#204 - Section 204

He really wasn't afraid of causing trouble and ending up in a situation he couldn't resolve.

If, at this time, Ethan were to have Rita Skeeter stir up public opinion in the Daily Prophet and then incite the young wizards to fan the flames,

Dumbledore would definitely be unable to step down.

After all, some pure-bloods were indeed quite hostile to Dumbledore, and the group in the Ministry of Magic, led by Fudge, also wanted to undermine Dumbledore's reputation.

If they joined forces, Dumbledore would definitely not have a good time.

Allowing teachers to use the Imperius Curse on students was unacceptable, no matter what reasons Dumbledore had; it simply wasn't allowed.

Under normal circumstances, simply using it on a wizard would land you in Azkaban.

During the Wizarding War, although Barty Crouch Sr. pushed for the Unforgivable Curses to be used on Death Eaters, there was still considerable resistance.

Now, using it on children who are still in school and underage would definitely result in a life sentence.

At that point, Moody would be in Azkaban, spending his retirement with the people he had captured, and as for Dumbledore, given his status, he certainly wouldn't go to prison, but losing his position as Headmaster of Hogwarts would make him too uncontrollable.

Therefore, Ethan only considered it for a moment before giving up.

After all, if Dumbledore, freed from his shackles, had a change of heart and went to Nurmengard, that would be a major problem.

It wasn't impossible; if he didn't stay at Hogwarts, Dumbledore had nowhere else to go. He had fallen out with his only brother and had no relatives. The only person with whom he might have special feelings and connections was in Nurmengard.

Considering all of this, Ethan didn't stop Moody's teaching, and the other young wizards didn't think about it at all.

This meant that even though Moody's class wasn't popular with the young wizards, they still had to attend.

This was a required course, unlike electives, where you could simply drop it if you didn't want to take it.

Of course, Moody still had some sense of proportion and didn't use the Cruciatus Curse or the Killing Curse on the young wizards to let them experience it.

Compared to him, Hagrid was a little better.

But his class was also extremely disgusting.

It was still about raising Blast-Ended Skrewts, and after each class, they had to write an essay.

Moreover, these things grew very quickly. In two months, they were already as big as Fang, and they also posed a certain danger to the young wizards.

It was just unclear whether the young wizards were deliberately or accidentally careless, but in two months, under the "careful attention" of the young wizards, two-thirds of the Blast-Ended Skrewts successfully died.

Even so, there were still dozens left.

It could only be said that these things were indeed magical creatures, and their vitality was strong.

The first class today was Charms, but everyone was distracted during class.

There were rumors circulating that the students from Beauxbatons were all beautiful girls, and the Durmstrang students included Viktor Krum.

This made many Quidditch enthusiasts and perverts quite excited, leading to a lack of interest in class.

The last class today was Potions, and half an hour before the end of the lesson, everyone had already cleaned their cauldrons. The moment the time arrived, they all ran off.

Ethan unhurriedly returned to his dormitory first, and when he arrived outside the gates of Hogwarts, it was already crowded with people. The prefects of each house were trying their best to maintain order, but unfortunately, it was useless.

It was still chaotic, with small groups of wizards gathering together to discuss something, ignoring their respective prefects.

After all, the title of prefect was really just a title, with no real power. Although they could deduct points, they could only manage their own house, but if a house prefect deducted points from their own house members, what would the other students think?

So far, only Percy Weasley liked to mention that he was a prefect and actually deducted house points from his own house, and he also liked to snitch to the professors.

This made him very unpopular in Gryffindor. The others who were chosen as prefects naturally knew better than to do such things.

Of course, Percy had already graduated, but Ethan didn't know if he had joined the Ministry of Magic or not. He hadn't paid attention, and the twins hadn't mentioned it.

But it was likely that he hadn't, because after that incident, he was far from as outstanding as he had been.

At this time, Professor McGonagall and others also arrived to welcome the exchange students from the other two schools, including the headmasters, so it was naturally impossible for only students to come.

Looking at the noisy scene, Professor McGonagall's face immediately darkened.

"Line up according to your houses."

"Miss Patil, remove that ridiculous thing from your hair."

Parvati Patil frowned slightly, somewhat displeased, but still fearing Professor McGonagall's authority, she had to take a large butterfly headdress from her braids.

Subsequently, Professor McGonagall pointed out several other young wizards with some problems with their attire.

After confirming that there were no problems, she continued, saying:

"Please follow me, first-year students in the front… do not crowd…"

Following behind Professor McGonagall, everyone filed down the steps and stood in front of the castle in a line.

Today was a cold, fresh evening, and night was falling. A white, translucent moon was already hanging above the Forbidden Forest.

The time had also come to six o'clock, and the young wizards began to talk amongst themselves.

Because they were lined up according to their houses, and different grades were standing in different positions, Ethan could naturally only stand with a few of his roommates.

"Ethan, will they be using a Portkey later?"

"To be honest, I've never used a Portkey, I haven't even seen one…"

After waiting for almost an hour, Terry was still so energetic.

"Unlikely, I've never seen a Portkey inside Hogwarts."

Ethan really hadn't seen a Portkey at Hogwarts, but it seemed like there was such a scene in the Fantastic Beasts movie, and the Goblet of Fire could also be considered one.

But other than that, it seemed like there really weren't any.

"Then how will they come? They can't possibly take the train too!"

When he said this, Terry and several wizards nearby who heard him laughed.

