Hogwarts: Bourne Returns from Warhammer

Ezio shrugged, seemingly uncommenting on Krum's words.

"Your Thor Academy is actually better. The students in our Loki Academy are difficult to deal with," he thought of some things that gave him a headache.

So he snatched the bottle of spiced wine from Krum, pulled out the oak cork, and poured the remaining "drink" into his mouth.

"Can you imagine, those senior students, right from the start, teaching the first years to secretly play Exploding Dung in the common room.

Moreover, they mainly teach the freshmen how to cheat at cards.

A full set of cheating skills is sold for 2 Sickles, and they will make it into a booklet and sell it to freshmen.

Those who still have a little conscience have been trying to persuade the freshmen to join in their pranks, and the targets of the pranks are the students from other schools who come to participate in the "Potions Championship".

Their theory is that freshmen are novices, novices have a protection period, and having novices involved can greatly increase the success rate of pranks.

I feel like my time as a prefect is coming to an end. Principal Karkaroff is always planning to include the appointment and removal of prefects within the principal's power. This year, he will probably find a reason to take action against me."

Ezio, the male class leader of Loki Academy, has a lot to complain about his troublesome classmates and can complain about them anytime and anywhere.

Unlike Hogwarts in the UK and Ilvermorny in the United States, Durmstrang has only two houses, named after the two most famous gods in Norse mythology: one is Thor House and the other is Loki House.

The former advocates courage, but in many cases, the distinction between courage and brutality is not so clear. The latter advocates wisdom, but in many cases, wisdom can also degenerate into trickery.

Durmstrang also has a prefect system similar to that of Hogwarts, but they do not distinguish between men and women, and only believe in the principle of "the strong are respected".

Therefore, in Sol Academy and Loki Academy, there will only be one prefect in each grade every year.

The power of the prefects at Durmstrang is much greater than that of the prefects at Hogwarts, because they are not appointed by the headmaster or professors, but are elected by the students and are only responsible to the school board.

It is worth mentioning that, over the past many years, Durmstrang's funding was not as good as Beauxbatons, which had no shortage of gold, but it was much more than Hogwarts. (Official)

This is related to the history of Durmstrang's founding. The founder of this magic school was a Bulgarian witch, and her other identity was a pirate queen in the Atlantic during the Age of Exploration.

At the beginning, Durmstrang actually guaranteed assignments. All the students who graduated would become wizard pirates, robbing Muggle spice ships and Manila galleons that brought silver from America.

The senior officer often becomes a management officer such as the first mate or the boatswain once he or she is on board.

"Let's get down to business, shall we?"

After listening to Ezio's complaints for a while, Krum finally couldn't help but interrupt him.

"After all, I didn't sneak out of the common room in the middle of the night to have a tryst with my girlfriend, but to get some fresh air here. We still have to hurry up... Did I bring what I needed?"

Victor Krum, who was fifteen years old at the time, had deep eyes and squinted slightly when he spoke in the dark. Although he was wearing a fur cape, he was wearing thin pajamas underneath.

Even though it wasn't winter yet, the nights in Durmstrang were still somewhat chilly, otherwise Ezio wouldn't have drunk spiced wine to keep warm while waiting here.

"Playboy" Ezio nodded, then took out a thick book wrapped tightly from his cloak and handed it to the other party: "The library is doing a big cleanup recently, and all the books related to Muggles will probably be completely burned this time.

The school seems to be discussing canceling the Muggle Studies course... I used some of my ex-girlfriend's connections... You know, I really don't want to ask them for help unless it's absolutely necessary. But who made Ms. Vanya recently promoted to librarian?

Here, the book you asked for, "How Muggles Play Quidditch" was rescued from the fire. Okay, where's the information I wanted?"

"Don't be so anxious, let me check the goods first."

The other party sat down slowly on an empty desk against the wall and read a book with relish by the light of his wand. In the eyes of the "playboy" Ezio, Krum's suspicious hobby of studying Muggles was really a bit unbelievable.

When he got the book, he flipped through it himself, but "How Muggles Play Quidditch "Football"" was very boring.

There are no wonderful stories or vivid color illustrations on it. Every page is filled with dense text and symbols.

Even though he was the prefect of Loki Academy, who was known for his admiration of wisdom, he actually felt that such books were meaningless.

In a game of Quidditch, isn't it about which team's Beater can knock the other team unconscious, or which team's Seeker can quickly find the Golden Snitch, that wins the game?

"I really don't see why you need this book," Ezio said, his voice full of sarcasm.

"That has nothing to do with you." Krum checked the book to make sure there were no torn or smudged pages, then asked, "How much do you want?"

Victor Krum wanted to finish this deal quickly.

After all, although he has a good relationship with Ezio, the relationship between the Thor and Loki houses in Durmstrang is actually a bit like that between Gryffindor and Slytherin in Hogwarts - it can't be said that they are respectful to each other, but it can also be said that they quarrel as soon as they meet.

He didn't want anyone to know that he, the prefect of Thor Academy, and Ezio, the prefect of Loki Academy, had secretly met each other in the middle of the night.

Considering Ezio's nickname "Playboy", Krum has to be more careful about his reputation.

However, what Ezio said next surprised Krum: "I don't want money."

Originally, because books related to Muggles were difficult to find in Durmstrang, and niche books like those specifically introducing Muggle sports activities were even more difficult to find, Krum was ready to be ripped off.

Knowing Ezio well, he expected the price to be around 10 Markgronds, and he would immediately open his wallet if the price was less than that.

