Fred was the first to pull out a piece of parchment from his pocket, on which was written "Fred Weiss - Hogwarts".
He walked confidently to the edge of the age line and stood there, tiptoeing, like a diver preparing to jump from a fifty-foot platform.
Then, with every pair of eyes in the hallway watching, he took a deep breath and crossed the line in one fell swoop.
For a moment, everyone present thought Fred had succeeded—
George obviously thought so too, so he shouted triumphantly and followed Fred into the age line.
However, they both rejoiced too early.
There was a hissing sound like electricity, and the twins were immediately thrown out of the golden circle, falling painfully on the cold stone ground ten feet away.
And it wasn't just physical pain, they were also mentally humiliated.
With a loud popping sound, identical long white beards appeared on the chins of the two men, which were similar to the beard on Dumbledore's chin, and looked particularly funny on the two young faces.
The young wizards in the hall burst into laughter. Even Fred and George couldn't help laughing when they got up and saw each other's white beards.
"I warned you," said an amused voice.
Everyone turned around and saw Dumbledore walking out of the hall, with Dracula walking shoulder to shoulder with him, both of them had an expression of laughter on their faces.
"I understand. This age line must have been drawn by Professor Dracula!" Fred and George said with sudden enlightenment after seeing Dracula. "Only he can do such a disgusting operation as growing beards on our faces!"
The smile on Dracula's face immediately disappeared, the corners of his mouth twitched, and then he glanced at Dumbledore beside him.
"So is this how I look to you?" he said with a sullen face.
"Isn't it?" George said wittily, "Didn't we ask you a few days ago if there was any way to get around the age limit? And you left us to figure it out on our own. You probably wanted to see us make a fool of ourselves!"
Fred nodded in approval. "Sure enough, Professor Dracula just wanted to satisfy his own evil taste, so he didn't tell us how to crack it."
Dracula's face turned completely dark.
"You two think yourselves very clever, don't you?" He sneered, "But have you ever considered... If I wanted to embarrass you, would I have to wait until today?"
Dracula snapped his fingers.
The white beards on Fred and George's chins that originally hung down to their chests suddenly grew again, extending from their chests to the soles of their feet, then circled around their backs and wrapped around their calves, wrapping the two men into two solid white mummies.
“Woo woo… Professor, we were wrong!” Fred’s mumbling voice came out from his white beard that looked like a big callus.
"We know we are wrong, Professor!" George also shouted in frustration, "Let us out, we can't breathe..."
However, Dracula clearly wanted to punish the two men and had no intention of paying any attention to them. He turned around and left the hall and returned to the auditorium.
After Dracula left, Dumbledore coughed twice and waved his wand.
A hole opened in the huge, color-changing cocoon that enveloped Fred and George, revealing their faces.
The twins held their breath for a long time and finally got a chance to breathe, gasping for breath.
"Mr. Weisley, to be honest, you really guessed wrong this time." Dumbledore looked at the two with a smile and said happily, "This age line was indeed set by me. It has nothing to do with Professor Dracula."
Fred and George stared at Dumbledore in amazement, having never expected that the respected old headmaster had such a malicious side.
"Why do capable professors have so many weird interests?" Fred muttered.
"Is it true that only people with unusual interests can possess powerful magical powers? Then I will also find some unusual interests to cultivate in the future..." George also muttered.
Dumbledore clearly heard the twins whispering to each other, and his expression became somewhat amusing.
"Don't think too much. Growing a white beard is just a small punishment for trying to cross the age line." He said, "If you try to use the aging agent to cross the age line, the age line will automatically amplify the effect of the aging agent on you dozens of times."
"Of course, it won't really make you older, it will just change your appearance a little bit."
He looked Fred and George over and winked at them. "For now, I suggest you both go to Madam Pomfrey."
