When William walked out of Grindelwald's office, he was still a bit dazed.
Now, he not only wanted to pry open Hermione's head but was even more eager to pry open old Grindelwald's head to see how this guy managed to come up with such an "insane" thing. Creating something like a magical pistol... seemed even more outrageous than his "Secret Missile Head"—
... Well, maybe they're about the same.
As he passed through the hall, he saw a noisy group of little wizards crowded around the announcement board, their colors looking all mixed up.
"Eight-Team Tournament, representatives from Koldovstoretz and Magic Institute will arrive on Friday, October 7th at 6 PM. Afternoon classes will finish half an hour early—students are asked to return their bags and books to the dorms ahead of time and gather in front of the castle to welcome our guests, and then attend the welcoming banquet."
In the crowd, someone was reading the announcement loudly, and the crowd immediately became excited, "That's great!" William heard Harry's voice, excitedly shouting, "The last class on Friday is Potions Class! Snape won't have time to poison us all!"
Thus, the little wizards from the third, fourth, and fifth years celebrated universally, and Neville even kneeled down, tears of joy streaming down his face.
"... Only one week left?"
Calculating the time in his head, William nodded—Ilvermorny and Uagadou had already been at the school for a whole month, Ilvermorny staying in two classrooms in the castle specially set aside for them, attending classes with Hogwarts students.
Meanwhile, the students from Uagadou had built a small "castle" on the edge of the Forbidden Forest, and it seemed everything about them—including studying, eating, living—was done in that small fortress, self-sufficient.
Next week, Koldovstoretz (Russia) and Magic Institute (Japan) were coming, and by the end of the month, the other two schools from Europe and Brazil's Castelobruxo would arrive. Two weeks after that, the Eight-Team Tournament would officially begin—
But before that, they must decide on the content of the tournament, and for some reason, the process which had been set seemed to have run into some issues—
"No! Impossible! There's no way we can suddenly provide you with eight pregnant dragons!"
A burning brazier was placed on a seat, and the jumping flames formed the image of a man wearing a robe. He was the administrator of the Romanian Fire Dragon Reserve. For the first part of the Eight-Team Tournament, the British Ministry of Magic hoped to requisition eight dragons from them, but clearly, this was beyond their capability—
"Then how many can you provide in total?"
Ludo Bagman sat on a chair, his round body swaying from side to side, eyes wide, scratching his head as he asked.
"At most, we can only provide six—"
The administrator, too, huffed and puffed, though the expressions formed on his face made of bright red flames looked rather comical.
"That's fine, I can provide three—"
William raised his hand; it was his first time participating in the Eight-Team Tournament meeting, and his first time speaking.
"Sorry, William?"
Bagman twitched his ears, looking at William with some confusion, seemingly not understanding.
"I mean, I can provide three dragons," William paused, glancing around at the surrounding eyes, and continued, "though not all are female, they can handle the task of guarding dragon eggs—"
"You mean, trained male dragons? That's impossible..."
The Romanian Reserve administrator shook his head repeatedly, indicating disbelief, while Bagman and Crouch both expressed that even without dragons, they could choose another type of challenge—but before that, William spoke again.
"I know Newt, Newt Scamander. He said he could get dragons—"
"..."
The conference room fell silent, everyone staring at William with a shocked look, then the Romanian administrator couldn't help but nod.
"If it's Scamander, then I believe it."
This is what you call a good reputation!
William sighed, wondering what kind of "astounding" deeds Newt had performed to make everyone believe that even if he pulled three tame dragons out of his pocket, it would be seen as nothing out of the ordinary?
"Since the dragon issue is no longer serious, next is..."
...
...
As they waited, time flew by, and Koldovstoretz and Magic Institute sparked brief excitement at the school. Soon, however, the next notice arrived—as expected—
Eight-Team Tournament: Representatives from Beauxbatons, Castelobruxo, and Durmstrang will arrive on Sunday, October 30th at 6 PM. Afternoon classes will again finish half an hour early—students are asked to gather in front of the castle to welcome our guests, and then attend the welcoming banquet.
