The atmosphere here was more tense than imagined when the north wind howled in a depression surrounded by four mountain peaks, and in a passage made way by countless mountain-like giants, Zancas raised the dragon egg in his hand and came to Gugo who was lying on the ground, and he placed the dragon egg on the snow at Gugo's feet, and said:

"Durmstrang's headmaster, Mr. Ning'an's gift to the giant Gugo as a token of respect."

The Sami people have always been indigenous to Northern Europe, and the giants have been driven to this cold continent for some time, and in the records of the Boiman family, I am afraid that there are records of communication with giants, so Zankas will understand some giant language, and in some local cultures, this Sami patriarch can be called to have the erudition that only a few people will have.

The giant Gugo squirmed a few times, looked at the two black eggs on the ground curiously, and moved his eyes back again, looking at the blue egg in Jason's hand, Jason also slowly stepped forward, putting the dragon eggs side by side, Zancas said at this time:

"These are three dragon eggs about to hatch, two are Norwegian Ridgebacks, and one is a Swedish Short-nosed Dragon......"

With Zancas's introduction, Gu Ge, who understood what kind of gift this was, became very interested, he sat up on the ground, crossed his knees and faced Ning An and his party, and roared a few times, Ning An asked behind him:

"What did he say?"

"He's telling the other giants what this is—" Sure enough, as the giant Gugo roared, the other giants crowded over to this side, discussing something one after another, looking very happy, but they still maintained restraint, although crowded, they still kept a restrained distance from Ning An and their gifts.

Zankas whispered a few more words to Gugo, and he turned back and whispered to Ning An that Gugo's name was Kakus, and that he seemed very pleased with their gifts, and invited them to stay here for the time being.

Ning An nodded, Kakus understood that the Sami were interpreting for him, so he waited quietly, with a rather happy smile on his face, looked at Ning An, and saw that Ning An had finished listening, nodded at him, and then said something to Zancas excitedly.

"Gugo let us stay, please come back tomorrow to see him......" Zankas turned around, a wry smile barely appeared on his face, Ning An knew that something was wrong, and he didn't say much, just nodded and agreed with what Zankas said, so the Sami people turned around and explained to Gugo, and the four of them, led by the other two giants, came to a comfortable small cave at the bottom of the mountain.

"Why did he accept the gift and refuse to talk to us?" Jason frowned, the giant Gugo's reaction was indeed very strange, he should be very satisfied with the gift, why would he not even talk about it, and just send it away first.

Hermione looked at Ning An with some concern, the boy didn't speak, just stared at Zancas, he knew that the old man had something to say, Zancas looked at Jason with a wry smile, sighed, shook his head and said:

"He still wants a gift......

"Still want a gift?" Jason looked disgusted and muttered, "Hmph, insatiable guy." ”

Zancas didn't answer his words, turned his head and said to Ning An: "Kakus obviously wants more gifts, giants are like this, they like these things, but it is difficult to be satisfied, he asked us to go again tomorrow, because we hope to receive gifts tomorrow......"

"What if we don't have a gift for him?" Ning An asked calmly, and Hermione felt her heart lift, as if something bad was about to happen.

"Ahem-" Zancas shrugged his shoulders, his rickety back bent a little more, and his wrinkled face showed a look of distress, "A giant like Kakus, if we want to talk to them and can't be satisfied, they may kill us......"

"That is, if we don't go with gifts, tomorrow we will be attacked by this group of giants?"

"Yes...... I think so......" Zancas nodded.

"Even if we only gave them a gift today?" Hermione asked, a little incredulous, which seemed a bit counterintuitive and logical to her.

"Yes, Miss Granger—" Zancas whispered, leaning slightly to face Hermione, "the giants are like that, they even fight each other for food, fire, and sleeping places, and they can't control themselves, which is why they are almost extinct by now......"

After a pause, he continued: "Maybe in two days they will fight again for those dragon eggs, who knows......"

"Greedy, savage—" Jason snorted a few syllables out of his nose, and what he didn't say was what he said: No wonder wizards hated them.

"Mr. Principal......" Zancas turned to Ning An with self-reproach and shame, feeling uneasy, Ning An didn't know the nature of giants, but he did underestimate this matter, maybe it was the first time to be told such a big thing, and he was too excited, if he prepared two more gifts, maybe he wouldn't be as embarrassed as today.

He tried to admit his mistake, but his brain was spinning, hoping to find a remedy, and now Durmstrang was already planning the admissions for the new semester, and the glasses-wearing and Sven-looking Mr. Pani had contacted him, and the two had a discussion about the quota for the Sámi this year, and the result was very satisfying to Zancas, he didn't want to make any impact on this matter because of his stupid mistake, and now he was willing to do everything to save it.

Thinking of the carriage and the reindeer that the Sami had treasured for many years, he reluctantly said, "My lord, maybe the carriage ...... Can be used as a gift......"

These words really made Zancas's heart ache, this heirloom/bao-like carriage that had been passed down from generation to generation in the tribe was given to this group of rough / lu giants, and I don't know if it will be dismantled the next day.

But thinking that in order to make up for his mistakes, maybe this is the only way, as for Ning An's future travel, of course he has to solve it, maybe it is a good idea to build a better carriage.

"Then you don't have to-" Ning An stopped Zancas from continuing, his tone was relaxed, not like he meant to blame, he looked up at the rough walls of the cave, thought for a moment, and untied a small bag from his waist, it was a small bag with a traceless stretching spell, and the space inside was terrifying.

Hermione took a deep breath, her face turned unnaturally red, thinking that her Traceless Stretching Charm was like the gap between a child and a Hogwarts professor compared to Ning An, obviously they were not on par in magic spells in the past, thinking of this, she decided not to reveal the pocket of the Traceless Stretching Charm in front of Ning An in the future, and bury it in the ground when she went back.

