Professor Vampire.

Chapter 260: The Spellcaster Is Nowhere

"Oh, look!" Bagman shouted loudly, "Our youngest warrior got the golden egg the fastest! It turns out that Mr. Potter is no less than other warriors!"

Bagman was so happy.

He thought that the first game was not easy to operate, and Harry refused his help. He was afraid that he would not be able to get the golden egg that represented success.

However, what Bagman did not expect was that Harry, as the youngest warrior, not only got the golden egg, but also completed it very well!

Harry slowly landed outside the audience seats and saw the dragon trainers rushing to the arena to calm the anger of the Hungarian Horntail. Ron and Hermione rushed down from their seats with excitement, and Hagrid and Professor McGonagall also hurried over to greet him.

For the first time in a few months, Harry felt so relaxed that he almost didn't feel the pain in the wound on his arm... because he passed the first project and survived.

"It's wonderful, Potter!" Professor McGonagall said loudly as soon as he got off the Firebolt.

Coming from the stern Professor McGonagall, these words were already a rare and high compliment.

Harry noticed that her hand on his shoulder was shaking slightly, "Before the referee scores, you need to go to Madam Pomfrey... Diggory has already passed there, and you need her to help you treat the injury on your arm."

"You succeeded, Harry!" Hagrid said excitedly beside him, "Did you just hear? Charlie said that the Hornet is the most ferocious among them!"

"Thank you, Hagrid." Harry said loudly, and kept winking at Hagrid to prevent him from continuing rashly and revealing that he had taken him to see the dragon in advance.

Hermione and Ron hugged Harry in turn, and Hermione even cried with joy that Harry successfully survived the dragon.

When Harry sat outside the first aid tent and received treatment from Madam Pomfrey, the scoring of the final game began.

Ms. Maxime was the first to raise the scoreboard, and a long silver light floated from the board, showing the score on the board to the audience present-

The silver light gradually twisted and merged into a number "8".

"Not bad!" Ron said to Harry amid the applause of the audience, "She probably deducted your points because of your injured arm..."

Next was Mr. Crouch, and the sign he raised showed the number "9" in the air.

"Very promising, Harry!" Ron was even more excited, patting Harry on the back and shouting, "At present, only Kowalski of Invermorny is a little higher than you, and no one else is better than you."

Next was Dumbledore, who gave Harry and Cedric the same nine points; Professor Hicks also generously gave Harry nine points.

The cheers of the audience became louder.

Afterwards, Ludo Bagman raised his own sign-

10 points.

"Ten points?" Harry said in disbelief, "But... I'm injured... Is he kidding?"

"Harry, stop complaining!" Ron shouted excitedly, "Ten points is not bad? I think you can even challenge the top three!"

At this time, Karkaroff raised the sign, and the silver light on the sign merged into a number much smaller than the scores of other judges -

"4".

"What?" Ron stood up suddenly and shouted angrily, "Four points? This hateful, biased guy is getting more and more outrageous!"

"Krum's golden egg was so rotten that even Professor Dracula had to come down to save him, but Karkaroff still scored 9 points... You completed the game so well, but Karkaroff only gave you 4 points?"

It must be said that Karkaroff was a little bit pretentious when scoring Cedric and Fleur, and gave them 6 points, which was a passing score...

But since John's alternative game ended, he was too lazy to pretend, and blatantly gave John and Harry very low scores of 5 and 4 points.

Despite this, Harry didn't care.

Even if Karkaroff gave him zero points, he wouldn't care. He felt that no matter what the final score was, at least he proved himself in front of all the audience, proving that he was not a fake warrior who dragged Hogwarts down.

Moreover, it was not only Ron and Hermione who were happy for him, but also his other friends...

Now, when they saw the challenge Harry faced and his outstanding performance in this game, most of the students in Hogwarts began to support him, just like supporting Cedric...

"Merlin's beard!" At this moment, a scream of extreme shock rang in Harry's ears.

"What's wrong with you, Ron?"

Harry looked at the red-haired friend next to him and found that he was counting on his fingers with an incredible look on his face.

"Harry, you seem to... your score seems to have surpassed several warriors!" Ron shouted with a shocked face.

Hermione had not yet recovered from the emotion of crying for joy, and sat next to Harry with hazy eyes.

After hearing Ron's exclamation, she was stunned for a moment, then quickly wiped her tears and took out a piece of parchment to calculate.

"I've written down all the warriors' scores. Let me see..." Hermione said quickly, "According to the judges' scores, Diggory scored 48 points, Delacour scored 45 points, and Krum made a big mistake, currently the lowest, 41 points..."

"Well, Kowalski's performance was amazing. Except for that biased guy Karkaroff, everyone else got full marks. His final score was 55 points, the first place without any suspense."

"And your total score, Harry, is... 49 points!"

Hermione raised her head suddenly , staring at Harry with wide eyes, "You are one point higher than Diggory, who was favored by everyone before. You are now the second among all the warriors!"

"What did you say?" Harry rubbed his ears in disbelief, thinking that he had hallucinations, "Hermione, did I hear it right... You said I was the second?"

"Yes, Harry, you heard it right!" Hermione stood up excitedly, her eyes full of joy, "You don't have to worry about those bad guys questioning you now!"

Harry felt like he was floating.

He originally just wanted to avoid being the last, at least not let Professor Dracula come down to save him from the dragon, and he didn't expect to get such a result.

"Mr. Bagman gave me too high a score, otherwise I should not be able to compare with Cedric..."

Harry was humble verbally, but the corners of his mouth that curled up completely exposed his inner excitement and joy.

