"... In recent years, Karkaroff seems to have finally stopped focusing on dealing with the local Ministry of Magic, and has really focused on education. Durmstrang is in good shape now... At least as far as I know, many Parents agree that their children are indeed learning a lot at school."
On the lakeside pier behind the castle, Maka was standing side by side with Professor McGonagall. Since this place is located under a cliff, there are many vines blocking the sunlight at the entrance to the ship, making it a bit dark all year round.
At the edge of the dock next to the two of them, a magic lamp was hung on a metal pole inserted diagonally into the ground, emitting a light that was not too bright.
At the moment, Professor McGonagall is talking to Maka about Durmstrang's current situation.
"Although I don't know why Karkaroff suddenly changed his temper, but as long as he can continue like this, I believe that Durmstrang will sooner or later become the magic school that was popular with children in the past."
Obviously, for McGonagall, she is more concerned about the future of her students—whether they are students at Hogwarts or Durmstrang.
"Well, I hope so!" Maka shrugged, "After all, children are the future!"
In fact, he knew where Karkaroff's changes came from.
I remember that when he went to Durmstrang, he gave him some small suggestions. The reason why Karkaroff began to pay attention to the development of education was probably because of what he said at that time.
Of course, it is impossible to turn that sneaky old guy into a caring principal. That guy would do this, presumably just to cultivate his own reputation and power.
The two of them were talking casually when they suddenly saw a piece of water not far away surging like boiling water.
"Oh, here it comes!"
Before Maka could finish her words, suddenly, a large black shadow suddenly rose from under the water. It was a huge sea ship, and the noise of the waves instantly occupied his field of vision.
"boom!"
When the ship emerged from the water, its bow was tilted upward. And when the hull was pulled back by gravity, it naturally slapped hard on the water, and the aroused water curtain almost pressed towards Maka and Mag.
When Maka saw it, she immediately raised her hand to block it, causing the huge wave to turn into a water column and pull it back into the water.
"This at least reminds us that when we use it to move during our study tour... Even if it is not a Muggle port, we must remember not to teleport too close to the dock! Otherwise, it will be easy to go to those who welcome us. Splashed with water..."
After a large amount of lake water fell back, Maka chuckled and complained.
"Crack-"
As the gangplank on the ship automatically flipped up and was set up at the front of the dock, the hatch on the ship also opened in response, and several Durmstrang seniors in charge of driving the ship walked out behind Karkaroff.
But what makes Macca slightly regretful is that Krum has already graduated from Durmstrang and went to be the star seeker of the Bulgarian team.
"Oh, Mr. Karkaroff! It's been such a long time!"
Maka greeted him immediately, and with a smile on his face, he shook hands with everyone, including several accompanying students, in a friendly manner.
If you have to dig deeper, he is actually still a professor at Durmstrang - although he seems to have never taught even half a class there from beginning to end.
"Um...hehe, yes, long time no see..."
To be honest, even though Karkaroff was still smiling, it looked a little unnatural. He has never forgotten the rather hard-core "Expelliarmus" that Maka gave him back then.
All right! In fact, Maka still remembers it very clearly.
"Mr. Karkaroff, thank you very much for lending us the Change this time! I have to say that in today's magical world, such a large magical ship is of extraordinary value!"
"No, you're welcome!" Karkaroff nodded to Maka, and then said to Professor McGonagall, "Our two schools have had a practice of helping each other since the Middle Ages, just borrowing ships, and It’s not a big deal!”
"We at Hogwarts will definitely remember your school's generosity," McGonagall immediately nodded and said, "Please—it's lunch time soon. If you don't mind, please taste our school's delicacies again!"
When Helga Hufflepuff was still there, the food at Hogwarts was famous all over the world. Although many recipes and cooking spells have not been handed down, the house elves' craftsmanship still retains the imagination of Hufflepuff back then.
So at least for a school like Durmstrang, which never pays attention to appetite, the meals at Hogwarts still have considerable appeal.
As soon as they heard that there was delicious food to be enjoyed, the Durmstrang students wearing fur cloaks immediately turned their heads to look at Karkaroff's side face with bright eyes.
