Not Going to Art School (Failed Applicant Edition)

Ginny's story truly shocked Pabbie and Veratia; in fact, even Anne and Cassandra found it hard to accept.

But then again, Harry is also... well, pretty outrageous.

But there's nothing we can do; those were sins he committed a hundred years ago.

They strolled around the Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes and then went to Diagon Alley to buy a lot of tourist supplies.

Harry didn't forget to give the Basilisk Alfonso a treat, the poor Basilisk having been forgotten in his wallet for a whole year.

Do you know how this year went by?

Oh, it's not that difficult. Basilisk can hibernate.

He was very fat a few years ago and didn't have to worry about energy consumption at all.

After being Awakening, Alfonso, in Parseltongue, hissed and fawned over Harry, constantly praising him with phrases including, but not limited to, saying that his master was wise and mighty. His words were so vulgar that they were nauseating.

The next morning, the people who were going to Antarctica gathered at Grimmauld Place, Number 12.

But Antarctica is too far away; Apparition definitely wouldn't work there.

"Let's take a ship," Veratia suggested. "We could go to Argentina first, and then from there go to Antarctica, or we could go from Australia. What do you think?"

"Australia, I guess," Hermione said, raising her hand. "Argentina —well, not on very good terms with Britain, we're all Britain."

Upon hearing this, Veratia finally remembered the conflict between Argentina and Britain in the Malvinas Islands a few years ago—of course, the Britain side called them the Falkland Islands.

In this conflict, Britain's victory was more painful than its defeat—this conflict marked Britain's descent into a state of near-loss of Northern Ireland, where the monarchy was effectively rendered Little Britain and unable to unite.

If Churchill were alive, he would probably strangle the Iron Ladies to death.

Britain's humiliating victory has become the biggest topic of conversation in the world recently. Let's take a look at former Prime Minister Churchill's comments from heaven. The outspoken Sir Churchill bluntly said, "If Britain continues like this, I'm afraid it will lose all face."

Churchill: You're talking about the navy, how many ships have you replaced, one by one? Have you even reformed it? It's just the same old thing in a new bottle! Even Field Marshal Mountbatten had his reasons. "What kind of fleet am I commanding? I'm commanding the real Royal Navy!" And you think I can command this navy with just a few ships? What level is the Britain Navy at now? With just these few ships, even HMS Queen Elizabeth is a mainstay. Can it be? No, it can't. It doesn't have the capability, you know? If this continues, we'll lose to Argentina, then to TPLAC, then to Iceland Argentina, and then there'll be no one left to lose to!

"Then let's go through Australia," Veratia said with a slight smile. "I don't really care where we go."

Yes, that's certainly possible. Theoretically, if you're Austria, as long as you don't "fail to get into art school (the version that only gets accepted)," it doesn't matter where you go.

"We need to make a few Portkey before we leave," Veratia said again. "If anything urgent happens, we can use Portkey to quickly get back here, don't you think, Harry?"

"I have no objection," Harry said.

They made several Portkey and put them in their wallets.

The group used Portkey to reach Australia, where they rented a Australia.

However, before you set off, you can also have a good time exploring Australia.

"I really didn't expect this—" Pabbie said with some surprise, "There's a zoo of Magical Creatures here? Would the British Ministry of Magic really allow Australia to open a zoo of Magical Creatures?"

As a Britain country, Australia has not yet had its own Ministry of Magic, and most wizards identify as Britain.

"It's not open to the public," Harry said with a smile. "Let's go in and take a look—"

It has to be said that Australia's Magical Menagerie have a lot of rare and unusual animals.

The first Magical Creatures they encountered was the Runespoor.

"Remember the description in the textbook?" Pabbie said with a smile, "The Runespoor is a three-headed snake native to the small Africa country of Upper Volta."

"That's a name from over ten years ago, Pabbie," Veratia reminded her. "After Thomas Sankara became president, he changed his name from Upper Volta to Burkina Faso."

"It means a land of virtuous and upright people," Hermione added.

"Oh," Pabbie said suddenly, "I really didn't know about this. Muggle keep changing things every day, it's so confusing."

