#223 - Section 223

"Adrian, congratulations on your good score."

Ethan immediately replied, "Thank you, Senior!"

Regis MacMillan, the president of the Hogwarts student council, a seventh-year Ravenclaw student.

His coming over now must mean he has something to say.

If it were just congratulations, that could wait until returning to the Ravenclaw common room to celebrate.

Sure enough, after a couple of sentences, he got to the point.

"Mr. Bagman has asked me to let you know that he will be going to the tent to say a few words after the event concludes, and he wants you all to wait for him there."

During this competition, the male and female student council presidents need to help maintain order and be responsible for relaying messages. He had just received the task from Ludo.

"Okay, I understand."

Ethan had already guessed something about this, probably to announce the time of the next competition and some clues.

It seemed the clues in the original work were hidden in the golden egg.

Ethan and the others headed towards the tent, but the competition was not yet over.

Because the score for the final match had not yet been given.

Dumbledore was also in a bit of a predicament at this moment. The two participating champions didn't even have a chance to make a move. Ethan had taken all the golden eggs. How could he give a score?

The golden egg score was easy; no egg meant zero points, which was fixed. But there was no opportunity to perform, which, in theory, should also be zero points.

"First, let us look forward to Ethan Adrian's score!"

As Ludo's voice ended, the whole place went wild, filled with discussions and cheers.

Dumbledore smiled slightly, gently tapping the air with his wand, and a [10] composed of smoke appeared in front of everyone.

Karkaroff and Madam Maxime exchanged glances and also gave a perfect score.

Given the situation on the ground, not giving a perfect score was indeed unreasonable.

Moreover, they didn't want to offend Ethan.

Who knew if he was petty? If they gave a low score at this time and he remembered it, that would be a big trouble.

Compared to that, even the Triwizard Tournament championship was not so important.

Ludo and Barty Crouch Sr. naturally wouldn't drop the ball.

Thus, the first perfect score of the entire event was born.

Unlike the previous ones, this was a golden egg truly obtained by one's own strength, and it was the most convincing method.

As for Hilda Donahue and Richardson Clarence, their scores were the same, both eleven points.

This was two points less than Phil Dürr's thirteen points in the previous match.

Mainly because in the last match, Ludo and Barty Crouch Sr., as referees, had given some face, each giving one point.

But this face couldn't always be given!

As a result, in this match, only Dumbledore still insisted on giving one point.

And Karkaroff and Madam Maxime were still shamelessly maxing out the performance scores.

They weren't afraid of any outside criticism. They were all seasoned veterans who had been through thick and thin. As long as there were tangible benefits, face didn't matter.

Of course, if there were no benefits, then face would be more important than anything.

After all the scores of all the participating champions had been given, Ludo directly raised his wand and pointed it at the three signs standing on the platform.

On the left was a shield-shaped emblem with a lion, eagle, badger, and snake encircling the letters ".H", representing Hogwarts, with a final score displayed: 81 points.

Among them, Ethan scored fifty points, Harry thirty-one points, and Ron zero points.

In the middle was a sign with two golden wands crossed, each wand emitting three stars, representing Beauxbatons, with a final score displayed: 93 points.

Among them, Fleur Delacour scored forty-seven points, Hestia Godwin scored thirty-five points, and Hilda Donahue scored eleven points.

On the far right was an emblem with a double-headed eagle and a deer's head, with Cyrillic letters, representing Durmstrang, with a final score of: 54 points.

Among them, Viktor Krum scored thirty points, Phil Dürr scored thirteen points, and Richardson Clarence scored eleven points.

Beauxbatons was far ahead, Hogwarts was not far behind, and Durmstrang was a bit far behind. If there were no major reversals, it would be difficult to turn things around.

Karkaroff naturally knew this, and his face turned green when he saw the final score.

Moreover, this was the result after colluding with Madam Maxime. Dumbledore couldn't bring himself to do it.

Otherwise, Ron wouldn't have gotten zero points. Although he didn't get the golden egg, he still had some performance, and getting a few points wouldn't have been a problem.

The Beauxbatons and Durmstrang champions were even more so. Getting a perfect score with that performance was nonsense!

Every champion should have had several points deducted, which would have been their true score.

If that were the case, Hogwarts would be far ahead.

This also strengthened Karkaroff's idea of colluding with Madam Maxime. After all, even with the alliance, it was like this. If they acted independently, then what was the point of participating?

Madam Maxime's face showed a hint of joy.

Cooperating with Karkaroff was indeed to her advantage.

Whether the champions of the two schools were more excellent, Madam Maxime was not sure.

However, Ethan would definitely take care of Fleur. Her playing both sides was the biggest winner.

She had been watching Fleur's performance these days.

A few days ago, she also asked her junior Apolline through the wizarding email, which further confirmed this.

If there was no relationship, would Fleur come to Great Britain specifically during the summer?

In addition to Fleur's charm, Madam Maxime didn't believe that any young boy could resist.

Although Ethan might not give up the championship, it would be enough if he could take care of Fleur.

Getting benefits from both sides might not lead to winning the Triwizard Tournament, just like this match.

She had just thought about the key to Fleur being able to easily obtain the dragon egg. Beauxbatons couldn't provide it, and the Delacour family was unlikely to do so, otherwise Fleur wouldn't have hidden it from her.

It was most likely provided by Ethan.

Dumbledore was tired. If he had known that the following two matches would be the result, he wouldn't have given Ron zero points.

It wasn't that he was dissatisfied with the score Hogwarts had obtained, thinking that if he had just a few more points, he could surpass Beauxbatons and get first place.

