A new week dawned, the last week of October, and the professors unanimously accelerated their pace to make time for the upcoming Tournament of Champions.
Moody's class is still full of terrors. "I can smell cowards." He said in class. At this time he is planning to use the Imperius Curse on students, in turn. Moody looked at them eerily with his intact eye and said in a low voice: "You will find that the more you run away, the more danger will approach you ... Yes, it is always exceptionally fond of cowards."
As he raised his wand, the young wizards shivered in unison.
Only Harry showed resistance to the Imperius Curse in the whole grade, "Potter, you have the potential to be an Auror! Show everyone what a wizard is capable of, Potter!" Moody yelled as he cast the Imperius Curse on Harry four times in a row until Harry was able to completely break free from the effects of the Imperius Curse before he turned his attention to the next person.
At the end of class, Ron and Neville walked out of the classroom holding each other up, with both being treated similarly. Under Moody's control, Ron did a passionate dance, and Neville performed a series of very impressive gymnastic moves.
"Who - does - he thinks he is, that paranoid ...," Ron said indignantly, rubbing his thighs as he did so.
As they passed a group of young second-year wizards, these little wizards stared straight at Hermione, not shying away from talking about Hermione's appalling performance in the vacant field last weekend.
"That flaming phoenix ... burned all his hair ... off."
Hermione's face showed a mixture of amusement and embarrassment, "Don't they have anything else to do?" Even when she was catching up on her homework in the library, she couldn't escape the various scorching stares. When she refused the third group of students who asked for autographs, the young wizard gave a disgruntled "Che", "What are you smug about?"
Hermione looked incredulous as she asked, "Do I look smug?"
"You look like you've been under a Cheering Charm," Ron said jealously, "all happy and smiley."
" It's scary ..." Hermione froze, sighed half-heartedly, and said to Harry seriously, "I kind of admire you, Harry."
"What do you mean?" Harry asked, puzzled.
"I just ... felt a bit emotional." Hermione said, "Think about it, I've just recently gained a little fame, and I'm already feeling fluttery, but you've spent three years with such a gaze without showing any difference."
Harry stammered, "That's because I don't think there is anything good about fame ... Well, I'll be honest, sometimes it doesn't feel that bad."
"And that includes when you're misunderstood?" Hermione asked as she gave him a deep look. These days, she kind of knew the bad side of sudden fame, and only when she became the center of attention among the crowd did she know what it would feel like.
She suddenly remembered that in their second year, Harry was suspected by many of their classmates of being the heir of Slytherin's Chamber of Secrets due to the exposure of his Parseltongue, and everyone avoided Harry for a long time, as they gossiped behind his back.
" Well, you guys are there for me." Harry said.
Ron shrugged his shoulders, "What kind of weird conversation are you guys having, come on, let's go find Fred and George, I saw them go to the owl shack, maybe the Ageing Potion has arrived."
Harry wanted to go to see Hedwig, Hermione also felt it would be better to get some air, so they packed their things and left the library.
Passing the edge of the Forbidden Forest, they saw two Pukwudgie coming out of the forest. Carrying a boar jointly on their shoulders, they are heading towards the Ilvermorny quarters, and when they see Harry and the team, the two Pukwudgie muttered under their breath in a strange language.
"Guess what they said?" Ron asked.
"I don't know, probably simple curiosity." Harry said as he looked in the direction of the Quidditch pitch. Standing where he is, all he could see is the roof of a tall building with four sculptures of creatures standing at the four corners of the building's edge, and the one facing them is a Thunderbird bird with its wings up, looking a bit like Ravenclaw's bronze eagle.
"Do you guys think there will be a thunderbird in this year's Tournament of Champions event?" Ron asked curiously.
"Thunderbirds are not easy to deal with, they are the darling of the storm, excluding their magical abilities, the mere fact that they can fly is beyond the reach of the Champions." Hermione is less optimistic about it.
The owl shack is a round stone room, standing on high ground. While they were enduring the "whistling" wind and the smell of owl droppings in the tower, climbing up a staircase, they heard the twins' footsteps coming down the stairs.
"He can't hide from us forever, that's not a small amount of money!"
"Yeah, I don't know if sending a letter will work, maybe we should just throw it in his hands, he is bound to show up, isn't he ..." Turning a corner, George stopped talking as he looked at Harry, Ron, and Hermione in surprise.
"What are you guys doing here?" Fred asked, wide-eyed.
Ron didn't answer as he stared at the twins, "Who wants to hide from you guys?"
"We wish our stupid brother would hide from us." Fred said unhappily.
