After knowing that the opponent he would face in this competition was a dragon, Harry couldn't wait for Hagrid and Madam Maxime to finish their chat, so he put on his invisibility cloak and left the scene.
On the way back to the castle, he accidentally bumped into a sneaky figure.
Harry recognized Karkaroff by the light in the distance. He must have seen the too obvious figures of Hagrid and Madam Maxime from afar on the boat on Black Lake, so he sneaked over to see what they were doing.
Now, Karkaroff only needs to follow the direction where the two tall figures are, and he will know what is waiting for the warrior just like Ms. Maxime.
As it stood, it seemed that only Cedric and John Kowalski were left to face the unknown on Tuesday.
…
"'Magic claw trimming... a cure for scaly ulcers...' No use, that's for weirdos like Hagrid who want dragons to be stronger..."
On the fifth floor of Hogwarts Castle, in a corner of the library, Ron was scratching his head and flipping through a thick pile of books in front of him, mumbling something.
Harry and Ron had never thought that they would have such a diligent day. They actually spent nearly a whole day in the library.
"'Dragons are extremely difficult to slay, for their thick hides are permeated with ancient magics that can only be penetrated by the most powerful spells... 'Whoever came up with this project was beyond measure, for leaving you to face such a monster!"
Hermione was reading the tome in her hand while defending Harry.
"These books are totally useless. I can't learn these spells in two days." Harry said, throwing the book called "The Man Who Drew Dragons" aside. "I think we should try some simpler spell books."
He brought a pile of spell books to the table and began to flip through them one by one. Hermione kept muttering beside him:
"Oh, and there's the conversion spell... But what's the use of conversion? Unless you turn a dragon's fangs into fudge or something to make it less dangerous..."
"Wake up, Hermione. Even if a dragon had teeth made of taffy, it could easily crush Harry with its upper and lower jaws," Ron complained.
"How about transforming it? But you will definitely not succeed in transforming such a huge creature. I doubt even Professor McGonagall can do it... Dumbledore will definitely have no problem..."
"Or you cast a powerful spell on yourself to increase your strength? But no matter how strong you are, you can't deal with a dragon, right? Besides, we haven't learned it. I only learned about them when I was doing practice questions for the Ordinary Wizarding Level Examination..."
"Hermione," Harry said through gritted teeth, "please, could you be quiet for a moment? I need to concentrate."
Hermione stopped talking, but Harry felt a hollow buzzing in his head, as if there was no room for him to concentrate.
He stared hopelessly at the index to the book Basic Spells for Dealing with Hyperactive and Irritable Animals in front of him, his mind wandering to who knows where.
For the entire day, Harry, Hermione and Ron could not think of any effective method that would allow Harry to learn quickly.
By the time they left the library listlessly, Harry felt that he was almost giving up hope in the game.
"Harry, I don't think there's a quick solution that can be done in three days..." Ron looked at Harry with a twinkling gaze and whispered, "Otherwise... waiting for Professor Dracula to save you is actually a good option."
"How can Harry give up like this before we even officially face the dragon?!" Hermione glared at Ron fiercely and said loudly, "As long as the game hasn't really started, we all still have a glimmer of hope. It's much better than giving up directly!"
"It's okay, Ron, I'll think about it again." Harry shook his head gently, "I still want to try again, just in case I can find a solution."
Ron sighed and said nothing more.
At this moment, Harry suddenly saw a tall figure walking out from the other side of the library.
He was surrounded by many young wizards from Hogwarts, especially Hufflepuff badgers with yellow collars, all of them cheering for that figure.
"Oh, why are Diggory and you treated so differently even though we are both warriors?" Ron glanced over there and muttered in dissatisfaction, "I'm telling you, Harry, you must defeat him when the time comes... Wait, where are you going?"
Ron saw that Harry hesitated for a moment before walking straight towards Cedric.
"You... you wouldn't want to..." He grabbed Harry's arm in disbelief and demanded.
"It's okay, Ron," Harry shook his head at Ron, "I just want to bring the five warriors to a fair position."
"Have you really decided?" Hermione pursed her lips and looked at him with a relieved yet hesitant expression.
"Well, I've decided."
Harry nodded heavily, as if he was trying to convince his two friends, or himself, and continued, "Ms. Maxime will definitely tell her students about the dragon. I also saw Karkaroff sneak into the Forbidden Forest that night, and Krum must have known about the competition..."
"Yes, the two of them are unwilling to accept the emergence of two warriors in Hogwarts. They certainly won't care about cheating such as revealing competition information." Hermione nodded.
"Yes, that is to say... Now only Cedric and Invermorny's Kowalski don't know what they will face." Harry said, "Cedric is the champion of Hogwarts chosen by the Goblet of Fire. He shouldn't be left behind by the champions of other schools because of unfair things."
"What about Kowalski? What are you going to do?" Ron asked.
"It seems that Kowalski and Rolf are cousins. I will tell Rolf about this and ask him to pass it on to Kowalski." Harry thought for a moment and said, "If everyone knows about this, then the game will become fair again."
Then he said goodbye to Hermione and Ron and walked straight towards Cedric who was surrounded by the crowd.
…
As Harry wished, with only three days left before the start of the competition, all the warriors knew what they would face.
Harry still clearly remembered the look of disbelief on Cedric's face when he got his tip, as if he had never expected that anyone would be willing to help his opponent.
