"To stop you from embarrassing Hogwarts in front of the other two schools," Snape said, as curt as ever.
"Fine, fine." Kasen shrugged helplessly. He hadn't actually planned to kneel anyway—he just wanted to scare Dumbledore a little.
Dumbledore shot Kasen a subtle glare, then turned to Ollivander. "Please. The champions are waiting for you to examine their wands."
With that, Dumbledore led Ollivander toward the champions' cabin, and once again the Great Hall descended into a state of no tiger in the mountain chaos.
Kasen sat calmly in his chair, waiting for the feast to begin.
But soon enough, Sirius stormed over and plopped down beside him, radiating fury.
"What's wrong with you? Swallowed gunpowder?" Kasen asked.
"I was just in that room, and there's this incredibly annoying reporter in there. You know her? Rita Skeeter. She's a meddling little gossipmonger who fabricates nonsense, and she doesn't care one bit about Harry and the others' reputations!" Sirius growled through clenched teeth.
"So? By all logic you should've already pulled your wand. Why are you sitting here instead?" Kasen asked.
Sirius nodded. "I wanted to pull it, but Dumbledore stopped me. He said you'd have a way to help."
Kasen gave him a smile. "I actually have three solutions—upper, middle, and lower. Depends on which one you want."
"Start with the upper plan—what is it?" Sirius asked.
"The upper plan is to have Harry study hard, improve every day, and use solid achievements to slap Rita Skeeter in the face."
Sirius shook his head. "Grades depend on luck too, and with the current situation being so unusual, Harry being too outstanding could become dangerous. Better to let things happen naturally."
Kasen remained relaxed in his chair. "Then there's the middle plan—use the authority of the Black family to blacklist that reporter. If connections aren't enough, can't you just buy the Daily Prophet outright?"
Sirius' face flushed. "The Daily Prophet is basically the Ministry's megaphone. They won't sell."
Kasen sighed. "Then we're left with the lower plan." He casually pulled out several diamond shovels, then waved toward the student seating area. Almost instantly, the entire Great Hall trembled.
In the blink of an eye, every third-year and above student appeared behind Kasenhis.
While Sirius and the students from the other two schools were still stunned, Kasen had already handed the diamond shovels to more than a dozen agile, bold, morally flexible young witches and wizards.
"Go with Sirius and take care of something," he said with a lazy wave.
"So… that's it? That's the whole plan?" Sirius asked in disbelief.
"You just need to lead them to Rita Skeeter. They already know what to do after that," Kasen said with a nod.
"Oh… alright. Come with me, everyone." Sirius nodded cautiously, then led the dozen or so young witches and wizards to squat along the path Rita Skeeter had to take when leaving Hogwarts.
Before long, Rita Skeeter and her photographer walked out.
Sirius' eyes sharpened—then, before he could even react, seventh-year upperclassman Arthur suddenly stood up.
With the speed of an American-style iai strike, he whipped out his wand and fired off two Disarming Charms at Rita and her photographer.
Once he landed the hit, he grabbed his little shovel like a political commissar charging into battle and whack-whack—two clean hits.
"You lot dig the pit. You lot tie them up. Mr. Black, go take a look at their photos and manuscripts," Arthur said crisply after taking full control of the situation.
"Oh… oh… you're absolutely going places after graduation." Sirius spoke in a daze. He'd been out of school for years—had Hogwarts' upper grades evolved to this level?
They didn't look like little witches and wizards at all. The main issue was…
...
Meanwhile, in the Great Hall, Ludo Bagman suddenly had an idea. "So you all think taking a photo is a good idea too? Something to remember this by."
"Then perhaps you should go find Ms. Rita Skeeter. If she finds out we took photos without her, none of us will hear the end of it—assuming you can find her," Dumbledore said with a bright smile.
"How could I not find her? Point me to her." Ludo placed his wand flat on his palm and spoke the spell.
Soon, the wand pointed him in a direction. "Look at that! Maybe we can even get that photographer to take a professional picture for us afterward," Ludo Bagman said excitedly.
Dumbledore followed behind him with a helpless expression. He honestly had no idea how far things had progressed by now. Maybe they hadn't acted yet?
But reality immediately delivered him a cruel truth: Sirius Black was sitting on a tree stump in the corner, quietly deep in thought.
Meanwhile, Rita Skeeter and her photographer were being neatly buried in the dirt by a whole line of young witches and wizards under Arthur's command.
What was that old saying again?
If the ancestors are buried upright, the descendants will surely flourish.
Judging from how thoroughly these two were being planted, their descendants would definitely flourish.
Arthur happened to spot the large group approaching. He tucked his wand into his belt and said, "Hello there, professors and guests."
"Uh… um… these two are…?" Ludo Bagman walked over awkwardly, pointing at the pair being buried.
"Obviously, they provoked the wrong people," Arthur said succinctly.
"Mr. Black?" Bagman looked over at Sirius, who was currently cosplaying The Thinker.
"Unfortunately, it wasn't him."
"Oh… in that case, why don't we show some mercy and dig these two poor people out?" Ludo Bagman asked.
"No." Arthur shook his head.
Bagman, at a loss, turned toward Dumbledore. But Dumbledore merely gave a small shake of his head, the meaning crystal clear:
Can't interfere. Won't interfere. Don't want to interfere.
"Oh…" Bagman then looked to Cedric, who also shrugged helplessly. After all, he wasn't that familiar with Arthur—they'd only ever talked during Alchemy class.
He couldn't very well become a Triwizard Champion one minute and immediately start lecturing his upperclassman the next, right?
"So… my words really mean nothing here?" Bagman asked, seeing that no outside help was coming. He finally turned to Arthur with a solemn face.
"You're absolutely right. Your words mean nothing here," Arthur said casually, already letting his hand drift toward the wand strapped to his waist.
Seeing the conflict about to escalate, Dumbledore stepped in helplessly.
"Please don't start a duel, Mr. Morgan."
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