A certain Hogwarts professor of runes.

Mrs. Maxim commented, "This group from Hogwarts fully demonstrated the qualities that warriors must possess—courage, wisdom, loyalty, and trust. On this one item alone, their performance was impeccable, and I give them a perfect score."

Her fair and impartial remarks earned her a round of enthusiastic applause.

“Maybe they’ll get full marks,” Ron said, clapping his hands. The sixth judge still gave them a perfect score. “Hopefully we won’t fall too far behind. Logically speaking, our performance wasn’t bad, right?”

Harry nodded vigorously, while looking at the last judge, Karkaroff, who slowly raised his wand, the silver ribbon twisting to form the number "7".

Everyone on the field was somewhat dazed, unable to believe their eyes. They were all ready to welcome the first perfect score team, but now it had all vanished like a bubble; that number seven was so glaringly obvious.

“Kakarov…” Bagman looked at him hesitantly from the high platform.

Karkaroff said in his characteristically smooth, greasy voice, "You see courage, but I see recklessness. They didn't need to stun the dragon at all; that would have brought potential danger..."

But before he could finish speaking, someone in the crowd started clamoring, "Nonsense!" Simo shouted. Karkaroff looked over with a cold gaze, but Simo bravely met his eyes and yelled, "Everyone knows what happened; it was the best choice at the time!"

A chorus of agreement echoed his sentiments.

“I stand by my opinion,” Karkarov said.

“Alright,” Bagman hummed twice, “Each judge has the right to score independently… So, the Hogwarts team has a total score of 67 points, temporarily in first place. I believe it will be difficult for others to catch up, but it’s hard to say… Let’s continue…”

……

Ultimately, Harry and his friends scored 61 points, placing second—Ludo Bagman enthusiastically praised the youngest champions and generously awarded them full marks. Vargado's champions scored 53 points, placing third; Durmstrang scored 50 points, ranking fourth; Beauxbatons scored 48 points, fifth; and Ilfamoni scored 23 points.

The rankings of Durmstrang and Beauxbatons were particularly controversial. To everyone's surprise, when the judges gave six or seven points, Karkaroff shamelessly raised ten, causing an uproar.

It's important to understand that while Bagman gave Harry a perfect score of 10, it was in a context where most players scored 9 or higher. Although it was abrupt, it wasn't a major issue. It simply shows that Bagman had a particular fondness for young, controversial warriors. Karkaroff's actions, on the other hand, were blatant cheating.

After the scoring was finished, the warriors and judges regrouped in the temporary tent to await information about the second project. Felix was about to leave when Bagman warmly stopped him, "Don't rush off, Felix, I need to discuss something with you..."

Footsteps echoed outside, and chatter continued. Harry sat to one side, listlessly lost in thought—having escaped from under the dragon's feet, he was now feeling rather lazy.

"...That biased old bastard, he gave his own school's warrior a perfect score, a perfect score! Ha, doesn't he need to pay for the broken dragon egg?"

"If I were him, I'd be too ashamed to face anyone!"

A heated conversation broke out outside. Harry looked up, blinked twice, and recognized the voices as those of Seamus Finnigan and Dean Thomas. He wondered if his two roommates were deliberately trying to stand up for them, since Karkaroff had only given their group a 6.

Inside the tent, Karkarov's face turned pale, but he endured the strange looks from the crowd without uttering a word.

Felix clicked his tongue: "While it's normal for the principal to favor his own warriors, it's still rare to see 'favoritism' to this extent... Perhaps the scoring rules should be made more transparent."

“We will seriously consider it,” Bagman immediately replied.

A dozen minutes later, the footsteps outside thinned out. Minister of Magic Cornelius Fudge stood up, patted his belly, and the gemstone ring on his thick finger gleamed. He said warmly, "Congratulations to all the brave warriors on successfully passing the first stage. I noticed that some teams didn't perform well, but there will be more opportunities later... I will now introduce the second project. Originally, Barty was supposed to come, but he took a long leave, probably because he was too tired, working on two major projects in a row. I had to cancel the meeting with the Austrian Minister of Magic..."

No one was interested in his tedious work log, but he still talked for a full ten minutes, from the Austrian Minister of Magic's peculiar verbal tics to the president of the Extraordinary Apothecaries Association's cauldron teapot—he seemed to want to add a bit of humor to his speech, but clearly lacked the ability.

“Kingsley!” he shouted.

A tall, dark-skinned man walked in from outside the tent, carrying two golden eggs, one in each hand.

"The second project will be held on the morning of February 24th next year. Before then, you can take a good rest," Fudge said. "The golden eggs in your hands are the clues to the second project. See the cracks? They can be opened. You need to decipher the messages left behind. To be honest, I'm not sure if I'll still be here when the second project takes place. Maybe Barty will have recovered by then, but I might come and join in the fun. Being with some of the best wizards in the world makes me feel younger..."

