Chapter 870: The Coachman in the Afterlife

Every local likes to ask an outsider a question: "Do you like our city?"

Of course the outsider will say "like it, this is the best city I've ever been to", if he doesn't say that, not only will he be annoying, but he may also be beaten.

Oxford is a well-known livable city. This university city is famous for its monuments all over the place, but the commercial enterprises in every corner of the city make the city commercialized.

North Oxford is fine, but the rest of the place is overwhelmed by modern architecture, with Merton College's proctor's dormitory looking like a toaster with windows, and Wellington Square's administrative office building a concrete monstrosity. This point of view may be because she is really not interested in cold modernism, and others think it is okay. From her personal point of view, Oxford and Padua are too different from the two university cities.

After taking a bath, the head of Slytherin applied the expansion spell to the duffel bag she bought today, while she sorted out the miscellaneous things in her pockets to see which ones should be put into that space.

Not all vampires like to design buildings like Giovanni, and they bathe in the blood of girls like Camila Sanquina.

The water in which the wine was poured looked like a tub of blood, and there was something depraved in it.

Alcohol has the effect of accelerating blood circulation. Once the blood is accelerated, it will drive the whole body to generate heat and body temperature.

Like teenage teens doing foolish things.

"I heard from the locals that the 'patients' sent to the psychiatric hospital on Poveglia Island were not all really lunatics. They might have participated in a party that was inconsistent with the mainstream thinking at the time, or had a fight. Sent to a lunatic asylum, even if you are not a lunatic at first, you will become a lunatic if you stay in that place for a long time." Severus changed into dark blue silk pajamas and said with his wet hair.

"Merlin's beard." She stopped her hands and exclaimed, "You mean..."

"After the operation, the 'patient' will become very quiet, which is easy to manage. Not only in Venice, there are such mental hospitals in other places in Italy, and the mental hospital on Poveglia Island is just one of them." He sneered and called Broken her "The doctor Paul who performed frontal lobe surgery later jumped from the clock tower, but he was not dead after landing. According to eyewitnesses, the doctor was lying on the ground writhing in pain, and then suddenly didn't know There was a sudden mist somewhere, and the doctor died after the fog cleared. The patients in the hospital and other doctors sealed his body with bricks in the clock tower. The locals set up sensors near the island, and the ship would The alarm was issued, but every year there are tourists who don't want to go to the island to explore, and some people go to the island today."

"Then the Venetian government still wants to develop that island?"

"This is a market economy. If someone is willing to buy it, no one can stop it."

Pomona thought of the American Muggle family that was attacked. There were indeed people who were not afraid of death and dared to build a holiday villa on that island.

"Did that count as suicide?" Pomona asked.

"Suicide didn't kill him, I think the clock tower wasn't high enough, but the fog killed him." He looked at the space in the bag. "Poor bastard."

"That island can't exorcise demons or eliminate spirits?"

"I'm sure that's beyond human reach. Do you know Silvio Minetta?"

"Who is that?"

"The richest man in Italy two hundred years ago, he used to have a luxurious manor. It is said that he once held a magic worship ceremony in the banquet hall in the basement."

"It's the one that the damn real estate agent recommended to us, right?" she said angrily.

"That manor was once occupied by the SS, then by the Allies and the Resistance, and now it's abandoned. It's a copy of Villa Barbaro, except that the watchdog is not a sculpture, but a real one. , that is a very vicious dog, and many people have been bitten by it."

"What did you mention him for?"

"The manor was built near the asylum. After the frontal lobe surgery, the patients were basically waiting to die, but they often didn't live that long. Many people died of malnutrition. Instead of letting them waste food and Resources should be used for other purposes.”

"Sacrifice." She calmed down and said with some trepidation.

"On the surface, the rich can still donate money to the hospital. The dean and doctors will keep their mouths shut after receiving the money. Anyway, they are all waiting to die, and no relatives come to them. Frontal lobe surgery is also very risky. After signing They are dead when the surgery consent is issued, and there are many abandoned luxury manors in Europe, so it doesn’t have to be held in the homes of the participants.”

She didn't know what to say.

Mental patients are also human beings, but kind people think that they should enjoy the respect and lifestyle that a person should have, while some people understand that they are sacrifices of "human sacrifice".

