The Day of the Draw at Hogwarts

It was still early, and even the moon was still high in the night sky. The air was so cold that it made my lungs hurt when I breathed it in. At first, Harry would chat with Mr. Weasley. But later, Harry shut his mouth and trudged along the muddy country road.

The surroundings were completely silent, even the chirping of birds was rare, and only the footsteps of a group of people could be heard. By the time they passed through the village, it was getting a little brighter and the moon was gone. At this time, Tom only felt his palms were cold.

They finally arrived at the location where the Portkey was dropped: Stoat Mountain.

Once we climbed up the mountain, the hike just now was no longer difficult. Ferret Mountain is different from those mature scenic mountains. It is a barren mountain. Naturally, no one built roads in the barren mountains, so everyone could only crawl up with one foot deep and one foot shallow. The sky was dark and the ground beneath their feet could not be seen clearly. In addition, the soil on the hillside became muddy due to rain, making it extremely difficult for everyone to move forward.

Every time Tom took a breath, there was a stinging pain in his chest. The cold air was finally causing damage to his lungs. Hermione was not far behind him, with a pale face and one hand tightly holding the hem of her clothes. Tom turned his head and saw a layer of mist surrounding the sides of her head.

He guiltily looked at Mr. Granger's position and found that he was at the front of the line with Mr. Weasley, and he and Hermione happened to be at the back. So he slowed down, waited for Hermione to get closer, and gently took her hand.

"It saves effort."

Hermione didn't say anything more, just nodded silently.

In this way, Tom held Hermione's hand, and the two of them climbed to the top of the mountain little by little. After holding Hermione's hand, it was as if a wonderful chemical reaction had occurred. Tom gained more energy and the pain in his abdomen was no longer so burning.

Soon Tom was on level ground and they finally reached the top of the mountain.

"There are still ten minutes left. Let's look quickly...it shouldn't be very big..." Mr. Weasley wiped the fog from his glasses and glanced at the watch on his wrist.

There are two types of door keys. A portkey that teleports anyone who touches it to a destination at a specific time. This year's Quidditch World Cup will use timed transfer portkeys. This portkey can only be used once and is at risk of being missed, but can teleport many people at once.

Another kind of door key is very tricky. Tom has always been curious about why someone would invent this kind of magic prop. This kind of door key will be transmitted immediately when someone touches it. This door key can be used multiple times, but it is more difficult to teleport multiple people because these people need to touch the door key at the same time. Both types of door keys will follow the user to their destination. For instant teleportation portkeys, contact again will teleport the person back to their destination.

To Tom, the second type of portkey looked more like a trap. Why should it be set to trigger? What is the difference between this and laying a landmine? Artificially create a trap card?

The most likely possibility is that the first type of door key invented was the second type. Because the defects were too great, wizards improved it and made the first type of door key.

Ten minutes was a long time or a short time, and everyone hurriedly searched around for the door key.

Tom was wandering around like a headless fly. The description of the door key is very abstract. If something can be called "inconspicuous", it means that it is inconspicuous, difficult to find, and easily ignored.

But now they were about to find this thing in the gloomy sky.

Tom was very fortunate that there weren't many people climbing up Stoat Mountain out of boredom, so there was no garbage and he didn't need to get tangled up in a pile of junk. He walked around and reached the other side of the top of the mountain. At this time, something tripped him under his feet.

Tom looked down and saw an old, moldy boot.

His intuition told him that this should be it.

He straightened up and shouted at Mr. Weasley, "I may have found it!"

The shouts pierced the night sky and echoed in the mountains.

"Kid, what you found is indeed the door key." The first thing that appeared in Tom's sight was a man with a short brown beard. The person following him was known to Tom as Cedric Diggory, the captain and seeker of the Hufflepuff House Quidditch team. He was very handsome and fit Tom's impression of a vampire.

Looking at the worn boots in front of him, Tom felt that sooner or later the wizarding world would cause some trouble because of the portkey. [Note] Stoat Mountain is a wilderness, so the disadvantages of Portkeys are not obvious enough, but in places where Muggle activities are slightly more frequent, the problems of Portkeys are very big. As we all know, places where Muggles often move around will accumulate a lot of tatters and garbage, and the portkey's appearance just happens to be tatters.

If there is a garbage dump in front of you, and your door key happens to be nearby, how do you find your door key among hundreds of pieces of garbage?

