In the Harry Potter Without Harry Potter

Chapter 458: Promise (2 in 1)

The second-largest city in Denmark, Aarhus, is on the eastern coast of the Jutland Peninsula.

According to the information Madame Maxime had received, the Delacour family had been living in hiding here.

As an old friend of the Delacour family, after escaping from France, Madame Maxime had indeed been investigating the whereabouts of Gabrielle's parents, just as she had told Dumbledore before.

It was just that the whole of Europe was so big, especially if she wanted to look for a family of wizards who knew magic and could use potions to change their appearance, so it was not that easy to look for them.

She managed to learn through some of her contacts in Northern Europe that there was once a young girl named Fleur who looked a lot like Gabrielle's sister, who bumped into someone in Copenhagen the capital city of Denmark.

After all, she has a quarter-Veela blood, as long as she shows her natural face to others, she will always leave an extremely deep impression on people.

Following this information Madame Maxime traced all the way back and found that the Delacour family had later moved once more, from Copenhagen to Aarhus.

It was also following this lead that Jon and Hermione brought Gabrielle to this coastal city as well.

Madame Maxime did not follow them here, because the temporary Ministry of Magic in France had reconnected with her, and now the whole of Beauxbatons was still in the stage of control that it had been in when it was first taken over.

She, an experienced witch who had been the Headmistress for many years, was needed to go back immediately to preside over the situation and prepare for the work of receiving this year's new students, which would soon begin.

And after coming to Aarhus, Jon and the others did not hide their identities.

Although Jon in the magical world had now almost reached the point where he was known by everyone, in the eyes of the muggles, he was less eye-catching.

And keeping Gabrielle as she would also help her family spot her better.

"Where do we start looking?"

Gabrielle, who was wearing a one-piece dress looked as if she had rarely been able to see so many people, and she hid behind Jon, looking at the crowds of people coming and going on the street, and asked in a low voice.

Jon, on the other hand, was studying a letter in his hand that Madame Maxime had left for him, which stated that in a neighbourhood on the western outskirts of the city of Aarhus, there is a house of squib who give information to Madame Maxime.

The only person who could live in a big Muggle city like this and fit in would be a squib who had broken away from the wizarding world and was disliked by most wizards.

Especially in the past few years, the conflicts in the magical world had become more and more intense, and the squibs' lives had become even more difficult. Many of them had completely cut off their ties with the magical world and had given up their pride and illusions that they were still "wizards", and had fully integrated themselves into the muggle life and society.

"Dennis Cass, this is the person we need to find first. According to the information given to us by Madame Maxime, he is the one who sent the message that he saw someone suspected to be your mum, dad and sister in Aarhus two months ago."

Hermione looked at a map of the city located in front of one of the bus stops beside them, and soon she found the street they needed to travel to on it.

"It's not very far from us, maybe we can just take a taxi."

They certainly have money for a taxi, the Witching Horizon wizard stationed here had given them some local currency when they first arrived.

The money was certainly not a lot, but it was enough to last them three or four days without having to be too frugal.

The offer was of course gratefully accepted, and Jon waved a taxi to a halt, showing the driver the name of the place on the letter straight away as he lacked any knowledge of Danish.

Gabrielle looked like she was travelling in a car for the first time and was very curious about this big Muggle metal box of transportation, and sat in the back with Hermione, looking around like a village girl who had just come into town from the countryside.

The driver, who seemed chatty, started off with a long speech in Danish, but Jon could only respond in English that he couldn't understand.

The two were at once at a loss for ways of communicating, for the driver's English sounded broken, and when he said a passage, Jon had to think for quite a while before he could understand what it meant.

Soon they reached the location on the letter.

It was a courtyard that didn't look very big, with a small red-roofed two-storey building surrounded by lush green lawns and a small garden.

Jon pushed through the gates of the courtyard with Hermione and Gabrielle and went to the door of the house, and knocked on it.

