Although Rita Skeeter seemed quite unhappy when she left, Wade paid no mind to her displayed anger.
As a fellow Ravenclaw, he knew very well that when Ravenclaw House was truly angry, it didn't shout and scream like Gryffindor; silent action was the way to achieve great things.
He flipped through the parchment in his hand and found that it detailed a series of recent incidents related to Dark Magic.
However, Britain was currently in a sensitive period, and the Ministry of Magic strictly controlled all news that "would cause undue panic among people," so most of it hadn't been reported.
If Glennaff Forest hadn't been so close, perhaps the rapidly aging woman wouldn't have come to public attention.
According to the information Skeeter provided, unusual events seemed to be happening all over the world.
For example, in a trading hub in Japan, similar to Diagon Alley, a large number of dangerous Dark Magic artifacts suddenly appeared, with some even flowing into Muggle society, causing many terrible incidents.
In Brazil, several recently graduated students on a graduation trip discovered a bizarre, deformed creature pieced together from animal corpses. The local Ministry of Magic later forcefully explained it as "a black bear that hung other animal furs on itself as decorations."
There was also a gathering of Dark Wizards in Bulgaria that resulted in the deaths of two innocent Muggles.
America caught a mad Dark Wizard attempting to "recreate obedient Dementors."
The Egyptian Ministry of Magic rescued two Veela who had been illegally trafficked, and during the process, discovered an incident where a high-ranking Ministry official attempted to steal from the local Department of Mysteries.
While the British Ministry of Magic was busy preparing for the tournament, Dark Magic activities were frequently occurring worldwide, with Dark Wizards popping up like gophers; catch one wave, and more would soon emerge.
Wade was contemplating the reason for this phenomenon when he suddenly heard the doorknob of the classroom turn.
He stuffed the parchment into his bag, and just as he stood up, he saw Professor Flitwick push open the door, smiling as he looked at him.
"Wade, why are you still here? If you don't go to the Great Hall soon, you'll miss dinner."
"It's fine, I can still go to the kitchens," Wade said with a smile. "House-elves are always enthusiastic about serving all guests."
"Haha, you kids, it doesn't take long for you to dig up all the school's secrets."
Professor Flitwick chuckled, not offering a single word of criticism for Wade's intention to break school rules.
He stood by the door and beckoned. Only when Wade reached his side did he say kindly,
"I know you like to be alone, but you need to be careful lately. Some people will stop at nothing to win, and they don't have a principle against picking on someone smaller."
"Please don't worry, Professor," Wade said. "I can protect myself."
"That's what I wanted to talk to you about, Wade... They tested your Wand today, didn't they?"
Professor Flitwick couldn't help but bounce a little as he walked, as if very excited.
"Assessing and misleading your opponents is a very important strategy. It's rare that they've all misunderstood your abilities now; you might as well play into their expectations. Act... a bit more ordinary."
Wade nodded slightly: "I understand... I need to conceal my edge and reduce the risk of being targeted."
"Exactly," Professor Flitwick said in a low voice. "Not just in your usual activities, but even in the first two tasks, if possible, it's best to hold back a bit... If your goal is to win the championship, then in the early stages, simply not being eliminated is a victory."
Wade said seriously, "I'll remember that, Professor."
Professor Flitwick seemed worried that Wade, in his youthful exuberance, might expose his strength prematurely to prove himself, thus becoming a concentrated target for others during the tournament.
But Wade didn't have any such burden; he preferred others to be completely unprepared for him.
At times like these, Wade often envied Cedric—Hufflepuff House had a natural trustworthiness throughout the Wizarding World. As long as he wore that yellow and black scarf, most people would assume he was an honest, good person.
But what about Ravenclaw?
People always trusted Ravenclaw's intellect, but often questioned their character.
At Hogwarts, if Slytherin hadn't consistently drawn all the hatred, Ravenclaw would, in most cases, have found it difficult to get along with Gryffindor and Hufflepuff House.
...
Wade felt that Professor Flitwick was probably very happy to see him strive for glory for the house, and had been treating him increasingly well recently.
Of course, it wasn't that Professor Flitwick had treated him badly before; it was just that the professor used to see him as his prize student, but recently the professor's gaze seemed to be that of a doting father looking at his favorite youngest son.
After Professor Flitwick once again gifted him a pocketful of expensive chocolate candies, Wade felt a bit helpless. He felt that if he accidentally missed the champion's trophy in the end, Professor Flitwick might cry for him.
Wade vaguely felt something strange, because his own head of house wasn't someone who particularly valued such honors before.
It could only be said that the charm of winning the Magic School league championship was somewhat beyond imagination.
During the time leading up to the tournament, Wade occasionally met with Natalia and other Alchemy enthusiasts in the Library to discuss the lengthy and obscure theories of Alchemy, exchanging long Alchemy treatises more boring than dictionaries.
Meanwhile, Rita Skeeter's report on the tournament was also published. Hogwarts' three champions occupied only a small section, while a large portion of the newspaper's front page was dominated by a solo photo of Fleur Delacour.
It was evident that Rita had found the "traffic password"—when the news content lacked a strong hook, an exceptionally beautiful woman was, in herself, a strongly appealing focal point.
It was easy to imagine that the sales of this edition of the Daily Prophet would definitely not be low; perhaps some people would even buy several copies—one to read, one to collect, one to show off, and so on.
During the Wand testing, Fleur Delacour had mentioned that her grandmother was a Veela, and the core of Fleur's Wand was that Veela's hair.
Wade didn't know who Skeeter had gathered her information from, but on the second page of the newspaper, she concocted a convoluted, moving love story, with Fleur's grandparents as the protagonists. There was even a photo of the two of them below it.
For a time, the entire school was abuzz with discussions about topics like "the union of humans and magical creatures," "what level of human appearance is attractive to a Veela," and "how to gain a Veela's favor."
—Even though Veela had once attacked the campsite, many people tacitly forgot this, displaying astonishing tolerance.
People only avoided discussing these things in front of Fleur, so as not to anger her. However, even without this topic, the beautiful girl was usually in a bad mood most of the time.
Two weeks seemed to flash by, and in the blink of an eye, the first task was about to begin.
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