"Amos!" Mr. Weasley trotted over, seemingly meeting an acquaintance.

"Arthur!"

The two middle-aged men hugged each other.

After Mr. Weasley's introduction, Tom learned that the brownbeard's name was Amos Diggory, and he worked in the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures.

As for Cedric, everyone knows him.

Ginny and Hermione couldn't help but look at each other as he walked out from behind their father.

"Hi," Cedric looked at everyone, "Hello."

Tom, Fred and others also waved.

In that rainy final, Ravenclaw replaced Hufflepuff. Cedric did not "win without victory" and did not have any quarrel with the Gryffindor Quidditch team, so Fred, George and Cedric's relationship is okay.

After a few words of greeting, Mr. Weasley introduced the people present to Amos, "The red-haired one is my child, Fred... George? Ron, Ginny." In normal times, Fred I definitely want to play name gags with George, but they are not in the mood today.

"Here are Mr. and Mrs. Granger, and their daughter, Hermione. This young man is a good friend of Tom, Fred and George - this is Harry, a friend of Ron."

When he saw the Grangers, Amos Diggory hesitated to speak. He instinctively felt that the Grangers were Muggles, but he couldn't ask directly because it would be very rude. But his attention was immediately attracted by the name at the end.

His eyes widened: "Harry? Harry Potter? And Tom Yoder?"

"Yeah." Harry nodded. He was used to the curious looks on people's faces when they first met, and the eyes that looked at the scar on his forehead, which made him very uncomfortable. But it seems a little different today?

Today, although he still received attention, this attention was dispersed. Mr. Diggory also paid attention to another person.

Tom Yoder:?

He's really not used to it.

"Ah, yes, that's right..." Tom's eyes blinked rapidly.

"Oh my God!" Digory was obviously more interested in Tom. Harry was like a check-in point. Every wizard wanted to see what the "Boy Who Lived" looked like. The tourists took pictures at the check-in point and left, and the wizards did the same, as if they had accomplished something.

Tom is different. He is like a tourist attraction. You can't just walk to the door and take a photo.

"So did you really fight off hundreds of dementors at once?" Amos was curious.

"Strictly speaking, Hermione and I fought back together. The Patronus we summoned had a mutation." Tom corrected Amos's mistake. He didn't know why, but everyone thought he was the one who fought off the group of dementors and ignored Hermione.

"Ha! Great!" Mr. Diggory gave Tom a thumbs up. "You two will definitely be added to the chocolate frog picture."

"Thank you for the compliment." Tom and Hermione thanked them from the bottom of their hearts.

"Being included in the chocolate frog picture" may sound funny, but it is actually a great honor in the wizarding world. Wizards have existed for so long, and only one hundred and four can be included in the Chocolate Frogs. By the way, only the famous dark wizards of modern times are not included. The chocolate frog is a collection of ancient wizards, regardless of whether they are good or evil.

In other words, being included in the chocolate frog cartoon shows that you have a great influence in the wizarding world. Dumbledore once said in a joking tone that as long as he didn't remove me from the chocolate frog picture, he would do anything. This was true.

Tom and Hermione can be included according to the standards. Because their patron saints are very special. One is a magical animal, a three-headed dog, and the other has no specific form, but can be fused with the three-headed dog patron saint. These two points are enough to be included in the cartoon. The only dispute is whether they should be listed separately or share a picture.

Tom's attitude was: If possible, please put me and Hermione in a picture.

The only two-player card, this row of faces, made Tom excited just thinking about it.

"Can you-"

"Dad!" Mr. Diggory wanted to say something more, but was interrupted by his son. Cedric knew his father very well, and he knew what his father was thinking. Amos wanted to see Tom and Hermione's patronus in person.

To some extent, Amos's character is not as generous as he seems.

"The time is almost up," Mr. Weasley quickly changed the subject, "Is anyone else coming nearby?"

There are four families of wizards living in the Stoat Mountain area: the Weasley family, the Lovegood family, the Fawcett family and the Diggory family. The Lovegood family went to the World Cup a week ago, the Fawcett family didn't get tickets, and the other two families are here, so no one really comes.

"Everyone, please take your place. There is only one minute left..." Arthur looked at Tom and others who were using the door key for the first time. "You just need to stretch out a finger and touch the door key."

It was very difficult for everyone to form a circle. Since everyone was carrying a big backpack and there were so many people, it took a lot of effort.

