"They can't do that!" George? Instead of following the crowd to the door, Weasley stood there glaring at Dumbledore angrily and said, "We'll be seventeen next April, why don't we give it a try?" ”

"They can't stop me from participating," Fred said stubbornly, glaring angrily at the guest of honor, "Being a warrior allows you to do a lot of things that you don't normally let you do, and there's a prize of a thousand Galleons... ”

"Yes," said Ron, with a dazed look on his face, "yes, a thousand Galleons... ”

"Let's go," said Hermione, "if you don't go, we'll be left here." ”

Maple, Hermione, Harry, Ron, Fred, and George began to walk towards the foyer, arguing about what Dumbledore would do to prevent students under the age of seventeen from participating in the tournament.

"Who will be the impartial referee who judges who the Warriors are?" Harry asked.

"I don't know," said Fred, "but he's the one we're going to deceive." I think a drop or two of ageing boosters will do, George... ”

"But Dumbledore knows you're not old enough." Ron said.

"yes, but it's not up to him to decide who becomes a warrior, right?" "It sounds to me that the referee just knows who wants to participate, and he picks the best one from each school, and he doesn't care how old they are." Dumbledore was trying to stop us from signing up. ”

"But a lot of people died!" Hermione said in a worried tone. At this point, they passed through a door hidden behind a tapestry and went up a narrower staircase.

"yes," said Fred nonchalantly, "but that was years ago, right?" And what's the fun if there's no adventure? Hey, Maple, if we have a way of fooling Dumbledore, do you want to participate? ”

"Are you sure you want me to participate?" Maple asked rhetorically.

"Well, you better not participate." Fred said.

"yes, you're going to participate, what else is going on with us?" George also nodded repeatedly.

"yes, it would be too unfair to the other schools if Maple participated, because they lost, and Maple now has more magic than many graduates." Harry agreed.

As they spoke, before they knew it, they had reached the entrance to the Gryffindor Tower, which was hidden behind a large portrait of a fat lady in a pink silk dress.

"Password?" As they approached, the fat lady asked.

"Nonsense," said George, "the prefect downstairs told me." ”

The portrait bounced forward at once, revealing a large hole in the wall, from which they all climbed in. The circular common room was filled with tables and soft armchairs, and the fire was crackling and burning. Hermione boldly kissed Maple as a reward for his repeated pampering today, then said goodbye to the two big light bulbs and went back to the girls' dormitory.

Maple and the others quickly returned to their dorm room and went to bed.

"You know, I'll probably participate," Ron said sleepily in the dark, "if Fred and George come up with a way to do it—to compete in a tournament—no one knows, right?" ”

"I can't say." Harry rolled over in bed, and many brilliant images came to his mind, all of which had never been seen before—he had deceived the impartial referee into believing that he was seventeen—he had become a Hogwarts warrior—he stood on the field and raised his hands in joy in front of the whole school, all of whom were cheering and screaming. He had just won the Triwizard Tournament - Qiu Zhang's face was particularly clear in the blurred crowd, and her face was flushed, full of admiration and appreciation...

Harry buried his face in the pillow and smiled stupidly, it seemed that his spring had arrived.

The next morning, the storm had subsided, but the ceiling of the auditorium was still cloudy. As the four of them studied their class schedule for the semester over breakfast, large blue-gray clouds were tumbling overhead. At the same table, Fred, George, and Lee Jordan were separated from them by a few seats, discussing what magical spells to use to make themselves older, and then fool around and compete in the Triwizard Tournament.

"It's been a good day, I've been outdoors all morning," Ron said, sliding his finger over Monday's section of the class schedule, "Herb class, with Hufflepuff students, protecting magical creatures." Unlucky, with Slytherin again. ”

"There are two divination lessons this afternoon." Harry lowered his head and sighed. Divination was his least favorite subject in addition to potions. Professor Trelawney always prophesied that Harry was going to die, which bothered him in particular.

Maple didn't care, he had already started to study the course he had studied in seventh grade, and the classes were now dispensable to him.

During the herb class, Professor Sprout introduced them to a new plant, but the lecture was a little unappetizing.

The plant looked like a large, black, slimy slug, coming straight out of the soil. And they all squirmed slightly, and there were many shiny big bulges on their bodies, which seemed to be full of liquid. If Professor Sprout hadn't said it, they would never have realized it was a plant.

"Babo tuber." Professor Sprout cheerfully told everyone, "You need to squeeze it with your hands, you have to collect its pus-"

"What?" Seamus? Finigan asked in a disgusted tone.

"Pus, finigan, pus," said Professor Sprout, "is of great value, and should not be wasted." Listen, collect the pus into these bottles. Wearing your dragon skin gloves, undiluted Babo tuber pus can cause unusual damage to the skin. ”

The process of squeezing tubers is disgusting, but it is a boon for OCD sufferers. Whenever a bulge is squeezed, a large stream of viscous, yellow-green liquid is spewed out, which causes them a strange sense of satisfaction.

