A crushing sensation as if his entire body had been run over by a roller, took over all of Jon's senses.

Nausea and pain as if he was being crushed flat caused his stomach to turn over and just after stepping on solid ground again after less than a second in flight, Jon finally couldn't hold back and bowed covering his stomach and dry heaving.

"The first time you Apparate it's inevitable that you will be less accustomed to the sensation, so sit down and have a cup of hot chocolate, it might make you feel better."

Lily's voice, a cold yet clearly caring tone, rang out beside him.

Jon took a slow breath and accepted the cup of warm chocolate from her hand. He looked down as if he had taken a sip, but in fact, he didn't let his lips touch the liquid in the cup at all and forced himself to hold back his discomfort, focusing all his attention on the surrounding environment.

It looked like a simple wooden hut with only a fireplace, two old single sofas and a dirty wooden table, serving as a shelter for temporary rest.

Through the poorly fitted windows, one could see lush woodland outside, clearly somewhere in the middle of nowhere.

Holding the cup of hot chocolate in his hands, Jon looked over at Lily, who was flicking her wand at the fireplace, making the faint flames on it grow lively, and only now he was able to take a closer look at the witch who should have been dead ten years ago.

She is certainly a beautiful woman, though her crimson hair is slightly dishevelled, her face somewhat pale as if she has not been resting well, her eye sockets deep, and her wide grey robes made her look extremely thin.

Lily noticed his gaze and met Jon's with the same pair of blue-green eyes that had been missed to death by a certain Potions class professor in the original story.

Jon took a deep breath and asked the first question after they reached a safe place with a serious look on his face.

"Will Mrs Chris and the guys by any chance be in danger now that I've escaped with you?"

Although he didn't feel much sense of belonging to that orphanage, the dean, Mrs Chris, had after all fed him and taken care of him for well over a year.

From the bottom of his heart, Jon didn't want to see the people who had supported him get implicated because of him.

Lily glanced at him and her eyes, which had been as calm as stagnant water, visibly grew a little softer.

"Those people who want to take you away with them used to be nothing but evil, but after they have completely seized control of the magical world, their lord no longer allows them to kill people that readily. They will only erase the memories associated with you from the minds of everyone in the orphanage, destroy all traces of you ever existing in this world, and will not harm anyone associated with you."

At her words, Jon breathed a sigh of relief, and the hand clutching the teacup relaxed slightly.

"You seem a lot more mature than your peers, not like an eleven-year-old." Lily didn't take her eyes off Jon.

By the tone of her voice, it was obvious she sensed something, to which Jon didn't show much of a panic and said with a blink.

"A child living in an orphanage always has to know more things, don't we? Although I don't think it's something to boast about."

Lily fell silent, it was not clear what things had crossed her mind as her mood seemed to have suddenly become subdued.

But such a silence did not last long, and her face returned to its calm and indifference as she spoke to Jon.

"You've already been told about your general situation by Crouch just now at the orphanage, at least he didn't lie about you having magical talent and being a wizard, and there's no need for me to repeat that to you again. I know there are many questions in your mind besides that, and the good thing is that we have time until nightfall to have them answered next."

"But before I proceed with your formal orientation, you'll have to answer one of my doubts as well."

Lily's expression didn't change much, only her tone became slightly more serious.

"Why at the end, did you become so decisive in choosing to come with me when you heard the name, Barty Crouch? Did you know him before?"

Jon's face remained unchanged, he had already expected this question to be asked sooner or later if this Lily decided they are safe after arriving at this safe house, so he had mentally planned ahead from the start.

Judging from Lily's attitude now, she is not too wary of himself because of this matter, which also made Jon quietly relieved.

He wasn't sure if this Lily in front of him would be skilled in magic like Legilimency. Although decent wizards, even if they did, usually rarely used it on people in secret, especially a child who is only 11 years old, but even decent wizards wouldn't be pedantic enough to hold back on suspicious elements if the situation is dangerous to a certain extent.

And the way Jon behaved now, it was clear that he is nowhere remotely close to that, but first, he needs to justify his actions properly in a reasonable context as well.

"I don't know him, but from the moment I first met him I got the impression that he wasn't actually as friendly as he appeared to be." Jon locked eyes with Lily without the slightest intention of avoiding her gaze, "He disliked and loathed me, I could feel it from the first moment he saw me."

"The more he painted a rosy picture of that magic school to me with his words, the more I felt it was bogus. And I couldn't understand a word of that letter of acceptance he asked me to sign, except for the title on it, and after I signed it, who knew if I would actually be attending a magic school or if I had sold myself out? I hadn't thought about signing and going with him even before you appeared. It was just that he was an adult who knew magic, and I am a child who had no way to resist directly. Your presence gave me more options, and although that option was also unknown and dangerous, it was better than going with another person of greater suspicion, right? That's why I asked his name to distract him at the time of your confrontation, and then followed you to escape."

Jon was telling the truth, about 90% of it, and only the last sentence was false, so unless one peeked inside his mind, one would never notice anything wrong with it.

And while Lily certainly didn't try to " break" into his mind, her eyes still remained fixed on Jon with a scrutinizing look.

There was a silence in the room, and it was only when Jon's body trembled under her stare that she finally spoke.

"I've never seen any eleven-year-old like you."

She looked like she was stumped on what words to use and Jon duly reminded her, sensing her dilemma.

"Smart?"

"No, it's something like a ghost who looks young but is actually a good hundred years old, with so many twists and turns in mind."

Jon's face instantly soured.

We had only known each other for a short time, and neither of us knew each other well, so there is no need to call him an old man in such a roundabout way.

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