The first day of school is coming soon.
Xie Lin shared a carriage with Daphne and Astoria. There was one person missing in the carriage and there was an empty seat. Everyone felt a little uncomfortable.
Before entering the carriage, Sherrin saw Draco, Goyle, Crabbe, and Pansy on the aisle and greeted them.
In the carriage, Xie Lin looked worried, his brows furrowed, as if he was thinking about something.
"What's wrong, brother Xie Lin?" Astoria asked.
"Nothing..." Xie Lin shook his head, as if to drive away a certain thought from his mind.
He felt something strange in Draco. A long time ago, when he first awakened his magic eyes, he had seen similar abnormalities.
He saw some strange gray-black shadows on Lucius's magic power. At the time, he thought it was because his father had magic power that did not belong to him (the dark mark left by Voldemort on him). Now he saw a similar gray-black shadow on Draco. What did this mean?
Thinking that his family was hiding something from him, he felt an uncomfortable feeling in his heart.
It's not that he thinks that family members can't have their own secrets. For example, he himself hides a lot from his family members. However, this time, he had a very bad feeling in his heart, and the gray-black shadow made him very afraid.
When his spiritual and soul magic cultivation reached Xie Lin's level, he already had a keen intuition that ordinary people didn't have. He believed that his feelings would not be wrong.
"Shellin, do you know? I heard that Gallup Lestrange applied for a leave of absence from school. This time the Lestrange family lost its most important direct descendant (he became a werewolf and was removed from the family tree). We have harmed a large number of clan members, and it can be said that this is the end." Daphne knew the grudge between Xie Lin and them, and said with some gloating.
Xie Lin sighed and said without regret: "Including Mei, the so-called Holy 28 pure-blood families have two more withered families... The pure-blood families can no longer withstand much hardship..."
What he didn't say was that what awaited the pure-blood family next was probably only more turmoil...
Before Gallup was turned into a werewolf, the memory in his mind had already been completely wiped out by Bathory's hypnotic magic and Anis' nightmare magic, and this memory was washed away. On the same side as Gallup are Miles Blackie of the Blackie family, and the mastermind behind them - Irina Selwyn, the prefect of the Selwyn family.
A coldness flashed in his eyes, and then it was their turn.
In the auditorium, first-year freshmen were lining up, waiting to receive the sorting arrangement from the sorting hat.
On the Slytherin table, Gemma Farley and Marcus Flint have both graduated.
The new Quidditch captain is Draco. The newly elected prefects are Terence Higgs and a female secondary prefect.
During the sorting ceremony, Slytherin admitted Malcolm Bardock, Graham Pritchard, Emma Dobbs, etc.; Schelling did not notice any particularly outstanding people. Slytherin also happens to not have any members of a powerful family.
Instead, it was a short boy from Ravenclaw who caught Schelling's attention. His name was Gabriel Cresway. It didn't sound like he came from a long-standing wizarding family, but somehow Schelling was right. This last name feels familiar - ah, when I was reading the Daily Prophet on the train today, I seemed to have seen the little news that Dirk Cresswell was promoted to Director of the Goblin Liaison Office of the Ministry of Magic yesterday.
Schelling remembered that Dirk Cresswell was a character in the original novel. He is very talented and knows how to speak elf language, which is highly appreciated by Slahorn. He is the innermost member of the Slug Club and often informs Slahorn about the inside story of Gringotts.
Xie Lin corresponded with Slughorn frequently during the summer vacation. The two of them had established a good relationship through back and forth exchanges, so they already knew some of the important figures in the Slug Club. According to the information from Slahorn, Dirk Cresswell has two sons. The eldest just reached the grade of school this year. It seems that this Gabriel is his eldest son.
There is an empty seat at the faculty table.
"Xie Lin, do you know who the new teacher of this year's Defense Against the Dark Arts class is?" Daphne asked.
Others sitting nearby strained their ears to listen intently. Who doesn't know that Schelling is one of the members of the Faculty Employment Committee, so he naturally has the right to know first.
Daphne's father actually knew, but Daphne never asked. She thought she would know it when she came to school, but she didn't expect that she saw an empty seat, so she asked.
"It's Crazy-Eye Moody," Schelling replied calmly.
"What?" Many young wizards present couldn't help but exclaimed.
