Hogwarts: I'm Harry's older cousin

Chapter 314, Section 312: The Final Match of the Triwizard Tournament

After their conversation that night, Dudley, Dumbledore, and Moody each took on their respective roles. Dudley continued to study diligently, Moody devoted himself to imparting knowledge, while Dumbledore often went out and rarely stayed in the headmaster's office.

Not long after, a news headline, "Incompetent Ministry of Magic," made the front page.

Despite Fudge's best efforts to suppress the news, the disappearance of a small squad of Aurors was still exposed.

Unsurprisingly, the Ministry of Magic once again received countless shouting letters.

Fudge was extremely busy with this.

He wanted to ask the Daily Prophet to help promote his positive image in an attempt to salvage some of his reputation and minimize the damage, only to find that the Daily Prophet had completely changed its editor-in-chief and reporters.

Fortunately, although people have changed, their attitude towards him, the Minister of Magic, has improved.

So Fudge once again made the front page of the Daily Prophet.

However, the Daily Prophet's sales have declined significantly, with only a few die-hard fans remaining, less than a tenth of whom are now dissenting.

But if you make Fudge sing a dissenting tune because of sales issues, he'll probably become the biggest laughing stock in the wizarding world, since the dissenting tune used to say he was hiding an army of fire sprites.

This situation continued until June.

The final match of the Three Kingdoms Tournament.

As early as a month ago, in May, the four participating warriors already knew the content of the third competition - the maze.

After all, cheating is a traditional part of the Three Kingdoms Tournament.

"Harry, how's the preparation going?"

While having breakfast, Dalit-Cholli asked.

Harry swallowed the milk in his mouth: "Improve it."

Unless you get the map to the maze from the start, there's not much you can do even if you know the content. Anyway, I've learned almost everything I need to, and I've prepared my wand, spells, and potions. The rest is up to me to improvise; there's no way to prepare for these things.

"Let me tell you a clumsy way to navigate the maze."

"If you just follow one wall of the maze, you'll definitely be able to get out of it."

Dudley's method was the best way to traverse the unknown labyrinth, but it was also the dumbest.

He patted Harry on the shoulder and lightly brushed Harry's collar with his fingers: "Mind your image. You represent Hogwarts now."

Harry paused for a moment, then nodded seriously: "Understood, Brother D."

There are many more guests at Hogwarts today than ever before, many of whom are there as spectators to watch the final match of the Triwizard Tournament. Everyone wants to know the result.

The Ministry of Magic made a small fortune just from ticket sales, but unfortunately, there weren't many people with business acumen within the Ministry, so they missed a golden opportunity to make money by only profiting from ticket sales.

If it were Dudley, he would release a series of merchandise and figurines related to the four warriors, and then create a popularity ranking for the three major magic schools to maximize the buzz. If managed well, he could make a good profit just from these.

Tickets? How much are tickets even worth?

He'll watch it for free and then do a live stream!

Unfortunately, the Ministry of Magic only focused on immediate interests and did not delve deeper.

It gives off a feeling of "We've given you a chance to make money, but you're not good at it."

As expected, Bagman still opened the betting pool. After all, this was the last chance he had. His previous two experiences had taught Mr. Bagman that this money was too easy to earn.

But if Dali knew, he would still scoff at his actions. A betting game? How much money do you make from your betting games? By building a top-three competition IP, the merchandise revenue alone would be enough to make you rich.

And to claim it's legal income is really stupid!

The stands built this time are larger than ever before, and many "magic eyes" have been installed for live broadcasting.

An hour before the competition started, the venue was already packed with people.

"Welcome our esteemed Minister Fouché to give the opening remarks."

As Bagman made his loud announcement, a sparse chorus of applause broke out.

How could Fudge, the Minister of Magic, not attend such a grand competition? He was already busy building his reputation, so he naturally wouldn't let this opportunity slip by.

Fudge only uttered a few clichéd words before announcing the start of the match.

Whoever finds and retrieves the trophy first in the maze is the winner. Yes, you heard right, the one who retrieves the trophy is the winner. No matter how high the score is in the first two rounds, the one who gets the trophy in the last round is the champion.

This is the only chance for players with low scores.

As for runner-up and third place, there was no that.

Fortunately, the order of the competition is determined by the scores of the four players, with the first place player entering first, the second place player entering second, and so on. It's good that this is the case, otherwise the first two competitions would be completely meaningless, and players could even throw the game.

Dudley, who had secured first place with an absolute advantage, entered the maze first.

Next was Harry, and then Viktor and Fleur had been waiting for quite some time before Fleur entered.

"The area is not small."

Dudley looked at the enormous wall woven from countless magical vines and said.

These magical vines have been enchanted by Dumbledore; they will grow wildly if attacked.

The purpose is to prevent people from traversing the maze in a destructive manner.

The entire maze was personally designed by several principals and professors, each responsible for a part, which were then combined into a large maze.

To increase the difficulty, the Ministry of Magic also put a lot of "things" inside.

"Look what I found!"

Dali seemed to transform into a jungle explorer, clearing away branches from the road ahead as he spoke.

At the end of the road dwells a huge, rhinoceros-like creature, but its horns are twenty times the size of those of an ordinary rhinoceros.

"An adult venomous horned beast!"

The Venomous Horned Beast is a magical creature unique to Africa, a 4X-level creature. It is enormous, covered in muscles, and its skin is immune to many magical attacks. When it senses a threat, it will charge directly at its opponent, which is especially dangerous. Its single horn can easily kill an Angolan elephant.

Dudley stared at the giant beast with shining eyes, and the giant beast also noticed Dudley.

Its eyes had an unnatural red tinge in the whites, and were covered with blood vessels. It also emitted puffs of mist from its huge nostrils from time to time.

Clearly, this venomous horned beast is in its mating season.

Any creature is in a very dangerous state when it is in heat.

The moment it spotted Dudley, it stood up, staring at Dudley with bloodshot eyes, uttering low warnings, and occasionally pawing the ground with its two huge, thick front legs.

It was clearly poised to attack.

If the legendary Master of Fantastic Beasts, Newt Scamander, were here, he would surely find a way to appease this venomous horned beast.

But Dudley didn't. He simply stretched out his right hand and beckoned to the venomous horned beast.

(End of this chapter)