At noon, the Hogwarts students gathered in front of Clock Tower, where they got led by Professor Flitwick, in the direction of the tournament venue.
“Minerva went ahead and took the champions to the makeshift tent.” Flitwick said excitedly.
Felix walked alongside him, nonchalantly at the front, the students behind him chattering and excitedly discussing, and a male wizard called out ” I heard the dragon roar last night-”
He turned his head back, and behind him, the crowd flocked, like a black meandering river. As they walked out of the castle, they crossed the long bridge and walked down the slope.
As they passed the Black Lake along the way, Durmstrang students draped in capes stepped out of their boats to join the parade, and as they passed near Hagrid’s Hut, a colossal carriage door opened and seven or eight Beauxbatons students in blue cotton satin uniforms emerged from the golden steps, then from the temporary quarters on the Quidditch pitch the students of Ilvermorny joined them, and the wizards, of both genders, from Uagadou, were standing in pairs by the Forbidden Forest and waiting for them.
The uniforms of these four schools added vitality to the monotonous black tide, like colourful swimming fish in the river.
The group walked along the edge of the Forbidden Forest for about twenty minutes, the castle and the lake were both out of sight, they had passed beyond the boundaries of the school, the trees and shrubs grew sparsely to the right, and deeper in is a lush, dark forbidden forest.
He heard the sound of horses’ hooves. “Is it centaur?” Felix squinted his eyes at the dense forbidden forest, and an odd-looking horse head poked out, a Thestral. As he looked over, it disappeared immediately after.
After bypassing yet another area of woodland, a temporary circular grandstand stood before his eyes, with crude stacks of wooden piles stacked high on top of each other, rising and falling along the terrain. This should be the grandstand, which encloses the site in a large circle.
On the west side of it is a huge silver tent, and Felix catches a glimpse of Ludo Bagman hurrying inside.
“Everyone gets on the grandstand in order, don’t overcrowd the place.” Flitwick stood on a wooden step and said to the crowd that kept leaning over. Felix whispered an apology and walked towards the tent.
Just as he reached the entrance, he could sense a solemn, oppressive atmosphere, and Ludo Bagman’s cheerful voice seemed just so out of place.
“Well, it’s really quite simple, you have to pick out the models in there, and yes, you should know that there are different types of dragons, and you have to pick them on behalf of your team – ladies first.”
When Felix entered, he saw Bagman standing in the middle of the champions with a smile on his face, purposely dressed in the old team uniform of the Wimbourne Wasps he had played for in his youth, and holding a purple silk bag.
He is surrounded by the captains of the six teams – Victor Graves, Fleur, Krum, Cedric, Nona Leibert, and Harry. Of the six, Harry is the shortest, especially when he stands next to the taller witch from Uagadou, like a lost child. Nevertheless, today he has to confront the threat of the dragon together with his friends.
The rest of the team is scattered around the tent, staring at their captain, the sound of breathing seems to have been lost in this tent.
Fleur with trembling hands took out a small, exquisite model of a Common Welsh Green from the bag, her face turned a little pale for a moment.
Felix, however, had a black face, this is ‘Future World’ dragon magic lamp! Is the Ministry of Magic that lazy?
“Ah~ lady, you’re lucky~” Bagman said. That’s when he heard a muffled voice ringing in his ears, “Can’t you guys make your own set of models …”
He looked back and saw Felix who had an unpleasant expression and stammered, “Felix … that one, it was suggested by a young man in the ministry, as to use these lovely magic lamps to offset the pressure about the real dragon and calm down the champions… …”
He patted the Common Welsh Green model in Fleur’s hand. It immediately moved and flared its teeth and claws, startling her and causing her to throw it at Bagman’s face as he awkwardly picked it up off the ground and handed it to Fleur, saying, “Oh, Isn’t it look cute.”
Judging by the looks on everyone’s faces in the tent, this display is simply lousy.
Fleur coldly made her way back to her teammates, gibbering in French as she outlined the final tactics, and Felix glanced briefly at the two champions whose bodies kept wobbling, who didn’t pay any heed to her words
Uagadou went second, and Nona drew a dragon with pearl-shaped curved scales, the Antipodean Opaleye which is recognized as the most beautiful dragon, but she showed no interest in taking a second look, as she eagerly discussed the details of the dragon with her teammates.
