July in Northern Europe is the hottest season of the year, but compared to the summer in the UK, it is much cooler here, Hermione's clothes come in handy, today the sun is covered in clouds, the weather is not cold, but it is still a little cold, there is no way to wear a thin light clothes, Hermione put on her own thin jacket outside.

It'd been a week since she was a guest at Durmstrang, and Hermione had forgotten how she had forced herself to stop thinking about the boy sitting on the other side of the table, Samantha, who looked like a beautiful girl, a prisoner who had escaped from Azkaban.

And the one sitting next to him, Hermione was equally familiar, the former Slytherin student, Walter, who was putting a piece of smoked salmon in his mouth, and when he saw Hermione's gaze, he squeezed out a good smile on his face, but the reality was that this smile looked terrifying and terrifying after the scars and strange features on his face.

Hermione reluctantly responded, lowered her head and pulled the stinky dried fish on her plate, and then repeatedly reminded herself that these people were important to Ning An, just like her family, and she accepted Ning An herself, and maybe she should try to accept them.

In the halls of the castle, torches provide light and warmth for those enjoying breakfast, and Durmstrang's lobby is designed as a completely sealed castle, with no window lattices, and it is not like Hogwarts that uses magic to see the sky overhead, and the whole day is gloomy.

Hermione could understand the significance of this architectural style, where the school was more likely to be used as a place to sleep and rest, and if the light was too strong, there was no way to rest, and she believed that Durmstrang students would prefer to go outside to play and relax, after all, it was daylight almost all the time in those months.

The mountains and rivers are also extremely vast, maybe only such a venue can give birth to Victor? For a Quidditch master like Krum, the vast meadows are almost several times the size of Hogwarts, like an ocean.

Hermione was really surprised by Durmstran's environment, not only because of the completely different way of life from Hogwarts, but also because of the people she met here.

He saw the rumored disappearance of the former headmaster, Igor? Karkaroff, who was sitting at the front of the long table, elegantly forked a small piece of goat's cheese, held in his left hand a copy of the Daily Prophet, which had just arrived this morning, and scanned the news with great interest, raising his eyebrows from time to time, as if to express his approval of the report's views.

Hermione was surprised to see him when she first arrived, but now she was almost numb, the former headmaster seemed to be assisting Ning An at the moment, she had seen them discuss some business, and the person who surprised her even more was still behind.

Buddy? Crouch, the former director of the Department of International Magical Exchange and Cooperation of the British Ministry of Magic, who mysteriously disappeared, sat peacefully opposite Karkaroff at the moment, slowly drinking a small bowl of shell seafood soup in front of him with a spoon.

"Good morning—" Hermione was awakened from her numb musings by Ning'an's call, and he sat casually next to Hermione, raising his hand to signal that the others didn't have to get up.

Samantha had already stood up and bowed to Ning An from afar, Karkaroff put away the newspaper and saluted Ning An, and the others also used their own actions to express their respect for Ning An's existence, and a minute later, the table returned to its original state.

"Did you sleep well last night? I should have asked them to hang thicker curtains for you, but you know that Durmstrang didn't have a guest room before, it was an empty classroom that had been converted into a makeshift one, and there were no extra thick curtains to be found in the castle. ”

Ning An picked up an old yellowed menu on the table, the black ink on it slowly emerged, and he looked at it and muttered in his mouth

"Hmm...... Let me see, there is a ...... today Mutton cabbage - too tired to eat in the morning......"

Hermione turned her head to look at the boy sitting beside her, and had a sudden feeling that although she had watched the news in the past, Ning An had explained to her, but if she wasn't really in it, she couldn't understand that Ning An was the principal of this school and the most powerful person at the table.

His every move touched the nerves of the people around him, especially Samantha, who was simply fanatically worshipping Ning An, Hermione was faintly disgusted by this Dark Lord worship, but she didn't know what to say.

