With extraordinary comprehension, I built a floating city at Hogwarts.

He had already tossed the wand aside, and his hands were still waving wildly in the air.

A yellow liquid even trickled down his trouser leg.

Crouch frowned and waved his wand, trying to bring Barnett back to his senses, but to no avail.

Crouch, realizing what was happening, turned sharply to the group by the lake and shouted, "Hermione Granger, I order you to stop right now!"

The air by the lake seemed to freeze as everyone turned to look at Crouch, who had suddenly appeared.

.... 0 ....

Levin immediately stepped in front of Hermione, stiffly retorting, "Mr. Crouch, what do you intend to do to the champions of Hogwarts?"

The young wizards by the lake gathered around.

After being firmly rebuffed by Levin, Crouch finally realized that his attitude was problematic.

Seeing that Barnett was still making a fool of himself, his tone immediately softened.

“Mr. Green, Miss Granger, we apologize, we meant no harm. We used Legilimency on you, Miss Granger, simply to confirm who is the most important person to you, so that we can use her as a hostage in the second match. Please release the spell on him.”

Crouch had no choice.

He was specifically in charge of this matter, and he was also the one who invited Maxwell Barnett.

Now that things have turned out this way, it's him who's lost face.

In his haste to minimize the damage, Crouch didn't even realize that he had revealed the game's secrets to the public.

The young wizards around them watched Crouch and Levin with excitement, as if they knew something they shouldn't have.

Crouch realized his slip of the tongue and looked even more embarrassed.

Hermione looked at Levin questioningly, and Levin nodded to her.

Hermione had already embarrassed Crouch in front of everyone; there was no need to make things difficult for him further.

After all, the other party is a master of mind control and has his own network of connections. A minor punishment is enough to serve as a warning; going too far could easily provoke the other party's united hatred.

Hermione nodded and obediently dispelled the spell.

Barnett stood there, his bewildered eyes gradually clearing.

After figuring out what had happened, the middle-aged man's face immediately turned red.

Overwhelmed with shame, he didn't even bother to dry his wet trousers and quickly fled the lawn without even having a chance to say a word to Mr. Crouch.

“Thank you,” Mr. Crouch said stiffly, his voice barely concealing his displeasure.

Chapter 368 Choosing a Hostage

Crouch was not pleased that Hermione had let Barnett go.

He had no idea that Ms. Proudmore not only had a highly capable younger brother,

Her brother's friends were no pushovers either.

This Miss Granger, despite being a Muggle-born young wizard, as young as Levin Green, was able to defeat a Legilimency master.

Once she grows up, she will likely become a new pillar of Jaina's faction.

Thinking about this, he was reminded of his missing, good-for-nothing son, and his mood was completely ruined.

So he said to Hermione in a questioning tone, "Miss Granger, why did you retaliate so fiercely against Legilimency? Aren't you afraid of hurting your classmates?"

“Apart from Levin, none of my classmates are masters of Legilimency,” Hermione retorted, arms crossed, to Crouch. “And Levin, with his skill level, has never been afraid of my counterattack.”

"What about Barnett, with his sharp tongue? Does he deserve it?"

"Isn't that something that stumped him?"

Hermione pointed out sharply:

"As everyone knows, using the 'Searching for Thoughts' technique to probe other people's thoughts without authorization is extremely rude. Everyone's thoughts are their own privacy, and there's nothing wrong with protecting one's own privacy—I believe no one wants to make all their privacy and thoughts public."

Hermione's speech subtly incorporated public speaking techniques—a skill she had honed at the Academy of Liberal Arts.

After she finished speaking, she looked around, and the young wizards around her all expressed their agreement.

“Miss Granger is right!”

"Using [Legitimacy] without authorization is absolutely outrageous!"

"I don't want anyone to know what I'm thinking!"

Hermione nodded proudly and looked at Crouch: "You see, that's what everyone thinks. Besides, even if you have a reasonable reason, I didn't know beforehand. How was I supposed to know that you were using Legilimency on me? I thought it was some dark wizard from somewhere."

At this point, the girl concluded:

"Ultimately, this was your fault. I did nothing wrong by using [False Image] to fight back."

[False Illusion: 5th Ring Illusion, any spell that comes to investigate will gain a false illusion.]

It was this mental illusion created by the magic that made Barnett look foolish on the spot.

"you……"

Hermione's words were not only logical and well-founded, but she also used the excuse of "not knowing beforehand" to absolve herself of responsibility.

More importantly, she has successfully steered public opinion in her favor, and a group of young wizards have already rallied around her to support her.

Crouch was speechless.