He waved his hand, and Kingsley controlled the two golden eggs to fly towards Durmstrang and Iphamoni's warriors.

When Krum and Byers received the golden egg, both looked somewhat ashamed. Of the six teams, they were the only ones who had failed to protect the dragon egg.

“Ludo, the rest is up to you,” Fudge said to Bagman, nodding to the others. “Sorry, I have a lot of things to do at the department, I have to go.”

After everyone else had left, Ludo Bagman finally had time to talk to Felix alone. He pulled up a chair and sat down next to Felix on his armchair.

“There are two things that concern you,” he said eagerly. “The first involves one of your unique spells, and I’d like to inquire about its effects, which might be used in the second project… The second thing is about your ‘Future World’ company.”

Felix paused, then looked at him with a questioning gaze: "Have you spoken to Remus? He's in charge of the company now."

“I’ve tried,” Bagman said with a hint of regret, “but he said he couldn’t make the decision, so I had no choice but to come to you for help…”

"Do you want me to donate some money?"

"Oh no, of course not. I heard Remus is organizing people to develop projection technology? You know, Batty took leave, so the burden is all on my shoulders now. To make the game more exciting, we have to make some bold innovations. That's part of courage, don't you think?"

Felix was thinking quickly.

He knew about the projection technology, and it was he who arranged it. The inspiration came from the panoramic telescopes of the Quidditch World Cup. This little gadget used a very interesting magic that could temporarily store images.

Felix's requirement for the future world research team was to create something similar to a television set. He suggested concepts like signal towers and extension phones, and with a magic radio as a reference, progress wasn't slow, but he hadn't had time to ask about the specific stage they were at.

“Don’t rush to refuse,” Bagman said, seeing Felix deep in thought. “This would be an excellent advertisement, and the department has agreed to pay a rent fee. Of course… it’s impossible to buy it; my budget is limited.”

“If it were a normal business transaction, I wouldn’t understand why Remus refused,” Felix said slowly.

"Ahem, he thinks I'm a big mouth and that I keep the research progress a secret..." Bagman awkwardly turned his head away.

"Okay, I'll ask for you."

“Then the first thing…?” Bagman explained in detail.

After a moment's thought—

“I think this kind of competition is more interesting,” Felix said, arms crossed and eyes shining.

Chapter 399 Celebration

Felix emerged from the makeshift tent and peered through the simple pillars of the stands, spotting several figures bustling about. Hagrid's gruff voice was easily recognizable among them.

He walked over and saw the burly Hagrid clutching a tangled mess of chains, which crashed onto the ground next to the blue Swedish short-nosed dragon with a thud. Charlie raised his wand, and the chains raised a head, slithering like snakes to the dragon's side—it was still unconscious, occasionally spitting out two sparks from its nostrils—"Snap!" The chains were fastened around its ankles.

“Alright,” Charlie wiped his sweat, “Hagrid, you’d better step back…”

“It’s sleeping soundly,” Hagrid said, stroking the spikes on the Swedish short-nosed dragon’s head with a look of fascination.

“Felix,” Charlie walked over and greeted him, looking at Hagrid with a hint of helplessness in his eyes, “If it hunts in its dreams… it wouldn’t be pleasant to get hit.”

Felix looked around. Several conscious fire dragons were roaring softly. There were still many staff members left in the area. After they took off their fireproof hats, many of their faces looked familiar.

"When are you planning to leave? There should be a celebration tonight."

Charlie looked up and thought about it seriously for a moment. "I'll stay tonight, not to celebrate... it's a task assigned by my mother. She told me to make sure I talk to Ron and the others to make sure their young minds are okay."

"Mrs. Weasley is very worried?"

“Well, how should I put it, she’s already panicked enough…” he mimicked his mother’s anxious voice: “How can they participate in the tournament? They’re all too young! Little Ronnie even got bitten by a goblin while cleaning the garden and cried his eyes out…”

The next second, his face turned serious, and he said in a solemn tone, "None of us dared to tell her the truth. Fortunately, there wasn't much information in the newspaper. She flipped through the newspaper until it was worn out but didn't find much useful information. Instead, she found a lot of gossip—Dad was very happy that her attention was diverted and discussed with her whether Krum had secretly changed his age... Just kidding."

Felix chuckled to himself, already picturing Mrs. Weasley chattering away with a worried expression in his mind.

"It seems she doesn't know much about fire dragons."

He approached the black Hungarian wood bee, which somewhat comically lowered its head, its huge, menacing head drooping down. Gone was its arrogant demeanor from the competition; even its yellow eyes seemed much more pleasing to the eye.

"Don't breathe on me," Felix muttered, patting the spikes on its head. "I didn't expect you to be a female dragon. Didn't you realize that what you were protecting before wasn't your own egg?"

The Hungarian wood bee panted twice, its breath kicking up dust, and looked at the surrounding staff with displeasure.

