Volume 4: The Sea and the Ship Heading North Chapter 276 What on earth does he want to do!
Durmstrang's daily meals are pretty good.
In the morning, Jon and his friends ate toast with brown goat cheese. The goat cheese was sweet and salty, with a strong milky flavor, and tasted like toffee. The side dishes included vegetables such as cucumbers and sliced salmon.
Jon came to the auditorium from the library when lunch was halfway through. The table was already filled with smoked salmon, dried cod, seafood hot dogs and salty lamb chops.
Probably because it is near the sea, seafood accounts for a large proportion of the food, but the house-elves in Durmstrang are very good at cooking. Even the Hogwarts students who have eaten enough seafood in the previous few months are no longer resistant after trying it.
Jon and Hermione were at the dining table talking about today's classes. The response from Hogwarts students was pretty good. Apart from the strange English accents of several professors, there was nothing else that made them uncomfortable.
After lunch, students from all grades of Hogwarts were gathered together at the open space by the lake behind Durmstrang Castle to prepare for their first flying lesson in their lives.
Because everyone of them had the same starting point when it came to controlling the broomstick , in order to save the flying teacher's energy, this class became one big class.
Jon also attended the class. This was not his first time touching a broomstick. When he was traveling with Dumbledore in France, he had learned the most basic way to use a broomstick under Dumbledore's instruction.
After all, there are some places that cannot be reached by means such as Apparition and Floo Powder, and wizards can only rely on themselves to find ways to get there.
After finishing the flying lesson, Jon did not delay any longer. He went straight to the door of Principal Grindelwald's office and knocked on the door.
When he entered, Grindelwald was reading a newspaper from France called "L'Etoile".
This newspaper is a magical daily newspaper established in recent months by the Wizarding World organization led by Dumbledore. The meaning of "Starlight" also echoes the principle that every wizard should be equal and free even when the night is shrouded.
Currently, the Starlight Daily is engaged in a propaganda war with the magic newspaper controlled by the French Ministry of Magic, and will also report on the current war situation.
"In fact, Albus never imagined that he would now lead an organization with political significance."
Grindelwald put down the newspaper in his hand, looked at Jon as he walked in, with a hint of gloating in his smile.
"He has tried to stay away from anything related to politics throughout his life. Even when he was at the peak of his popularity, countless people wanted him to be the British Minister of Magic. People believed that if he came to power, he would bring what everyone wanted. But he still had no intention of running for election. He just served as a mascot-like president of the so-called International Confederation of Wizards."
Jon was a little confused.
"Professor Dumbledore might prefer to be the headmaster of the school?"
"He hates the political intrigues." Grindelwald put down the newspaper in his hand. "If you want to defeat those who pursue high positions for fame and fortune, you have to become worse and smarter than them. Just like Albus never uses the Unforgivable Curse, this goes against his inner wishes, so even if many people hope so, he will always stay away from it."
"But he has to do it now. If he is still unwilling to take on these responsibilities, then the so-called defeat of Voldemort will only be a joke."
Grindelwald looked at Jon and said calmly.
"That's why I want to teach you something. I never deny Albus's greatness, but everyone has shortcomings. Being too idealistic is his biggest shortcoming. He knows very well what his biggest problem is. But if it weren't for this, he wouldn't be called Albus Dumbledore."
"You have been following him in Hogwarts, and you will be affected by his mentality unconsciously. I can see it from the killing curse you cast yesterday at sea. You successfully cast the spell, but it is obviously not the enemy you are facing that makes you so determined to kill. This is not good. It is the biggest disadvantage of using the Unforgivable Curse. Because your emotions are not stable, the temporary killing intention will allow you to successfully cast this spell, but people's memories will fade with the passage of time. Sooner or later, you will feel vague about the memory and scene that made you want to kill. Once you can't be there in person, even if you cast the killing curse, it will only make people bleed from the nose at most."
As Grindelwald said these words, he stood up from the chair, and the long trench coat and black round hat hanging on the hanger not far away flew onto his body.
Seeing that he was about to go out, Jon immediately followed him.
"Where are we going?"
Grindelwald did not go out the door. He came to the fireplace and picked up a small bunch of green powder.
"It's a secret place. Don't ask too many questions. Grab some Floo powder and listen to me tell you the name of the place. Then you repeat my actions."
He sprinkled Floo powder into the fire, and the originally orange-yellow fire instantly turned into a pale green.
Grindelwald walked into the flames that did not feel the slightest bit of heat, and spoke very clearly.
"The Abbey of Rameau Hans."
The next moment he was swept up by green flames and disappeared in front of Jon.
Jon did not stop either. He also sprinkled the green powder into the fire which turned back into orange. After the flame turned completely green, he walked into the green fire and recited the name of the monastery.
In a desolate mountain range in the northernmost part of Norway, there are withered trees and knee-deep snow everywhere. The only living creature here seems to be the Crested Goshawk gliding in the sky.
On the desolate mountainside, there is a dilapidated human building. It is an abandoned monastery. The tattered wooden fence surrounds the house in the middle. This layer of protection has no defensive power at all. Any medium-sized animal can destroy it.
Grindelwald brought John out of the monastery. Every time they exhaled, a white mist formed in the air, lingering in the cold air.
Jon tightened his robe. He was not wearing thin clothes, but his body had not yet adapted to the sudden change from the warm environment of the principal's office to such a place.
