I'm the King of Curry at Hogwarts

Chapter 249 The Triumph of the Three Kingdoms

Ron is a farsighted man; he wouldn't give up an entire forest for a single sapling.

Of course, to him now, the baguette Louis handed him was a small tree, while the upcoming college feast was a whole lush forest.

He decided to go hungry for a while longer.

Therefore, Vitalie carefully collected the baguette.

"You're not allowed to treat food like that!" Vitalie snorted.

As a country with a rich culinary tradition, Vitali has always held a deep reverence for the representative foods of her nation.

Finally, the Sorting Ceremony ended with the shout that Kevin Whitby had been sorted into Hufflepuff. Professor McGonagall picked up the Sorting Hat and the stool, and carried them away.

"It's about to begin!" Ron perked up, holding a knife in his left hand and a fork in his right, looking at the plate in front of him with an eager expression.

But it was clear that Dumbledore wouldn't just order dinner to start so easily—putting aside the new school year and new teachers, it would take some time just to introduce the guests.

He stood up, smiled at all his classmates, and opened his arms in a welcoming gesture.

"I know you're all in a hurry, but I'd like you to hold on a little longer," Dumbledore said with a smile. "There's a lot to discuss before dinner—but I imagine it won't take long."

"First, let's talk about ourselves—it's with great regret that we announce that Professor R.J. Lupin has resigned from his position as Professor of Defense Against the Dark Arts at Hogwarts for personal reasons." Dumbledore then turned to Emma, ​​who was lounging in the faculty area, idly playing with her hair, and announced loudly, "However, fortunately, there's an even more outstanding candidate: our distinguished Hogwarts graduate, Ms. Emma Mountbatten!"

Emma heard Dumbledore calling her, and she stood up, smiling very elegantly and dignifiedly, and nodded to her classmates.

Upon seeing that the new Defense Against the Dark Arts professor was such a beautiful woman, the students were stunned for a moment before cheering in unison. After all, no one would dislike having a beautiful teacher.

The Slytherins, in particular, cheered even louder—they had heard that the new teacher's surname was Mountbatten, and as the saying goes, a local official is more powerful than a distant one. In order to curry favor with Louis, the students kept shouting their hearts out.

"Louis, our new teacher's last name is also Mountbatten. May I ask who she is...?" Pansy asked hesitantly.

"My mother," Louise admitted frankly, without hesitation.

Pansy was filled with awe. To raise such an outstanding and excellent wizard as Louise, her mother must have also been a great wizard.

However... well, to be honest, Emma didn't really contribute anything to Louis's excellence, but then again, giving birth to Louis was the best way to nurture him.

Even after Emma sat down, the Great Hall was filled with prolonged applause, which only subsided when Dumbledore gestured for it to quiet down. He then announced, "Furthermore, Hogwarts will be renovating and expanding its library, and the new librarian will be—Miss Patchouli Knowledge!"

Patchouli rose gracefully from her seat and gave a slight bow. The cheers grew even louder upon seeing that the new library director was also a beautiful young woman.

"As I just said," Dumbledore said, silencing the students' noise, "we will be very honored to host a very exciting event in the coming months, an event that hasn't been held for a century. I am very pleased to announce that the Triwizard Tournament will be held at Hogwarts this year."

"As you can see, Beauxbatons and Durmstrang's classmates have arrived at Hogwarts. Of course, we'll discuss the specifics of the Triwizard Tournament after dinner. I think everyone is eager to eat now, so... let the feast begin!"

Finally, Professor Dumbledore spoke those words. As his deep voice fell, the students watched in disbelief as their empty plates were instantly filled with a sumptuous feast.

Magic changes lives, as Dumbledore said.

Beauxbatons and Durmstrang's classmates seemed to be seeing this for the first time; they stared blankly at the food in front of them.

What's going on here? Can anyone explain why the students at Hogwarts have such magical meals?

