That's right, leak the questions.
We must leak the questions!
After all, the first task is the Fire Dragon. What if these little guys get scared to tears once they take the field without some prior warning? While that would indeed have great live broadcast effect, we can't have every single one of them produce the same show effect, can we?
The purpose of our contest is to highlight the bravado, courage, and fearlessness of young wizards, not to watch them getting chased to tears by the Fire Dragon—this was Ludo Bagman's original words, and naturally, William was willing to align with his intentions.
Of course, what he meant was to only tell the two Hogwarts champions privately, and who cares about the others from the other schools. But William thought otherwise, why not make more money if you can—yes, indeed, the champions sitting in this classroom today are here because their mentors paid Galleons.
As for why only seven out of the nine champions showed up—it's simply because the other two schools had no idea about this.
Of course, you can't blame William for this, after all, how could things like "leaking questions" and "pre-exam crash course" be done openly? Those two could only blame their mentors for being ill-informed, or their inefficiency.
Besides, it's also good for others to take on the show effect.
As for why William had to personally leak the questions, it's because the Romanian Reserve's secrecy measures are so good this time that Hagrid, originally part of the leaking plan, was of no use, since those Fire Dragons aren't in the Forbidden Forest—they're in Newt's case.
Yes, they enlisted Newt Scamander.
Who would've thought a small Eight-Team Tournament would require such a big name... ahem, anyway, Uncle Newt, who got a chance to let loose, was very happy and sent an owl to tell William he would arrive this weekend at Hogwarts, asking him to clear a spot in the Room of Requirement for the little ones.
Haha, the little ones.
Thinking of those "cute" Blast-Ended Skrewts from Hagrid's mouth, William had to admit, there's probably a consistent line of quirky adjectives among Magical Creatures experts.
"So, Professor Richard, what's the content of the task?"
In the front row, Fleur raised her hand, her silver-white hair swaying with her action. Her voice was crisp and pleasant, causing a flush of red among the hot-blooded young men behind her—as to where specifically they turned red? Don't worry about that for now.
No wonder she's a Half-Blood Veela.
But even a full-blooded Veela couldn't charm Master William, and now, despite firing on all cylinders, the Half-Blood Veela couldn't make William's face change from his prior smile any more than it already had. He just nodded, "Don't rush." Then he stepped back half a pace, and the podium beside him jumped into the air, twisting into a floor tile—
In the next moment, this floor tile suddenly plunged into the ground, expanding rapidly so that the classroom's area was instantly multiplied several times.
Cedric, who was observing Fleur, also turned his gaze back—don't misunderstand, he's a devout to pure love, the type who'll chop off a Minotaur with a single stroke. He's faithful to Cho Chang and has no intention of treading two boats, he was only watching Fleur because...
He felt like she was trying to seduce William, otherwise why would she be smiling so... suggestively?
Ahem, Cedric coughed twice and decided to let Cho tell Hermione about this guess when he got back—
Of course, what's important now is that he needs to play the part of a stooge well—even though he hadn't been clued in beforehand, the tacit understanding formed over the past two years made Cedric naturally ready to speak, but before he could say anything, someone else interrupted—
"Professor! Are we going to face some big fella?"
This time it was the "poser" from Ilvermorny who spoke up; William had a strong impression of him because he was the most "jumping" one among this group of champions, constantly holding fan rallies in the hall—yes, fan rallies.
After all, he's not bad-looking, gathering a group of fans among the students.
Also, together with Cedric and Fleur, he just happens to be part of this champions' team, known for their attractive looks. They're used as promotion for the Eight-Team Tournament's live broadcast—
even wizards aren't immune to the common preference; who doesn't like to see handsome gentlemen and beautiful ladies?
"You could say it's a big one."
William nodded and then flicked his sleeve, tossing a soft "lizard" onto the ground.
"...Is this the big fella you were talking about?"
Yamamoto, with somewhat broken English, came over squinting, looking at the lizard—
"Roar!"
In the next moment, the palm-sized lizard suddenly inflated. Almost in the blink of an eye, a Fire Dragon as long as fifty meters stood proudly. As Yamamoto saw the claws towering over him, his knees instinctively gave way, and he fell to his knees.
"Roar?"
Norbert lowered his head, blinking curiously.
Why the grand salute?
If Norbert could speak, he would certainly help Yamamoto up with both claws and start a joke—but unfortunately, it couldn't, and its limited intelligence couldn't prompt any reaction to this scene. It could only flustered snort, the heavy breathing making Yamamoto, already pale, even whiter—
"Ugh—"
He fainted.
"..."
Watching Yamamoto faint cleanly and swiftly, William couldn't help but sigh.
Tsk, regretting it, should've avoided collecting money from that bunch if he was going to pass out on stage—what a dramatic show effect it would be—however, William looked up, gazing at the excessively large Norbert, giving him a light kick, "Who told you to become so big?"
Indeed, Norbert had overshot, with a normal adult Fire Dragon's body length reaching around thirty feet max, and Norbert was at least five times that now...
"Awooo—"
Norbert howled a bit aggrieved, but then slowly shrunk down again to a body length of less than ten meters. It flapped its wings, the "menacing" bright yellow eyes "scowling" at the group of young wizards in front of him.
Just, in the eyes of those who knew him like Harry and Cedric, it wasn't frightening at all, even quite cute.
Like a big dog.
"Y-you-you mean, we'll have to face a Fire Dragon by then?"
Alexander's previously disdainful expression finally couldn't hold; he stood in front of Norbert, attempting to maintain his fragmented demeanor, his teeth chattering slightly as he spoke.
"Yes, one per person."
William nodded, reaching out to pat Norbert's scales, and as the latter wobbled his head trying to stand taller, that silly feel finally disappeared. Even Cedric and Harry felt a slight hint of pressure facing the dragon, everyone stood tightly up, staring at the Fire Dragon.
At this point, Yamamoto, lying on the ground unattended, slowly woke up again. He blinked at the Fire Dragon in front of him, "Ugh—" and fainted again.
Hmm, William nodded.
This guy will come in handy, not sure if he'll faint again when it matters.
"S-Senpai, what should we do when the time comes?"
Harry swallowed a gulp, now completely certain that the jerk who threw his name into the Goblet of Fire absolutely wanted him dead!
Damn it, is this Fire Dragon something a normal human can deal with?
"It's a secret, leaking questions can't go this far—"
William shook his head; saying this much today was already the limit, two more words would truly break the secrecy.
...
The champions left with their minds full of thoughts, and Harry was no exception.
Though he knew the three dragons William kept, but as mentioned, it's one dragon per person and the process of choosing opponents would be by drawing lots. He knew his luck wasn't good enough to bet on a one-in-three chance, and among the three dragons William raised, only Norbert could understand human speech—
"Sigh."
"..."
"Sigh—"
"How long are you going to keep sighing then?"
Annoyed out of sleep by Harry's sighs, Ron opened his eyes.
"Oh, you're not sleeping either?"
"..."
It's not like I don't want to sleep. I was fast asleep before you got back, then you came back with these deep sighs... Ron winced, unsure of what to say at the moment. He sat up, looking at Harry, "So, what's bothering you?"
Ron stared, waiting for Harry to provide a good reason—
"I found out what the first task of the tournament is—"
Harry sat up as well. He'd wanted to share this with Ron upon returning, but it was already pretty late and they had fallen asleep.
"What is it?" x4
Four voices chorused simultaneously in the little dorm room—all were awake.