Chapter 113 Opening Ceremony

The first day of school came soon.

Xielin shared a carriage with Daphne and Astoria. There was one less person in the carriage, and one seat was empty. They all felt a little uncomfortable.

Before entering the carriage, Xielin saw Draco, Goyle, Crabbe, Pansy and others in the aisle and greeted them.

In the carriage, Xielin looked worried, frowning, as if thinking about something.

"What's wrong, brother Xielin?" Astoria asked.

"Nothing..." Xielin shook his head, as if he was driving away a certain thought in his mind.

He felt something strange on Draco. A long time ago, when he first awakened the magic eye, he had seen similar abnormalities.

He saw some strange gray-black shadows on Lucius's magic. At that time, he thought it was because his father had magic that did not belong to him (the dark magic mark left on him by Voldemort). Now he saw similar gray-black shadows on Draco. What does this mean?

Thinking that his family was hiding something from him, he felt uncomfortable.

He didn't think that his family couldn't have their own secrets, for example, he had also hidden a lot from his family. However, this time, he had a very bad premonition in his heart, and the gray-black shadow made him very afraid.

With the spiritual and soul magic cultivation at Xielin's level, he already had a sharp intuition that ordinary people didn't have, and he believed that his feelings would not be wrong.

"Xielin, do you know? I heard that Gallup Lestrange applied for a leave of absence. This time, the Lestrange family lost the most important direct descendant (he became a werewolf and was removed from the family tree), and also lost a large number of clansmen. It can be said that it has come to an end." Daphne knew the grudge between Xielin and them, and said with some gloating.

Sherin sighed and said with a sigh: "If May is included, the so-called sacred 28 pure-blood families have two more dying families... Pure-blood families can no longer withstand much tossing..."

What he didn't say was that what awaited the pure-blood families next was probably more turmoil...

Before Gallup was turned into a werewolf, his memory had long been emptied out by Bathory's hypnosis magic and Annis's nightmare magic, and this memory was washed away. Gallup was on the same side as Miles Bletch of the Bletch family, and the mastermind behind them, Irina Selwyn, the head girl of the Selwyn family.

A cold light flashed in his eyes, and it was their turn next.

In the Great Hall, freshmen of the first grade were lining up, waiting to be assigned to the house by the Sorting Hat.

At the Slytherin table, Gemma Farley and Marcus Flint had already graduated.

The new Quidditch captain was Draco. The newly elected prefects were Terence Higgs and a female extra.

At the sorting ceremony, Slytherin admitted Malcolm Bardock, Graham Pritchard, Emma Dobbs, etc.; Schelling did not notice any particularly outstanding people, and this year's Slytherin class happened to have no members of any powerful families.

Instead, a short Ravenclaw boy caught Schelling's attention. His name was Gabriel Cresswell. It didn't sound like he came from a long-standing magical family, but somehow Schelling felt familiar with this surname - ah, when I was reading the Daily Prophet on the train today, I seemed to have seen the news that Dirk Cresswell was promoted to the director of the Goblin Liaison Office of the Ministry of Magic yesterday.

Schelling remembered that Dirk Cresswell was a character in the original book. He was very talented and knew how to speak goblin language. He was very appreciated by Slughorn. He was the innermost member of the Slug Club and often informed Slughorn of some inside stories in Gringotts.

During the summer vacation, Sherin had corresponded with Slughorn a lot. The two had established a close relationship, so he already knew some important figures in the Slug Club. According to the information from Slughorn, Dirk Cresswell had two sons, and the eldest son was just in the grade for school this year. It seemed that Gabriel was his eldest son.

There was an empty seat at the teacher's desk.

"Sherin, do you know who the new teacher of the Defense Against the Dark Arts class is this year?" Daphne asked.

The others sitting nearby pricked up their ears and listened attentively. Everyone knew that Sherin was a member of the faculty recruitment committee, so he naturally had the right to know first.

Daphne's father actually knew it, but Daphne never asked. She thought she would know it naturally when she came to school, but she didn't expect to see an empty seat, so she asked this question.

"It's Mad Eye Moody." Sherin replied lightly.

"What?" Many young wizards present couldn't help but exclaimed.

