From Azkaban to Hogwarts.

But this does not mean that there are only these three magic schools—each magic school has gradually developed from scratch. For example, the Ilvermorny School of Witchcraft and Wizardry in the United States was established and developed in the United States in the 17th century by the mixed-race descendants of the Gaunt family, descendants of Slytherin.

In the beginning, Ilvermorny School of Witchcraft and Wizardry consisted of only a dilapidated stone house, two professors, and two students—and wands so rudimentary they were an insult to Slytherin himself, which have since transformed into snakewood that still grows luxuriantly.

This information was provided by the school—not every magic school likes to expose its secrets, and the general public simply cannot obtain this kind of information.

Take Durmstrang, the school William and his group visited this time, for example. They were so stingy that they didn't even disclose their address, so students didn't even know which country they were studying in after they finished their studies.

Don't be fooled by the school's recommendation that William and his classmates learn German; it's purely Durmstrang's linguistic bias stemming from historical issues—although Grindelwald was expelled by Durmstrang back then, as the first Dark Lord's career flourished, speaking German became fashionable inside.

Although Dumbledore defeated Grindelwald in the duel, the school has no intention of changing it this time—Dumbledore is a pure Hogwarts student.

"Okay, I understand the general situation, but the final question is—how can we teach a class if the students don't know anything about it?"

William listened to the other professors' supplementary remarks and asked out of curiosity.

"Wait for the ship to pick them up; they have a large ship that they've been using until now—"

Professor Corey patiently explained, "It's a wooden boat, what era are we living in? Boats made of wood, tsk tsk..."

'The Hogwarts Express isn't much better...'

William couldn't help but want to complain, but he managed to hold it in with sheer willpower—now was the time to unite against a common enemy, and it wasn't the time to complain about the Hogwarts Express not living up to its name.

Although he was more inclined to criticize the Hogwarts Express, which looked like a train but was actually powered by magic, and said that the steam chimney of the locomotive was just for decoration and looked like a hot pot restaurant on a train, it was indeed inappropriate at the moment.

"If the time is correct, there are five minutes left."

The Ministry of Magic staff member glanced at the time and then confirmed—as for Professor Corey's earlier complaint, he gave a look as if he hadn't heard a thing.

"Wait, Professor, it won't be long." Adams chuckled, trying to smooth things over. "Hopefully we can get some good seeds this time. There are a few herbs that can only be openly grown here because of their uses."

It didn't take long, only a few minutes, before William's hand reached for the wand, and then the calm lake in front of them began to ripple.

'Strange...why is the water like this?'

William instinctively took a step back and then observed the surface of the water—it looked like something was about to emerge from the water, but the water flowed as if something was being sucked in.

'Spatial movement similar to Apparition?'

'Was it draining a section of water and replacing the hull, or...'

Such an idea was tempting, but William's knowledge was insufficient for him to understand the problem—although he had been working hard on Apparition, an escape spell, it was not his main focus.

Chapter 324 Negotiations are the responsibility of the Ministry of Magic, exchanges are the responsibility of the professors.

Although William had often criticized the British Ministry of Magic, believing that most of its staff were incompetent people who got in through connections, he had to admit one thing after the negotiations began—the Ministry of Magic had managed to survive until now because there were people who actually got things done.

To be more precise, the negotiations are currently being handled by several Ministries of Magic, while the professor teams on both sides are essentially acting as mascots.

There's no way around it; everyone has their own expertise. If a group of professors who are busy teaching all day long can outmaneuver the Ministry of Magic in negotiations, then the Minister of Magic's office might as well just move to the Hogwarts Headmaster's office.

"So, we're the mascots for this negotiation, right?"

After a long and tedious half-day of negotiations, William ate while asking Adams questions—he really didn't know anything about this.

"The negotiations have only just begun, what's the rush..."

Adams yawned and said things he didn't even believe himself.

'You didn't fall asleep during the negotiations, did you...?'

