Old Blood at Hogwarts

After everyone was seated in the auditorium, Professor McGonagall asked the warriors and their dance partners to line up two by two and follow her in.They filed in and headed towards the large round table at the front of the auditorium where the referees were seated. The people in the auditorium applauded enthusiastically.

The walls of the auditorium were covered with gleaming silver frost, the ceiling was a starry night sky, and hundreds of garlands of mistletoe sprigs and ivy hung.The four academy tables were gone, replaced by a hundred small lantern-lit tables, with a dozen or so people seated at each table.

The warriors arrived in front of the guest of honor. Dumbledore smiled happily, but Karkaroff narrowed his eyes when he saw Krum and Hermione getting closer.Ludo Bagman was wearing a bright purple robe tonight with big yellow stars printed on it, and he clapped his hands as enthusiastically as his classmates.Madame Maxime shed her usual black satin uniform and wore a flowing lavender gown.However, Aaron suddenly noticed that Mr. Crouch had not come.In the fifth seat at the table sat Percy Weasley.Percy was wearing a brand new navy blue ceremonial robe and had a smug, smug look on his face.

The warriors and their partners went to the table and sat down.But there was no food on the shiny plates yet, but there was a small menu in front of everyone.Aaron picked up his menu uncertainly and looked around. There was no waiter.Dumbledore looked at his menu carefully, and then said very clearly to his plate: "Pork chops!"

The pork chops came out immediately.Others at the table suddenly understood and followed suit, ordering their own favorite foods on their plates.

"I have been promoted." Aaron heard Percy say to Harry, who was sitting next to him, "I am now Mr. Crouch's personal assistant, and I am here on his behalf." Listening to his tone, you still Thought he had just been elected supreme ruler of the universe.

"Why doesn't he come?" Harry asked.

"I'm sorry that Mr. Crouch is not in good condition, very bad. He has not been right since the World Cup. It's not surprising, the work is so hard. He is not as young as he used to be. Of course, he Still very good, his mind is still as sharp as ever. But the World Cup was a terrible failure for the entire Ministry of Magic, and Mr. Crouch because of the bad behavior of that house elf of his, called Winky or something, and he personally His emotions were greatly stimulated. Naturally, he fired her immediately afterwards, but...well, as I just said, he was old and needed to be taken care of. I think since the house elf left , he found that the comfort level at home had plummeted. Then we had to prepare for the Triwizard Tournament and deal with the aftermath of the World Cup, and that hateful woman named Skeeter spread rumors everywhere. Alas, poor man, he was in peace A quiet Christmas, he needs it so much. I'm glad he knows he has someone he can rely on to take care of things for him."

Hermione and Viktor Krum were also having a good conversation.

"Ah, we also have a castle. I don't think it's as big as here, nor as comfortable as here." Krum said to Hermione, "Ours only has four floors, and it can only be lit when magic is used. But our venue It's more spacious than here - but in the winter the days are short and you can't play on the field. In the summer, we fly around outside every day, over the lake, over the mountains..."

"Okay, okay, Viktor!" Karkaroff said with a smile, but there was no smile in his cold eyes. "Don't reveal any more secrets, otherwise your charming friend You will know where we are!"

Dumbledore smiled and said with sparkling eyes: "Igor, if you keep such a secret... people will think that you don't welcome others to visit."

"Hey, Dumbledore, we all want to protect our private territory, don't we?" Karkaroff grinned widely, showing his yellow teeth and said, "Don't we need to carefully guard the school hall that we are entrusted with? Shouldn’t we be proud that we are the only ones who know the secrets of our school? Shouldn’t we keep these secrets to ourselves?”

"Oh, I would never dream of claiming that I know all the secrets of Hogwarts, Igor." Dumbledore said kindly. "For example, just this morning, I took a wrong turn when I went to the toilet. I found myself in a very beautifully furnished room that I had never seen before, filled with all kinds of exquisite and luxurious chamber pots. When I went back to investigate carefully, I found that the room had disappeared. But I had to pay close attention. . It probably only comes in at about 05:30 in the morning. Or maybe it only appears during the quarter moon, or maybe when someone looking for the toilet has a particularly full bladder."

Aaron chuckled over his plate of Hungarian goulash.But Percy frowned.

Meanwhile, Fleur Delacour is criticizing the decor at Hogwarts to Roger Davies.

