After the last group of Slytherin team's three people jumped up from the chair and gave a terrified roar, the magician in front of him, Professor Blaine, also slowly opened his eyes.
George Weasley seemed far from shaking off the shadow from a moment ago. Seated, he still held his unscathed leg close to him, and at this moment, his talent for humor seemed to have completely vanished. His gaze at Professor Blaine was filled with resentment.
Neville kept his head down, looking apologetic. Hermione, Harry, and Ginny were all whispering comfort to him, while Draco was boasting to the surrounding people about the process of fighting with Professor Blaine.
Most of the magician looked blank, on one hand, Professor Blaine's just now very malicious completely beyond their carrying limit, on the other hand, had been for so long of the training, they thought they had been very different than before, however, they still were beaten by Professor Blaine in a light way after being restrained by their own power. This kind of disillusionment was unutterable.
Looking at the disheartened young wizards, Amortentia was not at all disappointed; this outcome was not unexpected to him.
"Mind your wits –"
Professor Blaine said quietly, when the students' eyes converged on him, he lifted his wand and pointed at his own sunspot, slowly pulling out several strands of silvery hair that shone with halo.
"Now, let's watch the whole of the just-completed drill again..."
As he spoke, his wand moved through the air in a complex trajectory, slowly unfolding a flat surface like rippling water, with the perspective of Professor Blaine himself.
The earliest Fred, George, and Lee, they were the first wave to be sent out, did not know what the small wizard's performance after that is, including Hermione and others, also did not know what happened later. No one was surprised at Professor Blaine's wonderful techniques. They had become accustomed to them. Everyone was quietly watching their own performance just now.
The remaining time of the class was spent watching the battle. A few minutes before the end of class, they watched the whole match of the night from start to finish.
"You all seem to be falling into a misconception –"
Amortentia spoke to the young wizards who were deep in thought,
"You took the just-completed duel as just another of the routine exercises you experience in class, without taking it seriously. That is extremely dangerous. Once you get used to this mindset, then when the day comes that you are actually fighting on the battlefield and realize there's no chance to start over, it will be too late..."
The problems exposed by the just-completed duel far exceed this. Set aside the personal hard power of the young wizards, from Amortentia's perspective, their cooperation was actually terrible, even Draco's team, their cooperation was only in attack rhythm, while the attack itself was completely independent of each other.
However, considering that this was their first time to cooperate and even their first time truly fighting against someone, these mistakes are not unforgivable.
"--As for the specific reasons for the failure of each group, I will not tell you. You need to think about it. Each group will submit a paper on the reasons for their failure to me before next Wednesday, with a length of at least fifteen inches per paper--"
It's not easy to handle a paper of fifteen inches, Harry's eye twitched, but he immediately realized that Professor Blaine was asking for it in groups, which meant that each person could share a part. According to Hermione's style, she probably could finish the paper alone.
The atmosphere at the end of the PE class had not been so somber for a long time. Everyone lined up to leave the classroom, and George was still limping, even though he had not been physically injured. The profound psychological blow had also affected his body, and he was still unable to shake off this illusion.
"Oh, by the way--"
Harry didn't pay attention to the proud eyes that Malfoy kept throwing his way, the guy was just lucky, took some of the previous team's failure experience, if Slytherin was the first to go on stage, his situation might be worse than George!
Harry muttered softly as he was about to leave the classroom. He turned back, ran back into the classroom, and sprinted to Professor Blaine, who was overseeing the desks and chairs being neatly pushed back to the front wall. A few minutes later, under Professor Blaine's bewildered gaze, he ran out of the classroom with a signed paper in hand.
"You were going to--" Hermione had been waiting outside for him. After she saw it for a moment, she understood what was going on, "Did he give it to you?"
"Professor Blaine has always been easy to deal with, hasn't he?"
Harry asked curiously.
"Yes--"
Hermione pouted her lips, her eyes widened in horror, and her body trembled violently,
"But he just cast a spell on Ginny in the spirit world, oh, Ginny is definitely going to have a nightmare tonight."
"Not only Ginny will have nightmares--" Harry walked forward with a heavy heart and said.