"Madam Pomfrey is already caring for Miss Fawcett of Ravenclaw and Mr. Summers of Hufflepuff, who are also determined to age themselves a little. I must say, however, that their beards are not nearly as beautiful as yours."
Fred and George set off for the infirmary, and Lee Jordan, with his two roommates, went with him, laughing all the way.
Seeing that the excitement had died down, the other little wizards also walked into the auditorium to have breakfast, giggling.
As it was the morning before Halloween, the decorations in the auditorium changed again.
A large group of specially dressed bats flew around the enchanted ceiling, which was obviously summoned by Professor Dracula. At the same time, hundreds of little people made of pumpkins leered at everyone in every corner of the auditorium.
Harry, Ron and Hermione walked towards Dean Thomas and Seamus Finnigan, both fourth-year Gryffindors, who were discussing the possible participants in the Tournament at Hogwarts who were over the age of seventeen.
"Somebody said Warrington got up early and put his name in," Dean told Harry. "That big fellow from Slytherin who looks like a sloth."
Harry had played Quidditch against Warrington once, a large fellow who was more foulable and far more violent than Fred and George.
After hearing what Dean said, he shook his head in disgust, "We can't have a Slytherin as a Hogwarts champion!"
"Everyone in Hufflepuff is talking about Diggory," Seamus said nearby, "but in my opinion, a guy with a handsome face like Diggory must not have any strength worth mentioning."
"Cedric is still very good. At least he is good at Quidditch..." Harry wanted to say a few more words, but found that Ron had covered Seamus' mouth with a look of horror.
"How dare you say that!" Ron said in a low voice, "Didn't you realize that Professor Dracula is just like you described? And Fred and George once told me that Cedric is Professor Dracula's favorite student."
Dean and Seamus immediately shut their mouths, not daring to breathe.
They looked cautiously towards the professor's seat and found that Professor Dracula didn't notice them, so they breathed a sigh of relief.
"Listen!" Hermione said suddenly.
Suddenly loud cheers came from the foyer outside the auditorium.
Everyone turned in their seats to see Angelina Johnson walk into the auditorium, grinning a little sheepishly.
Angelina was a very good Chaser on the Gryffindor Quidditch team and had a good relationship with Harry, Fred and George.
She walked straight over to Harry, sat down and said, "I was so nervous that I actually got up the courage to put my name in!"
"You're kidding!" Ron looked very surprised.
"So, you're seventeen?" Harry asked.
"Of course, you didn't see a single beard, did you?" Ron said gloatingly, "Although I don't know if girls will grow beards if they use aging products..."
…
After breakfast, Harry, Ron and Hermione prepared to go visit Hagrid together.
When they walked out of the auditorium door, they ran into the students of Beauxbatons.
The French guests were coming in through the front door from the entrance courtyard, including the girl who looked like a Veela. The young wizards who were still gathered around the Goblet of Fire stepped back to let them pass, watching eagerly.
"Look, Ron, that Veela you've always been thinking about." Harry pulled Ron's arm.
Ron immediately looked over eagerly, and Hermione next to him took two steps away from him in disgust.
Madame Maxime followed her students into the hall and ordered them to line up. One by one, the students of Buschbaton crossed the age line and threw their parchments into the blue and white flames.
As each name was thrown into the flame, it quickly turned red and burst into sparks.
"What do you think will happen to those who are not chosen?" Ron asked Harry in a low voice when the girl who looked like a Veela threw her note into the Goblet of Fire. "Will they return to their own schools, or stay here to watch the game?"
"I don't know," said Harry. "I guess I'll stay... Madame Maxime will still be the referee here, right?"
"So... where do they sleep?" said Ron, taking a few steps towards the front door and watching their backs. "Maybe they'll want to use the Gryffindor common room..."
The mystery of where the students of Beauxbatons slept was soon solved.
As they approached Hagrid's hut at the edge of the Forbidden Forest, the huge powder blue carriage that Beauxbatons had come in had already stopped about five hundred feet away from the main entrance of Hagrid's hut, and Beauxbatons students were getting into the carriage one by one.
