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Chapter 1188: Ilvermorny School of Witchcraft and Wizardry
🕑 Added 2024-07-29 22:59:48 +0000 UTCEvan did not refuse. He promised that if he could go to the United States, he would definitely join their research team. Studying abroad was already part of his plan. Although he hadn't decided where to go yet, given the current situation, if he didn't want to go to Beauxbatons or Durmstrang, the most likely option was to go to an American Wizarding school for exchange.
There were two schools of Witchcraft and Wizardry in the United States, one of which was specifically for girls.
Therefore, if Evan wanted to go to the United States for exchange, his only choice would be Ilvermorny School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
This school of magic was founded in the seventeenth century and stood at the highest peak of Mount Greylock in Massachusetts, USA.
Information about Wizarding schools had always been top secret and difficult for outsiders to know.
Fortunately, in this Alchemy team from the United States, there were three wizards who graduated from Ilvermorny School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, including the team leader Paul Roberts, who invited Evan to join their team.
Over the next half month, he and Evan became more and more familiar with each other, and he often came to discuss spells and runes with him.
If Rawya was too busy and didn't have time to come and accompany Evan, he would spend time with Paul and the others.
After learning that Evan planned to go to Ilvermorny for exchange and study, Paul enthusiastically introduced him to some information about the school. This was the first time Evan learned detailed information about this American Wizarding school.
First of all, according to an unverified legend, Ilvermorny School of Witchcraft and Wizardry was founded by a descendant of Salazar Slytherin.
There was a saying that the founder was Slytherin's daughter, and there was another saying that she was his student.
Due to experiencing the ravages of war, Ilvermorny had once been conquered by local Indian natives, and many precious early materials had been lost or destroyed.
Today's Wizarding community and Magic historians could only rely on conjecture to speculate about Ilvermorny's history.
But regardless of whether it was his daughter or student, all stories about Ilvermorny's beginnings were related to Slytherin.
In fact, this Wizarding school was originally founded as an extension of Hogwarts in the Americas.
Evan didn't know where the descendants of the other three of the Four Founders of Hogwarts were now, or whether they had long been extinct. But Slytherin seemed to have many descendants, many of whom were famous figures.
On the grounds of Ilvermorny School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, there was an ancient tree known as the Snakewood Tree.
This tree was planted by the founder of Ilvermorny and was said to have originated from seeds given by Salazar Slytherin. It was a unique magical plant in the world. The magical thing about this tree was that it was very hard. Its branches could not be cut off no matter what weapon was used or how hard one cut them. They would only wither and fall due to the natural cycle.
Wizards had also discovered that speaking to it in Parseltongue would cause the tree to shake and drop its leaves.
The leaves had powerful medicinal properties and were considered a boon from Slytherin.
Because of this, Ilvermorny had always been believed by wizards to have been founded by a descendant of Slytherin. This was the most direct and powerful evidence of all the rumors and speculations. First, the tree called Snakewood was indeed planted in the early days of Ilvermorny's founding; second, it could interact with Parseltongue.
Although this was a rare talent, throughout the long history of magic, there still had been many wizards who could use this language and became famous for it.
But almost all the famous ones were Dark wizards, except Salazar Slytherin.
Another point was that the talent of Parseltongue could be inherited.
There was no need to investigate further, as the matter was clear at this point!
If Ilvermorny's founder could use Parseltongue, then he must be the descendant of a wizard with a positive reputation, not a Dark wizard.
This matter concerned the school's reputation and status, so the founder must be related to Slytherin.
This was the only choice. It could not be any of those other notorious Dark wizards. Even if it was, no one would admit it.
In Evan's view, this was roughly what happened.
Once Slytherin was confirmed, it was just a matter of searching for information and providing proof in that direction.
Wizarding civilization in the Americas originated from Europe, and Salazar Slytherin's later life history was vague, providing ample room for interpretation. If not for the fact that the timeline didn't match up—Slytherin lived in a time when the Americas hadn't been discovered—they might even claim that Slytherin himself founded Ilvermorny...
But regardless, as long as there was a connection to Slytherin, it was sufficient.
As a result, Ilvermorny gained a noble origin, putting it on par with Hogwarts.
In terms of the internal structure of the school, Ilvermorny also tried to imitate Hogwarts, establishing four Houses.
They were Horned Serpent, Pukwudgie, Thunderbird and Wampus Houses.
The names might sound a little funny, but these were the most famous magical creatures in the Americas.
Considering Ilvermorny's history, certain things were not difficult to understand!
The original intention of the establishment of Ilvermorny School of Witchcraft and Wizardry was to train wizards in the United States to fight against the Native Americans and their shamans in this area. It itself was a product of the great discovery and colonization of the land. For a long time in the early days, this wizarding school existed more as a magic fortress.
To showcase power, Ilvermorny used the strongest magical creatures from the Americas at the time as House names.
There was another thing, Paul told Evan, which was also a rumor.
It was said that the wizards of Ilvermorny had found four legendary Native American artifacts corresponding to the four Houses.
Let’s first look at the details of these Houses. The first one was Horned Serpent, whose logo was a silver horned river serpent with a jewel set into its forehead.
Needless to say, the horned serpent was a magical creature unique to the Americas, revered as a deity by Native American shamans, and was extremely rare.
The crystal on the top of the head was especially beautiful, but also had a strong magical power.
Whether used as decoration or as magical material, it was top-notch.
Because of this, the silver horned serpents had been heavily hunted for a period, making them rare to find now.
The second House was Pukwudgie, represented by a short, grey-faced, large-eared creature.
Evan had seen gnomes in the Weasleys' garden, but believe it, the Pukwudgies grown in America looked very different from their European cousins, almost like two different species. It was not known whether it was due to climatic reasons or if they were the offspring of gnomes and goblins as the legend said, but American Pukwudgies had very high intelligence and social structure.
In the Americas, the status of Pukwudgies was similar to that of goblins in Europe, equally smart, equally powerful in magic, equally greedy.
When Ilvermorny School of Witchcraft and Wizardry was in a difficult situation in its early days, it was with the help of the Pukwudgies that it was able to overcome difficulties many times and develop little by little.
In order to thank the Pukwudgies for their achievements, Ilvermorny made it one of the four major Houses.
The third was Thunderbird House, whose logo was a bird that could create storms as it flew.
This was also a magical creature unique to the Americas, and was also known as the North Indian sacred bird.
Thunderbirds were very dangerous, with attack power even greater than that of fire dragons.
Unlike the gentle Horned Serpents, Thunderbirds could not be tamed, nor could they be bred like Fire Dragons.
To protect this rare magical creature, the Magical Congress of the United States of America designated a large area for their habitat. But the reality was that if a Thunderbird got unhappy one day, it would fly out of its territory to the Muggle areas and create a tornado or storm to cause large-scale destruction. This was also a common occurrence...
