There is still one month left before the summer vacation. Since the exams have been cancelled, the students are very leisurely. The happy sounds of students can be heard in every corner of the school. A few days later, students discovered some breaking news on the student bulletin board:
First, Lucius Malfoy was expelled from the school board, which symbolized that the Malfoy family would completely lose influence in Hogwarts. Because of this, Draco seemed very disappointed and he was no longer here. Walking around the school arrogantly. Under Xie Lin's enlightenment, he finally began to follow Xie Lin's advice. He no longer fantasized about relying on his family's power to show off his power. Instead, he calmed down to study magic and practice flying, and was determined to rely on his own strength to maintain his power. Family glory.
Seeing that Draco was finally making progress, Sherrin felt that although this turmoil was damaging to the reputation of the Malfoy family, it was still a good thing. What's more, the person who filled Lucius's position as school director was none other than Mr. Gareth Greengrass, the head of the Greengrass family.
Second, Dumbledore himself announced that he would restart a college friendly competition that had been suspended for centuries. This competition is called "Merlin's Test". It is an open competition open to students from grades 1 to 6 in the four major colleges. The reward for winning is a special medal of the Order of Merlin.
The Order of Merlin was founded by the legendary wizard Merlin in the eleventh century. It is the oldest magical organization in the magical world and has a high reputation. The Order of Merlin was created to help Muggles. It stipulates that wizards are prohibited from using magic on Muggles, and each wizard in the order assumes the responsibility of protecting Muggles.
Later, due to the establishment of the Ministry of Magic and the promulgation of the International Statute of Secrecy in 1689, wizards completely went into hiding. The Wizengamot established an honorary system in the name of the Order of Merlin to reward those who have made great contributions to the development of wizard society. wizard. The Order of Merlin is divided into three different levels: First Class, Second Class and Third Class. The winning prize of this competition is a special medal of honor independent of the grade system, which is specially awarded to students with outstanding performance.
Just when everyone was talking enthusiastically about this friendly match, a new news came, extinguishing most people's illusions about participating.
Except for Slytherin, each house can only send one person to participate. The candidate will be decided by the dean of the house, either through selection or direct designation. Although there is no explicit rule that senior students must participate in the competition, generally speaking, senior students always have an advantage over junior students. Everyone knows that the qualifications for the competition will only go to the elite senior students. among.
What makes people feel very unfair is that Slytherin can send a total of three students to participate. The reason given by Dumbledore is: Merlin himself graduated from Slytherin Academy, and the reward system he left behind is biased towards him. There is nothing wrong with the juniors in the same hospital. Sherrin immediately understood that Merlin was actually taking the blame for Dumbledore. This was clearly the compensation for Slytherin that Dumbledore had mentioned to him. He never expected that the sanctimonious Dumbledore could be so scheming. Sherrin Thinking maliciously.
The candidates for Slytherin were chosen the fastest. Snape impatiently directly designated the 6th-year prefect Gemma Farley, the 4th-year Cassius Warrington, and the 2nd-year Sherlyn Malfoy. 3 people are candidates for the competition.
Gallup Lestrange, who was originally one of the favorites, unexpectedly lost the election. This caused Gallup to lose a lot of followers and caused a lot of damage to the reputation of the Lestrange family. blow. Gallup's gloomy figure can often be seen in the Slytherin lounge, but of course no one dares to offend him.
Xie Lin was not surprised by his selection. With his current strength and reputation, he is more than enough to represent Slytherin. For this competition, he participated with the mentality of increasing his knowledge and being able to compete with the senior students. , he is not too concerned about victory or defeat and the so-called winning prize. A medal that can only represent honor is no different from a mere name to him and has no practical significance.
Moreover, as a member of the Malfoy family, it is not difficult to obtain the Order of Merlin. All you need to do is donate a large amount of money to the Ministry of Magic. There is a precedent for this. As far as he knows, Arcturus of the Black family ·This is how Blake got his medal.
In the next few days, other colleges also basically decided on the candidates. The candidate for Gryffindor is Percy Weasley, the sixth-year prefect. It is said that he has obtained 12 certificates in the OWL exam and is a fighter among academics. The candidate for Ravenclaw is Penelo Crevat, the 6th-year prefect. She is a beautiful girl with long brown curly hair. She was once petrified by a basilisk and only recovered from the petrified state a few days ago. recover.
The candidates for these two colleges are not surprising, as they are all senior prefects.
Hufflepuff's choice seemed strange in comparison. Hufflepuff’s candidate is fourth-year student Cedric Diggory. This handsome boy is still unknown in the entire Hogwarts. Apart from serving as the seeker of the Quidditch team, There is nothing else to note. Of course, Xie Lin, who is familiar with the original work, knows that this handsome boy is not bad at all. When he was in sixth grade, he was almost the strongest person in the school, so he was selected as the representative of Hogwarts by the Goblet of Fire.
Hearing these familiar names from his previous life and thinking that he would become their opponent, an uncontrollable excitement began to stir in Xie Lin's heart.
Soon, the arrival of the second week of June also meant the beginning of Merlin's test.
The venue for the competition was the Quidditch pitch, which was packed early in the morning. Students from all major colleges attended to cheer for the representatives of their colleges.
