Kasenhis felt that everything happened quickly… or at least, it looked quick, because he hadn't done anything at all. He was just sitting in the stands eating snacks.
He had no idea what was happening down below—the drawing of lots, or Lupin and his colleagues running around like their feet weren't even touching the ground.
So in his eyes, a dragon and a competitor appeared in the arena almost instantly.
An unfamiliar dragon, and a very familiar person: Viktor Krum.
Kasen munched away while watching Krum fight the creature. Honestly… in a certain sense, it wasn't even as entertaining as watching Neos—who'd already "received his lunch box"—use his fists to beat the living daylights out of a dragon earlier.
Because for Krum, his magic really wasn't that impressive to look at.
Not that it was ineffective, just… not visually appealing. It was basically waving his wand a bit, flicking it a bit, and then some random part of the dragon would suddenly get a small cut. None of that satisfying "fist-to-flesh" feeling at all.
In the end, Krum and the dragon scrapped within the arena for nearly ten minutes before he finally enraged it enough to lure it out of its nest area. Only then did he get the chance to summon the golden egg from inside the nest with Accio.
Finally, he used a quick-eye jinx to break through the dragon's guard, seized the moment, and escaped the arena.
"What kind of score do you think they'll give him?" Professor Sprout suddenly asked.
"If it were up to me, I'd probably give him a full score… because it was ..fun to watch. But if we're judging by actual performance, then it was just so-so. Still, it shouldn't be too low. After all, he's still alive, and he did get the golden egg out," Kasen said with interest.
And sure enough, the judges' scores were… very forgiving. Basically none of them went below a seven.
The amusing part was Karkaroff. That old fox actually glanced at Dumbledore while scoring, and only after confirming that Dumbledore had given Krum a ten did he relax and also give a ten.
You could say he had fully taken the shape of Dumbledore.
As for the next contestant, Fleur—her performance wasn't even as entertaining as Krum's. But when it came to scoring, she was on a whole different level above him.
Still, for Kasenhis, who didn't care much about scores, it was boring either way. After all, Fleur had simply chanted a spell for more than ten minutes to hypnotize the dragon, then calmly walked in and carried the golden egg out in broad daylight.
The scores, however, were still delightful to look at. Thanks to the combined "efforts" of Karkaroff and Ludo Bagman, she nearly received a perfect score.
Without the two of them interfering, she definitely would have gotten one.
"Who's next?"
"Oh… Harry. Do you think he'll succeed?" Professor Sprout asked.
"For me, as long as he comes out alive, that's already the greatest victory," Kasen said with a shrug.
"Don't be so pessimistic. At the very least, that Potter boy looks much smarter than he appears," Professor Sprout comforted.
"Mhm, hopefully." Kasen said no more and turned his attention to the arena below.
Harry didn't bother with hesitation or embarrassment. The moment he stepped into the arena, he immediately pressed two floating void buttons on his wrist.
External support arrived as promised. Without a single unnecessary word, Harry activated his shield, then—under the dragon's dumbfounded stare—flew straight toward its nest.
Before the dragon even had time to react, Harry had already darted beneath its backside, stopped abruptly, scooped up the golden egg, patted his own backside, and flew right out of the arena.
"Dumbledore! This isn't fair! This falls under cheating! Nowhere in the rules does it say alchemical tools can be used!" Madame Maxime protested.
"But correspondingly, the rules also don't say alchemical tools can't be used. The rules only state that you can't bring alchemical tools or other items into the arena, but this… uh…" Karkaroff, quite naturally, became the spokesperson for Dumbledore—or rather, for the entirety of Hogwarts—but halfway through he stalled.
Not because of his dignity or morals, but simply because he had absolutely no idea what that cool-looking gadget on Harry's wrist even was.
He stood up and looked toward Kasen behind him, and Kasen's mind—rarely—started working at high speed. He gave an answer that no one could find fault with.
"That's something Harry made himself from scratch. How would I know what it's called?"
Karkaroff nodded. "Exactly. The Triwizard Tournament is meant to encourage the students' overall development. Why wouldn't alchemy count as development?"
Madame Maxime let out a cold laugh. She couldn't out-argue Karkaroff's sophistry, nor did she know when those two had started working together, but she still had the authority to give Harry a low score.
"What score did Harry get?" Kasen asked, having missed it because he'd been busy eating dried fish.
"Not too bad. Full marks minus nine," Professor Sprout replied.
"That's acceptable. At least he survived." Kasen craned his neck to look at the four little ones celebrating both victory and survival, smiling pleasantly.
"Cedric is next. Are you nervous?" Professor Sprout suddenly asked.
"Why would I be nervous when he's the one competing?" Kasen rubbed his hands casually.
"Mhm… if you rubbed them any slower, I might actually believe that," Professor Sprout said with a laugh.
Soon, Cedric entered the arena. He glanced at the dragon lying across its nest, staring at him with huge, unblinking eyes. Helplessly, he rubbed his chin—then he looked up at Kasen in the stands.
"He's looking at you," Professor Sprout reminded him.
"Maybe he's looking at you. You're his Head of House," Kasen said nervously.
"…I think his expression means something else," Snape, seated behind Kasen, commented.
"Huh? It's so far, I can't see anything," Kasen said in surprise.
"I can." Snape used Legilimency to catch Cedric's surface thoughts… and to be fair, his eyesight really was good.
"What does he mean?" Kasen asked.
"Because our dear Potter used alchemical equipment in the last round, Madame Maxime gave him the lowest score. Cedric isn't sure what to do now…" Snape explained.
"What's the issue? Harry might've looked a bit like he was cheating, but everything Cedric uses is entirely handmade by him. Using it only brings glory to Hogwarts!" Kasen shrugged.
Then he gripped the seat and stood up, lifted his chin proudly, and drew his thumb across his throat in a horizontal line.
The meaning was very clear.
"Kill the competition!"
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