The small favors given by the richest man for charity are to cover up his true intentions. The poor people who have never seen the world think that he is really a philanthropist when he donates money to do good deeds, but that little money is insignificant to him.

As long as you have money, you can hire professional corpse collectors, and burn them into ashes in an incinerator. You don't have to bury the girls' corpses in the forest like St. Quina, and they are easily discovered.

"Do you want me to have nightmares at night?" She threw a pink object at him.

"What is this?" He looked at the things in his hand.

"That's a headless hat from Weasley's trick shop. Wearing it, the wearer's head and hat will disappear together. It looks very much like the headless horseman Durahan." She glared at the former Death Eater, who clearly showed Disappointed expression, maybe he thought it was her feminine products.

The old bat hated pink very much. Lockhart showed a painful expression in the auditorium on Valentine's Day, but he could tolerate her wearing this pink "little thing".

"You think this kind of people shouldn't teach them a lesson?" She said a little unhappy.

"What's your plan?" Severus immediately asked with interest, who could see that he used to be like the proctor, catching students who violated the school rules everywhere in the school.

"Wearing this hat, we pretend to be the Headless Horseman."

"Ha ha ha, you are so funny." He laughed and threw the pink hat away.

"why not?"

"I won't wear it." He tapped the scarab glass ornament removed from the Gucci bag with his wand. After a flash of white light, it changed its shape, no longer transparent, but with the scarab in the pharaoh's tomb As colorful as jewelry.

Severus didn't even wear a hat when he joined the Order of the Phoenix, let alone a pink one.

"They won't tell!" she continued, "If they say they met Durrahan, people will think they are crazy. You can wear a cool black cape."

The old bat didn't care about her at all, he held up the Gucci bag without the trademark and asked, "How do you solve this?"

This bag is definitely authentic, however without the logo it depreciates in value.

Many people buy luxury goods because of this trademark, which is convenient for others to identify. The material and workmanship cannot be identified by their own eyesight, and they need to be sent to a specialty store for identification.

The shopping guide told her that she could take it for repairs, but the bag lost its trademark after only a few days of use.

This bag was a problem. When she was shopping that day, she met a thief who knew the goods, and ended up being robbed.

She found Bulgari's snake bracelet from the flannel bag.

"Which one do you like?" She put the seven bracelets in front of him.

"No red?" he asked.

"I don't think you like red," she muttered.

Severus liked green, black and silver, and he could barely stand the other colors, except Gryffindor's red and gold.

He threw the bag away like a waste product, playing with the blue one, not knowing what he was thinking.

According to Celtic mythology, Durrahan is actually the incarnation of Crom Dubh, the main god in Celtic mythology. He is also known as the king of the mound. A god of abundance.

It was not until Christianity began to prevail in Ireland that the belief in this Celtic god gradually declined, and the ritual of beheading and blood sacrifice was stopped.

Legend has it that the loss of the blood sacrifice made Crom Dubh so depressed that he was unwilling to be forgotten by the world, so he turned into a headless dubh and roamed the roads, calling the names of those who were dying and absorbing their souls.

There are men and women, all wrapped in black robes. Regarding Durahan's mount, one version says that Durrahan is riding a tall black horse, and the other version says that Durrahan is driving a A carriage drawn by six black horses.

Nearly Headless Nick wants to join them. These headless horsemen hunt for fun. Generally speaking, Durrahan starts his journey with a clear goal and will not cause harm to innocent people. But these messengers of death also have a taboo when performing their duties: that is, they cannot bear the sight of others. If a mortal casts their eyes on them out of curiosity or other reasons, they will be whipped in the eyes or splashed with blood on the head by Dullahan, and the marked person will become the next dying person, and they will be chased and hunted.

But mortals are not completely helpless in front of these ecstasy messengers. Artifacts made of gold will make Durrahan have "unreasonable" fears, and even a golden needle can drive them back. In the dark.

The Celts believed that the head is the residence of the soul, the seat of knowledge, inspiration and prophecy, symbolizing power and divinity, and even has the magic power to resist the invasion of the devil, so the processed real head or the dummy head carved in wood and stone will be used Place in shrines, porches, or wells for protection and good luck.

