Harry experienced the true change of being on the field for the first time.
The sounds from the surrounding spectator stands gradually diminished, and his vision slowly faded into the high sky.
The wind was cold, the grass was green, and though the sun shone, there was no warmth.
Looking left and right, only bottomless cliffs remained.
Harry even wondered if, should he truly walk into the cliff, he would still treat what he saw as nothing, just as he had when stepping across the abyss last time.
Ron, however, felt none of this; he couldn't feel the biting wind on his skin, nor could he tell if the sunlight was warm or not.
He just stared intently at the countdown.
Three!
Two!
One!
The next moment, he suddenly dodged to the side; he didn't know who started the trend, but now, when the time came, dodging to the side and changing position had become a mandatory fixed procedure.
At the same time, Ron waved his wand.
"Incendio—"
A flame immediately appeared from his wand and sped towards Harry.
It must be said that Gryffindor students were clearly more receptive to flame spells than other houses.
Extremely aggressive.
However,
Harry visibly breathed a sigh of relief.
He did not move his body but instead raised his wand.
He twisted his body, and the flame connected with his wand.
The next moment, the flame instantly transformed into a raging dragon, attacking Ron, the massive flame directly passing through his thin figure.
Outside the arena, the crowd gasped, many people startled by the sight and standing up, trying to get a clear view of the scene below.
Jordan stood up, picked up the microphone, and was about to announce the result.
"Wait!"
Howl's voice reached Jordan's ear.
Then, from within the flames, a figure suddenly charged out.
"Is that?!"
"He hasn't fallen?!"
The next moment, that figure, covered in blazing flames, directly closed in.
How bold!
"Taste my flaming fist!" Ron roared.
Harry calmly looked at Ron and his raised, flaming fist.
The next moment, a horizontal bar inexplicably appeared at Ron's feet, coincidentally appearing just as he was about to step forward.
"Oh dear!!"
Then, Harry retracted his wand, and on the green grass, emerald green vines appeared out of nowhere, binding him in the blink of an eye.
A green tomb appeared in the arena.
A moment later, as Ron gave up struggling, and with Howl's nod, Jordan finally announced the result.
Soon, the arena's magic circle contracted, and Harry walked forward, dispelling the Transfiguration that bound Ron, and extended his hand.
"Damn it, how did I—" Ron said, full of remorse: "I fell! Can you believe it? On flat ground, I actually fell!!"
Harry nodded with a look of great regret.
"Yeah! What a pity," Ron agreed, then thoughtfully mused: "That's strange, did I not set my bones properly? No, I need to take my leg bones apart and reassemble them tonight."
Harry felt a bit embarrassed.
"What a shame, I bet so much money on myself, I thought I wouldn't lose, at least in most cases, but oh, damn it," Ron continued to mutter, walking off the field with Harry: "If only I had swapped opponents with Neville."
Soon, the third match began.
Upon seeing her opponent, Hermione also became serious.
Justin Finch-Fletchley!
This was the fellow who had once so easily spread rumors about her and Harry throughout the school.
Although Hermione seemed to have heard from Harry that he had apologized to him afterward.
However—
Soon, the match ended with a bolt of lightning from Hermione to her opponent.
Draco encountered Seamus, the Little Wizard specializing in explosions.
At first, Draco wanted to hide his strength, thinking dealing with this guy would be no problem, but he almost messed up.
Left with no choice, he also learned Harry's trick, subtly using Transfiguration to make a vine appear on the ground and trip his opponent.
However, the difference was that Seamus was in the middle of casting a spell at the time, and being tripped caused him to fail his spell.
He directly knocked himself out with an explosion.
Walking off the field, Draco looked at his ragged clothes and, after several attempts at a mending charm, finally gave up.
His clothes had been reduced to mere rags.
He couldn't bring himself to ask Harry to help him with a mending charm; to be precise, he preferred to believe that a brute like Harry didn't have the skill for mending charms.
Even if he did, he shouldn't show it in front of him.
It's better to buy a new set.
Which is more important, money or face? For Draco, it was clearly the latter.
"What a boring match," he brushed his somewhat messy hair and then spread his hands to Harry: "Got some hair gel for me?"
Hermione looked embarrassed: "Who carries that kind of thing around?"
Then she saw Harry pull a small box of hair wax from his pouch.
...
"Uncle Howl carries it too!" Harry stubbornly said.
Hermione turned her head and saw Howl in the teacher's section, comfortably stroking his long scarf.
In the teacher's section, Howl was watching the duel below, leisurely sipping his drink.
Suddenly, a silver figure appeared in his peripheral vision.
A silver goat, trotting quickly across the distant lawn.
"A Patronus?!"
Just as he was thinking, Dumbledore patted Howl's shoulder.
"It's Aberforth's," Dumbledore said succinctly, then stood up.
Howl also drained his cup, then left the match in the hands of Snape and Flitwick, and turned to leave.
"What went wrong this time?" Howl said in a low voice.
"I don't know either," Dumbledore said with a serious expression: "I imagine there's been some trouble with Nagini."
Soon, the two walked quickly, and after more than ten minutes, they arrived at Pigs Head Bar.
At this time, there weren't many people in the bar; as soon as Aberforth saw them, he nervously led them upstairs to the second floor.
"What's the situation?" Howl asked.
"She's awake," Aberforth said: "She woke up very quickly, I wanted you to come and see."
"Awake?" Howl was also a bit surprised; according to his plan, the fermentation time for a soul's humanity was uncertain, but it definitely wouldn't be too short.
But how long has it been? Just a week?!
As he spoke, treading on the creaking stairs, the trio arrived on the second floor.
As soon as they stepped up, they saw a woman in a black dress, standing quietly in a cage, holding a photograph and staring at it in a daze.
Sunlight streamed through the ragged window, revealing the thick dust in the room and the shape of the light.
"Nagini!" Aberforth called softly.
However, the figure in the room just stood there, motionless.
She was only staring intently at the photograph, the one of Aberforth and Aurelius.
The photograph of the young man with a brilliant smile.
"That's the problem; when I woke up today, she was in this state, and no matter how I called her, it was useless," Aberforth said.
As he spoke, the girl's lips parted slightly, and her fingertips caressed the face of the person in the photograph.
"So good..."
"I've never seen him smile like that before..."
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