"The Goblin Uprising in the Hogsmeade area... Was that in 1612?" Professor McGonagall said, looking at the giant screen, a bit uncertain. Bored, she also answered some of Hermione's questions along with the three champions. What embarrassed her was that she felt she couldn't get a perfect score. Although Minerva McGonagall was a professor at Hogwarts, she taught Transfiguration, not History of Magic.
"If the answer is 1612, then the little French girl is wrong," Professor Sprout, sitting next to Professor McGonagall, said with a joyful expression. She had seen it clearly; Fleur Delacour had chosen 1621 as the answer.
"Indeed, it was in 1612. At that time, the wizards' headquarters was at The Hog's Head," Professor Flitwick said to reassure his two colleagues.
"Fantastic! I've noticed that Cedric hasn't made any mistakes so far. Pomona, you're amazing!" Professor McGonagall looked at Flitwick and suddenly realized that discussing the Goblin Rebellion in front of him wasn't the right choice, so she quickly changed the subject.
Professor Sprout didn't think as deeply as her good friend. She was proud of Cedric. Although she felt extremely happy inside, she was modest and said it was the student's merit, and she had only contributed insignificantly.
"Yes, the balance of victory is tipping in our favor," Professor McGonagall said with a joyful smile on her face. She liked anything that benefited Hogwarts.
"Krum's progress seems a bit slow," observed Professor Flitwick, noting a detail that the others hadn't noticed: Viktor Krum was answering the questions much more slowly than Fleur and Cedric.
"It seems one of the champions has been 'eliminated'," Professor McGonagall said, suppressing her own joy and speaking as neutrally as possible.
"I can't do it anymore, I can't do it anymore," after nearly half an hour of the exam, Krum pushed his parchment forward and surrendered directly. He only took a glance and knew he couldn't compete with Cedric and Fleur. In terms of knowledge, he was far behind the other two.
"Even if I win, I'll only get a fragment of the magical bracelet," Krum consoled himself, feeling a bit better.
Krum's decision wasn't a cowardly escape; it was a decisive act, like a brave person cutting off their hand. He was aware that even if he continued with the exam, he wouldn't achieve any results: the prize was for the first to get a perfect score, and that wasn't realistic for Krum. In other words, he was destined to return empty-handed.
Although Krum could answer most of the questions on the exam, even the ones that weren't too difficult, he decided to give up competing with the other two.
Many people couldn't be as decisive in a situation like this. For example, when stocks are in a tough spot or when a business starts losing money, many people wouldn't be as brave as to cut and stop in time.
Giving up in itself was an act of courage.
But what Fleur had mentioned earlier, "the task assigned by Yodel," left him a little uneasy.
What was the task? If there was a task, what reward would come after? Without the key knowledge of the task's process, Krum felt as clueless as the King of France, Louis XVI.
But once he made a decision, he wouldn't easily change it. So, he gathered his exam papers and set them aside.
"I surrender," he looked at Hermione calmly and asked, "May I leave now?"
"Of course, you can leave at any time," Hermione wasn't surprised by this; she was only surprised by Krum's determination.
"Thank you," Krum stood up amid the complicated gazes of Cedric and Fleur and looked at Hermione seriously, as if he was interested in this girl.
"Did you invent these questions yourself or prepare them in advance?" he asked, expressing his internal confusion.
"I invented them after being sent to the Forbidden Forest," Hermione blushed slightly, "but I also used many questions I had found in previous exams."
Cedric raised the corners of his lips slightly: yes, at least 80% of the exam questions were original or slightly modified from previous exams. Hogwarts professors weren't very enthusiastic about preparing questions. They usually made three or four sets of questions and used them on different occasions. Before each exam, they only needed to adjust the wording and answers slightly. Especially in courses like Transfiguration, which emphasized practice, they were even less likely to update the question bank. After all, even if you knew in advance that you were going to do a Transfiguration into a hedgehog in the final exam, it wouldn't help. If you didn't know how to do it, you simply didn't know.
Thanks to the professors' laziness, Cedric had been exposed to most of the questions Hermione had created.
This was also Cedric's invisible advantage. Hermione wasn't a genius; it was already quite impressive that she could create a set of questions in a short time. It would be too absurd if all the questions were original. Therefore, without realizing it, she used questions from the professors.
As a result, Fleur was answering new questions, while Cedric was answering questions he already knew, giving him a significant initial advantage.
Upon hearing Hermione's response, Krum nodded his head and, without raising suspicions, glanced at Cedric, showing an envious look in his eyes.
"May I know your name?" Krum admitted he would like to get to know this girl.
"Hermione, Hermione Jean Granger," Hermione showed considerable patience toward this Quidditch star in front of her.
"Herm-i-ne? Got it. Goodbye," Krum jotted down the name and walked away without looking back.
"It's Hermione," Hermione rolled her eyes; Krum had quite a heavy accent.
Krum's departure intensified the competition between Fleur and Cedric, but Cedric already had too many advantages: an exam in his mother tongue, an exam based on original questions, a more relaxed mindset...
It was very normal for him to win. The only unknown was whether he would manage to get a perfect score.
After almost two hours of the exam, Cedric handed in his paper first, leaving Fleur with three unanswered questions. Minutes later, Fleur, with a slightly sweaty forehead, also handed in her paper.
Hermione reviewed both exams and, unfortunately, returned Fleur's paper to her.
"You got two questions wrong, the date of the Fairy Rebellion is...," she not only gave a score but also pointed out Fleur's mistakes, leaving her without arguments.
Fleur sighed, "How many points did he get?"
Now, she could only hope that Cedric had more mistakes than she did.
