Harry Potter and the Great Old Ones

Chapter 297 The Day of Registration
The next day was Saturday, and generally, the students ate breakfast very late.

However, Harry wasn't the only one who got up much earlier than usual for a weekend. Ron and Hermione also got up early. When they went downstairs and entered the foyer, they saw more than twenty people gathered there, some of whom were still eating bread.

But Tiera did not appear.

To be precise, Tyella was unusually late for bed today; no matter how much Harry called her, Tyella refused to leave the Gryffindor common room.

After Harry, Ron, and Hermione left, Tyrell picked up a book and leaned against the dormitory window to read it carefully.

Last night, after returning to his dorm, he found a note on his bed—

"Do not go to the auditorium or the secret room before dinner."

The note contained only a simple sentence, written in my own handwriting.

In that instant, combined with her previous experience in the corridor, Tierra understood what had happened.

Clearly, her future self needed to go back in time for something, so Tierra decided to stay in her dorm room as instructed by her future self.

"Sigh, what a pity about that iconic scene." Tiera sighed regretfully.

Tierra actually really wanted to take a camera and record the scene of the Weasley twins fighting after they turned into two old men.

If one of the twins were to actually sacrifice themselves in the future, Tiera could release this video, and the expression on the remaining twin's face would be incredibly amusing.

"Sigh, never mind, I'll just be a decent human being." Tiera sighed again with regret, then continued reading the book in her hands.

……

Meanwhile, in the Hogwarts banquet hall.

Fred, George, and Lee Jordan hurried down the stairs, all three of them appearing extremely excited.

"It's done, it's done, it's done!" Fred whispered to Harry, Ron, and Hermione in a smug tone. "They just drank it."

"What?" Ron asked.

“An aging agent, you idiot,” Fred said.

“We each drank a drop,” George said, rubbing his hands together with delight. “We just need to grow a few more months.”

“If any of us wins, the thousand Galleons will be split equally among the three of us,” Li Dani said, her face beaming with joy.

"That's impossible," Hermione said haughtily to the camera lens.

But Fred, George, and Lee ignored her.

"Ready?" Fred asked the other two, his body trembling with excitement. "Then come on, I'll go in first—"

Harry watched with fascination as Fred pulled a piece of parchment from his pocket, which read "Fred Weasley" on it.

Fred walked straight to the edge of the age line, stood there, and swayed on his tiptoes like a diver preparing to jump from a fifty-foot platform.

Then, under the watchful eyes of everyone in the foyer, he took a deep breath and crossed the line.

For a fleeting moment, Harry thought Fred had succeeded—

George must have thought so too, for he let out a triumphant shout and jumped forward after Fred—

But then came a hissing sound, and the twins were thrown outside the golden circle, as if an unseen shot putter had hurled them. They landed painfully on the cold stone ground ten feet away, suffering not only physical pain but also humiliation. With a loud crack, identical long white beards sprouted from their chins. The people in the hall erupted in laughter. Even Fred and George, after getting up and seeing each other's white beards, couldn't help but burst into laughter.

“I warned you,” a deep, amused voice said, and everyone turned to see Professor Dumbledore walking out of the Great Hall.

He looked Fred and George up and down, his eyes sparkling with delight. “I suggest you both go see Mrs. Pomfrey. She’s already taking care of Miss Fawcett of Ravenclaw and Mr. Summers of Hufflepuff. They’re both determined to get a little older, though I must say their beards are nowhere near as handsome as yours.”

Fred and George set off for the hospital, and Lee Jordan went with them. He was still chuckling non-stop. Harry, Ron, and Hermione also giggled as they went into the Great Hall for breakfast.

Dumbledore also entered the Great Hall and took his seat.

Before taking his seat, Dumbledore looked up with a puzzled expression, his gaze sweeping warily across the glass walls of the Great Hall, but—

Dumbledore found nothing, so he stroked his beard and sat down in his seat.

That morning, the auditorium's decorations changed again. Because it was Halloween, a large swarm of live bats flew around the enchanted ceiling, while hundreds of pumpkin figures peered at everyone from every corner.

It was a very noisy environment, so even Dumbledore had difficulty seeing with his naked eye the white light that occasionally flashed across the towering glass windows of the banquet hall.

Around three or four in the afternoon, which was close to dinner time, a light rain began to fall. Tyella finally emerged from the Gryffindor common room after being half-pushed and half-coaxed by Harry and Hermione, and followed the crowd to the banquet hall.

Students from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang also emerged from their residences and entered the banquet hall.

When they entered the candlelit hall, it was almost full.

The Goblet of Fire has been moved; it now stands on the faculty desk in front of Dumbledore's empty chair.

Fred and George's chins are bald again—

They seem to have accepted their defeat with equanimity.

“I wish it were Angelina,” Fred said as Tyrell, Harry, Ron, and Hermione sat down.

“Me too!” Hermione exclaimed, holding her breath. “Ah, we’ll find out soon enough!”

“As a prophet,” Tierra said, taking the opportunity to show off her “prophetic abilities,” “I can tell you with certainty that we in Gryffindor will definitely have a champion, and it will be someone you know.”

The Halloween dinner seemed to last much longer than usual.

Perhaps because there were banquets for two consecutive days, even Ron didn't seem to enjoy the elaborately prepared dishes as much as he usually did.

People in the auditorium craned their necks to look, and every face showed anxiety.

Everyone was restless, constantly standing up to see if Dumbledore had finished eating.

Harry, like them, couldn't wait to finish what was on his plate so he could find out who had been chosen as a champion.

Finally, the golden plate returned to its original spotless state, and the noise in the auditorium suddenly rose considerably.

Dumbledore immediately stood up, and the Great Hall fell silent once more.

Karkaroff and Mrs. Maxim, flanking Dumbledore, looked just as nervous and expectant as everyone else.

Ludobagman smiled broadly and winked at the students from various schools, while Mr. Crouch looked rather bored, almost annoyed.

Thank you xiaotang246 for the 100 Qidian coins!

Thank you Yuanza for voting for January.
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Thank you for casting your February vote, Nieyuanjie.
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(End of this chapter)