"Krum's shark transfiguration, and he's also the one who proposed to start a collaboration with other schools-" Karkaroff said eagerly.
"I should remind you, Karkaroff," Bagman said pointedly, " It was two people who proposed the collaboration, Krum from Durmstrang contacted Ilvermorny, and Diggory from Hogwarts contacted Beauxbatons and Uagadou."
"But Krum was the one who thought of it first, wasn't he?" Karkaroff said tactfully.
"That's true, but both of his teammates were captured by Merpeople, and he was alone, so what else can he do if he doesn't cooperate ..."
Dumbledore nodded slightly and said calmly: "At least we can confirm one thing, both champions negotiated the cooperation, which is an act we advocate. They deserve bonus points."
"Good thinking on Potter's part about taming the patterned globe fish ..."
"It was indeed entertaining to watch, but it shouldn't be counted as a plus."
"Why doesn't it count?"
"Gentlemen, our competition is not about who performs better spectacle, but about the valuable qualities they show in the process."
"Isn't thinking out-of-the-box worth encouraging?"
Seeing that there is going to be another argument, the judges put the issue down for the moment, when Felix asked, "Who was the first one that collected enough Golden Gems? I was underwater and failed to catch it."
Bagman immediately said, "It was Potter, he had a big advantage up front, he found five when others had only collected two or three. He and Krum are both pretty good seekers with amazing dynamic vision, Krum just fell short, because he swam and walked on his own ..."
"Granger came in second, almost close to Potter's time, because Miss Granger discovered the secret of the level layout and was very efficient."
"It's worth questioning, maybe someone cheated." Karkaroff stated.
"Zip it," Bagman said irritably, "she cracked the blue level faster than everyone, that's what she's good at, you can't deny that!"
"Let's move on." Dumbledore reminded pleasantly, "By the way, Miss Granger is indeed very smart and her accomplishment in some subjects is not inferior to the graduates."
The judges continued their discussion -
"Ilvermorny got most alchemical artefacts, and also worked together to create a water tornado spell that bought enough time -"
"That Potter's Patronus was also crucial."
"Uagadou's gesture casting was distinctive, and the final Animagus-like transformation helped everyone to rush out of the Merpeople Village."
"Yeah, it also broke two Statues and caused the Merpeople to storm out."
"But undeniably, the effect was very obvious ..."
"Everyone, you forget one thing," Madame Maxime pursed her lips and said, "only two teams of champions didn't get captured by Merpeople throughout the whole course, and one of them was Beauxbatons, and as the captain of the team, Fleur resolutely accepted the invitation to rescue other people, her spirit is commendable. "
" Madame Maxime," said Karkaroff solemnly: " Miss Delacour's spirit is indeed commendable, but the reason why the other two champions were not captured was because they advanced slowly ... only a little faster than the dead last, which was why they both eluded the merpeople."
"What do you mean?" Madame Maxime asked coldly, "At least Jacqueline and Francois both collected seven gems, but someone in Durmstrang didn't even walk out of the protective shield."
"Bewick is not qualified to be a champion at all, I would have liked to have him replaced." Karkaroff said with a disgusted face, all headmasters looked at him in shock, then he said with a stern face, "I was just kidding, is it possible to really change someone?"
"That's hard to say."
Felix looked up at the sky and muttered, "Anything can happen." The sky is unusually blue today, as if washed by water, Karkaroff glared at him viciously, and the atmosphere became a little awkward for a moment.
Perhaps even Karkaroff himself thought that he wouldn't mind changing people if the rules really allowed it.
Felix began to mull over his Book of Runes, which had become more and more perfect as it continued to fill and expand, and is undergoing some sort of wonderful change as if it has a will of its own.
It stores vast amounts of runes and magic power within it, like a real-world of runes, with hundreds of changes occurring every second, these changes allowed the Book of Runes to move towards a more and more stable path, constantly improving itself.
He had to slow down, and before he could figure out every single change, he now no longer dared to put the book directly in the thinking room, in case it blew up, the magic power accumulated inside is no joke.
Besides, he had gained a lot of inspiration from it, and every once in a while, a new rune would spontaneously be born in his mind.
"Felix?" Dumbledore called him softly, standing next to him at some point, looking at the clear sky with Felix.
"Don't you need to join the discussion?"
Dumbledore smiled slightly, "Bagman works more actively than I do, and, I have to say, both teams of Hogwarts champions performed well enough that they couldn't pretend they couldn't see ..."
It took quite a while for the judges to reach just a final common ground. Fudge looked at the time and spoke out, "There's no point in arguing any further, let's start scoring."
No one objected. Bagman added: "Based on the scoring process last time, we have added a new scoring rule: if a judge gives a score that is wildly contradictory and cannot convince the audience, we can remove the controversial score."
Karkaroff glanced at him coldly, but he did not speak out against it. Some bargains can only be taken once.
Half an hour later, Ludo Bagman's amplified voice rang out again, and the audience gradually quieted down.
