"Yes, mate, yes," Ron replied when Harry asked if anyone had submitted their name to the Goblet of Fire. "The Durmstrang lot."
He stared intently at the Goblet of Fire, taking a bite of the toast in his hand and explaining to Sherlock and Harry, "But we haven't seen anyone from Hogwarts enter yet."
"Maybe someone put their name in while we were sleeping last night," Harry speculated. "If it were me, that's what I'd do."
Sherlock couldn't help but smile at this, looking toward Neville and preparing to speak when a burst of laughter came from behind them. "Ha ha ha, it's not like we're thieves, why should we sneak around!"
Without turning around, Sherlock knew the Weasley twins and their good friend Lee Jordan were behind them. Sure enough, Fred, George, and Lee Jordan came hurrying down the stairs, all three were looking extremely excited.
Fred walked up beside Harry and clapped him on the shoulder. "Watch this, Harry, we're about to throw our names in!"
George laughed. "Throwing our names in fair and square, absolutely no sneaking around!"
"If any of us wins, the thousand Galleons will be split three ways," Lee Jordan added, his face beaming with joy.
"I don't think you'll necessarily be selected as champions," Hermione said, pouring cold water on their enthusiasm at that moment. "Even if you do become champions, you won't necessarily win the Triwizard Tournament."
Fred, George, and Lee Jordan, all ignored her. Can't this person say anything encouraging?
"Ready?" Fred said, trembling all over with excitement, addressing the other two. "Well then, I'll go first—"
He pulled a slip of parchment from his pocket as he spoke. Sherlock's gaze swept over it and saw written on it: "Fred Weasley—Hogwarts."
Fred walked step by step to the edge of the Goblet of Fire, rose slightly on his toes, and with a solemn gesture threw the parchment in. The flames seemed to have an attractive force, directly pulling the paper in. The next moment, the originally blue-white flames quickly turned red and shot out sparks.
"Success!" Seeing Fred complete the task, George and Lee Jordan high-fived, then threw in the parchments with their own names written on them. Just like before, once someone threw parchment in, the flames turned red and shot out sparks.
"Come on, let's go eat," Sherlock said, glancing at the Goblet of Fire and indicating they shouldn't just stand there.
Because it was Halloween, the Great Hall decorations had changed again. A large flock of live bats flew around the enchanted ceiling, while hundreds of pumpkin-carved figures watched everyone from every corner with narrowed eyes.
Once everyone was seated, Dean immediately couldn't wait to tell Sherlock, "Someone said Warrington got up really early this morning and put his name in."
"Who's Warrington?" Sherlock had no recollection of this name.
"That big lump from Slytherin who looks just like a sloth."
"What's a sloth?" Ron couldn't help asking.
"A slow-moving mammal from Central and South America that often dwells in tree branches and feeds on vegetation and fruit," Hermione immediately said.
Ron touched his nose. Even with Hermione's explanation, he still couldn't understand, because he couldn't visualize what a sloth looked like based on her description.
However, prompted by Dean, Sherlock dug out this name and the image it represented from some corner of his memory palace. Cassius Warrington, a Chaser on the Slytherin Quidditch team. And indeed, Dean's description was quite apt—that fellow really did look like a sloth.
Having faced the Slytherin Quidditch team more than once, Harry shook his head with disgust upon hearing this. "We can't let a Slytherin student become a champion!"
"Don't worry, even if no one else enters, that guy is no match for Fred, George, and Jordan. Unless the Goblet of Fire goes blind, it would never choose him!"
"Ron, the Goblet of Fire doesn't have eyes to begin with..."
"Neville, can't you tell I'm joking?"
"Ah, sorry..."
"I told you it was a joke, why are you apologizing—"
"Ah, is apologizing also wrong?"
"..."
"The Hufflepuffs are all talking about Diggory," Seamus suddenly interjected while Ron and Neville were both confused, his tone was quite contemptuous. "But in my opinion, he probably wouldn't want to risk that pretty face of his."
Sherlock shook his head, not quite understanding where Seamus's inexplicable hostility toward Cedric came from. Just from his contact over these years, Cedric Diggory was an extremely excellent person in every respect. During Harry's last match when he was affected by Dementors, Cedric had even offered to have a rematch.
If nothing went wrong, Cedric would certainly have one of the champion spots representing Hogwarts. However, Hermione understood quite clearly that Seamus felt this way precisely because Cedric Diggory was too excellent, too perfect.
He had excellent academic performance and was a Hufflepuff prefect. He was also captain of his house Quidditch team, having personally gathered a team last year that defeated Gryffindor. Next year, he had a high probability of becoming Head Boy. Add to that his tall and handsome appearance, and quite a few girls at school liked him. Even the three female Chasers on the Hogwarts Quidditch team would giggle when mentioning him.
You could hardly find any faults in him. People like that naturally aroused jealousy from the same sex. Ron had brought this up a few days ago.
On the other hand, someone like Sherlock, whose strengths and weaknesses were equally prominent, didn't provoke jealousy in others. Hermione didn't want to argue with Seamus about this issue. Just as she was about to say something to change the subject, her eyes suddenly lit up. "Listen!"
Cheers could be heard coming their way. Everyone turned in their seats to see Angelina Johnson, a Chaser on the Gryffindor Quidditch team, entering the Great Hall.
Seeing everyone looking at her, she grinned a bit self-consciously. Lee Jordan had praised her beauty more than once while commentating Quidditch matches and suggested he'd like to ask her out. Unfortunately, he still hadn't succeeded.
Angelina walked over to them, sat down and said, "Hi, everyone! I put my name in!"
As if afraid others might misunderstand, she added, "Don't worry about me taking your spots, I just turned seventeen last week!"
"Oh, I'm so glad Gryffindor finally has a girl entering!" Hermione said sincerely. "I really hope you succeed, Angelina!"