"It's nothing." She looked at the starry walls surrounding the auditorium and said contemptuously, "At Beauxbatons Castle, our auditorium is filled with ice sculptures at Christmas. Of course, they won't melt... It was like a huge diamond statue shining in the auditorium. The food was also superb. We also had a choir of woodland nymphs who serenaded us while we ate. We didn't have these ugly armors on our walls at all, if Any mischievous ghost who breaks into Beauxbatons will definitely be kicked out, just like this." She tapped the table with her hand impatiently.

Roger Davis watched her talk with an expression of fascination on his face, and several times he held his fork crookedly and failed to bring the food to his mouth.Aaron felt that Davis was just staring at Fleur and didn't even hear what she was saying.

"That's right!" Davis responded hurriedly, imitating Fleur and slapping the table with his hand, "Just like this. That's right."

Aaron looked around the auditorium.He found Hagrid sitting at a staff table outside, looking up at the guest of honor seat.He put on his ugly fuzzy brown suit again.At this moment, Aaron saw Hagrid wave. He turned his head and saw Madame Maxime waving to Hagrid, her opal drink sparkling in the candlelight.

At this time, Hermione was teaching Krum to pronounce her name correctly.He kept calling her "Hermi-on."

"Hermione," she said slowly, word by word.

"Hermione."

"That's almost it," Hermione said.She caught Aaron's eye and smiled.

After everything was finished, Dumbledore stood up and asked his classmates to stand up as well.Then he waved his wand and all the tables flew to the wall, leaving an open space in the middle.He conjured up a high stage, attached to the right wall, with a drum set, several guitars, a lute, a cello and several organs on it.

At this time, the Weird Sisters rushed onto the stage together, and the audience burst into thunderous applause.They all had very thick hair and wore black robes that were deliberately torn and torn.They picked up their instruments, and the lanterns on the other tables were extinguished at this moment.

Aaron knew it was time to dance, so he pulled Luna to stand up.Several other warriors and their dance partners stood up.Aaron noticed that Harry had stepped on his robes as he stood up, almost stumbling.

The Weird Sisters play a slow, melancholy tune.Although Aaron had never danced before, he had read a book that taught dancing.I saw him pulling Luna onto the brightly lit dance floor. Following the instructions in the book, he put one hand on Luna's waist, squeezed her hand tightly with the other, and then slowly spun in a circle.

Fortunately, it's not as bad as originally imagined.Aaron thought as he cast his gaze above the heads of the onlookers.Soon, other people also entered the dance floor, and the warrior was no longer the center of everyone's attention.Neville and Ginny were dancing close to Aaron, and he could see Ginny frowning and ducking frequently as Neville stepped on her foot.Dumbledore was waltzing with Madame Maxime.Compared with her, he was a dwarf, and the top of his pointed hat just touched her chin.However, for such a big woman, her dance steps are quite elegant.Mad-Eye Moody awkwardly dances a two-step with Professor Sinistra, who nervously avoids his wooden prosthetic leg.

Aaron breathed a sigh of relief as he heard the last trembling note of the organ.The Weird Sisters stopped playing and the auditorium burst into warm applause again.

"Do you want to dance again?" Aaron asked Luna.

At this time, the Weird Sisters started playing a new song again, the rhythm was much faster than before.

"No." Luna said, "If you still want to dance, go find someone else."

"Okay." Aaron just didn't want to dance anymore, "Then let's find a place to sit down and take a rest."

Aaron led Luna out of the dance floor, passing Fred and Angelina on the way.The two of them danced so wildly that people around them stepped back to avoid being injured.

Aaron and Luna sat down at a table in the rest area. He looked around and found that at the table next to them, Harry, Ron, Parvati and a fellow Parvati elder were sitting. A girl who looks very similar.

After sitting for 2 minutes, Aaron felt a little thirsty and said to Luna, "I'm going to get some drinks."

Aaron walked across the dance floor to the table on the opposite wall and grabbed two bottles of Butterbeer.As soon as he came back with the drink, he heard Ron suddenly shout from the table next to him: "No, it's not! It's to win the game!"

Aaron turned to look and saw that Parvati had left now, and Hermione was sitting in the seat where Parvati had been sitting before.She seemed to be having a heated argument with Ron, both of them had angry looks on their faces.Then Aaron saw Hermione jump to her feet, angrily walk across the dance floor and disappear into the crowd.And Ron looked at Hermione's back, with a look of anger and hatred mixed on his face.

Although Aaron was a little concerned about the conflict between Ron and Hermione, looking at the atmosphere there, he still felt that it would be better not to get involved for the time being.So he just sat in his seat and didn't move.