Chapter 143 - 143 Newt Scamander and Rolf Scamander.
Chapter 143: Newt Scamander and Rolf Scamander.
The southernmost country of the Balkan Peninsula is surrounded by the sea on three sides, and this area has been very turbulent recently.
This is Greece, a country that once had one of the most brilliant civilizations in the world. However, for some reason, the Greek magic world today seems to be lackluster.
The Greek magic world had a very prosperous development more than a thousand years ago, and countless outstanding wizards were born in this area, leaving a great reputation.
However, today's Greek magic world is a decline in talent and a decline in all industries.
Almost all wizards understand one thing - magic is a kind of knowledge that pays great attention to talent!
In the history of the magic world, there are few examples of wizards who are born dull and become outstanding talents in the magic world.
Even the magizoologist Newt Scamander, who was generally acknowledged to be taciturn in his youth, showed a rare ability to gain the trust of magical animals at a very young age.
However, according to statistics from experts, there are few wizards born in Greece in the past few hundred years who are more talented, and most of them are ordinary people who have been mediocre all their lives.
This once brilliant place has not produced a genius leading the times for a long time.
Over time, wizards have left Greece, this evil place, and turned to the magic world of other countries for development.
Under the vicious cycle, the Greek magic world has seen this situation of talent decline.
Today, this country with declining talents has welcomed two uninvited guests-
The two wizards are one old and one young. The old man has a messy head of gray curly hair, a few freckles on his face, and carries an old-fashioned brown leather suitcase in his hand.
The young man is a boy with golden hair, dark blue eyes, and soft features. He is probably only eleven or twelve years old and looks like he is still in school.
"You must be the famous magic zoologist, Mr. Newt Scamander!" A bald middle-aged wizard came up with two followers, shook hands with the old man enthusiastically, and spoke fluent English, "Let me introduce myself, I am Albert, the Minister of the Greek Ministry of Magic. I was the one who corresponded with you three days ago."
It can be seen that the Greek Ministry of Magic really doesn't have many people.
As the Minister of Magic, Albert personally wrote a letter to the magic zoologist and came to greet him in person, even with only two little followers behind him...
"Hello, Mr. Albert." The old man looked a little shy and smiled at the Greek Minister of Magic.
It seemed that it was the sequelae of contact with these people from the Ministry of Magic when he was young. He grabbed his suitcase without leaving any trace and subconsciously checked every button on the outside of the suitcase.
Minister Albert obviously didn't notice the old man's little action, and was very enthusiastic to get close to him.
"Ah, this is your grandson, right? He is really a handsome man!" He turned his eyes to the blond boy beside the old man and praised with a smile, "I heard that your grandson is only twelve years old and has become your assistant. He has just reached the second grade, right?"
The blond boy imitated the old man, smiled shyly, and walked forward.
"Hello, Mr. Albert. My name is Rolf... Rolf Scamander." The boy introduced himself, "I just entered the second grade this year."
"It's amazing that he can be your grandfather's assistant in the second grade." Albert touched his bald head and sighed.
How he wished that Greece could have a few such smart young wizards!
But it was really strange. The young wizards born in Greece were less qualified than each other. Generally, they had to spend six or seven years to barely complete the third and fourth grade courses in magic schools in other regions.
And this gap is widening from generation to generation!
"I guess Rolf is also studying at Hogwarts, right?" Albert continued to try to make friends with him with a smile, trying to lower the cost of hiring this elderly magical zoologist. "Which college are you studying in now? Hufflepuff like your grandfather?"
"No, Mr. Albert, I'm not studying at Hogwarts." Rolf raised his head and said to the Minister of Magic, "My mother said that Hogwarts has to change the professor of Defense Against the Dark Arts every year, and the teaching quality is worrying, so she asked me to study at Invermorny School of Magic."
"I was assigned to Thunderbird College in Invermorny, the same college as my grandmother."
Hearing Rolf's words, Newt, who had been standing by for a long time without speaking, had a slight regret in his eyes.
Because of raising illegal magical animals, Newt was expelled from Hogwarts halfway through school, so he still wanted his grandson to complete his wish of graduating smoothly from Hogwarts...
"Because of the professor of Defense Against the Dark Arts? That's really a pity." Albert said, "I heard that Hogwarts has a new Defense Against the Dark Arts professor in the past two years, and he has been re-elected for the second year. He seems to be very powerful."
"Do you know Bulgaria and Romania? The two countries north of Greece, their wizards seem to admire that professor very much. Especially the wizards in Romania, who are usually very arrogant, but as long as the name of the professor is mentioned, they will immediately become secretive..."
"I don't quite understand. They are two countries more than 2,000 kilometers apart. Why do the people in Romania admire a guy who is a professor in the UK so much."
Albert spread his hands, looking puzzled.
"You are talking about Professor Dracula, right?" Newt finally spoke for the first time after greeting Minister Abbott. "Albus told me that Professor Dracula is a very special person. There must be something we don't know about him."
"That's right." Abbott spread his hands. "Whatever. Those arrogant Romanian wizards never take our Greek Ministry of Magic seriously. They can't tell me anything about Professor Dracula..."
As he spoke, he became a little angry. "It's really abominable! Our Greek magic world was once the world leader more than a thousand years ago. As a result, because of now... If we don't develop well, we have to endure the anger of these guys..."
"Ahem, Mr. Albert!" Rove found that his grandfather's eyes had become a little erratic, as if he had drifted to some other place far away, and hurriedly interrupted Minister Albert's complaints, "You wrote to ask my grandfather to come over, didn't you say that you suspected that there were magical animals here?"
