After breakfast at Beauxbatons, Ezio climbed into the rune-drawn carriage. Pheobe was heading home, while Ezio was bound for Durmstrang, so they said goodbye and parted ways in Paris.
The third great magic school in Europe was located in Norway, nestled among the snow-covered mountain plateaus.
The journey to Durmstrang was interesting, too. Its students traveled to an abandoned dock, where they boarded the Durmstrang pirate ship.
It was said that Durmstrang's founding headmistress, Nerida Vulchanova, had once been a fearsome pirate queen. After her mysterious death, a Bulgarian witch became Durmstrang's first headmaster. Her ship later became the vessel that carried students to and from school. But even after several hundred years—or a thousand—you could still smell the blood that had once stained its deck.
Ezio was sure that was just a rumor. Although the pirate ship still bore old bloodstains seeped into the wood, there was absolutely no smell left.
Perhaps Dumbledore's reputation was simply too great. Or perhaps it was because Durmstrang's current headmaster, Igor Karkaroff, had once been a Death Eater. Either way, he found it hard to stand tall in Dumbledore's presence. Even when he tried to act tough, a hint of bluster showed through.
He said he didn't want to, but his actions told another story. He had the pirate ship fetch Ezio, then sent a professor to show him around the school, and finally shipped him off in the middle of the night, as if he were some plague-bearing pest.
Durmstrang's rising star was a student named Viktor Krum. This year, he had officially joined Bulgaria's national Quidditch team as a reserve Seeker, and he needed to attend team practice over the holidays.
Durmstrang's castle was much smaller than Hogwarts, standing only four stories tall. It nestled in the mountains beside a high-altitude