Harry noticed that the hissing Runespoor -spitting rune was about seven feet long, orange in color, and had black stripes.

Hermione continued her explanation, "I remember Professor Scamander saying in his book that because these snakes are very conspicuous, the Ministry of Magic in Upper Burkina Faso deliberately made some forests unmapped so that they could be used exclusively by them and to avoid being discovered by Muggle."

"Oh, speaking of Newt," Pabbie suddenly laughed. "He loves to describe people using Magical Creatures —remember his wife Tina? The first time he complimented her on her beauty, he said she had the eyes of a salamander."

Upon hearing Pabbie's words, everyone was taken aback at first, and then burst into laughter.

"Professor Scamander is such a person," Hermione said, wiping away tears of laughter. "I really didn't expect him to be like this... it's indescribable."

"Yes," Pabbie continued, "He praised Tina for her vision but didn't say it directly. Instead, he called her 'the middle head.' Can you guess what that meant?"

Hermione thought for a moment and then said, "It's Runespoor, isn't it? According to Parseltongue records, the Runespoor's three heads each have a different function. The left head is the planner, which decides Runespoor should go and what it should do next; the middle head is the dreamer; and the right head is the critic."

"Yes," Pabbie said with a chuckle, "I really can't imagine anyone more interesting Newt."

"I can picture it—" Cassandra looked at Harry with disdain, "Like that silly little Potter— when he complimented me, he said I was as agile as the Golden Snitch."

The crowd was stunned for a moment, then burst into even louder laughter.

"Like Merlin the Golden Snitch Merlin!" Ron said, clutching his stomach. "I never knew you had such a humorous side, brother—I never knew, hahaha—"

Harry's face was as black as the bottom of a cauldron, but Cassandra was revealing his secrets, so he decided to hold back.

"Wow!" Seamus took two steps forward. "There are even Erumpent? That's a rare sight—"

Everyone turned their attention to the rhinoceros-like Magical Creatures in front of Seamus. This creature's horns were much longer than a rhinoceros's, and its body was several times larger.

"This should be a female Erumpent," Pabbie said, looking up. "Female Erumpent are larger than males; they are about five times the size of a hippopotamus."

"It looks very docile," Ron's eyes lit up. "Is it a herbivore? Like a rhinoceros?"

"Yes," Hermione replied. "Erumpent are not usually the kind of Magical Creatures that are easily angered. Generally, they only attack when provoked, but such attacks are usually fatal."

She paused for a moment, then continued, "Don't let its name fool you, the 'Poison' Horned Beast. Its horn can pierce skin and metal, and the deadly liquid inside can cause anything injected into it to explode—this is one of the reasons why there aren't many Erumpent, because during mating season, male Erumpent often blow each other up."

"This is amazing!" Ron exclaimed in astonishment.

"Otherwise, how could they be called Magical Creatures?" Seamus said with a grin. "Isn't it fantastic?"

Indeed, it's fantasy, still fantasy.

They continued strolling around the zoo and bought some materials from the Magical Creatures that the zoo sells to the public.

Surprisingly, the materials sold at this zoo were much cheaper than those in Diagon Alley.

That's the price advantage of sourcing directly from the manufacturer!

Australia is located in the Southern Hemisphere, so its seasons are the opposite of those in the Northern Hemisphere.

However, Australia is located in the subtropics, so the temperature is not low—it's even about the same as the current temperature in the Scottish Highlands.

Why? Because the Scottish Highlands are at a high latitude.

They had lunch at a Muggle restaurant and then spent the afternoon at the Sydney Opera House.

The Muggle world is quite interesting; even Draco has developed some interest in Muggle world.

After spending a few more days in Sydney, they finally set off, boarding a ship to Antarctica.

Are you looking forward to it?

On the deck, Ron turned to Seamus and Neville and asked them.

"Of course I'm looking forward to it." Seamus's eyes were clearly shining. "This is the first time I've ever traveled so far in my life—and I never imagined that this trip would be so far—I still can't believe that I'm actually going to Antarctica."