Looking at Mr. Granger crowded around him, Arthur suddenly remembered that he had forgotten to tell Mr. Granger about the disease of fainting the door key.

Portkey sickness is a disease caused by traveling with a portkey. It is somewhat similar to Muggle motion sickness. It is caused by the inconsistency between the movement seen by the human eye and the movement sensed by the vestibular system. The main symptoms are nausea and hysteria. Closing your eyes can effectively prevent and relieve the symptoms of door key fainting.

"By the way, when you use the door key later, please remember to close your eyes." He said loudly, making sure that everyone present could hear it.

As soon as he finished speaking, the time was up.

Tom experienced an extremely painful torture: he felt a hook behind his belly button and hooked forward crazily, until his feet lifted off the ground and flew into the air.

This feeling, once you experience it once, you don’t want to feel it again. Tom felt like a piece of bacon being hooked up, swaying in the wind. Hermione and he were squeezed together next to him, and then——

Tom's feet struck the ground heavily, and his head hit a soft mass. Involved by others, he fell down and the door key fell not far away.

Tom's head was pushed away and he fell to the ground. When he raised his head, he found that almost everyone had fallen down. Hermione was beside him, rubbing her belly - it should be her belly, and staring at him with some dissatisfaction.

"Five and seven, from Stoat Mountain." A tired voice came from not far away.

The two wizards who spoke were one holding a large gold watch and the other holding a roll of parchment. The two of them tried to dress up like Muggles, but it backfired. They were dressed... very freely.

After recovering the door key, the wizard holding the parchment began to look for their camp on the list.

"Weasley...here, a quarter of a mile ahead, the first field, the caretaker's name is Roberts, and so is the Granger family. Diggory is in the second field, looking for Mr. Paine."

Mr. Weasley thanked him and walked towards the camp. The others followed behind holding their stomachs, and Tom judged from Mr. Granger's pale face that the experience just now was by no means a good memory for him.

As they walked, Tom looked around. They were currently in a desolate, mist-shrouded swamp. The Wizarding World Cup can only be held in a place far away from Muggles. It is not easy to find such a piece of land in the UK. Countries with vast territories like Brazil, Argentina, the United States, Canada and Russia are more suitable for hosting the World Cup.

It took them nearly twenty minutes to cross this swamp. After passing through the swamp, a small stone house appeared in everyone's eyes. There was a gentle slope behind the stone house, and thousands of tents of different shapes were dotted on it, extending to the black forest at the end of the horizon. Here they parted ways with Diggory and his son, and walked towards the stone house.

A real Muggle stood at the door of the stone house, looking at the tents.

"Here we are," Mr. Weasley said excitedly, "Today I will set up the tent the Muggle way!"

————

A four thousand word chapter!

Note: There was actually a portkey incident in 2003.

Recommend a friend’s book~

"I don't accept anyone as a matchmaker" Author: Er She

In order to transport a large number of people under confidentiality, door keys are usually made from inconspicuous items and placed in relatively remote places. This prevents passing Muggles from inadvertently picking them up. However, there have been incidents in history of Muggles being teleported by portkeys. In 2003, two Muggle dog walkers were accidentally teleported to a Celestine Warbeck concert by a portkey. Their dog had taken an old running shoe in its mouth in Clapham Common. Meanwhile, a group of miserable witches and wizards are frantically searching for their portkeys in the empty lawn, hopefully picking up chip packets and cigarette butts one after another.

————

"I don't accept anyone as a matchmaker"

"When the newlyweds entered the room, the matchmaker threw them over the wall."

"I would rather believe that there are ghosts in the world than a matchmaker's mouth."

"It's better if you don't win, don't be a guarantee, and don't be a matchmaker for three generations!"

From the above three sentences, we can see how embarrassing the position of matchmakers is in the eyes of Chinese people.

Jiang Feng, who had just graduated from college, suddenly had the magical ability to see the matching value of marriage, so he returned to his hometown in the countryside and began his magical journey as a professional matchmaker.

Under Jiang Feng's help, one couple after another became model couples in the eyes of everyone.

Many years later, Jiang Feng, who was already at the pinnacle of the industry, suddenly looked back and realized that he had unknowingly changed the world's view of matchmakers, greatly improved the industry status of matchmakers, and reduced the rising divorce rate in our country.