The thick water of the Bapo tubers had a pungent gasoline smell, and they had collected several bottles of such pungent liquid in the course of a lesson, and their noses had already protested against their hands more than once.

"Now Madam Pomfrey should be happy." Professor Sprout plugged the last bottle with a stopper and said, "The pus from the tubers of Babo is the best medicine for recalcitrant acne." This will discourage students from using drastic measures to get rid of their pimples. ”

"Like poor Eloise Midroot," Hufflepuff student Hannah? Abbot lowered her voice and said, "She wants to use a spell to get rid of the pimples." ”

"Silly girl," said Professor Sprout, shaking his head, "but Madam Pomfrey finally put her nose on again. ”

The nose's protest stopped, and they began to urge their legs, and hurried to Madam Pomfrey's school hospital after class, and they didn't know if there was anything left.

Fortunately, their sanity suppressed the restless noses, and they still had a class in the morning, and they only had time to go to the school hospital after this class.

But they don't have to worry, they will definitely be able to take advantage of the foresight.

After class, Hufflepuff students go to Transfiguration class, and Gryffindor's next class is Protecting Magical Creatures.

They walked down the gently sloping lawn to Hagrid's cabin on the edge of the Forbidden Forest.

Hagrid stood outside the door of the cabin, one hand leading the collar of his great hound's teeth. On the ground at his feet lay several open wooden chests, whimpering and wrestling at their collars, as if they wanted to investigate their contents carefully. As they approached, a strange clicking sound reached their ears, with the occasional faint explosion.

"Good morning!" Hagrid said, smiling at Maple, Harry, Ron, and Hermione, "Better wait for the Slytherin classmates, they don't want to miss this - fried tail snails!" ”

"Say it again?" Ron said.

Hagrid gestured to the box at his feet.

"Disgusting!" Lavender Brown screamed and jumped a few steps back.

When Maple looked at it, the fried snails did look disgusting. They looked like deformed, shelled lobsters, white and gray, slimy, and terrible, with many feet sticking out horizontally, and it was impossible to see where the head was. There were about a hundred of them in each box, each about six inches long, crawling on top of each other, dazedly slamming into the walls of the boxes.

Every now and then, a spark will shoot out from the tail of a snail, and then with a soft snap, the snail will move forward a few inches.

They also emit a very strong smell of stinky fish and rotten shrimp, which makes Maple frown, does this smell affect its texture? Can you still eat it?

"Freshly hatched," Hagrid said proudly, "you can raise them yourself!" We can work on a big project! ”

"Why should we raise them?" A cold voice said.

The Slytherin students had arrived, and the person who had just spoken was Draco Malfoy. Crabbe and Goyle laughed and applauded his words.

Hagrid seemed stumped by the question.

"I mean, what can they do?" Malfoy asked, "What are they for?" ”

Hagrid's mouth was open, as if he was desperately thinking. After a few seconds of pause, he said in a gruff voice, "That's for the next lesson, Malfoy." Just feed them today. Okay, so you're going to try to feed them a couple of different things. I hadn't had them before, and I wasn't sure what they liked to eat. I prepared ant eggs, frog liver, and emerald snakes, and tried a little of each to see if they ate it. ”

"First the pus from the tuber, and now it's this again." Seamus muttered.

In this lesson, only Maple put in the passion. Even Hermione, Harry, and Ron, out of deep affection for Hagrid, grabbed a handful of greasy frog livers and put them in the box to lure the fried tail snails.

"Ouch!" About ten minutes later, Dean Thomas screamed, "It hurts me!" ”

Hagrid hurried over to him, looking a little flustered.

"Its tail exploded!" Dean huffed, showing Hagrid the burned piece of his hand.

"Ah, yes, that's what happens when they explode." Hagrid nodded.

"Disgusting!" Lavender? Brown grumbled again, "It's disgusting, Hagrid, what's the spiky thing on it?" ”

"Ah, some of them have thorns on their bodies," Hagrid said excitedly, "I guess the thorns are males, and the females have suckers-like things on their stomachs, and I think they probably suck blood." ”

"Oh, of course I understand why we should find a way to keep them alive," Malfoy said sarcastically, "and who wouldn't want a pet that could burn, sting, and bite?" ”

"Just because they don't look good doesn't mean they're useless." Hermione retorted, "Dragon's blood has magical properties, but would you like to keep a dragon as a pet?" Yes! ”

"Hermione, be careful, imprison quickly!" The tail of the whelk that Hermione fed also suddenly exploded, and Maple immediately used the confinement magic to control the snail, leaving Hermione only slightly injured.