Grindelwald seemed unaffected. He walked in front of Jon and led him out of the dilapidated monastery and into the dry woods.
Jon followed behind him without asking about their destination. He was just curious about what Grindelwald wanted to teach him by bringing him out.
Just as they walked into the dry forest, Jon saw from afar that there seemed to be something hanging in the depths of the forest.
Those things were hung on the branches of dead trees. Each one was quite large, which reminded Jon of the bacon hung in front of people's doors in the countryside to be dried in the winter of his previous life.
Just when Jon's attention was focused on the "bacon", a thin figure suddenly appeared in front of him and Grindelwald.
This was a very old man, and from his appearance Jon felt that he was not much younger than the librarian in Durmstrang's library.
He was unusually short, about the same height as Professor Flitwick, but thinner, and with his old face he looked like a skinny monkey.
But unlike his appearance, after seeing Grindelwald, he was extremely excited and spoke with gestures in German that Jon could not understand.
"My most loyal and greatest master! You are like a star in the sky! You guide the future of the wizarding world! Your contribution must be passed down forever! All wizards must thank your name before they perform magic in school..."
He kept on spouting corny compliments until he saw Grindelwald's hand impatiently touching his wand, and then he stopped talking.
"Sometimes I really want to sew your mouth shut!"
The dwarf old man smiled awkwardly.
"Then I won't be able to chant spells to help the master. Let me use my remaining energy to help the master. When the master's dream comes true, you can sew my mouth shut."
As the old man spoke, he turned his gaze to Jon.
"Who is this child? A relative of the master?"
It was inevitable that he would have such a guess, because even if Grindelwald became the headmaster of Durmstrang, he would never bring any children to this place.
"Don't ask questions that you shouldn't ask."
Grindelwald had no intention of introducing John's identity to him. The old dwarf obediently retreated to the other side of him, while not forgetting to observe John's face, as if he wanted to provide evidence for his guess.
Jon didn't understand a word of their conversation. After noticing the old man's gaze, he just responded with a polite smile.
"How many are still alive?"
Grindelwald suddenly asked the old man a question out of the blue.
As they continued to walk deeper into the woods, the old man named Ramo Hans reported to Grindelwald somewhat awkwardly.
"I have tried my best to hold back and be careful, but... I can only say that these people are too weak..."
"quantity."
"14!" Hearing Grindelwald's voice becoming calmer, Hans immediately said honestly, "14 people are still breathing."
Although he had not expected to hear a very satisfying number, the number of 14 still made Grindelwald look extremely strange.
"You're eager to go back to the Arctic and study those stupid bears?"
Hans became visibly frightened, and he explained in a panic.
"I'm really not being extravagant ! Master! You know, this kind of research requires a lot of reference samples from the beginning! It's not something that can be satisfied with just five or ten individuals! If we're lucky, we may make a major discovery when we study the first sample, but if we're unlucky... we can only be like this now."
Jon couldn't understand their conversation, but the further he went inside, the more he could smell a strange smell.
The smell was not very obvious. The cold air and snow concealed and slowed down the movement of most objects, making the smell not dissipate as quickly as normal.
But gradually, the smell became stronger and stronger, and even the coldest environment seemed unable to cover it up.
Jon frowned as he smelled the indescribable smell, and couldn't help but recall the Eskimos' specialty food, pickled puffins, which he had read about in an article before. They would peel open the stomach of a seal, put hundreds of puffins into the seal's stomach, then sew up the opening and bury it in the frozen soil to let the seal's stomach acid ferment the puffins.
After a year or two, they would dig it out again, take the puffin out of the seal's stomach, and finally use their mouths to suck out the puffin's anus to suck out the fermented and rotten internal organs.
It is said that the taste is similar to bran and natto.
Jon had never tried this kind of inhumane food, but the taste of this food he imagined in his mind was just like the smell he smelled now, like fermented rotten meat. It just smelled smelly at first, but it would make people feel nauseous when they got close to it.
When he got closer, Jon finally saw what the "bacon" hanging on the tree was.
It is indeed like the production process of bacon, hanging some kind of meat on a tree to dry, but that big piece of meat is not pork, but human!
People whose chests and stomachs were peeled open one by one!
Just as Jon imagined that pickled puffins had to be made by peeling open the seal's belly, these people also had their bodies "opened up"!
Through the half-open crack, you can vaguely see the various internal organs that have been frozen into ice blocks!
There is no white snow on the ground anymore, and everywhere is scarlet like the Dead Sea in hell!
When he really walked in front of this scene that was like purgatory on earth, Jon could not smell any blood or strange smell at all. These crimes that only demons could commit were all sealed in the ice and snow. The only thing that could be presented to the world was this scene that was enough to drive a normal person crazy.
Jon recognized the faces of people hanging on the trees, swaying in the cold wind like "bacon".
These people were all the Death Eaters brought by the brothers Rabastan and Rodolphus on the sea yesterday. They were riding on flying brooms and waving their wands to capture themselves yesterday, but now they have all turned into cold rotten meat!
Jon stared at this scene in a daze for two or three minutes. During this time, Hans impatiently wanted to take Grindelwald forward, but was frightened by his cold gaze.
It was not until three minutes later that Jon turned his head again. His lips were pale, and the look in his eyes as he looked at Grindelwald was more incomprehensible .
Only at this moment did he truly realize how cruel and bloody the title of "Dark Lord" was mixed with, and this man who walked out of the tower again after more than 30 years.
What on earth does he want to do!