Crazy Eyes Moody is a retired Auror. He is very famous. It is said that half of the cells in Azkaban are filled by him. Almost all the people he captures are notorious dark wizards. Many of the families of Slytherin wizards are involved with Death Eaters, so the name of Crazy Eyes Moody is extremely intimidating to them.
A gleam flashed in Draco's eyes, but there was a look of dissatisfaction on his face, and he complained: "I'm not talking about you, Xie Lin, since you are a member of the faculty appointment committee and have the power to veto the appointment of faculty, how could you Did you let Crazy Eyes Moody, a lunatic, pass the selection?"
Xie Lin is so shrewd, coupled with the ability to spy on Amaterasu, the changes in Draco's eyes completely fell into his eyes. There was a burst of bitterness in his heart. Draco appeared to be complaining, but in fact he was attacking his prestige within Slytherin!
If Schelling voted for Crazy-Eye Moody to pass the selection, it would undoubtedly chill the hearts of many pure-blooded children. If Schelling said that he was unable to prevent Crazy Eyes Moody from becoming a professor, this would undoubtedly reveal that Schelling's ability was not as strong as everyone thought.
With just such a short sentence, Xie Lin was in a dilemma. Is this... really still Draco?
Putting aside the fact that the brotherly relationship between Draco and him for so many years is definitely not fake, when did Draco, a little brat, become so scheming?
Xie Lin forced down the chaotic thoughts in his heart and showed a natural smile: "Don't worry too much. There is actually a reason why Crazy Eyes Moody came to teach. Dumbledore persuaded him with a reason that no one can refuse." I - many of you may know that the Triwizard Tournament will be held this year. Regardless of the character of Crazy Eyes Moody, there is no doubt about his strength. He will be responsible for the defense of dark magic. Class teaching can increase the chances of our school’s players winning.”
"Don't forget, we Slytherins have been the best performers in the past few semesters. If nothing unexpected happens -" Xie Lin's smile showed strong confidence, "This time, we Slytherins are also striving for glory. Great opportunity!”
"Yes! Xie Lin, what you said makes sense..."
"We were too stupid to think of this..."
Several young Slytherin wizards suddenly understood and agreed with what Schelling said.
The new prefect, Terrence, also came over and said, "By the way, if you sign up, Sherlin, I think you have a great chance of being selected to become the representative player of Hogwarts." Terrence's words won the hearts of most of the people nearby. The little wizard agreed.
The conversation ended when Dumbledore stood up and gave his speech. Schelling debunks the reputational crisis underlying this conversation with ease.
After the sorting ceremony, Dumbledore stood up and gave a speech. In addition to the annual school rules, he continued: "I would also like to inform you with great regret that there will be no House Cup Quidditch match this year."
"What?" Draco gasped in surprise. He turned to look at his Quidditch teammates Montague and Warrington. They all stared at Dumbledore silently with their mouths open, as if they were too shocked to speak.
A gleam flashed in Xie Lin's eyes, and now Draco's behavior was becoming more and more unpredictable to him.
Dumbledore continued: "This is because a major event is due to start in October and run throughout the school year, taking up a lot of teachers' time and attention - but I'm sure you will all get a great deal of enjoyment from it. I I am very pleased to announce that this year at Hogwarts—"
"This is probably the Triwizard Tournament that Dad mentioned before... But I never thought that this event would last for the entire school year. It's too exaggerated!" Draco said with some disappointment, because this represents his Quidditch Captain Qi will have to wait until the next semester to become a regular captain.
At this moment, there was a deafening thunder, and the door of the auditorium was slammed open.
A man stood in the doorway, leaning on a long cane and wrapped in a black traveling cloak. The people in the auditorium turned to look at the stranger, and everyone gasped as a fork-shaped lightning flashed across the ceiling.
The lightning illuminated the man's face extremely vividly. It was a very terrifying face, as if it had been carved out of a piece of rotten wood, and the carver had only a vague idea of what a human face should look like. He is also not very good at using carving knives.
Every inch of skin on that face seemed to be scarred, the mouth was like a large, crooked gash, and the nose was missing where it should have been, and the most terrifying thing about this man were his eyes.
One of his eyes is small, black, and shiny, while the other eye is very large, round like a coin, and is a distinct bright blue. The blue eye moved without blinking, turning up and down, left and right, completely unrelated to the normal eye. Later, the blue eyeball rolled over and penetrated into the man's head. Everyone could only see a big white eyeball.
