Chapter 41 Merlin's Test

There is still one month left before the summer vacation. Since the exams have been cancelled, the students are very leisurely. The happy sounds of students can be heard in every corner of the school. A few days later, students discovered some breaking news on the student bulletin board:

First, Lucius Malfoy was expelled from the school board, which symbolized that the Malfoy family would completely lose influence in Hogwarts. Because of this, Draco seemed very disappointed and he was no longer here. Walking around the school arrogantly.

"How did things come to this?" Draco and Sherrin complained several times.

"Draco, I can understand your mood." Xie Lin tried his best to comfort his brother's mood, "To be honest, the school board has indeed become weak in recent years, and you know me, I have never approved of Mal. The Fu family is at odds with Dumbledore..."

"That's because this old man with a white beard is treating things unfairly," Draco said angrily. "Look at last year's Academy Cup. He just didn't say 'the trophy has been decided'... Even then, you can't Do you still think so?"

"I think you misunderstood me, Draco," Sherrin looked at Draco calmly and firmly, "I don't agree with many of Dumbledore's actions, but you can't deny-"

"After the defeat of the Dark Lord, Dumbledore's status in the wizarding world throughout Great Britain and even around the world has been unshakable... People call him the greatest wizard at the end of this century, and even the Ministry of Magic cannot ignore his casual words. Words, an action...just look at the school board——"

"You know Scamander, the Master of Magical Creatures, right? Back then, without evidence, he was considered to be the culprit of allowing a marten to accidentally injure his classmates. Under pressure from the school board, even Dumbledore insisted that he still He was expelled by the then Principal Dippet...Look at Hogwarts now. The professors are almost all Dumbledore's confidants, and the school board has almost no sense of existence - the students only know that Dumbledore is there. Liduo, I heard that many new students don't even know that the school board exists..."

"Instead of worrying about the lost seat on the school board all day long, it is better to use this time for self-improvement. Only when you are truly strong, believe me, we will one day regain the glory lost today for the Malfoy family!"

Everything Schelling said was reasonable, and even the stubborn Draco couldn't find any angle to refute it.

Under Xie Lin's enlightenment, he finally began to follow Xie Lin's advice. He no longer fantasized about relying on his family's power to show off his power. Instead, he calmed down to study magic and practice flying, and was determined to rely on his own strength to maintain his power. Family glory.

Seeing that Draco was finally making progress, Sherrin felt that although this turmoil was damaging to the reputation of the Malfoy family, it was still a good thing. What's more, the person who filled Lucius's position as school director was none other than Mr. Gareth Greengrass, the head of the Greengrass family.

Second, Dumbledore himself announced that he would restart a college friendly competition that had been suspended for centuries. This competition is called "Merlin's Test". It is an open competition open to students from grades 1 to 6 in the four major colleges. The reward for victory is a special medal of the Order of Merlin.

The Order of Merlin was founded by the legendary wizard Merlin in the eleventh century. It is the earliest magical organization in the magical world and has a high reputation. The Order of Merlin was created to help Muggles. It stipulates that wizards are prohibited from using magic on Muggles, and each wizard in the order has the responsibility to protect Muggles.

Later, due to the establishment of the Ministry of Magic and the promulgation of the International Statute of Secrecy in 1689, wizards completely went into hiding. The Wizengamot established an honorary system in the name of the Order of Merlin to reward those who have made great contributions to the development of wizard society. wizard. The Order of Merlin is divided into three different levels: First Class, Second Class and Third Class. The winning prize of this competition is a special medal of honor independent of the grade system, which is specially awarded to students with outstanding performance.

Just when everyone was talking enthusiastically about this friendly match, a new news came, extinguishing most people's illusions about participating.

Except for Slytherin, each house can only send one person to participate. The candidate will be decided by the dean of the house, either through selection or direct designation. Although there is no explicit rule that senior students must participate in the competition, generally speaking, senior students always have an advantage over junior students. Everyone knows that the qualifications for the competition will only go to those elite senior students. among.