It didn't take long for the sound of footsteps to come from inside, and then a boy who looked to be only six or seven years old pushed the door open and blinked at them.

Jon waved at him, with a smile on his face.

"May I ask if Dennis Cass lives here?"

The boy, who obviously understood English, looked at Jon, then at Hermione, and finally at Gabrielle, who was standing next to Jon.

For some reason, his face suddenly reddened, and then he turned and shouted into the house.

"Mum! Someone's looking for Daddy."

Following the boy's shout, soon a woman with an apron on as if she had just put down the hoover in her hand came out of the room and looked at Jon and the others suspiciously.

"You guys..."

"Well, Madame Maxime." Jon showed her the letter he was holding, "A friend of your husband's, ma'am. We're her relatives, and she's the one who asked us to visit."

It was obvious that this Mrs Cass knew the name Maxime, and after confirming the letter that Jon held in his hand, she invited the three of them into the house and told them to sit down in the living room and relax for the time being, saying that Dennis Cass was working in a nearby supermarket, and would be back for lunch at midday.

She then gave them tea and pastries, and the boy named Henry Cass kept sneaking glances at Gabrielle as he brought the biscuits to the table.

Of course, Gabrielle noticed his gaze and pulled her mouth and made a face at him, causing the boy to run and hide behind his mother shyly.

Mrs Cass acted like she didn't know exactly what kind of status her husband had, and really only treated Jon's arrival with others as a polite visit from the younger children of a friend's family.

She put down her chores and sat down in front of the sofa to chat with Jon.

They were all normal enquiries, asking Jon who Madame Maxime was for them, what school he was currently attending, and what he was doing in Denmark this time.

All these questions were of course avoided by Jon with vague statements.

Since that Mr Cass had hidden the matter of the magical world from his family, he naturally had his own ideas, and Jon had no intention of destroying the couple's love life just after he had met them.

And some words even if it is just made up, are also a good fabrication. Well, besides there is Hermione to help to patch some errors, all the while Gabrielle obediently did not say anything from the beginning, and finally, Mrs Cass managed to finish her conversation.

At about eleven thirty noon, a middle-aged man with a slightly balding head returned home.

He was none other than Dennis Cass, whom Jon and the others were looking for on this trip.

After seeing Jon and the others, this squib who had been disconnected from the magical world for a long time obviously froze for a moment, and when he heard his wife introduce them as the younger children from Madame Maxime's family, the expression on his face obviously became a bit dignified.

Finding an excuse to sidetrack his wife and son, Dennis brought Jon and the others to the study to prepare a closed environment for conversation.

Jon didn't make much of a courtesy of anything, he directly handed over Madame Maxime's letter.

"We have come from France, Mr Cass, students of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. The main reason for this visit is that you contacted Madame Maxime earlier to say that you had heard something about the Delacour Family?"

Taking the letter in hand, Dennis then turned his gaze to Gabrielle, who was looking at him with a tense expression on her face, clearly able to recognise that she was none other than the youngest daughter of the Delacour Family.

"You haven't said anything to my family, have you?"

The first thing he asked when he opened his mouth was whether or not anything had been leaked about the wizard, Jon and Hermione looked at each other, their previous concealment was obviously well-thought-out.

"No sir, I told your lady that we were all nieces and nephews of Madame Maxime and didn't reveal a thing about what goes on in the wizarding world."

It was a long relief for Dennis to hear them say that, and he explained.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to question you guys about anything, you are all students at Hogwarts and should know how unsafe it has been in the wizarding world over the years. I've kept things about that world from my family, I just didn't want them to be targeted by anyone and be scared all day."

Jon certainly understood this.

"The information about the Delacour family actually surfaced about two months ago, when the local newspaper reported that the police had caught two sexual predators who had been harassing a mother and daughter who lived at 9 Cromwell Street all day long. There was a record in that story that the daughter's name was Fleur Virk and that she was very good-looking like her mum. Since I had previously learnt about the looks and traits of the Delacour family from Madame Maxime, I felt that the mother and daughter in this case should be them."