Ron wanted to ask more, but Fred and George grabbed him from left to right, "We thought that you will want an Ageing potion, it arrived yesterday, we will bring it to you when we get back." Saying that they left one by one.
"They definitely have something to hide from the family." Ron looked at their backs and said with certainty. " The way it looks to me is that someone owes them a fortune." He quickly put the matter behind him and said hopefully, "I wonder how the Ageing Potion tastes? I really hope it's better than the Polyjuice Potion ..."
Hermione said coldly, "You haven't given up on that yet, have you?"
"Yeah, are you going to turn on us, Hermione?" Ron said with a playful smile, " Well, it's more or less just a try ... I heard from Professor McGonagall that the Champions can skip the final year exam, which means no more muddling through assignments and no worries about getting a low grade ... It's a whole year of peaceful days!"
Hermione looked at him with annoyance, "So you want to become a Champion because you don't want to do your assignments?"
" Of course, there's still that big reward."
They returned to the common room and Ron slumped over the table and groaned, "There have been so many assignments this year, Professor McGonagall has left an essay on Hedgehog Transfiguration; Trelawney asked us to predict next month's astrology signs; Snape is forcing us to work on an antidote, and he was even hinted about poisoning us! Professor Binns's assignments have always been plentiful, Goblin Rebellion ... who cares about what happened hundreds of years ago?! And Professor Flitwick prepared three reference books about curses; Even Hagrid suggested we should observe Firetrail Snails every other day, did you hear that, he actually asked us to observe the thing that fires up its ass, he sounded like he was talking about a bunch of cute dogs ..."
"Think about it, just become a champion, and you can get away from all this." He said with a longing look on his face as he looked up.
Hermione and Harry did not pay much attention to him, anyway, just like usual, he would be fine after a while of self-pity. Hermione took out a pamphlet and read it aloud while Harry held the two-way mirror and made a family phone call with Sirius.
"I'm fine ... and the scars no longer hurts, maybe it's psychological ... Well, the other three schools are coming, I wish you could see them... Hello. Kreacher, what? Uh, sure, the locket matches your bald head ... Happy Halloween in advance ..."
From the other side of the mirror came Sirius' grumpy voice: "Damn it, Felix won't let me use the fireplace in his office! I have never seen anyone like him who destroys a bridge after crossing a river!"
In the evening, Neville brought back a new announcement - Beauxbatons and Durmstrang's people are about to arrive.
...
The delegations from the two schools arrived on the same day as if they had made an appointment, with less than an hour difference between them.
With the experience of welcoming the Ilvermorny School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, Hogwarts appeared to be at ease from top to bottom, even Filch's eyes didn't bulge out as much, or maybe because there were no little wizards to repeat the cheap mistake.
The weather had turned cooler at the end of October, and the students gathered on the steps outside the entrance hall and waited for twenty minutes before the Beauxbatons delegation finally arrived with a huge fancy-blue carriage flying towards them. The carriage measured as big as a house, and twelve winged, silver-maned horses pulled it through as it sailed through the air.
The students tilted their heads and let out a gasp. With a tooth-aching thud, the carriage landed with a bang, "Cool! Hard landing!" Seamus said before he took a sharp breath as Madame Maxime stepped out of the carriage and stepped down the golden steps to the crowd.
"My God, she's so tall!"
Dumbledore and the professors lead the applause, after which Dumbledore kissed the back of Madame Maxime's hand, and after some pleasantries - "Hasn't Karkaroff arrived yet?" Madame Maxime asked.
"He's a little later than expected." Dumbledore said with a smile.
Maxime "snorted" and muttered in a small voice. The professors and nearby students standing in front of her heard her clearly, as she said, " Posturing."
"Would you prefer to wait here to greet him, or would you like to go in and warm up?" Dumbledore asked like a gentle breeze as if he hadn't overheard her.
"I'll go in and warm up first," she said with a slight bow, "those horses of mine are very feisty - they need to be cared for by someone with a lot of strength, and they only drink pure malt whiskey."
"Please do not worry, our Care of Magical Creatures class Professor will take care of them." Dumbledore said.
Madam Maxime smiled gracefully and nodded toward the professors, her smile became a lot sincerer when she saw Felix, and then she said majestically to the Beauxbatons students, " Follow me inside."
The Hogwarts students Parted a way out and looked behind her as she led twelve or thirteen students up the steps into the castle, as they murmured. These Beauxbatons students were all wearing fine blue silk uniforms, and a few exceptionally slender girls had their faces covered.
Dumbledore turned his head and whispered, "Felix ..."
