Weilan sat at the long table, eating bacon, and heard almost all the students discussing the Triwizard Tournament.
Only Hermione sat beside him, showing him her transformed W.P.S.E. badge.
"Ron finally convinced Fred and George to wear the badge!"
Hermione proudly puffed out her chest to Weilan, a golden W.P.S.E. badge shining on her right chest.
Weilan had an identical red W.P.S.E. badge on his chest.
"Next, I plan to persuade more Hogwarts students to join this struggle. Do you have any good ideas?"
Weilan thought of the beautiful stars endorsing products on TV in the Muggle world:
"Perhaps we can choose a student representative at Hogwarts who is loved and respected by everyone."
"As long as we can convince him to join us and wear the badge, we can subtly rally more people to our organization."
"Well said!" Hermione thought this was a very feasible good idea. "Who do you have in mind?"
Several male prefects' faces flashed through Weilan's mind, but the relevant candidate ultimately settled on Cedric Diggory's portrait.
Cedric Diggory, he is handsome, intelligent, kind, and an undoubtedly good person.
If anyone was most likely to genuinely work for the liberation of House-elves from their enslaved fate, not just for the sake of a favor, Weilan would probably vote for Cedric.
But now was clearly not the time when Cedric's influence was at its greatest.
Only when he was selected as a Triwizard Tournament champion would he become a star throughout Hogwarts!
"We can wait for the results of the Triwizard Tournament champion selection." Weilan bit off half an egg from his cup, not directly saying Cedric's name: "That Hogwarts champion will definitely become the most popular person in our school."
"If we get that champion to endorse WPSE, the effect will definitely be good!"
"Excellent!" Hermione happily finished the food on her plate, seemingly already envisioning a bright future for House-elves.
The last class that afternoon was Snape's Potion Class.
Neville's Potion had angered Snape again, but because they had to gather in the Great Hall at 6 o'clock sharp to welcome the guests from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang, Snape couldn't punish Neville to re-brew the Potion, no matter how angry he was this time.
They were dismissed half an hour early, returned to Gryffindor Tower, put down their bags and textbooks as instructed, put on their cloaks, and then rushed down the stairs to the Entrance Hall.
The Deans of the Houses were ordering their students to line up.
"Weasley, straighten your hat," Professor McGonagall said sternly to Ron, "Miss Patil, take that ridiculous thing out of your hair."
Parvati frowned unhappily and removed a large butterfly hair ornament from the end of her braid.
Following Professor McGonagall's guidance, they filed down the steps and stood in line in front of the Castle.
It was a cold, crisp evening. Night was falling, and a pale, translucent moon was slowly appearing in the fading twilight.
Weilan stood among the students, seeing the first-year students in the front row trembling with excitement.
Ron was excitedly discussing with Seamus how the teachers and students from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang would arrive at Hogwarts.
Weilan, however, was not very interested in their topic; he was more concerned about what to eat tonight.
When the sky became completely dark, with only a silver moon illuminating the earth, Dumbledore suddenly spoke:
"Ah! If I'm not mistaken, the Beauxbatons delegation has arrived!"
His words made the students look around.
Soon, a student discovered the irregular dark shadow under the moon.
The shadow flew across the night sky, getting lower and lower, and closer and closer to them.
They discovered that the actual size of the shadow was terrifyingly large, almost equivalent to two large Dragons flying in the air.
And when the huge, dark object was illuminated by the lights from the Castle windows, they saw its true form—it was actually a gigantic powder-blue carriage.
It was as big as a house, pulled through the air by twelve winged horses, all with silver manes, each as large as an elephant.
The horses' hooves quickly landed on the ground; their hooves were larger than Weilan's face, making thudding sounds when they struck the ground. In the blink of an eye, the carriage they were pulling also landed.
The huge wheels of the carriage vibrated, while the golden horses shook their enormous heads, their fiery red eyes rolling around, scrutinizing these strangers.
The Beauxbatons crest was emblazoned on the carriage door. It was two golden crossed wands, each with three stars emanating from it.
The carriage door then opened, and a large woman, about the size of Hagrid, stepped out.