The little wizards all covered their mouths with their hands and looked at the man who just broke in with fear. His impression perfectly fits the most terrifying image of a villain in everyone's mind, like a dangerous dark wizard.
"Allow me to introduce our new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher," Dumbledore broke the silence happily, "Professor Moody."
Normally, when a new teacher meets everyone, everyone will applaud and welcome him, but now, except for Dumbledore and Hagrid, no teacher or student applauded.
Dumbledore and Hagrid clapped their hands several times, and found that the applause seemed lonely in the silent auditorium, so they put down their hands knowingly. The others seemed stunned by Moody's strange appearance and just stared at him intently.
Moody's seemed unmoved by the lukewarm response. Ignoring the large pitcher of pumpkin juice in front of him, he reached into his traveling cloak, pulled out a curved wine bottle, and took a swig.
"Shailene, what's wrong with you?" Daphne asked with concern.
It shouldn't be. Daphne was puzzled by Xie Lin's somewhat absent-minded reaction. Moody's face was indeed a bit scary to the young wizards, but with Xie Lin's character, there shouldn't be such a big reaction. Who is Schelling? He is a man who dares to confront hundreds of dementors, and can deal with the resurrected feathered serpent statue calmly. What is Moody compared to them?
What she didn't know was that in Xie Lin's eyes, Moody's body exuded a black aura full of violence. He recognized this aura almost instantly. It was the Shadow of the Dragon!
What? Where's Barty? Who is this "Moody"? What about the promised plot benefits?
Dumbledore cleared his throat, "As I just said," he said with a smile as he looked at the many students in front of him, "in the next few months, we will be honored to host a very exciting event. This event has not been held for over a century. I am delighted to report that the Triwizard Tournament will be held at Hogwarts this year."
The tense atmosphere that had enveloped the auditorium since Moody entered was suddenly broken, and almost everyone burst out laughing.
Students born in wizarding families all know more or less about the Triwizard Tournament. They may not know the exact details, but they all know that this is one of the three major honors for students in the international wizarding world.
The other two honors are the "Wizard Inter-School Potions Championship" and the "Cairo International Alchemy Conference". Compared with the first two, the Triwizard Tournament, which can highlight actual combat ability and courage, and demonstrate heroism, is undoubtedly more popular among young wizards. welcome.
The Muggle-born students also hurriedly inquired. After knowing what the Triwizard Tournament was about, they were also amazed and started talking excitedly.
Dumbledore knew that some students had never heard of the Triwizard Tournament, so he explained: "The Triwizard Tournament is a competition between the three wizarding schools in Europe: Hogwarts, Beauxbatons and Durmstrang. In the friendship competition, each school selects a warrior, and then three warriors compete in three magic projects. This is a very good display platform and helps young wizards from different countries to establish friendship. It once became a tradition in the past, but Later, too many people died, and the Triwizard Tournament was interrupted.”
"There have been several attempts to revive the Tournament over the centuries," Dumbledore continued, "but none of them have been successful. However, we at the Ministry of Magic's Department of International Cooperation and the Department of Physical Education and Sports have decided that the time has come to try again. It's mature. We did a lot of work this summer to ensure that every warrior's life is not in danger."
"In October, the principals of Beauxbatons and Durmstrang will lead the competitors, and the ceremony to select the warriors will be held on Halloween. An impartial referee will select three warriors to compete for the Triwizard Cup, Winning honor for your school will also earn you a thousand galleons as a personal bonus.”
"I know you are all eager to win the Triwizard Trophy for Hogwarts," he said, "but the participating schools and the Ministry of Magic have agreed to set an age limit for this year's contenders. Only seventeen and over Only students of 10 years old are allowed to register.”
Dumbledore raised his voice slightly, because some people protested angrily after hearing his words, "This measure is necessary because the events of the competition are still very difficult and dangerous. Students below the sixth and seventh grades are It’s impossible to deal with it.”
(Note: In the wizarding world, 17 years old represents adulthood, which is not only reflected in magic power, but also in mental maturity)
“The delegation from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang will be arriving in October and will spend most of the academic year with us. I hope you will all be warm and friendly during their stay here, and Once the Champion of Hogwarts is finally chosen, you will give your wholehearted support. Well, it's getting late and it's important that you walk into class tomorrow morning refreshed and clear-headed. Go to bed! Hurry!"
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