The competition is divided into three events. The questions of the competition will be provided by a thick, dark purple-covered ancient magic book carried by Dumbledore. It is a magic book with autonomous consciousness similar to the Goblet of Fire. The title of the book It's called "The Book of Merlin", and Dumbledore and the four deans will serve as judges to score the contestants. There is no doubt about the fairness of the competition.
The first event is the potion competition. Dumbledore pointed his wand at the Book of Merlin and waved it lightly. The Book of Merlin opened automatically and turned rapidly. It didn't stop until it reached a certain page. A deep voice came out, "The antidote to the potion of living hell." …”
Living Hell Decoction is a very powerful sedative and sleeping drug that can make people fall into a deep sleep. It is a course for the 6th grade NEWT advanced class, so senior students do have an advantage. Among the contestants, only Percy and Penelope know how to make. Although Gemma is also in the sixth grade, she has not entered the potions advanced class, so she is just as confused and at a loss as the lower grade contestants. However, the topic of the competition is not to make the Living Hell Decoction, but to make its antidote. This kind of knowledge outside the course may not be known to Percy and Penello.
Fortunately, Xie Lin happened to know the answer to this question. The answer appeared in the "Encyclopedia of Medieval Secret Medicines" that Meredith gave to Sherrin at Christmas. It was a potion invented by an ancestor of the Shafiq family.
At that time, she fell in love with a handsome Muggle, but because of the opposition of her family, she came up with the idea of using the living hell potion to pretend to elope. For this reason, she spent a lot of effort to invent an antidote. After being buried underground, her Muggle lover was responsible for rescuing her at midnight, and then used the antidote to revive her. However, the plan failed to keep up with the change. While she was developing the potion, the Muggle fell in love with another girl, so he did not keep his promise to rescue her after she was buried underground, but cruelly allowed her to be buried alive—— Fortunately, the living hell decoction the ancestor took lost its effect for some reason, so she finally avoided the fate of being buried alive. Resurrected from the dead, she was completely driven by love and hatred, and tortured both her Muggle lover and vixen to death with dark magic.
Although the antidote was not used in the end, the production method was recorded and was named "Invigorating Potion".
While the other contestants were still thinking hard, Xie Lin had already started his performance. His movements were as smooth as water, as if he was making a work of art rather than a boring potion. The judges were all satisfied. Nod.
Professor McGonagall couldn't help but turned to Dumbledore and said, "If this child had entered school earlier, perhaps the last potion championship would have belonged to Hogwarts instead of Mahotokuro. ”
Dumbledore nodded slightly and looked at the other contestants. Among them, Percy, Penelope, and Gemma all started making their potions not long after Sherrin started, while Cedric had just started at this moment. Choose materials, while Cassius is still thinking hard. The process of refining potions is one-way and boring, so I won’t mention it here.
The uplifting potion refined by Schelling was very standard and without any surprise received a perfect score of 50. There was a burst of cheers in the Slytherin area. Even some young wizards from Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff did not hesitate to give applause. Although Most of them are girls from lower grades.
Although the high-concentration refreshing potion prepared by Percy can wake up a poisoned sleeping person, it will have side effects of nausea, stomachache and vomiting. He scored 40 points.
Penello refined the Mandrake Resurrection Potion, probably inspired by her own experience of being petrified. Unexpectedly, it can also revive people from sleep, but after waking up The person was still drowsy and her eyes were dim. She scored the same 40 points as Percy.
Gemma and Cedric refined a universal antidote, which had no effect and only received 10 points equivalent to consolation points. Cassius failed to refine the potion under tremendous pressure. He had no finished product and was the only contestant to receive zero points.
Then came the second event of the competition: the Transfiguration Competition. The title given in the Book of Merlin is: Turn stones into living mice.
This question is very easy, and every contestant can do it - Percy, Penelope, and Gemma successfully turned stones into lifelike mice on the first try; It took Cassius three attempts before he succeeded, but the tail of the mouse seemed to be shorter.
After reading Professor McGonagall's Transfiguration Notes, Schelling believed that his Transfiguration had already reached the OWL level, but turning a mouse into a living creature was too unchallenging, so Schelling planned to challenge a more difficult Transfiguration - after all. Xie Lin is the youngest in the field. He does not have the pressure and baggage that other players have to win. Schelling carefully recalled every important detail of the transfiguration spell in Professor McGonagall's notes, and then concentrated all his energy on performing the transfiguration spell on the stone - the stone turned into a lifelike Motra in front of everyone's astonished eyes. mouse!
Although the magical creatures created by the transfiguration spell do not have magical properties, there is no difference in natural abilities between the Mortla rat and an ordinary rat. However, the transfiguration spell is used to create dense and flexible sea anemone-like tentacles on the back of the rat. But it's not easy. If you don't control the details of the deformation well, it can easily turn into octopus-like or squid-like tentacles, and then the tiger will not be the opposite of a dog.
Schelling, Percy, Penelo, and Gemma all scored full 50 points, while Cedric scored 40 points and Cassius scored 35 points.
The temporary standings are as follows: Schelling has 100 points, Percy and Penello have 90 points, Gemma has 60 points, Cedric has 50 points, and Cassius has 35 points. Cassius basically has no hope of winning, and Cedric has little chance. There are only four contestants left as favorites for the championship, and Schelling, as the only junior student, is particularly eye-catching among the contestants.
