Chapter 470 Hogwarts Diving Competition!
On the second day of Christmas, everyone stayed in bed. The common room of Slytherin College was quieter than in the past few days. The students who got up huddled in their armchairs and yawned from time to time.
Suddenly, a piercing scream resounded through the common room, which immediately dispelled everyone's sleepiness.
The little wizards in the lounge looked at the source of the sound and found Daphne huddled in her usual seat, staring at the golden egg in her hand that was cracked in half in shock.
After a second, she reacted from the shrill scream and closed the golden egg in a hurry.
"What's going on? Daphne, what are you doing?" Pansy, who was whispering to Malfoy, was startled and couldn't help questioning Daphne who made a huge noise.
Unlike Pansy, other Slytherin students noticed the golden egg in Daphne's hand, and they immediately understood that Daphne was trying to crack the secret in the golden egg.
But what does this scream mean? Does it imply that there will be a female ghost in the next stage of the competition? Or will the next stage of the competition be extremely cruel?
Malfoy looked at the golden egg, and the creepy screams were still in his ears, but he fell into deep thought.
He remembered the experience when his father took him to Borgin and Burke's to shop.
[Welcome to Borgin and Burke, honorable Mr. Malfoy, please come here——]
[Your son is really good at vision. This is an alchemical prop made of a mermaid skull. If you open this box under normal circumstances, it will only make a shrill scream, but if you open it in water, it will start to sing...]
[Asshole! Didn't I tell you that you are not allowed to touch anything here without my permission! ]
Malfoy was deeply impressed by this memory because it was the first time his father beat him. After he opened the box containing the mermaid skull out of curiosity, Lucius Malfoy severely whipped him several times with his cane, so that he would remember the principle that he could not touch the goods in the store at will in a store like Borgin and Burke's.
The scream in his memory was exactly the same as the sound that came out of Daphne's golden egg just now. Malfoy felt as if he had cracked the secret of the golden egg.
His body trembled with excitement: the secret to winning the World Youth Wizarding Championship was now in his hands!
If Daphne could learn this information before other players, she would have a valuable advantage in the championship, snowballing to gain a greater advantage, and finally let Hogwarts win the championship.
But...
Daphne's "get out" reappeared in his mind. Malfoy remembered Daphne's bad attitude towards him, and suddenly he didn't want to reveal this valuable information to her.
However, Daphne was a player from Slytherin College after all, and she was the one who represented Hogwarts in the competition. When Malfoy thought of this, he suddenly felt a little entangled in his heart.
A thought flashed through his mind: If I provide this information to her, maybe her attitude towards me will change a little?
This thought overwhelmed other thoughts, making Malfoy decide to reveal the information about the golden egg to Daphne.
Malfoy thought that this was in his best interest.
"Mermaid." Malfoy opened his mouth halfway, and Rice's voice suddenly sounded behind everyone, blocking the words that Malfoy had slipped to his mouth.
"That was the sound of a mermaid just now." Under the gaze of everyone in the lounge, Rice slowly walked to Daphne's side, took out his wand and pointed it, and the empty cup on the table was filled with clear water.
"You have to put it in water to hear the real sound."
Listening to Rice's words, Malfoy's teeth were about to break. He hated why Rice suddenly appeared, and hated himself for not publishing the information earlier.
Now, Rice has taken all the limelight!
"Is that so?!" Daphne cast a grateful look at Rice, threw the golden egg into the water cup, and then poked it with her wand, and the golden egg bounced.
This time the golden egg did not scream, but sang a burst of songs. However, due to a layer of water, it was not very real.
Daphne directly put her ear against the wall of the cup and listened carefully to the singing of the golden egg.
【Come find us, on the first day of the new year, where our song is playing.
We put the treasure here, come and find it, come and explore it!
It is the key to the new stage, the ladder to success, and the crutches to help you.
Come! You have one hour, after one hour, everything will be in vain.
The mediocre people come and go in a hurry, only taking the key.
The outstanding people are not afraid of tests and hardships, and will definitely get more generous rewards! 】
Daphne listened to the song several times in a row, and remembered every word of the lyrics firmly in her heart. Then she put the cup with the golden egg on the table, frowned and thought.
'Who are we? Where is the place where the song is playing? ' She thought for a few seconds, and when she looked up, she immediately felt that she had found the answer.
"We" refers to mermaids, so the "place" in the song must be the Black Lake of Hogwarts.
After figuring this out, she quickly understood the meaning of the lyrics: on New Year's Day, the contestants had to go to the bottom of the Black Lake and ask the mermaids for one or more treasures, which would be of great help in the next competition. Those who did not get the treasure would be eliminated directly.
The song also revealed two pieces of information. One is that the time is only one hour, and the players who exceed the time limit are likely to be eliminated. The other is that it seems that you can get more generous additional rewards by participating in the test, but the test itself may also cause you to exceed the time limit.
After analyzing the information conveyed by the song, Daphne narrowed her eyes: diving in the Black Lake for an hour, it is still cold in winter, and the challenge is quite great...
She couldn't help but look at Les, and couldn't help thinking: If my domain is water, then there will be no worries, but it's a pity that I am in the magma domain.
Les and Daphne made eye contact, and he instantly understood what Daphne meant, and then he almost laughed out loud.
Now you know the good of the water domain, right? Rowena, you did a good job!
Les silently praised Rowena in his heart. Arranging the assessment at the bottom of the Black Lake made him very happy.
"Les, do you have a way to dive at the bottom of the Black Lake for an hour?" Daphne asked weakly.
"Why not breathe directly in the water?" Les asked back with a smile.
Then he left the common room slowly, leaving Daphne alone in a daze.
For contestants from various schools, the method of solving the golden egg puzzle was not difficult.
