<h4>Chapter 243: Goblet of Fire</h4>
Soon, the two empty seats near Dumbledore were filled in the professors'' seats.
Ludo Bagman, the director of the Department of Magical Sports and Magic, sat on the other side of Karkaroff, and Barty Crouch, Percy''s immediate superior and the director of the Department of International Magical Exchange and Cooperation, sat next to Madame Maxime.
"What are these two people from the Ministry of Magic doing here?" Harry asked in surprise.
"Is it because they organized the Four Finals Tournament?" Hermione guessed, "I guess they are guests and are ready to witness the opening ceremony of the tournament with their own eyes."
At this time, they noticed that Drac suddenly stood up from his seat, walked to Bagman and pressed his shoulder.
"Oh, Fred, look!" An excited voice sounded next to the Gryffindor table. George was pping Fred''s arm like crazy, "Professor Drac dragged Bagman away!"
"Well done, Professor Drac!" Fred jumped up and waved his fist excitedly.
Others looked at the twins in bewilderment, wondering what they were so excited about.
Some officials of the Ministry of Magic are indeed abominable, but this Director Bagman didn''t seem to have done anything that would anger the heavens and the people, except for not handling the Quidditch World Cup very well? Why are these two Weiss so happy?
"What happened to your two brothers?" Seamus Finnigan, who shared a dormitory with Harry and Ron, approached Ron and asked curiously.
Ron still didn''t want to take his eyes off the silver-haired girl, but just nced at his two brothers hurriedly, and said vaguely:
"They won the bet... Bagman owed them a lot of money, and Professor Drac should help them get it back."
"What a pity, why didn''t I bet everything I had with them?" He muttered with some regret.
After listening to Ron''s exnation, the other little wizards of Gryffindor stared at Professor Drac and Ludo Bagman with wide eyes, wanting to see what method their Defense Against the Dark Arts professor would use to collect the debt.
However, the process was destined to disappoint the little wizards.
Ludo Bagman had no ability to resist Drac at all. He didn''t even persist until the next dish was served under Drac''s cold eyes. He was defeated and took out an exquisite metal key from his pocket and handed it over.
Then, Drac didn''t know what to say to Bagman. He walked around in a dejected manner, moved from the professor''s seat to the front of the Gryffindor long table, and handed a metal key to the Weiss twins.
"This is the key to warehouse No. 592 of Gringotts. The wealth inside is enough to pay for the Galleons you won." Bagman looked at the key held in Fred''s hand reluctantly and said disappointedly.
"Are there really enough Galleons here?" George looked at him suspiciously, "We know that you still have a lot of gambling debts that have not been repaid... You won''t lie to us, will you?"
"Who do you two think I am?!" Bagman said dissatisfiedly, "As the director of the Department of Magical Sports and Sports, I promised to pay you enough Galleons, and I will definitely not regret it!"
After that, he turned his head away with a heartache and no longer looked at the key.
"I should have thought of it earlier. How could the first professor of Defense Against the Dark Arts who was re-elected and even re-elected for several years be easy to mess with..." Bagman was still mumbling on the way back to the professor''s seat.
"It''s still easy to deceive those greedy goblins. They only need to show their identity as Ministry of Magic officials to borrow enough Galleons to pay back the professor..."
Bagman made up his mind to start a big bet in this semi-final match and make back all the losses before!
...
The banquet is still going on.
The following dishes were served one after another. Not only the French fish soup, but also a strange white milk jelly and many other dishes that the young British wizards did not recognize.
Ron guessed that they should be foreign dishes, so he carefully moved the tes a few inches away from his right hand so that they could be clearly seen from the Ravencrouch table.
But his little trick did not seed.
The girl who looked like a Ve might have eaten enough, or these dishes might not be from France, and she had no intention ofing to serve these foods...
When the golden tes became brand new under the effect of magic, Dumbledore stood up again and smiled at the students from various schools who were gradually quieting down below the stage.
A mood of excitement and nervousness seemed to permeate the hall.
