Chapter 356: Registration for the competition is not limited at all
Early the next morning, Aaron prepared the parchment with his name and school name.
As soon as he opened the dormitory door, Draco, Crabbe, and Goyle were blocking him at the entrance.
"I knew you'd participate," Draco said smugly.
"Haha!" Aaron gave a wry smile and shook his head. "Eight or nine out of ten things in life don't go as planned, and what I encountered last night was the remaining one or two, which was particularly unpleasant."
"Oh, come on! Your sister is a judge.
Although Adrian isn't involved in scoring, she can give you some inside information, and an early advantage is crucial in this kind of competition."
Aaron's smile grew even more bitter. "If you knew my sister, you'd know she despises these underhanded tricks the most.
She won't care about others, but she won't give me any advantageous information."
"It can't be that bad!" Draco frowned slightly, somewhat incredulous.
Aaron patted his shoulder, said nothing, and walked towards the Great Hall with Abey.
Perhaps because it was registration day, many people were up early, even on a Saturday.
When Aaron arrived, there were already twenty or thirty people in the Great Hall, discussing something animatedly around the Goblet of Fire, but only a few had crossed the age line.
"Has anyone signed up?" Aaron asked the trio, Harry, Ron, and Hermione, who had arrived before him.
"Professor Karkaroff has registered the Durmstrangstudents. For Hogwarts, there's Diggory and Summers from Hufflepuff, and Fawcett from Ravenclaw, all Wizards above the sixth Class," Harry said. "But I bet some people secretly signed up last night, out of sight, so it wouldn't be embarrassing if they weren't chosen."
"You wouldn't be among them, would you, Potter?" Dracoteased.
"You guess," Harry retorted unceremoniously. "Malfoycertainly isn't the type to sneak around like that; he'd definitely sign up in person, wouldn't he?"
"Don't show off with such petty tricks," Draco sneered. "I'm here with Aaron; he's signing up for the Triwizard Tournament."
"You're participating?" Ron was momentarily stunned but quickly accepted the fact; Aaron's strength was absolutely qualified to participate.
"Why don't you reconsider?" Hermione said with difficulty. "I know you're very powerful, but the Triwizard Tournamentis clearly for seventeen-year-old talented Wizards; fourteen is not an advantage.
And if you're chosen, there's no turning back."
"Thanks for your concern, but I have a reason to participate," Aaron said helplessly, then crossed the age line and put his name into the blue-white flames.
"Excellent!" Draco applauded. "A Slytherin Champion!"
"Don't speak too soon, Malfoy," Warrington walked over and threw his name into the Goblet of Fire. "Slytherin isn't so desperate as to rely on a fourth-Class Wizard."
"We're here!"
Fred and George strode into the Great Hall, followed by their good friend Lee Jordan, and several GryffindorQuidditch players.
The group successively put their names in and then high-fived in celebration.
"These are our Gryffindor Champions!" Ron said excitedly, not forgetting to give Draco a challenging look.
"Hmph! We don't even know if they'll be chosen!" Dracopouted dismissively. "They might be chosen, but whether they can last until the end is another matter.
If a Weasley can win the trophy, then the Triwizard Tournament's prestige would be too low."
"At least we dare to sign up."
"What's there to be proud of? If I were your age, I'd dare to sign up too," Draco said indignantly.
George and Fred exchanged glances, ignored him, and left with their friends, chatting and laughing.
At this moment, the people gathered around the Goblet of Fire suddenly made way as Madame Maxime entered the Great Hall with the Beauxbatons students.
She instructed them to line up and take turns putting their names into the Goblet of Fire.
"Let's go! No need to stay here; the results will be out tonight."
"You seem very confident." A beautiful girl with silver hair emerged from the Beauxbatons student line. "Is it because you have a sister as a judge?"
"Uh... not really." Aaron spread his hands. "In fact, I don't have much interest in this so-called Triwizard Tournament; I'm just forced to participate for certain reasons.
Also, don't think my sister will give me any advantages; she'd love to see me make a fool of myself.
To be honest, if I'm unlucky enough to be chosen, I'll probably be the Champion with the most difficult challenge."
"Anyone can say pretty words."
"Fleur," Madame Maxime suddenly said, and the silver-haired girl stopped speaking.
"Mr. Gaius, Fleur didn't mean anything else, it's just..."
"I understand, Principal Maxime," Aaron interrupted her with a smile. "Many people will have this idea; I don't mind, because facts will speak for themselves."
"Hmph!" Fleur snorted lightly, clearly skeptical of Aaron's words.
Adrian was Aaron's sister and a special judge; who knew what power she might have.
If she secretly helped her brother, they might not even notice, which wouldn't be fair to others.
