My Hogwarts has a serious problem.

Chapter 443 Chapter 440. Bad guy

Their dinner had just ended when two new guests arrived at the campsite.

Ludo Balman, Director of the Department of Magical Sports, and Barty Crouch, Director of the Department of International Magical Cooperation.

To be precise, Ludo arrived here first, and Crouch followed him to find him.

"Sit down and rest for a bit, Batty," Balman said happily, patting the grass beside him.

"No, thank you, Ludo," Crouch said, a hint of impatience in his voice. He had also seen Lynn, but he didn't know that Lynn was the real mastermind behind gaining his "friendship."

After the arrival of the two directors of the Ministry of Magic, Lynn kept quiet and pretended to be invisible, not wanting to leave too much of an impression on these high-ranking officials of the Ministry of Magic.

"I've been looking for you everywhere. The Bulgarians insist that we add twelve more seats to the top-floor box."

"Oh, so that's what they wanted!" Bagman said dismissively. "I thought that guy wanted to borrow a pair of tweezers. His accent was too heavy."

"Mr. Crouch!" Percy was so excited he could hardly breathe. He was always like this, especially since Barty Crouch was the wizard he admired most in the Ministry of Magic.

He leaned forward, making a bowing gesture, which made him look hunchbacked: "Would you like a cup of tea?"

Crouch looked at Percy with slight surprise, as if he were thinking about something: "Well—thank you, Weatherby."

Fred and George laughed so hard they almost spat their tea into their cups. Percy's ears turned pink as he pretended to be busy tending to the teapot.

He mispronounced Percy's last name.

“By the way, there’s something I’ve been wanting to tell you, Arthur,” Crouch said, his sharp gaze falling on Mr. Weasley again. “Ali Bashir has made a provocation; he wants to talk to you about your embargo on flying carpets.”

Mr. Weasley sighed heavily.

"I sent him a letter last week specifically about this. I've told him a hundred times that in England, carpets are classified as Muggle handicrafts on the Register of Prohibited Magical Items, but will he listen?"

“I doubt he will,” Crouch said, taking the cup of tea Percy offered him. “He can’t wait to get the flying carpet out here.”

"But brooms are the mainstream mode of transportation for European wizards, and the current flying broom market is dominated by the Lungard Company. Bashir doesn't have the strength to compete with Lungard," Bagman said.

"But he thinks there's a loophole in the market for family vehicles," Crouch said, "without ever using his blockhead to think that even if the flying carpet could expand its market in Britain, would Lungard really give that market to them?"

His words made it impossible to discern any unspeakable relationship between him and Lundard Company.

"You've been pretty busy lately, haven't you, Barty?" Bagman changed the subject, asking in a relaxed and cheerful tone.

"It's quite busy," Crouch said dryly. "Organizing and arranging the door keys across five continents is no easy task."

"Didn't you recently recruit quite a few people from the International Department of Magical Affairs? Are you still short-staffed?" Mr. Weasley asked.

Crouch raised his eyebrows at Mr. Weasley.

"I wish I could recruit more people. I need to spread them all over the world, and even set up a flyway network in Antarctica."

"Besides that? How are your preparations for the next event going?"

"We promise not to announce anything until all the details are complete—"

"Oh, the details!" Bagman interrupted, waving his hand dismissively as if shooing away a swarm of mosquitoes. "They signed it, didn't they? They agreed, didn't they? Soon all the children at Hogwarts will know about it."

“No! They did sign, but there were extra people involved!” Crouch said, frowning. “To be honest, I’ve been struggling with this lately, wondering whether or not to grant their request.”

"Those Americans? Oh! You shouldn't be giving them a headache. You could just treat their request like country bumpkins wanting to see the world in the city. We should give them a chance, after all, we're all generous British gentlemen—"

"Ludo, you should know we need to go see those Bulgarians," Crouch said sternly, interrupting Bagman. "Thank you for the tea, Weatherby."

He shoved the untouched teacup back into Percy's hand and waited for Ludo to get up.

Ludo struggled to his feet, downed the tea in his cup in one gulp, and seemed to have had more to say, but some topics were indeed not suitable to continue discussing here.

"See you later!" he said. "You'll be with me in the penthouse box—I'm the commentator for the match!"

He waved goodbye, and Barty Crouch nodded faintly before they both Apparated and disappeared.

"Is something wrong at Hogwarts, Dad?" Fred asked immediately. "What were they talking about?"

"You'll find out soon enough," Mr. Weasley said with a smile.

"This is classified information; we won't know until the department decides to release it," Percy said seriously. "Mr. Crouch is right not to disclose classified information lightly."

"Oh, shut up, Weatherby," Fred said.

George turned his gaze to Lynn, who had remained silent, and asked tentatively.

"I bet Lynn knows what it is."

Percy shook his head, indicating it was impossible: "Even the Ministry hasn't made this public, and Lynn doesn't have any family members working at the Ministry of Magic, so there's no way he could know."

Lynn said thoughtfully.

"It's about that tournament."

Everyone present immediately widened their eyes.

"What event?" George and Fried urged Lynn to continue, but Mr. Weasley stopped them.

"I don't know where you found out, but you can't tell them Lynn. This matter cannot be made public until everything is arranged."

Lynn then came to his senses and nodded to Mr. Weasley.

"I know Mr. Weasley won't gossip about this."

Harry, Ron, and the twins wailed and begged Mr. Weasley to only tell these people, promising not to spread the word.

Lynn was still pondering the conversation that Crouch and Bagman had just had.

He knew that the Triwizard Tournament would be held again at Hogwarts, but in the original story it was a competition jointly organized by three European schools, so what did it have to do with the Americans?

(End of this chapter)