Hogwarts: Bourne Returns from Warhammer

Chapter 152 Pillars of Hercules
Wizards are obviously much more accepting of strange things than Muggles.

Horace and Byrne were only surprised for a moment at the beginning about "catching a professor".

After Professor Kettleburn used the white fresh essential oil made by Horace himself to heal his wounds, the grandfather and grandson felt relieved.

After learning where he wanted to go, Horace happily invited his former colleague to travel on his family's cruise ship.

"Siva (Note 1), are you also going to the Pillars of Hercules to buy something?"

Horace said enthusiastically: "If I had known this earlier, I would have invited you in advance to join the holiday trip I prepared for Bourne, saving you from having to swim all the way from the North Sea to here."

"Pillars of Hercules?"

Bourne asked in surprise. The child suddenly felt that he might have been tricked.

"Yes, I'm not following you. We are going to sail in the UK." Horace replied cunningly.

The Pillars of Hercules are also a place named after the ancient Greek Hercules.

Generally speaking, there are two Pillars of Heracles.

The exact location of the southern root is not very clear because there are two suspected locations.

The Pillars of Hercules in the north are recognized as referring to the Rock of Gibraltar.

The Rock of Gibraltar, as its name suggests, is located in the Gibraltar region. This area is an overseas territory of the United Kingdom (not a Commonwealth country), and to this day, its finances, taxation, appointment of governors, and other powers all belong to the British royal family.

Therefore, what Horace told Bourne before was just to take him on a sailing trip in England. There is really nothing wrong with that.

After chatting on the deck for a while, Horace took Bourne and Kate back to the cabin, and the Hydra dived under the sea again.

Because it follows a general route, it must always travel underwater. This can effectively avoid being discovered by Muggles.

Professor Kettleburn was left on the ship by Horace and stayed in the guest room in the cabin.

The Hydra was sailing quickly in the icy Atlantic Ocean. Except for the occasional call from Horace to go fishing, or to learn some navigation knowledge and advanced astronomy courses, Bourne's daily life was basically the same as at home and school.

He changed his daily aerobic exercise from running to swimming. Every morning, he would transform into a Primaris Astartes and jump into the cold water to swim with the magic ship.

Counting from the day of departure, after two days and two nights of sailing, they arrived in Gibraltar on the third day. This is a British enclave located in the southern part of the Iberian Peninsula, adjacent to Spain, with an area of ​​less than 7 square kilometers (about one ten thousandth of the area of ​​Tongliao, a little more).

The British Ministry of Magic has a special office here, which is managed by the Department of International Magical Cooperation and has only one employee.

Going against the sparkling orange tide, the Hydra slowly turned past the breakwater and sailed into a special port specially prepared for magic ships.

Of course, to say it is a special port, this place does not live up to its name. Because it was just a berth carved out of the Muggle port by someone using the Muggle Expelling Curse.

And it's still temporary.

"Hi, Weasel!"

Standing on the side of the ship, Horace, neatly dressed, raised his hand and waved to a Ministry of Magic official on the shore. The man was also neatly dressed, with hair wax on his hair, which shone brightly in the early morning sun.

From the appearance, he is a British gentleman in a well-dressed suit. His elegant hairstyle and smiling mouth make people feel confident and fresh. He seemed unable to do anything wrong, as if the whole world was under his control.

He remained polite and friendly to everyone and showed himself to be a true gentleman. He is the epitome of the civil service system of the British Ministry of Magic. Legal authority and responsibility are his highest professional pursuits, but there are many secrets hidden behind his smooth character.

He smiled back at Horace before politely stepping onto the magic carpet extending from the side of the Hydra.

"Dean Slughorn." Weasel greeted Horace as soon as he got on the boat. "I have received a reminder letter from the Ministry of Magic. I am waiting here to provide you and your family with exit visas." Serve."

Horace responded with a smile: "As serious and rigorous as ever, if you were still studying at Hogwarts, I would definitely give Ravenclaw five points for this."

"Compared with that, I hope to be lucky enough to join the club you organized again. I just don't know if our original club still meets regularly." Weasel just glanced at the Hydera's departure application. , stamped a seal, and then returned the document to the house elf standing next to Horace.

"It's a pity that most of the members of the 'Slug' Club are very busy right now and can't have parties every Friday night as they like at school. It's such a shame."

