Chapter 100: A Road Trip

“Who will it be at this time?” Vernon glared at Harry and walked to the door to teach him a lesson. “Go on now! If in five minutes later I haven’t seen you wash those socks, you’re done for good!”

Harry nodded and walked to the bathroom with a basin of socks in his hand. After Vernon opened the door, he saw a young man standing outside. He stared at his small eyes and could barely see the face, which had turned blood red because he had reprimanded Harry just now.

“Who are you looking for?” Looking at Sherlock, Vernon ruled out one possibility after another in his heart and asked cautiously.

Sherlock had a friendly smile on his face, “Let me introduce myself. Sherlock Forrest, your nephew’s Defence Against the Dark Arts professor at Hogwarts.”

The door was closed abruptly, but there was less than a centimeter of space left from the gap. The smile on Sherlock’s face suddenly froze. From the first part of the original book, he knew that Dursley was very unfriendly to wizards. But now, it can’t be said to be unfriendly but full of resentment.

Vernon had reacted violently and shut the door hard, walking into his house with his slippers on his feet.

“Harry Potter!”

He yelled, not only letting Harry walk out of the bathroom with foamy hands but also letting Aunt Petunia, who was preparing lunch in the kitchen, and Dudley, who was playing games in the bedroom, come out with a look of worry.

“What’s wrong?” Vernon didn’t answer Petunia’s question as he glared at Harry.

“Forget about telling those freaks your home phone number. You even gave out our home address! Who gave you the permission to do it?!”

Harry’s face was full of confusion at this time, and he stared at Vernon, unable to think of any of his friends who would visit him during the summer. His doubts were quickly answered because, at this time, the door was suddenly opened from the outside, and Sherlock walked in.

Vernon showed fearless courage to protect his family at this time, with his arms outstretched in front of Petunia and Dudley. But in his eyes, he didn’t even know whether the person who came here was malicious or not.

“Get out of my house! You are committing a trespass, and I have the right to attack you!” Vernon held a baseball bat in his hand and gave a fierce look.

Harry looked at Sherlock, who came in, and was stunned, “Professor Forrest?”

Sherlock frowned at Vernon; he didn’t move; the baseball bat suddenly broke free from Vernon’s grasp and floated in the air.

“According to Ministry of Magic law, wizards can’t take action against Muggles. But we could if we need to defend ourselves. Mr. Dursley, do you know how dangerous your actions just now are?”

Instead of looking at the expressions on the Dursleys at this time, he directly explained his purpose, “I’m here out of Professor Dumbledore’s order. He wants me to take Harry out to deal with some things during the summer. I’m taking the liberty of visiting him this time. Do forgive me if I disturb you all.”

At the same time, a letter flew out of his pocket and flew lightly into the air to Petunia.

“Professor Dumbledore asked me to bring it to you. He said that after you read the letter, you would let me leave with Harry.”

Vernon’s face was ashen, but he didn’t speak again this time. Petunia took the letter that flew towards her with a pale face. She opened the letter with trembling hands, read the contents of the letter at a glance, and looked up at Sherlock.

“You’re… a professor at that school?”

Sherlock didn’t speak. He turned his eyes to Harry. Harry was happy to see how Vernon and Dudley were frightened by Sherlock’s appearance.

“I’m an outstanding graduate, one of the top Aurors of the Ministry of Magic, the master of defense magic, and a professor of the Defense Against the Dark Arts at Hogwarts. Professor Sherlock Forrest.” Sherlock rolled his eyes.

He said such a long sentence that the Dursleys probably couldn’t understand it except for the professor part. He wanted to flaunt his title to scare them, and it’s effective; the Dursleys do seem to be tricked.

“How long are you going to take him out?”

Sherlock mainly wanted to go out to relax this time. He calculated the time and gave an approximate interval, “About two to three weeks.”

Petunia pursed her lips and hesitated for a long time before she asked, “What else does he need to bring?”

Everyone present heard what she meant. Suddenly, Vernon stared at her incredulously, and Harry cheered.

Sherlock shrugged and replied, “Not much, just bring what he needs as a person.”

Harry immediately rushed to his room, where he had been living in a closet until last year when he wasn’t tall enough for him to stay there. A room that Petunia gave him was a room that Dudley had once used before.

Soon, he was carrying a cage with Hedwig in one hand, tucked his wand into his cuff, and ran out with a suitcase in the other.

“Thank you. I wish you a good day.” Sherlock nodded slightly to the Dursleys and left with Harry.

The excited look on Harry’s face froze completely when he heard Sherlock’s words.

After coming out of Dursley’s house, he asked Sherlock in a panic, “Professor, were you serious about your words to Aunt Petunia and the others?”

Sherlock said, “I’m just being polite. To be honest, I don’t have a good impression of your family.”

Harry breathed a sigh of relief. He didn’t like Harry’s family very much; if they didn’t have any relations with him, they would be cursed by Sherlock and live in pain all their lives.

He asked excitedly, “Where are we going, Professor? Did Professor Dumbledore give us some secret mission?”

He looked happy, completely forgetting what he had said in front of Hermione and Ron last semester, that he would rather stay at the Dursleys than go with Sherlock in the summer.

Sherlock looked at the letter that Dumbledore had written to Nicholas Flamel, which had an address in Paris, France.

“No, we’re just going to meet a friend of Professor Dumbledore.”

He rubbed his chin and thought, “I remember Nicholas Flamel was living in seclusion in Devonshire, but now I don’t know why he went to France. It seems that he likes opera and went to France to listen to opera?”

“Nicholas Flamel?” Harry repeated the name in surprise.

Of course, he was familiar with the name. In the first year, the Sorcerer’s Stone he protected from Voldemort’s was his creation.

“Yes, Nicholas Flamel. He destroyed his Sorcerer’s Stone, and there are still some attached magic and valuable fragments. He wants to give it to some people, and Professor Dumbledore, let me take you to him.”

Harry’s face was full of interest, he asked. “How do we get there? Floo powder? Apparition? Or on a broomstick?”

Sherlock shook his head, took out a card from his pocket, and said casually, “Let’s go to a rental car company to rent a car and drive there.”

Harry opened his mouth wide, “Driving… a car? Like a normal car?”

“Why would I tell your aunt to take you out for two weeks? Using magic directly to go to France and come back would only take one day.”

Sherlock took him and reached out to stop a taxi. The driver frowned and glanced at Hedwig in Harry’s hand and finally let them inside. Even though they drove themselves from Devonshire, England, to Paris, France, it only took two days to go back and forth. It can only take one day if you’re in a hurry.

But Sherlock came out this time to relax his mind. He didn’t think about going directly to Paris, but he was going to take breaks and stop in the middle of the journey. When he felt that it was almost time, he would go to the final destination.

He paid a deposit at the rental car company. Sherlock went through the formalities and rented a Ford sedan. In his previous life, Sherlock got his driver’s license when he was in college. Although the car in the UK was a little different from what he was used to, it didn’t take long to get familiar with it.

After Harry got into the car, he released Hedwig from the cage and let it hop happily in the back seat. He had never traveled far since he was born; this time, he was going to drive to another country with Sherlock, which made him feel excited.

“Where shall we go first, Professor?” Sherlock is looking through a map of Europe.

When he inadvertently looked up to see the suit Harry was wearing, which is an old shirt where Dudley once used, he said, “We’ll go to the Muggle store to buy something first, and since we’re going to spend most of the time in this car, we need to buy a lot of snacks for later.”