William made irresponsible speculations, then casually glanced at Durmstrang's decorations—he couldn't very well directly expose Adams's slacking off during negotiations, could he?

Not to mention Adams, even he himself was tempted to slack off, as he simply couldn't muster any energy.

"Hey William, that mark over there."

Just as William's gaze fell upon a suit of armor that might have been enchanted with several protective spells, Adams nudged him. "That wall over there, that's Grindelwald's insignia."

Indeed, William recognized it at a glance.

As a self-proclaimed professor of self-defense who considered himself fairly competent, he naturally knew something about Grindelwald—one who didn't understand dark magic couldn't be good at dealing with it, and Grindelwald himself was an unavoidable figure in the study of dark magic.

Basically, every famous dark magic spell is associated with a famous dark wizard, and their spellcasting records are used to illustrate the spell's maximum power—for example, the Three Unforgivables are associated with the Dark Lord, and the Basilisk Hatching Spell is associated with the despicable Helbo…

As for Grindelwald, although the dark magic associated with him wasn't as famous, he was the inventor of many dark magic spells. William still remembers that the reason Grindelwald was expelled from Durmstrang was because the dark magic he had developed during his studies had made the school feel fearful.

“Yes,” William gestured with his hand, “that’s right, the UMNO symbol.”

He lowered his voice, "It is said that the Death Eaters later learned this technique and then carved the Dark Mark on their arms."

Of course, if you ask the Death Eaters about this, you'll definitely be met with a dark magic attack—our Dark Lord is incredibly intelligent, our bloodline is unparalleled, and we Death Eaters absolutely did not plagiarize!

“Indeed,” Adams also lowered his voice, “I’ve read in the newspapers before that whether Professor Snape had that mark on his hand is still a mystery at the school.”

"real or fake?"

Speaking of this gossip, William was no longer sleepy. Although Professor Snape's cards, connections, and advocacy of dark magic resembled those of Death Eaters, there was no conclusive evidence.

“Of course it’s true,” Adams said, perking up. “I heard about it too, and it’s related to how we got here—you know Karkaroff betrayed the Death Eaters to avoid trial, right?”

"Of course, I've heard about this many times."

The story of the lucky one who stepped into Azkaban is far more widely known than the other stories of pure-blood escaping punishment.

“It is said that Karkaroff betrayed Professor Snape’s name—” Adams said in a low voice, “but Dumbledore saved him.”

'The gossip circulating on campus is getting out of hand...'

This was William's first thought. As for the fact that Professor Snape was a Death Eater, it didn't surprise him much—so be it. Anyway, with Dumbledore vouching for him, there shouldn't be any problem.

Although he hadn't been at Hogwarts for long, he was confident he'd seen more Death Eaters than half the professors in the castle. Death Eaters were nothing to be surprised about; the core members of Azkaban were practically invincible.

After a few brief gossips, it was lunchtime—as the host, Durmstrang's hospitality was quite good.

"You're saying this really isn't Germany?"

Adams cut off a large piece of pork knuckle with a knife, remarking, "Even the dishes are mostly German."

"I'm not sure. Hogwarts isn't all British food, the elves are pretty good cooks—but who's in charge of Durmstrang's kitchen anyway?"

William also bought some for himself. Because he was craving the books in the library, he didn't have the time to speculate about the location of the school.

The magic used by a group of smuggling gangs to pinpoint locations should have been well defended against, but there are still other houses.

Although I didn't actually do it, I recorded the weather for the past few days and then compared it with satellite images from the Muggle world. Although it's not accurate, I should be able to determine the approximate location.

Of course, the weather can be faked, and while controlling the weather with magic is a luxury, it's not impossible.

Therefore, with the addition of auxiliary methods, the latitude and longitude can be easily determined. Although it is still not very accurate, the influence of this magic is much smaller.

Such a large school, not just a single building, is not so easy to hide.

But—what if it turns out well?

Could he possibly sneak in during summer or winter vacation?

