A day at Hogwarts

As the scores were announced, the students of Kodosdorez immediately cheered, and it was more lively than a holiday.

The Hogwarts team was gloomy, and no one expected to be in third place.

The color drained from Percy's face and his body began to tremble. If he were to be held accountable, he would have to bear a lot of responsibility for the plan to exchange medicinal materials.

In just one second, the image of himself being ruined and cast aside by everyone at Hogwarts came to his mind, followed by the image of being rejected for a job at the Ministry of Magic, being rejected in other places, and being expelled. Get out of the house.

…

"Mom, why is that man sleeping with a newspaper as a quilt? His hair is also red."

"Come on, don't worry about those useless homeless people on the street. They are like rats, useless at all, and they can also harm people."

…

When the image of Ginny pulling the child away from him more than twenty years later emerged in Percy's mind, he received a hard slap on the shoulder.

"Don't worry!" Cedric spoke in a calm and confident voice, "The gap between us and Kodos Dorez is less than 1 point, and there are still play-offs to catch up!"

Just now, everyone only noticed that Hogwarts was ranked third. They were panicked for a moment, and no one thought about how far behind it was from first place.

Now with Cedric's reminder, everyone realized that the situation was not as serious as they thought.

"Yes, yes!" Joyce nodded immediately, "We still have a chance, hurry up and prepare for the play-offs."

Others also calmed down to prepare for the ensuing play-offs...it's strange.

Joyce's voice trembled as she spoke: "What is the title of the play-offs?"

No one can answer, it hasn’t been announced yet.

Qiu Zhang said immediately: "I'll go over and ask."

She was too nervous, thinking that just asking the question of the competition would be enough, so she turned around and walked towards Dumbledore and the others.

Fortunately, Cedric was still conscious and reached out to pull her back.

Ashford nervously twisted the hem of his clothes and kept saying, "What if the topic is not what we are good at?"

The same goes for those on the action team.

Cedric was about to say something when his hand suddenly felt heavy. Charles stuffed a bottle of Dancing Grass Restaurant's homemade drink into his hand.

Charles just got back his bag, which contains a lot of goods.

"Don't be nervous." He said while dividing the drinks, "We still have a good chance of winning."

Cedric picked up the drink and looked at it, and said happily: "Oh, it's actually Red Claw. I didn't expect you to be so generous."

This sour and sweet drink was just launched this year and is only sold in small quantities at Dancing Grass Restaurant. It makes you energetic after drinking it and is loved by young people and migrant workers.

Charles said with a smile: "It was just a trial sale before and there was not much production, so it was difficult to buy."

"Drink to cheer up and prepare for the play-offs."

Before he could finish speaking, Percy had already mumbled and finished.

Percy is under the greatest pressure now. Whether he can turn over or not will depend on later.

Charles also gave a bottle to each of the other members of the action team. After Harry took two sips, he asked, "Is this a new drink you invented?"

Charles replied: "Muggle technology plus a little herbal medicine, mainly to refresh the mind."

"I asked Vernon to find a factory to produce. If you don't have a job after graduation, you can help Vernon."

Harry immediately trembled, frightened. Working under Vernon was more terrifying than attending Potions class.

Charles also opened a bottle of drink and drank it. This drink was a formula studied by Eleanor. It contained similar Muggle ingredients as a cow energy drink and a little herbal medicine as a wizard's refreshing agent. The effect of one plus one was greater than two.

At the same time, everyone in the jury was discussing the issue of the play-offs.

Nikita said to Karkarov: "The issue of the play-offs can be decided by Durmstrang."

Dumbledore nodded in agreement with his proposal.

Durmstrang is about to join the Potions Championship, so ask them to come up with questions.

Karkaroff said without thinking: "Then let's prepare a delicious poison."

Takashima Tadao said with a smile: "This is a good topic. The properties of poison are easy to verify, but how to prove whether it tastes good?"

Poison can also be caused by animals. The problem is that animals can’t tell you what the poison tastes like, so you can’t let people try it.

Karkaroff took out a finger-sized gold bottle from his pocket and placed it on the table in front of him. He said with great confidence: "It doesn't matter. I have a universal antidote. You can try it yourself."

He looked like he was provoking four magic schools.

Ajinbad asked worriedly: "What if the antidote doesn't work?"

Karkaroff said nonchalantly: "If the antidote doesn't work, I will bear the consequences myself."

Akinbad wanted to say something more, but suddenly noticed that Dumbledore, Nikita, and Takashima Tadao had smiles that meant they could see through the situation, so he shut up.

Ruby has been flying between schools for so many years. It is not a troublesome thing to make some of its tears. It just makes the kitchen work harder.

Nikita announced the topic of the play-offs and announced that each team would have discussion time. The game would start at three o'clock and end at five-thirty.

"What should I do?" Ashford was a little panicked, "Poison is not a problem, but how to make it taste good? Adding sugar will affect the score!"

She has a lot of research on poisons. If colorless and odorless poisons are easy to handle, they can be added to drinks, but this is not a poison that tastes good in itself.

What they need to do now is to catch up with the points. They can't do anything that will cause them to lose points.

Others were also worried. No one had studied this aspect since ancient times. After discussing for a long time, they still had no clue, and the time was getting closer and closer.

"I know a formula." Percy suddenly said, "but I need a spell to speed up the time of boiling the medicine."

Qiu Zhang asked in surprise: "Is there such a spell?"

Ashford said: "Yes, but it is difficult to master and it is easy to exceed the time limit. Many pharmacists are not qualified to master it."

Joyce asked Percy: "Do I have to use this spell?"

Percy nodded and said: "I saw this poison formula in my elder's notes. It came from a letter written by one of her former students. Although it is in oriental style, the medicinal materials are just enough. We need to shorten the time from dozens of days to dozens of minutes at least."

Joyce looked around, hoping that someone would jump out and say that they knew this spell.

As she wished, Charles scratched his head and stood up and said, "I know a similar spell, but it's for cooking. I wonder if it can be used to make potions."

The elves working in the Dancing Grass Restaurant can use a spell to shorten the cooking time. Charles was curious and went to find the wizard version. It only takes two minutes to stew the pig's feet.

Everyone looked at me and I looked at you, undecided.

Seeing that the time was coming, Joyce clenched her fists, gritted her teeth, and made up her mind and said solemnly: "I will use the substitution right now. Smith will replace Zhang, and Weasley will be responsible for preparing the potion. All the consequences will be borne by me."

She made an important decision, and after she finished speaking, she breathed a sigh of relief, her fists loosened, and the whole person looked a lot more relaxed.

That night, after hearing Charles say that she could return to Hogwarts to be a professor in the future, she had an idea and planned to win this competition beautifully to prove that she was qualified.

But things didn't go as planned. The result of five days could only get third place, and she had no way to deal with the questions in the playoffs.

Now all Joyce can do is to take the responsibility for the possible loss of the game alone, so that her teammates can go into battle without any psychological burden.

Qiu Zhang is a member of the team who is trying to gain experience for the next competition, and he immediately agreed with the captain's decision.