Hogwarts: Bourne Returns from Warhammer

Bourne came to the interior cabin of the magic ship and found himself as if he had entered a Nordic mead hall.

Runes were engraved on the pilasters of the cabin, but they did not form ancient magic runes. They were just to make it look ancient and mysterious.

On the table near the cabin door, there were several crude but heavy silver cups and wooden trays, as if prepared to entertain guests, but they were all empty now.

Tables and chairs surrounded the central stove, which constantly emitted thick smoke. However, oxygen was not scarce in the cabin because a magic circle was etched on the top of the cabin to ventilate the cabin to the outside world.

There are four metal grilles on the deck of the cabin. The holes in these grilles are very fine, and it is difficult for ordinary people to focus and see clearly what is on the deck below the grilles.

However, the foul smell wafting up from the bottom of the grille made Bourne guess that there should be more than one giant monster on the lower deck.

In addition, he could vaguely hear some whipping and scolding sounds, as well as the creaking sounds of oars from time to time.

It seems that this magic ship is actually using some very "ancient" methods to sail.

At this moment, some little wizards gathered in the cabin of the "Malden", and they all looked like first-year students.

In fact, just like the Hogwarts Express, the original job of this magic ship was to pick up these little wizards for school.

It came to the British Isles to pick up Bourne simply because it was on the way, so no contestants from the Potions Championship from other magic schools were seen on this ship.

Moreover, unlike Hogwarts, Durmstrang does not have winter and summer vacations. Except for a holiday at Christmas, Durmstrang is open all year round. During the winter and summer vacations, the young wizards have to conduct special "physical" training to improve their ability to use wands to fight.

Therefore, there are no students of other grades on the ship except the first-year students.

The cabin of the "Malden" was very large, and the "Untraceable Extension Charm" must have been cast on it. There were seventy or eighty first-year students at Durmstrang, but the cabin did not seem very crowded.

During the voyage, because of the presence of Professor Alfonso Ripa, the young wizards who were about to enter school seemed very reserved. Most of them just sat quietly and rarely communicated with each other.

They are not as lively as the students at Hogwarts. Many new wizards at Hogwarts actually make friends for the next seven years on the Hogwarts Express.

As an outsider, Byrne was seated next to Professor Alfonso Ripa, who then flipped through a book and read it by himself.

Bourne glanced at the cover of the book. The title was: "The Energetic Argonian Maid"...

Well, maybe the professor was not convenient to chat with him, so he had nothing to do and could only open the "Drmstrang Saga".

Since it is called "Saga", this book can naturally be read as a storybook, but the content seems to be not suitable for little wizards.

In it, the magic ship of Durmstrang is introduced at the very beginning, because its history is earlier than that of Durmstrang School of Magic.

Although it is called the "Malden", in fact, its origin is not very closely related to Britain, but it can be said that it has nothing to do with it at all.

This ship originally belonged to the Portuguese or Spanish spice transport fleet during the Age of Discovery. Later, it encountered the Inferi Pirates in the waters near the Scandinavian Peninsula, and the ship was seized by local dark wizards.

As for the gold, silver and spices carried on the ship, they were used to build Durmstrang's castle and Quidditch field.

The leader of the wizard pirates who attacked the ship was a Bulgarian witch named Nelida Vokhanova, who attacked many ships by casting magic at sea. She was even regarded as a sea goddess by many superstitious Nordic Muggle sailors.

After introducing the origin of the "Molden", this "Drmstrang Saga" also introduced the origins of Durmstrang students: unlike Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, which has all its students from the UK, Durmstrang's students are spread all over Europe, but most of them are from Bulgaria and Nordic coastal countries.

"I see," Bourne looked at the little wizards sitting in the cabin. He also understood that the reason why these children did not chat was not only because of the presence of Professor Alfonso Ripa, but also because they might not be able to understand each other's language.

Don't think that Europeans generally speak several languages. Because mastering multiple languages ​​is something you can only do when you grow up and interact with other people outside your home.

Durmstrang does not recruit young wizards from Muggle families. Its students are either from mixed-race wizard families or from pure wizard families.

Combined with the current living conditions of wizards in Britain, Bourne can naturally understand how closed the wizarding community is.

For these young wizards who were born in half-blood or pure-blood wizard families, taking a ship to Durmstrang was the first time they left their villages. As you can imagine, they had no chance to master and use other languages.

"There are no language classes at Hogwarts. I wonder if there will be an additional compulsory language course at Durmstrang? Apart from the unlikely French and English, Bulgarian, Low German, High German, Danish-Norwegian, or some other language all seem possible."

As Bourne thought about this question, he recalled how humans in the Warhammer world communicated with each other using language. However, it seemed that the solution to the language communication problem there did not seem to be applicable to this world.

Because in official Imperial institutions, everyone communicates in standard Terran. Even most ordinary Astra Militarum soldiers, who may not have received enough actual military training, will be given a 15-minute "brain learning instrument" training before taking up weapons.

In this way, technology can be used to force them to at least understand the orders given by the commander in Terran, and those who are a little smarter can even master some spoken expressions in Terran.

This technological product, which has been passed down from the Golden Age, actually has two models: the "civilian version" and the "Astartes version".

The former allows some wealthy people to spend some money to learn a lot of knowledge that requires time to remember and master, naturally including language.

