"Whoosh~"
The Golden Snitch stretched its slender wings in Harry's hand and disappeared in a flash as they watched.
The Trio looked around in a panic, "There it is!" Harry pointed above Ron's head as he said, a disarming charm flew out and hit empty air. Hermione and Ron scrambled to follow up the spell, as two red lights faded into the sky.
"You guys are still far from it." Sirius said smugly, shaking his head as his arms crossed.
Harry looked at his godfather with discontent, "Then give it a try."
Sirius wordlessly waved his wand, seven or eight leaves on the pumpkin vine like a sharp blade flew out, the Golden Snitch slightly twitched and dodged it. Sirius pouted humiliatingly.
"I don't believe it--"
He also joined the trio. They took up four corners, with their heads half tilted, firing spells into the sky, the Golden Snitch dodging constantly while it remained in a small area; like a nimble ghost, and even if it got hit by luck occasionally, a palm-sized transparent shield would suddenly appear on its surface, deflecting the spell with brilliant splashes of colour in the white-blue sky.
The four played with a great interest for nearly half a day until they saw three tall figures emerge from the forbidden forest, the champions of Uagadou.
Then they pointed towards them and said in a very awkward pronunciation, but their voices were not quiet, so they heard some words "cheating ... fake champions ..." one by one. Which made their mood worse.
"Leave them alone, when you beat them in the first trial, they will learn how to shut up." Sirius said in annoyance.
Harry felt that Sirius was actually trying to convince himself - Because he seems like he wanted to rush up and teach them a lesson.
Time went by, and at the last class on Friday of the week, all champions underwent their pre-tournament wand tests, with Mr. Ollivander himself personally dropped by for the Wand Weighing ceremony and gave an appraisal of the state of each champions' wand.
Bagman and Headmasters are present, Harry surveyed the other school champions, Krum seemed even more silent, with a dull expression, as if he had forgotten how to speak. Byers, who he hadn't seen in a while, also showed up, looking much darker than before, he knows the reason for it as he overheard their group practice every time he passed the Quidditch pitch, but there were always two Pukwudgie standing at the entrance, so he never went over there.
Beauxbatons's Fleur stood tall and proud in the corner, the other two champions of her school standing with her at the center, at her left and right.
The three champions of Uagadou had not undergone much change, except that they seemed more toned, making everyone wonder how on earth they were trained. Ollivander was not very pleased when the guy who looked like a wall pulled out something that looked more like a wand than a wand.
"The African wand ... is too polarized, more unusual than the German and American ones ... I can't give an appropriate evaluation, at the task, perhaps it can be used in a novel way at some point... ..."
Harry guessed it can be used to slam the dragon's toes while it's not paying attention, he groaned at the idea and looked away exaggeratedly as the panther-tight skin dressed Uagadou witch Nona Leibert said, "That's because we're more adept in using gestures to cast spells!"
During the wand inspection, there was a little mishap. Harry refused an interview with the woman named Rita Skeeter, a gossipy journalist, he had no liking towards her as early as his second year for slandering Headmaster Dumbledore.
When she grabbed Harry's shoulder with her red painted nail with claw-like hand and tried to lead him to the broom cupboard for an exclusive interview, he broke away even without thinking, and she immediately shot Harry a dangerous look, though a false smile piled up on her face when the rest of her eyes saw Professor Hap in her sight.
In the end, the newspaper presented their names, along with the relatively normal 'concerns' - questions about their age. The champions of other schools were not so lucky, for example, Victor Graves, one of the champions of Ilvermorny, is heavily featured, as he had been defeated by a 'normal' fourth-year girl from Hogwarts, plus some side gossip: the champions of Beauxbatons are good at bewitching magic, and the champions of Durmstrang will all contribute a 'wonderful' feast of dark magic, also mentioned how a talented player Krum who just made a splash at the Quidditch World Cup is participating... and the introduction about Uagadou attracted lots of eyeballs with the dynamic photo of the student who transformed into an African elephant appearing on the pages of the Daily Prophet for several days in a row, causing countless people to marvel and talk about it.
One of the effects brought about by this newspaper is that Ron's news of becoming a champion finally could not be concealed. In fact, Mrs. Weasley was the only one in the Weasley family who didn't know the news, the others - Ginny, Fred, and George were all at school; Mr. Weasley and Percy were well-informed through the Ministry of Magic; Charlie worked at the Dragon Sanctuary which is closely related to the first task; and Bill, who works at the Gringotts, is in contact with his family quite frequently...
They coincidentally decided to hide it from Mrs. Weasley.
But all efforts were made in vain by Rita Skeeter's coverage, and the very next day her Howler arrived, but not to Ron, but to the Weasley twins -
"If I hadn't read it in the paper, I wonder how long it would have remained hidden! - poor little Ronnie... He's only in fourth grade -" Ron lowered his head and stared at the bowl of porridge in front of him, as if he wanted to drown himself in it, as all the people who were eating turned their heads towards him and snickered. Mrs. Weasley's deafening voice still echoed through the great hall, "Don't just be busy with all that prank stuff all the time! - care more about your brother -"
Fred and George had long ago slipped away grabbing two slices of bread, and Ron also ran out of the great hall, leaving only the dumbfounded students and the chattering Howler.
...
Everyone has a different understanding of time, and while the normal students were still making plans for their first Hogsmeade trip of the new school year, the champions were improving themselves in every possible way.
Ron hadn't submitted his Potions class assignments for two weeks straight, and Snape had put a big T right in front of him without hiding it, to which he just yawned in response, which made Snape stare at Ron the entire time during the lesson about brewing detoxification potions.
"We're definitely going to pass this year anyway." Ron said to Harry and Hermione at the end of class.
"But next year is the year of the O.W.Ls!" Hermione retorted vigorously, as she had secretly told the two that she regretted handing in the time-turner.
"Who cares, Hermione, you don't think I'm planning on taking his advanced classes, do you?" Ron looked at her strangely, "Fred and George had selectively dropped some classes last year, which also included the core class astronomy, and in the history of magic class, they are discussing their product ideas ..."
"That's not the same! Do you have any plans for your future, potions are essential in many fields!" They left the classroom with a lot of bickering and went straight to the library, there were still so many spells they were not adept at.
Felix's demands were also getting stricter, and in the last few days, he had both groups of champions tackle two dragons at the same time. While the memory bodies of the professors formed a panel of judges to evaluate them.
" The idea of summoning your broom by using Summoning Charm is good, but you must consider your other two teammates - Harry!"
"Collins, you are facing a dangerous beast, you also have to learn to cover your scent. Also ... your Freezing Charm is good."
"Ron, the Gouging Spell does not work that way, you can not jump in on your own."
Finally, the date November 24 arrived.
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