From Azkaban to Hogwarts.

After all that, nothing happened.

The twins shook their heads—it was most likely something from the ball, but that day it might have been a necessary element of a great joke, but today…

"sky!!!"

The Hufflepuffs closest to the warriors gasped in surprise. One of the warriors, sprayed with a potion by Ilfamoni, began to transform, and then a completely different face appeared.

What's going on?

The commotion on the field stunned everyone, and the boy was quickly recognized—he was a seventh-grade student at Durmstrang.

"Where are the warriors? Where have the warriors of Iphamoni gone?"

"Sleeping in the tent..."

The boy who was caught didn't even look at his principal and readily admitted his mistake, saying, "We thought he might be more cautious before the competition, but it seems he wasn't, so we made this joke..."

Karkaroff slowly walked over. "A warrior who attacked another school, and even impersonated one! Go back and put him in solitary confinement. I'm going to put you in solitary confinement for six months!"

He lashed out at his own school's students for a while before turning around and saying, "We are willing to accept all penalties within the rules and provide necessary compensation..."

Bagman's face flushed slightly—but remembering the lenient rules, he had no choice but to follow the procedure. "Serious violation. According to the handling procedures for similar incidents five hundred years ago, Durmstrang must pay a fine of one thousand gallons!"

"I will comply, and we will pay the fine before sunset tomorrow."

Karkarov spoke calmly, then returned to his seat.

However, he returned—because one of Beauxbatons' warriors had been replaced by Durmstrang's men…

But this had nothing to do with Karkaroff, because it was yet another spontaneously organized ambush on the warriors… As for the four warriors, everyone's attention was naturally…

"Kakalov, is this another accident?"

Madame Maxim stared intently at Karkarov, but there was nothing she could do—she knew very well how many loopholes there were in that ambiguous agreement.

Just as she was glaring angrily at Karkaroff, a warrior from Durmstrang suddenly shuddered and looked at Fleur of Beauxbatons in horror, his clothes soaked with potion.

Then, he suddenly dried the potion himself, and his eyes softened again, losing their aggressiveness.

"Ah, Miss Hibiscus, I want to be your..."

Before he could finish speaking, Lupin splashed the rest of the potion on him, which startled him awake. He then hid behind his teammates.

Mrs. Maxim sat down and looked at Karkarov. "Well, sometimes we have to admit that accidents always happen where we can't imagine them..."

Chapter 490 Winning Principles of Team Competitive Games

"Are we still not fully aware of the cheating procedures in the Triwizard Tournament?"

Watching what was happening below, William discussed it with Moody with a look of astonishment—to be honest, he only had Lupin conduct the tests as a precaution, but the fact that so many warriors had problems was too much…

“I have no idea, Professor William,” Moody said with a grin as he watched people begin to search for the ambushed warrior. “I only started teaching at Hogwarts this year.

"It's as if I know everything—my predecessor died on duty, and professors from the same cohort are still in the hospital..."

William spread his hands, indicating that he wouldn't take the blame—the tradition of cheating had long since ended with some professor, so he underestimated the absurdity of the cheating at all three institutions…

'If this were any more outrageous, they'd be practically stuffing themselves with more warriors...'

As he shook his head and watched everyone frantically trying to wake up the real competitors, he helplessly ran off the field to conduct the necessary check-up ceremony—both Bagman and the newly recruited warriors needed further examination.

There's no way around it—if Durmstrang has another trick up his sleeve, and the unconscious warrior is actually an imposter or under a spell, then it's really...

Fortunately, this year's students didn't go too far, and after William went for another test, the competition was finally able to proceed normally.

-

Although Durmstrang's accident caused chaos for the organizers and participating schools, the students in the stands were almost all very happy, especially the Gryffindor students. After seeing their own team unharmed while other teams had been infiltrated by all sorts of spies, they all looked as happy as if they had just watched a wonderful duel.

If Professor McGonagall hadn't turned around and looked around at her students, the Gryffindor kids would probably have been overjoyed.

The incident of Durmstrang's base being raided by Fleur was particularly hilarious, almost causing many people to lose their composure.

Fortunately, the Hogwarts warriors were not affected. They quickly and quietly communicated, eliminating the tactical plans they had discussed beforehand one by one, so that they could use the best plan to deal with their opponents. The almost comical scene of catching a spy just now made them realize once again that their opponents were not just a name without substance, and they could easily be defeated if they were not careful.

"Our original best plan was to infiltrate the maze, lie in ambush, and take out the Durmstrang students, who were the strongest in terms of group combat strength—but now it seems that doing so is far too risky."

"Especially the sneak attacks before this match, I bet our opponents were on high alert. If the ambush failed and turned into a direct confrontation, it would be easy for other schools to take advantage of the situation."

"So let's proceed with the more risky plan."

Nancy whispered instructions while sizing up the enemy, "Our plan is actually more effective when they're on high alert..."

"I have no objection."

Cedric said softly, "But I think I can do it."

"That's fine, I was already thinking that team battles weren't really my style."

Monta nodded slightly, then turned to look at his teammates, gave them a very polite smile, and then slowly bowed.

This move drew a lot of hostile stares—after the second competition, due to Monta's influence, Slytherin students were clearly ostracized by the other three schools, and Monta himself received unfriendly looks wherever he went.

If Hogwarts hadn't been the host of this tournament, and the entire castle hadn't been filled with Hogwarts students and its protective system, the other two schools would definitely not have targeted Monta, who had already incurred a great deal of hatred.

