After a sharp pain in his navel and several dizzying seconds of spinning, Rhys once again found himself standing on the grounds of the Hogwarts Quidditch Pitch.
All around him, young witches and wizards dropped out of the air one after another, landing back on Hogwarts soil.
Thunderous applause erupted from every direction.
"Congratulations!"
"Well done!"
Praise for the contestants came pouring in like snowflakes. The spectators included not only Hogwarts students, but also visitors from abroad.
The competition venue provided by Hogwarts had given them a small glimpse of what a thousand-year-old school was truly capable of.
Had this entire arena really been created by human hands?
Had Hogwarts secretly opened a passage to some magical continent in another world?
The incredibly realistic world and its detailed setting had also greatly increased the prestige of the competition. Some of the headmasters present were already considering which students they would send to the next tournament, because anyone could see how enormously beneficial this kind of competition was for a student's growth.
There was also no longer any doubt about where the next tournament would be held.
It would undoubtedly take place at Hogwarts again, unless another school could provide an arena comparable to this one.
After some time, the applause gradually faded.
The spectators also noticed that several contestants had failed to return to Hogwarts. Only their crystal balls, or fragments of those crystal balls, had come back.
Their fate was obvious.
Many people felt a chill in their hearts as they remembered the warning Headmaster Dumbledore and Mr. Jamison had repeatedly emphasised before the competition began:
The tournament could cost people their lives.
That knowledge dampened the excitement in the stadium somewhat.
However, Mr. Jamison's next action quickly made them forget the unpleasantness.
He accepted a roll of parchment from Dumbledore, then walked to the commentary platform overlooking the Quidditch Pitch and began announcing the names of those who had passed the first stage of the tournament.
Although Rowena believed she had made the requirements absurdly easy, two-thirds of the contestants had still failed to pass the preliminary stage.
Killing an adult dragon was simply too difficult.
Not everyone possessed strong enough social skills to obtain assistance from the inhabitants of the alchemical world. The crystal balls did assign the young wizards to teams, but locating their teammates was not necessarily easy.
There were also some contestants who had ignored the laws of the alchemical world after entering.
To them, the entire place had seemed like little more than a highly realistic game or reality show.
They had paid the price for that attitude.
Not everyone could move through the world as freely and invincibly as Rhys.
Some had spent the entire month inside prison cells, while others had triggered the defensive enchantments on their crystal balls and been forcibly transported back to Hogwarts.
The eliminated contestants could choose to return home or remain at Hogwarts to continue watching the tournament.
Hogwarts certainly did not lack an extra set of knives and forks, and there was more than enough accommodation for them.
As Mr. Jamison announced the names, he also waved his wand, causing the contestants' scores to appear on the enormous screens around the stadium.
Since completing the main quest did not award points, a rather peculiar situation emerged.
Some contestants who had passed the first stage actually had lower scores than those who had been eliminated.
Rhys was one of those peculiar cases.
He had neither obtained a noble title nor joined up with any of his assigned teammates, so his score was zero.
However, he had preserved the hearts of the final three Dragon Kings he had hunted, which meant he had genuinely completed the main quest.
Rhys was not discouraged by being near the bottom of the individual rankings.
He did not care about such things.
What mattered more to him was Hogwarts' position.
Fortunately, the Hogwarts contestants had not disappointed him.
Hogwarts ranked first on the overall scoreboard.
Although the gap between Hogwarts and the schools behind it was not particularly large, that was partly because the first stage had allowed contestants from different schools to complete tasks together.
There was also Rhys, with his enormous score of zero, dragging the total down.
The moment the individual rankings and the overall school rankings appeared, the entire stadium filled with excited murmuring.
It was obvious that everyone was extremely interested in both lists.
Mr. Jamison stood silently before the commentary platform and waited for more than ten seconds.
When the stadium showed no sign of quieting down, he lightly tapped the microphone in front of him.
The microphone emitted a piercing shriek, and the stadium instantly fell silent.
"The competition will now enter a recess. Contestants may arrange their time as they please. Professor Dumbledore of Hogwarts asked me to pass on a message to everyone: he welcomes you to remain at Hogwarts to visit and study. Every one of you is an honoured guest of Hogwarts.
"The second stage of the tournament will take place on New Year's Day, January 1st of next year. Contestants, please do not forget the date.
"That is everything I have to announce. Now, let us leave the rest of the evening to the celebrations!"
With those words, the Hogwarts Quidditch Pitch transformed into a sea of joy.
The young Hogwarts students poured down from the stands and surrounded the contestants from every school who had passed the first stage, escorting them out of the stadium.
As they walked, they fired streams of sparks into the air with their wands or pulled out fireworks and lit them.
An even grander celebration was waiting for them in their common rooms.
The students from the visiting schools were no exception.
After all, only a few points separated the schools at the top of the rankings. Overtaking their rivals during the second stage would not be particularly difficult.
Rhys knew that two lonely old people were still waiting for him, but he really did not want to miss the Hogwarts students' celebrations.
The children of this new era seemed to have invented quite a few interesting new toys.
He needed to go and broaden his horizons.
Of course, he had no expectations that the people of Slytherin House would organise anything remotely entertaining.
He could predict their celebration with the accuracy of a prophet.
The girls would shower the Greengrass sisters with endless flattery, while taking the opportunity to belittle all the other contestants.
The boys would devise every possible excuse to get closer to Daphne and Astoria, practically wishing they could kneel down and lick their feet.
After a great deal of meaningless small talk, the so-called noble ball would begin.
None of that held even the slightest attraction for Rhys.
So he quietly slipped into an inconspicuous corner, cast a Disillusionment Charm on himself, and squeezed into the Gryffindor procession.
When it came to having fun and causing chaos, these overly energetic little lions were undoubtedly the experts.
He could already see several of them pulling strange little gadgets from their robes, clearly preparing to use them later.
Gryffindor Common Room, here I come!
Hidden among the Gryffindor students, Rhys entered the Gryffindor common room alongside the cheerful young lions.
Compared to a thousand years ago, the room had not changed much.
There were more decorations and portraits now, but the overall style remained the same.
It gave Rhys a strangely misplaced sense of familiarity.
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12 Chaps ahead at Patreon.com/HornyFBI