Generally speaking, the students of physical education class would not be able to contain their excitement when they returned to the common room. In the absence of Professor Blaine's order to keep the course content confidential, most of them could not contain their desire to share, but today's situation was strange for everyone else.
"What's going on?"
When Harry and Hermione returned to the corridor in front of the portrait of Mrs. Weasley, they were shocked to find Ron standing at the door waiting for them. As soon as he saw them, he rushed up, looking worried and asked urgently,
"Why did George seem to be injured while you were in class? I haven't seen Ginny in that state either. What happened? Why won't anyone talk?"
Ron turned to Hermione, and when he noticed the complex emotions in her eyes, he avoided them as if he had been struck by electricity, turning instead to look at Harry.
"Oh, nothing much--"
Harry said tiredly,
"Nothing unexpected happened, Ron. We were just scolded by Professor Blaine. Come inside and hear me out. Hermione and I both took a sleeping charm in Professor Blaine's spirit world, but it felt all too real."
Speaking of which, Harry walked around Ron and walked towards the portrait of Mrs. Weasley by himself, while Hermione followed him silently. Looking at the backs of the two as they left, Ron opened his mouth to say something but did not utter a sound. Under the light, his face looked especially pale.
As the sun set, the blood-red sunset shone on the rough surface of Black Lake, on the cliff side, the imposing black castle stood silently, gazing at the rippling water, demonstrating a mysterious grandeur in silence.
Fleur did not like this grandeur, so she retracted her gaze and looked towards the Quidditch pitch nearby. There she spotted Hermione Granger, the little girl with the warrior spirit like her own, circling around the Quidditch pitch along with a dozen others.
That's just ridiculous.
She had noticed this phenomenon since the first day she arrived at Hogwarts, every evening a group of students would circle around their Quidditch pitch and run. What good could physical exercise do to wizards? Fleur found the behavior so ridiculous that she couldn't even muster the interest to ask what they were doing.
The room was filled with blue drapes, and it was permeated with a fragrance. Although it was just a temporary residence, every detail in the room was finely crafted, exuding an artistic atmosphere.
Fleur was wearing a blue silk negligee, she lay lazily on the bed, even though one shoulder strap had slipped, she didn't bother to adjust it. She turned over and looked at her room with boredom. On the dressing table, an old-fashioned radio was playing strange sisters' music - it was ear-piercing and unpleasant, which was Fleur's evaluation.
"Crude and without any aesthetic sense, the British."
Fleur muttered under her breath with a bad mood.
Everything at Hogwarts was different from what she had expected. She thought she would receive a warm welcome, but instead, she was ignored. Moreover, the Triwizard Tournament had turned out to be unexpected.
"Sister--"
Gabrielle walked in directly, the only person who could enter Fleur's room without permission.
"Oh, Gabrielle--"
Fleur pulled up the straps and sat up slightly straighter,
"Excuse me, could you throw the radio out? I've had enough of this unpleasant music."
"I find it quite interesting--"
Gabrielle came to call Fleur for dinner, she said cheerfully, but still turned off the music,
"The castle's administrator just found Mrs. Maxim, and he wants us to not stay on the carriage but to go to the dining hall for dinner--"
"The castle's administrator?" Fleur's heart skipped a beat. "Who is it?"
When Gabrielle was with her sister, she was a mischievous little girl. She knew what answer her sister wanted to hear, but she just giggled and didn't speak. It wasn't until Fleur picked her up and tickled her armpits that Gabrielle giggled and said,
"It's Mr. Blaine, he told Mrs. Maxim that the Triwizard Tournament is to promote communication among the parties, and if we always stay in our own place, then the event has no meaning at all. So Mrs. Maxim agreed,"
"What else did he say?" Fleur shook her hair and asked expectantly.
"No--"
"Nothing," Gabrielle said 'honestly,' until her sister showed signs of losing interest, then she beamed with a look of taking credit.
"But I told Mr. Blaine that I wanted to visit the only pure wizard village in Britain - Hogsmeade village. Then, Mr. Blaine agreed immediately."
(The end of this chapter)
