Hogwarts: Harry Returns from Azeroth

Chapter 284, Section 283: The Arrival of the Muggles and the Signs of Public Revelation

The warriors have become the moving focus of the entire Hogwarts community. At least this year, they enjoy many special exemptions from school rules and are even allowed to enter the restricted section of the library to learn magic that is not normally allowed to ordinary students.

The Daily Prophet, of course, wouldn't miss such big news. Rita Skeeter once again visited Hogwarts and interviewed the warriors. As a true-blue old British wizard, her report naturally focused on the Hogwarts warriors.

The Ministry of Magic even invited Ollivander to test the wands of the eighteen warriors to ensure they were in the best possible condition.

The old man still had that eccentric air about him, clearly remembering the material of every wand he had sold, appearing very professional, and his words were filled with disapproval of another wandmaker, Gregorovich.

“As the headmaster of Hogwarts, I shouldn’t theoretically tell you the events of the Triwizard Tournament,” Harry said to Hermione as he and his friends walked toward the Great Totem after checking his wand.

“Then don’t say it,” Hermione said dryly. “That’s the right thing to do.”

“Theoretically, it’s correct, but in reality… it’s a tradition of the Triwizard Tournament,” Harry said with a light laugh. “Professor McGonagall even hinted to me to tell you, afraid that I would be too rigid to say anything.”

“Tradition?” Ron asked in surprise. “What tradition?”

"Cheating," Harry said briefly, "is exactly what you think. It's a standard procedure for every school to use various methods to let the warriors know what the competition is in advance so they can prepare accordingly."

"Huh? You can do that?" Neville's eyes widened in surprise.

“Of course,” Harry nodded slightly. “You know what? Sirius originally wanted to host a barbecue at the Great Totem to celebrate Hermione and me becoming champions, but when he went to invite Hagrid, he found that Hagrid was asking Madam Maxim out on a date.”

"Wow, that's really... fast," Ron couldn't help but exclaim. "Is Hagrid's romance progressing so smoothly?"

“That went too smoothly,” Harry said, suppressing a laugh. “Do you know where he first took Madam Maxim on a date?”

"The Forbidden Forest, right?" Hermione said without hesitation. "There's only one way: a ban. Hopefully, Hagrid hasn't shown her the Blasttail yet. I don't think a French lady would like that kind of thing."

“Giant ladies?” Ron muttered. “That’s interesting… So what were they doing in the Forbidden Forest?”

“Nothing was done,” Harry said, quite certain that Ron wasn’t using slang; the boy wasn’t old enough for that. “Hagrid just showed Madam Maxim the contents of the first match.”

"What is it?"

"Dragon," Harry said briefly, and his friends immediately stopped in their tracks.

As people who had once helped raise a dragon, no one knew better than Hermione and her friends just how powerful a dragon truly was.

“You mean—Angry Horn?” Ron’s voice was already trembling.

“Of course it’s not Angry Horn. Angry Horn is not a creature that an ordinary wizard can defeat,” Harry shook his head and said. “It’s just an ordinary fire dragon, and you don’t need to worry about anything. Of course, we can’t ask student warriors to defeat an adult fire dragon. That’s what professor warriors are supposed to do.”

“That sounds like really good news,” Ron chuckled dryly. “I have no doubt that you have the ability to take down a dragon, Harry.”

"Then what—what do I, a student warrior, need to do?" Hermione stammered.

"Student warriors will face a mother dragon in her incubation period. The dragon breeder will place a conspicuous golden egg in the mother dragon's nest, along with the eggs she normally lays. Your task is to find a way to steal the golden egg right under the mother dragon's nose."

"What?!" Ron immediately covered his head. "You'd better watch out! Hermione! A mother dragon with eggs! Good heavens, Charlie said that at this time, mother dragons will even attack male dragons. They are very violent and will kill any creature that gets close to their eggs."

"Hey, Ron, stop talking, you're scaring Hermione!" Neville quickly grabbed Ron's arm to stop him.

He was right; Hermione's face was already turning pale.

“It’s alright,” Hermione said stubbornly. “It’s just taking the golden egg, not asking us to defeat the dragon. It’s simple—let me think, the Disillusionment Charm should work, and maybe I can use the Eye Disorder Charm to distract the dragon…”

No longer caring about anything else, Hermione was now frantically racking her brains, trying to find a way to successfully complete the competition. She kept muttering to herself, which, to those who already knew her, was a sign of Hermione's nervousness.

"...Of course, and yours too—" Hermione suddenly turned her gaze to Harry, then hesitated, as if she wanted to say something but couldn't.

“It’s my pleasure, ma’am,” Harry chuckled, pulling a flowing, mercury-like cloak from his pouch.

The Potters' Invisibility Cloak.

"Th-thank you," Hermione stiffened for a moment, but quickly ignored Ron and Neville's stares and took the Invisibility Cloak. "But the Invisibility Cloak...can I use it? According to Crouch, aren't warriors supposed to rely solely on their wands when undertaking missions?"

“So you need a very simple spell to help you,” Harry shrugged. “The Summoning Charm, you know?”

"Of course!" Hermione's eyes lit up immediately. "The Invisibility Cloak, come on!"

The invisibility cloak in her hand remained completely still.

"what?"

“This invisibility cloak is special; it can resist the Summoning Charm,” Harry explained. “You need to put it in a small bag beforehand and then summon that bag—of course, you don’t have to. I’m just giving you an option. You can use any method you can think of to achieve the goal and show the audience just how powerful you really are.”

There's no doubt that Harry was instigating it.

"You can even defeat the fire dragon head-on!" Ron exclaimed excitedly. "I'm sure if you can defeat the fire dragon directly from the front and then take the golden egg, you'll get a much higher score! It'll be much higher than sneaking it away with the invisibility cloak! Everyone loves watching that!"