What makes people feel very unfair is that Slytherin can send a total of three students to participate. The reason given by Dumbledore is: Merlin himself graduated from Slytherin Academy, and the reward system he left behind is biased towards him. There is nothing wrong with the juniors in the same hospital. Sherrin immediately understood that Merlin was actually taking the blame for Dumbledore. This was clearly the compensation for Slytherin that Dumbledore had mentioned to him. He never expected that the sanctimonious Dumbledore could be so scheming. Sherrin Thinking maliciously.

Slytherin candidates were chosen the fastest, and Snape impatiently directly designated Farley, fourth-year Cassius Warrington, and second-year Sherlyn Malfoy as candidates.

Gallup Lestrange, who was originally one of the favorites, unexpectedly lost the election. This caused Gallup to lose a lot of followers and caused a lot of damage to the reputation of the Lestrange family. blow. Gallup's gloomy figure can often be seen in the Slytherin lounge, but of course no one dares to offend him.

Shelling was not surprised at his selection. With his current strength and reputation, he was more than qualified to represent Slytherin. For this competition, he participated with the mentality of gaining knowledge and having a rare opportunity to compete with senior students. He did not care much about winning or losing and the so-called winning prizes. A medal that only represented honor was no different from a false name to him and had no practical significance.

Moreover, as a member of the Malfoy family, it was not difficult to get the Order of Merlin. All he had to do was donate a lot of money to the Ministry of Magic. There was a precedent. As far as he knew, Arcturus Black of the Black family got the medal in this way.

In the next few days, the other colleges also basically decided on their candidates. Gryffindor's candidate was Wesley. It was said that he had obtained 12 certificates in the OWL exam and was a fighter among the academic masters. Ravenclaw's candidate was Clearwater, a beautiful girl with long brown curly hair. She was once petrified by a basilisk and recovered from the petrified state a few days ago.

The candidates of these two colleges are not surprising, both of them are senior prefects.

In contrast, the candidate of Hufflepuff seems very strange. The candidate of Hufflepuff is Cedric Diggory, a 4th grade student. This handsome boy is still unknown in the whole Hogwarts. Apart from being the seeker of the Quidditch team, there is nothing else that attracts attention. Of course, Sherin, who is familiar with the original book, knows that the strength of this handsome boy is not bad. In his 6th grade, he was almost the strongest in the school, so he was selected as the representative of Hogwarts by the Goblet of Fire.

Hearing these familiar names in the previous life and thinking that he would become their opponent, an irrepressible excitement began to stir in Sherin's heart.

Soon, the second week of June arrived, which also meant the beginning of Merlin's test.

The venue was the Quidditch Stadium, which was full early in the morning. Students from various colleges attended to cheer for the representatives of their colleges.

The competition is divided into three events. The topic of the competition will be provided by a thick, dark purple-covered ancient magic book carried by Dumbledore. It is a magic book with independent consciousness similar to the Goblet of Fire. The name of the book is "The Book of Merlin". Dumbledore and the four deans will serve as referees to score the contestants. The fairness of the competition is beyond doubt.

The first event is the potion competition. Dumbledore pointed his wand at the Book of Merlin and waved it gently. The Book of Merlin opened automatically and turned rapidly until it turned over a certain page before stopping. A low voice came out, "Antidote for the Living Hell Potion..."

The Living Hell Potion is a very powerful sedative and sleeping pill that can make people fall asleep. It is a course in the 6th grade NEWT advanced class, so senior students do have an advantage. Among the contestants, only Percy and Penelope know how to make it. Although Gemma is also in the 6th grade, she did not enter the advanced class of potions, so at this time she is as confused and at a loss as the lower grade contestants. But the topic of the competition was not to make the living hell potion, but to make its antidote. This kind of knowledge outside the course, Percy and Penelope might not know.

Fortunately, Schelling just knew the answer to this question. The answer appeared in the "Medieval Secret Medicine Collection" that Meredith gave Schelling at Christmas. It was a potion invented by an ancestor of the Shafik family.