The Celts like to call themselves "headhunters". They believe that the souls of these beheaded enemies will eventually become members of their own tribe and contribute to their own ethnic group.

Like the devil, they believed that the souls of those who were killed would become their slaves after death.

If she was going to pretend to be Durahan, where was she going to find a horse and a carriage?

In this era, vehicles are used instead of vehicles, and there are very few horses. The carriages in London are used to take pictures and experience tourists. They are very docile, not the horses ridden by the headless horseman.

That kind of cart horse is timid and docile, and not suitable for battle. If it can't scare people, it will inevitably turn people's backs when they are frightened first.

Pomona remembered the bronze horse of St. Mark's Basilica, which she could transfigure to animate, and then she could pretend to be the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.

If it’s cooler, you can find Pegasus. The rune horse that pulls Beauxbaton’s carriage is too "beautiful" and has no scary effect. Thestral is very suitable. Those demon worshipers who sacrificed living people should have seen it died.

Money confuses some people, thinking that they are a great person who can trample on the law and humanity, but even the richest man like Mineta, no one will remember him after two hundred years.

Only writers, painters, architects, sculptors are remembered, and saints like Antonio, and those who gave their lives for the advancement of human civilization, like Copernicus, Galileo, and Bruno, and "Napoleon" Emperor," though the short man who made up for his lack of height on horseback claimed to be the crowned president.

Venetian merchants were very clever, but there were also bankers like the Peruzzi family who lent money to the king and never got it back.

The collapse of the Peruzzi Bank led to the Great Depression in Europe for more than 100 years, the Hundred Years War, the Black Death, and the Witch Hunt, all of which are the dark side of the progress of art and technology during the Renaissance.

In addition to curiosity, there is one more thing that can make people progress, and that is fear. People will do everything in order to survive.

Facing the attack of the Black Death, the Venetians reused Jewish doctors and Christian doctors. As long as it was effective, they dared to do anything, including sailing the problematic ship to Poveglia Island for isolation. It was basically impossible to go to that island. Left alive, but quarantine was an effective way to curb the spread of the plague.

Some people should be locked up in a mental hospital, and they should not be treated specially just because they are noble or rich.

If the Marquis de Sade had not been imprisoned in the Bastille at that time, perhaps the ending would have been different.

It stands to reason that there should be many readers for writing erotic novels, but the Marquis de Sade's book could not be sold. On the contrary, Rousseau, who criticized the nobility, had more readers.

Sometimes readers are not as cheering as the author thinks.

The Paris Opera House is designed according to eclecticism, but not everyone likes it.

In Severus' bag, there was also a violin that sealed the souls of six musicians, none of whom knew exactly what the audience wanted to hear.

Good luck can make people rich overnight, but this kind of "luck" does not always exist. There are so many writers, composers, painters, sculptors, and performers who are "unlucky" and become a few such as Shakespeare, Mozart, and Titian. , Michelangelo, and Paganini's stepping stones.

Those believers in the devil think that they can summon the devil by using human sacrifice, or they can use witchcraft.

Being a wizard is a talent, just like some people are good at sculpture and painting, this talent is a gift from heaven, no amount of money can buy it.

In Beedle the Poet's Tales, there is a stupid king in the place where Babbitty the Rabbit lives. He is a Muggle, but he wants to get the power of magic. For this reason, he hopes to hire a magician, but all the people are attracted. Charlatans.

So what if he envied a peasant witch possessing magic? If you don't learn to accept your fate, you will be tricked by liars, and you will be the one who loses face in the end.

Fate is unfair, and it is harder for those who have been lucky to accept it.

The long-term side effect of drinking Felix Felicia is arrogance. Fortunately, Lily made James feel frustrated and changed, otherwise he would be as annoying as some "lucky ones".

James Potter, I don't know if your next life will be the same as this life, born as a child of a rich man.

It's true about the madhouse, not the one on Poveglia Island, but on the side of the road in Urbex, Italy, a concrete house, it used to be a town, there were several churches nearby, and the patients were treated in a very inhuman way Treated, there are still some inhumane experiments, recording brain response areas through electric shocks, etc. The most pitiful thing is the orphan inside, Ave Maria