"It's a little urgent, but I'll use this tomorrow to deal with it." Ning An took out a small glass bottle from the bag, the purple liquid in the bottle was as calm as the sea, even if it was tilted, it would not sway for half a minute, Zancas looked at the vial strangely, and couldn't help asking:

"...... this?"

"A little bit of elixir—" Ning An's words caused the other three to gasp, and Zancas's hand shook so that he couldn't drop the bottle to the ground, his voice trembling and muttering

"Long ...... ...... elixir? ”

Ning An smiled, as if he didn't plan to say more about this topic, he gently took out his wand from his arms, held it in his hand, and nodded to Jason next to him

"This is only dealing with him temporarily, and since the option of buying gifts is not very feasible, maybe we should consider another way."

Jason and Zancas were stunned for a moment, the light in their eyes turned for a moment, revealing a knowing look, and Hermione looked at Ning An in surprise, opening her mouth, wanting to say something, but for some reason she held back.

"Give me your hand." Ning An said to Jason, Jason excitedly rolled up his sleeves, revealing his left arm, on which was entrenched a tattooed black snake, Ning An was like the conductor of the band, and tapped the black snake twice with his wand, and suddenly it was as if it was burned by flames, and the whole mark began to turn red and hot, but Jason couldn't see the slightest pain on his face, only a strong excitement.

"Alright, mark this place, it won't take long for the others to arrive."

The sky seemed to have darkened all of a sudden, and it was already dark before I knew it, and the darkness in the cave/xue extended from every corner, like a parasitic vine, about to entangle everyone, Ning An raised his hand and used magic to light a half-burned bonfire in the cave/xue, obviously someone lived here before.

The firelight illuminated the cave instantly, and the shadows of the four became flickering in the light, Hermione looked at her shadow, and Ning An slowly blended together, and there was a strange feeling in her heart, she somewhat guessed what Ning An was going to do, and Ning An did not hide it from her, but why didn't she stop it?

This question quietly entrenched in Hermione's heart, and unconsciously took root, she leaned against the corner of the wall on the side of the campfire, slipped down, and sat on the ground, Ning An untied her robe, gently draped it over her body, and stroked her unkempt hair with a warm palm.

Hermione stared blankly at the flickering firelight, her own shadow fluttering and sinking in the firelight, as if it would be swallowed up at any moment.

Go to Durmstrang...... Go to school? Such a thought arose inexplicably in her heart, she likes Hogwarts very much, but if she comes to Durmstrang, it seems to be good, there is Ning'an, there is an environment she likes, and at Hogwarts, except for Harry, she rarely talks to others, and Ginny is probably another.

The conflict with Ron was never completely resolved, and Hermione found herself increasingly unhappy at Hogwarts.

The cave gradually returned to calm, except for the sound of sparks jumping and beeping, there was no movement, Ning An and Hermione leaned together, feeling Hermione's silence different from the past, with a strange smile on her face, she couldn't help but stick out her tongue and lick/le her dry lips.

Come on, Hermione, you'll see exactly which camp you belong to, and where there are people you really care about, care about......

***

Traveling at night is a hard and dangerous errand, in this barren mountain, many hunters are active at night, but ordinary beasts naturally do not pose any threat to wizards, since seeing the carriage, Hagrid sped up his pace and even did not hesitate to walk at night, if there is anything he least wants to happen, one of them must be "delay the work assigned to him by Dumbledore." ”

This is the last thing Hagrid wants, and Madame Maxim has no complaints about it, she looks graceful and luxurious, but she is unusually able to endure hardships, which makes Hagrid admire it even more, Fleur has nothing to say, she understands that she is one of the reasons for the slowdown, so she can only grit her teeth and hurry.

Half of the stars in the sky had changed, and the sun had reappeared half of its face, and the night had passed so quickly that it was uncomfortable, and although there was no polar day, the night was still short and terrible, but it made it easier for Hagrid and them to hurry, and over a steep ridge, Hagrid almost let out a sigh.

"Found it—we found it—" He tried to keep his excited voice as low as possible so that it wouldn't get too far, and Madame Maxim and Fleur hurriedly leaned over to look down.

"See, there, look—oh my God, and those caves, where the giants live—"

In fact, Hagrid didn't need to point out, they could also notice the giants, not to mention the size of each of them as if they were small mountains, and the sound of thunderous snoring coming from the foot of the mountain and some of the caves proved what kind of existence lived in this depression surrounded by mountains.

"We should ...... How? Fleur looked at the formidable figures, clearly not thinking it was a good idea to go straight over.

"Whoop-ooh-h

"No, no, we can't go now-", he glanced at Madame Maxim, and the headmistress nodded in agreement, which seemed to give Hagrid confidence, and he shook his tompy head and said:

"It's no joke for the giants to be woken up, we'll have to wait here until it's completely dawn and they're all awake before we go over......"

"So tonight, we're going to sleep here? Sleeping on the top of the mountain? Fleur asked in surprise.

"No, no—" Hagrid's head shook even harder, like a rattle, "we can't sleep, tonight, yes-"

He patiently explained to Fleur, "If a giant climbs up in the middle of the night, or if there is an avalanche, that's bad. ”

"But how could an avalanche happen?" Fleur rubbed her hair, her cloudy silver hair was dry and curly, and she hadn't had a good night's sleep in a shower for a long time.

"You heard them purring too, causing an avalanche, but I'm not kidding." Hagrid shrugged his shoulders and turned to look at the giants who were still moving at the foot of the mountain, and instead of looking at Fleur, he said calmly in a hoarse voice:

"Of course you can get some sleep first, I'll keep vigil here-"