The Wind and the Wings of Hogwarts

"You don't like me calling you boy? I have to say, I'm forcing myself to use that word to address you too."

Mr. Moriac took the wand with both hands and gave Krum a sympathetic look.

He shook his head. "To be honest, you look too old. You're only 17, but you look like you're 30."

Krum, who already had a somewhat melancholic look, now had a complicated expression and looked even more mature.

But he ignored Mr. Mauriac's sharp tongue and remained true to his taciturn nature.

Mr. Moriac received no response, rolled his eyes at him, and turned his attention to the wand in his hand.

"Oh!"

He glanced at the wand once and immediately showed a look of disgust.

"This aesthetically unappealing, primitive style must be the work of that old man Grigorovich!"

He gave Krum another disdainful look.

"But it's obviously perfect for you, Krum, bulky, sturdy, and 26 centimeters long."

Krum remained silent, his eyes drooping and his expression blank.

"Hmph, hornbeam wood, containing the heartstrings of dragons, and flocks of birds."

Mr. Moriac pursed his lips and waved his wand.

Krum's wand made a loud bang, like a pistol firing, and a flock of small birds flapped their wings and flew out of the open window.

"No problem."

He handed the wand to him with both hands.

"Thank you."

Krum reached out and took the wand, then turned and left quickly, as if fleeing some terrible germ or poison gas.

Mr. Moriarty didn't seem to care and turned around to look at Scott again with a light movement.

"Oh, so you're the only one left, the English boy from Hogwarts."

He simply stretched out both hands.

"Hello, Mr. Mauriac."

Scott took out his wand and placed it in Scott's hands.

“Very good, boy, you are very polite.” Mr. Moriac nodded with satisfaction. “You also look like you are 17 years old, as handsome and charming as I was when I was young.”

Scott's lips twitched slightly. "Thank you."

Mr. Moriac then began to examine his wand.

"Yes, without a doubt, it's that old man Ollivander's product." He muttered, "It's gratifying that Ollivander at least understands a little bit of basic aesthetics compared to that old fogey Gregovich."

He continued to gently stroke the staff with his fingers.

"Ebony, with dragon nerve inside, it's a fairly reasonable combination," he commented. "At 31.115 centimeters long, it's longer than most wands."

He gently waved his wand.

"Fluorescent flash!"

A white light shone at the tip of the wand.

"It's in good condition, no problem."

He returned the wand to Scott with both hands.

Scott quickly reached out and took it.

“Very good!” Mr. Moriac raised his hands again. “My work is undoubtedly done, so please allow me to take my leave.”

His gaze swept over the furnishings in the room, especially the asymmetrical items, making no attempt to hide his disdain.

"For the sake of my fragile nerves, I cannot allow myself to stay in this aesthetically unappealing place for long. Goodbye!"

As he spoke, he paid no attention to Mrs. Maxim's unpleasant expression and hurried away.

Scott noticed that although he walked quickly, each step covered almost the same distance.

The neurotic "Mr. Symmetry" left abruptly, but he had clearly angered Mrs. Maxim, leaving the rest of the people to innocently endure the plus-size lady's low mood.

“Oh, don’t mind him, Mauriac is just that kind of eccentric!” Mr. Jolly awkwardly tried to smooth things over. “Next up is the interview and photo session.”

He clapped his hands, and two reporters walked in from outside, one of them holding a magic camera.

"Hello, we are reporters from the Forstenberger Daily. I am Alan Martin, in charge of the interview, and this is Bal Masson, in charge of taking photos."

The two French journalists made it clear that they were there primarily for the hibiscus.

Subsequent visits and photographs confirmed this.

They asked only a few simple questions when they visited Scott and Krum, but many more when they visited Fleur.

Scott, on the other hand, was happy to have some peace and quiet, sitting aside and watching Fleur deal with the endless questions from reporters, while he could only suppress his impatience.

Scott was somewhat surprised by Krum's performance. He had assumed that as a star player, Krum was used to facing the media, but Krum seemed very uncomfortable during the interview.

When it was time to take photos, the reporter insisted that Furong stand in the very center and even took many solo photos of her.

Scott noticed that Krum, who had been subconsciously avoiding the camera, was clearly relieved.

The next morning at breakfast, Scott saw the French magical newspaper, the Furstenberg Gazette, in Lucio's hands.