Mad-Eye Moody is a retired Auror. He is very famous. It is said that half of the cells in Azkaban are filled with him. Almost all the people he arrested are notorious dark wizards. Many of the families of the young Slytherin wizards are involved with the Death Eaters, so the name of Mad-Eye Moody is very intimidating to them.

Draco's eyes flashed with a gleam of brilliance, but his face was dissatisfied. He complained, "I'm not saying anything bad about you, Sherin. Since you are a member of the faculty recruitment committee and have the power to veto the recruitment of faculty, how could you let a lunatic like Mad-Eye Moody pass the selection?"

Xie Lin is so shrewd, coupled with the ability to spy on Amaterasu, the changes in Draco's eyes completely fell into his eyes. There was a burst of bitterness in his heart. Draco seemed to be complaining, but in fact he was attacking his prestige within Slytherin!

If Schelling voted for Crazy-Eye Moody to pass the selection, it would undoubtedly chill the hearts of many pure-blooded children. If Schelling said that he was unable to prevent Crazy Eyes Moody from becoming a professor, this would undoubtedly reveal that Schelling's ability was not as strong as everyone thought.

With just such a short sentence, Xie Lin was in a dilemma. Is this... really still Draco?

Putting aside the fact that the brotherly relationship between Draco and him for so many years is definitely not fake, when did Draco, a little brat, become so scheming?

Xie Lin forced down the chaotic thoughts in his heart and showed a natural smile: "Don't worry too much. There is actually a reason why Crazy Eyes Moody came to teach. Dumbledore persuaded him with a reason that no one can refuse." I - many of you may know that the Triwizard Tournament will be held this year. Regardless of the character of Crazy Eyes Moody, there is no doubt about his strength. He will be responsible for the defense of dark magic. Class teaching can improve the chances of our school’s players winning.”

"Don't forget, we Slytherins have been the best performers in the past few semesters. If nothing unexpected happens -" Xie Lin's smile showed strong confidence, "This time, we Slytherins are also striving for glory. Great opportunity!”

"Yes! Xie Lin, what you said makes sense..."

"We were too stupid to think of this..."

Several young Slytherin wizards suddenly understood and agreed with what Schelling said.

The new prefect, Terrence, also came over and said, "By the way, if you sign up, Sherlin, I think you have a great chance of being selected to become the representative player of Hogwarts." Terrence's words won the hearts of most of the people nearby. The little wizard agreed.

The conversation ended when Dumbledore stood up and gave his speech. Schelling deconstructs the prestige crisis underlying this conversation with ease.

After the sorting ceremony, Dumbledore stood up and gave a speech. In addition to the annual school rules, he continued: "I would also like to inform you with great regret that there will be no House Cup Quidditch match this year."

"What?" Draco gasped in surprise. He turned to look at his Quidditch teammates Montague and Warrington. They all stared at Dumbledore silently with their mouths open, as if they were too shocked to speak.

A gleam flashed in Xie Lin's eyes, and now Draco's behavior was becoming more and more unpredictable to him.

Dumbledore continued: "This is because a major event is due to start in October and continue throughout the school year, taking up a lot of teachers' time and attention - but I'm sure you will all get a great deal of enjoyment out of it. I I am very pleased to announce that this year at Hogwarts—"

"This is probably the Triwizard Tournament that Dad mentioned before... But I never thought that this event would last for the entire school year. It's too exaggerated!" Draco said with some disappointment, because this represents his Quidditch Captain Qi will have to wait until the next semester to become a regular captain.

At this moment, there was a deafening thunder, and the door of the auditorium was slammed open.

A man stood in the doorway, leaning on a long cane and wrapped in a black traveling cloak. The people in the auditorium turned to look at the stranger, and everyone gasped as a fork-shaped lightning flashed across the ceiling.

The lightning illuminated the man's face extremely vividly. It was a very terrifying face, as if it had been carved out of a piece of rotten wood, and the carver had only a vague idea of ​​what a human face should look like. He is also not very good at using carving knives.

Every inch of skin on that face seemed to be scarred, the mouth was like a big crooked gash, the nose should be bulging but was missing, and the most terrifying thing about this man were his eyes.

One of his eyes is small, black, and shiny, while the other eye is very large, round like a coin, and is a distinct bright blue. The blue eye moved without blinking, turning up and down, left and right, completely unrelated to the normal eye. Later, the blue eyeball rolled over and penetrated into the man's head. Everyone could only see a big white eyeball.

