After the third event of the Eight-Team Tournament ended, Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry suddenly felt empty—
The giant white egg floating near the tower flew away, and the Kelpie that had been hovering by the Black Lake submerged into the water one day. The tents of Uagadou and Koldovstoretz also disappeared one after the other, leaving behind a mess. I heard their original plan was to stay until the end of the term, but who knew this would happen—
"...So, can the next event still be held?"
In the Hogwarts School Hospital, Ginny was looking sorrowful as she tried to slice into a corpse of pickled herring with a knife and fork. But after half a minute of red-faced, teeth-gritted effort, the girl gave up on this almost impossible task, pulled out her magic wand, and cast a Diffindo spell—
The herring was successfully split in two, and now it was the problem of how to eat it.
As for why the girl seemed so sad... naturally, it was because after those foreign students left, the Hogwarts kitchen reduced the menu, and the Little Wizards' usual meals quickly reverted to the standards of previous years. But as the saying goes—it's easy to go from frugality to luxury, but hard to go from luxury to frugality...
After being fed by those foreign menus for half a year, they actually have to start eating those damn herring and potatoes again.
Everyone is protesting; you can tell from the fact that Beauxbatons students have completely stopped appearing in the Great Hall recently—staring at the hollow, black eyes of the herring, Ginny felt like the next moment it would shake its broken half-body, jump up, and loudly scold the Little Elf that made it this way.
Death without peace is probably like this.
"Probably, it can continue."
Harry was listlessly lying on a bed in the Hospital Wing, waiting for Ginny to feed him, although he wasn't interested at all in the fish chunks that looked like stones.
"After all, the tournament is hosted by all the schools and the British Ministry of Magic—"
Hermione nodded along; she was holding a thick tome in her arms, and Harry had sneaked a look at the cover when the girl arrived—Forgotten Ancient Magic and Spells, the book's text was very small and dense, forcing the girl to half-lay on the book to barely see the content clearly. "It doesn't have anything to do with Senior William."
"I heard Senior William was suspended? He must be feeling terrible..."
Ginny was still battling the pickled herring, while Harry now only hoped this thing wouldn't break his teeth.
Terrible?
Hermione pursed her lips and didn't respond, but from her observations, William's mood had been extraordinarily good recently.
As for the reason, it was probably because he successfully got Ms. Maxime, the headmistress of Beauxbatons, to allow him to keep a few foals after her Abraxans gave birth, and Ms. Maxime naturally agreed. After all, even if they stayed here until the end of the term, those little horses wouldn't grow big enough to fly across most of the United Kingdom and the entire English Channel.
As for the external criticism's impact on him... it seemed to have none at all.
"Chirp, chirp—"
"Hey, you're here!"
Ginny stopped the previous topic, as her attention was captured by Kabuda, who stylishly arrived riding on Hedwig, landing above everyone's heads. The dark-furred Niffler wriggled its backside, jumping onto the table by the bed, then accepted the beans Ginny handed over with a paw, cracking them like sunflower seeds into its mouth.
On the other side, Hedwig perched atop Harry, dropping a copy of Prophet Daily it was holding in its claws into Harry's lap.
Harry reached for it, but before he could start reading, Ron, sitting beside him, suddenly exclaimed—"Have they found Krum?!"
"Really?"
Due to Ron's loud exclamation, everyone in the hospital looked up—unfortunately, that included Madam Pomfrey. Then everyone realized what was happening, looking towards the Prophet Daily in Harry's hands, while Cedric coughed weakly, "Is he still alive?"
Harry flipped through the newspaper, scanning past articles criticizing Senior William and Headmaster Dumbledore, such as—
Eight-Team Tournament or Nine Deaths and One Survivor? "Genius" Scheme pushes Champions into the Abyss!
Dumbledore Stands by "Genius" Who Blundered! Hogwarts Could Become a Dangerous Hotbed, Eight School Champions Turned Sacrificial Victims!
Shocking! Nine Gifted Little Wizards Messed Up?
Minister Fudge Heartbroken: Ministry of Magic Was Duped! Referee's Plan Was a "Disaster Blueprint"!
In short, the Prophet Daily had mostly been filled with this kind of content lately, which made Harry very annoyed. But what annoyed him even more was that some people actually believed the crazily fabricated versions, and secretly started talking bad about Senior William—
Additionally, Harry didn't quite understand why Draco Malfoy, who usually loves to trust newspaper news the most, was standing by William in various situations. He even heard from Hermione that that guy dragged a few Slytherin Little Wizards talking bad about William into the bathroom for a good beating.
And quickly scanning past these exaggerated headlines, Harry soon found the photo Ron had glimpsed—In the bright desert, the ragged and exhausted Viktor Krum was gulping down water, completely ignoring the Egyptian Ministry of Magic's Head of International Cooperation posing for a photo beside him—
"He's alive."
As the boy spoke a bit louder, the hospital room's door swung open, letting in a blast of cold air, and Madam Pomfrey's scolding was as sharp as a whip cracking through the air, "—I said lie down! Mr. Potter! Your ribs haven't reconciled with your stubbornness yet—"