The Lonely Dragon of Hogwarts

At 08:30 in the evening, John and Michelle walked to the Quidditch pitch together.

As they walked through the foyer, they discovered that Harry and Cedric had been waiting here.

The atmosphere between the two men was a bit strange.

Although they were in the same room, they were standing far apart, and they didn't speak to each other.

Just by looking at them, John could feel a strong sense of embarrassment.

However, this is also normal.

After all, after Ron's big mouth had spread the news before, most of the people in Hogwarts now knew that Harry was interested in Qiu Zhang.

The two of them got together, and Cedric had enough restraint not to fight.

John ignored the two men and pulled Michelle, who still wanted to say hello, out of the hall.

Cedric and Harry followed silently.

When several people walked down the stone steps together and melted into the cloudy night, Harry finally couldn't help but ask:

"John, what do you think the third project will be?"

Cedric also looked at John and said:

"Fleur keeps nagging about the underground tunnels. She thinks we're looking for treasure."

Obviously, both of them felt that John, as a related person, should already know some details of the project, so they wanted to inquire about it.

But John shook his head and said:

"Don't worry so much. Bagman will make things clear when we get there."

After saying that, John quickened his pace slightly.

Several people walked along the dark lawn towards the Quidditch pitch, and then entered the pitch through a gap between the stands.

As soon as they entered the stadium, Harry and Cedric were furious.

"What are they doing here?"

Cedric and Harry said in common hatred, "Damn it! They destroyed our stadium!"

Quidditch pitches are no longer flat and smooth.

It seems that someone has built countless long low walls here, and these low walls are intricate, winding and extending in all directions.

John stepped forward to observe and found that the so-called low walls were all hedges.

This is formed by borrowing plant magic and is quite efficient.

"Yeah! Hello!"

Bagman's joyful voice suddenly sounded.

Everyone looked up and found Bagman standing in the middle of the court waving to them.

Next to him stood Krum and Fleur.

John led Michelle and others through the low walls and walked towards them.

As John approached, Rong gave him a bright smile.

Ever since John and Michelle rescued her and Gabrielle from the Black Lake, Fleur's attitude towards John had become even more enthusiastic.

In the past few days, she would come over to say hello to John when she had nothing to do, which made the students around John lose their focus on studying and eating.

Of course, her relationship with Michelle isn't bad either.

As both women, the two of them have more topics in common.

For example, now, Fleur did smile at John.

After she finished laughing, she immediately grabbed Michelle.

The two began to whisper, and while talking, they looked over at John from time to time.

"What do you think?" Bagman said cheerfully, "It's going well, isn't it? In another month, Hagrid will make them twenty feet tall. But don't worry, as soon as the competition is over , your Quidditch pitch will be restored to its original state! Well, I think you can probably guess what we are going to do here, right?"

John looked around, imagining what the low walls would look like when they grew up.

For some reason, a scene from a classic horror movie subconsciously came to his mind.

"It's a maze."

John said calmly.

"That's right!" Bagman said, "It's a maze. The third event is very simple and clear. The Triwizard Cup is placed in the center of the maze. Whoever can touch it first will get full points."

Harry said in disbelief:

"We just have to get through the maze?"

"There will be many obstacles," Bagman said cheerfully, hopping up and down on tiptoes. "As you know, this project was designed jointly by professors from the Ministry of Magic and Hogwarts, so it combines Lots of different settings.

For example, Hagrid provided many animals... Sprout arranged many magical plants... Flitwick set up magic traps... Snape installed some magic potions...

Also, the warrior with the leading score enters the maze first.In other words, John will be the first to enter, then Michelle... and finally Miss Delacour.

But you will all have to fight to succeed, and it will depend on your ability to overcome obstacles.It should be fun, right? "

No one answered at all.

Bagman just gave out a lot of names of professors and various traps and mechanisms that sounded very crazy.

Harry's face turned pale with fright.

The others had no interest in replying, and just nodded towards Bagman under the guidance of John.

"Very well... If you don't have any questions, let's go back to the castle, okay? It's a bit cold here..."

After Bagman finished speaking, Krum and the other warriors turned around and left the Quidditch pitch.

