I'm the King of Curry at Hogwarts

Chapter 314 You're the Dog

Viktor had indeed finished the battle. He was now lying on the ground, panting. That Blast-tailed Snail was really hard to deal with. He had only managed to find an opening and use a thunderous explosion to send it flying into the sky.

Viktor lay exhausted on the ground, drenched in sweat, breathing heavily like a bellows. He had truly run himself to death. Viktor vowed to himself that he would never run like that again.

If I run any further, I'll be ruined.

Just as he lay on the ground catching his breath, the rustling of the hedge maze around him began again.

In despair, he picked up his wand. This time, there was no escaping it. Holding the wand high, he stared intently ahead, as if facing a formidable enemy.

Viktor had already decided that he would either succeed or die trying; he would rather be entangled to death by that blasting snail than raise his wand in humiliation to send out a distress signal.

The rustling grew louder and louder, and the hedge maze swayed more and more violently. Viktor prepared himself with a serious expression. Just as his heart was in his throat, a figure finally emerged from the hedge maze. He looked closely and saw that it was Cedric Diggory.

Cedric looked flustered, and smoke was still rising from his sleeves.

"Hagrid's Blast-tailed Conch!" Cedric cried out in panic, "It's huge—I barely managed to escape, oh my god..."

Viktor's expression changed immediately.

"Did you lure the slugs here?" he asked, staring at the rustling hedge behind Cedric with a hostile expression.

"Ah, I just panicked and didn't know where I was going..." Cedric said with a dry laugh, taking two steps forward and drawing his wand to stare in the direction he had come from.

Ron, in the commentary booth, chuckled, "Oh dear, it looks like our Cedric is being a bit dishonest. He lured the Blaster to the exhausted Viktor. Poor Viktor... tsk tsk..."

"Everyone says Hufflepuffs are honest and reliable, but it seems they're not so honest after all..." Li Jordan commented, drawing angry glares from a group of Hufflepuff classmates.

The situation inside the maze was not optimistic. Both of them were panting heavily, and Viktor, who seemed to be the stronger fighter, was completely exhausted.

Viktor quickly said, "We can talk about our accounts later. What I need to tell you now is to find the right moment to unleash a thunderous explosion on the tail of the Blast-tailed Snail. They're terrified of this spell; it'll blast them into the air... Okay, I'm done. Be careful. If there's any danger, just raise your hand to signal, and I'll abandon you and run without hesitation!"

"That's what I should be saying," Cedric scoffed. "You're the one who should be running away; there's no going back at Hogwarts!"

Viktor glanced at Cedric with considerable surprise; he hadn't expected this seemingly delicate and mild-mannered young man to be so assertive. He chuckled and said, "We'll see, Diggory. I hope you're not just all talk."

As it was speaking, the fritter-tailed snail emerged from the hedge.

Wow, this blasting-tailed snail is bigger than the two Viktor saw before. If I'm not mistaken, it's almost as big as an elephant.

"What kind of monster is your hunting ground manager? Merlin's stockings..." Viktor exclaimed, speechless. "This thing...this thing is huge! My God, Mary..."

"It's normal for things to be a bit wild," Cedric said calmly and objectively. "After all, Hagrid himself is quite wild, so it's expected that the things he cultivates will be wild as well."

He estimated that his physical strength was much better than Viktor's, and he didn't need to run very fast—just a tiny bit faster than Viktor would be enough.

Fortunately, the two worked together quite well. Although the Blast-tailed Snail was enormous, it was extremely clumsy. Although the fight was a bit difficult, with their combined efforts, the Blast-tailed Snail was flipped to the ground and then easily sent into the sky by a spell.

"Oh my God, how barbaric! They shouldn't be treated like this!" Hagrid cried out, his face full of heartache, but no one understood him. Instead, they all looked at him as if he were a monster.

What a lunatic! How could someone find something so twisted and distorted cute?

Hagrid's aesthetic sense has always been disastrous, and the students at Hogwarts are already used to it.

Actually, this fried-tailed snail isn't so bad, it's just a bit ugly, smelly, and has a fiery temper.

The two, still shaken, exchanged a glance. Cedric opened his mouth to speak, but a scream came from afar.

"It's Fleur!" Viktor gasped, looking up at Cedric. "Something's happened to her!"

"I hope she's alright." Cedric glanced at him, then turned and left without saying a word.

The commentators didn't have time to pay attention to what the two of them were doing. They switched the perspective to Furong's position and saw Furong retreating in terror.

Following her perspective, everyone also glimpsed the full extent of the danger that Fleur was facing. Well... we thought it was something new and exciting, but it was just another Hagrid-produced frizzy-tailed snail.

But to be honest, this blasting-tailed snail was completely different from the others. The edges of its tentacles were a mix of bright black and bright white. Louis determined almost instantly that this blasting-tailed snail must have been contaminated by evil energy.

"Hibiscus is in danger." He tilted his head, trying to find Catherine, but suddenly realized that Catherine was also in the maze.

He beckoned Sakuya over and brought up a tablet-like device to check on Catherine's situation.

After a brief fluctuation in the screen, Catherine's perspective shifted to his tablet, where the Goblet of Fire stood prominently before her.

"How could it be so fast?" Louis was stunned for a moment, but before he could think about it, Catherine's lightning had already struck the "Goblet of Fire".

Oh, okay, it's a kind of mimicry magical creature that twitched and revealed its true form after being struck by Professor Yang's Wrath Electric Shock. It looks like a small salamander.

On the tips of this salamander's hands and tail, there were also traces of corruption by evil energy.

Louis casually placed the tablet on Sakuya's body, tapped it lightly with his finger, took out an amber-colored object, pressed it twice, and placed it on her ear.