At the latest in the evening of the second day after the festival, the contestants had figured out what their tasks were.
The next difficult part was: how could they dive in the freezing cold lake for an hour?
Unlike Rice, they did not have the water domain and could not move normally in the water.
The Christmas vacation of countless people was ruined.
While the contestants and the headmasters behind them were struggling to figure out a way to break the deadlock, Dumbledore was very leisurely. He met a heavyweight guest on the second day of Christmas.
"Newt, it's been a long time since we last met! How is Tina?" Dumbledore booked a small private room in the Three Broomsticks Bar, and then met an old acquaintance of his here.
The visitor was a thin wizard with gray hair, but he looked very energetic. He had messy hair, wore a navy blue coat, and carried a very worn-out suitcase in his hand.
He sat down slightly in front of Dumbledore and gently placed the suitcase on the ground.
"It's okay. We occasionally quarrel, but I'm used to it. Life in Dorset is peaceful and comfortable. If it weren't for those annoying letters brought by owls, I don't think I would leave there in my life."
Dumbledore ignored the slight sarcasm in his words. He knew Newt's character very well and knew that his image in his mind might not be good.
"Would you like something to drink?"
"Black tea." In the bar, Newt chose to order a cup of black tea, and Dumbledore asked for a cup of butter beer.
"What do you want to ask me for? Is there anything that 'only I' can help you with?" After the black tea was served, Newt couldn't help but throw out the question that had been in his heart for a long time.
"It's about magical animals."
"Oh?" Newt's interest was aroused. "Is it that rare magical animals appeared in the Forbidden Forest of Hogwarts?"
Dumbledore shook his head slowly.
"I need the blood of magical animals, all kinds of them. Only you can do it in this world." Dumbledore said in a very serious tone.
Newt put his hand directly on his suitcase. He frowned, stared into Dumbledore's eyes and asked, "Professor Dumbledore, can I know why you made such a request?"
The blood of magical animals is actually a sensitive topic. Because the blood of many magical animals is extremely precious, even the "common" dragon blood is expensive, one ounce costs nearly one Galleon.
That is Dumbledore. If someone else made such a request, Newt would have run away with the box.
But even if it was Dumbledore, Newt had to know his intention and give a reply after serious consideration.
"The school has developed a new invention..." Dumbledore told Newt about the transformation magic and the transformation fruit tree.
"Some magical animals are too rare, so I need your help."
Those powerful magical animals are very rare, and only the top masters in the field of magical animals like Newt can gather the blood of these animals.
After listening to Dumbledore's words, Newt's doubts and uneasiness were not eliminated, but intensified.
"Such magic is unheard of..."
"This is also a research that has just made a breakthrough this year."
"Is it safe?" Newt asked.
Transfiguration, especially the transformation of the human body, is very dangerous. It is said that the magic classification level of up to 5X is caused by transfiguration.
It is normal for Newt to have concerns about this.
"I can be sure that it is very safe."
"But that is only a few forms of transformation that are safe." Newt knew that Hogwarts had successfully achieved the transformation of dragons, basilisks and phoenixes, but this could not dispel his concerns, because the differences between different magical animals are greater than the differences between humans and bananas.
"We have sufficient safety measures. You have to resonate with the fruit before you can take it, which can minimize the occurrence of side effects."
Dumbledore's words made Newt have the same concerns as Dumbledore before: Isn't the wizard who can resonate with the magical animals who are born violent also a violent person?
But he changed his mind and thought, as long as he didn't provide the blood of that kind of magical animal, wouldn't this situation be avoided?
At this time, his concept changed a little. He had tacitly agreed to provide Dumbledore with the blood of magical animals.
"I can find a way to get some blood from these animals, such as the horned camel, the moon fool, the Riem bull, but I have another question to ask you..." Newt counted on his fingers the blood of magical animals that he could and was suitable to provide, and then reported them to Dumbledore.
But he also raised a question that he was very concerned about: Will this invention of Hogwarts lead wizards in the magic world to frantically pursue the blood of magical animals, bringing disaster to these creatures.
"No." Dumbledore shook his head very affirmatively.
"There is only one fruit tree in the world, and only a few people know how to cultivate the fruit of transformation, which will not bring trouble to these animals-not to mention that their blood is extremely precious even without the fruit tree of transformation, isn't it?"
Newt sighed.
Dumbledore was telling the truth, and all his problems disappeared.
"Give me two days, and I'll send the blood." Newt partially agreed to Dumbledore's request.
Before leaving, he asked one last question: "I heard that Hogwarts is holding the Young Wizards Tournament? How is it going?"
"Everything is going well."
"That's good, I hope Hogwarts can win the championship."
"Definitely."
Newt nodded slightly to Dumbledore, and then left the Three Broomsticks.
A few days passed in a flash, and when the new year arrived, the contestants were shocked to find that the second stage of the tournament had quietly arrived.
Whether the contestants were ready or not, the second stage of the competition started as scheduled.
On the first day of the new year, snowflakes fell outside the window, but this snow did not allow the established plan to be held as scheduled. The entire Hogwarts students and the eliminated contestants from other magic schools gathered at the Black Lake to watch the second stage of the tournament.
There was a large circle of stands on the Black Lake for the audience to sit. The contestants were gathered in an open space in front of the stands, waiting for Mr. Henry and Ludo Bagman from the Ministry of Magic to announce the rules of the competition.
After briefly explaining the rules, Bagman cast a loud voice spell on himself and said loudly: "Our contestants have taken their positions, and the second stage of the competition is about to begin. They have a full hour to obtain the key props for the next game at the bottom of the lake! I count to three, one... two... three, the game begins!"
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Update is here, good night everyone!
Tomorrow's update will still be at midnight~