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Chapter 266: Christmas Ball

"Wow, Hermione, you look so beautiful after dressing up!" She said with some envy, "Speaking of which, Krum's vision is so good that he discovered the fact that the two idiots have not realized for several years."

"Ahem." The idiot standing next to Ginny choked.

Hermione's face was red, and Krum nodded woodenly, showing Ginny a slightly stiff but kind smile.

At this time, Ron and Eloise Midgen walked over from the opposite side of the hall hand in hand.

"Hey, Ron..."

Harry wanted to say hello to Ron, but he found that his good friend's face was terribly gloomy at this time.

Ron seemed to have no idea that Harry and Hermione were the same, and he pulled Midgen and walked straight past them into the hall.

"You said... Ron didn't see us?" Harry asked Ginny hesitantly, "Or did he just not recognize Hermione and thought that Hermione lied to us when she said she had a partner?"

"I don't think so." Ginny curled her lips, "I think he was jealous. After all, this idiot never thought that Hermione, who he spent every day with, was so beautiful."

"Of course, it could also be that he was not satisfied with the fact that I secretly became your partner..." At the end, Ginny's cheeks turned red.

After the other students sat down in the hall, Professor McGonagall looked at the warriors and their partners and asked them to line up in pairs and follow her into the hall.

Harry could only temporarily suppress his confusion and file in with the other warriors, heading for a large round table at the front of the hall where the referee and the safety officer sat.

When the warriors entered, the students who had already sat down applauded enthusiastically.

On Christmas Eve, the entire hall was decorated anew, brighter and more gorgeous than any previous Christmas dinner.

The walls of the hall were covered with glittering silver frost, the ceiling was a starry night sky, and hundreds of mistletoe branches and ivy wreaths were suspended in the sky.

The four long tables of the colleges disappeared, replaced by a hundred small tables with lanterns, and a dozen students sat around each table.

Overall, the little wizards who knew each other from each college were still sitting together, but the boundaries of the colleges seemed to be not as clear as before.

Harry concentrated his mind and maintained the manners that Professor McGonagall had secretly taught him, being careful not to trip over the hems of various long dresses around him, and trying his best to maintain the image of a warrior in the semi-finals.

Ginny's face was red, but she seemed very happy. She held Harry's arm tightly and smiled brightly at everyone, as if she was showing off something.

When approaching the guest of honor, Harry and Ginny saw Ron and Midgen.

Ron was squinting his eyes, watching Hermione walk down the aisle. Midgen looked a bit amused, and curiously moved his eyes back and forth between Ron and Hermione.

"You are not in a good state today." Midgen asked in a low voice with a look of interest, "Do you like Hermione?"

"Hmm... Hmm?!" Ron was like a husky that was kicked, his face suddenly filled with shock, shame and confusion, "How is it possible! How can I like her? We are brothers! Do you understand what brothers mean?!"

"I know, I know you are brothers." Midgen said with a smile, "You don't have to react so radically, Ron."

...

While Midgen was eating melons and Ron was desperately resisting, the warriors had passed by the students and came to the front of the guest of honor.

Dumbledore smiled happily and waved to the warriors and their dancing partners;

Karkaroff seemed unhappy, probably because his beloved disciple Krum was too close to a Muggle-born wizard from Hogwarts; Ludo Bagman wore a bright purple robe with big yellow stars on it tonight, and he clapped his hands enthusiastically like his classmates;

Ms. Maxime took off her usual black satin uniform and wore a light purple flowing robe; Professor Hicks wore a dress made of bright silver silk threads.

Of course, the most eye-catching guest of honor was Professor Dracula, the security officer. In the entire auditorium, most of the little wizards focused their attention on their Defense Against the Dark Arts professor, both boys and girls.

At first glance, Dracula's outfit seemed to be no different from usual, still the black and red wizard robe he wore before. But tonight, he put his collar up——

Just this change of putting his collar up, for some reason, made a casual robe seem to change its appearance, and suddenly it became a robe that was not inferior to any formal dress present.

At the same time, Dracula's long silver hair, which had always been loose, was tied up for a rare time, revealing a pair of pointed ears.

He also wore an extremely luxurious and exquisite dark crown, inlaid with three dark red gems, which exuded extremely deep magical fluctuations and were obviously very valuable.

Of course, the little wizards present did not know that the reason why Dracula wore this crown was actually because he had experienced a lot of twists and turns——

The Four Finals Tournament is a rare event in a century. As the organizer, Hogwarts must show its style in front of many foreign guests.

For this reason, before the Christmas ball started, Professor McGonagall personally went to Dracula's office to persuade him, hoping that the lazy Dracula could tie up his loose hair and wear a decent hat.

Dracula was unwilling, but he could not resist Professor McGonagall's earnest persuasion, so he prepared to temporarily pick up a hat to make up the number.

He immediately thought of the first Christmas when he came to Hogwarts, when he once wore a clean Sorting Hat on his head as his top hat... At that time, the Sorting Hat also humorously called out the name of the "Sorting House" "Azkaban"...

However, Dracula's idea was still rejected.

Just kidding! Even if the Sorting Hat is not serious, even if it was indeed the hat of Dracula's friend Gryffindor more than a thousand years ago, after so many years, its connotation has quietly changed.

Now, the Sorting Hat is a cultural relic representing Hogwarts, representing the symbol of the different spiritual cores of the four colleges.

If you just put the Sorting Hat on your head so carelessly and appear in front of other guests, how will they view Hogwarts?

Is the famous Sorting Hat just a dispensable toy of a professor?

...Although it was true, Professor McGonagall was unwilling to expose this fact to other schools, at least this would save the Sorting Hat some face.

