The Mightiest Badger at Hogwarts

Chapter 575 Lion Heart Street

Statue casting is a traditional craft of Europeans.

Especially on religious statues, with the blessing of faith, they will always invest in unimaginable experiences and strive for excellence.

The most typical example is the statues in various cathedrals in Europe.

No matter what material they are made of, it is hard to imagine that in that era of such low technology and productivity, anyone could cast such lifelike statues.

But the bronze statue that appeared in front of Link and Emily at this moment was an exception.

This bronze statue with the theme of the Nativity of the Virgin is as tall as a person. It looks like an assembly line product cast in a large factory. It has a rigid appearance, stiff expression, and unreasonable joints.

Link even suspected that she should be hollow inside.

And because it has been exposed to wind and sun all year round, or the quality of the copper material is too poor.

This bronze statue that was supposed to shine brilliantly in the sun was now covered with a layer of gray-black and looked very dirty.

The only thing on the entire bronze statue that is still as clean as new is the Virgin Mary's open mind to feed her.

The beautiful brass color still shines there, so bright that people dare not look directly at it.

Any adult who has received basic education and has common sense in life should be aware of the reasons for this phenomenon.

If all the people present were men, everyone would probably smile tacitly.

But the problem is, there is this girl here.

"Humph!"

Emily snorted coldly and looked at Dumbledore with a scum-like look, which made Dumbledore extremely embarrassed.

Although it was not Dumbledore who did it, it was difficult for Dumbledore to explain the irrefutable evidence that was put in front of him.

So he simply didn't explain it, touched the back of his nose and went straight to the statue.

"This statue is actually the entrance. We just need to touch it gently..."

Dumbledore said as he lightly touched the statue's arm.

The next moment, the scenery around Link and others suddenly changed.

The magnificent castle and the Muggles coming and going all disappeared, replaced by a square shrouded in various magical neon signs and towering magical buildings.

Even the rough statue of the Virgin has turned into a statue of a girl nearly five meters tall, with a resolute face, wearing armor, and holding a giant flag.

The base of the statue also reads in French and English respectively - To the greatest witch: Joan of Arc!

"Joan of Arc?"

Link couldn't help but read the words on the base, his expression was very strange.

Of course he knew about Joan of Arc.

France's great hero debuted at the age of 13 this year. As a young girl, she carried out the will of 'God' and led a group of French men to drive away foreign enemies and save the building from collapse.

Hundreds of years later, Joan of Arc was canonized as a Catholic saint.

Could such a character be a witch?

This is so weird!

But if you think about it carefully, it does seem possible.

After all, Joan of Arc was captured by the Anglican Empire at the age of 19. The Inquisition under the control of Anglican was sentenced to the shape of fire for heresy and witchcraft, and was burned alive.

Originally, from a Muggle perspective, this was another stupid act by the Popes.

But now it seems that they burned it correctly?

"Alas! Joan of Arc!"

Dumbledore saw Link's confusion, sighed and explained, "She is a great hero in the French wizarding world. In her time, the world of wizards was not as peaceful as it is now.

There are not a few people who are ambitious and want to rule the world's wizards.

At that time, the French magical world suffered an unprecedented major invasion.

Faced with this intensity of invasion, the French wizards had no power to resist at all.

Then, Joan of Arc stood up.

She learned the ways of her enemies, united France's Muggle power and wizarding power, and used a cooperative attitude to expel the outside wizard invasion and return freedom to the French wizards.

But in the end she herself was caught by the enemy wizard and brutally killed. "

After saying that, Dumbledore touched his nose in embarrassment and shame.

Link and Emily both had strange expressions.

Because according to the history of magic, the Wizard of England launched an expedition against the French magic world around the fifteenth century.

So the one Joan of Arc was fighting against was the Wizard of England?

Emily shook her head and asked still somewhat puzzled:

"I still don't quite understand. Since Joan of Arc is a witch, how did she get involved with religion? She was even made a saint! Those religions and wizards have always been in opposition!"

Hearing this, Dumbledore smiled and said nothing, while Link shook his head and explained:

"There is nothing difficult to understand. Wizards are humans too, and they need faith. The object of their faith may be an idea, a family, or it may be a specific god.

