Chapter 507: The Triwizard Tournament

After listening for a while, Hermione stood up, tiptoed to the compartment door, and slid it shut, blocking out Malfoy's voice.

"So you think Durmstrang would have suited him, do you?" she said angrily. "I wish he'd gone, then we wouldn't have to put up with him. "

"I remember Krum is from Durmstrang too!" said Ron. "I've done my research."

"What, Krum's from there too!" Harry looked a little surprised. "But Sirius said earlier that the school had a bad reputation? "

"Exactly, it has a horrible reputation!" said Hermione with a sigh. "According to an evaluation of magical education in Europe, it puts a lot of emphasis on the dark arts. Many dark wizards graduated from there."

Of course, Durmstrang's tolerance for the dark arts was within certain limits.

If there were young wizards growing up like Grindelwald or Voldemort, they also took steps to deal with them.

In the story, Grindelwald was expelled from Durmstrang because they could no longer tolerate his messy and increasingly evil research into the dark arts.

"But Krum seems fair. By the way, where is the school?" Ron asked, "In what country?"

"Somewhere in Nordic Europe, I'm guessing near Scandinavia," Ivan said. "I've seen descriptions of the scenery around your school, which fit the Scandinavian atmosphere very well. It is the largest peninsula in Europe and the highest terrain. There are large forests covered with snow for long periods, vast snowfields and glaciers, as well as the polar starry sky. "

"Ivan, you are so good, you can analyze the information you have to a great extent and deduce a lot!" Hermione exclaimed, "I just speculated that Durmstrang must be somewhere in the far north, somewhere very cold, because they have fur capes as part of their uniforms. "

"That sounds about right. Think of the possibilities," Ron said. "It would have been so easy to push Malfoy off a glacier and make it look like an accident..... Too bad his mother likes him..... "

"Better mind your own business, Weasley!"

Before Ron could finish, Draco Malfoy appeared in the doorway. Behind him were Crabbe and Goyle, his huge, ruffianly cronies, who seemed to have grown at least a foot over the summer.

They had evidently overheard the conversation through the compartment door.

"Come out, Malfoy, you're not invited in," Harry said coldly.

Malfoy ignored him. He glanced warily at Ivan sitting by the window and then looked back at Ron.

Ron's words had obviously made Malfoy very angry and he wasn't ready to leave.

"Weasley, what's that?" he asked, pointing to Pigwidgeon's cage. One sleeve of Ron's robes hung from it, swaying with the movement of the train.

Ron made to stuff the robes out of sight, but Malfoy was too quick for him; he grabbed the sleeve and pulled.

"Look at this!" said Malfoy ecstatically, holding up Ron's robes and showing Crabbe and Goyle, "Weasley, you weren't thinking of wearing these, were you? I mean... they were very fashionable around 1890.... "

"Eat dung, Malfoy!" said Ron, the same color as the robes when he pulled them out of Malfoy's clutches. Malfoy howled with a derisive laugh; Crabbe and Goyle guffawed stupidly.

"So... Are you going in, Weasley? Will you try to bring a little glory to the family name? There's money involved too, you know...you could afford some decent robes if you won..... "

"What are you talking about?" said Ron.

"Are you going to enter?" Malfoy repeated, glaring at Harry, who was also glaring at him. "I suppose you are, Potter. You never miss a chance to show off, do you?"

"Either explain what you want or leave, Malfoy," Hermione said, holding up the fourth grade Book of Spells.

When he heard Hermione's words, a gleeful smile spread across Malfoy's pale face.

"Don't tell me you don't know?" He said delightedly. "Weasley, you have a father and a brother in the Ministry and you don't even know... My God, my father told me a long time ago...he heard it from Cornelius Fudge. But my father always associates with the best in the Ministry. Maybe your father's too young to know. He has no right to know, Weasley, yes...yes...they probably don't talk about important things in front of him..."

"Of course we know about the Triwizard Tournament!" Ivan interrupted him, "And we also intend to participate in it and become Hogwarts champions. If you have a problem with that, feel free to ask. "

When he heard Ivan's words, the look of joy on Malfoy's face ended abruptly, and he looked comically surprised. He took a step back, and his horrified look seemed to have discovered that Ivan was here as well.

Malfoy, naturally, did not dare to comment on Ivan's words. Both his experience last term and the horrible, shocking image of the World Cup stuck in his mind and could never be forgotten.

He called Crabbe and Goyle, and the three of them disappeared together.

Ron stood up and slammed the sliding compartment door so hard behind them that the glass shattered.

"Ron!" said Hermione reproachfully, and she pulled out her wand, muttered "Shatter!" and the shards of glass flew back into a single pane and back into the door.

"I'm sick of him!" said Ron angrily. "Father always associates with the important people in the Ministry! Father could get a promotion at any time. He likes where he is.... "

"Don't let Malfoy get to you, Ron, he's not worth it," said Harry.

"Him! Does he get to me?! As if..." said Ron resentfully. He picked up one of the remaining cauldron cakes, made by Mrs. Weasley, and crushed it into a pulp.

"Well, Ivan, what exactly is this Triwizard Tournament you were just talking about?" Hermione turned to look at Ivan. "Is that what they've been talking about? I wish I'd heard about it... "

Harry and Ron also focused and looked at Ivan curiously.