Chapter 5

Dalibor Doležal. A Future First-Year.

The castle they sailed to amazed the imagination of the boy, who had grown up in a remote Czech village. It exuded a sense of antiquity and grandeur, and at the same time, a certain… magical quality. It felt like something straight out of a fairy tale. Although many strange things had happened around his home village — things that, according to the wizard who had accompanied him, were very real — they didn't compare to Durmstrang or the magical world as a whole.

It was as if he had traveled back in time. People walked around in old-fashioned costumes and robes, and the buildings clearly looked as though they were constructed several centuries ago... Combined with magic, it all created an atmosphere of mystery, secrecy… a place whose secrets no one had yet uncovered.

As it turned out, his mother, who had disappeared when he was, what, two or three years old, was a witch. That's why he had the right to study at Durmstrang, the school — or as they call it here, the institute of magic — for children from all over Eastern Europe, Scandinavia, and the Balkans.

Of course, the education wasn't free. Besides the sum of magical money left by his mother in a hidden stash, which the wizard who brought him agreed to submit as part of the tuition fee, Dalibor was obliged to work off the remaining cost after graduation.

However, Dalibor considered this a small price to pay for learning real magic! The same magic his mother had possessed!

He had even managed to meet some of his future classmates. Another difference from the small school he had previously attended: here, there were no grades, just years and groups within them, though, as he understood, the differences were minor, and he would quickly get used to the new terminology.

Among his new acquaintances were two Bulgarians, a Pole, and a Slovak girl. Naturally, he didn't know their languages, but magic, as it turned out, easily fixed that. Astonishingly, their words now sounded like his native language! Though if he turned off the translator, their speech would once again become foreign and, of course, incomprehensible.

Magic is amazing!

"Watch where you're going, brat!" came a voice, pulling Dalibor out of his thoughts, accompanied by a shove. As it turned out, not only had he been bumped, but so had the boy walking beside him — a Serb, if he remembered correctly… Stojan, was it?

The one who had shoved them was... some upperclassman, or rather, upper-year student. She had mid-length silver hair and a grumpy expression on her face, reminding Dalibor of the old, grouchy woman on the outskirts of his village, disliked by all the children.

"Be careful!" Stojan — yes, it was Stojan — was clearly bolder than Dalibor, and understandably protested at the girl's actions.

"There's too many of these arrogant little kids around…" the irritated girl muttered before walking off, without breaking stride, alongside other upper-year students.

"This is just, just… Ugh, unbelievable!" Stojan puffed indignantly, practically choking on air.

"Hey, hey, Mandić! Calm down!" one of the Bulgarians, having clearly noticed the whole situation, came over to them.

"Fine… fine. I'm calm, Rad." To Dalibor's surprise, his new acquaintance calmed down rather quickly. The boy thought this must be what they called good self-control.

"If I remember correctly…" Rad glanced at the group of upper-year students, who seemed to part crowds wherever they went. As Dalibor noticed, the teachers or staff hadn't bothered to line the students up in any particular order as they disembarked. Students from all years were mingled together, and whoever could squeeze through first would be the first to meet the gathered adults nearby. "Those upper-years…" Rad drawled slowly, trying to recall something. "Yeah, that's right! My sister told me those ones are the "big shots," or as she amusingly put it back then, the self-proclaimed kings of Durmstrang."

"Well, I guess that sort of thing exists even in the magical world..." Dalibor muttered quietly, remembering a self-proclaimed leader from his previous class — one who, thanks to his hard fists, brazen attitude, and wealthy father, had quickly become the class's leader, or rather, its tyrant.

How glad Dalibor was that he wouldn't be going back to that.

Though the alternative... No, this is still better. Real magic! And the "kings" here are upper-year students, so they probably wouldn't be interested in first-years anyway.

That's more or less what Doležal said to the two Bulgarians.

"Exactly. They won't give a damn about us." Rad snapped his fingers... It seemed he had introduced himself more fully as Radoslav. "So, don't worry about it, Viktor."

"I'm not as hot-headed as you think. They're just being ridiculous, that's all." Mandić scoffed, casting another glance at the group of upper-year students still within sight. "Let's get going, or we'll miss what the professors have to say. Your sister mentioned something about that, right?"

"You know... just don't bring up my sister... You know how much of a bore she can be! Sometimes she's fun... but the rest of the time, she's so-o-o boring! Well, what can you do… she's a girl, after all. Even if she's from Gryphon!"