"Diggory got a perfect score, so he's the winner," Hermione announced.
"Well," Fleur's expression looked a bit dejected, "I shouldn't have participated in this unequal competition from the beginning."
Now, she realized the hidden inequality in this seemingly fair exam. At the same time, she realized how clever Krum's strategy had been. At that moment, she was pleased with herself when he withdrew, but she didn't realize that she was the one trapped after his withdrawal.
Two hours... who knows what good things Krum had found during that time?
Hermione shrugged, showing that she had done her best to ensure fairness. In reality, there were many exams more unfair than this one. If she were ruthless enough, she could even add an interview after the written exam, which would be worth 30% of the score. Wouldn't that be too much? The final interpretation belonged to the question creator. If you're given an exam opportunity, just silently enjoy it.
Fleur left the camp with a heart full of dissatisfaction. She knew very well what Cedric would gain by winning the exam. She was left competing with Krum for second place.
After Fleur left the camp, Cedric hurriedly said to Hermione, "Granger, I need you to write a note for me, asking Yodel for help."
Hermione: ???
She stood still with her hand in her pocket, not having considered this request from Cedric.
After Cedric explained the whole situation to her, Hermione was left speechless. Tom had considered her a part of his test! He was really skilled at taking advantage of situations! But this request was quite reasonable, and Hermione couldn't complicate things. She quickly wrote a note and handed it to Cedric.
[Tom, please go and help Diggory]
Looking at the brief line in the note, Cedric didn't know where to begin.
"Well, I'll go find Yodel," Cedric decided, determined to make the most of his time, but at that moment, a voice behind them sounded.
"No need to bother; I'm already here."
Cedric turned with a questioning expression.
"Yodel, what are you doing here?"
The person speaking was Tom, who had by now removed his armor and was looking at them with a smile.
"Why can't I come? The rules don't forbid volunteers from moving around freely, so here I am," Tom didn't tell Cedric that he was simply bored and decided to come. As for how he got here, Tom just guessed his way...
Cedric: ...
Thank goodness I was fast! So, this was a time-limited mission! But at least I've completed it.
Cedric looked at Tom without his armor and furrowed his brow. "Where's your armor? And what about the hippogriff?"
"Buckbeak doesn't want to roam around, and without a mount, who would want to walk through the forest with such heavy armor?" Tom was also frustrated. Buckbeak, who was always on duty, had refused to carry him everywhere. Without his mount, Tom naturally wouldn't wear that heavy armor for a walk. Although there was magic to reduce its weight, that bulky armor that even covered his face wasn't convenient in the forest.
Cedric: !!!
Does this character weaken when joining the team? He doesn't fit in at all! What I want is the Golden Armor Knight, not this guy in front of me! Are you some kind of instant noodle imitation? Do you also need a reference image?
Cedric felt like he had been swindled.
But Tom had already joined the team, and he couldn't say anything more about it. He could only silently bear his loss.
"By the way, there's something else," Tom took out a small bag from his pocket and tossed it to Cedric.
"On the way, I cleaned up some resource points and got lots of good stuff."
Cedric opened the bag and almost exclaimed out loud. However, at the last moment, he managed to contain himself and avoid shattering his image.
The bag contained seven magical bracelet fragments!
The frustration over receiving something different faded immediately, and Cedric was filled with happiness. He had obtained a great reward! Adding up the fragments he already had and the one Hermione had, he had an astonishing total of ten fragments! Could the other competitors even sum up half of that?
Looking at Cedric, who was in a state of ecstasy, Tom smiled slightly, "Next, I'll guide you in battle!"
"Wait, did you say 'I'll lead'?" Hermione was surprised.
"Yes," Tom looked at Hermione with a strange look, "Don't you want to join our adventure?"
Hermione: ...
Although she had a sense of being designated, Hermione still accepted and became a member of Cedric's small adventurer team.
Faced with this "buy one, get one free" situation, Cedric once again experienced unexpected joy.
With this ace up his sleeve, he had a significant advantage!
While Cedric opened the small bag, the Hogwarts Quidditch field fell into a strange silence. Then, the field exploded into deafening noise, like a boiling pot.
"Is this reasonable?"
"It's totally reasonable!"
"I'm already a mature volunteer; I have to learn to get treasures on my own."
Everyone marveled at the number of fragments in the bag. Cedric didn't know the state of the other two champions, but the spectators did. So far, Fleur hadn't obtained any, and Krum had only gotten one. Therefore, their total sum of fragments was only one-tenth of Cedric's.
With Tom's addition, the way to play this game changed dramatically, shifting from "Survival Road: Forbidden Forest" to "Mighty Wizards without Rivals." Facing both big and small bosses, Tom's strategy was simple: "charge" and win. If he didn't win, he would charge even harder next time.
With Tom's addition, the pace of the game immediately accelerated. In the end, Krum and Fleur even encountered treasure locations that had been looted by others before they arrived.
In a game like this, the Matthew Effect was simply astounding. It was just ridiculous.
"We're not far from the final boss on the map," Cedric looked at the map and hesitated, "Do we really want to bother that guy? The map says it's a fire dragon."
The map pieces obtained from the chests or volunteers marked some resource points, and different maps had different levels of detail. Basic maps only showed locations, while more advanced ones indicated the strength of the NPC guarding the treasures.
Cedric had a high-level map fragment in his hands, and the resource point they were heading to was labeled as a "fire dragon."
"No problem, the dragons here are still young," maybe due to his experience with Norbert, Tom wasn't afraid of dragons.
"Well, alright," Cedric didn't know what else to say in the face of Tom's insistence. He couldn't do anything but go along. The group followed the map's directions and set off.