Chapter 239 - 239 The eve of the kick-off
Chapter 239: The eve of the kick-off
"They can't stop me from participating!" Even though Dumbledore had already announced the end of the event, Fred still said stubbornly, "Being a warrior, we can openly do many things that we are not allowed to do normally, and there is also a bonus of one thousand Galleons!"
"Yes," Ron also showed a dazed look on his face, "Yes, one thousand Galleons..."
"I have calculated that although we won a lot from the bet with Bagman before, it is still a lot less than it would take to open a good joke shop with that little money." George said.
He took out a piece of parchment from somewhere, with densely written numbers on it, all of which were the expenses that must be used to open a joke shop.
"Wait, you guys are so good at math?" Ron looked at the parchment and swallowed his saliva. "So you thought about this day when you were choosing your courses in the third year, so you chose that boring course of arithmetic divination?"
"Arithmetic divination is not boring at all!" Hermione retorted, "Let's not talk about that for now, we should leave quickly. If we don't leave, there will be only a few of us left in the whole hall."
Harry, Ron, Hermione, Fred and George started walking towards the entrance hall. Along the way, Fred and George kept arguing about what measures Dumbledore would take to prevent students under the age of seventeen from participating in the competition.
"Who will be the judge who is the champion... who is the fair referee who can't be more fair?" Harry asked.
"I don't know," said Fred, "but no matter who that person is, he is the one we want to deceive. I think one or two drops of aging potion will work, George..."
"But Dumbledore knows you are not old enough." Ron asked the question.
"Yeah, but who will be the champion is not decided by Dumbledore, right?" Fred raised his eyebrows. "According to Dumbledore, it seems that after the referee knows who wants to participate, he will pick the best one from each school..."
"I think he doesn't care how old we are. Dumbledore clearly wants to stop us from signing up!"
"But many people died in the previous Triwizard Tournament!" Hermione said in a worried tone as she walked through a door hidden behind the tapestry.
"Yeah," George said nonchalantly, "but that was many years ago, right? And what's the fun without a little adventure?"
"If the fair referee was like Professor Dracula, I would just tell him two funny jokes and he would let me sign up..."
"Wake up, George!" Fred interrupted him mercilessly, "Professor Dracula has nothing to do with the word 'fair'!"
...
The next day, in the Defense Against the Dark Arts class, Dracula lazily pushed open the classroom door as usual.
This school year, there are quite few students in the sixth grade Defense Against the Dark Arts intensive class.
This is because the dueling club replaced Dracula's function of using little wizards to entertain himself, so the Defense Against the Dark Arts class is no longer so interesting to Dracula.
Now he just wants to be lazy and teach as few people as possible.
To this end, he deliberately changed the Defense Against the Dark Arts Enhanced Class from accepting the worst grade, that is, students who received the "T (bad)" grade in the ordinary wizard grade, to only accepting students who received the "O (excellent)" grade.
More than half of the desks in the classroom were empty, and there were not many students who could get the "O" grade in the entire grade.
Unfortunately, Fred and George, the two funny guys, had too much fun in the duel club, and their defense against the dark arts level improved rapidly-
Among their few O. W. L.s certificates, in addition to the arithmetic divination mentioned by Ron before, only Defense Against the Dark Arts got an "O".
As soon as Dracula entered the classroom, he saw Fred and George sitting in their seats with their heads held high, their faces full of the meaning of "come and praise me".
"Are there only a few students who got 'O'? I'm disappointed." Dracula looked around and was very satisfied to see that there were not many people here, but he still made a disappointed expression on the surface.
"Of course, I still want to congratulate all the students here who have excellent grades and have obtained the qualification to continue sitting in this classroom!"
Hearing Dracula's words that could barely be regarded as a compliment, Fred and George smiled with satisfaction.
"Before the class officially starts, I have a few words to say to you-" Dracula continued with an intriguing smile on his face, "You have heard Dumbledore say that this school year, the Triwizard Tournament... No, the Quadruple Tournament will be held in Hogwarts."
"As the subject that tests practical ability the most, Defense Against the Dark Arts is closely related to this game. So in my opinion, the Hogwarts warrior is likely to be selected from the students sitting here and the seventh-year intensive class."
It can be clearly seen that all the students in the classroom were in high spirits, and even their sitting postures became subconsciously correct.
Everyone wants to be the only glorious warrior in Hogwarts.
There is no young and energetic wizard who doesn't want to win glory for the school, and no one who doesn't want to stand in the spotlight and receive cheers and applause from all the teachers and students in the school.
"Don't get too excited too early," Dracula chuckled, looked at Fred and George, and began to dampen their enthusiasm, "The prerequisite for becoming a warrior is that you must be seventeen years old before the ceremony of selecting warriors on Halloween!"
"This is unfair!" Fred jumped up first and shouted, "On Halloween, we will only be four months away from turning seventeen!"
"That's right, we want to protest!" George followed closely and jumped up.
He also pulled up Cedric, who was sitting next to him and preparing to attend the class, and pointed at him and said:
"Cedric is only less than half a year older than us, and he entered the school in the same year as us. If he can register and we can't, we will never accept it!"
"That can only mean that your luck is not very good." Dracula shrugged, "It is undeniable that luck is also a kind of strength."
"Professor!" Fred wailed, "Can't you really make some concessions? We are just a little bit away from registering!"
Sometimes, if you are far away from the goal, people tend not to feel sad.
But if you are just a little bit away from achieving your goal, but fail in the end, people will be sad, painful, and itchy to the point of going crazy.