"Be honest!" Maple said as she applied the Petrification Charm to the snail that had injured Hermione, and then picked up the petrified snail and used it as a stone to move around on the ground.

"Maple, let it go, you're going to kill it." Hagrid immediately shouted to stop Maple.

"Stop!" Maple threw the whelch into the crate, lifted the petrification spell, and the crate burst into activity.

The snail was bred by Hagrid by crossing a human-headed sphinx with a fire crab. From time to time, their tails explode, probably because they can't control the fire magic in their bodies well.

The Fried Snail has a very irritable personality, and Maple teaches the Fried Tail Snail a lesson, not only does it not make the Fried Tail Snail honest, but on the contrary, it immediately intensifies its attacks after Maple lifts the petrification spell, and frequently blows its own tail in the box.

Then there is the fried tail snail, which already has a tendency to kill each other, and the frequent blowing of the tail of that fried tail immediately annoys the other fried tail snails. Then, like firecrackers lit with a fuse, explosions came from the box.

The temper of the fried tail snails is so unreasonable, the more painful they are, the more they blow up their tails, and then continue to detonate the temper of the surrounding fried tail snails. Under the vicious circle, if there is no artificial prevention and forcibly separate them, their infighting will not stop and continue.

When the firecrackers first went off, many of the students who were feeding were startled, and they all got up and retreated, keeping their distance from the boxes.

When they stood in a safe area and watched the endless infighting of the fried tail snails, they were as excited as if they were watching a wonderful show.

Hagrid was flustered and overwhelmed, but the students were reluctant to help.

"Faint!" In the end, it was Maple and Hermione who stunted all the snails and put them into different crates one by one.

At this time, most of the snails had minor or serious injuries, and a few serious ones had died.

Eventually, after Harry and Ron joined, they separated all the snails, and by the time the job was done, it was almost time for the end of the lesson.

After class, Maple took the dead snails away in the name of collecting the corpses, and Hagrid's mind was all about how to heal the remaining snails, so he didn't care.

"Maple, aren't you going to bury them? Why haven't you thrown them yet, are you going to take them to the castle? Ron said with a look of disgust on his face.

"You'll find out soon enough." When Maple returns to the castle, he takes the ingredients to the kitchen and asks the house-elves to help with them.

The house-elves quickly processed the meat of the fried tail snail and made several dishes, but because of the unpleasant smell on the fried tail snail, the meat of the fried tail snail was not delicious.

But Maple sincerely thanked the elves and took all the food with him.

In order not to waste it, Maple went to the Forbidden Forest to lure Thestrals with bloody meat, and then fed them the meat of these fried tail snails.

"What, you want to eat their meat?" Ron exclaimed, and immediately stood up and stayed away from Maple, as if he was afraid that Maple would pass on his perverted attributes to him.

Not only Ron, who reacted violently, but Harry and Hermione immediately distanced themselves from him.

Later, Maple grabbed a few live snails from Hagrid from time to time, and experimented with water, vinegar, freezing, and potions, and finally found that placing them in a blazing fire could eliminate the unpleasant smell on them.

Put the tail snail into the flames, its tail will snap non-stop, keep sparking, and then in each tail explosion, the flames will be sprayed out of the body with some impurities in the body.

After the exhaust gas of the body of the fried tail snail is cleared, the meat is really delicious, and the meat of the fried tail snail can also increase the wizard's mastery and strength of fire magic.

The one Hermione and the three of them ate at the time was so delicious, not mentioning the accusations they had made against Maple at the beginning.

After lunch, Hermione and Maple parted, and Maple was going to a divination class, and Hermione had given up on the course, which had no logic to her.

As they reached the top of the ladder, a familiar sweet scent emanating from the fire came to their nostrils. Everything here was the same as before, the curtains were drawn tightly, and the round room was lit with many lamps, all covered with scarves and shawls, which shrouded the whole room in a hazy red light.

"Hello!" Professor Trelawney's voice was still so ethereal, somewhat ethereal.

Professor Trelawney was a very thin woman, wearing a pair of huge glasses that made the two eyes frighteningly large on her skinny face.

Professor Trelawney spent most of her time circling Harry, except for giving Maple a somewhat dangerous prophecy in the first lesson.

She was staring down at Harry with a tragic expression on her face — the kind of expression she had every time she saw Harry.

Predicting the tragedy of a student has somehow become a hobby of Professor Trelawney, and Harry is the one she has seen the most tragic omens since she became a teacher, like a drowning man looking at a luxury yacht.

As Professor Trelawney later summed up, 'You have never been a good prophet, but you are a good prophet'.

Perhaps, just as the students of Hogwarts were thinking about their favorite Defence Against the Dark Arts class, Professor Trelawney was looking forward to Harry's class every day.

She had never considered how much her actions had troubled Harry.

Book Reading House