The little wizards all covered their mouths with their hands and looked at the man who just broke in with fear. His impression perfectly fits the most terrifying image of a villain in everyone's mind, like a dangerous dark wizard.

"Allow me to introduce our new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher," Dumbledore broke the silence happily, "Professor Moody."

Normally, when a new teacher meets everyone, everyone will applaud and welcome him, but now, except for Dumbledore and Hagrid, no teacher or student applauded.

Dumbledore and Hagrid clapped their hands several times and found that the applause seemed lonely in the silent auditorium, so they put down their hands knowingly. The others seemed stunned by Moody's strange appearance and just stared at him.

Moody's seemed unmoved by the lukewarm response. Ignoring the large pitcher of pumpkin juice in front of him, he reached into his traveling cloak, pulled out a curved wine bottle, and took a swig.

"Shailene, what's wrong with you?" Daphne asked with concern.

It shouldn't be. Daphne was puzzled by Xuelin's somewhat absent-minded reaction. Moody's face was indeed a bit scary to the young wizards, but with Xuelin's character, there shouldn't be such a big reaction. Who is Schelling? He is a man who dares to confront hundreds of dementors, and can deal with the resurrected feathered serpent statue calmly. What is Moody compared to them?

What she didn't know was that in Xie Lin's eyes, Moody's body exuded a black aura full of violence. He recognized this aura almost instantly. It was the Shadow of the Dragon!

What? Where's Barty? Who is this "Moody"? What about the promised plot benefits?

Dumbledore cleared his throat, "As I just said," he said with a smile as he looked at the many students in front of him, "in the next few months, we will be honored to host a very exciting event. This event has not been held for more than a century. I am delighted to announce that the Triwizard Tournament will be held at Hogwarts this year."

The tense atmosphere that had enveloped the auditorium since Moody entered was suddenly broken, and almost everyone burst out laughing.

Students born in wizarding families all know more or less about the Triwizard Tournament. They may not know the exact details, but they all know that this is one of the three major honors for students in the international wizarding world.

The other two honors are the "Wizard Inter-School Potion Championship" and the "Cairo International Alchemy Conference". Compared with the first two, the Triwizard Tournament, which can highlight actual combat ability and courage, and demonstrate heroism, is undoubtedly more popular among young wizards. welcome.

The Muggle-born students also hurriedly inquired about it. After knowing what the Triwizard Tournament was about, they were also amazed and started talking excitedly.

Dumbledore knew that some students had never heard of the Triwizard Tournament, so he explained: "The Triwizard Tournament is a competition between the three wizarding schools in Europe: Hogwarts, Beauxbatons and Durmstrang. In the friendship competition, each school selects a warrior, and then three warriors compete in three magic projects. This is a very good display platform and helps young wizards from different countries to establish friendship. It once became a tradition in the past, but it has become a tradition. Later, too many people died, and the Triwizard Tournament was interrupted.”

"There have been several attempts to revive the Tournament over the centuries," Dumbledore continued, "but none of them have been successful. However, we at the Ministry of Magic's Department of International Cooperation and the Department of Physical Education and Sports have decided that the time has come to try again. It's mature. We have done a lot of work this summer to ensure that every warrior's life is not in danger."

"In October, the principals of Beauxbatons and Durmstrang will lead the competitors, and the ceremony to select the warriors will be held on Halloween. An impartial referee will select three warriors to compete for the Triwizard Cup, Winning honor for your school will also earn you a thousand Galleons bonus."

"I know you are all eager to win the Triwizard Trophy for Hogwarts," he said, "but the participating schools and the Ministry of Magic have agreed to set an age limit for this year's contenders. Only seventeen and over Only students are allowed to register.”

Dumbledore raised his voice slightly, because some people protested angrily after hearing what he said, "This measure is necessary because the events of the competition are still very difficult and dangerous. Students below the sixth and seventh grades are It’s impossible to deal with it.”

“The delegation from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang will be arriving in October and will spend most of the academic year with us. I hope you will all be warm and friendly during their stay here, and Once the champion of Hogwarts is finally selected, you will give your wholehearted support. It is already late, and it is very important for you to go to bed fresh and clear-headed tomorrow morning!"

In the wizarding world, 17 years old represents adulthood, which is not only reflected in magic power, but also in mental maturity.