Jon, after listening to Dennis' statement, also felt that it was very similar to the description of Gabrielle's mother and sister.

As a mother and daughter who possessed the bloodline of a Veela, it was only normal that they encountered something like sexual harassment, they simply couldn't control that kind of passive charm magic, if they were pureblood Veela, it would be difficult for normal wizards to resist it, not to mention muggles.

It just wasn't quite possible to identify them based on their hair. Silver-white-haired people weren't exactly rare in Denmark as well as in the Nordic region, but it was a piece of supporting evidence.

Getting the definitive word from Dennis, Jon and the group didn't stay for lunch any longer.

Dennis could also see that Gabrielle was itching to jump into her parents' arms, so he didn't necessarily mean to keep them but sent them off with his wife and son.

Cromwell Street was just a little bit further away from where they were now, but for Jon and the others anything that could be solved with money wasn't a problem.

That was all the money they had, and even if they wanted to save it, they would have no place to spend it when they left Denmark later on.

Straight away they hailed another taxi and went to the Cromwell street that Dennis had mentioned.

Things went extraordinarily smoothly, and it didn't take them long to find out the location of the number 9 house.

It was a courtyard just like the one before. It was basically no different to the one Cass's family lived in, except that it was obvious that Gabrielle had become nervous since arriving here. She had been holding onto Jon's coat like she was afraid that she was dreaming this, and that if she let go of Jon's coat the dream would be over.

Hermione took Gabrielle's other hand next to her and smiled down at her with a cheering smile that eased some of the little girl's nerves as well.

Then, more like a family in their current form, they walked inside courtyard No. 9 on Cromwell Street and knocked on the door of the house.

Within seconds, the door was opened from the inside.

The door was opened by a young girl who looked like a magnified Gabrielle with long silvery white hair, and as she opened the door she also saw Gabrielle standing right in the middle of Jon and Hermione.

The young girl visibly froze, and Gabrielle didn't make a sound at the moment, but her eyes began to turn red quickly, tears already welling up in the corners of her eyes!

"Gabrielle!"

The young girl screamed.

She looked thrilled and excited, picking Gabrielle up on the spot, and the tears in her eyes were uncontrollable.

"Oooooooh, sis."

Gabrielle choked in her arms, unable to say the next half of her sentence.

The people in the house also heard this cry from the young girl, a rush of footsteps sounded, and a woman with silver-white hair just like the sisters and a middle-aged man who looked extraordinarily ordinary compared to the mother-daughter trio came running out.

They looked like they thought their daughter was in some kind of danger, but after seeing those two figures embracing together, one large and one small, both the couple also exclaimed in surprise.

"My goodness!"

"Honey! Are you all right?"

Jon and Hermione didn't interrupt this moment of Gabrielle's reunion with her family, neither of them made a sound from outside the door.

It was just that Jon could see the unconcealed envy in Hermione's eyes as she saw the Delacour family embracing together.

He couldn't help but wave his hand in front of Hermione's face, and when the young girl with the ponytail and the duck-tail hat turned her head to look at him, Jon gave a smile.

"How about I accompany you to meet your mum and dad too when we get back to Britain?"

Jon didn't think anything more when he said this, but Hermione was slightly stunned. Then with a slight blush, she reached up and pulled a strand of her hair behind her ear.

"That doesn't sound like something you would say."

"Hey, what do you think I am, some rock in a latrine?"

Hermione blinked, obviously not quite understanding Jon's slang.

"That's not exactly true, you're definitely much better than a rock."

"Tsk, tsk, tsk, sounds a bit wrong, but I'll take that as a compliment."

"I'll remember your promise, you can't find any other excuse to back out when the time comes?"

Jon rubbed his chin in mock doubt.

"What did I promise?"

Hermione didn't say anything, just lifted her leg up behind him and gave him a swift and light kick in the arse!

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