Hogwarts: Don't call me Wandmaker

Chapter 387 The Triwizard Tournament and Dumbledore
Ludo Bagman thought he had found a good excuse, but most students thought he was just making excuses.

And then there's Karkaroff, who doesn't even bother pretending anymore; he's blatantly telling everyone that he's biased towards his own school's warriors.

However, everyone had already witnessed this kind of favoritism in the first project, which was surprising but also within expectations.

What surprised them the most was actually Ms. Maxim from Beauxbatons.

Zero points, which is also the only zero points so far. No matter what others do, they will symbolically give other warriors one or two points, such as the biased Karkaroff.

“Well, it’s not hard to understand,” Xiren said.

"Why?" Harry asked, puzzled. "I remember she was fairly fair in her scoring during the first project."

"Because of the rankings."

"Rankings?"

“That’s right.” Siren nodded. “Ms. Maxim knows very well that Fleur will get the lowest score in this event, so she must lower the scores of the other warriors as much as possible in order to narrow the gap in the total score, especially Krum.”

"Why is that?" Ron asked.

“Because Krum scored the lowest in the first event,” Hermione said, doing a quick mental calculation.

"Krum scored 30 points in his first project, and he's 30 now, so that's a total of 60 points."

"Furong scored 36 points in the first project and 25 points in the second project..."

"A total of sixty-one," Xiren continued, "just one point higher than Krum."

Now Harry and Ron finally understood what Madam Maxim was planning.

If she hadn't given her a zero, but instead symbolically given her one or two points like everyone else, Fleur's ranking wouldn't have surpassed Krum's.

“She really is…” Harry opened his mouth, he wanted to say that Madam Maxim was very decisive, but then he thought it was inappropriate.

Giving the Warriors zero points is shameless in itself.

Moreover, although Krum did not complete all the projects, his performance was still quite good. At least he reached the finish line, so it's impossible for him to get 0 points.

“In essence, she is actually the same kind of person as Karkaroff,” Siren said calmly. “They both want to gain the upper hand over the other in this way, or to be more precise, to gain the upper hand over Dumbledore.”

"Headmaster Dumbledore? What does this have to do with him?"

“It has a huge impact,” Celen said. “You think they agreed to restart the Triwizard Tournament? It’s because Dumbledore’s reputation is too big.”

"The chief wizard of the International Wizarding Federation, the strongest white wizard, so much so that when people mention magic schools in Europe, the first thing that comes to mind is always Hogwarts. Do you think they'd be content with that?"

Several people shook their heads at the same time.

“That’s how it is,” Sirius continued. “But they also knew very well that they couldn’t beat Dumbledore, that they didn’t even have a one percent chance of winning, so the Triwizard Tournament came about.”

"As long as their school can beat Hogwarts, it's the same as them beating Dumbledore, which is why they go to any lengths when grading."

“But,” Harry still couldn’t understand, and asked, “what if other people know that this score is fake?”

“Who would know?” Xiren shrugged. “Not many people care about the process; most people only care about the result. As long as they win, the shady dealings during the scoring aren’t that important.”

This was the first time the three of them had heard of such a theory. They stood there, mouths agape, speechless. But upon closer reflection, it did seem to make sense.

Just like the Quidditch matches at Hogwarts, the school's records only show the winning team, without specific scores or any external factors such as whether it was windy or rainy that day.

“Fortunately, you beat them,” Ron said softly.

"It's a bit early to say that," Xiren shook his head. "My scores haven't come out yet."

“No, they’re already out.” Hermione pointed to the referee’s position. When Siren looked up, he saw five silver numbers appear in mid-air.

10、10、9、9、0。

"Won!"

Hermione was the first to jump up and give Cyren a big hug, followed by Harry and Ron, who hugged Cyren's neck and jumped around excitedly.

Well, this score is as expected and reasonable as I'd say.

Karkaroff immediately applied what he had learned and gave Xiren a score of 0, but that didn't matter anymore.

Even with only 38 points, he is already the undisputed number one.

The surrounding audience all clapped enthusiastically, and Furong clapped hard too. She had wanted to thank them, but Ms. Maxim had stopped her.

Perhaps in her view, Siren's behavior was not worthy of thanks, but she did not hesitate to give him the points he deserved, nine points, the same as Dumbledore.

"You're something else, Celen!" Ron shouted amidst the commotion.

"The third event, the final competition, will take place on the evening of June 24th!" Ludo Bagman continued, "The warriors will learn the details of the event a month in advance..."

There will be no decryption activities this time, and there will be no information whatsoever. Everything will be revealed in June.

The crowd began to disperse, and Lady Pomfrey escorted the warriors and hostages back to the castle from the other side.

Xiren had lost count of how many times he had said "thank you," because since he returned to the castle, almost everyone had been congratulating him on winning first place.

And now it's not just Gryffindors anymore; even Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs have joined the revelry.

Xiren felt like he was trapped in a golden egg, surrounded by a noisy buzzing sound.

Moreover, hiding in the library didn't work this time. People still looked at him excitedly and greeted him. Mrs. Pins couldn't bear it any longer, but it was difficult to punish everyone one by one, so she simply kicked Siron, the source, out.

When all else failed, Celen, under the cover of Fred and George, went to Hogsmeade through a secret passage, finally finding some peace and quiet.

It wasn't until evening that he returned to the castle through the secret passage and past the statue of the hunchbacked witch.

After several hours of revelry, the castle gradually quieted down. It was dinnertime, and the entire floor was eerily quiet, with not a soul in sight.

However, just as Xilun reached the third floor, he suddenly heard a series of hurried footsteps coming from below; someone was approaching.

As if by some strange twist of fate, Xilun stopped in place.

"Damn it, why did you give that Siren Ollivander a perfect score!"

Xilen blinked... It was Karkaroff's voice.

"Ludo Bagman, have you forgotten that you're now in the same boat as us!"

“Keep your voice down, Karkaroff, of course I haven’t forgotten,” Ludo Bagman said, lowering his voice as much as possible. “But what can I do, like you, give him a zero? Believe me, if I did that, I’d get a ton of yelling letters the next day!”

"And even if I give him zero points, Siron Ollivander, who has added twenty-eight points, is still in first place."

"Then what do we do!" Karkaroff said angrily. "Krum is already in last place."

“It’s alright, Karkarov, it’s alright,” Ludo Bagman said, whether to comfort him or himself, “There’s a third project, that’s the most important one.”

……

(End of this chapter)