Chapter 101: On The Boat

Harry’s excitement was gone three minutes after they set off. With a pale face, he grasped the handle on the door and asked nervously.

“Professor, have you learned how to drive?”

Hearing that his skills were being questioned, Sherlock took out the original owner’s Sherlock’s license, “I’ve been driving for three years, okay?”

“Don’t look at me, professor! Look at the road! There’s a tree ahead!” Harry screamed. Sherlock lightly tapped the brakes, turned the steering wheel sharply, and the car stopped in place.

The difference between a left-hand-drive car and a right-hand-drive car is far less simple than Sherlock imagined; there are still some differences between the car in the 1990s and the car 30 years later. It was not so easy for him to get started.

Harry’s face was terrified, and Sherlock comforted him, “Don’t worry, we’ll definitely…”

Harry jumped up from his seat, almost hitting his head on the roof of the car, “I trust you, professor! Don’t say anything anymore!”

His voice was almost pleading. At the Dursleys, he was mostly doing housework, barely eating, and getting scolded a few times. But if Sherlock accidentally said something, he could probably lose a limb or two.

Seeing Harry’s reaction, Sherlock shrugged and began to get familiar with the feeling of the car. They came to the nearest mall nearby and took Harry down to buy a lot of snacks. After that, they chose a few clothes that fit them.

Of course, Sherlock paid for it. The original Sherlock was not a rich man in either the wizarding world or the Muggle world, but he had a small amount of savings.

Usually, Muggle money doesn’t is not that important, so Sherlock doesn’t feel bad about using it. They had the supplies in the car ready, and Harry took this opportunity to write a letter to Ron and Hermione each for Hedwig to send so that they could know his current situation.

Sherlock had planned a route to go to London first.

“How are we going to get to France, Professor?” Harry asked while eating chips.

Sherlock stared at the road and replied, “The undersea tunnel built by France and the United Kingdom in the Muggle world will not be accessible this time, so we will first go to the London Port, drive there by ferry, and reach the northern French city.”

In fact, if they used a wizard’s method of transportation, they would not have needed such trouble. But Sherlock came out this time to relax. It didn’t matter what method he used to get to the destination; as long as he was happy, it was enough.

They didn’t want to stay any longer and went straight to London. Devonshire is right next to London, and it only took them an hour or so to drive to the London Port. Sherlock got off, bought a ticket, and boarded a French boat called Saint Michael.

The ship sailed and crossed a strait to the French port city of Caen. Harry and Sherlock were lying on the ship, squinting and enjoying the breeze blowing their hair.

This is not the first time Harry has seen the sea. Before the start of the year, Vernon took the whole family to live in a cabin for a day in order to avoid Hagrid sending him a letter of admission. But it was a different experience from that one.

Seeing the sea and the sky freely made Harry feel extremely happy.

“Look at that seagull, Harry. Its wings seem to be injured a little bit, and it can’t fly smoothly. But its will is touching. I think it should be able to find a place to land safely.”

Three seconds after Sherlock’s voice fell, the seagull with the injured wing suddenly let out a whine. It used up all its strength and fell into the sea. Harry’s eyes contracted, and he glanced at Sherlock.

If Professor Forrest’s jinx hadn’t been so terrible, he would’ve been more relaxed now.

“Sherlock?” Hearing someone calling his name, Sherlock was stunned for a moment. He turned his head to look in the direction of the voice.

It was a young man in his twenties, with sunglasses on his face, a shirt on his upper body, a pair of beach pants on his lower body, and a tie around his neck, a look that was normally a wizard trying to fit in with the Muggles. Sherlock keenly noticed a small wooden stick that he inserted in the pocket.

“So It’s really you, Sherlock! I didn’t expect to meet you here. What a coincidence.” The wizard walked up to Sherlock with a look of surprise.

Sherlock looked at him dumbfounded. He was sure that this person had never appeared in the original Sherlock’s diary and hesitantly asked.

“You are…?”

The smile on his face did not disappear in the slightest.

“You don’t remember me? It’s true that we only worked together in the Ministry for two days. You helped me a lot at that time.”

“Let me re-introduce myself. My name is Oliver Green, Department of Magical Accidents and Catastrophes of the Ministry of Magic.”

“When you were working in the Auror Command, I was stationed there for two days. My boss still gave me a lot of work up until this time. Fortunately, you helped me before.”

After listening to the story of the wizard Oliver, Sherlock still did not recall any records from it. Thus, it seemed that this encounter was just a trivial matter for the original Sherlock.

He said, with an apologetic look on his face, “I’m sorry, but I don’t have any impression of you.”

It can be seen that Oliver is indeed very enthusiastic. He waved his hand generously and said.

“It doesn’t matter. You helped me in the first place, and after that, you resigned. I never found a chance to thank you. I read the Daily Prophet a few months ago, and I heard that you are now working at Hogwarts as a Defense Against the Dark Arts professor. Did you kill the basilisk in the Chamber of Secrets last semester? You’re still the same no matter where you go.”

Because of the Daily Prophet’s news, Sherlock is now a somewhat famous figure in the wizarding world.

“I’m just protecting the students.”

“You have changed a lot from before, and now you are a lot more cheerful.”

Oliver became increasingly interested. He looked at Sherlock, then at Harry beside him, and asked, “Is this your relative? Where are you going?”

