Chapter 375

By the time the dinner started, Byers had become friends with Neville to the point that, in turn, he had mingled with Harry and his group.

“Yes, very different,” at the moment, he is introducing the Gryffindor students about the Ilvermorny’s sorting ceremony, “I was shocked when I first saw it, the main entrance of the castle has two founders marble statues on either side – Isolt Sayre and James Steward. Through the main entrance is a circular room where we conduct the sorting …”

He drew a circle on the table to indicate the shape of the room, then dotted four small dots.

“See,” Byers said, pointing to the dots, “those are statues of creatures representing the four houses, and the new students will stand against the wall, waiting for their names to be called. I was standing on Gordian Knot, panicked, surrounded by faces as nervous as mine, and when I looked up, I could see the older students and professors on the second level terrace-”

“What is the Gordian Knot?” Seamus asked, intrigued.

Byers showed him the golden knot on his robe: “It’s this, the thing that’s used to fasten the school robe. It’s complicated, but it’s a tradition at our school, and everyone is required to know it.”

“Where was I? Oh, standing on the Gordian Knot and then just waiting to see which statue would respond… I was feeling like a year had passed, and luckily the Thunderbird statue responded.” He thankfully said.

Harry empathized, when he was a first-year, his sorting took a long time, it was because the sorting hat strongly recommended that he should go to Slytherin, and he insisted that he would not accept, and eventually got sorted into Gryffindor House.

He couldn’t help but ask, ” Did any freshman ever encounter a situation where two statues responded to him at the same time?”

“There should be.” Byers recalled: “But I have not encountered it, this kind of situation is very rare … The most famous one is Lady Seraphina Picquery. When all four houses tried to recruit her, and it proved – she was worth it, she later became the president of the Magical Congress of the United States of America.”

“She did a great job while in office, but she is more often remembered for standing up to pressure without banning Gigglewater … than for creating a protective act for magical creatures.”

Hermione said pointedly, “For the love of Deliverance Dane, what was that?”

Byers looked at her in surprise.

“Did I say something wrong?” Hermione asked in a quiet voice.

“No,” Byers said, “I think you read that name from a book? Deliverance Dane?”

Hermione nodded and spoke cautiously, “The book stated that Drievrens Dane was one of the victims of the Salem Witch Trials in the seventeenth century and that her name was later used as a colloquialism to express surprise.”

Byers stifled a laugh and said, “You’re right, but that is a term my grandmother’s generation loved to use, the book you read must be old …”

Hermione’s face turned bright red.

The Gryffindor young wizards started to laugh, it is rare to see Miss Know-it-all getting embarrassed.

After the laughter, Ron asked curiously, “So … what exactly is Gigglewater?”

…

“Want some? Gigglewater, it’s as old as the Magical Congress, and there is a taste of history in every sip.” Cormac Wilkinson, Professor of Defense Against the Dark Arts of Ilvermorny, asked, shaking a large, rugged flask with the rousing sound of the liquor inside.

Felix shook his head lightly, “I can’t stand booze that’s too strong.”

“Young people don’t know good …,” Wilkinson muttered, turning his head, “And you, Professor Moody, would you like some? Just one sip, and you’ll be cracking up.”

Moody patted the curved flask at his waist and said gruffly, “I only drink my own.”

Professor Wilkinson’s eyes lit up, and he moved over to ask, “What’s that good stuff?”

“Inferior liquor, got used to it, when I am Auror I used to sneak a sip,” Moody tapped his cane on the floor: “Professor Wilkinson, what do you think about my proposal?”

Two seats away, McGonagall looked away, unable to keep a straight face. She still couldn’t defend herself, as she let Professor Moody’s “special teaching concept of Defense Against the Dark Arts” be exposed on the first day, without even an additional day of buffer time.

“Oh, uh, this …” Wilkinson’s tone slurred, “I did not expect Hogwarts’ teaching style to be so aggressive, I heard some rumours before, but now it seems there should be some misunderstanding …”

He gulped a large mouthful of Gigglewater and burst into a burst of wild laughter, his face flushed. Then he began to loudly recount the glory of his ancestors, “Charity Wilkinson! One of the twelve Original American Aurors! She is my great-great-great-grandmother, the one of the two … who have survived till their old age.”

At the end of the dinner, he was brought out of the castle on the shoulders of four Pukwudgie and followed the Ilvermorny delegation towards the temporary quarter in the Quidditch pitch.

Occasionally, the Hogwarts students could still hear his drunken voice drifting through the dark sky – “To Charity Wilkinson!” “To Theodard Fontaine!” and “To the Twelve Aurors!”

