Days wandering around Hogwarts

Chapter 392 There is still a chance

As the scores were announced, the students of Kodos Dorez cheered and jumped for joy, which was more lively than a festival.

The Hogwarts team was in a gloomy mood, and no one expected them to be third.

Percy's face lost all color and his body began to tremble. If anything, his plan to exchange medicinal herbs would be largely responsible.

In just a second, his mind flashed with the scene of himself being disgraced and despised by everyone at Hogwarts. Then he was rejected for a job at the Ministry of Magic, turned down other jobs, and was kicked out of his home.

……

"Mom, why is that guy sleeping with newspaper as a blanket? His hair is also red."

"Go away, ignore those useless homeless people on the street. They are like rats, useless and harmful to people."

……

Just as Percy's mind flashed with the image of Ginny pulling the child away from him as if avoiding a bug more than 20 years later, he felt a heavy slap on the shoulder.

"Don't worry!" Cedric spoke in a steady and confident voice, "The gap between us and Kodosdoriz is less than 1 point. We still have the play-offs, so we can catch up!"

Just now everyone only noticed that Hogwarts was ranked third, and they were panicked for a moment, and no one thought about how many points it was away from the first place.

Now that Cedric has reminded everyone, they realize that the situation is not as serious as they thought.

"Yes, yes, yes!" Joyce nodded immediately, "We still have a chance, let's prepare for the play-offs."

The others also calmed down and prepared for the subsequent play-offs... No wonder.

Joyce's voice trembled a little as she spoke: "What is the topic of the play-off?"

No one can answer this, and it hasn’t been announced yet.

Qiu Zhang immediately said, "I'll go over and ask."

She was too nervous and thought that the competition question would be enough, so she turned and walked towards Dumbledore and the others.

Fortunately, Cedric was still conscious and reached out to pull her back.

Ashford twisted the hem of his clothes nervously and kept saying, "What if the topic is not what we are good at?"

The same goes for those in the action team.

Cedric was about to say something when he suddenly felt his hand sink. Charles stuffed a bottle of homemade drink from the Dancing Grass Restaurant into his hand.

Charles just retrieved his bag, which contained a lot of stock.

"Don't be nervous." He said as he distributed drinks, "We still have a great chance of winning."

Cedric picked up the drink and looked at it, then said happily, "Wow, it's Red Claw. I didn't expect you to be so generous."

This sweet and sour drink was just launched this year and is only sold in small quantities at the Dancing Grass restaurant. It makes people feel energetic after drinking it and is loved by young people and workers.

Charles smiled and said, "It was just a trial sale before, and there wasn't much production, so it was hard to buy."

"Drink it and cheer yourself up to prepare for the play-offs."

Before he could finish, Percy had already gulped down the drink.

Percy is under the greatest pressure now, and whether he can turn things around will depend on what happens next.

Charles also gave a bottle to each of the other members of the action team. Harry took two sips and asked, "Is this the new drink you invented?"

Charles replied: "Muggle technology plus a little herbal medicine, the main purpose is to refresh the mind."

"I asked Vernon to find a factory for production. If you don't have a job after graduation, you can go and help Vernon."

Harry immediately shuddered, frightened. Working under Vernon was more terrifying than taking Potions class.

Charles also opened a bottle of drink and drank it. This drink was a formula developed by Eleanor. It had Muggle ingredients similar to a certain energy drink and some herbs from a wizard's stimulant. The effect was greater than the sum of its parts. At the same time, the judges were discussing the topic for the additional round.

Nikita said to Karkaroff: "The questions for the play-offs might as well be set by Durmstrang."

Dumbledore nodded, agreeing to his suggestion.

Durmstrang is about to join the Potions Championship, so let them come up with the questions.

Without thinking, Karkaroff said, "Then make a poison that tastes good."

Takashima Tadao smiled and said, "This is a good topic. The medicinal properties of poison are easy to verify, but how do you prove whether it tastes good?"

When it comes to poison, animals can be used to test it, but the problem is that animals won't tell you what the poison tastes like, and you can't let humans try it.

Karkaroff took out a finger-sized golden bottle from his pocket and placed it on the table in front of him. He said confidently, "It's okay. I have a universal antidote. You can try it yourself."

He looked like he was challenging the four magic schools.

Akinbade asked worriedly, "What if the antidote doesn't work?"

Karkaroff said nonchalantly, "If the antidote doesn't work I'll take the consequences myself."

Akinbad wanted to say something else, but suddenly he noticed that Dumbledore, Nikita and Takashima Tadao had a look on their faces as if they knew everything but refused to say anything, so he shut up.

Ruby has been flying between schools for so many years, so getting some of its tears is not a big deal. It just requires some work from the kitchen.

Nikita announced the topic of the play-offs and announced that the teams would have discussion time, the games would start at three o'clock and end at half past five.

"What should we do?" Ashford was a little panicked. "Poison is not a problem, but how to make it taste good? Adding sugar will affect the score!"

She is quite knowledgeable about poisons. If it was a colorless and tasteless poison, it would be easy to deal with as she could add it to drinks, but this would not be a poison that tastes good.

What they have to do now is to catch up in points and not lose points.

The others were also at a loss as no one had ever conducted research in this area since ancient times. After discussing it for a while, they still had no clue, and the time was getting closer.

"I know a recipe," Percy said suddenly, "but I need a spell to speed up the brewing time."

Qiu Zhang asked in surprise: "Is there such a spell?"

"They are available, but they are difficult to master, they are prone to time-outs, and many pharmacists are not up to standard," Ashford said.

Joyce asked Percy, "Is it necessary to use this spell?"

Percy nodded and said, "I saw this poison recipe in my elder's notes. It came from a letter written by one of her former students. Although it is in oriental style, the medicinal ingredients are just enough. We need to at least shorten the time from dozens of days to dozens of minutes."

Joyce looked around, hoping someone would come forward and say they knew the spell.

As she wished, Charles scratched his head and stood up and said, "I know a similar spell, but it's for cooking. I wonder if it can be used to make potions."

The elves working in the Dancing Grass Restaurant can use a spell to shorten the cooking time. Out of curiosity, Charles went to find the wizard version, which only requires stewing the pig's trotters for two minutes.

Everyone looked at each other, undecided.

Seeing that the time was almost up, Joyce clenched her fists, gritted her teeth, and said solemnly after making up her mind: "I will use the substitution right away. Smith will replace Zhang, and Weasley will be responsible for preparing the potion. All consequences will be borne by me."

She made an important decision, and after she finished speaking, she breathed a sigh of relief, unclenched her fists, and looked a lot more relaxed.

That night, after hearing Charles say that she could return to Hogwarts to be a professor in the future, she became interested and decided to win the competition beautifully to prove that she was qualified.

But things didn't go as planned. After five days, I could only get third place. I had no idea how to solve the questions in the play-offs.

Now all Joyce can do is to take all the responsibility for the possible loss of the game alone, so that her teammates can play without any psychological burden.

Qiu Zhang was a member of the team who was trying to gain experience for the next competition, and he immediately agreed with the captain's decision.

(End of this chapter)