“The trainers told me a lot,” Ron repeated their complaints, “They said Mr. Bagman, while touching the Dragons, conveniently took some Dragon scales that were about to fall off.”
“They suspect Mr. Bagman wants to sell these scales, after all, Dragon scales are one of the more precious Potion ingredients.”
Weilan chewed on a cream biscuit and sighed, “It seems Mr. Bagman really owes a lot of money.”
The ledger issue was left to Dumbledore to review.
Weilan could no longer interfere.
Dumbledore said that in a few days he would also give Weilan individual lessons on Ancient magic in the Principal’s office.
At that time, he could ask him how the investigation into Mr. Bagman was progressing.
Weilan and Ron parted ways in the Great Hall.
Ron turned left towards Gryffindor Tower, while Weilan turned right towards the library.
He still had a deciphering task to complete!
Weilan sat in the library for an afternoon, compiling a complete list of prepositions in Ancient Runes.
Not many, only a mere two hundred.
Because prepositions are mostly used very frequently, Weilan did not sort them by frequency like Hermione’s verb list.
He met Hermione and Krum in the library.
Krum was always surrounded by a group of chattering girls, and Hermione was clearly annoyed by this.
She hugged her books, trying to avoid this annoying guy, but happened to bump into Weilan behind a bookshelf.
“Hi! Hermione,” Weilan greeted her awkwardly, “You…”
“No time to talk!” Hermione grabbed his arm and said impatiently, “You have to help me.”
“What?” Weilan hadn't even asked what help was needed when he saw Krum's head pop out from behind the bookshelf.
“Hermione! Can I invite you…” Krum’s face was full of expectation, which vanished when he saw Hermione holding Weilan’s arm.
“No,” Hermione stood beside Weilan, radiant, and gleefully refused Krum, “I already have plans.”
The group of girls following Krum immediately exploded into a frenzy.
They clamored around Krum, directly stating that they would accompany Krum to do anything he wanted to do.
But Krum looked very unhappy.
He dejectedly looked back at Hermione one last time, but could only see Hermione holding Weilan’s arm, happily leaving.
“What’s wrong with him?” Weilan asked Hermione after Krum walked away.
“Nothing,” Hermione giggled, “To be honest, I don’t really like him, and now I’ve finally gotten rid of him.”
Weilan recalled that Krum seemed to like Hermione in the original story.
“By the way, about this morning…”
“I forgive you,” Hermione patted his forearm, “You know what? The moment you bravely saved Miss Delacour, you were absolutely dashing!”
After leaving the library, he and Hermione had dinner, then walked towards Gryffindor Tower.
When Weilan returned to the Gryffindor common room through the Fat Lady’s portrait hole, the entire common room erupted in deafening cheers.
Confetti fell from the air, someone was blowing trumpets, and the tables were covered with cream cakes and cookies.
Weilan looked blankly at the banner magically suspended above the common room—
“Support Hogwarts’s New Champion—Weilan Costa!”
Weilan was instantly startled and wanted to back away and leave through the portrait hole.
But how could his classmates let him off easily? The Creevey brothers blocked the hole and pushed Weilan back in.
“Weilan!”
Angelina enthusiastically hugged Weilan with her strong, muscular arms.
“You know what? When you jumped down to save Fleur, all of Hogwarts was cheering for you!”
“Merlin’s beard, why are you only 14 years old? If you were 17 this year, Daphne wouldn’t have had a chance to become a Champion!”
Lee Jordan was distributing butterbeer and pumpkin juice everywhere.
He squeezed through the crowd, handed Weilan a cup of butterbeer, and laughed heartily:
“I heard that Daphne was scared to tears behind you, wasn’t she?”
“Only Slytherin is still stubbornly admitting her, but you, Weilan, my friend, you are the true pride of Hogwarts!”
Weilan took the beer, took a sip, letting the warm beer dispel the chill from his body.
“I just happened to know a spell to deal with Dragons,” he said modestly, “So I was confident I could save her, that’s why I did it.”
“Oh!” Ginny slapped her head, “I remember now, Weilan, Fleur asked me to give you something, you must accept it.”
“What is it?” Weilan curiously watched Ginny take a flat paper box from her backpack.
A moment later, Ginny brought the box to Weilan, and he accepted this exquisite-looking paper box.
Upon opening it, Weilan found a luxurious silk dress inside.
A note was pressed on top:
“Weilan, I hope to have the honor of being your partner at the upcoming Christmas Ball.”
Snap! Weilan immediately closed the lid.
“It’s okay,” he heard Hermione sigh and slowly say, “You can choose anyone, I respect your choice.”
Dispelling the curious crowd around him, Weilan put the box into his backpack.
“Sorry, everyone, I’m too tired today and want to rest early.”
Weilan felt that the butterbeer he had just drunk was too hot, so much so that his face was alarmingly flushed.
He lowered his head, avoiding the classmates who still wanted to ask him “What’s in the box?”, and rushed up the stairs to the dormitory in two strides.
Yes, Weilan suddenly remembered that Christmas was only a few weeks away.
The Christmas Ball was also part of the Triwizard Tournament.
This meant he had to confirm his partner.
Although Weilan didn't know who his partner would be, he was very clear that it would definitely not be Fleur.
Weilan now… didn’t particularly like girls with Veela characteristics.
“Tomorrow, I’ll find a time to return this dress.”
He muttered as he placed the paper box on his bedside table.
Outside the dormitory, it was still noisy.
Weilan simply sat on the bed, took out the Merlin coin, and then took out the preposition list he had organized in the library, doing the final deciphering work.
“The first preposition means ‘for’.”
“The second preposition means ‘towards’.”
“So the sentence means ‘Thought knocks for me the door leading to the past’.”
At this point, all the ciphers on this coin had been deciphered.
Weilan put the coin away, just waiting for Dumbledore to find him for individual lessons to submit their deciphering results to Dumbledore.