"Oh, by the way, look at me, I almost forgot the business!" Albert slapped his bald forehead and laughed awkwardly twice, "Rove is still smart, otherwise we don't know how much time we would have wasted here!"
As he spoke, he signaled to a younger brother beside him with his eyes.
The younger brother expressed his understanding, took out a map from a large box behind him, and handed it to Albert.
Albert took the Greek topographic map with satisfaction and drew a red circle on a mountainous area with his magic wand.
"Mr. Scamander, look here--" He held up the map with his left hand and pointed at the circled place with his wand in his right hand, "In this mountain range, a large-scale strange phenomenon has occurred during this period."
"Although I don't want to admit it, our Greek wizards can never cast such a large-scale magic, so don't blame me for suspecting magical animals at the first time."
Rolf looked at Minister Albert with pity, looking like a little adult, and sighed:
"Your words are too hurtful, Minister Albert..."
Albert's words choked.
'It's clearly my heart that is hurt, why are you sighing like a child? ! ' He complained wildly in his heart.
But in order to maintain the demeanor of a country's Minister of Magic, Albert could only smile stiffly, and the whole person looked as if nothing had happened.
Newt didn't care about the expression of the miserable Greek Minister of Magic. He just waved his wand, brought the topographic map closer, and then carefully looked at the area circled in red.
There were densely packed arcs representing mountains there.
"Is this... Mount Olympus?" Newt asked.
"Yes, yes, Mr. Scamander is indeed professional!" Albert gave a thumbs up, "The entire area of ??Mount Olympus has been surrounded by fog recently, and it has lasted for more than ten days without dispersing."
"If it's just fog, it should be normal." Newt asked softly, "It's winter now, and the Olympus Mountains block the water vapor from the southwest wind from the ocean. It's not a strange phenomenon that the rain and snow last a little longer."
Newt analyzed it from a very professional perspective, and his face showed a very obvious disappointment.
He thought that some new magical animals appeared in a place with a strong mythological color like Mount Olympus.
So, on the day he received the letter, Newt secretly brought his grandson and assistant Rolf to Greece without telling his wife Tina, wanting to see the magical animals.
But after arriving here, Albert told him that it was just a common fog in winter.
Newt immediately felt that he had been deceived.
"No, of course I wouldn't trick you here just because of the fog, Mr. Scamander!" Albert explained hurriedly, as if he saw Newt's unhappy expression, "If it was just fog, it would be fine, but there were large patches of black gas and white light coming out from the fog from time to time, which was very strange!"
After hearing Albert's explanation, Newt became interested again.
"Can you confirm the exact date when the fog appeared? Please tell me as much as possible about the appearance of the black gas and white light." He said, "I need to use this to determine what magical animal caused the impact."
"Well... I remember that the fog appeared after Halloween." Albert scratched his bald head and said thoughtfully, "I have discussed with the Muggle government and asked their experts to use the weather conditions as an excuse to explain the strange situation on Mount Olympus..."
"After all, the symbolic significance of Mount Olympus is very important to our people here. It is too important for the public to let the public opinion ferment. Yesterday, I watched the Muggle news program on... something called TV. The Muggle observatory said that the fog appeared after Halloween, and it has been nineteen days today! "
"Nineteen days?" Newt frowned, "There are not many magical animals that can cause such a large-scale weather change, and there are even fewer that can last for nineteen days..."
Newt reached out to Rolf, and Rolf took out a very old leather book with a look and handed it to Newt.
"Thunderbirds can do it, and the white light you described may also be the lightning caused by thunderbirds... but those black air will not be caused by thunderbirds." Newt said while writing and drawing on the leather book.
"So what you mean is..."
"There are three possibilities--" Newt filled several pages of the leather book and handed it to Albert.
"The first possibility is that the clouds brought by the thunderbirds are what caused this large-scale fog, and the white light is the lightning caused by the thunderbirds. As for the black gas that does not match the characteristics of the thunderbirds, it may be that dark creatures such as Dementors and Voldemorts are fighting with the thunderbirds."
"But there is a big problem with this possibility, that is, thunderbirds are not in the diet of Dementors; and Voldemorts are pitifully rare, usually only seen in tropical areas. Even if a few Voldemorts appear in Greece, it is difficult to cause black gas that can be observed by wizards with the naked eye."
"What about the second possibility?" Albert asked anxiously.
"The second possibility is that some magical animals that I have not discovered yet have appeared in the world!" At this point, Newt's eyes flashed with excitement, "This is also the most ideal situation in my mind-whether it is a creature that has just been observed, a species born from the mating of different magical animals, or a new species that has mutated, I have no problem!"
However, Albert did not have high expectations for this possibility.
As we all know, Newt Scamander has become the world's most famous magic zoologist since the 1920s. He travels around the world all year round, looking for all kinds of magical animals that have never been discovered.
His book "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them" has been published in dozens of editions. Basically, every new edition is selected by many magic schools as a textbook for the course on protecting magical animals.
For such a legendary magic zoologist, decades have passed. Is it true that there are still magical animals that he has not discovered?
Not to mention, this thing that may be a magical animal is so high-profile that it directly covers the entire Mount Olympus with special effects...
"Then...what about the third possibility?" Albert asked again.
"The third possibility..." Newt's excited expression faded, and his face became solemn.
"It may be that two extremely powerful wizards are fighting on Mount Olympus at this time!"