In the Harry Potter Without Harry Potter

"Horace, it's truly been a long time."

In the fireplace, Dumbledore greeted Slughorn in a mild tone.

Seeing Dumbledore's face, Slughorn showed a somewhat resigned expression as he sat down on his bum on the sofa.

"Honestly, I thought that if you wanted to see me you would have come in person, but I didn't expect to have a child who isn't old enough to go to wizarding school come over here carrying your wand?"

Slughorn looked like he wasn't happy with Jon's age and lack of reputation, an old habit of his.

"What about sending Harry Potter at the very least, then I might even be a little interested."

Jon was unfazed by this, he was certainly more familiar with the temperament of Slughorn than anyone else, while Dumbledore said softly.

"I'm only showing up to tell you that whatever Jon says next is true, of course, you won't believe him after meeting him for the first time, but I should still have a few Knuts of trust with you."

Slughorn bristled and poured himself, and likewise Jon, a cup of black tea.

"Only a few Knuts indeed, you have some self-awareness."

Dumbledore didn't say anything more, he stepped in as a guarantee and certification for Jon, and after hearing Slughorn's words, he simply smiled slightly before disappearing into the fireplace.

Now, only Jon and Slughorn were left in the room.

The fat walrus didn't look much different compared to the other world, at most, his face was rosier and his stomach a bit rounder than his other self.

He looked at Jon without speaking, obviously wanting Jon to speak first himself.

Jon didn't have any extra what-so-ever courtesy, he just pulled out the pendant with the ring hanging from his neck, and his eyes followed his movements, and Slughorn also of course saw the ring with five blue diamond-shaped gems set on it!

This moment gave a greater shock to his heart than Jon holding the Elder Wand in his hand!

Because of Dumbledore's unpredictable character, it was quite possible for him to give the Elder Wand to someone for the time being, but when it comes to that ring and the gems on it, the only person in the world who knew about the existence of this thing was probably Slughorn!

And after the shock had passed, Slughorn's eyes flushed red with pain, and he looked furious to the core for some reason, and then pressed Jon's shoulders together as he questioned.

"You dug up Adrien's grave!"

Jon froze for just a moment before guessing which direction Slughorn had taken things, and he patiently explained.

"Can you sit down and listen to me first? Teacher, is there any chance that I would have found you and sat down in front of you if I had actually done something like that?"

"Who is your teacher! I retired from Hogwarts a long time ago, and even if I hadn't, you couldn't be my student at your age."

Slughorn had obviously seen what his old friend had taken with him to the grave, his anger got the better of him, but his sanity didn't go away as a result.

Upon hearing Jon's words, he slowly loosened his grip and sat back down on the couch, but his gaze was still fixed unfavourably on the ring Jon wore around his neck.

Jon didn't pause and told the story of where he came from and how he had acquired the ring, as well as his own relationship with him in the other world.

Slughorn had been listening the whole time without interrupting, but one could tell that his expression was always shifting as if he were listening to some fairy tale, and if it hadn't been for Dumbledore's endorsement ahead of time, he probably would have thrown Jon out by now.

Jon knew that he wouldn't be able to accept it so easily, so before he came he actually borrowed one more thing from Dumbledore.

Placing the Pensieve on the table, Jon smiled.

"You even told me once, that you had a Pensieve yourself, but forgot where you hid it, and that memory was backed up in the Pensieve, and you had to pretend it was lost, and it couldn't be found later on."

When Jon spoke of this, Slughorn actually believed him about ninety percent, because it was something he had hardly ever mentioned to anyone else, and after so many years of being hidden away in this place, he hadn't had the chance to talk to anyone about it.

Jon drew out several memories from his mind with his wand, then placed them in the Pensieve, and finally extended a gesture of invitation to Slughorn.

Slughorn's face looked quite bewildered; after all, even if he had basically believed what Jon had said, the whole parallel world thing was just too bizarre when all was said and done.

It was magical enough, and theoretically, it did exist in terms of time-turners, but there had never been such a precedent in the magical world in the past.

Jon's memories had been drawn out in front of him, and since Slughorn himself was a master of memory manipulation, he was confident that he would be able to spot the problem even if Jon had done something to tamper with it.

The two of them immersed themselves into the Pensieve together.

From the first time, Jon saw Slughorn at the Freshman dinner, to the time when the ring got stuck to him in the wagon, and when Slughorn began to think about whether he should give him the full knowledge of the ring's usage, to the time when the two of them had established the relationship of teacher and student, and how he told Jon about the time he had been tricked by Dumbledore into coming to the wagon, and finally, to the time when he had cooperated with Dumbledore's plan to steal the Philosopher's Stone from the wagon, and when he had confronted Jon in the wagon.

Slughorn watched the footage of himself in the other world in silence, and now that he wasn't experiencing that kind of exile state of mind, he couldn't even believe a little bit that he had actually made that kind of decision.

Whether it was to promise Dumbledore to enter the wagon as a professor or to end up going undercover at the Ministry of Magic. If this current Slughorn was allowed to make a choice, he would have hesitated, he would have been afraid.

But obviously, none of these memories could be fabricated, not that no one in this world can produce memories in front of him that can be falsified as genuine, but this is about some of his own small habits of life, behavioural action logic, no one will understand himself better than Slughorn.

He had thoroughly believed what Jon had said, and after exiting the Pensieve, he couldn't help but be in a bit of a trance, and only after a long time of such silent fuming did he turn his head to Jon with a renewed expression of incomparable complexity.

"I have little reason to disbelieve what you have said anymore, and with apologies for my earlier rudeness, we can now get reacquainted."

Jon shrugged and held out one of his hands.

"Jon Green, you've always said I am the best student you've ever had."

Slughorn shook his hand.

"That 'I' he is justified in that assessment. I can't really describe it, but he's changed into something less like me, a 'me' I couldn't even dare to think of in my imagination."

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