At this moment, the curtain of the tent was lifted, and Cedric walked out of the first aid tent and walked straight to his side.

"Um, Cedric, I..."

Harry looked at him a little guilty, thinking that if he hadn't participated in this competition, Cedric would have been the second-placed warrior.

However, before he could say anything to apologize, Cedric suddenly grinned at him and smiled.

"Well done, Harry." He smiled.

Harry's worries disappeared in an instant and he also laughed.

"You too, Cedric."

...

"You all did a good job!"

In the tent where the warriors first gathered, Bagman praised happily.

He shook his legs briskly in the tent, looking very happy, as if he had just successfully jumped over the dragon and got the golden egg.

"Okay, I just have a few words to say." Bagman smiled and told the warriors about the follow-up precautions. "The second project will start at 9:30 am on February 24 next year. Before that, you can rest for a long time-"

"But we have to leave some questions for you to think about! If you look down at the golden eggs in your hands, you will find that they can be opened. See the seam there... Oh, Mr. Kowalski, don't open it here, close it quickly!"

Before Bagman finished speaking, John had already used his fingernails to pry open the two halves of the eggshell along the gap of the golden egg-

At the moment the golden egg was opened, an extremely terrifying, sharp and piercing scream filled the entire tent.

The warriors subconsciously covered their ears. Harry felt that this sound was much sharper than the sound he heard at the deathday party of Nearly Headless Nick... It was the noise of the ghost band playing with a musical saw.

John himself was also startled and hurriedly closed the eggshells on both sides.

The piercing noise that filled the entire tent finally stopped.

"Mr. Bagman, what is this piercing noise?" Cedric, as a good student with excellent character and academic performance, habitually raised his hand to ask.

"Oh, I can't tell you that." Bagman took his hands off his ears and said to the warriors, "You must solve the clues provided in the egg by yourself - that will tell you what the second project is."

"Before the game, I hope you can be fully prepared!"

...

After the first project of the semi-finals was over, time quickly came to December.

A strong wind blew around Hogwarts, and heavy rain often accompanied by snowflakes falling.

Dracula stood on the stone bridge connecting the main tower and the astronomy tower, leaning against the railing, letting the strong wind blow his silver hair messy, snowflakes falling on his shoulders, looking at the white mist at the end of the frozen black lake, and the lawns and bushes covered by snow nearby.

"Professor Dracula, the place you chose is really inconsiderate to the elderly." Dumbledore walked over from the porch of the main tower and laughed softly.

He held his wand upright, as if holding a transparent umbrella to block the wind and snow outside.

Phoenix Fawkes lay on Dumbledore's shoulder, emitting warm heat, melting the snowflakes floating around.

"You should be thankful that I didn't choose the top of the astronomy tower." Dracula glanced at Dumbledore and raised his lips slightly. "Compared to the top of the tower, the view here is inevitably much narrower."

"I thought it was more suitable for us to sit by the warm fireplace in the castle and chat in such cold weather." Dumbledore brushed the snowflakes accumulated on the marble railing with his sleeves and leaned on the railing next to Dracula. "Oh, this railing is really cool."

"It's really comfortable inside the castle." Dracula nodded and looked at the shore of the Black Lake in the distance. "But I'm a little curious about what people living in the ship of Durmstrang would feel?"

Dumbledore also followed Dracula's gaze to the big ship docked by the Black Lake - the big ship was shaking and swaying in the strong wind, and the black sails were flying and dancing in the dark night sky.

I don't know what the Durmstrang people are thinking, but they actually use magic to prevent the lake water near the ship from freezing, and the black sails have no intention of being retracted.

Therefore, the big ship swayed greatly in the strong wind, and I'm afraid the rooms there wouldn't be very warm, after all, the wind near the lake is not only strong, but also quite cold.

"They should have their own unique way to keep warm, right?" Dumbledore glanced over there, smiled and shook his head, "And the people of Durmstrang have lived in this cold environment for a long time, maybe they can only exert their full strength when the temperature drops."

"Maybe..." Skipping other miscellaneous trivial matters, Dracula suddenly asked: "Haven't you found out who used the Confusion Charm on the Goblet of Fire?"

Dumbledore's expression suddenly became serious.

"There is really nothing to find..." He said slowly, "On the night before Halloween, there were not many candidates who had the opportunity to touch the Goblet of Fire. I carefully observed their situation, but did not find any problems."

"What about the professors of other schools? Are there any problems with them?" Dracula frowned and asked, "It is impossible that the Confusion Charm on the Goblet of Fire appeared out of thin air?"

"Ms. Maxime and Professor Hicks are both trustworthy, and Karkaroff was once a Death Eater. He was originally a certain suspect..." Dumbledore said slowly, "So I asked Severus to test him."

"Severus judged that Karkaroff was not the real culprit who cast the curse on the Goblet of Fire. He was only afraid of Voldemort's return and even planned to escape... I agree with Severus. 's point of view. "

"Think about it from another angle? In addition to professors, wouldn't Voldemort's helpers disguise themselves as students?" Dracula asked again, "Will there be Death Eaters disguised as students and cast the Confusion Charm when throwing notes into the Goblet of Fire?"

"I don't think it's likely." Dumbledore shook his head, "The students of Invermorny, Beauxbatons and Durmstrang were organized by their headmasters and signed up for the Goblet of Fire together, so they didn't have much chance to cast a spell."

"As for the students of Hogwarts - when they entered the platform nine and three quarters of King's Cross Station, they had actually passed a test to prevent the use of Polyjuice Potion to impersonate others..."

"It's really a bit strange. How come this caster is nowhere to be found?"