Hogwarts: Don't call me Wandmaker

Chapter 411 Happy Fudge

"The sound of the Sphinx has a hypnotic and relaxing effect, so it's best to plug your ears beforehand when you encounter this magical creature."

On the judges' stand, Dumbledore looked at Siron in the maze and said in surprise, "However, Siron's unicorn magic seems to have the effect of removing negative effects, so there is no need to do so."

"This must be the magic you taught him." Seeing that Xiren had regained consciousness, Fudge breathed a slight sigh of relief and said with a smile.

Karkarov and Maxim looked over at the same time, both frowning.

But just as Karkaroff was about to say something, Dumbledore spoke first.

“Of course not, Cornelius.” He shook his head. “This is magic that Siron created himself.”

"Liar!" Karkaroff scoffed. "This is magic that can awaken a Sphinx in hypnosis, and you're telling me it was invented by a fourteen-year-old student?"

Do you think we're all mindless idiots?

“I never thought that way, Professor Karkaroff,” Dumbledore said earnestly. “I swear in the name of the Headmaster of Hogwarts that I did not teach the unicorn magic of Shiren. I am ashamed to admit that I tried it in secret, but I could not learn the magic at all.”

“You’re kidding me!” Maxim practically screamed.

It's already amazing enough that a fourteen-year-old wizard can create magic, yet Dumbledore couldn't learn it?

Although it's hard to admit, Albus Dumbledore was indeed far more powerful than these wizards who were also headmasters.

She herself, including Karkaroff, desperately wanted to win the Triwizard Tournament in order to make up for this huge gap in another way.

But now it seems that this approach won't work either.

In the maze, Xiren is just one step away from the Triwizard Cup, while Furong and Krum are also one step away, but that step is elimination.

Just as she was thinking this, Hibiscus launched red sparks into the sky, officially declaring her failure.

But Maxim wouldn't blame her, because Fleur really did her best. She was able to maneuver through the Devil's Net, the Bombshell, and the Red Hat for five minutes, which was already a remarkable achievement.

Maxim didn't want anything to actually happen to her.

Professor McGonagall quickly arrived at Fleur's location and rescued her from the devil's web.

Meanwhile, on the other side, Xiren also noticed the red flashes and sparks in the sky, but he had no time to think about who had withdrawn from the game.

The Sphinx opposite him had stood up again, its yellow eyes staring intently at him, surprised that the human in front of him could wake up from hypnosis so quickly.

But that's okay, the Sphinx does more than just hypnotize.

It leaped up and came back to Xilun, slashing its huge claws with force.

Xilun could even hear a whistling sound coming from the air, which shows how powerful this thing was.

Without hesitation, Xiren immediately retreated and waved his wand.

"Collapse!"

The spell struck the Sphinx's massive body, but it seemed to have only thrown a stone at it. The Sphinx twitched and then lunged at Siron again.

"Weak!"

Siren waved his wand again, but this time not at the Sphinx, but at the ground beneath his feet.

The Sphinx's magic is too powerful, just like Cerberus; ordinary spells have no effect on it. Moreover, it's still competition time, with hundreds, even thousands, of eyes watching, so special methods can't be used.

If Xiren wanted to defeat the Sphinx, he had to find another way, and fortunately, his decision worked.

The softened ground resembled a swamp, and as soon as the Sphinx landed, its two front paws sank deep into it.

Seizing the opportunity, Celen switched to another wand.

The hedges on both sides transformed into giant, writhing pythons, which, together with the soft swamp, tightly bound the Sphinx. To prevent the warrior from destroying the labyrinth, these hedges were magically reinforced, although to the Sphinx, such reinforcement meant little more than the difference between 'easily torn' and 'requiring some force to break'.

But this very change gave Xilun an opportunity.

As he controlled the hedge to keep entangled with the Sphinx, he slowly retreated to the previous fork in the road.

The Sphinx noticed this, but didn't care; it just wanted to get rid of the wizard as soon as possible.

Another thick vine wrapped around it, and Sphinx instinctively tried to break it off, but failed.

At the same time, more vines wrapped around it, much faster than Siron's Transfiguration. In the blink of an eye, the Sphinx was wrapped into a sphere, with only its head and tail sticking out.

With a thud, the 'rattan ball' crashed heavily to the ground.

“Devil’s Web is one of your colleagues,” Celen explained. “It’s right next door to you; I saw it when I passed by just now.”

“A brilliant plan,” said the Sphinx.

“Not really,” Siren said. “Besides, you didn’t really want to kill me, did you?”

“I can’t do that, or I’ll die too,” Sphinx said calmly.

With its intelligence, it's not hard to guess what the consequences of killing these little wizards would be.

"You've passed."

"Thank you," said Xi Lun.

But instead of acting immediately, he lowered his head and searched for something on the ground.

Before long, Xilun found five long brown hairs among the torn vines.

The Sphinx's tail hairs were targeted when Xiren controlled the hedges; these hairs were all torn off.

It's not particularly long, only about six or seven inches, but it's still usable.

“That’s great,” Garrick said with a smile from the stands. “Wands made from the tip of a sphinx’s tail hair are always very opinionated and have a great fondness for wise wizards.”

Garian and Lila, who were sitting next to him, were not interested in the wand. They were more concerned about Celen's safety. When they saw that he had defeated the Sphinx safely, they cheered with the others.

On the front of the referee's table, Fudge, seeing that Xiren was about to win the Triwizard Tournament, nodded in satisfaction.

“That was a really great game,” he said with a laugh. “If Batty knew what he missed, he’d regret it.”

“There’s nothing we can do about it,” Percy said, sitting up straight. “Mr. Crouch believes that the last attack caused him to fall behind on a lot of work, and in order not to betray the minister’s trust, he must finish it as soon as possible.”

Fudge's lips twitched slightly involuntarily, but quickly returned to normal.

Although he knew perfectly well that Percy's words were a bit of an exaggeration, he was still pleased to hear them.

"Living up to the minister's trust..." This sounds even more gratifying than Hogwarts winning the Triwizard Tournament.

“I’ve always felt that Barty has been a bit too tense lately.” Fudge waved his hand and said with a smile, “When I received the news this afternoon and rushed to Hogwarts, he even followed me into the Great Hall to ask me to sign a document.”

"With so many people watching, people who don't know the situation might think that the British Ministry of Magic is exploiting its employees."

“Good heavens, how could anyone think that?” Percy said in surprise. “I’ve always felt that I don’t have enough work. If possible, I would love to do more, and it would be even better if I could help the minister.”

“There will be opportunities, but not now,” Fudge said with a smile. “I don’t want to be accused of exploiting my employees, or people will send me angry letters.”

……

(End of this chapter)