Hogwarts 1991

Chapter 573

"Ha! Let us all welcome together, ten from magic schools all over the world...ah, no, it should be eleven warriors entering the 'Top Ten Tournament' arena..." Ludo Bagman's strong voice suddenly rang out in the old classroom.

"First of all, I would like to introduce myself and my partner for this commentary..."

"I'm Ludo Bagman, Director of the Sports Department of the British Ministry of Magic, one of the former Hornets' most valuable hitters, and the most common commentator in the Quidditch World Cup..."

"Bagman!" Barty Crouch coughed twice, interrupting Ludo Bagman's voice from nowhere.

"Oh, oh...I see, here we go."

"Then...then let me introduce my commentary partner for this 'Top Ten Tournament'. It is Jordan Lee, a fifth-year Hogwarts student, a wonderful wizard boy..."

"Say hello! Jordan..."

"Great... Hello, everyone!" Jordan's voice was very tense. Compared with the usual commentary on the Hogwarts Quidditch match, it was obvious that he was commenting with a director of the Department of Magical Sports and Sports of the Ministry of Magic. Such an important match put him under a lot of pressure.

"Before the official competition starts, let's briefly talk about the content of this 'Top Ten Tournament' and the details of each warrior..."

After seeing the start of the game, the twin brothers George and Fred immediately regained their vitality. They turned their heads and looked around, and immediately found the location of their friend Jordan Lee.

"McGuffin, Hermione, Ron... look where..."

McGuffin and Hermione looked at the twin brothers' fingers, at the junction of the students of Gryffindor College and Beauxbaton School of Witchcraft and Wizardry,

This guy Jordan Lee is under the close supervision of Professor McGonagall, serving as the commentator of the game.

The situation with Professor McGonagall and him is slightly different from Harry's.

Although the endless labyrinth and the figures of the warriors also appeared on the flame curtain,

But in front of Jordan and Professor McGonagall, there was a stone platform-like thing, and beside the table on the podium, there was a row of brass horns.

The trumpet shines brightly under the illumination of the curtain formed by the flames.

And it seems to be vibrating... No, no, that's not a vibration, that thing is like a balloon, constantly expanding and shrinking as the sound spreads,
To be honest, it looked like a rubber trumpet in a cartoon to McGuffin.

And it was from that speaker that Ludo Bagman's commentary voice came out.

Bagman has fully mastered the rhythm of the explanation, and Jordan Lee can only continue to agree and cooperate.

"Well, that's right...it's true...yes..."

It's just that Bagman seems to have been promoting Cornelius Fudge...the legitimacy of the Ministry of Magic holding this event.

"...German Shepherd Strong, Beauxbaton, Ilvermorni, Japan's Magic Shrine, Brazil's Castro Bushe, Africa's Wajadu, Sri Lanka's Yamishe from New Zealand, Egypt's Nile River Temple, and the Ninth Religion's Mysterious Management Office from China..."

"These ten magic schools modeled on the European Triwizard Tournament... to hold this unprecedented event."

"This is for..."

"Cough-cough-"

"Bagman, it's time to start explaining the game. The Warriors have already started the game." Crouch's voice came again, and many of the referees agreed.

"Okay... little wizards from various schools... let's focus on the warriors!"

Following Bagman's voice, McGuffin saw the flame curtain in front of him: the original triangular pyramid picture (there are eleven moving villains on it, and the pictures of... the scorpion and the fire dragon in each level, suddenly zoomed in... as if the camera was zoomed in.

And it keeps changing,

One of them was far ahead, he was climbing quickly on the black and white stone steps,

That person should be—

Harry!

……

In a blink of an eye, Harry suddenly found himself landed in an endless world of black and white stone steps, as if he was in a maze of black and white piano keys.

He looked around.

Just like last time, he was still alone.

There is no top, no bottom, all black and white steps, staggered back and forth, endless, without any border at all.

There was silence in the air, except for the huge waterfall rushing down from the top...surrounded by stone ladders in the middle, there was only some indistinct roar of the fire dragon echoing from far above.

Harry wondered where the student audience had gone.