“It’s a shame.” Lucio, with dark circles under his eyes, yawned and handed the newspaper to Scott. “They didn’t give you and Krum much coverage.”

Scott didn't look at the newspaper first, but asked, "Didn't you sleep well last night?"

"What do you say?"

Lucio pursed his lips, pulled a small leather bag from his pocket, and dumped a bunch of headphones onto the table.

"The translation earphone, the optimized version, was made overnight by me and a few classmates."

"Oh!" Scott laughed, picked up one earphone, and handed the others to the Hogwarts students. "Well done, Lucio."

Lucio yawned again. "You guys try it first, and we'll adjust it if there are any problems."

Scott looked at the [R] logo on the headphones and said knowingly, "No problem, it's from Roselle's Alchemy Classroom, it should be better than the previous ones."

Upon hearing his words, Lucio, who looked exhausted, smiled with satisfaction.

Just then, a few students happened to pass by, and upon hearing this, they immediately stopped and looked at Scott and his group with hostile eyes.

“You really dare to say that,” the tall boy in the lead said. “You don’t know anything about it, yet you dare to slander our Gilar Alchemy Classroom, Hogwarts.”

Before Scott could respond, Lucio immediately stood up.

At this moment, the weariness on his face had completely disappeared, and he was clearly in battle mode.

“What do you mean by slander?” He glanced at the boy. “The fact is that all our guests were very dissatisfied with the translation headsets produced by your Girard, and we, Rosell, stepped in to remedy the mistakes you made!”

The other person's face immediately darkened. "Don't do anything unnecessary, Lucio. Dissatisfied? Why should they be dissatisfied? They get to audit all the courses without paying a cent; that's already an incredible favor!"

This time, Lucio's expression changed as well.

“You did this on purpose, Waldo,” he said. “I should have suspected it sooner. Although your alchemy skills in Girard are not as good as ours in Roselle, how could such a basic mistake happen with just a translation headset…”

The more he spoke, the gloomier the faces of the other men became.

Clearly, he was right.

The tall boy who was leading the group was about to say something, but then his expression suddenly changed, and he turned and left.

"go!"

Led by him, the others who followed him also hurriedly left.

"what happened?"

Furong walked over at that moment.

She glanced at the backs of the group of students in the Gilal alchemy classroom, then frowned and looked at Lucio.

She lowered her voice, "Lucio, I thought you understood, at the very least, you shouldn't do this in front of the guests..."

"Oh, you have no idea what those guys did." Lucio scoffed and told Fleur about the translation headset.

Furong's expression changed.

“Never mind that,” she said coldly. “I will tell Mrs. Maxim what you said.”

Lucio nodded in agreement.

"That's fine, I can't be bothered with these troublesome things."

"I'm sorry." Fleur smiled apologetically at Scott and the others. "I'm sorry you had to see this. We will definitely handle this matter properly. Enjoy your meal, and goodbye."

After saying that, she turned around and left with elegant and light steps.

Her smile was incredibly captivating; most of Scott's companions had almost forgotten what had just happened and were simply staring at her retreating figure.

Scott glanced at the newspaper in his hand.

He discovered that, apart from one group photo, all the other photos published in the newspaper were solo shots of Fu Rong.

The report devoted considerable space to praising Fleur's beauty and talent, while only briefly mentioning Scott and Krum.

Seeing this, Scott smiled with satisfaction.

He has always felt that receiving too much attention is not a good thing.

He was very glad that this Triwizard Tournament was not being held at Hogwarts, which would avoid a lot of trouble.

Otherwise, he, being British, would undoubtedly attract more attention.

After breakfast, Scott, Fred, and Cedric followed Lucio to the Roselle alchemy classroom.

Of the Hogwarts delegation of students, only Scott, Fred, and Cedric were interested in alchemy and chose to take the course.

On the way to the classroom, Lucio told them something about why the students in the Gilal alchemy classroom did what they did.

The decision to open all courses at Beauxbatons during the Triwizard Tournament was spearheaded by Mrs. Maxime, but it did not receive universal support.

A group of professors, led by Professor Veronica Girard, the owner of the Girard Alchemy Classroom, did not agree to make all courses public, especially the alchemy course, which was regarded as a traditional strength and core competitiveness of Beauxbatons School of Magic.

But with the support of other professors, especially Professor Auguste Russell, the master of Russell's alchemy classroom, Mrs. Maxime's decision received more support and was thus finalized.