I'm the King of Curry at Hogwarts

Chapter 281 Louis Digs a Hole

"Let's forget it, Louis," Harry coughed awkwardly, looking embarrassed. "What you say is always quite ambiguous, and I'm afraid Draco will misunderstand."

"What you said is what's misleading, isn't it?" Louis clicked his tongue twice. Just then, Crabbe and Goyle walked past him. The way the two of them were dressed... was a bit hard to describe. The strange feeling made people want to laugh.

The two were dressed in a rather eco-friendly way, all in bright green. But unlike the other Slytherin students, their green clothes made them look like large, moss-covered rocks.

I'm really afraid they'll say something like "target: quarry"...

Following them were Durmstrang's students and Principal Karkaroff. Krum walked in front, accompanied by a Beauxbatons student, who seemed to have no shortage of dance partners.

Louis recognized the student as the other girl who had cried with Marilyn because they hadn't been selected for the Triwizard Tournament.

She was no longer the disappointed and sad girl she once was. Instead, she looked down at everyone with a bright smile, as if she were a true warrior in the three-way battle.

"What? If you can't be a warrior, you'll dance with warriors?" Harry said somewhat displeased. He had a very bad first impression of this girl.

After Durmstrang passed by, he stepped aside from the oak gate. Looking through the gap, Louis saw that a lawn in front of the castle had been transformed into a cave, shimmering with fairy light. This meant that there were hundreds of little fairies inside, not much bigger than wasps. Some sat among roses created by magic, while others fluttered their wings on statues that looked like Santa Claus and his reindeer.

It's worth mentioning the profound influence of the Muggle world on the magical world's culture; theoretically, the magical world doesn't celebrate Christmas...

Given the grudge between the Church's witch hunt and the wizarding world, celebrating Christmas in the wizarding world is somewhat like a country invaded by the US celebrating the US's national day...

But that wasn't what Louis cared about. Anyway, he hadn't been punished by the church; he was just an ordinary person.

Just then, Professor McGonagall's voice rang out: "Brave warriors, come this way!"

"Let's go, Louise." Harry took a deep breath and led Lylastrasa toward Professor McGonagall.

Louis followed Catherine, and the crowd parted to make way for them.

It has to be said that Professor McGonagall's attire today was a bit unusual. She was wearing a red plaid woolen robe, and her hat brim was decorated with an unsightly wreath of thistle flowers. Perhaps it's just that older people have a generation gap with younger people.

She told the warriors and their partners to wait by the door, and let the others go in first. Just as the students were walking inside, Louise grabbed Professor McGonagall.

"Professor McGonagall!" he whispered.

Professor McGonagall turned around and saw it was Louise. Surprisingly, she smiled, a rare occurrence for her usually stern demeanor. "Oh, it's Louise. What can I do for you?"

Harry behind him kept rubbing his eyes. He was a little incredulous. Was this kind old lady in front of him really his headmistress?

"Oh, here's what happened." Louis explained Elizabeth's situation to Professor McGonagall in detail.

Harry thought to himself, Professor McGonagall would never agree. Are you kidding me? She's too old, and she's dressed as a boy... If she did agree, I'd eat the Golden Snitch!

But his worldview was quickly shattered.

"Well, since it's Elizabeth, then there's no problem." Professor McGonagall nodded, adding, "You must take good care of her, understand?"

"No problem at all, thank you, Professor!" Louis said happily.

Harry: ...

Fleur stood closest to the door, her dance partner Roger Davis, the Ravenclaw Quidditch captain. Louis saw the boy's expression; it was like looking at Miss High with Pigsy—his eyes were practically glued to Fleur's face.

He clearly couldn't believe his good fortune in being able to dance with such a beautiful girl as Fleur. Davis's mind and eyes were completely filled with Fleur, and he couldn't see anything else.

Once everyone was seated in the auditorium, Professor McGonagall instructed the warriors and their partners to line up in pairs and follow her inside. The warriors and their partners filed in with Professor McGonagall toward a large round table at the front of the auditorium where the judges were seated, and at the same time, the people in the auditorium applauded enthusiastically.

The walls of the auditorium were covered in shimmering silver frost, and the ceiling displayed a starlit night sky, adorned with hundreds of mistletoe twigs and ivy wreaths. The four academy tables were gone, replaced by a hundred small tables lit by lanterns, each crammed with about ten people. Yet, no one seemed displeased; they all happily watched the warriors walking in that direction, casually commenting on their attire.

Louis was a little nervous when he was changing clothes at home, wondering if he was being a bit pretentious, but now he couldn't be bothered to think about those issues anymore; as long as Catherine was happy, that was all that mattered.

The warriors approached the main seating area, and Dumbledore smiled happily, as if to say, "I planted a seed, and it has finally borne fruit." Karkaroff still wore a pained expression, especially after seeing Krum with a woman from Beauxbatons; the expression became even more pronounced, making it seem as if he had just had his wisdom teeth pulled that day.

Ludo Bagman still had the air of a playful old man. Today, he was wearing a bright purple robe with several large yellow stars printed on it. He was clapping enthusiastically with his classmates, a cheerful smile on his face.

Louis always felt that the image he projected was similar to Dumbledore's persona, but he also knew that Ludo Bagman was actually a gambling addict who couldn't afford a house.

Mrs. Maxim had changed out of her usual black satin uniform and into a flowing pale purple dress. Louis could clearly see that Mrs. Maxim was somewhat distracted; her attention was not on Fleur or Marilyn, but rather she was casually strolling around the hall, seemingly looking for someone.

