Sean looked at the two identical redheads who suddenly jumped out to block his path, along with Harry and Hermione, who came running behind them, and Ron and Ginny, who were dawdling behind with guilty expressions.
Looking at them, Sean immediately knew what they wanted to do.
"If you're here to apologise for the score Percy gave me, I think it's really unnecessary. Percy is Percy, you are you, and his actions don't reflect on the rest of the Weasley family."
Besides, as a judge, Percy can naturally score according to his own thoughts and standards. Anyway, no matter what, I'm still first. Whether his score's higher or lower doesn't really matter much."
"You saying that..."
"Makes us feel somewhat..."
"Ashamed of ourselves."
"As an apology, we'll treat you to candy!"
Looking at the Weasley twins, who spoke in unison about treating him to candy, Sean directly ignored them and said to Ron and Ginny, "You don't need to feel embarrassed or feel sorry for me. That was Percy's own choice.
When a person can only see power and influence, then he can't see anything else. But I think, deep down, he should still be your brother. It's just that he's been confused by certain things and has lost himself. You can try to persuade him back to the right path, or slowly wait for him to break through the confusion of power. After all, he's your brother, isn't he?"
Hearing Sean's words, Ron and the others all quieted down. It was clear that Percy's words and actions had really hurt them quite a bit. This definitely wasn't just about the scoring just now. There'd been more things before this that'd hurt them. But for Sean, what he'd just said was already his limit. It was already getting into personal territory. The remaining matters could only be handled and processed by their family.
"Sean, congratulations on being first in the second round again. I'm sure you'll definitely win the Triwizard Tournament championship and bring back the Triwizard Cup for Hogwarts!"
"Thank you for your blessing, Harry. It means a lot to me."
"Good luck! We won't disturb you anymore. When I came, I saw your friends were already waiting at the Slytherin table. You should go over quickly."
"Alright, I'll head over then."
Just as he was about to head to Hogwarts castle, the Weasley twins blocked Sean again, each holding up a piece of candy in front of him with sincere smiles.
"Sean, have a piece of candy. This is our apology."
Looking at the candy in the Weasley twins' hands, Sean knew without even thinking that this stuff couldn't be eaten, especially when Harry was behind them looking like he wanted to speak but hesitated.
Sean reached out with both hands, taking the candies from left and right. Looking at the Weasley twins, whose mouths were grinning with smiles, he used lightning speed to directly stuff the candies into their mouths, then covered their mouths with his palms. With a shake of his hands, they couldn't help but swallow the candies.
Soon, the candies' effects took hold.
One of the Weasley twins turned into a large canary, while the other's tongue became fat and oversized. Exactly their own creations, the Canary Creams and Ton-Tongue Toffees!
The Weasley twins didn't mind being affected by their own candies at all. Instead, they laughed and played around as they ran into Hogwarts castle.
Seeing their behaviour, Sean knew these two guys really did want to thank him. Perhaps for other people, this kind of gratitude would just be a prank, but for the Weasley twins, this was their way of showing approval and apology.
Though Sean respectfully declined this method.
"Harry, I'm heading back now."
"Goodbye, Sean."
"Goodbye, Harry."
Returning to Hogwarts castle, Sean entered the Great Hall. As soon as he walked in, everyone inside, whether Slytherin, Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff, or even Gryffindor, burst into applause and cheers for Sean.
Sean bowed slightly to everyone in thanks, then returned to his seat at the Slytherin table and immediately started eating the food placed on the table.
"Sean, do you have any leads on the third round competition?"
Sean naturally knew about the third-round project, but he didn't say so directly. Instead, he shook his head. "No leads yet, but I imagine the third round should be more difficult than the first two."
Nodding slowly, Blaise said, "Anyway, there are still five months to prepare slowly."
Andy ate some food, put down his knife and fork, and said to Sean, "Sean, have you heard? The Ministry's been somewhat chaotic recently. A while ago, Aurors went to Knockturn Alley to round up werewolves and lost some people. Fortunately it wasn't a full moon night, or those werewolves would've been even more troublesome."
Sean had naturally heard about this. In fact, this roundup was directly related to him.
"I just learnt from that Percy Weasley that someone in the Ministry claims to have seen the Dark Lord, saying he has returned..." As Sean said this, he could clearly see Blaise's and the others' faces immediately turn ugly, with Andy's face becoming particularly pale. Seeing this, Sean continued, "But Fudge immediately refuted this news, because the news itself has no evidence, so it's most likely inaccurate."
Hearing the latter part, Sean could clearly see their faces improve somewhat. Seeing this scene, Sean suddenly understood why Fudge, even though he probably knew Voldemort had very likely returned, still stubbornly denied Voldemort's existence, insisting he was already dead.
This might partly be due to the influence of people behind Fudge, but there were definitely elements of self-deception and self-comfort involved. The Dark Lord had brought too much fear to Fudge and most people. Having finally learnt of Voldemort's death and not having enjoyed many peaceful days, someone immediately jumped out saying Voldemort had made a comeback. Most people would find it very difficult to immediately change their mindset and accept this news.
Moreover, since the news itself lacked evidence, they naturally wouldn't acknowledge it even more.
"Let's not talk about these unhappy things. Sean, I got some good news from home yesterday."
Hearing Jensen's words, Sean turned to look at him and asked, "Good news? What specifically?"
"Apparently, two current Wizengamot members are too elderly and can no longer continue participating in the Wizengamot's specific work. They're preparing to step down and become honorary lifetime members! So the Wizengamot has two open positions that need alternates to be promoted to full membership!"