The Admiral of Hogwarts

Compared to Veneta, who had gained the recognition of the entire school faculty and students, Harry's situation seemed much worse. Many people, especially the Slytherin students, believed that Harry had used tricks to become a contestant.

Fortunately, because of Veneta's earlier actions, the Gryffindor students were willing to believe Harry and accepted his claim that he hadn't submitted his name.

However, even with that acceptance, few people in the school thought Harry could win the competition. After all, the Triwizard Tournament was related to combat, and in that aspect, even Harry himself didn't think he could beat Veneta.

"If there's a wizarding duel in one of the tasks, and I unfortunately end up in a group with Veneta, I think I can only pray she'll go easy on me for the sake of being classmates."

Harry said quietly to Ron beside him during breakfast that morning. Ron nodded in agreement, sharing Harry's view.

Several Gryffindor students nearby overheard the conversation, but none of them felt it was inappropriate for Harry to say this before the competition.

Everyone thought that giving up was a very wise choice when facing an opponent who could kill a giant with their bare hands and punch a 30-centimeter-deep hole in a stone floor.

"Looks like you're quite famous in the school," Hugo joked to Veneta, who was engrossed in eating pickled herring. "Now you can achieve victory without a fight."

"After all, this isn't a life-or-death battle, and we're all students of the same school. If it's a duel, there's no need for internal strife to make our school a laughingstock to the other schools," Veneta said, glancing at the Beauxbatons students at the Ravenclaw table.

These Beauxbatons students usually stayed in their carriages, but they would come to the Great Hall for meals. After breakfast, Hugo and his friends headed straight to the library to research various materials.

Along the way, except for the Slytherins who still looked down on Ryan because of his blood status, most wizards, especially Muggle-borns, showed their welcome and support for Veneta.

In their eyes, compared to Harry, Veneta had earned this honor through her own knowledge and strength, making her a true Hogwarts champion.

As for Harry, he was now seen as a victim by most people. After the analysis of the ink on the slip of paper, most Hogwarts students believed that a Slytherin student was trying to embarrass Harry.

This assumption arose because everyone believed that Harry and Slytherin had a deep-seated hatred for each other.

Furthermore, Slytherin housed most of Hogwarts' ancient pure-blood families, and these families often possessed magical knowledge unknown to the outside world, such as manipulating the Goblet of Fire.

"What are you planning to do to prepare for the competition?" Hermione asked Veneta softly. Although she didn't know the plot yet, the first task would definitely involve fighting monsters.

"I plan to learn a few tricks from Saint George," Veneta said quietly. "You know, Saint George has plenty of experience when facing those powerful magical creatures."

"You have a point," Hermione immediately realized after Veneta said that. As Veneta said, Saint George, with the title of Dragon Slayer, naturally had a huge advantage when facing those magical monsters.

"But I think you should go easy on them during the fight," Hermione said, quickly thinking of something. "At least, I don't think this kind of school competition needs dragon slaying."

"That's similar to what I was thinking," Veneta nodded. "I think it's likely about surviving against the monsters for a certain period of time, or obtaining a treasure guarded by a monster."

"As for killing monsters, I don't think even professors can do that in a one-on-one, limited-space situation. It would be too difficult to ask students to do that."

In the following days, everything seemed calm and peaceful at school.

The only special things were that Hagrid had bred another batch of Blast-Ended Skrewts that were, supposedly, edible, and that Aila told Hugo and his friends that she seemed to be encountering Headmaster Dumbledore more often recently.

At least, for an ordinary Muggle-born first-year witch, meeting Headmaster Dumbledore twice a week on average was definitely not normal.

"What did the Headmaster talk to you about?" Hugo asked curiously, because he knew that his Aila was not just Aila, but also Ariana.

"Just simple, everyday chats," Aila said. "But he sometimes brings me candy, and my favorite is the lemon sherbet."

"I remember the Headmaster often had lemon sherbet on his desk," Hermione said suddenly, as if she had thought of something. "I think it might be the Headmaster's way of remembering his sister."

It seemed that the Headmaster had indeed become curious about Aila. However, Hugo wasn't sure what Dumbledore thought of the situation now.

But no matter how the Headmaster viewed Aila, time passed day by day. One day, while Hugo and his friends were attending Herbology class with the Hufflepuff students, Cho Chang suddenly ran over to tell Veneta to go upstairs for a photo shoot.

"Good news, the Sirens have finally successfully applied for a radio station frequency. So today, the Sirens will come as radio station reporters to interview you," Hood said to Hugo through the Admiral Network as Veneta left the greenhouse.

"You guys got a radio station license?" Hugo asked in surprise. He had always hoped to obtain some publicity channels, and radio was clearly more real-time than newspapers.

Unexpectedly, the ship girls hadn't been able to apply for newspaper and magazine licenses, but they had applied for the radio channel that Hugo and his friends thought would be the most difficult to apply for.

"Yes, I think this is mainly because wizards prefer more traditional media, such as newspapers or magazines, rather than listening to the radio," Hood said helplessly.

"However, the popularity of radios in the UK should increase a lot recently, because we've launched an activity where you get a free radio for every 10 galleons spent."

"This matter does need to be popularized as soon as possible, without considering too many economic issues," Hugo instructed Hood upon hearing this.

"After all, judging from the current situation, war will break out soon, so it's best to prioritize things related to war preparedness."

"Don't worry, Commander, we're already doing it," Hood said with a smile. "Now almost all of our industries are slowly transforming into a war state. Once the war breaks out, I only need two weeks to fully transition into a combat state."

"Actually, there's no need to be so nervous," Hugo said immediately after hearing Hood say that. "The wizards' war is still different from the ordinary people's war. Basically, there's no need for such nationwide mobilization."