Beside him was Mr. Zlatan Lovegood, who was wearing a black robe today. Next to him sat Akko, who was also wearing a black dress, but Akko's expression was somewhat unhappy, probably because she had been scolded by Mr. Lovegood for wanting to eat something.

The warriors and their partners sat at the table prepared for them. Harry, feeling a little unsure, sat next to Louise. Meanwhile, Fleur squeezed in next to Catherine and started chatting with her.

The conversation was nothing more than things like "Hey, you're amazing! Help me out!"

The gleaming gold plates in front of them were empty, but each person had a small menu. The menus looked familiar; looking at them, they tried to recall how they ordered at previous banquets—and then, the students frantically searched for cards and pens, but to their dismay, these items were nowhere to be found.

Dumbledore examined his menu carefully, then looked at his plate and said very clearly, "Pork chop!"

A magical thing happened: as soon as he finished speaking, a pork chop appeared on his plate. The students in the hall suddenly realized what was happening and followed suit, ordering their favorite foods onto their plates just like Dumbledore had done.

Harry glanced up at Hermione, wanting to see how she felt about this more complicated new way of dining—it certainly meant more work for the house-elves, didn't it? However, for the first time ever, Hermione seemed to have forgotten about SPEW; she was engrossed in a conversation with Ron, though it was too far away to hear what they were saying.

"What are you looking at?" Louis asked, noticing Harry peeking out.

"Oh, I was wondering how Hermione would feel, whether she would protest against the exploitation of the house-elves, but obviously," Harry said, tossing his head in Hermione's direction, "it seems I was overthinking it. Hermione's attention is all on Ron right now, she has no interest in the life or death of the house-elves."

"Sometimes being more flexible with standards isn't a bad thing," Louis said, raising an eyebrow. "But why didn't you order anything? Nothing on the menu suited my taste?"

As he spoke, Louis tapped his plate with his fork and quietly indicated what he wanted to eat.

"I'm not hungry yet," Harry said, grabbing Louis's blueberry pie and stuffing it into his mouth.

"Hey, you're not hungry, so you're going to eat my blueberry pie, huh?" Louis chuckled, then moved the plate to the side, placing it next to Catherine.

Seeing Louis's actions, Catherine asked with concern, "What's wrong?"

"It's nothing, Harry just stole my food," Louis explained with a laugh. "What are you guys talking about?"

"I'm listening to Krum and that Beauxbatons bragging about Durmstrang," Catherine said in a voice only the two of them could hear.

Louis focused his attention and, sure enough, heard what Viktor said.

"Ah, we also have a castle, but I don't think it's as big as this one, nor as comfortable as Hogwarts." He was quite talkative, which didn't match his aloof and god-like demeanor. "We only have four floors, and we can only light fires when casting spells, but our grounds are more spacious than this one, I mean the Quidditch pitch... However, the days are very short in winter, just like at Hogwarts. I have a Muggle friend who told me it's because of some latitude issue, I'm not quite sure. We can only play freely in the summer, we fly around every day, over lakes, over mountains..."

"Alright, alright, Victor!" Karkaroff interrupted Victor, letting out a cold laugh, though his icy eyes held no mirth. "Don't reveal any more secrets, or your charming friend will find out where we are!"

Dumbledore smiled, his eyes sparkling, and said, "Igor, keeping this a secret like this makes people think you don't welcome visitors..."

"Oh, Dumbledore, what are you saying?" Karkaroff grinned, revealing a mouthful of yellow teeth. "We all want to protect our own private domain, don't we? Don't we need to carefully guard the school halls entrusted to our care? Shouldn't we be proud that only we know the school's secrets? Aren't these secrets worth keeping?"

Grindelwald, who was sitting not far behind Dumbledore, let out a sneer. The sound was so clear that Karkaroff heard it, but he was too embarrassed to make a sound in this situation.

Grindelwald's meaning was clear: even I wouldn't dare say I understand Durmstrang, so who do you think you are to brag like that? These young people these days, seriously? Aren't you afraid of biting off more than you can chew?

"Even as the headmaster of Hogwarts, I wouldn't dare claim to know all of Hogwarts' secrets, Igor," Dumbledore said lightly. "Schools with a long and rich history hold secrets beyond our comprehension. For example, I've never been able to figure out where those red-haired twins in our sixth year hide every day to play hide-and-seek with the teachers. Good heavens, I haven't caught them out at night since they started their second year..."

"Perhaps you're getting on in years," Karkaroff said sarcastically. "I believe that if it were me, I could find them in just one night—no! One hour…no! Just a dozen minutes!"

"Then you can give it a try, my dear Igor." Dumbledore smiled, raising his glass to Karkaroff. "We might as well pick a day when you're relatively free and let you see how long it takes you to catch the Weasley twins. Oh, and if you manage to catch them, please don't forget to share your methods with me, after all, those two are quite a handful for the professors..."

"Hmph... I'm very busy, Albus." Karkaroff gave a disdainful smile. "I don't have time to play games with your students. You'll have to handle disciplining them yourself."

"Well then, Professor Karkaroff," Louis suddenly interjected, "after all, you are the headmaster of Durmstrang, and it would be really inconvenient to ask you to do this. I think if you can successfully capture these troublesome twins, I would personally be willing to sponsor Durmstrang with 10,000 Galleons as a subsidy for Durmstrang's food, lodging, and transportation during his stay at Hogwarts. What do you say?"

"Are you serious?" Karkaroff's interest was immediately piqued.

(End of this chapter)