#281 - Chapter 281 Professor McGonagall is tired, let her rest

The Magic School Potion Championship was initially a competition launched by four renowned magic schools.

The participating schools included Hogwarts from Britain, Koldovstoretz from Russia, Mahoutokoro from Japan, and Uagadou from Uganda.

The purpose of this competition is to cultivate and showcase the talents of young wizards in the field of potion-making, while also providing a platform for major magic schools to learn from each other and exchange ideas on potion-making education.

The competition takes various forms, requiring participants to demonstrate their mastery of potion recipes, their handling skills of various potion ingredients, and their exquisite brewing techniques.

The winning school of the competition will receive a special trophy symbolizing glory—the Golden Cauldron.

This trophy not only symbolizes outstanding achievements in potion-making but also represents the academic influence of the winning school throughout the magical world.

Over time, the Potion Championship has attracted more and more magic schools to participate, and its scale has gradually expanded, no longer limited to the original four schools.

Today, magic schools from all over the world have joined this event, making the competition more intense and diverse.

The competition's frequency has also changed from once every seven years to the current once every three years.

Compared to the International Wizarding Chess Tournament, Hogwarts clearly places more importance on the upcoming Potion Championship.

As one of the founding schools of the competition, it's not a glorious thing that Hogwarts hasn't sent students to participate in the last few competitions.

Therefore, in order to achieve good results in this competition, the school began relevant preparations as early as after the Christmas holidays.

Hogwarts' potion professors, led by Snape, established a potion competition team.

They recruited some students who had shown dazzling performances in potion class and then intensively arranged special training for them.

These students not only strengthened their potion brewing practice in class but also delved into complex potion recipes in their spare time, exploring innovative potion-making methods.

For this competition, Hogwarts is preparing to send two supervising professors, namely Sebastian, who is responsible for external communication, and Snape, who is responsible for potion guidance.

Fortunately, Hogwarts now has enough professors to cover their classes after the two of them leave the school.

Otherwise, if Sebastian and Snape were to leave, Muggle Studies and Potions classes would directly come to a standstill.

A week before the competition, Sebastian found Snape to discuss the final selection of candidates for the competition.

After all, the number of participants is limited, and the two of them must choose the best of the best to select the five most outstanding students to represent Hogwarts in the competition.

Looking at the list that Snape handed over, Sebastian frowned slightly.

"Harry, Cedric, Percy, Penelope, I know these students, they are all excellent."

"However, what's the deal with this Theodore Nott? I remember he's only in his third year, like Harry. Is he that good?"

Snape said lightly, "Don't underestimate this student. Among these students, he is the most spiritually gifted in potions."

"I can see that he loves potions more than anyone else, and he spends more time on potions than anyone else."

"He will definitely succeed in potions."

Such a high evaluation?

It's not easy to get Snape to evaluate a student like this.

Sebastian still has some impression of this student, Theodore.

Nowadays, the Slytherin students are roughly divided into three categories. Eighty percent of the students, like Malfoy, are slowly putting aside their prejudices against other houses and are starting to make friends with students from other houses in a sophisticated and smooth manner.

Ten percent of the students still stubbornly adhere to the idea of pure-blood supremacy.

The remaining ten percent are like Theodore. They are unruly, aloof, and equally despise everyone.

Now it seems that the reason for this kid's arrogance has been found. It turns out that he has a special skill. No wonder he always looks down on everyone.

Speaking of which, this kid is really like Snape when he was a kid. No wonder Snape favors him so much.

After finalizing the candidates, the two began to discuss the choice of travel method.

This time, the competition venue is at Ilvermorny School of Witchcraft and Wizardry in the United States. If you want to go to the other side of the earth, you can't do it by Apparition alone.

Conventionally, this kind of transnational travel requires going to the Ministry of Magic to use a special Portkey.

However, Sebastian has different considerations.

He wanted to take this opportunity to let the students take a look at the development of the Muggle world and broaden their horizons.

Therefore, he decided to take the students to the other side of the ocean by plane.

The students and Snape don't have passports?!

This is not difficult for Sebastian at all.

Through his relationship with the councilor, he went through the green channel and completed all the documents in just two days.

As for the procedures for going abroad in the magical world, that's even simpler.

Sebastian sent a letter, and Delores came directly to Hogwarts to personally complete all the procedures for everyone.

It was Friday afternoon. After dinner, Harry and the others put on Muggle clothes and came to the front of the Great Hall with their packed luggage to gather.

The teachers and students of Hogwarts came here to see them off.

Cedric stood in front of Professor Sprout, listening obediently to the professor's instructions, while the other Hufflepuff wizards gathered around him to cheer him on.

Penelope bid farewell to Professor Flitwick, who grinned with pride.

Percy was not idle either. He stood in the Gryffindor crowd, grabbing his brothers and telling them not to relax their studies.

Theodore was an outlier. He stood there alone, like a lone wolf.

Harry looked helpless, listening to the two little friends arguing there.

"Potter," Malfoy said with regret, "What a pity, tomorrow is the day of the dueling competition this year."

"Without you here, the championship is not challenging enough for me."

"After you get the Golden Cauldron, we'll have a separate showdown."

"Come on, Malfoy," Ron said with disapproval, "With me here, don't even think about winning the championship easily."

"You?" Malfoy shook his head dismissively, "You're still far behind. You can't even beat Longbottom steadily now."

"Tch, we'll see..."

Sebastian stood aside, saying some intimate words to Mia before parting.

However, he had some questions in his mind.

What's going on? Old Dumbledore, Snape, and Professor McGonagall all didn't show up during dinner just now.

That guy Old Dumbledore is too outrageous. As the headmaster, he doesn't even know to come out and encourage the students.

Snape can be understood. He is probably struggling with which set of Muggle clothes to wear.

What about Professor McGonagall?

Why didn't she come to see the students off? This is not like her style.

Could it be that she is too tired?

Forget it, Professor McGonagall has always been too busy. It's good to let her rest. I'll help her share more work in the future.

Just as Sebastian was thinking wildly, the students let out bursts of clamor.

"Oh my god, is that really Professor Snape?"

......

...

Alas, Professor Cat completely left us yesterday.

Sad!

I don't feel like coding. I want to revisit the movie again, watch her shout "attention please" again, and watch her use the spell [Piertotum Locomotor] again.

Good night, Professor McGonagall~