Miss Gryffindor || h. potter (re-writting)

36

"Bagman wanted to tell us what's happening at Hogwarts, At the World Cup, remember? But my own mother won't say. Wonder what -"
"Shh!" Hermione whispered suddenly pressing her finger to her lips and pointing towards the compartment next to theirs.

Aria, Harry and Ron all went quite turning their attention to any noise coming from the next door compartment. Only for a familiar voice to fill the girls ears, "...Father actually considered sending me to Durmstrang rather than Hogwarts, you know. He knows the headmaster, you see. Well, you know his opinion of Dumbledore — the man's such a Mudblood-lover — and Durmstrang doesn't admit that sort of riffraff. But Mother didn't like the idea of me going to school so far away. Father says Durmstrang takes a far more sensible line than Hogwarts about the Dark Arts. Durmstrang students actually learn them, not just the defense rubbish we do..."

Getting up Hermione walked over to the door and slid it shut blocking out Draco's voice.
"So he thinks Durmstrang would have suited him, does he?" she asked angrily "I wish he had gone, then we wouldn't have to put up with him."

Aria went quiet it completely slipped her mind that having to go back to Hogwarts also meant having to deal with Draco and the Malfoy's.
"Durmstrang's another wizarding school?" Harry questioned

"Yes and it's got a horrible reputation. According to An Appraisal of Magical Education in Europe, it puts a lot of emphasis on the Dark Arts." Hermione informed the boy

"I think I've heard of it." Ron acknowledged with a nod "Where is it? What country?"

"Nobody knows," Hermione replied vaguely
"Er- why not?" Aria asked sharing a confused look with Harry

"There's traditionally been a lot of rivalry between all the magic schools. Durmstrang and Beauxbatons like to conceal their whereabouts so nobody can steal their secrets." Hermione stated

"Come off it," Ron laughed "Durmstrang's got to be about the same size as Hogwarts - how are you going to hide a great big castle?"

"But Hogwarts is hidden," Hermione recalled surprised "Everyone knows that.. well, everyone who's read Hogwarts, A History, anyway."
"Just you then." Ron commented earning a slight kick in the shins from Aria causing him to send her a short glance before continuing, "So go on - how d'you hide a place like Hogwarts?"

"It's bewitched." Hermione answered earning confused glances from the boys causing her to briefly sigh
"Basically, if a Muggle looks at it, all they see is a moldering old ruin with a sign over the entrance saying DANGER, DO NOT ENTER, UNSAFE."

"So Durmstrang'll just look like a ruin to an outside too?"
"Maybe," Hermione shrugged exchanging a glance with Aria "Or it might have Muggle-repelling charms on it, like the World Cup stadium. And to keep foreign wizards from finding it, they'll have made it Unplottable -"
"Come again?"

"Well, you can enchant a building so it's impossible to plot on a map, can't you?"
"Er... if you say so." Harry added on unsurely.
"From what I've read and heard.. I think that Durmstrang might be somewhere in the far north." Aria concluded "Somewhere very cold because of the fur capes they have as part of their uniforms."

Hermione nodded in agreement thoughtfully as Ron sighed dreamily, "Ah think of the possibilities, It would've been so easy to push Malfoy off a glacier and make it look like an accident... Shame his mother likes him..."

Aria chuckled briefly under her breath at Ron's commentary as the train continued farther north. After long hours of endless chatter of Quidditch with some of her fellow Hogwarts students that came to join her and her best friends she could tell Hermione was growing restless.