"Oh! Of course - those children have always been obsessed with your school's delicious food since the Tri-Wizard Tournament! Look at them, if I dare to refuse, they will fight me tooth and nail!"
It can be seen that Karkaroff's attitude towards students has indeed changed a lot. If it had been in the past, I would have just acted indifferent from beginning to end.
But in fact, he had planned to stay for a meal today - not to enjoy the food, but to talk to Maka about something.
Maka saw him looking towards her and then raised her hand to invite:
"Then please! I went to the kitchen to give instructions before coming here. The hall must be ready by now - house elves are always very nimble with their hands and feet."
After saying this, he turned around and walked towards the door at the back of the pier. As he walked, he said loudly:
"Stop hiding in there and sneaking around! Do you think you can't come out to take a look? No one is stopping you... Now give way, don't all gather in the corridor and block the way of the guests!"
It was the short break before lunch. Someone probably noticed the movement while passing by, and it spread like wildfire one by one.
Since Professor McGonagall has not yet informed the students that the Traveling Society will travel by boat, the little wizards are quite curious at this moment, thinking that Maka has come up with some interesting and good idea.
After Maca temporarily drove away these doubtful and surprised students, Durmstrang and his team followed him and Professor McGonagall, walking straight along the corridor towards the main castle's auditorium.
…
"There are many gatherings of dark wizards in Norway and Sweden?"
At the dining table, in addition to normal meals, there is naturally indispensable chatting. Depending on the person who opens the topic, the content of the chat is often divided into relaxed and serious ones.
Just like today, the topic brought by Karkaroff seems to be a bit heavy.
"Yes," he nodded, obviously troubled by this matter, "Although the dark wizards who participated in the gathering hardly disturbed the nearby residents, I think that is always a question that needs to be investigated. question."
In fact, most wizards know something about the situation in the Nordic magic world. There, the existence of dark wizards is known to everyone and is not a secret.
And because the dark wizards there had formed a fairly stable organization many years ago, they interfered with each other with the local Ministry of Magic, and they also had very strict internal rules as constraints.
To put it bluntly, the Nordic magic world is a place where black magic is prevalent. Even magic schools like Durmstrang have some ordinary black magic teaching.
But even so, dark wizards are still a type of people who are harmful to maintaining social stability. Now that dark wizards gather frequently, it is no wonder that Karkaroff and the local Ministry of Magic are worried.
"What kind of gathering is it specifically? Has the Ministry of Magic found out?"
Of course, Maka knew what Karkaroff was worried about—it was nothing more than fear that those gatherings were related to Halpo, and might even be hosted by Halpo himself.
"Well, not to mention the Aurors from the Ministry of Magic, I also hired people to investigate secretly." Karkaroff leaned towards Maka again, leaned closer and said, "I believe you also know, The dark wizards over there have a very large organization, which is much larger than the Ministry of Magic in terms of number of people... "
"But this time, because of the birth of Haierbo, there seemed to be obvious differences in the management within the organization - some of the dark wizards wanted to join Haierbo, while others did not agree, thinking that if they followed Haierbo, they would only be treated as Sacrifice.”
After hearing this, Maka nodded slightly and said:
"It seems that there are still smart people among them... So, what happened to the gathering? The two groups of people plan to separate and do their own thing?"
"No, on the contrary!" Karkaroff frowned and said, "Both parties obviously know the importance of collective strength. Regardless of whether they want to follow Haierbo or not, they do not want to split. So..."
After a short pause, he couldn't help but sigh and said:
"There may be a fierce fight within their organization, and once it happens, the scale will definitely not be small! By then, except for Iceland, which is located overseas, the magic world in the Nordic countries will probably be in chaos for a while... I'm worried, then Haier Bo may secretly take the opportunity to intervene."
"Well," Maka nodded, "if Haierbo gathers the group of dark wizards, this will indeed become a big problem -"
After finishing her words, Maka stuffed a piece of tender and juicy beef into her mouth and pondered to herself. Finally, he added:
"No matter what, it is definitely right to inform Mr. Akinbad first, and this matter should be dealt with by the International Federation of Wizards, right?"