Hogwarts Summoning Guide

The third match arrived as scheduled. Since Miss Beetle was still peacefully asleep in the Summoning Encyclopedia, there was no more of the Daily Prophet spreading rumors about Harry as in the original story. Bai Lin felt that Harry should thank himself. The final was crucial for all the contestants. Cedric, Krum, and Fleur's parents had all traveled a long way to witness their heroic performance in the final and the moment of their victory.

Of course, Harry was no longer alone. Black, Lupin, and the Weasleys all came, making it a family celebration. The children were noisy and the parents were chatting enthusiastically, creating a harmonious scene. Perhaps the only one who was truly nervous was Bai Lin.

He wasn't worried about the match itself. Even if the walls in the maze weren't vines but impenetrable fortresses, he could still fight his way in and out. What worried him was how Voldemort and Barty Crouch Jr., those Death Eaters, would manipulate the match. He somewhat regretted interfering from the very first match. If he had hidden himself and appeared in time for the third match, he might have been able to resolve the issue more easily.

But since the Quidditch World Cup, the Death Eaters' actions have been completely different from the original story. He cannot be sure that the subsequent plot will still be as he expects. Perhaps Barty Crouch Jr. will adopt a completely different strategy, or perhaps there will be many unexpected events that deviate from the original plot. He can only expose himself and draw fire so that the other players can safely get through the first two matches.

The Hogwarts staff created a spectacular magic circle on the Quidditch pitch. Anyone who entered the pitch would find the scenery completely transformed. They would be transported to the mountains, surrounded by endless green hills. In the valley in front of them, a labyrinth that could be described as a miracle of creation would unfold before them.

All the contestants, spectators, family members, and guests were amazed by the seemingly endless maze, with exclamations rising and falling. However, everyone remained very well-mannered and took their seats, with no one daring to sneak into the maze.

Although Bai Lin was mentally prepared, he was still shocked by the scale of the maze when he saw it with his own eyes. He estimated that the maze was at least twelve kilometers wide and twenty kilometers long. To put that into perspective, it was almost the size of a city. The maze's walls were made of vines magnified more than ten times, reaching a height of ten meters. If you stood inside the maze, you could only see a sliver of sky above your head, making it impossible to distinguish east from west.

Bai Lin concluded that this maze did not actually exist in the real world. Either it was a small world similar to a habitat created by some mythical figure, or they were shrunk by a magic circle the moment they stepped into the Quidditch stadium, so that what might have originally been just a model maze became such a spectacular size.

However, this was clearly not what Bai Lin should be thinking. He said in the team channel, "Everyone, are you in position?"

Yuxi: I've met up with Lulu and we've arrived at the target location. We're in position!

Zhuo Bi: The target is right in front of me. I'm already hidden. I guarantee I'll complete the mission!

Kiki: I'm still on the bus. I paid £60 and should arrive in an hour... Damn, I'm already used to wizards' tricks... (Her contempt for wizards was completely ignored by everyone)

Lulu: No problem, don't worry. We'll be there as soon as we're done. Please be careful!

Hagrid: What was my task again? ...Um...Oh! It was to keep an eye on Mr. Crouch...But he didn't come today!

Because one of the stands became an open viewpoint, and there weren't many seats in the Quidditch stadium, many students chose to stand on the open ground. Various flags, banners, balloons, and other support props almost filled the stadium. Today, everyone came with high expectations, waiting for the birth of the champion.

Bai Lin glanced at the judges' stand where Dumbledore was, and sure enough, he didn't see Barty Crouch the old man with the small mustache. Instead, Mr. Bagman was indeed there this time, but he seemed to still be recovering from his imprisonment by the Death Eaters, looking somewhat listless. His speech, which was supposed to be given, was canceled. Mad-Eye Moody stood guard below the judges' stand, his eyes scanning the entire audience.

Before Bai Lin could think further, Dumbledore gestured for silence and began to announce the rules of the third match in a booming voice: "Distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen..."