"Ham...... Ham and bread ......" Ning An carefully checked the yellow paper menu in his hand again, and then said clearly to the several empty plates in front of him:

"Ham! Bun! ”

Ham and bread appeared at once, and he calmly picked up his knife and fork to prepare for breakfast, but saw Hermione staring blankly at the empty front, and when she came to Durmstrang, she always seemed to be in a daze from time to time.

"Why, still thinking about Mr. Crouch?" Ning An cut a small piece of ham, put it in his mouth, and asked Hermione as he ate.

"No...... No......"

Hermione came to her senses, shook her head, and lowered her head to eat her stinky dried fish, she did have an argument about whether she should tell the British Ministry of Magic about Mr. Crouch being here, but she undoubtedly didn't argue with Ning An, and she didn't know when she found Ning An to become her nemesis.

It seems that the only person who can't debate, and who is destined to lose from the beginning, is Ning An, who will always be persuaded by him.

"That's Mr. Crouch's own choice, don't worry about it, and vacation here in peace." Ning An and Hermione bit their ears, because they were too close, the heat from their breath rushed to Hermione's ears and neck, making her blush for a while.

"You can probably do a long-term observation report on Hawklap," Ning An tucked his head back, then forked the food on his plate, "It's a common animal here, but Hogwarts probably won't introduce it, and I don't think Dumbledore or Hagrid will like that." ”

When Ning An said this, he deliberately showed a funny expression, which made Hermione "poof" and laugh, Hoklap is a pink, prickly hairy, mushroom-like animal, very common in Northern Europe, they will reach into the ground with strong and powerful tentacles, looking for earthworms for food, because of their strong reproductive ability, so they will soon cover an average-sized garden tightly.

No one would want to tease such a boring and troublesome animal, not even Hagrid.

"Dumbledore is busy dealing with the mysterious man......" Speaking of this, Hermione's voice was a little low, Ning An reached out and rubbed her hand, rubbed it warmly, and said:

"Don't worry about that, everything will be fine."

"Will you help Dumbledore?" Hermione looked at Ning An and asked calmly.

"I'll help you."

Ning An looked at the girl's eyes seriously, Hermione didn't seem to be much surprised by this answer, she just sighed softly, and nodded slowly, the torch on the wall shook a little, and the hall was dim for a moment and quickly returned to light.

***

After breakfast, Ning Anqiang dragged Hermione to the field outside Durmstrang, otherwise she would probably have to go back to her room to review her homework. LS exam is on his lips, there will be an important exam next semester, Ning An always responds helplessly, he probably has no chance to take the exam in his life, I am afraid that he will only test other students.

There was a breeze outside the castle, the sky was cloudy, and the two walked through the fragrant meadow to the lake, Ning An drew his wand, and trembled, and two small aqua blue stools appeared on the ground.

"What are we going to do?" Hermione looked at it in wonder, she thought that Ning An was really going to take her to do a research report on Hoklap, she saw a few days ago, there was a small hunting ground on the edge of the field, probably surrounded by several vegetable gardens, maybe there was Hoklap lurking in it.

"Fishing—" Ning An sat down on a small stool in a good manner, and Hermione saw that there were several brown fishing rods on the ground, a small silver-white bucket, which was divided into several small compartments, some of which were filled with dry food, some were crowded with dense caterpillars, and some of the compartments were small black hard shells, which Hermione recognized as water snails that had been retracted into their shells.

"Fishing?" She slowly sat down on the stool beside Ning An, looking at the endless lake, this lake is extremely vast, the water surface is sparkling, the wind blows and flashes a gorgeous shimmer, and on the other side of the shore there are also ghost ship-like ships, Hermione has seen this kind of boat in the Triwizard Tournament, the bottom of the boat is covered with green moss and shells, no matter how you look at it, it looks like a vibrant appearance, there are countless magical creatures in this lake, it is obvious things.