“He looks pissed off, that Ilvermorny Headmaster.” Felix said teasingly.

The Headmaster of Ilvermorny is a very rule-following person, but Professor Wilkinson’s performance today is somewhat embarrassing, perhaps what is more embarrassing is that this professor is dragged away senselessly by the cold-faced Pukwudgie, which is so contrary to the subjects he teaches …

Professor McGonagall, whose expression all along has been very serious, smiled.

But immediately she looked up again and said sadly, “I’m worried that Professor Moody will cause a mess …”

Her fears became a reality.

In the new week, Moody showed no qualms about the feelings of the new Ilvermorny students and used a malicious Switching Spell in the seventh-grade classroom, in which the students’ noses had been switched between plants, bottles, books, and all sorts of bizarre things.

He growled gruffly, “Some of you were selected and passed the test of fear … Yeah, you think it’s great … but as far as I’m concerned, it’s all an illusion! Small stuff! We’ll need to try the real thing, right?”

His fake eye darted around and fixed on the few students in the classroom, including the Ilvermorny students.

Collins Foley covered her face up, her eyes tearing up, as she waved her wand desperately, and after a few moments-

“Bang!”

The effect of the spell disappeared, and Collins covered her intact nose, the stone in her heart finally fell to the ground.

“Well done!” Moody limped over, “Look, this is the effect I want. You’re supposed to learn to deflect vicious spells and learn how to break them. Ten points for Slytherin!”

In the afternoon, Felix flipped through the roll call in the Ancient Runes classroom.

“Why are two people missing?”

He looked at Byers, who stammered, “They, they’re not feeling well and resting in the quarters…”

Felix’s mind became clear, maybe they were scared by Moody’s malicious spells? But there is no need to skip his class.

“All right, class,” he scanned the room, “let’s move on to the lesson. Given all the eye-catching events that will be happening this year, your minds are doomed to be distracted … Let’s work harder to get through this school year’s lessons before the first event begins.”n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

The young wizards below the podium responded weakly; they had always been ahead of their learning schedule. This ‘ahead of schedule’ is in comparison to the assessment standards of the Ministry of Magic’s Wizard Examinations Authority, the department responsible for organizing the students’ O.W.Ls and N.E.W.Ts level examinations.

Since Professor Hap joined the school, the young wizards’ ancient runes scores have skyrocketed upward. The batch of students who graduated at the end of June this year, except for one who received only a good (E), all the rest got the highest grade of excellence (O).

According to the professor, “The Ministry of Magic is too sluggish to respond to it yet, but you can’t keep expecting them to turn a blind eye, after all, a large string of ‘Outstanding’ is still very conspicuous …”

“Maybe one day they’ll think about it and will come to Hogwarts and re-rate the class difficulty and assessment criteria.”

…

The students of Ilvermorny looked around in amazement, and the Hogwarts students seemed to have no objection to this Professor Hap’s words. This made them wonder if they had heard it wrong, did he really intend to finish teaching a whole year’s worth of content in three months?

“Professor, do you know the competition time of the first event?” A student raised his hand and asked.

“It should be between late November and early December,” Felix said, “One is to leave enough time for the champions to prepare, and two, it’s best not to delay the Yule Ball, and the time frame I just mentioned is pretty much satisfied that requirement.”

He tapped on the table and pulled the students into the thinking room.

The space is no longer restricted and expanded to its fullest, a cluster of fluffy flowers and tall yew trees rise from the ground, and the students of Ilvermorny and Byers opened their mouths wide with shocked faces as they caught the magical handbook floating down in midair.

When their fingertips touched the handbook that emitted an ancient aura, dots of golden light flashed, and a large amount of ancient runes’ knowledge appeared in their minds, and Byers felt as if he is in a dream world.

This is what true magic should be …

“I’ll assign the task.” Felix said, “Read through the textbook again, you will discover that the contents inside are quite interesting …”

…

Time passed without notice by a week, and the students of Ilvermorny blended into the ocean like a drop of water, even if there were occasional waves, they didn’t set off any turmoil.

At a meeting of faculty on Friday evening, Professor McGonagall dropped two bombshells.

“First thing, the list of dark magic agreed upon by the Ministry of Magic that can be ‘reasonably’ used at the Tournament of Champions was arrived.” As she spoke, a sheet of Parchments floated towards all the professors present.

Felix looked at the long list of spells written out in black ink and fell into contemplation.

“Secondly, the delegation from Ilvermorny asked us whether we could allow the preparatory champions of the two schools to practice against each other, including familiarizing and defending themselves against the dark magic above.”

She said with an expressionless face, “Let’s discuss it.”

———–

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