History

LIX. BACK TO HOGWARTS

chapter fifty-nine; the goblet of fire

1994

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Harry, Ron, Zoe and Hermione said goodbye to the twins and Ginny and went back to their compartment. The thick rain splattering the windows made it very difficult to see out of them. Ron undid his trunk, pulled out his maroon dress robes, and flung them over Pigwidgeon's cage to muffle his hooting.

"Bagman wanted to tell us what's happening at Hogwarts," he said grumpily, sitting down next to Harry. "At the World Cup, remember? But my own mother won't say. Wonder what. . . ."

"Shh!" Hermione whispered suddenly, pressing her finger to her lips and pointing toward the compartment next to theirs. Zoe, Harry and Ron listened, and heard a familiar drawling voice drifting in through the open door.

". . . .Father actually considered sending me to Durmstrang rather than Hogwarts, you know. He knows the headmaster, you see. Well, you know his opinion of Dumbledore, the man's such a Mudblood-lover, and Durmstrang doesn't admit that sort of riffraff. But Mother didn't like the idea of me going to school so far away. Father says Durmstrang takes a far more sensible line than Hogwarts about the Dark Arts. Durmstrang students actually learn them, not just the defence rubbish we do. . . ."

Zoe got up, tiptoed to the compartment door, and slid it shut, blocking out Malfoy's voice.

"So he thinks Durmstrang would have suited him, does he?" she said angrily. "I wish he had gone, then we wouldn't have to put up with him."

"Durmstrang's another wizarding school?" said Harry.

"Yes," said Zoe sniffily, "and it's got a horrible reputation. According to An Appraisal of Magical Education in Europe, it puts a lot of emphasis on the Dark Arts."

"I think I've heard of it," said Ron vaguely. "Where is it? What country?"

"Well, nobody knows, do they?" said Hermione, raising her eyebrows.

"Er, why not?" said Harry.

"There's traditionally been a lot of rivalry between all the magic schools. Durmstrang and Beauxbatons like to conceal their whereabouts so nobody can steal their secrets," said Hermione matter-of-factly.

"Come off it," said Ron, starting to laugh. "Durmstrang's got to be about the same size as Hogwarts, how are you going to hide a great big castle?"

"But Hogwarts is hidden," said Zoe in surprise. "Everyone knows that. Well, everyone who's read Hogwarts, A History, anyway."

"Just you two, then," said Ron. "So go on, how d'you hide a place like Hogwarts?"

"It's bewitched," said Zoe as Hermione nodded, "if a Muggle looks at it, all they see is a mouldering old ruin with a sign over the entrance saying 'DANGER, DO NOT ENTER, UNSAFE'."

"So Durmstrang'll just look like a ruin to an outsider too?"

"Maybe," said Zoe, shrugging, "or it might have Muggle-repelling charms on it, like the World Cup stadium. And to keep foreign wizards from finding it, they'll have made it Unplottable. . . ."

"Come again?"

"Well, you can enchant a building so it's impossible to plot on a map, can't you?" Hermione added.

"Er, if you say so," said Harry.

"But I think Durmstrang must be somewhere in the far north," said Hermione thoughtfully. "Somewhere very cold, because they've got fur capes as part of their uniforms."