Sherlock introduced him to Harry, and he was shocked. He was polite enough and didn’t ask Harry to show the lightning scar.

“I came out this time to carry out a task given by the Ministry. Not long ago, the ghosts of the Headless Knights held a rally in Kent, and a Muggle secretly watched the whole thing.”

“The Muggle told everyone that he had seen the ghost use their head to play a hockey game, and his family sent him to a Muggle mental hospital after that.”

“But then he sneaked out again. After I received the task from the Ministry, I followed him on this ship, and erased his memory about the ghosts before I met you.”

Oliver’s work sounds interesting. Sherlock and Harry listened to his story.

“Arthur has been very happy recently. He has won the “Daily Prophet” annual Galleon Award. Now he is planning to take a few days off from the Ministry and go to Egypt to visit his eldest son with his family.”

Harry heard from him about Ron’s situation, and it seemed that he and Mr. Weasley had a very good relationship.

“You guys came here with Muggle cars?” Oliver asked.

Sherlock nodded, “From a Muggle rental car company.”

“Can I take a look at your car? I’m very interested in all kinds of Muggle machinery.” Oliver asked embarrassedly.

They chatted on the boat for so long; of course, Sherlock couldn’t refuse this. Sherlock and Harry took Oliver to their rented Ford sedan and immediately got in excitedly.

“What an amazing machine! Sometimes, you have to admit the ingenuity of the Muggles. Without magic, they can create something more magical than magic, unlike alchemy, which has become more and more powerful and dull lately.”

What he said made Harry and Sherlock both have a good impression of him.

“But their imaginations are still a little low. Why can’t they make a car that can fly?” Oliver said, turning to look at Sherlock, “You are going to travel in France with this car?”

Sherlock shrugged, “Well, there’s nothing wrong with it because I think…”

Harry only heard the first half of the sentence, reacted instantly, and interrupted him.

“Yes, If there are no accidents, we’ll use this car for our travels.”

Sherlock tapped his head in dissatisfaction, “Harry, it’s rude to interrupt someone.”

Harry could only bear the pain all by himself. If he didn’t react just now, it is estimated that they will have to switch to another mode of transportation soon.

“For wizarding travel, Muggle transportation is good, but it’s still a little less interesting. Let me help you with something, Sherlock. It only takes a few simple steps, and it can become a work of art!”

Sherlock said hesitantly, “I think that…”

“Don’t worry! I even taught Arthur’s modification skills. He secretly modified a car at home, and his son drove it to Hogwarts. It was a big commotion and after the Ministry of Magic found out, they fined him three months’ wages. Trust me, my skills are much better than his!”

As he said that, he got up, took out his wand, and fiddled with the car, causing it to squeak and clank. Sherlock and Harry looked at each other.

While it didn’t seem like Oliver changed it much, the car has changed in some way.

When it was noon, Sherlock took Harry to the ship’s restaurant for dinner, and they invited Oliver, too. But he wanted to modify the car thoroughly, and he was not in the mood to go to dinner.

Sherlock and Harry had an authentic French meal on the boat, and it tasted quite good. By the time they got back to the car, Oliver’s modification was nearing its end.

“It’ll be finished soon…” he said, took a button out of his pocket, put it in the middle of the steering wheel, and tapped it lightly with his wand, “Aha, it’s done!”

He was excited to test his masterpiece immediately but was stopped by Sherlock. Whether the car can be transformed into Megatron or Optimus Prime after the transformation does not affect the ability to carry out experiments on the ship.

Not only Oliver but all of them will be in big trouble.

Oliver couldn’t hold himself, so he looked at the Ford sedan with a little more reluctance and began to teach Sherlock how to use it.

“By pressing that button, the car’s function will be switched, and you can fly directly. The accelerator is used to control the speed like the brake, and the up and down operations are changed by the gear handle. It still uses gasoline; if you fill the tank full, you can fly in the sky for about 3 to 5 hours.”

At the same time, he said quietly, “The French Ministry of Magic doesn’t have such strict supervision on this kind of modified equipment, so feel free to drive around with it. Even if you are caught, you will only be fined a few Galleons.”

After that, he chatted with Sherlock and the others for a while, then found a hidden corner and left the ship through Apparition.

Leaving Sherlock and Harry standing in front of the car, Harry asked excitedly, “So, our car can fly now?”

Sherlock didn’t respond immediately. He looked at the car for a while, let Harry keep watch around, and paid attention to the passing Muggles. Then, he took out his wand and carefully examined the car that had been modified by Oliver.

After a comprehensive spell detection, Sherlock determined that the car had a flight feature, as Oliver had said.

Harry scratched his head, “I think that person is really good. He shouldn’t be a bad person, right?”

Sherlock said seriously, “It’s hard to tell a person’s quality from the surface alone. It’s like Riddle, who framed Hagrid last semester. You thought he was a good person at first, right? No matter what kind of stranger you are dealing with, remember to keep an eye on them, or they will deceive you.”

Harry said honestly, “I remember, professor.” He continued, “So, is there anything wrong with this car?”

Sherlock shook his head, “There is nothing weird here. Oliver’s skills are good. He just wants to thank me for my help in the Ministry of Magic. He did his best to modify this car, which is perfect.”

Harry’s eyes widened, and he couldn’t help but show a happy expression on his face. “Then our next trip will definitely be more interesting!”

Sherlock shrugged, “Maybe.”