As for the latter, ordinary people are physically limited and their brains cannot process a larger flow of information, so forcing them to use it can easily lead to brain death. However, for Astartes, this machine is just right for training new recruits. Selected Astartes recruits can even use it to master various complex combat skills...

Of course, there is a possibility that accidents may occur among the chosen ones of Astartes, but that only proves that the recruits with accidents are not suitable to become Astartes.

And if you feel that using this "brain learning instrument" - even a low-end civilian version - will still waste too many throne coins.

There are actually other ways in the empire that can help people learn a new language quickly.

For example: agreeing to let the Mechanical Priest implant a wetware in his brain would not only cost nothing, but might even erase a debt.

But no matter what, if humans in the Warhammer universe want to quickly learn a new language, they still have to rely on the Empire's technological level that far exceeds that of the Harry Potter world.

"unless……"

As he was thinking, Bourne suddenly had an idea and a new idea came into his mind.

However, before he could think deeply, a violent shaking suddenly brought him back to reality.

The "Molden" sailing under the water seemed to have hit something. It was originally moving at a constant speed, but suddenly came to an emergency stop.

Under the influence of inertia, many little wizards were thrown out of their seats. Some hit their classmates next to them, and some fell directly onto the deck.

The sounds of "Ouch" and exclamations in various languages ​​filled the entire cabin for a moment.

At this time, Professor Alfonso Ripa stood up quickly, threw the novel aside, and while he was anxiously checking the conditions of the little wizards, he shouted out a name.

"Antonov!"

"Professor, I'm here!"

Following a reply with a strong tongue-twisting sound, a flap was opened from the ceiling of the cabin with a "click", and a thick hemp rope with a knot hung down from it.

First, a pair of buckled boots, tangled in the rope, looked like they hadn't been polished and had patches on the uppers, and then two sturdy legs in old trousers of coarse plain cloth.

The man slid down the rope, revealing his short golden hair. He was a young wizard of about 16 or 17 years old. Judging from the school badge on his blue and white striped sailor shirt, he must be a student of Durmstrang. However, he had a corncob pipe with a long stem in his mouth and wore a scarf stained with stains and wine.

"What's going on? Why did the ship stop? Did you secretly drink some 'water of life' while operating the steering wheel again?"

Professor Alfonso Ripa questioned the half-grown boy with some dissatisfaction.

"Professor, you know me well. If I had drunk the water of life, our ship would not be floating on the North Sea now, but should have returned to Durmstrang."

After hearing what the professor said, the little wizard named Antonov felt a little aggrieved and defended himself:

"Besides, in order to save money, Headmaster Karkaroff even reduced the food supply of the Giant Monster Engine by one third on this voyage.

The current number of bulls has dropped from six per hundred miles to four per hundred miles. If it weren’t for Harald and his men suppressing them with magic whips, those sea monsters might have rioted…”

"Stop, stop, stop. What did you just say? Are we still in the North Sea? Shouldn't there be no reefs or other obstacles here? Could it be that the Muggles are fighting over cod again? Is there a shipwreck here again?"

"No, Professor. There shouldn't be any Muggles fighting here. It's just that there seems to be an area nearby that cannot be mapped. Geographically speaking, this should be a department of the British Ministry of Magic."

As the helmsman of the "Molden", Antonov had extensive knowledge of navigation and he accurately determined the location of the ship.

"Wait, you said this is in the North Sea?"

Bourne suddenly thought of a possibility: Could this place be the island where Azkaban prison is located?

At this moment, he suddenly remembered the prank that the Sorting Hat played on all the students at Hogwarts when he entered school. The hat announced that he belonged to a house, which should be Azkaban...

"Okay, I admit that I made up a bunch of nonsense to scare children when I said the Sorting Hat would eat the heads of little wizards." Bourne couldn't help but feel a little ridiculous. "But Sorting Hat, Sorting Hat, you don't have to predict so accurately, right?"

That's right, as the thought that this place might be Azkaban came to his mind, his magical intuition immediately told him that his guess was most likely accurate.

When Bourne told Alfonso Ripa his guess, the Durmstrang professor couldn't help but become alert. He asked Antonov to return to his post and float the magic ship to the surface of the sea first. Although it was hidden under the sea, if something unexpected happened, he was not sure he could take good care of the seventy or eighty little wizards in the cabin.

Of course, that was only the worst case scenario, and Alfonso felt that things probably wouldn't go that far. After all, no matter how dangerous Azkaban prison was, there should be wizards from the British Ministry of Magic guarding it, and as long as they could contact the latter, they would be able to communicate.

However, he never expected that at this time, due to the escape of two serious criminals, the Aurors who came here to "renovate" the prison were attacking like crazy, and there were no wizards on duty on the island. What's worse is that there are still many terrible Dementors still here.

Moreover, these monsters, based on the principle of "taking chicken feathers as an arrow to gain authority", used the excuse that some prisoners had escaped and actually came out from the island where Azkaban prison was located.

The reason why the "Malden" came to an emergency stop was because it hit a Dementor underwater, triggering the magic ship's emergency avoidance mechanism.

At the same time, in the short one or two minutes that Antonov and Alfonso Ripa were reporting the situation, the Dementors that had been wandering around the nearby sea area gradually gathered around.

"Why do you feel a little cold?"

Alfonso realized something and immediately drew the swift sword from his waist and raised his magic wand.

"Stay here and don't move."

He said to everyone in the cabin.