Dumbledore explained in great detail, first announcing the scores of the five champions (though Bai Lin scoffed at it), and then explaining the details of the rules. In short, the Goblet of Fire was placed in the maze, and whoever got it would win. Hogwarts and the Ministry of Magic would arrange staff to patrol the maze and would go to the rescue if they received a distress signal, but using props or magic to fly into the air would be a foul.

The warriors will be led by the staff to different maze entrances, and then it's up to each of them to rely on their own abilities. However, with such a large-scale maze, Bai Lin doubts whether it will take several days and nights for people to find them.

But he quickly realized the trickery in this competition. The high wall made of these vines could obviously be controlled by some kind of magic. Professor McGonagall, who was in charge of leading Bai Lin, led him to a high wall, shook her wand, and the vines seemed to come alive, parting to reveal a gap that could be entered. Professor McGonagall nodded to Bai Lin, and Bai Lin crawled through.

Since the vines can be controlled by magic, it's entirely possible to create a shortcut for one of them, allowing them to win easily. In the movie, Harry found the trophy with almost no effort. In reality, the other heroes didn't encounter any difficulties in the maze; it was just that Krum was controlled by the Imperius Curse and injured Fleur.

In the original book, there were actually some small obstacles placed in the maze. For example, Harry encountered a talking adult Sphinx who gave him a word puzzle. Bai Lin was speechless when he saw that. The first challenge was fighting a dragon, and you could easily get burned into Turkish kebabs. But the last challenge was just solving a word puzzle. What were the organizers thinking? It's a joke. It's like playing the World Cup football tournament, fighting your way to the finals, and then being told that the final is a written exam. WTF?

Despite the complaints, Bai Lin analyzed that it should be similar to the original work. There will be some "cute little animals" in the maze to add some entertainment for them, but the real threat will still come from the Death Eaters who have been missing until now.

To be honest, Bai Lin was not afraid of facing the enemy head-on. Of course, even without him, Dumbledore alone would be enough to take down those ignorant Death Eaters one by one. But unfortunately, Dumbledore was playing tricks and schemes. Bai Lin just wanted to come to Lin Bei if anything happened, and not hurt the children in the stands.

He shook his head to clear his mind and decided to take it one step at a time. The vines in front of him formed a wall that was more than three stories high. He walked towards the center of the maze based on his memory, but after only two turns, Bai Lin found that he had completely lost his way.

Most people have many objective skills for determining direction, such as the surrounding scenery, the sun, moon and stars, tools like a compass, or by reconstructing their movement trajectory in their mind based on a map they have seen before, and then estimating their location on the map.

But Bai Lin could clearly feel that the maze was not static, but constantly moving. The path he had walked was changing, the route ahead was changing, and even the path under his feet was adjusting his direction. The sky was shrouded in mist, and he could not see the blue sky or the sun at all. Needless to say, even if he had a compass, the maze would use its magnetic field to disable it. Even if he had GPS, he would not be able to receive satellite signals because he was located in a spatial rift.

As time went by, Bai Lin became increasingly unsure of his location within the maze, but he could sense that he had ventured deeper into it, which was better than just wandering aimlessly on the outskirts.

He glanced at his watch; thankfully, it wasn't damaged. He had been in the maze for twenty minutes and had traveled less than three kilometers. Based on his previous estimation, even walking in a straight line, he should still be about seven kilometers from the center of the maze. Since the maze was long and narrow, everyone should be moving towards the center, so they shouldn't be far apart by now.

Bai Lin remained vigilant, walking while keeping an eye out for any unexpected situations.

A scream suddenly rang out. Judging from the voice, it should be Furong. In the original story, she was defeated by Krum, who was under the Soul-Stealing Curse. Although Bai Lin felt that although she had a hot figure, her strength was not that great. Even if Krum did not attack her, she could not withstand the attack of the vines.

As expected, her scream proved that she had fallen for the trick and was now most likely entangled in the vines. Bai Lin couldn't help but look at the plant wall beside him, only to find that they were behaving obediently and quietly, showing no sign of wanting to jump out and cause trouble. It seemed that they had sensed that Bai Lin was not someone to be trifled with and had developed a sense of awe towards his powerful magic.