"Well, relax, you know, that's one of the few interests I've found since I came to Durmstrang," he said, hanging a water snail on a hook and tightening the line, and said lightly:

"I just don't know if this lake will freeze in the winter, I asked Karkaroff if the antifreeze spell would work, but he said that when it freezes, you can skate on the whole lake, and I hesitated whether to use this magic or not."

As Ning An spoke, he flung the fishing rod forward, the fishing line seemed to have an infinite length, and he threw it out all the way until it reached the deeper waters of the lake, like a living thing.

"After biting the hook, it will recycle itself," Ning An looked at Hermione and laughed, "Magic fishing rod, I think next time I should transform myself, maybe it would be better to cast a transformation charm on the hooks, and turn them into pelicans, even saving the bait." ”

Hermione gave him a blank look, and also hung the bait on her fishing rod with interest, she chose dry food, Ning An did not tell her what could be caught in the lake, because even he himself did not fully know what kind of creatures lived in such a large lake.

For the time being, his knowledge of Durmstrang was limited to land, and fishing was one of the few activities he had learned about the world beneath the surface.

After Hermione threw the fishing rod out, it seemed that a long wait had begun, but the two of them sat leisurely by the lake, letting the wind calmly blow their cheeks, bringing the fragrance mixed with earth and water, and the comfortable mood wandered gently in her heart, Hermione also temporarily put away her worries and doubts, she had to admit that Ning An chose to bring her to fish was really great, she liked this feeling.

The air is fresh, and when he tilts his head, he can see Ning An beside him, he also tilts his head to look at himself, he doesn't even care about the fishing rod, yes, his fishing rod has magic, and he doesn't know if he has it, Hermione lifted the fishing rod twice, but suddenly felt a sinking-

"Hooked!" She screamed excitedly, and Ning An also stood up from the stool to remind her

"Hold it, the line will come back on its own!" He stepped forward to grab the fishing rod with Hermione, only to see a silver light on the water in the distance, as if something was gradually being taken out of the water, and the movement of the struggle made waves on the surface of the lake, and Ning An kept muttering:

"Horse-shaped water monsters, horse-shaped water monsters-"

He dreamed of catching a horse-shaped water monster, and although it usually gobbled up those who carelessly rode on his back, and then floated his internal organs to the surface of the lake, which sounded a bit ferocious, he could make it docile and obedient by putting the horse's hitch on its head with a placement charm.

Ning An has always wanted a horse-shaped water monster as his means of transportation in this lake, and it will be very interesting just thinking about it.

As the silver light in the water got closer and closer, the expressions on Ning An and Hermione's faces became more and more expectant and nervous, their hands clenched together, holding the fishing rod, and as the fishing line retracted to the extreme, it suddenly lifted up with force - the underwater thing revealed its true face.

It was a strange little colored ball, round/gun/rolling, struggling in the air to stretch out two legs, with webbed feet on the legs, Ning An was all too familiar with this little guy, he sighed in disappointment, the most he caught in the lake was probably this kind of colored ball fish.

As a fish in deep lakes, the distribution of colorfish can be said to be very widespread, they live on the bottom of the lake, feed on water snails, although not dangerous, but can bite the feet and clothes of swimmers, people usually knot its legs after catching, throw it back into the water, let it float away.

Hermione obviously recognized what she had caught, and with a look of disappointment on her face, Ning An smiled and patted her on the shoulder, and said encouragingly:

"It's the most colorful fish here, and it's okay – we're cheering for the colored ball fish soup tonight!"

It seems that in order to confirm Ning An's words, in the next, the two of them caught a whole large bucket of colorful ball fish that was enough for everyone to eat, but they didn't even see the shadows of other magical creatures, and this fishing was also interrupted by the arrival of two people.

When the Sami patriarch Zankas? Boyman, and Jason, whom he hasn't seen in a long time? After Ludwig appeared, Ning An understood that he had something to do, and looked at the appearance of the two of them, obviously rushing over.

Of course, Ning An remembered what he had ordered before, which meant that what he had ordered was already clear, so he hurriedly called Hermione to walk towards the castle with Zancas and Jason.