“Oh, it seems they not only stole your eggs, but also cast a confusion spell on you. How terrible…” he said, as he moved closer to the Hungarian wood bee’s neck and examined one of its shiny black scales.

He had transferred the Ministry of Magic's secrecy agreement to it, but now that the competition is over, the contract's effect has disappeared.

“We didn’t steal its cubs,” Charlie said. From his angle, he could only see half of Felix’s body, as if it had been swallowed whole by a fire dragon. He couldn’t help but click his tongue: “Tsk! They have a really good relationship.”

"Are we going to the castle?" Felix asked before leaving.

“After I’m done with this, I need to go to the owl shed first and write home to tell my mother everything that happened today.” His face suddenly scrunched up. “Maybe not ‘everything,’ at least I won’t say its height.”

He pointed to the enormous Hungarian wood bee and said, but the fire dragon gave him a disdainful look.

Felix and Hagrid walked back reluctantly. Hagrid kept looking back, and his big, boat-like feet moved even slower than Felix's.

"Is the fried snail alright?" he asked.

"Not bad, a bunch died, they ate too much lettuce..." Hagrid said without thinking, and immediately turned to look after hearing the dragon's roar.

Do they hibernate?

“Oh, uh… hibernation?” Hagrid snapped out of his daze and stared at him blankly. “That is a problem. I hadn’t thought about it…” He pondered and said, “Although the Sphinx doesn’t hibernate, the Fire Crab does. You’re right, I should have prepared earlier.”

Felix nodded; he didn't care about the Bombtail, he just wanted to distract Hagrid.

The Bombtail Snail is bred from the two magical creatures mentioned above. There are actually quite a few creatures like this in the magical world, but very few can exist stably. Most creatures born from the involvement of wizards are often lost to the river of time, and only ancient magical manuscripts record traces of their existence.

The two parted ways near Hagrid's cabin.

When I entered the castle, the hall was in a chaotic mess, with students from all four colleges. They were singing merrily as if it were a festival, accompanied by the crackling and popping of firecrackers, which created a scene resembling a medieval wizard fighting a dragon.

Loud cheers erupted from the crowd.

The six champions, surrounded by students, seemed somewhat uncomfortable. Cedric smiled shyly, while Roger Davis, holding a wine glass like a wine glass, spoke to Collins, who sat quietly, occasionally smoothing his flowing hair. Not far from them, Harry and Hermione sat at the Gryffindor table, quickly eating their food—they were starving—while listening to Ron's vivid storytelling at the table, each holding a strawberry pie.

Felix estimated the time; it was clearly not mealtime yet, so the students must have raided Hogwarts' kitchen.

The Weasley twins stood with their friend Lee Jordan. Fred kept rubbing his hands together, and George desperately tried to stop him, saying, "Think about it, we're going to be the enemy of the whole school."

Li Qiaodan winked at him, gesturing to Professor Haip behind him.

Fred turned around, grinned, and said, "Fine." He had to abandon the extremely tempting idea and put away the dung bomb in his hand.

Then, as if by magic, he produced a bag of egg and milk biscuits. "How about we try this? We have a responsibility to liven things up. Joko's fireworks are too old-fashioned."

"Would you like to try some, Professor?"

Felix picked up a cookie, examined it closely, and a beautiful canary flew out of the cookie, circled the three of them twice, and quickly disappeared.

"The taste is a bit strange, is it because of the magic?" he asked with a smile.

The twins shrank back, grabbed Lee Jordan who was still trying to explain, and quickly slipped away. They weaved through the crowd, setting up traps, then squeezed into Harry's group and handed the trap to Ron, who was excitedly describing his inner thoughts.

“Oh, thank you—” Ron took the cookie without even looking at it, took a bite, and said, “Where was I? The Hungarian Hornet is breathing fire—Hermione’s phoenix and Harry are dealing with it, it’s very dangerous. I told myself I had to do something, so I calmly recited a powerful spell—”

"You mean the illumination spell?" Fred grinned. "I count, there are at least twenty people in the school who know this magic."

“That’s different!” Ron argued. “Sitting comfortably on a cushion chanting spells is completely different from being right under the nose of a dragon, I say—it’s at least sixty feet tall!”

Just then, he suddenly transformed into a giant canary and sat on the Gryffindor table, startling everyone.

“It’s canary cookies…” Hermione said quickly after glancing at them.

"How did you know?" Harry asked, looking with great interest at the large canary, which was turning its head back and forth blankly, making everyone burst into laughter.

“Fred and George put up flyers in the common room,” Hermione said.

Half a minute later, Ron started shedding feathers, which flew everywhere. His face flushed red, and he stammered, "You two... watch out, or I'll cast a curse..."

“Oh~ you’re different after facing the fire dragon, you even have the courage to say tough things… So, may we continue with your story with the fire dragon, Mr. Warrior? We are all very curious.” Fred bowed and asked politely.