"Leave it to me." Felix said, looking toward the carriage, his eyes clouded with a silvery-white light, the pack of horses as big as elephants stared at him with their fiery red eyes and then they abruptly became motionless. A moment later, they lifted their hoofs the size of dishes in unison and headed in the direction of Hagrid's hut.
"By the way, there is pure malt whiskey." Dumbledore said, he lifted his hand to pull a note from the thin air, the note fluttered and stuck on the head of the silver-maned horse in the lead.
The note looked extraordinarily strange as it bent backward against the wind and made a loud chirping sound. Professor McGonagall pursed her lips and her expression gradually grew stern.
"Ah ~ it's a bit boring to wait," Dumbledore said: "Felix, have you made any new products for your 'Future World' company? I read in the newspaper that you recently signed a contract with the Weird Sisters group ..."
"That's for the Magic Gramophone, in which they will collaborate to add the first batch of records. I suggested to Remus to make the product as small as possible, preferably with the possibility of projecting enchanted images. But a few minor problems were encountered, and I urgently need some valuable advice."
The two of them discussed while professors and students who were bored idly on the sidelines pricked up their ears to listen, and later the professors joined in the discussion as time passed little by little.
After another half an hour, even the students in cloaks could not bear it any longer, shivering under the cold wind.
"How much longer do we have to wait?"
Draco Malfoy said with dissatisfaction, he quietly drew his wand, cast an Engorgement Charm on a beetle in the ground, and then kicked the beetle as big as a mouse away. It didn't take long for a shriek to come from not far away.
He grinned and suddenly stared at the black lake in the distance, where a whirlpool had appeared.
At that moment, Lee Jordan shouted, "Look at that lake!"
Draco made a "Che " sound, squinting his eyes to observe carefully, the original calm black lake began to tumble in the middle with a huge splash of water, like a boiling caldron, after which, a huge ship appeared from the whirlpool.
It is a very strange-looking ship, it looked like the wreckage of a ship that had been soaking in the bottom of the sea for hundreds of years, and one day it was finally salvaged - the hull is littered with leaky holes, and the windows are emitting a hazy phosphorescent glow. When the ship docked on the shore, a row of people wearing heavy fur coats came out, and the man leading the group draped in a special silver-white fur.
He had a bushy goatee, and his whole body looked tall and thin, with slim cheeks, deep sunken eye sockets, prominent cheekbones, and a bit of a bushy eyebrow, giving the impression of a scheming man.
"Dumbledore!" The man shouted enthusiastically as he walked up the ramp, "My dear old friend, how are you?"
"Excellent, thank you, Professor Karkaroff." Dumbledore replied.
Dumbledore leads the crowd to the great hall, where a sumptuous dinner had been prepared by the house elves of the kitchen.
This dinner party brought the four schools together, and when he heard that the people of Uagadou are still wandering around in some deep mountain, the Headmaster of Durmstrang, Karkaroff, immediately grunted in dissatisfaction.
"They're really good at posturing! Making everyone wait for them! You know, Krum had a bit of cold before we left, and I said to him, "Hang in there, you will be able to get accustomed to it after a while ..."
"They will be here before Halloween at the latest." Dumbledore said gently, "Professor Karkaroff, If your student is not feeling well, the Hogwarts Hospital Wing is available for assistance and Madam Pomfrey is very professional."
...
At night, the dark azure sky which is sprinkled with stars is shrouded by dark clouds, and the moon is also obscured by a thick veil of clouds. Thunder rumbled as a bright flash of lightning streaked across the night sky, and cold rain drizzled through.
In the ancient runes' office, Felix is draped in a wool cloak, watching a film with Niffler Valen on the couch. Niffler is staring at the projected screen, not even noticing when Felix quietly pulled out a golden galleon from her hand.
When the film is over, Niffler climbed into her comfy velvet basket bed and laid down comfortably on it.
"Good night."
"Kiki!"
Meanwhile, a few mountains away, a group of figures stood at the top of the mountain, looking over the lofty Hogwarts castle.
" Come on! This little storm is nothing, we'll get there before dawn."
A high-pitched voice said. He suddenly jumped down from the top of the mountain and turned into a large, towering bird with iron-green feathers as he swept across the sharp walls and circled the ravine.
"Whoo-hoo!"
Another figure jumped forward with a quick flip around and transformed into a leopard. Within a few moments of jumping and falling, the figure ran a distance of hundreds of feet.
Immediately afterward, with its long trunk raised high, an African elephant with broad ears and long silver-white tusks walked with nimble strides down the dark brown steep slope, the sharp stone surface seemed like flat ground to it.
"The little ones are in good spirits, and the effect of the training seems to be very obvious." An old, worn-out voice rang out as the thin witch sat on her flying carpet, beaming from ear to ear.
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