This is a completely new version they've never experienced before.

The food was plentiful. Unlike previous years, Dumbledore specially ordered the kitchen to prepare a lot of Eastern European dishes to welcome the guests. As for the French food for Beauxbatons, the kitchen did not specially prepare it, since they usually ate a lot of French food.

"To be honest, I don't like fish soup." Louis looked at the French mixed fish soup in front of him and didn't want to drink a drop. He didn't like eating fish in the first place and was very sensitive to the fishy smell. Today, Dumbledore had prepared three kinds of seafood soup to take care of the Beauxbatons.

Louis was about to call out to Aslo when he turned around and found Aslo fawning over his mother, his expression filled with such gratitude that it gave Louis goosebumps.

"Oh well, I can just skip the soup," Louis consoled himself.

Catherine knew, of course, that Louis didn't like fish soup. After whispering a few words in Christasan's ear, a little while later, the house-elf placed a bowl of potato soup in front of Louis.

Louis then showed a happy expression. He patted Catherine's thigh and reached for a slice of baguette on the table. The baked baguette, unlike usual, was softer and more easily used as a weapon. He used it to eat potato soup, and each bite was full of satisfaction.

He was mainly starving. He had only eaten one meal since morning. In fact, he was even hungrier than Ron, but he just didn't say it.

The founder of Hogwarts was very visionary. The welcome banquet for new students was undoubtedly a perfect event. Students who had been on the train for most of the day didn't have much of an appetite and probably wouldn't have been able to eat much. After getting off the train, they would have to walk for half a day on the cold road and then wait in the Great Hall. It would be very strange if they weren't hungry.

But this time, the main force of the dry rice was obviously Durmstrang's classmates. The girls were fine, and they were still able to maintain their elegant eating manners, but the boys were not so... well, they controlled themselves. Krum is indeed Ron's idol. Even when it comes to dry rice, he is better than Ron. He recreated the famous scene of the chicken leg berserk battle.

"I knew Krum and I would click, you see?" Ron said to Harry with great enthusiasm, and Harry glanced at him and nodded vigorously.

After the main course was finished, Dumbledore beckoned again, and the sumptuous main course on the table was removed and replaced with a dazzling array of desserts.

At the end of the banquet, the desserts were all gone. After everyone had eaten and drunk their fill, Dumbledore stood up again. He reached out and pressed down, and the murmurs in the hall immediately disappeared, leaving only the sound of a storm raging outside.

"Alright," Dumbledore said with a smile, looking at everyone. "Now that we've all eaten and drunk our fill, I must once again draw your attention to a few announcements I have to make."

"Mr. Filch, the gatekeeper, wants me to tell you that a few more items have been added to the list of prohibited items in the castle this year. They are screaming yo-yos, toothed flying saucers, and boomerangs. The list now has 437 items in total. You can see them in Filch's office. Anyone who is interested can go and check them out."

At this point, Dumbledore gave the Weasley twins a meaningful look, and the twins, in turn, made a helpless shrug in unison.

They both felt that Filch was targeting them, but they had no proof.

"As before, I must remind everyone, especially the students from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang, that the Forbidden Forest over there is off-limits to students, and Hogsmeade Village is off-limits to all students below the third year. Also, this year the Quidditch House Cup will not be held; instead, an ancient and large-scale event will take place, which is the Triwizard Tournament that I mentioned before dinner."

No sooner had the words been spoken than a deafening clap of thunder sounded outside, followed by a streak of silver lightning flashing across the simulated sky above the auditorium.

Just then, the auditorium doors were suddenly kicked open, and a man stood in the doorway, leaning on a long cane and wearing a black travel cloak.

Another bolt of lightning flashed across the hall, illuminating the face of the person who had just arrived.

"Too ugly," was everyone's first impression. The second impression was that he was incredibly grotesque, even more ferocious than a Death Eater. Louis, of course, also noticed the newcomer's appearance. How to put it... he looked a bit like the Butcher from Dota? Something like that.