"Principal Maxime, I must say your student is quite arrogant. If I'm not mistaken, she should be the Beauxbatons student most likely to be chosen as a Champion for the Tournament, right?"
"So what?"
"Nothing." Aaron smiled playfully. "But before you suspect me of pulling strings, please consider your own Principal; she's also a judge!"
Fleur looked at Madame Maxime and was immediately speechless.
"If you still doubt me, we can draw up a contract," Aaronsaid meaningfully. "How about refusing any advantageous conditions offered by the judges?
That would be fairer to me too."
Fleur's eye twitched slightly, wanting to say something, but the words wouldn't come out.
Aaron smiled and walked towards the Great Hall with Abey.
"Sigh!" Madame Maxime patted her student's shoulder and said earnestly, "Your worries are completely unnecessary. The fact that he said that means he won't get any advantages."
"But..."
"No buts. Don't forget that Miss Klein isn't involved in scoring.
And you might not even have noticed that he's not affected by your charm. For a fourth-Class Wizard to achieve that is already remarkable."
Fleur watched Aaron's retreating back and couldn't help but fall into self-doubt. She had a quarter Veela blood, and most boys were captivated by her looks, but why could Aaronspeak to her as an equal?
..."She's judging a gentleman by her own narrow mind," Draco complained about Fleur's distrust of Adrian and Aaron while eating breakfast.
"Honestly, if you had said that in the Great Hall, I would have been very moved," Aaron said helplessly. Draco, like the other students, had his aura diminished by three points in front of Fleur.
"Uh... you can't blame me," Draco chuckled awkwardly. "That girl definitely has some special bloodline, and at least I wasn't like Weasley; his eyes didn't even move, and he almost drooled."
Aaron rolled his eyes, sighing inwardly at his poor choice of friends.
Returning to the common room, Aaron activated Shenming Hall to meet his thought form and explained Adrian's requirements to him.
"Hahahaha..." The thought form burst into laughter. "Although I'm a clone, many times I feel like you, the main body, are more like a tool."
"This is not the time for that. The Triwizard Tournament is no joke.
Since we've signed up, we need to be fully prepared."
The thought form's smile faded. "What preparations do you want to make?
If you need to recall me, you can do so at any time. With the demon-sealing ring, no one will be able to tell."
"Big sister can," Aaron said helplessly. "Hermione can too, and it's not out of the question that Gines will come to watch the competition.
If they find out, they probably won't give up easily without understanding it."
"Then what do you want to do?" the thought form asked meaningfully. "Expose a few trump cards?"
"There's no other way; the question is how much to expose." Aaron sat down, a little dejected. "I've carefully considered it, and we have many advanced magic at our disposal, but many of them are not suitable for public display."
The thought form nodded, then counted on his fingers, saying, "Animagus, we haven't registered it. Although it's not an issue for Gaius, it's still a bit of a hassle.
Apparition, we don't have legal certificates, so it's not good to use in public.
Patronus Charm is fine, but it's too attention-grabbing, and the difference between a dragon Patronus and a raven Patronus is too great.
Shenming Hall, it could probably level the entire arena, and Dumbledore probably wouldn't stand for it.
Fiendfyre Curse, if we use such high-level Dark Arts, Fudgewould probably invite us to the Ministry of Magic for tea.
Elemental magic arrays, anything below intermediate won't attract too much attention, but it probably won't be very useful.
Once advanced or ultimate magic is used, a fourteen-year-old Wizard at Hogwarts unleashing magic comparable to a natural disaster—it's obvious that would be the headline of The Daily Prophet.
And Dragon Slayer Magic..."
The thought form's voice trailed off, and he looked at his main body with sympathetic and pitying eyes.
"Understood?" Aaron smiled bitterly. "This competition for us..."
"It's for you," the thought form immediately said. "I'm just a clone. If something goes wrong in the arena, the consequences would be unimaginable."
"Alright! This competition is too unfair to me; the restrictions are not insignificant.
Even without using these abilities, with the level of an elementary Archmage, I'm quite confident I can win against the other Champions.
But you know Adrian's demands; in a sense, the pressure I have to face is the sum of everyone else's."
"Big sister wants to use the Triwizard Tournament to test our strength," the thought form mused. "I don't know what her goal is, but we absolutely cannot let her succeed, or else we definitely won't be able to stay hidden."
"That's why I came here to discuss it with you. Not exposing some things is impossible.
But we need to make a list, prioritize them. Even if we have to reveal trump cards, we can only throw out those with little impact; the rest cannot be used unless absolutely necessary."
"Understood, I'll do my best to sort it out," the thought formsaid seriously. "But you also need to gather as much information about the competition as possible, so it'll be easier for me to organize."