However, Ezio, who always said "you have to pay more", suddenly said "I don't want money"...

Krum instinctively thought that the class leader of Loki Academy was definitely up to something.

"I don't want to owe anyone a favor," Krum said in a low voice. He was willing to go on a night adventure for a book that cost about 10 Markgrunds, but he definitely didn't like to owe anyone a favor for a book.

Ezio stretched out a finger and shook it. "You misunderstood. I didn't mean to ask for money. I wanted a piece of information from you."

Krum showed a puzzled look on his face. Apart from the fact that the Bulgarian national team really had a Veela team manager, he didn't think he had any secrets that Ezio didn't know - they were all prefects of Durmstrang, who didn't know who?

Ezio saw Krum's confusion, so he didn't beat around the bush and asked directly, "Is the symbol of the Deathly Hallows still in the common room of Thor Academy?"

"You also know about this?"

"Who told you this?"

Krum did not answer directly, but his surprise and the two questions he asked gave Ezio a positive answer.

"I see," Ezio nodded. "Now we owe each other nothing. Goodbye."

After saying this, he changed his previous lazy expression, and seemed to have drunk a bottle of stimulant. He left the trophy display room with brisk steps, leaving Krum in a daze.

“Did I do something wrong…”

Knowing this guy who was still considered a friend, Krum knew that he was definitely trying to stir up trouble by doing this.

"...I hope he doesn't make a big scene. After all, the Potions Championship is being held this year, and young wizards from magic schools all over the world have come to Durmstrang. If something goes wrong, Durmstrang will lose face."

Krum was a little uneasy, because although Ezio was a rational man, he was a prefect of Loki House after all (stereotypes are widespread in the wizarding world. It's not just the Lion House and the Serpent House at Hogwarts that dislike each other, the Thor House and the Vulcan House at Durmstrang are actually the same).

So, what exactly is this "symbol of the Deathly Hallows" that Ezio mentioned?

The so-called Deathly Hallows are the Elder Wand, the Resurrection Stone and the Death Cloak.

According to legend, if a wizard possesses all three Deathly Hallows at the same time, he/she can conquer death and become the master of Death.

The symbol of the Deathly Hallows also consists of three parts: the vertical line in the middle represents the Elder Wand; the circle represents the Resurrection Stone, which is a stone that can resurrect the dead; and the triangle represents the Invisibility Cloak, which is a cloak that can make a person truly invisible and escape the sight of death.

Many wizards throughout history have searched for and collected the Deathly Hallows, but it seems that no one has ever been able to truly collect all three.

In fact, with the exception of a very small number of wizards who have actually possessed the Deathly Hallows, most wizards today believe that they are just a legend.

Krum actually thought so too.

However, to this day there are still some wizards who are obsessed with the legend of the Deathly Hallows, and among them there are even some famous and powerful wizards.

For example, Grindelwald, the most famous wizard in Durmstrang's history - there is a high probability that he is also the most powerful person in the history of this magic school - who once spread terror to the whole world and almost provoked a world war between wizards and Muggles, is one of the seekers of the Deathly Hallows.

Moreover, Krum's senior had cast a spell at Durmstrang, leaving a Deathly Hallows symbol on the wall that still remains today, more than 80 years ago.

After the fall of Grindelwald and his "Saints", some headmasters and professors wanted to cast a spell to remove the symbol. However, no matter what magical cleansers or spells they used, they could not do anything about the symbol.

After all, that was the mark left by Grindelwald when he was about to graduate. His magical attainments were by no means comparable to those of the headmasters and professors.

Speaking of Grindelwald, there are still some young wizards in the two academies who admire him.

There is even a tradition preserved in Sol Academy that freshmen must swear on the first day of enrollment not to reveal even a little information about the Deathly Hallows symbol in the Sol Academy common room to anyone other than Sol Academy.

It was precisely because of this that Krum had answered Ezio's question with two rhetorical questions just now. Wizards were always wary of things like oaths.

But he didn't know how shocked Ezio was after hearing his answer.

Regardless of which house, students at Durmstrang know that Senior Grindelwald left an indelible mark of the Deathly Hallows in the school. However, students from both houses believed that the mark was in their own common room.

In other words, none of them knew that Durmstrang had more than one Deathly Hallows symbol.

The person who spread the rumor that Durmstrang had "a" Deathly Hallows Mark and induced the students of the two houses to swear not to reveal the secret must be trying to hide some real secret.

"...Or maybe, this is actually just a clue, left for those who are destined and interested to discover it. Moreover...there are three Deathly Hallows, and two marks have appeared in Durmstrang. There is no guarantee that there will not be a third mark somewhere in the school...At the same time, the person who left this clue may actually be the one..."

On the way back to the common room of Loki Academy, Ezio kept turning this matter over in his mind, and the more he thought about it, the more possible it seemed.

He also became more and more curious. If Grindelwald really left something in Durmstrang, then what did he leave and why did he leave it here?

"It can't really be the Deathly Hallows, right?"

Ezio's heart also began to heat up.

However, the class leader was not completely obsessed with "thinking about beautiful things", but instead reserved some of his energy to observe his surroundings.

Therefore, while walking, Ezio suddenly stopped and asked, "Who? Who is following me? Come out!"

As he questioned, Ezio's figure became blurry. He cast an Invisibility Spell on himself, without even saying the spell. It was obvious that he was already very skilled in this spell.

In the empty corridor, behind a marble column, a person walked out. Or to be more precise, a little black wizard with a natural protective color for this time of year appeared.