It was still the latest swarm technology, a simple telephone made using Kepa amber and mantis technology, along with a little magic, and it was far from reaching the level of later generations.

The person who answered the phone was Hisek, the Swarm Guardian, who was taking a bath in the prefectural washroom.

"Get the stun detector. It's right here at the Quidditch pitch, it's urgent," Louis instructed in a low voice. "Remember to have Kerruk bring it over; I suspect there's something wrong here."

"Wait a moment." Hisek immediately got out of the water, making a splashing sound.

A short while later, Krruk flew in from off the field and landed next to Louis.

Louis regretted not having told him to "keep a low profile."

"I think you're just afraid others won't know," Louis said, holding out his hand. "Where's the energy counter?"

Kerruk pulled out a small, orange-yellow object and handed it to Louis. It had a dial and pointers on it, and looked like some kind of detector. Kerruk clicked on it and said, "You might need to be careful; this thing is very loud when it alarms."

As he spoke, he held up a hand near his ear and made a dramatic gesture: "I'm afraid you'll be startled."

"I understand, thank you," Louis nodded and said, then stood up and turned to walk away.

As he walked, he kept a close eye on the dial's hands. First, he checked the VIP and faculty seating areas; everything seemed fine. Then he walked towards the stands, circling them completely, and still found nothing wrong. The dial's hands remained perfectly still, not even swaying from side to side with his movements.

Louis shook his head. He glanced at Kerruk, who was eating snacks in the distance. Since no one from the main seating area or the entire arena had appeared, was it possible that the troublemaker was hiding in the maze?

With these thoughts in mind, he lifted his leg and walked towards the edge of the maze.

Mr. Bagman was giving a passionate commentary when he saw Louis approaching. He immediately put down his wand and went over to stop Louis: "You can't go any further, Your Highness. The arena is ahead."

"I know." Louis looked at the dark entrance and handed the item to Mr. Bagman. "Here, take this and stand at the entrance of the maze—as a staff member, you should have that much authority, shouldn't you?"

"Of course." Mr. Bagman nodded, took the dial from Louis, and walked to the entrance of the maze.

Almost instantly, the counter began to alarm wildly, the beeping startling Mr. Bagman—a real jump, he really didn't know where a middle-aged man got such a strong jumping ability.

"Alright, come back now," Louis called to Mr. Bagman, urging him to return quickly.

Mr. Bagman stared at the little gadget in his hand, still shaken. He had almost dropped it in fright. He never expected such a small thing to make such a loud noise. He handed it back to Louis and asked hesitantly, "Your Highness, what is this...?"

"This?" Louis chuckled. "It's an instrument for detecting dark magic, you could say that."

As he spoke, he glanced at the dial; the hands had already reached the end. He looked gravely at the maze entrance and immediately pulled out his phone to make a message.

The call connected, and Catherine's voice came through.

"What's wrong?"

"There's been a minor issue; the malevolent energy contamination in the maze has exceeded the limit," Louis said in a low voice. "Be careful, and get back as soon as possible."

On the other end of the phone, Catherine was silent for a moment, then asked in a low voice, "I just heard a scream, was it Hibiscus...?"

"Probably, but she's not seriously injured. I think she can still run. She was just startled. You know Hagrid's Flaming Tail is a bit outrageous..." Louis chuckled and continued, "Alright, I'm hanging up now. After all, you can't communicate with the athletes too much off the field. Just be careful."

After saying that, Louis hung up the phone.

At the same time, a red signal flare slowly rose above the maze and exploded in the air.

The commentators were also saying that Marilyn seemed to be in big trouble. Louis glanced at Mr. Bagman and said to him, "Shouldn't we send someone in quickly to help Chabanor?"

"It would be great if you could come and help," Mr. Bagman said, pulling out a compound eye tentacle. "But first, you need to stick this on your head. You should understand; it's to prevent the rescue team from cheating for personal gain."

"I understand." Louis smiled, took the tentacle, and stuck it on his head.

After it stuck on, it felt like he had an extra tentacle, but he couldn't control its movement. The rescue team included not only him, but also Professor Snape and Sirius Black, making them a team.

"Are you ready?" Professor Snape looked at Louis, but didn't say much. Seeing Louis's puzzled look, Snape turned to Sirius and explained, "You'll always need a dog to find someone in a maze."

"Who are you calling a dog?" Sirius asked angrily.

Snape looked him up and down, then retorted dismissively, "Isn't your Animagus a dog?"

Sirius choked for a moment, then chose to swallow his anger.

You're right this time, but next time I won't let you off so easily.

"You two, stop arguing," Mr. Bagman said earnestly. "Chabanor inside is in danger. I suggest you set off as soon as possible. Hopefully, this Goblet of Fire trip won't result in any deaths..."

Snape glanced at Mr. Bagman, said nothing, and walked straight into the dark maze. Lewis and Sirius exchanged a look and followed him in.

Since it was no longer the start of the game, the three of them could still see each other. Snape walked ahead, while Sirius transformed into a large black dog.

"How should we look for it?" Louis asked.

Snape didn't say anything, but took out a towel and handed it to Sirius.

Sirius sniffed the towel, then leaped up after a moment, barking twice. Louis looked at the towel with interest and asked curiously, "What's this?"

"As you can see, this is Marilyn Chabanor's towel." Snape's tone was somewhat impatient, but he still explained, "You know, dogs track people by scent, so..."

He shrugged and didn't continue, but his eyes were still mocking Sirius. Sirius glared back, and although he couldn't speak, Louis could tell from those two "woof woof"s that they contained a British curse.

Lewis finally understood why Snape, though impatient, had patiently explained the reasons to him. So that's what he was waiting for... Snape was willing to endure the discomfort himself if it meant making Sirius unhappy...

Well, I forgot to ask for leave yesterday, sorry.

(End of this chapter)