"The moment has finally arrived," Dumbledore said loudly, showing an expectant smile to the raised faces, "The Final Four Tournament is about to begin. I want to exin a few words before bringing in the box--"
"Bring in what?" Harry was stunned for a moment and asked in a low voice.
"He only said the box, who knows what it is." Ron shrugged his shoulders.
"First, I will exin to everyone the program of our activities this school year. But first, please allow me to introduce two guests, because some people don''t know them. This is Mr. Barty Crouch, the Director of the Department of International Cooperation of the Ministry of Magic."
There was sparse apuse in the hall.
And Crouch seemed a little absent-minded, just nodding casually to the students in the audience.
It''s a bit strange to say that when Drac just dragged Bagman away, the former Director of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, who was originally known for his toughness, did not have any objections, but seemed to have seen nothing.
However, not many people paid attention to Crouch''s behavior, and the opening ceremony of the semi-finals continued:
"This is Mr. Ludo Bagman, Director of the Department of Sports and Physical Education of the Ministry of Magic." Dumbledore pointed at Bagman and introduced him to the students.
The apuse for Bagman was much louder than that for Mr. Crouch, perhaps because he was once famous as a batsman, or perhaps just because he looked much more friendly.
Bagman seemed to havepletely forgotten the sadness of losing arge sum of money, and waved to everyone with a happy face to express his gratitude.
"In the past few months, Mr. Bagman and Mr. Crouch have worked tirelessly to arrange the semi-finals," Dumbledore continued, "They will form a panel of judges with me, Professor Hicks, Professor Karkaroff and Madame Maxime to judge the efforts of the warriors."
When the students heard the word "warrior", they immediately sat up straight and became more focused.
Dumbledore seemed to notice their sudden silence. He smiled and said, "Mr. Filch, please bring up the box." No one noticed that the doorman Filch, who had been squatting in a corner of the hall, stood up and walked towards Dumbledore, holding arge wooden box iid with jewels in his hand. The box looked very old, at least several decades old. The young wizards watched in a trance and talked excitedly. Some young wizards in the lower grades simply stood on the chairs to see more clearly. But those young wizards were often too small, and even when they stood, their heads were not much higher than others. "Mr. Crouch and Mr. Bagman have carefully reviewed the specific events of the warriors''petition this year," Dumbledore motioned Filch to put the box on the table in front of him, and then said, "They have also made many necessary arrangements for each event-"
"There are three events in this four-strongpetition, which will be held at different times throughout the school year. They will test the warriors in many different aspects...test their magical talents, their courage, and their reasoning ability."
"Of course, it will also test the warriors'' ability to ovee danger."
At the end, Dumbledore''s expression became serious.
The hall became silent, as if everyone had stopped breathing.
"As you know, there will be four champions participating in thepetition, one from each school," Dumbledore said calmly, "We will score them ording to the quality of their performance in eachpetition item. After three items, the champion with the highest score will win the trophy of the semi-finals."
"As you all know, the person who is responsible for selecting the champions is a judge who is as fair as can be. Now, we will reveal the true identity of this judge, who is--"
At this point, Dumbledore suddenly paused.
He pulled out his wand and knocked three times on the lid of the box.
The lid slowly and creaked open. Dumbledore reached in and pulled out arge, roughly carved wooden goblet.
"It is the Goblet of Fire!"
Everyone present cast their eyes on the cup in Dumbledore''s hand. The cup itself was inconspicuous, but it was full of dancing blue-white mes.
The mes were different from the magical mes that the young wizards usually saw. There was a mysterious atmosphere in it, and anyone could feel that there were many different mysterious magics in the mes.
Dumbledore closed the box and ced the cup on the lid so that everyone in the hall could see it clearly.
"Every student who wants to run for the champion must write his name and school name on a piece of parchment and throw it into this goblet," Dumbledore said. "Students who aspire to be champions can sign up within 24 hours."
"Tomorrow night, Halloween night, the goblet will select the names of four students who it thinks best represent the four schools. Tonight, the goblet will be ced in the foyer in front of the hall, and all students who are willing to participate in the election can touch it."
