In the Harry Potter Without Harry Potter

Chapter 449: Loud Bang

It was still dark when Jon got back to the inn, he had made a quick trip and got back to get a good night sleep.

By the time the next day dawned, Lily hadn't even noticed that Jon had gone out once in between, and they finished breakfast together, discussing their next strategy targeting Snape.

The ground side still had to be watched, as they (actually only Lily) had no idea whether Snape had noticed something that time he left or whether it was just a coincidence.

But of course, they couldn't just watch the ground all the time either, and just after Jon's tentative suggestion of what they should do if Snape had in fact spotted them and left the city afterwards, Lily fell into a moment of contemplation.

It was indeed a question that Lily was somewhat less inclined to ponder.

As all their preparations for staying in the city were based on the fact that Snape would not leave easily, and if he did, then who could find Snape if he really wanted to hide, given the size of the whole of the United Kingdom and the fact that he is a powerful wizard?

Maybe Voldemort could still find him, after all, Snape must have the Dark Mark on his body, that's the symbol of Voldemort, and if he wanted to locate it, Voldemort would have a way.

But for Jon and Lily, who were already in the enemy's camp, it was a much harder task.

Just as Lily was at her wits' end about this problem, a loud bang suddenly rang out underground near Spinner's End at around midday!

Even staying inside the Inn, Jon felt the whole building tremble, while at the same time, Lily and Jon looked at each other for a moment.

An explosion like this, excluding the possibility of some kind of Muggle war in the city, it could only have been made by an extensive explosive kind of magic spell!

Everyone around the Inn began to become alarmed, and they poked their heads out of the windows, trying to look in the direction of the explosion to find out what was going on.

Together, Jon and Lily ran straight out the front door of the Inn, they were close to Spinner's End and the source of the explosion was underneath a residence where smoke was billowing out as if the whole building was about to collapse.

The streets were littered with screaming Muggles fleeing out, with many thinking it was an explosion in a gas line and scrambling to get away from the area where the explosion had occurred.

But it was obvious to Jon and Lily that a Muggle-Repelling Charm had been placed on that area, which would cause any Muggle that came into contact with the area to subconsciously give themselves a reason to leave immediately.

Just after Jon and Lily had avoided the flow of people running away and reached the street where the explosion had occurred, a body wrapped in black mist suddenly shot up into the sky!

There were only two people in the entire magical world who did not need to use a flying broom to fly and who could make such a spectacle.

One was Voldemort himself, and the other was Snape!

This was a reflection of Voldemort's preference for Snape, who was the only one who had been taught this magic when there were so many Death Eaters who served him and were loyal to him.

But Jon could also see with his sharp eyes that the black mist that continued to dissipate into the air was clearly dripping with blood and that Snape was badly injured.

Behind Snape, four or five other figures on flying brooms followed him out of the smoke, all wearing the black robes that belonged to the Death Eaters.

Jon wasn't really much surprised that Snape had been found first by the Death Eaters.

From what had happened to Karkaroff in the original story, it was actually clear that as long as Voldemort himself wanted to find them, there was no way that someone with the Dark Mark on their body would be able to escape.

Not to mention the fact that today's Snape hasn't left Britain and is hiding right under the nose of the British Ministry of Magic.

Lily had obviously caught sight of this too.

But she had no way of catching up with the Death Eaters and Snape, who had already taken to the skies without a flying broom, as she certainly hadn't brought anything as conspicuous as a flying broom on their trip to Britain.

To this, she could only look to Jon.

"You follow them up, keep yourself safe, and then contact me when you find out where they landed!"

Jon of course had no problem with this decision, he just looked at Lily with a little concern.

"Are you okay with being alone, Professor?"

Lily said with a wave of her hand.

"Don't worry about me, I'm not going to let myself die so easily until I've finished my revenge."

With those words from her, Jon didn't hesitate any longer as he used the levitation charm and rose into the air in place, flying in the direction Snape and the Death Eaters had disappeared.

He certainly didn't believe Lily's words, which were more like a red flag, but the feather he had left on Lily earlier had not been retrieved yet, and even if something happened, Jon would still be able to come back at the first chance, as a backup.

Snape and the Death Eaters flew fast, using broomsticks which were the newest Quidditch-level items to come out of the magical world in the last few years - Firebolt that could accelerate up to 150 miles per hour in ten seconds.

But as Jon's magic had grown and his skills had improved, he had become much more adept than before with the levitation charm; although it was certainly not possible to catch up with them immediately, it was not difficult to keep up with them from a distance.

And as he rose into the air, Jon cloaked himself in the cloak of invisibility so that the Death Eaters wouldn't be able to detect that others were trailing behind them.

Snape certainly wouldn't use Apparition to make a long-distance teleport.

It had been a month since the end of the Triwizard Tournament, and the British Ministry of Magic must have reactivated the Apparition surveillance across the entire British Isles, so unless he could just Apparate across the continent, he would only reveal his position.

If he really wanted to escape tracking, the best thing he could do was to shake off the Death Eaters chasing behind him, then find a safe Floo network or Portkey and make a long-distance teleportation.

But trying to shake off these Death Eaters trailing behind him on their Firebolt brooms was not an easy task.

And Jon had a feeling that Snape had actually foreseen that he could not hide for much longer and that the whole point of his escape from France, and what he had been doing all along in anticipation, was about to begin.

It was during this stealthy stalking, that Jon caught sight of a couple of seemingly hidden flying brooms between him and the gang of Death Eaters close to the ground, with his sharp eye.

There were others in pursuit too, and they were just as stealthy, except that the Disillusionment Charm came out badly in daylight, allowing Jon whose eyes had become sharp to spot the flaw!

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