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Chapter 463: An Unwinnable Bet
🕑 Added 2019-04-25 04:53:13 +0000 UTC
"Arthur, old man!" He came to the campfire. "What a day, eh? What a day! Could we have asked for more perfect weather? A cloudless night coming… and hardly a hiccough in the arrangements… Not much for me to do!"
Behind him, a group of haggard-looking Ministry wizards rushed past, pointing at the distant evidence of some sort of a magical fire that was sending violet sparks twenty feet into the air.
For his prediction, everyone expressed doubts that it would rain if it was not good tonight.
Behind Mr. Weasley, Percy hurried forward with his hand outstretched.
"This is my son Percy. He’s just started at the Ministry!" Mr. Weasley said with a smile. "Sitting there is Sirius Black, then Fred, George, Bill, Charlie, Ron, and my daughter Ginny. You've seen them before, and here are Evan Mason, Hermione Granger and Harry Potter."
He introduced everyone to Bagman, and when he saw Sirius, Bagman was obviously surprised.
The expression on his face was complex and looked more like fear.
Sirius said that Bagman had been trialed for providing confidential information to the Death Eater, Rookwood. They had a brief contact at the time of the trial.
It seemed that he remembered his past experience and was terrified of Sirius.
When he heard Harry's name, Bagman looked a little surprised.
"Okay, okay, do you want to make a bet on the match?" Bagman said eagerly, jingling what seemed to be a large amount of gold in the pockets of his yellow-and-black robes.
It seemed that this was the main purpose of his coming here.
"I’ve already got Roddy Pontner betting me Bulgaria will score first… I offered him nice odds, considering Ireland’s front three are the strongest I’ve seen in years… and little Agatha Timms has put up half shares in her eel farm on a week-long match."
"I’ll bet a Galleon on Ireland to win, okay?" Mr. Weasley said hesitantly.
“A Galleon?!” Bagman was somewhat disappointed, but recovered himself. “Very well, is there anyone else who wants to gamble?”
He looked forward to Sirius, but Sirius ignored him completely.
Bagman touched his nose embarrassingly, and didn't dare to say more. His eyes shifted to the others.
"They’re a bit young to be gambling," Mr. Weasley said quickly.
"We’ll bet forty-six galleons, thirty-two Sickles, eight Knuts," said Fred as he and George quickly pooled all their money, “that Ireland would be winning… but Viktor Krum gets the Snitch.”
All the money Evan had given them and the sales of products in the store were confiscated by Mrs. Weasley, nearly 200 Gold Galleons.
Mrs. Weasley said that she would give them back to him and that Evan was not allowed to give money to Fred and George.
But this did not bother them. When their business was at its peak, they had asked Lee Jordan to help them sell a lot of joke products.
Most of Hogwarts's owl orders were made in this way.
The two of them just went out to collect their money. When they came back, they secretly told Evan about it.
Fred and George now intended to use the money as a re-starting fund to make a comeback. He did not expect that they would take out all of them here and take part in a gamble that was impossible to win.
Evan did not think that Fred and George would guess wrong, but he doubted Ludo Bagman's character.
"Boys!" said Mr. Weasley under his breath, "I don't want you betting. Your mother..."
"Don't be a spoilsport, Arthur!" boomed Ludo Bagman, rattling his pockets excitedly. "They’re old enough to know what they want! You think Ireland will win, but Krum will get the Golden Snitch? Not a chance, boys, not a chance. I’ll give excellent odds on that one.”
Ludo Bagman quickly whipped out a notebook and quill and began jotting down the twins’ names.
Mr. Weasley looked on helplessly, unable to stop what was happening.
"George, calm down, you can't win!" Evan gently pulled George's robe.
"Do not worry, we have our own measures!" George said indifferently.
"We both seriously analyzed all the previous games of Viktor Krum," Fred said.
"I mean, even if you win, this guy may not give you the money!" Evan raised his voice and said rudely.
Obviously, Bagman also heard what he said, and his face became embarrassed, but fleeting.
"Boys, Boys, you can go out and inquire about my credibility. Old Bagman has always been willing to gamble and lose!" Bagman said loudly, "I can use my status as Head of the Department of Magical Games and Sports as a guarantee. But I have to say that the chances of both of you winning are too slim!"
Now that this had been said, Evan didn’t say any more.
Let Fred and George learn a lesson. They would know how bad it would be to gamble when they don’t have enough money.
He hoped they could remember this later, and that they would never gamble.
After handing the slip of parchment to Fred, Bagman turned to Mr. Weasley. "Arthur, can you do me a favor? I have been looking for Barty Crouch. My Bulgarian opposite number is making difficulties, and I can’t understand a word he’s saying. Barty will be able to sort it out. He speaks about a hundred and fifty languages."
"Mr. Crouch can speak two hundred languages!" Percy said excitedly, "including Mermish, Gobbledegook, and Troll."
Obviously, everyone thought that Percy was bragging.
George pointed and snored like a Troll, causing everyone to laugh.
Percy was the only one who expressed dissatisfaction, but did not answer George.
When Bagman sat down in front of the campfire and prepared to drink a cup of tea, the topic was shifted to Bertha Jorkins.
This witch had been missing for a few months, but no one cared about it.
In particular, given the current state of the Albanian forest, she was likely to encounter misfortune.
As Dumbledore brought Evan and Sirius back, what happened in the ruins of the Centaurs had also spread.
At Dumbledore’s initiative, the International Confederation of Wizards would set up a special team to investigate the matter in Albania, but the effectiveness of this team was questionable to the least.
The place was originally a no-branch zone, with mixed forces, and the wizards killed by the vampires were all Dark wizards.
All the corpses became flesh and blood absorbed by the evil spirit and indescribable creatures, and now all of them had disappeared.
The final number of casualties was difficult to determine, and no one had seen it. No one would admit that Voldemort and the evil spirits had appeared there.
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