But as a headmaster, even though Ron had disappointed Dumbledore many times, Dumbledore did not give up on Ron, just hoping he would stay away from Harry. In other aspects, he treated him the same as other Hogwarts students.

Therefore, he naturally didn't want to打击 Ron too much, as it would have too much impact on Ron's future.

After all, who could have imagined that after Ron, the other three champions who participated were also indifferent, performing even worse than Ron.

At least Ron took action and confronted the Ukrainian Ironbelly that was trapped. The other three can be said to have done nothing at all, yet they still received more than ten points.

In addition, Karkaroff and Madame Maxime were also too shameless. Not to mention Krum and Fleur, even those who were purely loafing around could get full marks in the performance score.

Unfortunately, it was too late to say anything. Now, naturally, it was impossible to add points to Ron.

The headmasters on the stage all had their own thoughts.

The audience below was also talking about it, discussing exactly what these headmasters were thinking.

Mainly because even children could see that Karkaroff and Madame Maxime were blatantly favoring the champions of Beauxbatons and Durmstrang, not even trying to hide it.

Moreover, their joint actions were too obvious, not only giving full marks to their own school's champions but also giving full marks to each other, while being extremely strict with Hogwarts.

Only Ethan's performance was impeccable; otherwise, they suspected that even if Ethan obtained fifteen golden eggs, he wouldn't get full marks.

Similarly, some people were criticizing Dumbledore. In the past, such people were only a minority in Great Britain, but now they were openly discussing it.

As the headmaster of Hogwarts, he didn't even dare to favor his own school's students. What kind of headmaster is he?

Especially those pure-bloods, they had a lot of opinions.

Being suppressed by the French, they felt utterly disgraced.

If Dumbledore had learned a little from Karkaroff and Madame Maxime, wouldn't Hogwarts have reached the top?

It was only because Dumbledore had too much prestige over the years, and the title of the number one wizard was too resounding, otherwise they would have protested long ago. How could they have been so aggrieved as to only whisper their complaints?

Ludo spoke a few hurried words and ended the first task of the Triwizard Tournament.

Walking off the stage, Ludo felt quite regretful in his heart. These school headmasters really had too many schemes.

Who could have guessed that with Ethan present, Hogwarts would still be suppressed by Beauxbatons in this competition?

If betting had been opened for this competition, wouldn't this round have made a fortune?

It was a pity to miss such a good opportunity.

With regret in his heart, Ludo strode towards the location of the tent.

Earlier, he had issued a notice, asking the participating champions to wait for him in the tent.

"Mr. Bagman!"

Hearing someone calling his name from behind, Ludo stopped and turned around.

"Mulciber, what's the matter?"

He had instructed Regulus Mulciber to notify all the participating champions. Now that he was looking for him, it could only be that something had gone wrong with this matter.

Logically speaking, this shouldn't be the case!

It was just a matter of notifying them; how could there be a problem?

"Except for Ron Weasley, everyone else has been notified."

"I searched the entire venue, and no one saw him, including his brothers and sister. They don't know where he went."

After Regulus Mulciber couldn't find Ron, he gave up first. After notifying everyone else, he went to Gryffindor and asked several people, but no one saw him.

Obviously, it was because he had obtained zero points, breaking the record of the Triwizard Tournament over the years, which led to his shame directly erupting, and he hid himself.

Ludo paused for a moment and immediately nodded, saying:

"Alright, I understand. Thank you for your hard work."

Ludo naturally guessed the reason why he couldn't find Ron. He was too ashamed to face people and hid himself!

Although there would be one less champion later, it wasn't a big problem.

Anyway, he didn't get a golden egg. As for the date of the next task, it would be circulating within Hogwarts starting tomorrow. Unless he didn't even attend classes, it was impossible for him not to know.

Arriving at the tent, after lifting the curtain, sure enough, everyone except Ron was here.

Looking at the exceptionally dull atmosphere inside the tent, Ludo didn't want to say any polite words and went straight to the point.

"Alright, I only have a few words to say."

"The second task will begin at nine thirty in the morning on February twenty-fourth next year. Before that, you can rest for a long time, but we need to leave some questions for you to consider!"

"If you look at the golden eggs you are holding, you will find that they can be opened. Do you see the seams there?"

"During this time, you must decipher the clues provided in the eggs. That will tell you what the second task is, and you can prepare yourselves!"

Harry, Krum, and those who had obtained the golden eggs immediately picked them up and fiddled with them, wanting to see if it was as Ludo said.

As for those who didn't have golden eggs, they could only awkwardly look down at the ground, but they weren't too worried about not having clues.

After all, if the other champions from their school obtained clues, they couldn't hide them.

"If there are no other questions, then dismiss!"

Ethan pulled Fleur and took the lead to walk out. Harry and the others also didn't have any questions and left the tent one by one.

Not far away, a commotion suddenly came from the bushes in front. A witch suddenly jumped out from behind the bushes.

Ethan recognized her at a glance. It was Rita Skeeter, wearing a bright green robe today, holding a Quick-Quotes Quill and parchment in her hand.

"Congratulations, Harry!"

"I wonder if you could say a word to me? What did you feel when facing the dragon? What do you feel now? Do you think the judges' scoring was fair? And how did you think of using the Firebolt?"

Rita Skeeter first approached Harry, blocking his way with a smile on her face.

Among the people present, besides Boss Ethan, Harry was the most newsworthy.

Harry's face changed, and he immediately wanted to run away, but unfortunately, his wizard robe was grabbed.