"So where exactly did Rhys go?"
Before the final stage of the Global Youth Wizarding Tournament began, Daphne and Astoria were quietly talking in the contestants' waiting area.
"I don't know, but he's definitely not receiving treatment at St Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries like Professor Dumbledore claimed. That excuse is ridiculous," Astoria replied with absolute certainty.
She had asked someone to look into it, and St Mungo's had not admitted any student named Rhys Lint in recent days.
Astoria had even written to her father specifically to ask him to investigate Rhys's whereabouts.
Instead, she received a scolding in return.
In his letter, Mr. Jamison Greengrass explicitly warned Astoria that she was forbidden from continuing to investigate the matter.
It was not that Mr. Greengrass was overreacting.
The main reason was that he knew Rhys Lint's true identity.
That great wizard had suddenly left Hogwarts without even leaving behind a note. That could only mean he had something extraordinarily important to deal with.
How could his two foolish daughters possibly get involved in something of that level?
After being warned by her father, Astoria became much more restrained and vaguely sensed the seriousness of the situation.
So she limited her investigation to Hogwarts itself.
More specifically, she and her sister went to bother Professor White.
"Anyway, he probably has something important to do. Haven't you noticed, Daphne? He barely cared about the tournament at all this year. I think we should focus on doing well in the final stage first..."
Astoria tried to divert her sister's attention and get her to concentrate on the upcoming match.
To outsiders, Rhys was a Hogwarts "seeded contestant" who had unfortunately been eliminated during the second round.
But Daphne and Astoria both understood that the only reason Rhys could have been eliminated was because he no longer saw any need to continue competing.
As for why he thought that way, perhaps he had something more important to deal with, or perhaps Hogwarts had already secured victory.
It was also possible that both reasons applied.
"Do you think that massive flood during the competition might have been caused by Rhys?" Daphne was not distracted by her sister's words.
Her thoughts drifted back to the second-stage competition venue.
That sudden natural disaster had left an extremely deep impression on all the contestants.
Every competition had been interrupted halfway through.
No matter where anyone stood on the leaderboard, their only mission for those few days had been to flee and preserve their eligibility to remain in the tournament.
After the disaster finally subsided, everyone felt an intense sense of relief at having survived.
Quite a few contestants suddenly understood something.
No wonder there had been a competition in the Black Lake before the second stage began!
If someone did not possess sufficiently strong underwater mobility, perhaps they really should have withdrawn early.
Unlike the other contestants, who had remained largely confused, Daphne and Astoria had formed a different suspicion when they saw the floods and swamps.
They suspected that Rhys had something to do with it.
They simply had no evidence.
Besides, the scale of what they had witnessed had been a little too astonishing.
"Surely not. Have you forgotten how large that flood was? Half the continent was submerged..." Astoria said that she did not believe it, but deep down, she was still inclined to think Rhys had been responsible.
Even if Rhys had not personally caused the flood, she felt there was no way he had nothing to do with it.
"That's true."
After Astoria's persistent efforts, Daphne finally shifted her attention to the competition ahead.
The contestants had just been informed that the organisers would draw lots to divide them into pairs.
They would then duel their opponents on the Quidditch Pitch, which had been converted into a duelling arena.
The winner would advance.
Afterward, they would draw lots again to determine the semifinalists, followed by the champion, runner-up, and third place.
"Not surprising at all."
Daphne shrugged, then looked at her younger sister.
"I hope we meet in the final."
Astoria smiled back.
Privately, however, she thought that her sister should worry about not being eliminated by Cedric or Hermione first.
She felt Daphne would probably lose to Hermione, and she could not guarantee a victory over Cedric either.
Astoria herself, however, countered Hermione quite well.
She estimated her chances of winning at over ninety percent.
As for the other contestants, Astoria did not take any of them seriously at all.
Mr. Bagman strode briskly toward the contestants with a sunny smile on his face.
He quickly looked around.
Seeing that all sixteen contestants had arrived, his smile grew even brighter.
"All right, everyone's here! Follow me to the contestants' preparation room!"
With that, he took the lead and guided the sixteen contestants toward the team changing room beside the Quidditch Pitch.
After entering, the contestants discovered that Mr. Jamison Greengrass was already waiting inside.
Above them came the sound of spectators entering the stands, along with the constant hum of conversation.
Mr. Greengrass was holding a silk bag.
When Bagman entered with the contestants, he raised it toward them.
"Inside this bag are clay figurines representing all sixteen of you. Mr. Bagman and I will each draw one figurine. The two people drawn will become duel opponents and must enter the arena to compete. The winner will advance to the quarterfinals.
"I don't have much else to say. I simply wish all of you good luck and hope you make it through this round safely."
The contestants nodded solemnly.
At this point in the tournament, there were no weak competitors left.
Every remaining contestant was one of their school's elite.
The weaker schools had simply been eliminated entirely.
Durmstrang and Beauxbatons were the clearest examples.
Russia's Koldovstoretz had only its Deputy Headmistress, Ekaterina, remaining.
Those three schools were also the bottom three in the tournament rankings.
The draw began.
Mr. Greengrass drew his wand and touched it to the silk bag, then used a Levitation Charm to pull out a clay figurine.
"Madam Ekaterina."
Mr. Greengrass looked toward the Deputy Headmistress of Koldovstoretz.
Most of the contestants in the room immediately became serious.
There might not be any weak contestants left, but there were still differences in strength.
Ekaterina was undoubtedly one of the most troublesome opponents among those remaining.
Ekaterina walked expressionlessly to Mr. Greengrass's side.
Koldovstoretz had performed terribly in the tournament so far.
Now she had to regain some honour for the school in the individual competition.
Mr. Greengrass had completed his draw.
Next it was Bagman's turn.
He also drew his wand and randomly levitated a contestant's clay figurine from the bag.
The moment everyone saw the face on the figurine, most of those present immediately relaxed.
At the same time, they became convinced that there truly had been no manipulation behind the draw.
Because the contestant Bagman had drawn was Hermione Granger of Hogwarts, the host school.
In the eyes of contestants from the other magical schools, Hermione had already been eliminated.
How could a girl who was not even seventeen possibly be a match for Ekaterina?
When Ekaterina had graduated from Koldovstoretz, had Miss Granger even received her Hogwarts acceptance letter yet?
Hermione looked rather nervous.
Under the sympathetic gazes of the other contestants, she left the changing room with Ekaterina.
Accompanied by Mr. Jamison Greengrass and Mr. Bagman, the two headed toward the duelling arena.
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12 Chaps ahead at Patreon.com/HornyFBI