Mr. Weasley did not join in the excitement over the Dark Mark, but instead returned to the original tent with the others.
Because it was at the edge of the campsite, it had fortunately escaped the riotous crowd, and the tent was intact.
Percy nervously peeked his head out from the tent and relaxed quite a bit upon seeing Mr. Weasley.
He was covering his arm with a bed sheet, and blood was continuously oozing out, looking like he was badly injured.
"Where did you run off to just now..." Mr. Weasley walked over quickly, asking with a tense expression, "How is it, is it serious?"
"It's nothing." Although Percy was grimacing in pain, his expression was unusually excited, "I got injured right in front of Mr. Crouch, he must have seen... my brave performance against the Dark Wizard."
"Yeah, yeah..." Charlie glanced at him, "Maybe tomorrow he'll promote you to Deputy Minister of the Department of International Magical Cooperation, brave Percy Weatherby."
He was somewhat angry, and his tone inevitably carried a hint of sarcasm.
Earlier, they had been surrounded by Malfoy and his group, almost dying there... Fortunately, Kael appeared in time, otherwise, who knows what would have happened to them.
But it's certain that even if they managed to escape death, they would definitely have been tortured by the Crucio Curse.
Even Kael was concerned about Mr. Weasley's safety, specifically running over to help, but Percy... he ran to Mr. Crouch to show how brave he was.
If it weren't for the others being around, he really wanted to give Percy a good thrashing.
Bill's face didn't look too good either.
But Percy didn't know any of this, still feeling quite proud of himself.
"You're joking again, that's impossible." Percy didn't care about Charlie intentionally getting his name wrong, or that Fred had been calling him that for the past few days. He was used to it. "I just hope Mr. Crouch will assign me some more meaningful work afterward... My current job is a bit too simple for me."
"Ha ha..." Charlie sneered, not responding further.
To calm himself down and prevent himself from actually getting carried away and hitting Percy, he took a simple sip of water and prepared to step out with Mr. Weasley to find Harry and Ron.
However, just as they reached the door, a group of people happened to come in from outside.
Leading the group was Cedric, followed by Cho, Conna, Harry... Fred and George brought up the rear.
Everyone was accounted for, all returned.
But their expressions weren't good, pale white and looking as if they'd been frightened.
"Great, you're all safe." Mr. Weasley said happily, "I imagine you were terrified, but it's all over now, come in and have some water, we'll head home shortly."
No one said anything and instead focused their gaze on Kael, who had just entered the tent.
They were indeed frightened, but it had nothing to do with the riot; it was because of Kael's box.
Initially, upon discovering the box contained a small room, everyone seemed surprised, and even their tense emotions were somewhat appeased.
Until Ron, driven by curiosity, opened that door... and then they saw a Fire Dragon about several dozen feet tall.
The Fire Dragon lay by the door, and at the moment it was opened, they could clearly feel the scorching breath spewing from the Fire Dragon's nose.
Facing the Fire Dragon up close as soon as the door was opened... Who would've thought of this feeling?
Anyway, Ron, closest to the Fire Dragon, fainted right there.
Just like that, the group stared at the Fire Dragon, eye to eye... not knowing how long, maybe a minute, maybe half an hour, before Conna courageously stepped forward and closed the door.
Even so, they were still too scared to move, standing there timidly, not daring to exhale, afraid of alerting the big guy outside.
Even Fred and George, who were previously throwing a tantrum, demanding to go out, instantly shut up and quieted down.
The group endured this until Kael called them out just now.
"Tell me it's not real, is it?" While Mr. Weasley went to get water, Cedric asked through gritted teeth.
"What?" Kael didn't quite understand what he meant.
"That Fire Dragon!" Ron said vaguely nearby, his face red as if he had been slapped.
"Oh, you mean Norbert." Kael realized, "No, it's fake, there's no Fire Dragon in the box, you all saw wrong!"
For a moment, everyone's expressions turned even grimmer.
This statement was far too dubious... Don't think they didn't hear it; Kael had just called out the Fire Dragon's name.
And even if one person saw wrong, could they all have seen wrong... Clearly, that's impossible.
Plus that name, Norbert...
In the crowd, Hermione lowered her head in thought, feeling like she'd heard the name somewhere before.
Oh, right...
She suddenly remembered that in the first year, the Norwegian Ridgeback Hagrid hatched seemed to be named that.
And Kael was there at that time, and that dragon later mysteriously disappeared; no one knew where it went, and when asked, Hagrid didn't say.
Could it be...
Hermione glanced at the box again, finally understanding what Hagrid's solution had been back then.
"Trust me, you all saw wrong."
Elsewhere, Kael continued to vow, "I know my box inside out, don't I? If you don't believe me, I can take you back there, there's really nothing inside."
"What are you talking about..." At this point, Mr. Weasley came over with water along with some bread and sausage?
"Dad, Kael's..." Ron was about to say something but suddenly noticed Kael staring at him with a strange expression.
Instantly, Ron felt a tightness inside, and then he inexplicably cleared his mind.
"Nothing, Dad." Instinctively, he changed his words immediately, "We were just scared, those guys were horrifying, they had disguised as Ministry of Magic folks before and wanted to kill Harry..."
"What did you say?!" Mr. Weasley was alarmed, stepping forward to grab Harry, carefully inspecting him until he was sure Harry was unharmed before releasing him.
Mr. Weasley patted his chest, asking with lingering fear, "Tell me what happened earlier."
"It's like this, Mr. Weasley..." Before Ron could speak, Cedric stepped forward and recounted the events.
Perhaps because Kael specifically let them out tent-side earlier, he didn't mention anything about the box, only that the group had indeed hidden somewhere safe enough.
While they were speaking, Conna stood nearby, gaze intensely fixed on Kael.
Feeling a bit unnerved by her staring, Kael shrugged and said, "Well, if you're interested, would you like to visit my box? I can act as a guide.
"However, we might not have time now; how about after the school term starts."
"Alright." Conna agreed with a smile.
As soon as she finished speaking, the tent was pushed open once again... It was Kreacher, the house-elf who had accompanied Conna, now running in while wailing, tearful and snotty.
...