Her question about his time at Durmstrang and his face clenched slightly. “Certainly wasn’t as welcoming as Hogwarts has been.” He began as he took a drag off of his cigarette and leaned back, his face distant as he remembered his time at his own school growing up.

“Durmstrang was about half the size of Hogwarts.” Gabrial began as he blew out the smoke and continued with his reminiscing. “Two houses much like here but more intense. The definitions were Strength or Knowledge. The strength house was represented by an ox and knowledge was represented by an owl. Clever weren’t they?” A chuckle left his fine lips as he pushed the spectacles further up onto his nose and ran his friend through his hair. “There was a third house not many got into and that was the house of the dragon. Those who end up in the house of the dragon show signs of intelligence and cunning bravery. Out of the massive amount of students who enter Durmstrang since it opened, less than a hundred entered that house… and you’re looking at one of them.”

A smirk moved across his face as he took a drag from his cigarette. “I was the only one though.” The statement was followed by him blowing out the smoke before he sighed. “Things were relatively lonely as most students retired for the evening before I was ready for bed so I spent a lot of my evenings alone. Maybe that’s what made me take up working out, something to get my mind off of everything. However, when it came to time to activities I was rotated between both houses. I was an excellent hunter and an exceptional potions master, between the bow and the cauldron I was an asset each house needed. But it meant double the work for me. They pushed me really hard by expecting me to excel in both, and that was probably a good thing as I feel I have a balance of both strength and brains that my cohort did not have. However it took its toll and was one of the reasons why I moved away and chose not to teach there.”

A shrug rose and fell his shoulders before he chuckled softly. “Sorry… I didn’t expect to ramble on like that. To put it simply, it wasn’t great and I wasn’t excited about it but it worked out in the end. And that’s not what I want to tell the kids on their first day.”