"Hey, hey, Rad, are you kidding me? I'm a girl too!" Adriana, the Slovak girl, suddenly jumped into the conversation. Her long hair, braided into two pigtails, swung behind her as she moved forward.

"Come on, I didn't mean it like that..." Radoslav shot a nervous glance at the feisty girl.

"Gryphons?" Dalibor seized on the part that piqued his interest.

The trio looked at him in confusion for a moment, then exchanged glances, and Radoslav, who seemed to be the most talkative of the group, took the lead.

"It's one of the Houses that Durmstrang is divided into… Strange that you don't… A-a-ah! Right! I'm an idiot... You just recently found out your mother was a witch, so you wouldn't know, yeah... Well, listen up, then. So, there are four Houses here, each representing a magical creature, and they'll sort us based on our personalities and probably something else too. Neither I nor my sister really knew, and we still don't. Doubt we ever will. So, yeah..." Radoslav started explaining, clearly enjoying the sound of his own voice. There was something in his tone that hinted at that.

The half-blood Czech spent the rest of the journey mulling over what he had heard, tuning out the professors' greetings, and simply following along as his new acquaintances chatted among themselves.

From what his talkative new acquaintance explained, Dalibor gathered that there were four Houses in total.

The first of them was the House of the Snow Wolf, with the motto "Honor and Order." According to Radoslav, this House mostly included students from East Germany, Austria, and generally, the western part of Eastern Europe and the eastern part of Central Europe. Of course, students from other regions could also be placed there, but these areas dominated.

The House was named after a magical creature with a certain danger classification, whose population mainly lived in the northern parts of Eastern Europe and slightly to the east, in the western part of, well, western Russia. Always covered in snow-white fur, allowing it to blend seamlessly into snowy environments, it was one and a half times the size of an ordinary wolf and had high magical resistance. It was also known to lower the surrounding temperature by a few degrees within a short radius. However, as Radoslav explained, it wasn't rated a higher danger class due to its vulnerability to fire.

Even so, it was an impressive magical beast.

The second House was Gryphon, whose motto was "Enthusiasm and Freedom." Students in this House loved freedom as much as Durmstrang allowed it, and traditionally, many of the members of the Eastern European Quidditch teams had come from here. Dalibor had already heard about Quidditch, as the wizard who brought him to Durmstrang was an avid fan of the sport.

The House was named after the Greek magical creature with the body of an eagle and the hindquarters of a lion. Dalibor had vaguely heard of such creatures from his history teacher. One of its current famous members was Viktor Krum, someone everyone who grew up in the magical world seemed to have already gushed about to Dalibor.

The third House was the House of the Black Bear, whose motto was "Loyalty and Will." This House mostly included Russians from the western part of their vast country. It was, according to Radoslav, a rather... distinctive place. Nevertheless, most Russian students studied at Durmstrang and in this House instead of attending their own magical school... But Radoslav didn't know why.

The House was named after the Black Bear, a magical counterpart to the regular brown bear, except twice as large, with jet-black fur that granted it resistance to magic. In a fight, it could tear apart even an adult wizard, Radoslav jokingly warned. According to him, while rare, these creatures could sometimes be tamed. There were even silly rumors about regular Russian Muggles doing something similar.

The fourth House, but by no means the least important, was the House of the Foxlynx, with the motto "Logic and Knowledge." This was the most diverse House, with no specific regional affiliation. According to Dalibor's new acquaintances, Durmstrang's legendary Foundress embodied all the qualities valued by the members of this House.

The House was named after the Foxlynx, a curious combination of both animals, which Dalibor had seen in pictures in his textbook. It was highly intelligent, smarter than the cleverest dog, and its fur had properties that interfered with magic, making it difficult to detect using magical means, which helped it ambush its prey.

Additionally, older students within the Houses were divided in some way, but Radoslav simply didn't have time to explain it. By now, they had reached the professors, and continuing to chat would not only be inappropriate, but they might also miss important information.

"Welcome, first-years..." began the woman standing at the front, addressing Dalibor's peers. The older students had already left for the castle, paying no attention to the teachers still gathered here. "To the Durmstrang Institute of Magic. My name is Alexandra Durina, and I am the Deputy Headmistress of this school. To begin with, I would like to cover the basic rules that you will be required to follow once inside these walls..."