Although Bai Lin felt that even if he got entangled in the plant wall by the vines, he would at most suffer a little and wouldn't be eaten by the plants, he still walked in the direction of the scream. This time he was determined to go in the right direction, thinking that if there was a plant wall blocking his way, he wouldn't mind just blasting a big hole in it.

After walking three or four hundred meters, Bai Lin heard footsteps behind him. He turned around and saw Cedric running out from around the corner. Upon seeing Bai Lin, Cedric shouted as he ran, "Hurry, the vines have come back to life!"

Sure enough, the plant wall behind him was moving towards the center, making the path narrower and narrower. If he ran any slower, he would be swallowed up by the vines and be eliminated.

Bai Lin shifted the angle slightly and delivered a "shattered to pieces" blow to Cedric's back. Cedric felt a loud bang behind him, and the shockwave pushed him forward, rolling several times on the ground. When he looked back, he saw that the plant wall that had been pressing in from both sides had been blasted with a hole two meters in radius. The plants seemed to have felt pain and stopped moving, but the path had disappeared.

Bai Lin looked at the flooded road, reached out and helped Cedric up. The young man seemed to have been chased all the way, his body covered with small twigs and leaves, and his pants were full of mud. He must have fallen quite hard.

However, Cedric's expression suddenly changed, and he pointed his wand at Bai Lin, shouting, "Crusio! (Crucio!)"

At such close range, even if Bai Lin reacted, he couldn't dodge. In that instant, he realized that he had alerted Krum, who was definitely on high alert, preventing the hidden Death Eaters from having a chance and instead controlling Cedric. Thinking of this, Bai Lin wanted to slap himself. Wasn't he just asking for trouble? He disrupted the Death Eaters' plans, and naturally lost his ability to predict the future.

The Heart-Piercing Curse struck Bai Lin squarely. He felt as if several sharp knives had pierced his heart. Even someone as strong as him couldn't help but scream in agony and fall backward to the ground.

If it were an ordinary wizard, being hit by the Cruciatus Curse would definitely result in the immediate loss of combat ability. In severe cases, the pain would cause death, while in milder cases, the wizard would struggle for a minute before fainting from the pain. However, Bai Lin was equipped with the "Magic Defense Crown: Magic Defense 15". Furthermore, the Cruciatus Curse does not actually use magic to create a knife that pierces a person's heart. Instead, it directly stimulates the person's pain nerves and is also somewhat related to mind magic. The mind magic resistance runes on Bai Lin's clothes further mitigated the effects of the magic.

So although Bai Lin was in so much pain he was practically rolling on the ground, he was still conscious. Cedric clearly didn't intend to just finish Bai Lin off with one move and then let it go. His eyes glowed slightly red, and he pointed his wand at Bai Lin, shouting, "Stipfer! (He faints)"

Bai Lin was still conscious, but the intense pain made it difficult for him to concentrate. Just as he was about to summon Catherine's help, a beam of red magical energy suddenly shot out from the other passage, deflecting Cedric's spell.

Bai Lin looked and saw that it was Harry's small figure. His hair was messy, his body was dirty, and his glasses were a little deformed, but he was in good spirits. It was he who cast a Stunning Spell to cancel out Cedric's spell.

"Cedric! You actually?!" Harry was clearly shocked and shouted at Cedric. He stared at Cedric with his wand in hand, still unable to believe that the usually gentle and refined Cedric had attacked Bai Lin.

"He's under the Imperius Curse!" Bai Lin had barely spoken when Cedric dodged around a corner while unleashing a large fireball in Harry's direction. However, he wasn't very skilled in fire magic, so his aim was poor. But Harry couldn't just stand there as a target, so he nimbly dodged to the side.

Bai Lin gritted his teeth, enduring the excruciating pain in his chest. This would definitely affect his ability to cast spells, but his summoning spells were fine. He immediately unleashed a "Shadow Chains" spell at Cedric's foot.

In an instant, dozens of dark chains shot out from the surrounding air, tightly binding Cedric, who had just taken refuge on the other side of the turnaround.

Seeing this, Harry immediately used Excalibur, knocking Cedric's unicorn hair wand away.