Ah...fresh meat!

One of his eyes was normal, while the other eye wore an eyepatch like a one-eyed captain. The difference was that he wasn't wearing an eyepatch, but a magical prosthetic eye. That blue prosthetic eye kept turning around, like someone with ADHD, darting around and staring at the crowd in the auditorium.

It was Mad-Eye Moody, after all, that image was too obvious, if Louis wasn't mistaken—it's just a matter of whether it was Moody himself or if he had been disguised by Barty Crouch Jr.

Moody walked over to Dumbledore, extended a hand as scarred as his face, shook hands with Dumbledore, exchanged a few words in hushed tones, and then sat down beside him at Dumbledore's invitation.

Moody didn't stand on ceremony. He plopped down, grabbed the plate of sausages in front of Dumbledore, pulled out a shiny little knife from his pocket, forked it onto the sausages, and began to eat heartily. At the same time, his prosthetic eye was also busy, darting around haphazardly, as if sizing up the faculty and staff beside him, as well as the guests from the other two schools.

"Please allow me to introduce this battle-hardened warrior," Dumbledore said cheerfully, breaking the silence. "Alastor Moody, an Auror who has spent his life fighting dark wizards, and of course, you can see the battle scars on his body..."

Goodness, Moody (Star) is battered and bruised, isn't he?

"I am pleased to announce that Mr. Moody will be in charge of security for our Triwizard Tournament in the new year."

As he spoke, Dumbledore clapped first, and Hagrid followed suit—but it was only the two of them, and the applause sounded lonely and extremely awkward. Everyone else was stunned by Moody's strange appearance and stared at him intently.

Lewis clapped along with Dumbledore, and seeing his action, all the students in Slytherin started clapping, which inspired the other houses as well, and the Great Hall was bustling again.

Moody looked at everyone in surprise. He seemed not to have expected to be so welcomed at Hogwarts. With his prison-like appearance, it would be a miracle if he didn't scare the children to tears. When had he ever been so welcomed before?

He reached into his travel cloak, pulled out a curved bottle, took a large gulp, and then let out a burp, his face flushed.

"Perhaps some of you don't know what the Triwizard Tournament is, so please allow me to introduce it to you," Dumbledore said with a smile. "The Triwizard Tournament was established about seven hundred years ago. It is a friendly competition between the three largest magic schools in Europe: Hogwarts, Beauxbatons, and Durmstrang. Each school selects one champion, and then the three champions compete in three different magical events. The Triwizard Tournament is held every five years, with the three schools taking turns hosting it."

"Everyone agreed that this was a great way for young wizards from different countries to build friendships, but later, the death toll became too high, and the Triwizard Tournament was interrupted."

"For centuries, there have been several attempts to revive the Triwizard Tournament, but none have been successful," Dumbledore continued. "However, our Department of International Magical Cooperation and the Department of Magical Sports of the Ministry of Magic believe that the time is ripe for another attempt, and we have done much work this summer to ensure that none of our champions are in mortal danger."

Hearing this, Louis pursed his lips, secretly thinking, "Then explain why Cedric suddenly died?"

"And today, the headmasters of Beauxbatons and Durmstrang have led their carefully selected competitors to Hogwarts. The selection ceremony for the champions will be held the day after the Halloween party. An impartial referee will decide which students will ultimately qualify to compete for the Triwizard Cup, bringing honor to their schools, and he himself will receive a prize of 50,000 Galleons!"

At this point, Karkaroff and Mrs. Maxim both looked at Dumbledore, wondering why the usually stingy Dumbledore had suddenly become so generous.

The Hogwarts upperclassmen were alright; they had long been numb to Lewis's sweet talk. But the freshmen and students from the other two schools were not so calm. They were breathing heavily, their ears filled with the thought of 50,000 Galleons, and even Viktor Krum was the same.

(End of this chapter)