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Chapter 458 - 0458 The Schools

Regardless of which magical school it is, they all follow the principle of regional enrollment.

Take Hogwarts for example—although it's located in the Scottish Highlands, besides children born in mainland Britain, it also recruits young wizards from Ireland.

Then there's Durmstrang Institute that Mycroft mentioned in his conversation with Sherlock.

Compared to Hogwarts, it has an even broader student base.

Located in Northern Europe, besides students from the five Nordic countries, it also accepts German and Austrian students who are relatively nearby.

It's even willing to accept international students from as far away as Bulgaria.

You should know that although Durmstrang Institute isn't as famous as Hogwarts, it's still one of the three largest magical schools in Europe.

Even such a prestigious school finds its student pool insufficient and needs to develop international enrollment—needless to say what it's like for other seven magical schools worldwide.

"Seven is the most powerfully magical number."

Hearing this, Sherlock immediately understood the boy was thinking about Horcruxes again.

Ever since viewing that memory extracted from Professor Slughorn, Harry had kept this matter constantly on his mind.

After all, splitting one's soul into seven parts and creating six Horcruxes was simply too horrifying.

He couldn't help but take it seriously.

Even now, Harry remained highly sensitive to "seven" as the most powerfully magical number.

So when he heard everyone discussing seven magical schools, he naturally said it out loud.

Of course, the Chang couple didn't know Harry's thoughts.

Although Chang Wei was a Muggle, he spoke about these matters with great familiarity.

This naturally benefited from having married a witch.

From Chang Wei's description, everyone was surprised to discover that blood purity theories had almost no market in Asia.

The wizards of this region didn't seem to particularly value secrecy. Muggles like Chang Wei could easily integrate into the magical world after marrying Chang Dali.

In Asian culture, It seems you're either a wizard or you're not. Nobody seem to care whether you're pure-blood, half-blood, or Muggle-born.

The clash between different cultures was quite a novel topic for the local wizards.

Chang Wei was an eloquent speaker, and his descriptions captivated the audience.

However, as the conversation continued, more and more guests arrived at Grimmauld Place.

Just as Mrs. Holmes had said earlier, leaving guests unattended would be impolite.

So as hosts, Sirius and Harry, though very interested in this topic, could only reluctantly leave to greet the new arrivals.

"It's alright."

Cho Chang noticed Harry's somewhat reluctant expression and immediately smiled at him: "If you're interested in these things, I'll tell you about them later."

"Mm-hmm." Harry nodded repeatedly at her words.

Seeing this scene, Ginny's brow furrowed immediately, a sense of crisis was welling up within her.

So although she was also very interested in this topic, she decisively withdrew at this moment to accompany Harry and Sirius in greeting the guests.

Regarding her relationship with Harry, her two friends Hermione and Luna had each given different advice.

Hermione's advice was to tell her to get on with life, try to get along with others, and be more relaxed around Harry.

Because previously, whenever Harry was in the room, she'd get so nervous she couldn't even speak.

So Hermione believed that if she had more of her own life, Harry might notice her more.

Ginny accepted most of Hermione's suggestions.

But regarding Hermione's idea of "having more of your own life"—that is, trying to attract Harry's attention by dating other people—she was somewhat hesitant.

If it weren't for Cho Chang, she'd think this approach might work.

But now with Cho Chang present, if she still did this, wouldn't she be pushing Harry into someone else's arms?

Moreover, from every perspective, Cho Chang was in no way inferior to her.

Compared to Hermione's roundabout tactics, the spiritually gifted Luna instead proposed going straight to the point and simply confessing to Harry.

However, Ginny worried this would scare Harry off.

She felt Harry had always seen her as a younger sister.

If she really spoke up, she feared they couldn't even remain friends.

Faced with such a Ginny, Luna was at a loss and could only settle for second best, pointing out that she should increase her contact time with Harry.

Joining the Quidditch house team was her idea.

Eventually, Ginny blended both their suggestions, which led to the current situation.

Get on with life, be more relaxed around Harry, increase one-on-one time with Harry, but don't date other people.

In fact, by the time 1994 arrived, she was already receiving love letters.

Her appearance was indeed very good, and many Hogwarts students didn't prefer Cho Chang's type of Asian beauty.

In another year or two, when her body developed more, she might become even more popular than Cho Chang.

However, this was completely useless.

Because Harry didn't care.

Regarding Ginny's proactive participation, Harry was somewhat oblivious, while Sirius readily agreed.

The more popular his godson was, the happier he as a father figure became.

After the Chang family, the next to arrive at Grimmauld Place were Sherlock and Harry and Ron's other two roommates.

Round-faced Neville Longbottom, and Dean who liked singing and basketball.

A while later, Ginny's good friend Luna Lovegood and her father also arrived.

This was something Ginny had specifically requested after the Weasley family received Harry's invitation.

She hoped Harry could also invite her best friend from Gryffindor.

Harry naturally complied readily.

Even if Ginny hadn't said anything, he would have invited Luna.

This was of course for Sherlock's sake.

After all, Luna was one of the very few girls who could interact smoothly with Sherlock.

In fact, Harry had also invited Gemma Farley.

Unfortunately, Gemma was currently far away in Romania and couldn't make it.

However, she still expressed her thanks for Harry's invitation and sent a birthday card and birthday present.

And, unsurprisingly, she also inquired about Sherlock's recent situation.

When Remus Lupin also arrived, today's guests were finally all accounted for.

"I couldn't attend the trial with you last year, but at least I made it this year."

Lupin looked at Sherlock and Harry, smiling warmly, "You've both grown taller."

He looked around left and right. "Harry, why didn't you invite your cousin's family? Didn't Padfoot say your relationship is quite good now?"

"Dudley did want to come, but Aunt Petunia refused after hearing everyone here would be wizards."

Harry said somewhat helplessly.

After learning that Petunia had once written to Dumbledore expressing her desire to attend Hogwarts, Harry had a pretty good understanding of his aunt's mindset.

Back then, she longed to enter a magical school but was unable to due to her own limitations.

Eventually, out of jealousy, she angrily cut off all connections with the magical world, not even wanting her own younger sister.

Although she had already shared this past and admitted her change in attitude, how could a knot that had remained unresolved for so many years be so easily released?

Moreover, every corner of 12 Grimmauld Place was filled with the atmosphere of wizards.

Considering Uncle Vernon's avoidance of magic at all costs, plus her own psychological reasons, Aunt Petunia ultimately declined Harry's kind offer.

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