The elephant-sized flying horses that pulled the carriage were grazing in a makeshift paddock next to the carriage.
Harry knocked on Hagrid's door, and immediately the low bark of Fang the hound was heard from within the room.
"Finally!" said Hagrid, opening the door. "I thought you kids had forgotten where I lived!"
"We're so busy, Ha-" Hermione stopped short in the middle of her sentence, looking up at Hagrid, speechless with surprise.
Hagrid was wearing his best, and not very nice, furry brown suit with a yellow and orange checked tie.
But that wasn't the worst of it: he'd apparently tried to straighten his hair, using copious amounts of machine oil or something like that.
Hagrid's hair is now slicked back - perhaps he had intended to wear it down his back like Dracula, but found that he had too much hair, so he twisted it slightly and ended up with a broomstick...
This outfit clearly didn't suit Hagrid.
Hermione stared at him blankly for a moment, then decided not to make any comment in order not to hurt Hagrid's pride.
"Hmm... I heard you successfully cultivated a few blast-tailed skrewts?" she asked.
Meanwhile, Hermione glared at Ron just in time to stop him from saying anything... Ron had been staring at Hagrid's odd haircut and was about to open his mouth to make a comment.
…
Harry and the other three little wizards stayed in Hagrid's shed until evening.
Around half past five, it was getting dark, and they felt it was time to return to the castle to attend the Halloween party, and more importantly, to attend the announcement ceremony of the warriors from each magic school.
"I'll go with you," Hagrid stood up and put aside the half-eaten rock cake in his hand, "Wait for me a moment."
He walked over to the chest of drawers next to the bed and began to search for something inside.
Harry and the others didn't pay much attention at first, until a particularly unpleasant smell entered their nostrils, and then they realized the seriousness of the matter.
"Hagrid, what's that smell?" asked Ron, coughing violently.
"Well?" Hagrid turned around, holding a large bottle in his hand. "You don't like it?"
"Like it?" Harry choked. "I thought it was a low-quality perfume that Neville mixed in Potions class."
"Is it the moisturizing perfume you put on after shaving?" Hermione guessed a little closer and asked in a choked voice.
"Um... Actually, this is cologne," Hagrid muttered, his face flushed, "Maybe I spilled too much, I'll wash it off, wait a minute..."
He trudged out of the cabin, and Harry and the others saw him frantically washing his face in a bucket outside the window.
"Cologne?" Hermione looked at Harry and Ron in surprise. "Is he really Hagrid, and not Malfoy?"
"And what about the hair and the suit?" Harry also asked in a low voice.
"Look!" Ron said suddenly, pointing out the window.
Hagrid had straightened up and turned around, his face as red as a big apple.
Harry and Hermione looked out the window and saw Madame Maxime and the students of Beauxbatons just getting out of the carriage, apparently preparing to attend the banquet.
They couldn't hear what Hagrid was saying, but as he talked to Madame Maxime, he had a look of fascination and mist in his eyes that he had never had before.
"So Hagrid is going to the castle with Madame Maxime!" Hermione said indignantly, "He just said he was coming with us!"
Without even a backward glance at his cabin, Hagrid stomped off across the grounds with Madame Maxime.
The students of Beauxbatons followed behind, having to trot to keep up with their long strides.
"He's in love with her!" Ron said in disbelief. "Ah, if they have kids in the future, they'll definitely set a world record - I bet each of their kids will weigh a ton!"
Hagrid left them and went away, so Harry and the other two had to leave the shed by themselves, helping Hagrid close the door.
Just as he reached the slope leading to the castle, Harry suddenly saw a familiar figure appear beside him, looking at the direction where Hagrid and Madame Maxime left with interest.
"Tsk tsk, poor Hagrid, being played around by Maxim." The figure chuckled.
…
…