"You're really stupid," Ron commented. "You haven't figured out how to deal with the dragon yet, but you told your competitors about the content of the competition... If you didn't do that, you might have gotten third place."
"But Harry did the right thing." Hermione's eyes were misty, and she said with deep emotion, "If he had gotten higher scores with these improper information, given Harry's personality, he would have felt guilty for a long time."
"I know that, I just say that..." Ron muttered.
"Think positively. Actually, what Harry did is beneficial." Hermione whispered, "Professor Dracula somehow found out that Harry told other people about the competition items, and praised him for doing something gracious."
"Really?" Harry turned his head and asked in surprise.
At least his actions were meaningful since he could get praise from Professor Dracula, whom he admired the most.
"It must be true. Given Professor Dracula's style, who knows where he is hiding and secretly having fun with us!" Ron complained, "And Cedric is his favorite student. The professor must appreciate Harry's actions..."
He looked at Hermione and said, "Now we don't need the praise, is there any practical reward... For example, Professor Dracula can help Harry think of a way to deal with the dragon?"
"Stop daydreaming, Ron. Professors cannot directly help the participating warriors. This is the rule of the semi-finals!" Hermione emphasized.
"I haven't seen either of the two headmasters, Maxim and Karkaroff, intend to abide by this rule..." Ron muttered.
"Don't say that. In fact, we still have something to gain." Hermione touched the note in her pocket and said in a low voice, "Professor Dracula signed a note for me, allowing me to read the books in the restricted section of the library."
"That's great!" Harry was delighted. "We've already read almost all the books about dragons in the regular lending section. If we can borrow books from the restricted section, maybe we can find a better way."
At this time, they had just finished the Herbology class and were walking on the road between the northeast of the castle and the castle gate.
Harry and the other two were in a hurry, trying to finish dinner in the hall as quickly as possible, and then rush to the restricted section of the library to look up more information for Harry.
However, things did not go as they wished. When they arrived at the gate, they found that it was blocked by a group of people.
"All of you! Wash yourselves before entering the castle!" The annoyed voice of the gatekeeper Argus Filch came from the door. "Look at your appearance. You are simply embarrassing Hogwarts in front of other schools!"
Harry and the other two moved closer and saw a group of mud-covered little wizards, each holding a broom, angrily confronting Filch.
"How do you want us to wash ourselves outside the castle? Taking a bath in the Black Lake in December?" shouted a leading Slytherin student.
"I don't care how you clean it up. There are guests from other schools visiting the hall, and other professors won't allow you to tarnish the image of Hogwarts!" Filch shouted with a grim smile.
"Then we'll wait here for Professor Snape to pick us up. He will definitely let us in!" said the leading Slytherin wizard angrily.
"Maybe other professors will come first. They won't mind putting you in detention for a few days. No one cleans the bathroom on the third floor." Filch grinned. "You deserve it. Headmaster Dumbledore has already announced the suspension of Quidditch matches, but you still sneaked out to play..."
"It's just that the game is suspended. Headmaster Dumbledore never said that we can't play Quidditch by ourselves!" a little wizard shouted unconvinced.
Harry, Ron, and Hermione stood there and watched for a moment before figuring out what was going on.
Several young Slytherin wizards went to the lake to play Quidditch when they had no classes in the afternoon. They were splashed with mud on the lakeshore, so Filch stopped them outside the castle gate on the grounds that they were damaging the image of Hogwarts.
"It probably has nothing to do with us." Hermione said quickly, "Let's go to the library quickly. There's not much time left."
Harry nodded, and followed her with Ron as they squeezed through the crowd in front of them, trying to get in past Filch.
However, Filch did not want to let them in. When he saw Harry squeezing in from the crowd, he decisively turned his gun around.
"And you! I remember you, Harry Potter. You used to come back covered in mud every day, which added a lot of work to me." Filch pointed at Harry and said, "Who knows if you secretly went to play ball with them?"
"There's no way I can play Quidditch with the Slytherins!" Harry said angrily when he was suddenly stopped.
"Yeah, look, there's no mud on us. It won't affect the image of Hogwarts, right?" Ron agreed.
However, before he finished speaking, he realized that he had said the wrong thing.
They had just finished the Herbology class and were covered in mud from Greenhouse No. 3. They were no better than the little wizards who went to the lake to play Quidditch.
"Mr. Filch, I'm so sorry, but we do have something urgent to do right now." Hermione saw that the situation was not right and quickly took over the conversation and said, "Harry is going to participate in the competition tomorrow, and he needs to prepare a lot of things."
However, Filch did not appreciate it at all, and instead rejected them coldly.
"No way! Can being a warrior tarnish the image of Hogwarts?" He sneered, "All you do all day is play weird sports like Quidditch instead of attending classes."
"What's the use of Quidditch? Can you win the Final Four on a broom?" Filch still blocked the door stubbornly, not giving them any chance to enter the castle.
His words directly offended most of the people present. It was rare for Harry to unite with the Slytherin students and want to refute Filch and maintain the status of Quidditch.
However, just as Harry was about to speak, his arm was grabbed by Ron.
"Harry, wait a minute, I think I've thought of a solution..." Ron stared, his eyes seemed to be shining.
He dragged Harry behind him and rushed forward, knocking Filch aside.
"Forget about Filch, Harry, come with me!" Ron kicked the door open and yelled, "Hermione, throw away the note in your pocket, we are overthinking it!"
"We don't even need to go to the library!"
…
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