A day at Hogwarts.

Chapter 554 Advertise it widely

On match day, Diagon Alley was rarely this crowded. Crowds surged beneath Gringotts' white marble steps, and the Aurors from the Ministry of Magic maintained order with stern faces.

Gronook stood on the high platform, his scarlet uniform glaringly bright in the sunlight.

His metallic, scraping voice cut through the clamor of the crowd: "Silence! The challenge begins! Rules reiterated—there are no rules!"

His sharp gaze swept across the crowd again and again, but there wasn't a single person from Farbatton Castle. He searched for a long time without finding anyone, and a cold smile mixed with disappointment and contempt crept up the corners of his grayish-blue lips.

“It seems some of our high-flown commentators,” his voice carrying clearly to every corner, “are more accustomed to the kitchen stove than to a real magical battlefield. No matter! Thirty thousand Galleons belong only to those truly capable!”

Gringotts has created a special passageway where challengers, reporters, and guests can ride in small cars straight down to the underground vault.

Five newly trained Peruvian venomous fanged dragons were brought out to make a grand display, swaggering along both sides of the railway, which was quite frightening.

Chairs were arranged in front of the black vault doors, with press seats on both sides, the challengers' seats in the front center, and fairy representatives from all over the world behind them.

Amidst a flurry of camera flashes, Gronk announced the start of the match.

The first to appear was an Inuit shaman from the Arctic Circle, as burly as a moving iron tower, wearing a wolfskin coat.

He roared and swung his wand, a thick bolt of dark red lightning slamming into the door; even the whale couldn't withstand the spell.

With a deafening roar, smoke and dust filled the air, and gravel rained down.

The gate channeled the energy of the spell to the surrounding rocks, but the next moment the shattered stones and flying dust returned like a movie rewinding, returning to normal as if nothing had happened.

The wizard nodded, and this time the spell lasted longer and was much more powerful, like an earthquake.

As the smoke and dust dissipated, a huge, charred gash was clearly visible on the thick rock wall surrounding the gate.

Just as the Eskimo wizard's face broke into a triumphant smile, a sudden change occurred.

A piercing alarm tore through the air as goblin guards and Peruvian venomous dragons swarmed in.

The rocks around the gate suddenly collapsed, twisted, and grew inward as if they were alive. Countless sharp stalagmites instantly sealed the hole, surrounding the wizard. The surface was covered with flowing mercury light, and magical runes flickered faintly.

The wizard's smile froze on his face.

Next came a young witch from the Apennine Peninsula. She walked lightly toward the vault door, flashing a sweet smile that could melt ice and snow at the fairy guards and Peruvian venomous dragons that had just arrived.

A silent incantation swept through the air, creating ripples of floral fragrance. The guard's eyes became dazed, and his fingers slightly loosened their grip on his weapon. The Peruvian venomous dragon obediently crouched on the ground.

The witch walked gracefully toward the door, her fingertips almost touching the cold metal.

In that instant, two blinding red beams of light suddenly burst from the eye sockets of a distorted fairy face relief on the lintel and struck her. The door lit up with an eerie light, and the fairy relief emitted a sharp, high-pitched scream.

"Psychological interference! Target confirmed! Countermeasures initiated!"

The witch screamed as if she had been hit on the head, clutching her head and staggering backward.

The guards snapped to attention, raising their weapons, blades pointed directly at her exquisite silk robe.

The Peruvian venomous dragon also regained consciousness and roared under the fairy's control.

At the organizer's table, Gronook gently breathed on his monocle, slowly wiping it, and let out a soft hum.

Then top wizards from all over the world took turns to participate.

A shaman from a sub-Saharan tribal shaman, his face painted with totems drawn from white bone powder, squatted on the ground, his hands pressed against the cold stone slab, and a low, long chant came from his throat.

The ground began to tremble, and tiny grains of sand gathered together as if they were alive, condensing into a huge fist that shimmered with an earthy yellow light. It carried the power of the earth and crashed into the stone wall on the side of the vault!
"Boom boom boom!"

The dull, drum-like sound made one's feet go numb, the stone walls shook violently, and dust fell in a flurry.

However, once the giant fist of sand and stones dissipated, only a shallow pit remained on the surface of the stone wall. A layer of flowing, bronze-colored magical barrier instantly covered it, silently absorbing all the impact.

The African shaman staggered backward, his face covered in sweat, his totems stained with disbelief.

Immediately afterwards, a shaman from Japan stepped forward and bowed to the organizers.

He was dressed in a dark blue robe, his face calm and serene. He did not use a wand, but instead took out a stack of origami from his sleeve.

He muttered incantations, his fingers moving nimbly, folding paper into ferocious beasts that roared in fear, even terrifying the Peruvian venomous dragon.

These beasts did not use brute force, but instead pounced on several extremely tiny magical nodes on the vault door, a secret technique to break the core of the magic.

But the moment the beasts touched the gate, those nodes and the surrounding area suddenly lit up, as if a series of cold eyes had opened.

These eyes acted like magic vacuum cleaners, instantly absorbing the magic from the origami, turning the beast back into paper, and causing it to fall to the ground.

The wizard frowned, shook his head slightly, and silently withdrew.

For three days and three nights, the rocks in front of and on both sides of the vault door finally became somewhat pitted, but the door still showed no sign of being breached.

