Chapter 255: Chapter 255 A turning point
After knowing that the object to be faced in this competition was a dragon, Harry could not 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 it as Karkaroff by the light in the distance. He must have seen the two too obvious figures of Hagrid and Madam Maxime from afar on the boat on the Black Lake, so he sneaked over to see what they were doing.
Now, Karkaroff only needs to find the place where the two tall figures are, and he will know what is waiting for the warriors like Madam Maxime.
According to this situation, Cedric and John Kowalski are the only two people who will face the unknown on Tuesday.
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"'Use magic to trim claws...Treatment of scale ulcers...' is useless, this is for those weirdos like Hagrid who want dragons to become stronger..."
On the fifth floor of Hogwarts Castle, in the corner of the library, Ron was scratching his head and flipping through a thick pile of books in front of him, mumbling.
Both Harry and Ron had never thought that they would have such a diligent day, and they actually spent almost a whole day in the library.
"'Dragons are extremely difficult to kill, because their thick skin is permeated with ancient magic, and only the most powerful spells can penetrate...' The person who came up with this project is too much, and actually let you face such a monster!"
Hermione was reading the big book in her hand while defending Harry.
"These books are useless. I can't learn these spells in two days." Harry said, throwing the book called "The Dragon Lover" aside, "I think we should try some simpler spell books."
He carried a large pile of spell books to the table and put them down, and began to read them one by one. Hermione kept muttering beside him:
"Oh, and there is also the conversion spell... But what's the use of conversion? Unless you convert the dragon's fangs into milk fudge or something, making it less dangerous..."
"Wake up, Hermione, even if the dragon has a mouthful of milk fudge teeth, it can 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 monster. I doubt even Professor McGonagall can do it... Dumbledore will definitely have no problem..."
"Or you cast the Power 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 the practice questions for the Ordinary Wizarding Level Examination..."
"Hermione," Harry said through gritted teeth, "Please, can you be quiet for a while? I need to concentrate."
Hermione stopped talking, but Harry felt that his head was filled with empty buzzing sounds, as if there was no space for him to concentrate.
He stared desperately at the index of "Basic Spells for Dealing with Hyperactive and Irritable Animals" in front of him, and his thoughts flew to who knows where.
For a whole day, Harry, Hermione and Ron couldn't think of any effective method that Harry could learn quickly.
When they left the library listlessly, Harry felt that he was about to lose hope in this game.
"Harry, I don't think there's a quick solution within three days..." Ron looked at Harry with a twinkling eye and whispered, "Otherwise... waiting for Professor Dracula to save you is actually a good choice."
"How can Harry give up like this before he officially faces 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, which is 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 way?"
Ron sighed and said nothing more.
At this time, Harry suddenly saw a tall figure walking out from the other side of the library.
He was surrounded by many little wizards from Hogwarts, especially the Hufflepuff badgers with yellow collars, who were all 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 tell you, Harry, you must defeat him when the time comes... Wait, where are you going?"
Ron saw that Harry walked straight towards Cedric after hesitating for a moment.
"You... you don't want to..." He grabbed Harry's arm in disbelief and asked.
"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 look of relief and hesitation.
"Well, I've decided."
Harry nodded heavily, as if he was trying to convince his two friends, or himself, and then said, "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..."
"Yeah, the two of them are not convinced that there are two champions in Hogwarts, and they definitely don't care about cheating by revealing competition information." Hermione nodded.
"Yes, that is to say... now only Cedric and Kowalski of Invermorny don't know what they will face." Harry said, "Cedric is the champion of Hogwarts selected by the Goblet of Fire, and he shouldn't be left behind by the champions of other schools because of injustice."
"What about Kowalski? What are you going to do?" Ron asked.
"Kowalski seems to be a cousin of Rolf. I will tell Rolf about this and ask him to tell Kowalski." Harry thought, "If everyone knows, then the game will become fair again."
Then he said goodbye to Hermione and Ron and walked straight to Cedric who was surrounded by the crowd.
...
As Harry wished, with only three days left before the start of the game, all the warriors knew what they would face.
Harry still clearly remembered the disbelief of Cedric when he got his hint, as if he didn't expect anyone to be willing to help his opponent.
"You're really stupid, really." Ron commented, "You haven't figured out how to deal with the dragon yet, but you actually told your competitors about the content of the competition... If you didn't do that, you might have won third place."
"But Harry did the right thing." Hermione's eyes were misty, and she said with great emotion, "If he got a higher score with these improper information, according to Harry's personality, he would feel guilty for a long time."
