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In theory, even the heaviest brown bears weighed less than two tons, while these dragons all weighed more than two tons. In terms of sheer mass, there was an obvious gap.
In addition, while a brown bear's strength was impressive, it was not so great that it could beat a dragon down by force.
But if the user was Dudley, that explanation became easier to accept.
Even without taking the potion, he could still easily hammer a dragon into submission.
In truth, the act of taking the potion was only misdirection.
Its purpose was to build his reputation while giving outsiders an explanation for his absurd physical condition. To outsiders, they would simply think he had drunk a potion. If anyone truly believed he was useless without the potion, that person would receive a tremendous "surprise."
Dudley climbed down from the fallen Hungarian Horntail and looked at the unconscious dragon. Silently, he took out his signature red-and-white ball.
"What is he doing? Merlin, the dragon disappeared! Wait..."
Bagman seemed to realize what Dudley intended and tried to shout for him to stop, but it was already too late.
Dudley's gaze had already turned toward the other three dragons.
Three red-and-white balls were thrown out, one for each dragon, and all three were taken in.
Silently putting the balls away, Dudley raised his wand again.
"Champion Dursley has already achieved victory. What does he intend to do now?"
Dudley looked speechlessly toward the judges' table.
Had these people all forgotten what the task was?
His goal had never been to defeat the dragons.
It was to retrieve the golden eggs guarded by the dragons.
With a movement of his wand and a spoken spell, four golden eggs floated over automatically and landed steadily at Dudley's feet.
Only then was the challenge truly complete.
When Bagman saw the four golden eggs, he finally remembered that Dudley's task was not to defeat dragons. His brain worked quickly, and he immediately picked up the commentary again.
"Ah, yes... congratulations to our champion Dursley on his victory."
"Now, let us invite our five judges to give their scores. Of course, that includes me."
His humorous tone made the spectators laugh loudly.
The other judges looked at one another. After a brief silence, they drew their wands with remarkable tacit agreement.
The first was Madame Maxime.
A long silver ribbon-like stream burst from the tip of her wand and twisted into a large "10."
"Oh, Merlin, the first perfect score of the Triwizard Tournament has appeared."
The scoring system was from zero to ten. Ten was a perfect score, and zero was the worst.
Even if Madame Maxime was unwilling to accept it, Dudley's performance was beyond dispute and visible to all.
Next was Lucius. His wand sprayed a "9" into the air.
This caused a small wave of boos.
The young wizards at Hogwarts all knew that he had some friction with Dudley, so this nine was not quite fair.
Then came Dumbledore.
Another "10" appeared, and the spectators' cheers grew even louder.
When it came to Bagman, another ten appeared.
Now Dudley already had three tens and one nine. That number was already rather astonishing.
The final judge was Karkaroff.
After seeing the scores from the other judges, the gloomy man's face grew even darker.
The more Dudley stood out, the more outstanding he appeared, the smaller Viktor's chance of winning became.
Especially since they had just discussed the conclusion that if Dudley passed the task, the other champions would not need to compete.
After struggling for quite a while, Karkaroff finally raised his wand.
A large "3" appeared in the sky.
At that moment, every wizard present stared blankly at the number in the air.
Many even rubbed their eyes hard.
Had they seen that right?
Such an outstanding performance, and he had only given three points?
Bias?
Malicious suppression?
After an extremely short silence, boos rang almost throughout the entire arena. Everyone looked toward Karkaroff at the judges' table with contempt. All of them scorned his score.
Dragon speech, spells capable of breaking through a dragon's defense, and a self-developed potion of that level.
Any one of those things was beyond most adults, let alone students.
Calling him Dumbledore's favored student?
Calling him Dumbledore's successor would be enough.
Even if Karkaroff himself entered the arena, he could not have performed better than Dudley.
Dudley had achieved near perfection in every aspect.
The people present were not fools.
This was obvious deliberate underscoring.
"Is this Durmstrang's standard?"
"Cannot bear to lose?"
Many spectators stood and shouted indignantly.
"Trash school! Trash headmaster!"
"Step down! You do not deserve to be a judge!"
Insults and challenges echoed across the arena. The spectators had come to watch an exciting tournament, not to watch one school target another through blatant bias.
If Bagman had not used the magical amplifier to calm them with all his might, many emotional wizards might have rushed the judges' table.
Seeing the other judges also looking at him, Karkaroff raised his wand with extreme reluctance.
The enormous "3" changed, forming a "7."
Even seven points was still low.
Look at Beauxbatons. Look at Madame Maxime, also a headmistress of one of the three great schools. How generous. She had given a perfect score without showing the slightest personal bias.
In truth, after seeing Dudley's excellence, Madame Maxime had almost given up hope of winning this tournament. That was why she could fairly give him full marks.
Otherwise, who had no personal preference at all?
Still, contrast did all the work.
The more petty Karkaroff appeared, the more broad-minded Madame Maxime seemed.
In one sentence:
Madame Maxime had been made to look good by comparison.
In this inexplicable way, she gained a wave of favorable impressions.
"What now? Do the other champions need to enter the field?" Bagman asked after looking left and right.
"Of course they do. The remaining three champions have not competed," Karkaroff said.
Karkaroff was apparently thick-skinned enough to pretend none of it had happened. He acted as though he had not just been the one to propose that if Dudley succeeded, only Dudley would receive a score.
"But the spectators all know about this. If we try to walk this back now..."
Karkaroff glared fiercely at Bagman. It was because of him that Karkaroff had said such a thing in the first place.
"Do you intend to give the other champions zero points?"
Bagman completely ignored Karkaroff's angry gaze.
It was clearly your own proposal. Now you want to take it back?
One was the headmaster of Durmstrang. The other was the Head of the Department of Magical Games and Sports.
In terms of authority alone, the latter was clearly higher.
Seeing that Bagman had no intention of paying attention to him, Karkaroff had no choice but to ask the only judge present who might possibly side with him.
"Mr. Lucius, what do you think?"
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