The initial fighting spirit was replaced by exhaustion, frustration, and numbness. The shadow of defeat loomed over every wizard, and the reporters also became dejected.

The smug looks on the faces of the surrounding fairies grew stronger.

The competition ended on the third day.

It wasn't that the competition was initially scheduled for only three days, but rather that no new wizards were participating at this point.

The remaining wizards were all unwilling to give up and wanted to see what method could be used to break the door.

Gringotts invited Fudge and Dumbledore to the closing ceremony, and Fudge arrived with Percy, all smiles. However, Dumbledore declined, citing the Triwizard Tournament at Hogwarts as the reason, mainly because he didn't want to become a prop in some kind of play between Charles and the goblins.

He became increasingly certain that Charles had done something.

Gronook reappeared on the podium, his smile reserved yet arrogant: "The match is over!"

The fairies applauded enthusiastically.

A foreign fairy disdainfully said to the fairy next to her, "The wisdom of a wizard? The power of a wizard? Nothing special!"

Gronk waved his hand excitedly and said, "Gringotts' defenses remain an unshakeable cornerstone of the wizarding world!"

He beckoned, and the fairy guard captain solemnly pulled out a complexly designed key that shimmered with multiple magical halos—the ultimate control key to the vault.

The key is inserted into the concealed keyhole and rotated in a specific number of turns and in a specific direction.

"Click...click...creak..."

The heavy creaking of the machinery, like a giant beast turning over, and the massive, magically convoluted, trap-filled gates of the ultimate vault that had shattered the faith of countless wizards, finally slowly opened inward.

From the crack in the door, a stream of air carrying a fragrance that shouldn't have been there surged out, followed by a breathtaking burst of pure golden light.

Thirty thousand Galleons were stacked into a near-perfect cone, radiating a substantial weight under the magical light source.

The sheer radiance of this wealth instantly took everyone's breath away, and Gronouk's triumphant smile was even brighter than usual.

However, the solidification lasted only one second.

Amidst that breathtaking, solidified golden radiance, a huge, dazzling object suddenly appeared, automatically springing open and unfolding atop the mountain of gold coins with a "whoosh"!

That's not some rare treasure.

It was a huge, beautifully crafted magic banner!

The banner's background is a vibrant emerald green, with lively gold lettering that reads in a bold, flowing style:

"Warmest congratulations on the successful conclusion of the Gringotts Vault Challenge!"

"This event is proudly sponsored by Dancing Grass Restaurant!"

"Enjoy the delicious flavors of summer at Dancing Grass! World cuisine awaits you!"

Below the banner, a row of working elves dressed in chef's uniforms and other clothes are tap dancing. The elf in the middle is wearing a black suit, sunglasses, a gold chain around his neck that weighs several pounds, and a gold watch on his wrist that is as big as his eyes, flashing with gold light from time to time.

Dead silence.

Absolute, heart-stopping silence.

The brilliance of the 30,000 Galleons was still dazzling, but it was overshadowed by the huge emerald green banner.

The only sound echoing in the entire space was the soft "whoosh" of the banner being unfurled.

Gronouk's smile shattered completely, peeling away to reveal the deathly gray stiffness beneath.

His bulging eyes almost popped out of their sockets as he stared intently at the glaring emerald green and gold lettering, especially "Dancing Grass Restaurant".

All the fairies instantly turned into statues under a petrification spell, frozen in place.

The fairy guard captain let out a short, sharp gasp, as if he were being choked, and collapsed to the ground.

The deathly silence was only to the fairies; wizards from all over the world were discussing it in a variety of languages, and many of them had taken out translation parrots and placed them on their shoulders.

"Dancing Grass Restaurant?!"

"Is that the restaurant where you can eat food from all over the world? I heard that the chefs are house-elves."

“They are not house-elves, but working elves. The elves working there receive wages, bonuses, days off, annual leave, and pensions.”

"What do you think about me and the compound decoction turning into little elves and going to work?"

"What if a fairy girl proposes to you, given how handsome you are?"

……

Foreign wizards who were unaware of the situation chatted and laughed, while many British wizards who knew the inside story looked at each other in bewilderment.

Fudge maintained his composed smile and turned to Percy, saying, "I knew Charles wouldn't stand idly by."

Percy nodded, making the negotiations regarding the tent insurance claim much easier from now on.

Countless flashes went off, and the banners for Gringotts' Gold Coin Mountain and Dancing Grass Restaurant were soon visible all over the world.

Rita Skeeter's assistant had already taken the photos; his camera was a recent gift from Charles, and the photos were sent to the editorial office of The Daily Prophet immediately.

The wizards at the Daily Prophet were already on high alert. As soon as the photos arrived, they were immediately placed on the prepared printing plates. The printing press roared, and the freshly printed extra edition quickly spread throughout Britain.

Gronouk stared at the huge, glaring banner, and his body began to tremble uncontrollably.

He made a gurgling, unintelligible sound in his throat, his face turned from ashen to a terrifying purplish-red, and finally, his eyes rolled back, and he fell straight backward, his scarlet uniform lying like a tattered rag on the cold ground.

The key, symbolizing Gringotts' ultimate security authority, clattered to the ground.

(End of this chapter)