Fred and George are like this. The age difference of only four months really makes them a little crazy.
"I'm not the fair judge, what's the point of you complaining to me?" Dracula chuckled, "Instead of yelling in vain in my class, you might as well study how to deceive the 'referee'."
"That's what you said, professor!" George's eyes lit up.
"Professor, you must have a way to deceive the referee, right?" Fred said happily, "Otherwise, just tell us, we can save some energy and study more about how to win the final championship."
"Are you so sure that you can be selected?" Dracula looked at the twins and shook his head with a smile, "Figure it out yourself! If you can deceive the 'referee' with your strength, it can be regarded as your own strength."
"If you sign up with this kind of 'hard strength', the students of Hogwarts will at least not feel dissatisfied with you, and even Dumbledore will most likely acquiesce to this kind of thing."
"So, work hard, two teenagers!"
Fred and George looked at each other, nodded heavily, and then sat down on the chair and started reading.
It's on fire!
"Don't sit down in a hurry..." Dracula interrupted their fantasy, and the smile on his face became a little malicious. "You should be punished for making loud noises in class without reason."
"Let's do this, all the Defense Against the Dark Arts homework before Halloween must be doubled!"
George: "..."
Fred: "..."
...
The following time seemed to be exactly the same as in previous years, but it seemed a little different.
All courses were taught according to the previous course progress as usual, and there were no homework, in-class exercises, duel clubs, etc., all waiting for the little wizards to complete.
The Quidditch game was cancelled, but the students who didn't have this entertainment activity didn't feel bored.
Those who were old enough were thinking about how to qualify as warriors. If they were elected as warriors, how could they win the game and win glory for the school...Those who were younger, such as Fred and George, were studying how to deceive the referee who was so fair that he couldn't be more fair, and then report their names.
In addition, younger wizards like Harry have nothing to do with this semi-final match.
They have nothing to worry about, except that they occasionally fantasize about pie in the sky, thinking that they might be seen as extraordinary and be selected as a warrior to fight for Hogwarts.
In addition to fantasizing, the young wizards in the middle and lower grades also discuss from time to time, guessing which wizard from which academy can become a warrior of Hogwarts.
"I guarantee that our Slytherin prefect Lucian Bol will become a warrior of Hogwarts. Professor Snape has always placed high hopes on him."
Before Halloween, Draco Malfoy stood in front of the lobby of the auditorium and talked with his two followers.
"Wrong, I think Roger Davis from Ravenclaw has more hope!" A Ravenclaw eagle wearing a blue striped tie retorted, "Davis is the best Quidditch team captain this year."
"I think Cedric Diggory from Hufflepuff will be a warrior." The person who said this was obviously a little badger.
The hall was crowded with people discussing enthusiastically while reading the new notice posted on the bulletin board-
"Representatives from Beauxbatons, Durmstrang and Invermorny will arrive at 6 pm on Friday, October 30. The afternoon classes will end half an hour early. At that time, please send your schoolbags and textbooks back to the dormitory, gather in front of the castle to greet our guests, and then attend the welcome party."
"Great!" Harry said excitedly, "The last class on Friday is Potions! Snape will definitely not have time to find fault with us again!"
Harry's voice attracted the attention of Malfoy not far away.
"Hey, isn't this the famous Harry Potter?" He turned his head and looked at Harry with a provocative look, "I'm curious, does a big star like Potter think he can definitely become a champion of Hogwarts?"
"I don't!" Harry said angrily.
But Malfoy obviously didn't mean to let him go. He pointed his chin at Harry and said sarcastically:
"Famous Harry Potter, if you don't become a champion of Hogwarts in the end, will other schools think that the boy who lived is not worthy of the title?"
"Anyway, Harry's chance of becoming a champion is much greater than yours!" Just when Harry was extremely angry, another voice suddenly stood up for him.
Harry turned his head and saw Fred and George standing next to him, making faces at Malfoy.
"It's ridiculous, there are actually people who think Potter can become a champion!" Malfoy laughed loudly, "Oh! It turns out that it's the two Weiss, that's normal."
"Dare to bet?" George was not angry at all, but said with a grin.
In their eyes, the purebloods in Slytherin were their customers, and sooner or later they would lose all their money to them, so of course they would not be unhappy about the slight offense of their customers.
"What?" Malfoy was stunned.
"I said, do you dare to bet?" George repeated, "I'll bet five Galleons on Harry to become a champion of Hogwarts!"
"Wait, don't be impulsive, George!" Harry himself was stunned, and hurriedly pulled George aside, "Fred, please persuade him! There is no need to waste the five Galleons you are going to use to open the store just to vent my anger."
However, Fred was not moved at all, but blinked at Harry.
"I bet!" Malfoy suddenly took out a handful of gold Galleons from his pocket and handed it over, fearing that George would regret it, "It's such a good thing, it's better to have more!"
He lost a lot of Galleons to the Weiss twins in the previous academic years, and he always felt very embarrassed.
Now that he saw this sure-win deal, he was ready to get back all the face he had lost before!
After Malfoy left, Harry looked at the twins worriedly.
"Why did you bet on me becoming a Hogwarts warrior? I'm not even old enough, and I can't even sign up." He said helplessly.
"It doesn't matter, we've got the aging potion." Fred winked at Harry, "When the time comes, you can drink a few more sips and deceive the fair referee."
"You are the savior of the British wizarding world. If you don't be a warrior, who will be a warrior!"