"Thank you, Hermione," Angelina said, smiling slightly at Hermione.
"Yeah, I'd rather it be you than that pretty boy Diggory," Seamus said.
Hermione frowned. Seamus's hostility toward Cedric was really too much, wasn't it? Indeed, his words drew angry glares from several Hufflepuff students passing their table.
"There are three spots!" Angelina shook her head. "Besides, Diggory isn't some pretty boy, he's an excellent guy. If I could compete alongside him, our success rate would definitely increase greatly."
Now Seamus had nothing to say. He hadn't expected his own housemate to support Cedric too.
Having failed at forced coolness, meeting the gleeful gazes of the Hufflepuff students, Seamus simply began to deflect. "By the way, Sherlock, Harry, aren't you going to try? If the Lion King and the Boy Who Lived don't participate, that would be far too boring."
Harry hesitated for a moment but still shook his head. "I haven't decided yet." He looked toward Sherlock as he spoke.
Seeing this, Seamus also looked at Sherlock.
"No rush," Sherlock smiled slightly. "We have twenty-four hours total. We can think about it slowly."
"Enter, Old Sher, Old Har—let us three mates go together!"
"You can't do it that way, the headmaster said there must be one seventeen-year-old."
"Neville, I've noticed you're getting better and better at being a wet blanket lately."
"Ah, sorry, Ron, I said the wrong thing again."
"Emmmmmm..."
Everyone chatted while eating, and soon finished breakfast in a pleasant atmosphere. While they were eating, more and more people threw parchment with their names written on it into the Goblet of Fire.
As they left the Great Hall, they happened to see Malfoy with Crabbe and Goyle throwing parchment into the Goblet of Fire.
"Hmph, he actually wants to enter too. Does he think he has that ability?" Ron said disdainfully at the sight.
"Whether he can be selected is one thing, whether he participates is another," Sherlock said. His gaze swept over the students gathered around the Goblet of Fire, and he smiled at Neville. "Even if one is unwilling inside, for the honor of the family, one must still do it, right?"
"Sherlock, you—you know?"
"Obviously."
"What are you talking about?" The companions asked in confusion, watching Sherlock and Neville's seemingly cryptic conversation.
"Last night while you were all asleep, I threw my name in," Neville said quietly. "I thought you were all asleep and didn't know."
"Originally we indeed didn't know, but the quill you used last night to write down the password was mine, dear Neville," Sherlock said with a smile. "Your expression tells me you still don't even know about this."
"Ah—!" Neville was stunned, then realized. "Sorry, Sherlock. I was worried I wouldn't remember the password after leaving the tower and coming back, so I thought I'd find paper and a pen to write it down... That was actually your pen?"
Everyone couldn't help but smile at this. Neville's memory really was unbeatable.
Next, Harry said he wanted to go see Hagrid. After all, from last night's feast, he seemed to have suffered a minor injury.
"All right," Ron shrugged. "Let's hope he doesn't ask us to donate a few fingers to the Blast-Ended Skrewts too."
Harry couldn't help but feel both amused and exasperated. Hearing their conversation, Hermione's face suddenly showed an extremely excited expression.
"I just remembered, I haven't recruited Hagrid to join S.P.E.W. yet!" she said happily. "Wait for me, I'll go upstairs to get a badge, okay?"
Without waiting for the three to agree, she dashed off.
"What on earth is wrong with her?" Ron said irritably, watching Hermione rush up the marble staircase. "Harry, I'll bet you Hagrid definitely won't join SPEW!"
"Can't bet on that, because that's what I think too."
"Boring!" Ron threw up his hands and looked at Sherlock. "Sherlock, what are you really thinking? Are you going to enter the Triwizard Tournament or not? So many people were asking me this morning. Lavender told me that even if you and Harry don't enter, someone will put your names in for you."
"Ah, they can do that?" Harry's eyes widened in surprise.
"Of course—Dumbledore never said you can't enter on someone else's behalf. It's just that on occasions like this, people prefer to do it themselves."
Sherlock smiled slightly. "By this afternoon at the latest, I'll give you an answer."
"That's good," Ron said with relief. "That way it won't delay my time."
Sherlock and Harry couldn't help but exchange a smile. When Hermione came back with the S.P.E.W. badges and found only Harry and Ron waiting for her, she asked in surprise, "Where's Sherlock?"
"He had other things to do and said he wouldn't come with us."
Hearing Harry's answer, though Hermione was a bit disappointed, she still went with Harry and Ron toward Hagrid's hut. When they reached the edge of the forest, the three unexpectedly discovered the enormous powder-blue carriage the Beauxbatons students had arrived in at Hogwarts. It was now parked about two hundred yards from Hagrid's front door, with a few scattered students climbing out of it.
The several elephant-sized winged horses that pulled the carriage were grazing in a temporarily fenced enclosure beside it. Ron stopped and lingered for quite a while until Harry and Hermione pulled him away reluctantly.
Watching Ron keep looking back every few steps, Harry couldn't help but tease, "Want me to have Sherlock introduce you?"
"Who?" Ron pretended not to understand.
"Stop pretending, you were standing there just to see that girl, weren't you?" Hermione said irritably.
"I wasn't, I didn't, don't talk nonsense..." Ron's face flushed red as he waved his hands repeatedly.
Harry shook his head at his appearance and stepped forward to knock on Hagrid's door. Immediately they heard Fang's deep barking from inside.
"Finally!" Hagrid opened the door, and seeing the three of them, said happily, "I thought you little ones had forgotten where I live!"
"Sorry, we've just been so busy, Hag—" Hermione started to say, then suddenly stopped.
Harry, Hermione, and Ron all looked up at Hagrid together, suddenly too surprised to speak.
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