"What about the competition? If you do this, we can't choose a hostage!"

Crouch thought for a moment, then said dryly.

But this time it was Levin who chimed in: "Didn't Bagman and I already express our opinions yesterday? Just ask the Warriors directly."

"...Hmph, I know."

Seeing this, Crouch understood that continuing the stalemate would not do him any good.

So he didn't reply to Levin and quickly left the lawn.

Tonks gave Hermione a thumbs-up and then quickly followed.

"Everyone, please disperse!"

Levin waved his hand, dispersing the crowd, and continued leading a few people in practicing Magic Moon; ?Fee::Group 8"?5766.3!4'4'2,.Free?!Extract Dimensional Chicken,.Hedgehog?;Pineapple'"See.!Group?:Brief;Introduction:Add QQ for free 50% off purchasing service,

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As the matter continued to unfold, it soon became no secret that the Warriors' most important person would be chosen as a hostage in the second game of the Three Kingdoms Tournament.

Soon, discussions about who was the most important person in the Warriors' team began to sweep through Hogwarts once again.

Meanwhile, the judges also had heated debates about how to identify the hostages, this time without worrying about leaking the questions—because Crouch had already leaked them.

As a result, several school principals also joined the discussion.

Ultimately, under the strong insistence of Mrs. Maxim and Karkaroff, they decided that the warriors themselves should decide who would serve as hostages.

Because they cannot use Legilimency on Hermione and cannot ascertain her true thoughts, it would be too unfair to the other warriors if they continued to use the previous method.

However, they also agreed that once the hostages were selected with the Warriors, the information must not be leaked. The selection should only be known to the parties involved and the organizing committee of the Triwizard Tournament, in order to prevent any uncontrollable accidents.

Hermione was the first to be questioned because she had the highest score in the first game.

Because Crouch insisted on his own way and messed things up, he was stripped of his position as executor.

Ludo Bagman, who was also in charge of the commentary, didn't want to take on another task.

The task was then passed on to the security chief, Nymphadora Tonks.

Tonks had no voting rights and was originally the lowest-ranking member of the Triwizard Tournament committee, yet he was inexplicably assigned a task.

He readily agreed, and then led his men to find Hermione first.

Since they were friends visiting, Hermione naturally wouldn't waste their time and immediately introduced Ginny Weasley.

Aside from Levin, Ginny was arguably her best friend at Hogwarts.

When Tonks found Ginny and told her about it, the little girl was overjoyed. She valued her friendship with Hermione very much and readily agreed.

Tonks was not surprised by Fleur de la Cour's reply; she named her sister, Gabriel de la Cour.

She was initially hesitant to let her younger sister participate, given that injuries and fatalities had occurred before in the Three Kingdoms Tournament.

With Levin personally vouching for her, Furong felt somewhat relieved.

Such a smooth start greatly boosted the confidence of Tonks and his staff.

They then found Viktor Krum.

Under Karkaroff's sinister gaze, Krum announced Ronnie Weasley's name.

Actually, if circumstances allowed, he would have liked to use Hermione's name. He believed that the second activity, the Black Lake treasure hunt, was a natural setting for a "hero saves the damsel in distress" scenario, highly conducive to strengthening the bond between the hero and the hostage.

Unfortunately, Hermione was a hero herself and didn't need his rescue at all.

Upon hearing this name, Tonks was completely baffled.

"Who is Ronnie Weasley?" The staff member said they didn't know her, and there was no such student at Hogwarts.

“I heard from others that Ronnie Weasley was a distant relative of the Weasley family.”

Ignoring Karkaroff's disapproving look, Krum pleaded in a deep voice, "Please allow me to go with you to invite her."

To avoid leaks, they didn't contact the Weasleys rashly, but instead first reached out to Ginny Weasley, who had already agreed to cooperate.

When Ginny heard the name "Ronnie Weasley" again, she gave him a strange look.

She truly never expected that her brother would be so popular after being gender-swapped, and that the rumors about him and Krum would actually come true in this way.

In this situation, Ginny couldn't very well expose the truth.

But she didn't know where to conjure up a Ronnie for them, so she had to decline, saying, "Ronnie and Harry are the closest, and only he knows where Ronnie is."

So Krum followed Tonks and the others directly to Harry.

"Hello, are you here to confirm the hostage selection?" Harry greeted them.

The news that Tonks had been speaking with every warrior in the castle all day had spread, so he was naturally prepared.

Before they could ask any questions, Harry spoke up, "The hostage I've chosen is Ron..."

Before he could finish speaking, Krum hurriedly interrupted him: "No, Ronnie was the hostage I chose first, Harry, you need to find someone else."