The Shopkeeper of All Worlds in the British Wizarding World

Chapter 308 Preparation
Because he had heard someone in the Hogsmeade Tavern say that they saw people from the Ministry of Magic circling the Black Lake, Ryan made some preparations for possible underwater activities after he returned, such as using Professor McGonagall's channels to order some gillweed for making underwater breathing potions.

Professor McGonagall was happy to help the warriors of her college. With the help of the professor, Ryan only waited a few days to get the herbs he needed. If Ryan ordered them himself, he might not get them after the game.

However, even though everyone was asking around, the three schools still hadn't gotten any information about the details of the second match in such a long time. As the match time approached, each contestant began to get anxious.

Just when everyone was worried about facing an unknown competition, something unexpected happened: Ryan and Harry were called away from the Charms class five days before the competition.

After rushing to an office in the castle in confusion, Ryan saw the three headmasters and Bagman waiting there.

"Kids, it's great to see you again." Bagman said to all the contestants with a happy face after seeing everyone gathered. "We originally planned to keep the content of the event secret until the start of the competition, but considering that the content of the second competition this year is a bit complicated. For safety reasons, I decided to inform you of the content of the competition in advance."

"What the hell is going on? They kept it so secret before, why did they suddenly change their minds and give up on keeping it secret? And a whole week of preparation is a bit too long. You know, except for the two contestants from Hogwarts who are a bit young, the other contestants are already adults. If they know the content of the competition in advance, they will definitely prepare accordingly, and this will put Hogwarts at a huge disadvantage."

However, seeing that Professor Dumbledore did not show any dissatisfaction, Ryan did not raise any objection. Instead, he sat quietly on the stool like the other contestants, intending to listen to what exactly the content of the competition was that would give the organizers confidence that the competition was fair. Well - at least it sounded fair to everyone on the surface.

Bagman got straight to the point this time. He began announcing the games. "Well, in the first game we'll test your courage - and in the second game we'll test your defense of the school's honor."

Just when everyone was confused by this concept, Bagman explained the content of the game at a rapid speed.

"There will only be one person who wins the championship and holds the trophy, but the honor of the competition belongs not only to the winner, but also to the school where the winner comes from. Therefore, the score calculated for the second competition is the average score of the two people in the school to reflect the honor of the school."

"What?" "No!" Except for the contestant from Hogwarts, the contestants from the other two schools all expressed their objections. After all, because of the extra contestant, the contestants from the other two schools were all dissatisfied with each other. In this case, asking them to share the points was simply unreasonable.

After hearing the objections, Bagman stopped smiling and said seriously: "This has been unanimously approved by all the headmasters and heads of the Ministry of Magic. If you refuse, it will be regarded as a direct abstention." Now everyone was silent.

Seeing that everyone was silent, Bagman continued, "So the five days from now until the competition are your practice time. From now on, in order to ensure that you can complete these projects independently, you will live in tents on the edge of the Forbidden Forest and can only move within the designated range. If you need anything, you can inform the staff and they will deliver it to you. Finally, each player has a purchase quota of fifty Galleons, and these purchases are allowed to be brought into the competition venue, so please make proper arrangements."

"By the way." Mr. Crouch stood up when Bagman finished speaking. "Director Bagman just missed something. I'll add that the next event will be held in the Black Lake and the Forbidden Forest, and will be related to the creatures there. I hope you can make adequate preparations in advance. Okay, you can ask any questions you have now."

No wonder everyone had to be isolated this time. After all, it was easy for each school to find a solution if they knew the venue of the competition in advance. Keeping everyone in one place was also to minimize external factors. "Hogwarts has an alchemist. In this case, the same purchase amount is a bit unfair to us." Furong was the first to raise her question. She pointed at Ryan angrily as if Ryan owed her a lot of money.

"No, it's fair," Crouch explained. "First, everyone has their own strengths, just like the Delacour contestant who used his natural spell-like abilities in the first game. We can't prohibit that. Secondly, most of the contestants present are adult wizards, and only the contestants from Hogwarts are far from adulthood. In this case, all the headmasters think that although this arrangement is somewhat biased towards Hogwarts students, it is still fair for normal competitions."

Accompanied (escorted?) by the three headmasters and several Ministry of Magic staff, everyone went out from the main gate of the castle, crossed the lawn, bypassed half of the forbidden forest, and finally arrived at an open space. Three tents had been set up in the open space at this time, and there was a golden circle on the outer circle of the open space.

"Okay, you will live here for the next five days. Remember, you are not allowed to step out of this circle, and outsiders are not allowed to enter this circle." Crouch said seriously, but Ryan inexplicably thought of the diamond circle that Sun Wukong drew for Tang Monk in Journey to the West, and then thought of the difference between Eastern and Western magic, and then -

Forget it, I can't think about this anymore. Every second of preparation time is important now. Ryan used his mental skills to calm his brain, and then walked directly into the tent with the Hogwarts emblem painted on it.

"Ryan, what's going on?" Harry asked anxiously as soon as he entered the tent. "I'm almost confused by the process of this competition. What on earth is the Ministry of Magic thinking? I feel that the arrangement of this competition is a mess."

"What else could it be? Those people must have changed the original events by arranging the competition events temporarily." Ryan took a deep breath while sitting on the sofa and responded.

"Ah?" Harry showed a bewildered expression. "Didn't the Ministry of Magic prepare for a long time? How could it be changed directly? This shouldn't be possible."

"Why can't it be changed? Didn't Bagman just say that the second game is about calculating the school's team score? You know, when the Triwizard Tournament was first planned, no one thought that there would be six players in this game, and there would be no team score. So I guess the game items were changed at the last minute, so it is foreseeable that there will be all kinds of troublesome problems in this situation."

But to be honest, Ryan was very calm about the next game which might be a big fight. At least he thought that the other four players would just come here to get killed even if they were tied together.

Ryan seemed calm, but Harry was a little anxious. Although he successfully defeated the dragon in the first game, he still thought that he had only used tricks, and was far from Ryan's level of defeating the dragon head-on. So now he was very worried that the second team game would hinder Ryan's performance.

"Ryan, what do you think I should do this week?" Harry felt more and more uneasy the more he thought about it, so he asked directly.

(End of this chapter)