Later that night, Ivan quietly got out of bed in the Gryffindor dormitory. He glanced at Harry and the others, who were still fast asleep, then quietly opened the door and walked towards the Great Hall.
As he expected, the silent Great Hall was empty at this hour.
The door, however, was wide open. Presumably, the young wizards who had the same idea as him and tried to get up in the middle of the night to throw the note had already been there.
Ivan stepped through the door. It was gloomy, and the only light came from the large goblet on the dais, from which blue and white flames were spitting.
Let's try the easiest one first, thought Ivan as he approached the edge of the Age Line. He took a piece of parchment from his pocket, crumpled it, and aimed it at the cup.
It wasn't a long distance, and Ivan was confident in his aim, so he tossed the ball of paper over.
The paper ball spun out of his hand and smoothly crossed the age line and fell into the blue-white flames.
Just as Ivan thought he was going to succeed, the flames rose up and lifted the paper, causing it to twist and fall to the ground.
"Well, I guess not!" Ivan muttered to himself, rubbing his chin.
Ivan, however, did not care too much about this defeat. He waved his wand to cast the Summoning Charm on the Goblet of Fire, but it did not move. He had no choice but to recall the ball of paper that had fallen to the ground and try other methods.
Such as conjuring an owl with a Transfiguration Charm to fly through the air with a note.
Unfortunately, Ivan soon discovered that the owl could not even pass the age limit, and no matter how high it flew, once it entered the range of the age limit, it would be blasted away by a blast of magic.
The remaining attempts were unsuccessful, and even when he tried several times to get the ball of paper to fall into the Goblet of Fire, it was quickly thrown out by the blue and white flames.
Apparently, in addition to the age limit set by the old professor, the Goblet of Fire itself had been enchanted with an identification spell, which most likely required a human to place a piece of paper inside the Goblet of Fire to be accepted.
Ivan even suspected that it would only count if he put his own name in it!
Barty Crouch Junior might have signed Harry up without his permission in the original timeline, but he had a powerful Confunding Charm that changed the number of schools he attended, so that the Goblet of Fire mistook him for Harry himself.
"This is deliberately making things difficult for me!" Ivan muttered to himself.
Age coupled with the Goblet of Fire's ability to identify objects was tricky, and it was difficult to perform magic on a powerful magical object from three metres away.
He had been hoping that Dumbledore would leave some obvious loophole for him to exploit, but the old professor was cruel enough to block all of his ideas.
Yvonne's brow furrowed at the thought. Should she apply for help?
The only solution he could think of was to find a powerful adult wizard, such as Professor McGonagall, and have her cast a Confusion Charm on the Goblet of Fire, in which she could place her name — as Barty Crouch Junior had done.
However, Ivan felt that with Professor McGonagall's old-fashioned personality, she would at most give him some advice and would not help him cheat.
Tap tap tap …
Yvonne was thinking about this when she heard footsteps outside the door.
Someone's coming? Ivan thought. He looked back, then tapped his chest with his wand and whispered.
"Disillusionment Charm ~ (Disillusionment Charm)"
A cool, water-like film enveloped Ivan and he vanished.
The footsteps outside the door grew closer.
A moment later, a wizard of about seventeen or eighteen stepped into the Great Hall. He looked around cautiously in his dressing gown, and when he saw that the dim hall was empty, he breathed a sigh of relief.
Ivan, in invisibility, held his wand and watched the man's every move.
There are usually only two ways to get here at this time.
The first was someone who wanted to enter the Triwizard Tournament but was not confident in their own abilities and was afraid of being mocked.
The second was to cause trouble, be controlled by Lord Voldemort to tamper with the Goblet of Fire, or be infiltrated by a Death Eater in disguise.
Ivan quickly ruled out the second option, as the young wizard didn't seem to have any other intentions. After standing in front of the Goblet of Fire for a long time, he hesitantly took out a piece of parchment with his name on it and threw it into the cup.
Blue and white flames immediately engulfed the parchment, indicating that his candidacy for champion had been acknowledged by the Goblet of Fire.
When he was done, the young wizard let out a long sigh of relief, as if a heavy burden had been lifted from his shoulders. Then, with a mixture of trepidation and anticipation, he prepared to leave.
In his haste to turn around, the young wizard accidentally knocked against the table in front of him, causing him to gasp in pain.
The Goblet of Fire on the table shook slightly as well.
Ivan, who was observing from the shadows, noticed this and his eyes lit up. The Goblet of Fire did not seem to have been enchanted by Dumbledore!
Wouldn't that mean…
Ivan had an idea, so he canceled the Disillusionment Charm and blocked the door.
"Good evening, Senior!"
"Who is it?" A man suddenly appeared in the dark, secluded Great Hall, frightening the wizard.
He took out his wand and pointed it in front of him. When he saw Ivan's face, he asked in surprise.
"You're… Halus? What are you doing here?"
"You know me?" Yvonne raised her eyebrows in surprise. He didn't.
"Of course! You're the pride and joy of Gryffindor… We hadn't had the House Cup for years before you came to school, and every year Slytherin trumped us, and Quidditch…" The young wizard was very excited about Ivan's past.
"I won the House Cup because of the combined efforts of everyone at Gryffindor. All I did was what I should have done," Ivan said modestly.
"By the way, can I ask you a favor?" Ivan asked with a smile. He hadn't expected her to be an admirer of his.
"What kind of help?" The young wizard was taken aback and seemed at a loss.
Ivan pointed to the Goblet of Fire on the High Table and said, "It's simple. Bring that cup over here! I want to sign up for the competition!"
(PS: One update today.)