Therefore, there are actually not many wizards who surrender to religion.

The most typical example is the ghost of our Hufflepuff House - the Fat Monk.

That guy is a high-ranking cleric!

With his devotion to the gods and the abilities brought by magic, if he could survive, he might even become the pope.

But he was too arrogant.

He never avoided people when casting spells, whether he was using a magic wand to kill chicken pox on a believer, or conjuring a rabbit from the Holy Communion.

You may not understand that the most staunch atheists in the world are actually those senior believers in the Holy See.

So in the face of these 'miracles', the fat monk was naturally executed by the fearful senior believers. "

Emily nodded and asked no more questions.

But there was still a sense of resentment and dissatisfaction in her eyes as she looked at the statue of Joan of Arc.

She still didn't understand why Joan of Arc and the other wizards wanted to join the Holy See.

The wave of witch hunting set off by the Holy See swept across Europe for 300 years!

It's almost impossible for these Muggles to catch a real witch though.

Most of the people they burned to death as witches were just ordinary Muggle women.

But there are still a large number of girls under the age of 11 who have just awakened their magic power and caused the changes around them to be caught and executed.

Strictly speaking, these girls are not wizards yet, but they can already be said to be wizard seeds.

In Emily's opinion, this is no different from killing wizards.

People like Joan of Arc and the Fat Monk naturally became traitors among wizards!

Taking a deep breath, Emily moved her eyes away from the statue of Joan of Arc and followed Link, Dumbledore and others towards the pedestrian street not far away.

It's a pedestrian street.

But in fact, the street that appeared in front of Link and others was dozens of meters wide, enough for a horse race.

As soon as everyone entered the street, they saw a huge magic light sign.

It still clearly says in bilingual - Lion Heart Street.

Lionheart?

Why is the wizarding commercial core street in France called Lionheart?

Link's expression became strange again.

Because the word lion heart has always represented the country of Yu.

For example, the coat of arms of the Muggle kingship of the United States has a lion engraved on it.

Another example is the very famous King Charles I of England, whose title is the Lion-Hearted King.

But this time Link quickly figured out the reason for himself.

Obviously, the Saint Joan of Arc in the square just now did not completely drive out the Anglian invaders as the French wizards boasted.

At least on a wizarding level.

On the Muggle side, France did indeed win the Hundred Years' War against France and complete its unification.

But the French wizards are very likely to be essentially defeated and colonized by the Anglian wizards.

The reason why it is not written like this in name may be to better control this group of French wizards.

This also happens to explain why even the instructions on the statue of Joan of Arc are written in both English and French.

Otherwise, it would depend on the feuding relationship between the two countries.

Not even a French wizard would kill to write English on a statue of his iconic hero.

After understanding all this, Link's mentality changed.

He began to stop observing everything around him from a foreigner's perspective.

After changing his perspective, he discovered that the buildings in this Lion Heart Street really had a strong Korean style.

The only difference between the two is that the buildings in Lionheart Street are larger, more spectacular and more gorgeous than those in Diagon Alley.

But that's all the similarities between the two countries in the magical world.

In other respects, the magic world of China and France are so different that they are like two completely different planets!

For example, pedestrians on the street.

Although it has become a consensus among Muggles and wizards that wizards like to dress up in fancy clothes.

Link and Emily have long been accustomed to the costumes of the wizards of the United Kingdom.

But faced with the weird attires of the wizards coming and going on Lionheart Street, Link and Emily were still surprised.

Compared with French wizards, French wizards dress just like normal Muggle office workers!

The French wizards’ various funny hairstyles and costumes almost turn this street into a Halloween celebration.

The difference in goods between the two countries is even greater.

The country's business system is actually in a state of shock under the monopoly of the Wizengamot oligarchs.

Wizards rarely see imported products in Diagon Alley.

That is to say, Link's Foley family relied on their good relationship with Fudge in recent years, and later Barty Sr. and Percy directly bypassed the Ministry of Magic before importing some foreign imported goods.

As for the rest of the imported goods, they were all blocked by exaggerated tariffs specially set by the Wizengamot oligarchs.