At that time, she fell in love with a handsome Muggle, but because of the opposition of her family, she wanted to use the living hell potion to pretend to die and elope. For this reason, she spent a lot of time and effort to invent an antidote. After she was buried underground, her Muggle lover was responsible for rescuing her at midnight and then using the antidote to wake her up. However, plans cannot keep up with changes. During her development of the potion, the Muggle fell in love with another girl, so after she was buried underground, he did not keep his promise to rescue her, but cruelly let her be buried alive. Fortunately, the living hell potion taken by the ancestor lost its effect for some reason, so she finally avoided the fate of being buried alive. After she came back from the dead, she completely turned from love to hatred, and tortured the Muggle lover and the vixen to death with black magic.

Although the antidote was not used in the end, the method of making it was recorded and named "Invigorating Potion".

While the other contestants were still thinking hard, Sherin had already started his performance. His movements were as smooth as flowing water, as if he was making a work of art instead of a boring potion, and the judges nodded with satisfaction.

Professor McGonagall couldn't help but turn to Dumbledore and said, "If this child had entered school earlier, perhaps the champion of the last Potions Championship would belong to Hogwarts instead of Mahotokuro."

Dumbledore nodded slightly and looked at the other contestants. Among them, Percy, Penelope, and Gemma all started making their potions not long after Sherin started. Cedric had just started to choose materials at this moment, and Cassius was still thinking hard. The process of making potions is one-way and boring, so I won't mention it here.

The stimulant potion made by Sherin was very standard, and it was not surprising that it got a full score of 50 points. There was a lot of cheering in the Slytherin area, and even some young wizards in Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff were not stingy in giving applause, although most of them were girls in the lower grades.

The high-concentration stimulant potion made by Percy could also wake up people who were poisoned and sleeping, but it would have side effects such as nausea, stomachache and vomiting. He got 40 points.

Penelope made a mandrake resurrection potion, which was probably inspired by her own experience of being petrified. Unexpectedly, it could also revive people from sleep, but the people who woke up were still drowsy and hazy. She scored 40 points, just like Percy.

Gemma and Cedric made a universal antidote, which did not work, and only got 10 points, which was equivalent to consolation points. Cassius failed to make the potion under great pressure and did not have any finished products. He was the only contestant who got zero points.

Next was the second event of the competition: Transfiguration Competition. The topic given by the Book of Merlin was: Turning stones into living mice.

This topic was easy and every contestant could do it - Percy, Penelope, and Gemma successfully turned stones into lifelike mice on the first try; Cedric made a mouse without whiskers on the first try, and it was not until the second try that he succeeded; Cassius tried three times before he succeeded, but the mouse's tail seemed to be shorter.

After reading Professor McGonagall's Transfiguration Notes, Schelling believed that his Transfiguration had already reached the OWL level. It was too unchallenging to just transform into a living mouse, so Schelling planned to challenge a more difficult Transfiguration - after all, Schelling was the youngest among the players, and he did not have the pressure and burden of having to win that other players had. Schelling carefully recalled every important detail of Transfiguration in Professor McGonagall's notes, and then concentrated all his energy to perform Transfiguration on the stone - the stone turned into a lifelike Mortra Rat in the surprised eyes of everyone!

Although the magical creatures transformed by Transfiguration do not have magical properties, Mortra Rat and an ordinary mouse have no difference in natural abilities, but it is not easy to use Transfiguration to transform dense and agile anemone-like tentacles on the mouse's back. If the details of the transformation are not well controlled, it is easy to turn into octopus-like or squid-like tentacles, which would be a bad idea.

Shaylin, Percy, Penelope, and Gemma all scored full marks of 50 points, while Cedric scored 40 points and Cassius scored 35 points.

The temporary standings are as follows: Shaylin 100 points, Percy and Penelope 90 points, Gemma 60 points, Cedric 50 points, and Cassius 35 points. Cassius basically has no hope of winning the championship, and Cedric has little chance either. There are only four contestants left to win the championship, and Shaylin, as the only junior student, is particularly eye-catching among the contestants.