Whether they were pure-bloods born into the wizarding world or Muggle-born wizards, they all knew the basics. Great Britain was an island, isolated from mainland Europe. No matter which school was coming, they had to cross a sea.

Could a train run on the sea?

There weren't even any tracks.

“Hogwarts has Thestral-drawn carriages, and Beauxbatons also has corresponding magical creatures to pull their carriages, Abraxan horses. I wonder if you know about them.”

When it comes to looks, Abraxan horses leave Thestrals in the dust.

Ethan had also ridden Abraxan horses, which Slughorn had obtained. They weren't exclusive to Beauxbatons; some herds existed outside as well.

Compared to Thestrals, they were more stable, not slow, had considerable stamina, and were easier to tame.

For wizards, they were indeed a remarkable mount.

“How do you know?”

“I know girls from Beauxbatons, do I need to explain that to you?”

That one sentence silenced the surrounding wizards.

Ethan's butterfly effect hadn't reached Beauxbatons yet.

On September 1st, Hogwarts started school, and Beauxbatons also started school. At their opening feast, the Triwizard Tournament was also mentioned, and Fleur immediately sent Ethan a message.

At the same time, Beauxbatons began selecting a group of adult wizards to travel to Hogwarts together.

Fleur was chosen, just like in the original story.

In fact, just now, when Ethan was looking through the wizarding mail in the Ravenclaw common room, Fleur sent a message saying that they had boarded the Abraxan-drawn carriage and were on their way.

“What about Durmstrang?”

After a moment of silence, Terry asked again.

“I don’t know, I don’t know any girls from Durmstrang!”

Terry fell silent again. You wouldn't know if you didn't have any girls, right!

Looking at the boring Ravenclaw students around him, Ethan thought for a moment and decided to reveal some information.

“I really don’t know how Durmstrang is coming, but their school can study dark magic. They don't have Defense Against the Dark Arts, but they have a Dark Arts class. Of course, some forbidden things are still not allowed. Moreover, they focus heavily on practical combat, so we will definitely be at a disadvantage in the arena.”

This year's Triwizard Tournament wouldn't have any one-on-one wizard duels.

Otherwise, if they really fought, Cedric would most likely lose to Krum. As for Harry, forget about it!

His plot armor wouldn’t be of much use unless he was fighting Voldemort, Death Eaters, or Draco.

After hearing Ethan's words, some of the Ravenclaw students around him fell into deep thought.

They also knew their shortcomings. They hadn't had a decent Defense Against the Dark Arts professor for the past few years.

Lupin was good, and his classes were interesting, but he only taught for a year, and they only learned how to deal with magical creatures.

They really hadn't learned much useful knowledge about how to protect themselves from the other wizard's dark magic in a battle with a wizard.

Moody seems to be teaching these things now, but looking at his teaching content, you know what kind of stuff it is.

“It’s a pity there’s an age restriction, otherwise if you went up, victory would definitely be ours at Hogwarts.”

Michael sighed from the side.

Not to mention Ethan's past achievements within Hogwarts and his undisguised use of dark magic.

Just the recent reports of Ethan dealing with so many adult wizards at the Quidditch World Cup, even a professor couldn't do that!

But such a strong contestant was banned from the competition.

Otherwise, victory would be guaranteed.

“It’s easy to bypass the restrictions. Haven’t you learned that in such a long time at Hogwarts?”

“As long as your violations aren’t discovered, they don’t count as violations.”

“When the time comes, no matter what his selection method is, as long as we can bypass it and find loopholes, we can naturally become the Hogwarts champion.”

Chapter 248: The Arrival of Beauxbatons

“Find a way to cheat and bring us along!”

Hearing a familiar voice from the side, Ethan turned his head.

“What are you doing here?”

Everyone was supposed to be standing in lines according to their respective houses. Although they had been waiting for a long time because the people from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang hadn't arrived yet, and now they were a little relaxed.

But that wasn't a reason for you two Gryffindors to run over to Ravenclaw and chat, right!

“We just saw that it was lively on your side!”

Fred said with a nonchalant expression.

They saw that the Ravenclaws were almost huddled together, listening to Ethan saying something, which made them itch with curiosity, so they secretly left the line and ran over.

“Do you really want to participate in the Triwizard Tournament?”

Ethan asked seriously for once.

In the original story, the twins wanted to participate in the Triwizard Tournament for the 1,000 Galleon prize.

Without Ethan's intervention, they would have been penniless, and their few dozen Galleons were swindled by Ludo.

With only a little over a year left until graduation, the Galleons they had were far from enough to open their dream Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes.

For the sake of their dream, they wanted to take a chance in the Triwizard Tournament.

But now, they had earned far more than 1,000 Galleons following Ethan, and they had also made a small profit at the Quidditch World Cup.

They wouldn't become rich and powerful, but opening a joke shop wouldn't be too stressful.

As a result, Ethan didn't know whether the twins sincerely wanted to participate in the Triwizard Tournament or just wanted to join in the fun.

Hearing Ethan's question, George and Fred exchanged a look.

Did they want to participate in the Triwizard Tournament? Of course, they wanted to participate.

At this age, who wouldn't want to be in the spotlight?

But was it necessary? It didn't seem like it!

They didn't lack the 1,000 Galleons now. The main reason they wanted to cheat and participate was the influence of the atmosphere.

Besides, even if they cheated, if they really chose one person, it wouldn't be their two brothers' turn.

Not to mention that Ethan would participate if they cheated, even if they didn't cheat and his brothers were old enough, they probably wouldn't be able to compete with Cedric.