Her face was handsome, her nose pointed, and her hair was pulled back into a tight bun. She was wrapped in a black satin dress, and her neck and thick fingers were adorned with luxurious opals.
Dumbledore smiled and stepped forward to welcome the Principal of Beauxbatons, Madam Maxime.
A dozen or so Beauxbatons students, both male and female, successively jumped out of the carriage. They were all around eighteen or nineteen years old, and their robes were made of exquisite silk.
Madam Maxime was explaining to Dumbledore how her horses should be cared for. She said these horses only drank pure malt whiskey.
"Hey, George, Fred, a chance to get rich is right in front of you, do you see it?"
Weilan turned his head and winked at the Weasley brothers behind him.
"What?"
At this moment, they were still immersed in the immense shock brought by Madam Maxime's reminder.
"What I mean is, you can sell things to these Beauxbatons students and make a huge profit."
"Of course, you two need to research what they lack and what they like."
Weilan imparted his years of business experience to the two brothers:
"Look, their Principal wears opals, their robes are silk, and her horses only drink pure malt whiskey... These people are very rich; they are powerful potential customers!"
Fred and George looked as if they had discovered a new continent.
"That makes sense, Weilan, but why are you telling us this? Do you want to cooperate with us to earn money from these Beauxbatons students?"
"No, I'm saying this because I hope you'll do me a favor and wear the badge Hermione gave you properly this semester."
Weilan looked at their W.P.S.E. badges, which they had deliberately pinned to their hats, with some exasperation.
They both seemed to think that this unusual way of wearing the badge was fun.
"Alright, even though the badge on the chest isn't as cool."
The two brothers grumbled, reluctantly agreeing to the matter.
Shortly after Madam Maxime led her students into the Great Hall, the teachers and students from Durmstrang also arrived.
They came in a large ship, like a skeleton ship resembling a shipwreck, emerging from the Black Lake's vortex, sailing to the shore, dropping anchor, and disembarking.
The Principal of Durmstrang, Karkaroff, clad in silver-white fur, greeted Dumbledore with his round, sweet voice as soon as he came ashore.
He was a lean man with a goatee, similar in appearance to Pippin, only younger and with smoother hair.
His students also wore fur cloaks, and one of the boys was called by Karkaroff, stepping from the shadows into the light of the Great Hall.
The boy's face was illuminated, and the excitement of the Hogwarts students was ignited simultaneously.
He had a hooked nose, bushy eyebrows, and sharp eyes. Someone recognized his identity; he was the young Quidditch player who participated in the Quidditch World Cup—Viktor Krum.
A gasp erupted from the crowd. Students fumbled in their pockets for quills, and some girls even grabbed lipstick to ask him for an autograph.
"This is too crazy."
Weilan and Hermione watched Ron, who was frantically searching for a quill. They finally managed to convince Ron to follow the crowd back into the Great Hall and sit down.
Filch, the caretaker, had dressed up in his moldy old tailcoat and added four more chairs next to Dumbledore's seat.
They sat at the Gryffindor long table. The Beauxbatons students sat at the Ravenclaw long table. Ron kept muttering about Krum sitting with Gryffindor, but all the Durmstrang students sat at the Slytherin long table.
"Hmph!" Ron was so angry that he dug his nails into the table.
Among the Beauxbatons students, there was a strange girl. Ever since entering the Great Hall, she had kept her head tightly wrapped in a scarf.
Weilan looked at all the Beauxbatons students one by one, finally determining by process of elimination that this strange girl was the main character of Beauxbatons, one of the champions of this Triwizard Tournament—Fleur Delacour.
She let out a sharp scoff when Dumbledore was speaking. Hermione was annoyed by her arrogance.
To cater to the guests' tastes, the House-elves had incorporated a few foreign dishes into tonight's meal.
Weilan had the good fortune to taste black pudding and French fish soup.
Fleur finally removed the scarf, revealing her long, silvery hair, clear blue eyes, and a set of white teeth.
She was not satisfied with the few French dishes on the Ravenclaw table and walked over to the Gryffindor long table, asking if they would still eat the French fish stew.
When she approached Ron, he flushed, staring at her blankly and speechlessly, his mouth agape.
"We're not eating it, you can take it."
Weilan pushed the plate of French food towards Fleur.