But when John was about to take Michelle, Bagman held him back.

"John, can I have a word with you?"

Bagman said mysteriously.

"Mr. Bagman," Michelle said with wide eyes and surprise, "Are you going to cheat on us again?"

"Shh-"

Bagman was startled, and he quickly made a gesture of silence and said, "Don't speak so loudly. I'm just here to pay back the money!"

"Pay back?"

John frowned.

Bagman smiled mysteriously and led John and Michelle deeper into the unfinished maze.

It wasn't until he reached a place that was completely surrounded by a low wall and his sight was blocked that Bagman took out a bag of traceless stretching spells.

"Here are 5000 Galleons," Bagman gasped, "I will pay back the rest in two months."

After taking the bag, John frowned even more.

He never imagined that Bagman could repay the money, and the repayment was 5000 galleons.

This is not consistent with Bagman's current income level.

"Where did you get all this money?"

Hearing this, Bagman said excitedly:

"You earned 3000 Galleons of it, John. Your performance in the first and second projects was so good! This made me make a lot of money on my handicap!"

"This is wrong!" Michelle shouted, "Mr. Bagman, why do you still do this kind of thing? Have you forgotten the lesson of the last Quidditch World Cup? It will only make you a little bit Step into the abyss!”

"Yes, good girl, I know." Bagman waved his hands repeatedly, "I will stop after I finish this time and pay off the debt! I promise!"

Michelle shook her head, obviously not believing Bagman's words.

John, on the other hand, was not interested in Bagman’s part-time job and just asked lightly:

"What about the 2000 Galleons?"

Bagman said with joy:

"The Ministry of Magic gave me a bonus for my outstanding performance in organizing the Quidditch World Cup and the Triwizard Tournament!"

John subconsciously raised his voice and said:

"You mean the Ministry of Magic gave you a one-time bonus of 2000 galleons? How is this possible?"

"I know this is really outrageous." Bagman said with a smile, "The Ministry of Magic has always been stingy, but this time, they did give out a bonus. And, John, it's not just me, but also..."

Before Bagman finished speaking, there was unusual movement in the trees behind him.

John almost subconsciously pulled out his wand and threw a [Disarming Curse] there.

Following the flash of red light, a scream that sounded familiar but also sounded weak suddenly sounded.

"Damn Karkaroff!"

Bagman recognized the owner of the voice and immediately became extremely angry.

He roared into the bushes and pulled out Karkaroff.

"You actually eavesdropped on our conversation! You deserve to die! The Ministry of Magic has imposed a ban on us, and we are not allowed to spread the word about the bonus!"

Bagman was still complaining, shaking Karkaroff's collar vigorously as he spoke, "Tell me, what did you overhear?!"

John was less excited than Bagman.

But his brows furrowed even more tightly.

Because Karkaroff looked so embarrassed.

The knees of his robe were torn and stained with blood, and his face was covered with scars. His face was gray and haggard, and his whole body seemed to have experienced a painful torture.

"Mr. Bagman, put him down quickly!" Michelle stepped forward to stop him, "Mr. Karkaroff is dying!"

After being reminded by Michelle, Bagman let go of Karkaroff's collar and muttered:

"His injury has nothing to do with me! He must have wanted to sneak into the maze to explore the secrets, or set up some mechanism in advance to help Durmstrang's warriors cheat, but then he triggered some trap and was injured!

Um!That’s right!It's all Karkaroff's fault! "

Michelle stepped forward to check Karkaroff's injury.

But John stepped forward and pulled him away, then squatted down and said in an indifferent tone:

"Karkaroff, what happened?"

"John...you are Snape's student!" Karkaroff's cloudy eyes suddenly lit up, and he choked and cried, "I was attacked! It was them! They came to me! I I just knew... I knew what would happen if I didn't run away!

John!Go tell Snape and Dumbledore!

Let them save me!

I don't want to die yet! "

Karkaroff waved his arms wildly as he spoke.

As he moved, the sleeves of his torn robe fell down.

It just revealed the Dark Mark composed of a skull and a snake on his arm.

At this moment, the mark seemed to have come to life and was squirming rhythmically.

This made John's eyes become serious.