could secretly guarantee it, he obviously couldn't say that out in the open.

The picnic was a happy one for Jon and a distracted one for Lily.

After finishing the meal, there was no point in staying on, and they packed up their things and headed back to the Inn, something they changed every three days.

But instead of going in with Lily, Jon took a walk around the inn in the name of taking a breather after the meal.

His walk was clearly targeted around some of the buildings that overlooked the main entrance to the inn they were staying in, and it didn't take long for Jon to make a discovery.

It was an outdated-looking house with a grey facade that matched the style of the city, but the mailbox outside the house was so full of postcards and letters that even the delivery port was blocked, but the gate was left open and the shutters on the inside of the windows were half open, and a figure could be seen moving around inside.

It was very much a wizard's habit to not have a letterbox in a normal wizard's home, as they used owls to deliver their letters, and it could always find the recipient, so if a wizard had taken up residence in a muggle house, the chances of them ignoring the letterbox is pretty high.

But that was just a suspicion and didn't prove anything, but Jon didn't need any more proof, just suspicion was enough.

He slipped into a deserted alleyway, then pulled the cloak of invisibility from his robe pocket and draped it over his body, and entered the suspicious house, and after sneaking into the yard, Jon pulled an ear-shaped object from his pocket and pressed it against the wall.

Placing one of the ends against his ear, the other end extended itself under the magic to reach through the doorway.

Some of George and Fred's inventions were already finished products, like the Extendable Ears that Jon was using now that would give him a great deal of help.

And with the other end of the Extendable Ears poking through the door, the voice from inside the room reached Jon's ears loud and clear.

"I've really had enough of this! Your cooking is awful, Kevin! At least get something packed back from one of those muggle restaurants! Why do we have to put up with this?"

"If you don't want to eat it, don't eat it! There are two carrots in the kitchen and you can go and nibble on them! Don't forget what we're doing, those two are very alert and if they find out that we threw out the rubbish with lots of takeaway boxes it will certainly alert them!"

"A carrot is a carrot! It's better than eating this plate of crap! Rufus? What are you doing in the kitchen? Bring me those two carrots!"

"Sorry, they've already been bitten by me, I think there are some onions in the basket if you still want to eat something."

"You stupid bastard! Want me to eat onions raw? Give me one of those carrots you're holding!"

"You're making too much noise, don't wake up the family upstairs."

This time there was a "crunch, crunch, crunch" of what sounded like a carrot being nibbled was heard from inside.

"Then cast another stunning spell on them, I really don't get it, are they mad? This is Britain, if they got found out in the first place shouldn't those Aurors be the ones to go to catch them?"

"Don't question the decision from above, we just do what we are told, and don't you know what kind of level the Aurors and those newly recruited colleagues of ours are? They're about to turn this city upside down in the last two days."

"I just want to know how much longer we're going to suffer here! Next time you don't cook, I think it might be a little healthier if we just ate the ingredients raw!"

"Stay until Snape shows up, and if you want to snuggle up and gnaw on raw beef, you can do that now."

Upon hearing all these, Jon cautiously withdrew the Extendable Ear.

There would be nothing more than endless chatter from the people in the back of the house, no more valuable information.

Jon didn't need any other information either, he could tell a lot just from that, and he deftly made his way back over the gate and returned to the alleyway to take off the cloak of invisibility.

This group was clearly connected to Voldemort but not Voldemort's people, they had just said that Aurors and their colleagues, the only other wizards brazenly seen in the city now were the Death Eaters, apart from Aurors of Britain.

This means that these guys are actually Death Eaters too!

Yet they are obviously not following Voldemort's orders, so whose orders are they following?

Jon pondered the obvious question, which was of course a good guess.

The Death Eaters would only be loyal to one person, and since it wasn't the current Voldemort it could only be the other one!

The most unexpected thing about such a discovery for Jon was that the other Voldemort II had so quickly reconnected with a group of people who had chosen to continue serving him.

He had thought that in the state he had been in at Hogwarts Castle when his soul had been scorched by the fires of Nirvana, he would have had to be honest for at least a year and a half, but it had only been less than a month.

So was this one of the groups Snape was talking about?

If not, would there be someone else in the city today looking for Snape besides Voldemort One, Voldemort Two, and him and Lily?

As Jon thought about this, as if fate was deliberately trying to fulfil his suspicions, a familiar figure suddenly walked past him in a hurry and at a fast pace.

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