Horace shook his head regretfully, and then placed his palm on Bourne's shoulder on his left side. "Not to mention, I have to take care of this little gentleman now. Not only is he talented, but he is also very good at getting into trouble."

Bourne was also helpless about Horace's behavior of using himself to block the gun, but he couldn't say anything more.

He couldn't tell Weasel face to face that before the Hydra entered the port, his grandfather Horace had said to him——

"No matter what that person says or does, we must keep a certain distance from him.

Because he is a typical British Ministry of Magic bureaucrat who always likes to take advantage and tells lies, but never understands that rights come from responsibilities. "

After chatting for a while and declining Weasel's invitation to entertain, Horace just asked the other party to provide some supply boxes for the Hydra at the price set by the Ministry of Magic.

House elves are fully capable of this kind of supply docking work, and Horace happily takes Bourne ashore and heads straight to the most interesting place in Gibraltar.

They climbed up a rocky hill south of the city of Gibraltar. Although it was still early, there were also some tourists who came early to climb the mountain to watch the sunrise.

“This used to be the throat of the world.”

"This was once the edge of the sky and the sea."

In a tone that was almost like an aria, Horace read out two sentences engraved on a stone tablet.

They are the evaluation of this hill by future generations - the Rock of Gibraltar, the Pillars of Hercules, the limits of the ancient Mediterranean ancestors' knowledge of the ends of the earth.

Bourne looked around. Apart from ordinary people, he didn't see a single wizard. As for the natural scenery, this almost bare hill probably cannot be called "beautiful scenery".

"Grandpa Horace, where is the 'fun place' you mentioned?" he asked curiously.

"Far away, yet so close."

As if by magic, a silver coin appeared between Horace's index finger and thumb, and he held it up to Bourne. This silver coin is not the common silver Sickle.

"This is a Spanish eagle with the pattern of the Pillars of Hercules engraved on it," Horace explained to Bourne: "In the past, there were many wizard pirates on the Atlantic Ocean. The King of Melon grabbed a lot of similar coins..."

After saying that, Horace bent his thumb and flicked it hard, and the Spanish Eagle Ocean continued to roll and was thrown into the air.

"Lights and shadows flicker!" He did not use a magic wand, but directly chanted a spell on the big silver coin.

When the spell took effect, a flash of light suddenly bloomed on the Spanish Eagle Ocean. The Muggle tourists not far away either subconsciously turned their heads to avoid it, or they were so stimulated that they closed their eyelids involuntarily.

Bourne was also dodged, and when he immediately opened his eyes, he was surprised to find that the surrounding environment had changed into something else. Just now, he and Horace were standing on the top of a bare hill, but now they were standing in a pit.

However, it is not appropriate to call this place a "pit". The floor of this place is covered with mosaic tiles, and the pit above the head is a complete semicircular glass dome.

It was more like the entrance hall of an exotic shopping mall called "Bazaar" that Bourne had seen in books.

The only thing that is inconsistent with the style of the Bazaar is a basalt pillar standing in the center of the pit, with some weird characters engraved on it.

Bourne was certain that they were neither common Muggle writing nor the kind of runes known as "ancient runes."

Seeing that Bourne was fascinated by the pillar, Horace promptly explained to him: "It is the Pillar of Heracles in Muggle legend, and the characters engraved on it are a mysterious ancient symbol. No one has been able to decipher the meaning of the words - some wizards in Greece have been claiming that these words are divine words, which are the words used by the legendary gods. But I think that is nonsense. Gods? hehe……"

It is true that wizards can use magic, but this does not mean that they are also superstitious. Serious wizards never believe in gods.

This is quite similar to some of the cognitions given to him by the long memory in Bourne's mind, and the starting point of his thinking is very similar.

"Blind worship can only bring disaster." Bourne nodded solemnly and responded seriously.

"Hahaha, that's right." Seeing the serious look on Bourne's face, Horace couldn't help but smile and stretched out his hand to move his little grandnephew's head. "But we are not here to discuss these things today."

They come to buy, buy, buy.

This place that looks like a bazaar (market) is actually a bazaar. Simply put, this place is the Diagon Alley of Gibraltar.

Horace took him around the thick basalt column, and Bourne saw a brightly lit market corridor.