"Yes, Grandma never lets me go too far," Neville said, shaking his head.

"If Lavender could come with me," Seamus clicked his tongue. "Too bad her dad won't allow her to come out and play."

When Lavender, Seamus's expression turned somewhat regretful.

However, the sea breeze quickly dispelled this regret, turning it into anticipation.

"The sea is so much fun."

Seamus spread his arms wide, cruising on the deck like the lead actor in Titanic.

"Yeah!" Neville echoed Seamus, spreading his arms wide and shouting wildly.

On the other side of the deck, Veratia, wearing sunglasses, turned to Harry and said, "I hope they're still this happy when we get into the Roaring Forties in a couple of days."

"The Roaring Forties?" Harry asked, puzzled.

It's not Harry's fault; he entered Hogwarts to learn magic at the age of eleven, so he was practically a half-baked educator.

It's normal not to know what the Roaring Forties is.

But Harry soon learned what the Roaring Forties were.

After drifting at sea for a little over a day, Harry finally sensed that the marine environment had changed somewhat.

At the same time, the ship's loudspeaker announced that passengers had entered the West Wind Drift Zone.

After entering the Roaring Forties, the sea wind outside the deck began to roar.

The wind was so strong that it was hard to stand, and the color of the sea changed from azure to dark blue-black.

When the westerly winds blow across the sea, the friction between the westerly winds and the sea surface, as well as the pressure exerted by the westerly winds on the windward side of the waves, force the seawater to move forward, thus forming the West Wind Drift.

At first, Seamus and Neville clearly didn't take it seriously, and even found it a bit novel.

After all, such strong winds and waves over twenty meters high are not something you see every day.

Every time a huge wave crashed against the bow of the ship, the two of them would let out a roar like Tarzan.

Inside the ship's cabin, the sounds of bottles and jars falling to the floor could be heard from various rooms.

However, they quickly tidied up the items to prevent the bottles and jars from breaking again.

When the wind and waves get rough, the boat starts to rock.

"Holy crap!" Seamus gripped the railing, feeling dizzy and completely losing his balance. "What the hell is going on?"

"West Wind Drift! Kid!" Harry shouted, just as he was learning it yesterday from Veratia.

Keep learning, there's no end to learning, it's too profound.

"I'm feeling a bit seasick," Neville said, his face pale; he genuinely felt nauseous.

As it swayed back and forth, Neville felt like he was reminded of the flying broomstick from his first year of high school.

That time, when the out-of-control flying broom almost killed him.

But this is just the beginning; the bigger part is yet to come.

As the wind direction and the direction of the swells in the Roaring Forties constantly change, the swaying of the ship becomes increasingly irregular. Sometimes it sways laterally from side to side, and sometimes it pitches longitudinally with the bow pointing downwards. The maximum sway angle of the ship reaches 18-19 degrees.

Although it's a bit of an exaggeration, Seamus said he could even feel weightlessness.

As a Quidditch player, this kind of bumpy ride was nothing to Harry, and Ron was the same, sitting in the boat without changing his expression, even playing Wizard Chess with the equally unmoved Draco.

The others weren't in such good physical condition. Pabbie was doing alright, but Cassandra and Anne were feeling unwell. They sat on the boat, sick and listless.

Veratia's face also began to turn pale, and she gripped the armrests of the chair very tightly with her little hands.

"What's wrong?" Harry asked with concern. "Are you feeling unwell?"

"I'm fine," Veratia insisted stubbornly.

But Cassandra was clearly at her limit; she stumbled to her feet and collapsed into Harry's arms.

"Take me back to lie down for a while." She gripped Harry's arm tightly.

Cassandra wasn't the only one who suffered so much from being tossed around by the West Winds.

When they first entered the Roaring Forties, their greeting to each other was "Have you eaten?"

But soon, the greeting changed from "Have you eaten?" to "Have you thrown up?"

After a day and a half of perseverance, Draco was starting to give out, and Ron soon followed suit.

On the entire ship, Harry was the only one with exceptional physical gifts who could remain sitting still without turning pale.