"In order to prevent students who are not old enough from being tempted," Dumbledore said, "after the goblet is ced in the foyer, I will draw an age line around it. No one under the age of seventeen can cross this line."
Seeing that all the little wizards were eager to try, his face suddenly became stern.
"Finally, I would like to remind every student who is going to participate in the election that thispetition is not a joke, and you must not participate rashly. Once a warrior is selected by the Goblet of Fire, he must persist in thepetition to the end!"
"To put it another way, whoever casts his name into the cup actually forms a magical contract that must be observed. Once you be a warrior, you are not allowed to change your mind."
"Therefore, please think twice and make sure that you really want to participate in thepetition before casting your name into the cup..."
After repeatedly emphasizing it many times, Dumbledore looked down at the time and smiled again:
"Okay, it''s almost time, I think everyone should go to bed. Good night everyone!"
The dinner finally ended in the students'' expectant, nervous, or anxious eyes.
Dumbledore''s repeated warnings did dispel the idea of ??many young wizards to participate in thepetition. Of course, this idea of ??thinking twice before acting has no effect on the little lions of Gryffindor.
"Age limit!" Fred patted the table, his eyes sparkling, "That''s easy, we can definitely be fooled by the aging drug, right, George?"
"That''s right!" George''s expression was also full of excitement, "As long as our names are in that cup, it will bepletely sessful - it can''t tell who is over 17 and who is under 17!"
At this time, the students had already passed through the auditorium and walked towards the two doors leading to the lobby.
"But I don''t think it''s possible for someone under seventeen to win," Hermione advised as they walked on the road, "We haven''t learned enough..."
"Not really, didn''t you hear what Dumbledore just said?" George retorted, "The semi-finals test all-round abilities, and people like us who are particrly proficient in unconventional things certainly have our own advantages!"
"Where is he?" Ron was the only one who was still confused among the people present, and he said in confusion, "Dumbledore didn''t say where the representatives of Durmstrang slept, did he?"
He didn''t hear a word of Fred''s conversation, and was only busy searching for Krum in the crowd.
However, his question was answered almost immediately.
Karkaroff didn''t look too good, and was hurriedly walking towards his students.
"Well, let''s go back to the ship. Are you nning to stay overnight in the castle?" he said. "Viktor, how do you feel? Have you eaten enough? Do you want me to send some warm wine from the kitchen?"
Harry saw Krum shook his head and put his fur cloak back on.
...
The next day was Saturday. Generally speaking, students would get upte to have breakfast.
However, many people got up much earlier than usual this weekend.
When Harry, Ron and Hermione went downstairs and entered the entrance hall, more than 20 people were already gathered there to watch the show.
Several young wizards were still eating bread taken out of the hall, carefully looking at the Goblet of Fire burning with blue and white mes.
The cup was now ced in the center of the entrance hall, on the stool where the Sorting Hat was usually ced. A thin golden line was drawn on the floor, and the golden line was shining with magical brilliance, surrounding the Goblet of Fire in the middle.
"Has anyone put their name in?" Ron asked eagerly to a young wizard who had been waiting here to watch the show.
"Yes, all representatives from Durmstrang," the young wizard replied, "but I haven''t seen anyone from Hogwarts sign up yet."
"Someone must have put their name in while we were sleepingst night," Harry said hesitantly, "If it were me, I would do that... If the Goblet of Fire doesn''t ept you and throws your name out in a ball, how embarrassing!"
Suddenly, someone behind the young wizardsughed.
They looked back and saw Fred, George and Lee Jordan hurried down the stairs, all three of them looked extremely excited.
"It''s done!" Fred whispered to Harry, Ron and Hermione in a proud tone, "We sessfully brewed a cup of aging potion and just drank it."
"I haven''t seen you two have such a good talent for potions..." Ronined.
Fred and George ignored him, but walked excitedly towards the age line surrounding the Goblet of Fire.
"Watch out, it''s time to witness a miracle!"