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Chapter 589: Ron's Bad Performance
🕑 Added 2019-09-06 19:41:08 +0000 UTCWhen Fleur came on stage again wrapped in a cloak, cheers broke out in the audience.
For Fleur's performance just now, the young wizards had mixed opinions between praises and criticism. Anyway, the boys were screaming, clapping and cheering, their voices deafening.
Harry and Hermione next to Evan, for instance, had completely opposite opinions.
"She did very well!" said Harry, clapping hard.
"Apart from her good dance, she performed too badly in other ways," said Hermione. "Her spell had a limited effect and could succeed only once by luck, and it was clear that she was not prepared for the dragon, as the judges will surely see. After putting the dragon to sleep, she was touched by sparks..."
To be fair, Fleur’s performance was really not good enough, far inferior to Krum's.
Besides the magic of restraining the dragon and the courage she finally summoned, there was nothing to praise.
After a moment of silence, the judges began to score Fleur.
Madame Maxime gave full marks, Bagman gave eight points, and Dumbledore and Mr. Crouch gave seven points, which was fairer.
Karkaroff gave five points, just out of malice.
"Look, the Chinese Fireball is coming out. Here’s Ron!"
All eyes turned to the entrance, looking forward to Ron's performance.
"Now let's welcome our youngest warrior, Mr. Weasley!" Bagman shouted.
After the whistle, Ron walked out of the tent, and he looked like he was suffocated now!
During the long wait, Ron's inner tension increased a little and reached an all-time high.
There was a blank inside his head, and he could think of nothing. The nerves in his body were involuntarily beating fast.
Ron felt that his legs were not his own. He clumsily walked past the trees and entered the arena through a gap in the enclosure fence.
The next second, everything in front of him was like a very highly colored dream. There were hundreds of faces staring down at him from the stands.
Ron tried hard to find the faces of familiar people such as Evan, Harry and Hermione, so that he could feel more or less at ease.
But no, at this moment, in his eyes, everyone's faces seemed to be the same, looking at him impassively.
Thousands of faces whirled in front of Ron's eyes, and he felt like he could faint at any moment.
At the other end of the enclosure, the scarlet Chinese Fireball stood proudly.
The relatively docile Chinese Fireball didn't pay attention to Ron at all. On the contrary, the noise in the audience around made it very nervous.
It tightly guarded its clutch of eggs under it, constantly looking around, warning with a huge fireball.
Unlike the previous two dragons, the fire of the Chinese Fireball was a mushroom-shaped fireball of instantaneous nature, not the kind of long-chain-guided fire gushing. The effect of the huge fireball with high temperatures looked even more astonishing.
In the face of the Chinese Fireball, everyone was waiting to see what Ron was going to do.
Was he going to rush directly toward the dragon like Krum, or was he going to use some kind of magic like Fleur?!
The next second, under everyone’s surprised eyes, Ron turned around directly.
He ran as fast as he could to the opposite direction of the other side of the enclosure, trying to be farther away from the dragon.
Ron told himself to get rid of distracting thoughts, concentrate completely and absolutely, and think of the Firebolt Harry had lent him.
"Things seem to be a little bad. Our youngest champion seems to be scared," shouted Bagman frowning. "Why is he so far away from the dragon, or is it that he has other plans?!"
There was a burst of booing in the audience, led by the Slytherins, and loud cursing rang out throughout the stands.
They didn't see what Ron had planned; but only saw Ron fleeing to the edge of the enclosure, and just stupidly standing there.
The malicious buzz was endless, and everyone seemed to think Ron was going to give up.
If so, it would be the most tedious game. In their opinion, Ron was not worthy to be a champion at all.
In this environment, it was really difficult to concentrate, and Ron tried several times without success.
"Accio Firebolt!" he shouted anxiously, holding up his wand.
Ron waited, every fiber of him praying and hoping.
If this move did not succeed, if the Firebolt wasn’t coming, he simply did not dare to think about it...
He seemed to be looking at everything around him through some sort of shimmering, transparent barrier, like a heat haze, which made the enclosure and the hundreds of faces around him swim strangely.
Ron waved his wand hard, but nothing happened, which made him look a bit silly.
Doubts grew louder in the audience, and everyone did not know what Ron was trying to do.
"Oops, he’s too nervous," said Evan, staring at Ron. "It’s not good to go on like this!"
"Ron, concentrate and get rid of all distractions!" shouted Hermione, but it was useless.
As soon as she shouted out, her voice was drowned in the loud noise of the audience.
Ron was there waving his wand, and as time went by, he became more and more anxious.
He tried to tell himself to calm down, but the more he did, the more nervous he was.
Then Ron remembered the potions Evan had given him.
Evan told him to take these potions after sitting on the broomstick to avoid everyone's eyes, so no one could see him use the potions.
But it was obviously not possible to continue like this. Looking at the huge dragon close by, Ron felt he couldn’t hold on much longer.
He needed some confidence, and Ron, trembling, took a bottle of potion out of his arms and drank it with his head up.
"You can't hurt me, your fire can't hurt me!" he muttered, staring at the dragon.
The feeling of icy circulation in his body made him awake a lot.
Seeing Ron's actions, the boos in the audience grew louder. Some people began to question Ron's cheating.
The first two champions only used the wand, but Ron needed help with the potion, which was obviously unfair!
"Aha, Mr. Weasley has prepared a potion," shouted Bagman. "Let’s hear what the judges will say."
Dumbledore, Crouch, Karkaroff, and Madame Maxime were talking about Ron’s behavior and discussing it quickly.
They quickly came to a conclusion, announced by Bagman.
"This is the decision. Although the tournament stipulates that the wand is the only weapon for the champions, the rules do not say that potions are not allowed. Mr. Weasley cleverly discovered the loophole!" Bagman shouted happily, "Of course we also need to check the potion he took to see if it is illegal."