He was slightly flustered.

After looking around for a long time, he realized what he was going to do, and remembered what Ludo Bagman said to himself earlier——

'...golden eggs...and find a way up...'

Memories slowly flooded into Harry's mind,
By the way, he remembered that there was some kind of map in this [Endless Labyrinth]... or something for navigation.

'That crystal pyramid...'

Harry remembered everything, and he began to walk towards the front of the stone steps, trying to find a platform, to see if he could find such a thing like last time, so that he could find a way out.

……

"Oh! Harry Potter... the youngest warrior in our grade was the first to start to act. At the same time, the other ten warriors froze in place. It seemed that they were a little at a loss..."

Then Ludo Bagman's commentary sounded.

Students from various magic schools were talking about it, and they were obviously shocked by the spectacular and fantastic scenery of [Endless Maze].

At this time, a loud voice came from not far behind McGuffin and the others.

"Excuse me, excuse me, give way!"

Ron looked back and called, "Hagrid!"

Hagrid was leading the big black dog (Sirius), pushing the other little wizards away, and leaned over with great effort.

The MacGuffins squeezed each other, making room for Hagrid to stand up.

"Padfoot, why are you here?" Ron asked.

"It was a little worried about Harry, but no one thought that we would actually watch the game like this... not at the scene." Hagrid shook his head, expressing that it was very difficult to understand the school's arrangement, "I have never seen a game where the audience and the playing field are separated..."

"That is to say, is it possible that when we watched the Quidditch final...we were given a ticket, and then we did whatever we wanted, and then looked at the sky with a telescope? It's just nonsense..." Seamus was obviously angry about this.

Sirius's two bulging black glasses were fixed on Harry's moving image in the flame stream.

The picture shows: Harry is moving rapidly, like a five to six times speed video, in such a short period of time, he (cu~cu) leaped across several black and white stone stairs.

Now, the other warriors finally seemed to have finished observing the environment and began to act.

Their speed is also very fast, the same as playing at double speed.

"What's going on? Is there something wrong with my eyes? Why do Harry... these warriors look like springing bunnies on wind-up, so fast?"

Hagrid rubbed his eyes and asked puzzledly.

"The flow of time in that place is different from ours here..." Ron replied ostentatiously.

But his words immediately caught the attention of Hagrid and a bunch of Gryffindor students.

"How do you know?" Hagrid asked.

Ron hesitated, some didn't know how to answer.

Fortunately, at this time, Ludo Bagman's loud commentary saved him this time.

"...I think you probably also noticed...the abnormality of this picture, right?"

"Therefore, I must introduce to you... the venue for the first 'Top Ten Tournament'..."

"Legends say that it is a secret library built by Ms. Ravenclaw. Of course, it also has a unique name—the Endless Labyrinth."

"As its two names indicate, this is a labyrinth of books... Ms. Ravenclaw has hidden some of her unverified evidence of magic legends, or lost and incomplete ancient magic knowledge, as well as her extremely precious notes of magic experiments that no one has ever seen before."

"Of course, the staff of the Ministry of Magic and Hogwarts have moved all the precious monuments here... They will not be destroyed in the upcoming competition."

"I think some Hogwarts students have guessed where this is... Yes, its entrance is in the Hogwarts library..."

"However, this place is a space fragment similar to the 'Nine and Three-quarters Magic Station'. It exists in the cracks in the dimensions of our world and can avoid the disturbances of reality... So for so many years, countless Hogwarts teachers and students have searched and searched, but they have not found this place."

"...Different from the space fragments at the magic station, the space fragments here are still very well preserved and have not suffered any damage. It can also make the referees of the 'Top Ten Tournament' committee... mobilize magic power to completely change the scene here, making it more suitable for the first competition venue."

"There is another advantage, which is what you find strange... because the time flow in this space debris is very different from our real world. It is fast and slow... It can even be manipulated by us..."

"That's enough... Let us arrange the events of this competition calmly."

"...But when a warrior comes to a specific level, we will specially adjust the flow of time here to be consistent with the real world. On the one hand, it will prevent the warriors from being injured... and transfer healing in time, on the other hand, it is also for your viewing experience."

