In the Harry Potter Without Harry Potter

Chapter 323: Beach Vacation

The silence lasted for a long time in Malfoy's drawing room.

Draco's eyes were wide, and his mouth was agape as if he had something to say, but nothing could get a syllable out of his throat.

Narcissa froze, the polite smile that had been on her face had stiffened completely as if those words had had such a powerful effect that they had stunned her entire facial nerve.

Brandon looked into Lucius's eyes in silence after saying those words, and Lucius's eyes narrowed for an instant, his face twitching slightly, but again, no sound came out.

Emil, sitting beside Brandon, watched the change in expression of the three Malfoys with cold eyes, an imperceptible sneer faintly appearing at the corner of his mouth.

The smile looked like one of mockery and pity at the same time.

"It is the word of our Lord?"

Lucius looked at Brandon, his questioning tone not sounding much like a question, but rather like he was emphasising something.

Brandon smiled and nodded his head.

"Yes, that is what our lord means, we need this victory."

"Of course, we need this victory! But. But what about my son!" Lucius held his gaze, "I don't mind Draco helping Emil get the victory! What I care about is whether or not he can keep his life safe in this tournament!"

Brandon remained unmoved in the face of the progressively more irritable attitude Lucius was displaying as he tapped his fingers on his arm and whispered.

"That is why I am here, Lucius. Our lord's orders are to let Emil win the title, to keep Draco alive, and to let that little brat called Jon Green. Die!"

***

Jon was basking in the warmth of the sun.

Sunbathing was indeed an incomparable pleasure, especially when it is on a golden beach where the gentle breeze brought by the waves constantly lapped at the sand and gravel, bringing refreshing moisture to the air.

This is their third day in Nice, where the Mediterranean climate makes it a rare holiday destination with plenty of warm summer sunshine.

There were quite a few tourists on the beach this time of year, and with Jon and Hermione both present, the Weasleys and the Longbottoms were unlikely to dress in anything other than normal Muggle attire.

Apart from the odd looks Arthur got from people for over-enthusiastically chatting with the car park attendant on the beach by asking him how something like a car should be maintained in general, they didn't encounter any problems at any other time.

"Ron's watching other people fishing." Hermione grumbled to Jon as she helped Ginny bury her in the sand, "According to what you said before, what is he now? A fisherman?"

Jon removed the sunglasses from his face and looked around him to find that Hermione and Ginny were the only ones around him.

"Where's Gabrielle?"

"Even if Mrs Weasley helped put some powder on her face, it doesn't cover the fact that she's a little too transparent. I saw Ron stealthily say something to her just now, then she dived underwater and seemed to go messing with those fishing uncles."

Jon couldn't help but be speechless for a moment, he had heard of hooking up fish underwater before, but today he actually came across a chasing away the hooked fish underwater.

"Well, at least she managed to find something to keep herself entertained, it's good as long as she didn't end up as a water ghost."

Reclining back down on the beach chair, before Jon could put his sunglasses back on and continue to bask in the sun, Neville walked over to Jon with Charlie and Bill clutching a roll of cushions.

"Hey, look what we found from the shop Jon, want to play a game of cards?"

Jon lowered his sunglasses and sat up from his recliner.

"What are you guys going to play?"

Charlie expertly opened the packet of cards and shuffled them in his hands.

"Bill and I know a few muggle games, like bridge."

Neville and Jon looked at each other for a moment before they shrugged.

"That's such a coincidence, we've played all of those before when we were bored in the wagon, mahjong, solitaire or wizard's chess."

Hermione was still piling sand on Ginny on the side, right next to the four of them.

From Bill, Jon had just learned that Arthur was enthralled by the rental speedboats available on the beach and was discussing with Neville's dad about spending some money to rent one for the day.

Fred and George were strolling through Muggle department stores, they had privately exchanged some gold galleons given to them by Durmstrang for some franc (the Euro started circulating only after 2002) ready to buy some small items that would inspire them.

It wasn't exactly embezzlement on their part; Muggle stuff does give them a lot of whimsies, like their half-finished broomstick hunter, which was adapted from a TV antenna.

Mrs Weasley was supposed to be with the twins at first, she was going to buy some everyday items in a department store and send them straight back home; but to hide the fact that they had money on hand, they probably found an excuse to separate from her soon after.

Just as Jon and the others were playing cards, Ron suddenly came running over from the fishing area in a panic, carrying a large cardboard box in his hands.

He sat down on his butt beside Jon and the others, panting, and then the top of the cardboard box was opened, and Gabrielle, with algae in her hair, poked her head out of it pitifully, looking nervously left and right.

The four of them, with their hands, fiddling with their cards, looked at them with strange looks on their faces.

"What's wrong with you guys?"

"Almost, Gabrielle was almost got found out." Ron said as he looked backwards.

Gabrielle removed the algae from her silvery white hair with a grimace as she muttered.

"I watched an older man fail to catch a fish for so long that I thought of helping him catch one and hook it on his bait hook, but before I could hook it, his hook hooked itself on my robe!"

"I was on the edge of the shore when the muggle thought he had caught a big one and started showing it off to everyone around him loudly as he started to pull the line-up."

Ron looked helpless, and as he spoke, Gabrielle grabbed a corner of her robe and showed it to Jon and the others.

"He's got my robe all torn up! I couldn't get the hook off, and if my robe wasn't torn, I would have been fished out of the sea by him!"

Jon and Hermione's faces looked bizarre as they looked around at all the people on the beach, if Gabrielle had actually been fished out in public it would make for some interesting news tomorrow.

Ginny, who was lying beneath the sand, reassured her.

"It's a good thing they didn't find you, or we'd be in big trouble, there's no way for Mum and Dad to use the Obliviate on so many people."

"But even if they only caught a piece of fabric, the muggles were all scared." Ron said in fear, "I think they had called the muggle Aurors over, assuming there was a body underwater, and when I escaped back with Gabrielle, the guys were discussing how to retrieve it."

----

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