The direct result of this is that in terms of product richness, there is no comparison between Diagon Alley and Lion Heart Street.

If I have to describe it.

Diagon Alley is like a simple canteen in a remote village specializing in products like "Six Nuclear Bombs", while Lion Heart Street is a super-large supermarket chain in the city.

Such a huge difference made Emily almost crazy with joy at the beginning.

She dragged Link like crazy and rushed into every store, regardless of whether it was useful or not, just shopping for a while.

The most outrageous thing is that she even bought herself and Link a pullover cloak that almost everyone on Lionheart Street has.

The shape of this kind of cloak is based on various magical creatures. Some of the more expensive ones are even made from the skins and skulls of the same magical animals.

According to the store clerk, these are all inspired by their famous designers from the natural spirit advocated by horse people.

As long as you put on these cloaks, you will have a special sense of transformation, as if you have transformed into those magical animals and become one with nature!

The natural spirit of horse people is not like this!

Link, who had just communicated with Centaur Firenze not long ago, knew this very well.

And ah.

Why do these cloaks look so much like the lion heads used in lion dances in China?

The only difference between them is that the lion head becomes the head of a poisonous horned beast, a thunderbird head, a poisonous leopard head...

But they were also very expensive. They dared to sell two purely decorative cloaks for 500 gold galleons!

This is simply outrageous. His mother opened the door for outrageousness. It's outrageous!

Fortunately, Emily's crazy behavior stopped immediately after continuing for a while.

She reached out and moved the poison-sac leopard cloak on her head, which was the same style as Link's, and said in a rather depressed mood:

"Link, why do you think there is such a big difference between Diagon Alley and here?"

Hearing this, Link almost instinctively threw out the oligopoly theory he had thought about before.

But when the words came to his lips, he suddenly stopped.

Staring at the various magic lamps shining brightly around him, Link pondered for a moment and said seriously:

"The oligopoly of the Wizengamot Councilors is the main reason for the growing gap between Diagon Alley and Lionheart. But the underlying reason for all this to happen is - the Second Wizarding War!"

"Second Wizarding War?"

Emily frowned and repeated.

Even Dumbledore looked sideways after hearing this.

"Yes, it's because of the Second Wizarding War." Link said categorically, "The terrifying cloud named Voldemort has been hovering over the magical world of the country for too long. In that tragic war, the magical world of the country of Almost [-]% of the young and middle-aged population was lost.

Of course, that doesn't mean that all of them were killed.

Most of these people have fled to other countries.

And there are a large number of emerging nobles who have made the same choice as these people.

These wizards with not very good backgrounds hold a lot of wealth and industry in their hands.

But because of the fear of Voldemort, they transferred all their industries and wealth abroad.

This was a devastating blow to the industry and commerce in the magic world of the Republic of China.

It is also because after that time, the magic of the entire country of Yu completely declined and became the private property of a few people. "

"Clap clap clap..."

As soon as Link finished speaking, there was a burst of loud applause.

Dumbledore applauded and said:

"That's great! Link! Your views on the current situation of the wizarding world in the country are so spot-on! If we were still at Hogwarts, based on what you just said, I should give you a full percentage!"

Although Dumbledore's words sounded to Link like 'I'll treat you to dinner when I have time', they were all perfunctory.

But adhering to the idea of ​​respecting the elderly and caring for the young, Link bowed slightly to Dumbledore and saluted.

It was considered a response.

At this time, Emily was completely lost in thought after listening to Link's explanation.

Emily had never thought about the state of the Ministry of Magic before this, even though she had learned the history of magic very well.

But her situation is somewhat similar to Hermione's. When learning these histories, she just memorizes them by rote and lacks the ability to engage in divergent thinking.

And what Link just said opened up a new way of thinking for her.

Let her think along this line of thinking in her own way.

This is definitely a great thing for Emily.

Therefore, neither Link nor Dumbledore meant to disturb Emily at this time.

The group of people escorted Emily, who was in deep thought, as they walked forward.

And finally, it appeared under a huge plaque made of pure gold.

The plaque is clearly engraved with a line of French text - Zangwill Wand!