But Monta just smiled and then started discussing things with his teammates again.

"Then all the pressure is on you, Potter."

Nancy said in a low voice, "When it comes to reacting to traps and handling unusual situations, we're all a bit worse than you—"

"So, your task is to quickly break through the traps while we hold those people off, find the right path, and then take the trophy in one go."

"I will break through those mechanisms as quickly as possible."

Harry nodded slightly. "Be careful."

“Don’t worry,” Monta said, pulling out his wand. “I might not have had enough fun by the time you get the trophy.”

-

"Hogwarts has the highest score and is the first in line to enter the maze!"

Bagman shouted, then blew his whistle, and with that sharp sound, Harry and his friends entered the maze first.

To ensure fairness in the competition, the fire was not displaying any images at this moment, remaining a hazy gray, leading many Hogwarts students to speculate about what their champions would do.

About a minute later, Bagman announced loudly again, "Second pick, Beauxbatons!"

Then came Durmstrang and Ifamoni.

As Iphamoni's students entered the maze, the bonfires piled on the outermost edge suddenly became active, and white smoke appeared in the air. In an instant, all the students focused their attention on the smoke, eager to see their warriors' spectacular performance.

"My God, the heroes of Hogwarts have separated!"

Bagman shouted, and in the smoke-filled image overlooking the entire maze, the symbols representing the Hogwarts heroes had all separated and were rushing off in different directions.

"Are they planning to split up and search for the trophy? That's not a wise choice. In this damned maze, if you get separated and run into warriors from other schools, it will be a crushing defeat."

"Let's figure out which warrior these marks belong to. To be honest, this is—Oh my god! What happened! What is Monta doing?"

Bagman gasped, and the rest of the audience followed suit.

Within the smoke that revealed the montage, the figure within the smoke tore off a large chunk of smoke from its body.

"We checked carefully, and all the contestants only brought in their wands; there were no traceless expansion accessories!"

As Bagman explained loudly, he carefully observed what Monta was doing—half a minute later, he finally realized what Monta was taking off: clothes, Monta's robe.

-

"This dress is real..."

As Monta laughed, he used a spell to tear his robe into strips of cloth—he had long anticipated that the third match would restrict the use of some props, so he specially prepared a robe that offered less protection than other wizard robes but was made of a material that was easier to deform.

Now, this garment will come in very handy.

With only his underwear on his upper body, Monta felt no cold at all. He happily cast a transformation spell on the materials that were originally meant to make his clothes look different, and they turned into tiny snakes that covered the ground in front of him.

"This size shouldn't be a problem..."

The partitions that grew from the ground were so tight that they blocked out even the light, making it incredibly dark. But that didn't mean they were invincible. The little snakes that turned from the shredded cloth could easily slip through those tiny holes and then spread to most of the maze.

"Now that we have the fakes, it's time to get some real ones in."

Monta picked up his wand and began to use some not-too-off-the-books dark magic. A very aggressive little snake slowly crawled out of his wand and then disappeared into the dense swarm of snakes. Then, another little snake crawled out from the tip of the wand…

"They're actually attacking each other..."

Monta laughed as he guided the snakes to disperse through the hedge wall. "If they all ganged up on us, we could still find a way to deal with them, but right now everyone's afraid of a sneak attack... so, these snakes..."

In the second game, he took down his opponents to stop them from scoring, but now, these snakes are not aggressive enough to eliminate anyone, but they can completely slow down their movement.

-

"Mengtai tore his clothes to shreds—an unbelievable solution, but he also obtained a large amount of easily deformable materials... those snakes are really..."

Bagman broadcasted quickly, but he himself became somewhat paranoid—those wriggling little snakes were truly terrifying.

"Oh my god, the warriors of Beauxbatons have inadvertently entered this dangerous area, but they seem... no, they've discovered the danger!"

"Monta's snakes have been discovered! The combined defense of the four wizards rendered the snakes futile! The snakes that appeared on the wall were instantly reduced to their original forms by the Barrier Charm—that's a fantastic reaction. Monta's traps seem to have lost their effectiveness, what a pity..."

Bagman's explanation was a bit biased, but no one objected. Just when everyone was disappointed by Monta's trap, screams came from the lower-grade students.

More snakes crawled out from the holes high in the wall, then fell freely through the air, crashing directly onto the students' protective barriers in Beauxbatons, before sliding down the barriers in a straight line.

Although the smoke still couldn't transmit sound, everyone silently imagined the sound of a snake falling to the ground.

Then, more snakes emerged from the cracks in the wall and landed with a splattering sound on the Beauxbatons students' protective barrier—in the misty rain, countless tiny white wisps of smoke fell like raindrops towards the people underground, and even though the Beauxbatons students repeatedly waved their wands to knock them down, some still managed to slip through the net.

"Let's go! Don't worry about those things!"

Hibiscus decisively gave the order, "Just pretend those are raindrops!"

However, before they could even run, Fleur herself waved her wand and cast a spell at the snake in the corner, but it dodged it with remarkable agility.

"Stay calm. I can tell if it's true or false, but I need to be in a calm state!"

She decisively changed her command: "Attack the wall and find that bastard, or we'll be dragged down by him!"

-

"This should be it..."

Cedric stopped and began to examine the ground beneath his feet—judging by the distance, their carefully prepared cheating scheme should have been left here.