"I know, I just said that..." Ron muttered.
"Think about it well, in fact, Harry's approach is also beneficial." Hermione whispered, "I don't know how Professor Dracula found out that Harry told others about the competition project, and praised him for doing a graceful thing."
"Really?" Harry turned his head and asked in surprise.
At least his behavior was meaningful to be praised by Professor Dracula, whom he admired the most.
"It must be true. With Professor Dracula's style, who knows where he is hiding to have fun with us!" Ron complained, "And Cedric is his favorite student. The professor must appreciate Harry's approach..."
He looked at Hermione and said, "Now we don't need the praise, do you want some actual rewards... For example, Professor Dracula can help Harry think of a way to deal with the dragon?"
"Don't daydream, Ron, professors can't directly help the participating warriors, this is the rule of the semi-finals!" Hermione emphasized.
"I haven't seen the two headmasters Maxim and Karkaroff have the idea of ??abiding by this rule..." Ron muttered.
"Don't say that. Actually, 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 check the books in the restricted section of the library."
"That's great!" Harry was delighted. "We have almost read all the books about dragons in the usual borrowing area. If we can borrow books in 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 direction of the castle and the castle gate.
Harry and the other two were in a hurry, trying to finish dinner in the hall and then rush to the restricted section of the library to check more information for Harry.
However, things did not go as planned. When they walked to the gate, they found that the gate was blocked by a group of people.
"All of you! Wash yourself clean before entering the castle!" The angry voice of the gatekeeper Argus Filch came from the door. "Look at your image. You are embarrassing Hogwarts in front of other schools!"
Harry and the other two approached and saw a group of little wizards covered in mud, each holding a broom, angrily confronting Filch.
"How do you want us to wash clean outside the castle? Take a bath in the Black Lake in December?" A leading Slytherin student shouted.
"I don't care how you wash yourself clean. The guests from other schools are guests in the hall, and other professors will not allow you to tarnish the image of Hogwarts!" Filch shouted with a grin.
"Then we will wait here for Professor Snape to pick us up. He will definitely let us in!" The leading Slytherin little wizard said angrily.
"Maybe other professors will come first? They definitely 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 that Quidditch matches have been suspended, but you still secretly go outside to play ball..."
"It's just that the game has been 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 while, and roughly figured out what was going on.
Several Slytherin little wizards took advantage of the afternoon when they had no classes to play Quidditch by the lake, and then they were splashed with mud on the lakeshore, so they were stopped outside the castle gate by Filch on the grounds that they were damaging the image of Hogwarts.
"It shouldn't have anything to do with us." Hermione said quickly, "Let's go to the library quickly, there's not much time left."
Harry nodded, and followed Ron to squeeze through the crowd in front of her, trying to go in from Filch's side.
However, Filch didn't want to let them in. Seeing Harry squeezing in from the crowd, he decisively turned his gun.
"And you! I remember you, Harry Potter. You used to come back with mud all day long, and I don't know how much workload you added to me." Filch pointed at Harry and said, "Who knows if you secretly went to play with them?"
"I can't play Quidditch with the Slytherin people!" Harry was suddenly stopped and said a little annoyed.
"Yeah, you see there's no mud on us, it won't affect the image of Hogwarts, right?" Ron also echoed.
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.
"I'm sorry, Mr. Filch, but we are in a hurry now." Seeing that the situation was not right, Hermione quickly took over the conversation and said, "Harry will participate in the competition tomorrow, and he needs to prepare a lot of things."
However, Filch did not appreciate it at all, but rejected them coldly.
"No way! Can the warriors tarnish the image of Hogwarts?" He sneered, "All you know is to do strange sports like Quidditch all day long, and don't know how to attend class honestly."
"What's the use of Quidditch? Can you win the semi-finals on a broom?" Filch still blocked the door firmly, not giving them any chance to enter the castle.
His words directly offended most of the people present. Harry rarely united with the Slytherin students and wanted to refute Filch and maintain the status of Quidditch.
However, just as Harry was about to speak, his arm was pulled by Ron.
"Harry, wait a minute, I think I have an idea..." Ron stared, his eyes seemed to be shining.
He pulled Harry behind him, rushed forward and knocked Filch aside.
"Don't worry about Filch, Harry, come with me!" Ron kicked the door open and yelled, "Hermione, throw away the note in your pocket, we are all overthinking!"
"In fact, we don't need to go to the library at all!"