"Ladies and gentlemen, we have combined various factors and decided to consider - the number of people who came out of the protective shield, the number of golden gems obtained, whether they were taken as hostages - these three points as the main evaluation points, combined with a few additional points for the best behaviours. We will score each team of champions on the basis of a seventy-point scale."
"The First Team Champions from Hogwarts: Cedric Diggory, Collins Foley, Roger Davies. A total of three people came out of the protective shield, two of them collected seven golden gems, and one was attacked by Merpeople guards and taken hostage after collecting five gems. Some of the highlights of the game include: making full use of the ice bomb and assisting in casting spells to increase its range; finding the Merpeople Village accurately and taking the initiative to contact other schools to start cooperation. After a comprehensive assessment, we gave them 59 points."
A round of applause emanated from the audience, and Collins dropped her head in silence as Cedric and Roger comforted her in a low voice.
"I should have tried to be more careful." She said sullenly.
"The Second Team Champions from Hogwarts: Harry Potter, Hermione Granger, and Ron Weasley. A total of three people came out of the protective shield, all collected seven golden gems, and none of them became hostages, the first to finish the game. Highlights include: taming the patterned globe fish; discovering the pattern of level distribution, discovering the pattern of level structure, and assisting other teams even though no one became a hostage. We gave them 67 points."
"Excellent!" Harry, Ron, and Hermione exclaimed, Hermione still draped in that blanket of hers, as deafening applause and whistles surrounded her, as she jabbed Harry and Ron in the ribs, gesturing for them to look over at Collins.
"It's not really a big deal, she's just become dead weight," Ron muttered, "I mean, if you're unlucky and run into an army of Merpeople out in the open, there's nothing you can do about it ... "
"The Third Team Champions from Uagadou: Nona Leibert, Rashawn Eliphandy, and Panagiotta Blanzigor. Three people came out of the protective shield, two of them collect all golden gems, and one collected five gems before he encountered merpeople and became a hostage. Highlights include: demonstrating amazing silent and wandless spell casting, defeating a large number of Grindylow hordes, storming into the Merpeople Village with superb Self-Transfiguration, and successfully escaping with the cooperation of the others. We gave them 60 points."
"Just one point short, they performed pretty much the same as Cedric's team." Ron said, "But that African elephant is really quite eye-catching, Collins should use transfiguration more often, in case ..." He suddenly jerked a bit, because Collins is glaring and looking at him inexplicably.
"You should just shut it." Hermione stomped on him uncomfortably.
"But I'm speaking for her. ..." Ron said with indignation.
"The Fourth Team Champions from Durmstrang: Viktor Krum, Aurus Poliakov, and Adam Bewick. Two came out of the protective shield, one failed and became a hostage; of the remaining two, one managed to collect seven gems, and one was captured by Merpeople after collecting four gems. Highlights include: Captain Krum collected seven gems in third place and negotiated the collaboration with Ilvermorny's champions after the first failed rescue of his teammates, disturbing the merpeople's control over Grindylow using wide-range sonic magic. We gave them 50 points."
Krum and his two teammates receive applause with expressionless faces.
"The Fifth Team Champions from Beauxbatons: Fleur Delacour, Jacqueline Bourgeois, and Francois La Fontaine. Three people came out of the protective shield, three people collected seven golden gems, and no one became a hostage. Highlights include: clever use of level props for escaping Grindylow ambush, using bewitching magic to mislead the behaviour of the ten Merpeople when the Merpeople went out, taking the initiative to join the rescue party, and causing chaos in the Merpeople Village. We gave them 62 points."
Fleur and her teammates hugged each other as they currently ranked 2nd with an amazing score.
"The Last Team Champions from Ilvermorny: Byers Bach, Victor Percival Graves, Anne Lunn. Two came out of the protective shield, one failed and became a hostage; two collected seven gems. Highlights include: breaking through the most number of purple levels and gaining a large number of temporary props; creating disorder in the Merpeople Village; and after escaping from the Merpeople Village, the three champions cast a water tornado and blocked the Merpeople Guards from pursuing them for a while. We gave them 50 points."
"The third and final task will take place on June 24 evening," Bagman continued, "and the champions will be informed of the specifics of the task about a month in advance. Thank you all for your support for the Champions. As well as thanks to the 'Future World' company for their support in this second task."
The audience froze for a moment and continued to applaud enthusiastically as Ron yelled at the top of his lungs in the warm breeze, "I bet Bagman received advertisement money from Professor Hap!"
Harry couldn't agree more, he clapped hard and followed the crowd in cheering, it is over ... he thought, three long months of preparation, the third task is in four months, he has enough time ... then he immediately filled with a wave of ecstasy, he, Ron and Hermione got the first place, it is simply unbelievable, but there is no doubt that they have the highest score among the six teams ...
Maybe there is some conversion needed, Harry thought about the special rule for the Hogwarts teams, his mind got dizzy and didn't want to think about it a bit, Hermione would tell him in the end anyway ... all he had to do now was ...
"Carnival! Carnival!"
The students shouted, waving their arms widely, venting the turbulent emotions in their hearts.
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