So, Dracula had no choice but to take out the crown that he had not worn for who knows how many years.

Now, he was only one vampire scepter away from the image of ruling the entire Dracula Castle...

This nearly complete Dracula was undoubtedly very eye-catching, and Harry had to work hard to move his eyes away from the mysterious Defense Against the Dark Arts professor and look at the last seat of the guest of honor.

He was surprised to notice that Mr. Crouch was not there. Ron's brother, Percy Weiss, was sitting in the seventh seat at the table.

The warriors and dance partners walked to the table, and Percy pulled out an empty chair next to him and looked at Harry with a sharp gaze.

Harry understood what he meant and sat down next to Percy.

The next moment, Percy saw Ginny next to Harry and couldn't help but open his eyes wide.

"Ginny? How come you are Harry's partner?" Percy asked Ginny with an elder brother's attitude.

"Why, can't I be Harry's partner?" Ginny, who was shy at first, now let herself go and said to Percy with her head held high.

"It's not that I can't, but..." Percy scratched his head and forgot what he wanted to say.

"Percy, why didn't Mr. Crouch come?" Harry was also a little embarrassed, and quickly changed the subject and asked the question he wanted to know.

"Oh, by the way, I almost forgot to tell you--" Percy finally remembered what he wanted to say, with a smug smile on his face, "I got promoted!"

He adjusted his brand new navy blue robe, with a smug and pretentious look on his face.

"Mr. Crouch saw that I worked hard and seriously, so he promoted me to his personal assistant!" Percy said. From his tone, I thought he had just been selected as the supreme ruler of the universe.

"As Mr. Crouch's personal assistant, I'm here on his behalf."

"But this doesn't seem to have any necessary connection with why he didn't come?" Harry asked.

"I'm sorry, Mr. Crouch's health is not very good... or very bad." Percy sighed and explained to Harry, "It seems that he has been a little bit wrong before the Quidditch World Cup."

"But this is not surprising. The work of the International Magical Exchange Department is too hard. And he is not as young as before-although, of course, he is still very good, and his mind is still as sharp as before. But the World Cup is a terrible failure for the entire Ministry of Magic..."

"Well, as I said just now, he is old and needs to be taken care of. But his family's little elf Ling seemed to have had an accident, and his wife and son also passed away. I guess there is no one to take care of him now..."

"Later, we had to prepare for the Triwizard Tournament and deal with the aftermath of the World Cup - that hateful woman named Skeeter spread rumors everywhere..."

"Alas, poor man, he is spending a quiet Christmas, he needs a rest so much. I am glad that he knows that he has someone he can rely on to handle some things for him."

Percy talked about it, and finally turned the topic to himself, praising himself generously.

"Speak less, Percy." When Percy wanted to continue to brag, Ginny interrupted him in time, "I remember clearly that at the Quidditch World Cup four months ago, Mr. Crouch couldn't even remember your name!"

Harry nodded in agreement.

He also remembered that Mr. Crouch called Percy "Wetherby" at that time.

"That was then! It's different now!" Percy blushed anxiously.

At this time, everyone had a golden plate in front of them. There was no food on the plate yet, but everyone had a small menu in front of them.

Harry blocked out Percy's chattering, picked up his menu without any confidence, and looked around - there was no house elf serving next to him.

At this time, as if he saw his confusion, Dumbledore looked at his menu carefully, and then read to his plate very clearly:

"Pork chop!"

A very tempting pork chop immediately appeared on the plate.

The others at the table suddenly realized and followed suit, ordering their favorite food on the plate.

The dinner started smoothly. The professors and students present enjoyed the rich food while chatting with their dance partners, taking the opportunity to exchange feelings and discuss how to dance together in the next dance.

Hermione and Viktor Krum were talking speculatively, and they didn't seem to pay attention to what they were eating at all.

It occurred to Harry that, even though they had played together in a match, he had never heard a word from Krum, who was so introverted.

But he was actually speaking now, and speaking cheerfully -

"Ah, we actually have a castle, but I don't think it's as big or as comfortable as this one." He said to Hermione with a smile on his face, "Ours only has four floors, and you can only light fires when you use magic..."

Meanwhile, Fleur Delacour was criticizing the decoration of Hogwarts to Roger Davis.

"That's nothing," she said contemptuously, looking at the star-lit walls around the hall. "At Beauxbatons Castle, our Great Hall is filled with icicles at Christmas."

"Of course, those icicles don't melt at all... They're like huge diamond statues, shining in the hall. The food is also top-notch. We also have a choir of mountain fairies who serenade us while we eat."

"We don't have these ugly armors on the walls at all. If a ghost who specializes in mischief breaks into Beauxbatons, he will definitely be driven out..."

Roger Davis watched her talk with an infatuated look on his face. Several times he held his fork crookedly and didn't put the food into his mouth.

Looking around the hall, Hagrid sat next to another staff seat. He put on the ugly fluffy brown suit again and combed his hair into a broom.

Compared to Professor Dracula's tied hair, Hagrid's hair looked like a bunch of weeds tied up...

At this time, Hagrid was looking up at the guest of honor seat, constantly looking at Ms. Maxime.

"Long time no see, Weiss." A voice sounded in Harry and Ginny's ears.

They turned around in surprise and found that Professor Dracula had changed his position at some point and appeared next to Percy, without attracting the attention of anyone else.

"Ah, Professor Dracula, it's nice to see you again!" Percy saw the professor he had always admired, and immediately sat up straight, turning from a personal assistant to a senior official of the Ministry of Magic into a good student.

"Do you mind telling me about what you said to Potter before?" Dracula asked softly, "What happened to Mr. Crouch?"