This is clearly a criminal act, and he's not insane—at least the matter of investigating the Death Eaters in Professor Snape's office was something he was doing, which was practically dancing on the edge of Azkaban. But at least it was something he was forced to do under various circumstances, and his conscience was clear. What's wrong with illegally stealing someone else's intellectual property?

For a little bit of knowledge—well, for enough knowledge, he's willing to break the law—what's the difference between him and a dark wizard?

Adams, standing nearby, was completely oblivious to the fact that William had already envisioned a way to break the magic that shielded his position; he was busy dealing with a huge lump of sauerkraut.

“It tastes good,” he nodded. “Although Durmstrang was founded by Bulgarians, I prefer to think of it as being in Germany.”

As they were talking, another dish on the table, which had been mostly eaten, disappeared, and then a new dish appeared—fish and chips.

Without a doubt, this is British cuisine tailored to the visiting professor's tastes.

'Thank goodness it wasn't gazing at the stars.'

The professors looked at the plate and then laughed in unison—they didn't like the dish either.

"I'm sorry, is it because our chefs aren't making it authentic enough?"

As the banquet was drawing to a close, a Durmstrang professor sat down with William and his group, looking at them with a slightly serious expression.

William, who was closest to him but hadn't touched a bite, glanced at Adams. Adams then looked to another professor for help, and finally, Professor Corey, who was a little older, nodded in response.

"It's very good, but the portion isn't very large, so everyone is being considerate of each other."

Professor Corey was lying through his teeth—but he couldn't very well admit that British food was bad, could he?

"That's great, we were quite worried that we wouldn't have treated you well enough."

The Durmstrang professor looked relieved, which didn't seem like a typical German—but it's normal for admissions to be so decentralized and professors to be so disorganized here.

What followed was half a day of rambling, mostly about the weather, with little substance. Clearly, the professor had done his homework quite thoroughly.

After a long pause, the professor, who identified himself as Baker DeWitt, finally revealed the specifics of the matter.

"I imagine everyone must be a bit tired from the negotiations this morning. If the Hogwarts professors are willing, we can slightly change the itinerary this afternoon—would any of you be interested in visiting our castle?"

Professor Corey, who was relatively old and fluent in German, vaguely became the representative.

"Of course, I think it's a good itinerary."

-

Clearly, negotiation isn't something that Hogwarts professors are bad at.

"Negotiations? In my opinion, the Triwizard Tournament is just an exchange activity between the three schools. There's no need to make it so complicated—the Ministry of Magic is just making things too serious."

"Of course, the mortality rate used to be far too high, which is something we must be careful about."

"Yes, of course, we are all extremely concerned about the safety of students, and everyone is working hard for it."

"As for the exchange activities, although we can only see the Triwizard Tournament from a hundred years ago from those records, I think there must have been a lot of discussions about each other's teaching successes. We are different from the Ministry of Magic. Rather than making the activities very lively, we pay more attention to the improvement of teaching brought about by the exchanges, don't we?"

"Yes, the Ministry of Magic does the same thing in both places, but there are reasons for it."

As it turns out, without the Ministry of Magic, the professors actually communicated more freely—even if it was just small complaints about the Ministry of Magic, it was very helpful.

"Although it may be a bit presumptuous, we still want to do a simple interaction."

"Yes, a little bit of activities with the students."

"However, please allow us to keep certain issues confidential, as the question of whether that match should be restarted is still under discussion."

"Simple questions and exchanges can also help us understand each other better."

After rambling on for a while, Professor Baker finally managed to explain things clearly—in short, they planned to show the Hogwarts professors what their students were like, and also let the children know something about Hogwarts, which was so far away.

This is a normal exchange activity. Although Professor McGonagall is still negotiating over there, she wouldn't refuse such a thing even if she were there.

Others are just showing themselves, not coming to Hogwarts to investigate. If we can't even grant such a request, then there's no point in having the Triwizard Tournament.