Ron is right.

With many people desperately helping to leak the information, even more than twenty days before the first match, every warrior already knew what the competition was, and the way time moved became increasingly bizarre. It was as if someone had kicked it hard from behind; many people weren't even prepared, but the competition had already begun.

Since the founding of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry a thousand years ago, this corner of the Scottish Highlands has never been so bustling.

Wizards, wizards, wizards everywhere you look. Far from the castle and near the mountains stands a colossal building—modeled after the ancient Roman Colosseum.

To be honest, building this style of architecture on an island nation like Britain is a bit odd, but... it's not a big problem.

The important thing is that it's cool.

This antique-style arena is the venue for this Triwizard Tournament. The building itself is already quite grand, and the wizards have further expanded the interior space of the building using the Unseen Stretch Charm.

The building not only had many public facilities, but also many rooms for rest and accommodation—but many wizards who bought tickets to watch the game chose to set up tents in the open space outside the arena.

Even if they are not allowed to get a step closer to Hogwarts.

But what's even more memorable is that so many Muggles set foot on Hogwarts grounds... Well, the last time so many Muggles entered here seems to have been during the witch hunts, when wizards invented spells like the Muggle Exorcism Charm to hide themselves.

However, that's all stuff for ancient wizards; for modern wizards, such things are somewhat unrealistic.

The Muggle prime ministers of Britain and France will personally attend the first match, accompanied by their entourages and a large number of Muggle government officials, as well as journalists from television stations and newspapers around the world.

The Ministry of Magic must ensure the safety of these Muggles, preventing them from being attacked by wizards who don't particularly like Muggles, or from harming themselves due to their ignorance of magic.

It can only be said that the past two years have been a good time for graduates to find employment, with a large number of jobs being created and the Ministry of Magic needing more staff.

The students were also very curious about these Muggles who had arrived early, because these Muggles were carrying many strange, camera-like things on their shoulders as they walked around Hogwarts. In the words of the Muggle students, they were video cameras.

In short, there was always a very beautiful woman in front of the camera, backing away while introducing the ancient castle and the wizarding school, and at these times there was always a professor following the reporters to answer their questions, it was unclear who they were explaining to.

Harry, with the authority of the headmaster, has temporarily lifted the giant Muggle expulsion charm and electronic interference charm that were enveloping the Hogwarts area, which is why these Muggle television stations were able to give such a detailed report and explanation of Hogwarts—in the form of a documentary.

Curiosity and the pursuit of supernatural powers are human instincts, but in the past, most people believed that these things did not exist. However, the resurgence of the elements has already shattered this perception.

This is simply to let them know that magic still exists in this world, and that those who have mastered new powers are not alone, nor are they lacking in oversight.

Harry knew that Muggle agents or spies would definitely use all sorts of methods to spy on Hogwarts, such as surveillance cameras or eavesdropping with some kind of technological gadget, but none of that mattered.

Muggles don't understand magic enough. They can't imagine how many ways a spell can appear and work if a wizard wants to invent a spell and starts thinking about how to disable something in a Muggle.

No need to understand, just make it work.

“Welcome, Prime Minister Hark,” Harry said, extending his hand. “Welcome to Hogwarts. I hope you have a wonderful time here and experience the magic.”

“Ah, hello, Principal Potter,” Jim Hack said with a smile, shaking hands. “Of course, uh, I mean, we’re certainly looking forward to it, aren’t we, Humphrey?”

“Yes, Prime Minister,” Humphrey’s face immediately lit up with a smile. “I heard there are dragons in this competition? Are they the kind of fire dragons I remember? The kind from mythology.”

No one can resist the allure of dragons, whether wizard or Muggle.

It's clear that the British Prime Minister and his cabinet secretary are very much looking forward to this trip.

"To be precise, a fire dragon will appear in the first competition," Scrimgeour said gruffly. "As for the following two events, please allow us to keep them confidential for now."

“Yes, a surprise,” Huck nodded repeatedly. “I love surprises…this is really nice.”

“I hope the Muggle government is ready to make magic public,” Scrimgeour continued. “Is that alright?”

“Of course,” Humphrey nodded repeatedly. “We have prepared a 32-episode television broadcast to deeply etch the impression into the minds of ordinary people that wizards are also human beings, they just hid it in the past.”

“Magic has always existed; aren’t the old witches in fairy tales just hiding in the forest?” Huck suddenly said with a smile, “That makes perfect sense, it fits everyone’s imagination—what? Is there a problem?”

He suddenly couldn't laugh anymore because Huck noticed that everyone, including Humphrey, was staring at him without saying a word.

“No problem,” Harry changed the subject, “However, real dragons are probably quite different from what you two imagine. They don’t speak human language, they don’t breathe world-destroying flames, and they are not symbols of Satan—at least wizards haven’t found any trace of Satan, Hell, or Heaven.”

“That would be wonderful,” Huck said, making the sign of the cross. “Ahem, I mean, could we go take a look at the dragon first? Sorry, I’m just curious.”

“Of course,” Bagman, who was waiting nearby, immediately said. “In fact, the French Prime Minister has already gone there first.”

"What?!" Huck tensed up immediately. "Damn it, we can't fall behind the French, this is England!"

“Yes, Prime Minister,” Humphrey immediately followed.

The Muggle government was quite cooperative... although to be precise, it was because the Ministry of Magic was no longer willing to hide it, and they had no choice but to cooperate.

But for the vast majority of ordinary Muggles, they have already begun to see experts and professors on television gradually laying the groundwork for the exposure of magic.

(End of this chapter)