Fleur looked at Weilan. They briefly met each other's gaze, and then Weilan saw Fleur's beautiful blue eyes narrow suspiciously.
"You should go, Miss."
Weilan did not explain why he was unaffected by her Veela bloodline, only raising his inconvenient arm to indicate: "If you continue to stand here, you will obstruct our meal."
"Hmph."
Fleur tossed her hair and returned to the Ravenclaw long table. Every time she passed, the surrounding boys would stop what they were doing and stare at her foolishly.
Mr. Ludo Bagman and Mr. Crouch, who were responsible for organizing the Triwizard Tournament, also arrived. They were seated in the two remaining empty chairs next to Dumbledore.
After dinner, Dumbledore happily stood up and introduced the judging panel for the Tournament to everyone in the Great Hall—
They were Professor Dumbledore, Madam Maxime, Mr. Karkaroff, Mr. Bagman, and Mr. Crouch.
After some necessary rule introductions and many polite remarks for public occasions, the highlight of the Triwizard Tournament opening ceremony finally arrived.
Filch walked onto the stage from an inconspicuous corner, holding a jewel-encrusted wooden box, which he presented to Dumbledore.
Dumbledore tapped the box three times with his wand, and the lid creaked open. Dumbledore took out a large, roughly carved wooden goblet from inside. The goblet itself was unremarkable, but blue-white flames danced within it.
Dumbledore closed the box and placed the goblet on the lid so that everyone in the Great Hall could clearly see it.
Dumbledore then introduced the rules for selecting the champions:
Every student who wished to compete for champion must write his or her name and school name on a piece of parchment and throw it into this goblet.
Those aspiring to be champions could sign up within twenty-four hours. Tomorrow night, which was Halloween night, the goblet would choose the names of the three students it deemed most representative of the three schools.
Tonight, the goblet would be placed in the Entrance Hall. All interested parties could put their names into the goblet.
To prevent underage students from being tempted, Dumbledore told everyone that he would draw an Age Line around the goblet. No one under the age of 17 would be able to cross this Age Line.
"Finally, I must solemnly remind everyone."
At the end of the opening ceremony, Dumbledore solemnly said to all the students:
"When you put your names into the Goblet of Fire, please ensure that you have clearly considered your intentions."
"Because every champion chosen by the Goblet of Fire must represent his or her school in the Triwizard Tournament."
Dumbledore emphasized the word "must."
Dumbledore gave many instructions, but this did not seem to deter a few mischievous minds.
As they left the Great Hall, Weilan heard Fred and George discussing how to use an Ageing Potion to trick the Age Line.
Sure enough, the next day they put their plan of using the Ageing Potion into practice. Weilan was eating breakfast at the time and saw them both being mercilessly thrown out of the Age Line like shot puts.
White long beards grew from the twins' chins, everyone laughed heartily, and Lee Jordan accompanied them to Madam Pomfrey's Hospital Wing.
Weilan and Hermione naturally had no intention of cheating the Age Line. Hermione was still racking her brain trying to figure out how to mobilize more forces to join WPSE. That afternoon, Hermione suddenly remembered—"We can also mobilize Hagrid to join WPSE!"
They arrived at Hagrid's hut around three or four in the afternoon and were surprised to find that Hagrid, for some unknown reason, had put on his best furry brown suit and used a large amount of... possibly machine oil, to slick his hair into two neat strands.
Weilan looked at the powder-blue carriage parked two hundred yards from Hagrid's hut, then at Hagrid, who had tried his best to dress up, and then told Hermione:
"Hermione, I don't think this is the time for us to talk to Hagrid..."
"Why?"
"Because... he might be worried about someone more important."
This kind of thing couldn't be said out loud, so Weilan could only frantically gesture towards the Beauxbatons carriage with his eyebrows.
"What?!"
Hermione understood Weilan's meaning, almost bristling, and whispered in Weilan's ear: "You mean, those two big guys..."
"No, this doesn't prevent Hagrid from joining us."
Hermione pulled Weilan, full of ambition, into Hagrid's hut, and emerged 10 minutes later, crestfallen.
"I don't understand why Hagrid refused me! He actually said that being enslaved is the nature of House-elves!"