“Not too aggressive, likes to eat sheep … Its flames are sticky like lava …”
Graves got the Hebridean Black, a species of dragon that can generally reach thirty feet in height when it reaches adulthood, and the females are a bit bigger.
After that, Krum pulled out the bright red Chinese fireball, he then crossed his arms around and leaned against a pole in the tent, his eyes fixed on a broken hole in the roof of the tent overhead, as his teammate came over and whispered, “Viktor…”
He said with a calm face, “Proceed as planned.” The two teammates nodded silently.
Cedric got the blue Swedish Short-Snout dragon, his face looked pleased, he quickly came next to Roger Davies and Collins to show them, the original heavy expression of the three relaxed to varying degrees, this is one of the more suitable for their tactical choice according to their judgment.
The last is Harry, his expression is terrible, he knows what that remaining one is – a black Hungarian Horntail, the largest and most fierce-looking one.
He, Ron, and Hermione had sneaked out to see it the night before, cloaked in his invisibility cloak, and he believed everyone else had done the same; it was no secret when Charlie’s team of dragon keepers arrived for their appointment, in Hagrid’s case – he preferred to call it an inconvenient encounter – As Madame Maxime had brought Beauxbaton’s champions openly to take a look.
Amidst Bagman’s expectant expression, Harry woodenly pulled out the last model of a dragon, as he lowered his head to stare at the model of the silly Hungarian Horntail in his hand. The little dragon spread its wings, showing its tiny fangs, and seemed to be smiling, looking surprisingly similar to Bagman in front of him.
But Harry will not be fooled, he had seen what the real Hungarian Horntail looked like, the tail which should have been full of sharp spikes now looked very smooth – the spikes were turned into bronze dots, he subconsciously glanced at Professor Hap and thought that ‘Future World ‘ company’s modelling design is somewhat outrageous.
How come I didn’t notice this before? He thought in wonder.
Harry came back toward Ron and Hermione, and he said briskly, ” We need to change our strategy.”
…
“Well, you’ve all got it!” Bagman said, “You’ve all drawn the dragon that you’re going to confront, and I’m going to excuse myself temporarily from you for a moment as I am going to be giving commentary to the audience; Oh, and there will be someone will come to take you into the arena at the start of the match, and you will go out when you hear the whistle. Understand?”
The crowd went silent for a moment as Cedric asked a question, “What’s our mission? And the order of the match?”
“Mission?” Bagman flinched, “Oh, uh … I didn’t say that?” He glanced at the rest with some confusion, everyone in the tent looked at him as if they wanted to eat him, he took out his handkerchief to wipe the sweat on his forehead, “Well, it’s my oversight, I should have made it clear from the beginning … like this, get the dragon egg by passing through the dragon nest, and at the same time escape smoothly. As for the order of the match … there is no order, all of you, together.”
The Trio look at each other, and Harry looked up to see Cedric looking at his two teammates equally meaningfully, with a bit of confidence in his heart, at least they practiced according to this kind of response when they were in the classroom seven.
He looked at Professor Hap, who had been staring at the carvings in the tent, without showing any other reaction.
“Why are we playing together? What if we get affected by other teams?” One of the Beauxbatons girls asked pointedly.
“That’s one of the tests,” Bagman said cautiously, “You have to learn to keep your eyes and ears open. Each dragon will be separated from each other by a certain distance, and theoretically … you will have enough space, and you will understand when the time comes. So … Harry … can I have a word with you alone? Come outside?”
Harry looked at him in disbelief as they left for a moment, and then he came back with a sombre expression.
“What’s going on?” Ron asked.
“I don’t know, he seems to be trying to help me.” Harry stated rather puzzled, “But I refused, we had prepared so … much”
At this point, Felix is the only adult left in the tent, as the rest looked at him curiously, they thought this person would follow Bagman and leave.
“First, I would like to introduce myself, Felix Hap, Professor of Ancient Runes at Hogwarts.” He said calmly, “You don’t need to remember my name, just my duties – I’m one of your safety officers, of course, the last line of defense.”
“While you are competing, there will be dragon keepers from the dragon sanctuary, and staff from the Ministry of Magic who will be ready to provide protection … As for me, I will be hovering above your heads throughout the competition and will only intervene at the most dangerous time! –when you don’t have time to call for help.”
“Well, then, good luck to you all.”
Felix walked out of the tent as the people outside buzzed with excitement.
————
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