After Ludo Bagman said a lot, he seemed to have finally remembered his poor commentator partner...Jordan Lee.

He asked, "Do you have anything to say, Jordan."

"Mr. Bagman, I...I, look...Harry, who started first, seems to have encountered the first level."

"Oh, that's right, that's true...Let us ask Professor Dumbledore to adjust the flow of time so that you can see it clearly..."

As soon as the screen turned, from Krum to Harry, it was even more zoomed in, and the playback speed of the screen became normal.

"Oh my God, Jordan...it's bad, it's too bad...Harry met a dragon."

"Let me ask the expert next to me...Charlie Weasley."

"Charlie, what kind of dragon do you think this is?"

"...It's a Hungarian Horntail. This should be the most difficult dragon to deal with except for the Ukrainian iron belly..." Charlie Weasley's hoarse voice came from the brass horn.

"Dangerous...too dangerous..." Ludo Bagman's voice overwhelmed Charlie's, "Let's see how Harry will deal with this dangerous monster?"

……

Harry took a deep breath, trying to calm his beating heart, but...

tui——

The nose is full of dragon's breath, sulfur and a foul smell.

This smell... is more obvious in this place where the air is almost stagnant.

I really can't mention it.

Harry was now standing in the middle of a stone staircase—he couldn't go up or down.

'It's been almost half an hour to an hour since the beginning, right? '

Anyway, Harry felt that he could no longer run fast, so he could only sway upwards slowly.

And even though the environment in [Endless Labyrinth] was roughly the same as when McGuffin Ron and the others came together last time...the same black and white stone stairs, endlessly staggered back and forth, up and down, left and right directions...gravity...it seems to be bound to each step of the stone steps.

But those platforms that must be passed by every time they walk, as well as the stone platforms on them... and the crystal pyramid magic navigators placed on them, originally left by Ravenclaw... all kinds of ancient books in different shapes have disappeared completely.

Completely empty.

More than that, Harry didn't even hear the voices of other warriors during the time he came in.

It was as if he was the only one walking alone in this maze.

After walking for so long, he finally came across something, unexpectedly it was a fire dragon sitting on a relatively large stone platform, staring at him fiercely.

Harry was standing in the middle of the black and white stone steps, and above it on the... large black platform at the top, the dragon was standing.

Those two huge yellow eyes... were staring at Harry with a fierce light.

Obviously not inviting Harry to be a guest.

It crouched low, its two pairs of wings fully stretched out, straight...waving...making a threatening gesture.

In the twilight that is ubiquitous in this space, the scale armor all over his body glows with a breathtaking light...

In the light, those spikes and sharp minions are even more ferocious and brutal.

After Hagrid and Hermione's remedial lessons some time ago, Harry finally recognized all the fire dragons in the school's Forbidden Forest habitat.

From the spiked tail of the fire dragon in front of him, he recognized its species.

"The Hungarian Horntail..."

- This is almost the most difficult to deal with.

Whether you go around from the front or sneak from behind, it's the same threat.

Not only can it breathe fire, but even the tail behind it can easily tear apart a cow, and it's also covered in venom...

And even if this guy is among the fire dragons... he has a very violent personality.

This dragon is also extremely aggressive towards humans.

Harry thought about the various solutions McGuffin had offered him. In such a narrow environment, he felt that he had no way to deal with this kind of guy alone.

It's dangerous to even sneak past.

What's more, he has to find a way out, find the exit... only then can he pass the competition successfully.

The dragon became more and more agitated, and it continued to roar threateningly, and Harry decided to avoid the creature first.

He turned his head and looked around, looked at the stone stairs around him, took out his wand, waved it towards his body...especially his legs, and then jumped up towards the opposite stone stairs——

……

"Wow, my God, he's flying!" cried Bagman—

In the old classroom, many audience members were gasping in surprise and discussing in disbelief.

"What's going on? What's going on?" Jordan also patted the stone platform in front of him and shouted loudly.

For a while, the viewing venue in the old classroom began to boil.

There's finally something of a race here.

(End of this chapter)