This corridor is about a mile long, and the main part is located underground. The lighting relies on a row of large Arabic palace lanterns made of copper and tin hanging from the ceiling. Shops are lined up on both sides of the corridor.

It was obviously not the first time for Horace to come here. He was very familiar with this commercial street and introduced various shops here to Bourne as he walked.

"There are almost as many magic shops here as in Diagon Alley.

The only exception is that there are no broomsticks for sale here.

Although Gibraltar is nominally administered by the British Ministry of Magic, wizards living nearby still prefer to use flying carpets.

Merlin's beard!
Little Bourne, you can't imagine that even when playing Quidditch, they prefer to sit on the flying carpet and look for the Golden Snitch..."

"...If you exclude the almost inevitable prejudice caused by heretical vehicles like flying carpets, the Pillars of Hercules Commercial Street still has a lot to like. For example, because it is closer to the place of origin, it is Many kinds of potion raw materials sold here are even half the price of Diagon Alley.

Of course, the Ministry of Magic does not allow wizards to package those materials as they are and take them to Diagon Alley for sale. Usually, only those guys who can only make a living in Knockturn Alley all year round would choose to take such a mindless risk.

And if you are a master who is proficient in potion making, you can buy the materials here to make potions on the spot, and then take the finished potions back to sell, everything will become legal and respectable..."

"...Of course, there are some bad things here, so Bourne, you must not come to the Pillars of Hercules Commercial Street alone before you graduate from Hogwarts..."

Just as Horace was taking Bourne around and introducing him to some of the conditions here and the broader picture of the magical world, a series of "rumbling" sounds suddenly came from not far in front of his grandfather and grandson. .

It seems that there was some kind of accident in a store that specializes in selling magic plants. Most of its vine-covered walls were collapsed, and fist-sized, bright red Mediterranean airships broke through in groups. It kept drifting out, even blocking half of the width of the commercial street.

"Ok?"

Bourne's eyesight was very good, and he keenly captured a familiar figure. The man walked hurriedly through the airship and luggage, turning back as he walked, as if he was worried that someone was following him.

"That person is Professor Kettleburn? He separated from us after getting off the ship. Unexpectedly, he came here one step ahead - what is he going to do? Isn't he just buying some things? Why does he have to do it so secretly?"

If Horace knows about Bourne's doubts, and combined with the current situation, he can still be fooled:

There are definitely dangerous magical animals here.

Why must they be “dangerous” magical animals?
This starts with the fact that Professor Kettleburn was given sixty-two "detentions" that were unprecedented and likely to be unprecedented.

It is undeniable that as a professor of Care of Magical Creatures, Kettleburn has an almost encyclopedic knowledge of magical creatures and has a heartfelt love for them. Moreover, when he taught at the school, both his professional ability and teaching content were impeccable.

He is very similar to the famous senior Newt Scamander who came from the same school (Hufflepuff). Both of them are also top scholars in the field of magical animals.

However, Newt's research focus is on the protection and breeding of magical animals. For this reason, he also specially wrote "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them", which is updated almost every few years and is a must-have textbook for magic school courses in various countries.

Few people know that Kettleburn actually has his own monograph, which was published by Little Red Book Publishing House (that’s the real name).

However, nowadays those books are not only difficult to buy in the market, but even if they are bought in Hogwarts (the library regularly purchases new books), most of them can only stay in the restricted book area all year round and eat dust.

After all, monographs such as "Physical Treatment of the Hybridization of Poisonous Leopards and Fire Dragons", "On the Possibility of Large-Scale Breeding of Acromantulas", "Seven Ways to Change Yeqi's Carnivore (Human Meat)", let alone It may not be appropriate to show it to little wizards, even to adults.

Kettleborn is too partial to extremely dangerous magical animals. In his view, protecting these dangerous creatures is both his job and his hobby.

During the years of teaching at Hogwarts, the only student who has received his true biography is probably the current Forbidden Forest warden and key keeper, Hagrid. Because only Hagrid has interests similar to his, and, more importantly... Hagrid has the abilities to match his interests.

　Note 1: Shiva is the abbreviation of "Sylvanus".

　　Note 2: Wiesel is a bit similar to Weasley. I guess Rowling borrowed from "Yes Minister" when writing Harry Potter because the character "Wiesel" was in that movie. In the play, he is the image of a small civil servant who is marginalized by power.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)