Such a familiar saying, haven't we experienced this before?
After that, the castle began a thorough cleaning.
Several portraits that usually looked somewhat dirty were polished clean, although the characters depicted were quite displeased, shrinking into their frames, muttering grumpily, wincing every time they touched the new pink flesh on their faces.
The armor in the corridors suddenly became shiny, and no longer creaked when moving. Moreover, pink soap bubbles would occasionally emerge from the gaps in the helmets.
The administrator Argus Filch became somewhat hysterical. Whenever he saw a student forgetting to clean their shoes, the man would go berserk, frightening two first-year girls into fainting fits, much to Madam Pomfrey's disapproval.
The other staff also seemed a bit tense.
On the morning of October 30th, the hall was completely redecorated.
Four huge silk banners were hung on the walls, each representing a house of Hogwarts —
Red, blue, yellow, green, each representing the house animals which seemed very much alive. And behind the staff table, was the largest banner, featuring the Hogwarts crest — lion, eagle, badger, snake all intertwined around the letter 'H'.
Thus, the students spent the day in excited anticipation, the air seemed to be filled with a sense of joy.
In classes, hardly anyone paid attention, not even Potions Class was as insufferable as usual, as it ended half an hour early.
Perhaps for this reason, Harry felt that Snape's expression had soured even more.
In the evening, all the students donned cloaks and hurried down the stairs to the side of the hall, where the house heads were instructing their students to queue in the Gryffindor lineup. Harry turned to look at the other side of the hall —
Over there were the other four schools that had already arrived.
Even Uagadou, which had gone into "closed-door diplomacy" right after the welcome feast, appeared there.
They were still wearing those brown robes, but now had thin flat shoes on their previously bare feet.
Beside them were the students from the Magic Institute, all having Asian features, although many were somewhat short, wearing pink or deep red, even red-gold robes, reputedly a uniform that detected student performance—those most outstanding wore brilliant gold.
To the right were Ilvermorny's "Fire and Ice", evenly divided into blue and red, standing symmetrically in two rows.
Finally, by the wall opposite the hall doors, stood a group of towering Russians — Harry wasn't sure if they were students, as they all sported full beards many of which could rival Hagrid's, and their heights were ridiculous, with Harry barely reaching the chest of the leading girl!
They were clad in sleek black attire, looking very spirited, with a number of dazzling gold stars embedded on their chest.
It's said the more stars, the stronger a Koldovstoretz student's capability.
After organizing the teams, everyone filed down the steps, lined up in the open space in front of the castle.
It was a cold but crisp evening, the night slowly descending, a bright moon already hung over the Forbidden Forest, with Harry standing between Ron and Hermione in the fourth row of Hogwarts School—
He saw William standing with Professor Percival, the only ones in the crowd huddled together chatting.
"It's almost six!" Ron glanced at his watch, looking towards the driveway, asking, "How do you think they'll arrive this time? Crawl up from the Lake?"
The previous school entrances had been quite simple; Magic Institute students had flown in on broomsticks from behind the castle, all shivering coldly seated as they approached — October's Scottish weather already carried a chill—
While Koldovstoretz was even simpler, arriving from the Forbidden Forest, each clad in heavy military coats, backs bearing large packs.
Everyone excitedly scanned the darkening scene, but there was no movement to be seen, everything remained silent and tranquil, just as normal. Harry was already beginning to feel cold, wishing they'd hurry up…
Just then, Dumbledore, standing with the other teachers at the back, suddenly exclaimed —
"Ah! If I'm not mistaken, Castelobruxo's representatives have arrived!"
"Where?"
Many students eagerly asked, looking around in different directions.
"There!"
A fifth-year student shouted, pointing to the center of the Black Lake, where a giant green "Kelpie" was slowly rising from the middle of the lake, alongside it floated up a curious giant squid—this was the first time William had seen the giant squid in its full glory since coming to Hogwarts.
(Indeed, how did you know about my Three-Star Crab + Three-Star Buddha?)