Facts prove that the Ministry of Magic has good reason to forbid underage wizards from drinking alcohol.
Alcohol, which numbs the human nervous system, produces all kinds of bizarre consequences when acting upon wizards, creatures who must rely on magic, mental strength, and emotional force to fight.
For instance, emotional force under the stimulation of alcohol can become extremely excited, triggering a loss of control over mental strength and magical power.
Or, magical and mental strength may sink into sluggishness under alcohol's anesthetizing effect, losing all vitality.
So long-term drunken wizards either become unstable ticking time bombs, or else turn into useless wrecks incapable of casting even a single spell.
This effect on underage wizards is magnified countless times over, even to the extent of permanently damaging their magical and mental strength limits.
As a wizard already seventeen, Link, when drinking heavily once in a while, naturally does not suffer such severe side effects.
Even so, his Halloween hangover still left his magic in an extremely sluggish state for several days afterward, to the point where his fighting ability dropped by nearly half.
In this situation, the angriest person was Professor Sprout.
Right now, Link was Hogwarts' champion.
If this kind of weakened magical state were to last until the Triwizard Tournament's opening, the consequences would be simply unimaginable.
Although it was at her suggestion that Cedric and the others were allowed to drink just a little, she clearly hadn't expected even a student like Cedric to indulge in such reckless revelry.
So, full of guilt, she immediately canceled all of Link's classes and locked him in the hospital wing under enforced hospitalization.
Fortunately, the debuff on Link finally disappeared after two weeks.
This made Sprout and Madam Pomfrey abandon their insane idea of practically stuffing Link into a potion jar for treatment.
But Emily did not think the same way.
Watching Link, newly discharged, sitting blankly in the Great Hall with vacant eyes, Emily felt he was not completely recovered.
After gathering her words, she tactfully said, "Link, how about we go to Professor Snape's office again? I heard he's improved his sobering potion, this time it's pumpkin flavor, you'll definitely like it."
"There's no need for that, right? I feel absolutely clearheaded now, and my magic has already returned to normal." Link spoke without even turning his head, his eyes still vacant, his pupils even beginning to scatter.
Seeing this, Emily grew even more worried.
But Link didn't notice in the slightest.
In fact, at that very moment, he was enthusiastically admiring what he considered a marvelous sight.
A large group of Slytherin students and a large group of Hufflepuff students were laughing, chatting, with arms around each other, playing and joking together.
Honestly, if this scene were happening between any other two houses, Link would not have found it strange at all, even between Slytherin and Gryffindor it could make sense.
But this was Hufflepuff and Slytherin.
After all, Slytherins had always thought Hufflepuffs were a bunch of useless gluttons, not even worth talking to.
While Hufflepuffs believed Slytherins all had the potential to become vicious dark wizards, and dared not interact with them.
And now these two houses were actually together in such harmony?
This was simply a miracle.
"Emily! Look over there!" Link excitedly shared, "How did these two groups end up together? Isn't there some kind of conspiracy going on?"
At his words, the worry on Emily's face only deepened.
She gently touched his forehead, then said, "They've been like that since two weeks ago. Why else, if not because you became a champion?"
Hearing this, Link suddenly came to a realization.
Although he had made trouble for Slytherins many times, in truth his target had always been Draco; the others weren't much affected.
And not only was he romantically involved with their queen bee Emily, his strength was also exceptionally powerful.
Of course, most importantly, Link came from the Flamel family, one of the Sacred Twenty-Eight, with blood as pure and noble as it gets.
With all these factors combined, the Slytherins, who worship strength, regarded Link as practically one of their own.
Now that Link had been chosen as Hogwarts' champion, Slytherins naturally considered that honor as partly theirs too.
As a result, their attitude toward Link's Hufflepuff underlings also improved.
As for the Hufflepuffs, that was even simpler.
They were still immersed in the joy of Link gaining the champion's seat.
For them, as long as you praised Link, you were their best friend.
The two groups mixing together was perfectly reasonable.
Smacking his lips twice, Link refilled his half-empty coffee cup with a Refilling Charm and took a big gulp.
Drinking coffee was a habit he had picked up during hospitalization.
The reason was simple, Madam Pomfrey's potions tasted so horrible that it took copious coffee to wash away the flavor.
And just then, the students who had gathered near the entrance hall finally noticed Link and Emily.
So when Link set his coffee cup down again, he found himself already surrounded by a crowd of excited faces.
"Link! We've got something great to show you!"
John squeezed out from the crowd, speaking in excitement.
As he spoke, he puffed out his chest on purpose, showing off the enormous round badge pinned to the front of his uniform.
It really was a very large badge, Link estimated its diameter to be at least ten centimeters.
On the badge was printed a moving picture of Link drawing his wand to cast a spell, and below the figure a row of flaming scarlet words.
[Support Link Flamel!]
[The True Champion of Hogwarts!]
Most importantly, John wasn't the only one with such a badge.
Nearly every Hufflepuff and Slytherin around him had one pinned to their chest as well.
"Uh…"
For a moment, surrounded by dozens of such badges, Link's cheeks flushed red.
It was hard to tell whether it was the red glow shining from the badges, or simply his own embarrassment.
"How is it? Not bad, right? We begged a seventh-year specializing in alchemy to make them for us! We custom-ordered 300 in one go!"
John, clearly not noticing the real reason for Link's blushing, went on in excitement. "And this badge has other functions too!"
As soon as he finished, everyone around pressed their badges firmly.
The images and words on the badges all vanished, only to be replaced with another scene flashing green light.
It was Harry being punished by Snape to deal with toad guts, covered in filth and mess.
Bathed in the green glow, Link's face naturally turned green.
And just beyond the glow's reach, the faces of Harry and his two friends also turned green.
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