Hogwarts: I Am an Exemplary Wizard

Chapter 551: Chapter 549: Mr. Digory Got Promoted

”Kael, what are you looking at?”

One morning during breakfast, Cedric noticed Kael constantly staring at a booklet and couldn’t help but ask, ”You’ve been looking at that thing for many days, haven’t you?”

It wasn’t unusual for Kael to read during meals, but it was a bit odd for him to be looking at the same booklet for so many days in a row.

This thing only has a few pages, does it really take that long to read?... Kael hadn’t even been playing Wizard Chess these past few days; whenever seen, he always had that booklet in his hands.

”What did you just say?” Kael looked up and asked.

”I said, what are you reading?” Cedric repeated.

”Oh, Professor Dumbledore gave it to me.” Kael rubbed his forehead and, without hiding anything, directly pushed the booklet on the table towards Cedric, saying, ”I originally thought I could master it in a few days, but it’s much harder than I imagined, probably taking a week.”

”Just a few sheets of parchment, and it takes this long to learn, does it contain some complex spells?”

Cedric peeked over curiously, and then fell silent.

The parchment contained only a small amount of text, while the rest was filled with dazzling magic text and runes.

”Are you learning Ancient Runes with Professor Dumbledore?” Conna, on the side, asked.

”You could say that.” Kael quickly stuffed a few pieces of fried eggs and bacon into his mouth, took a big gulp of pumpkin juice, and then continued, ”What he’s teaching me is a bit complex; I have to learn this first.”

”Is this really the simplest part?” Cedric smacked his lips, frowning as he looked at the parchment again, ”This is an ’extension’ rune, then there’s ’overlay’, ’light’, are you trying to make some advanced magic item?”

”No, it’s a charm,” Kael replied, ”a spell invented by Professor Dumbledore, powerful, but extremely difficult to master.”

”Oh, I get it now.” Cedric clapped his hands in realization. ”You’re definitely preparing for the third task, ready to take it by storm...”

Cedric suddenly closed his mouth, awkwardly glancing at Fleur not far away.

”I know what you’re thinking.” Fleur calmly scooped some fresh greens onto her plate. ”You actually don’t need to be so surprised or feel like a secret’s been leaked, because before the third task starts, all the champions are the same.

”In fact, Ms. Maxime has also been teaching me some spells that would never appear in normal textbooks.”

”Did you learn them too?” Cedric blurted out. ”Then why have you never mentioned it?”

As soon as he said it, Cedric realized he’d asked a rather foolish question.

Fleur was representing Beauxbatons as a champion; of course she wouldn’t voluntarily reveal her secret weapons to them.

Unsurprisingly, Fleur turned her head and looked at Cedric with a peculiar gaze, as if he were a running sea cucumber.

Cedric blushed and quickly explained, ”Sorry, you misunderstood; I meant to ask why you aren’t always holding a book like Kael.”

”That’s because we have other methods of learning.” Fleur said, ”Methods outside of textbooks, and it’s the same with Krum. Have you noticed any difference in him when he’s been in the castle lately compared to before?”

”Krum...” Cedric thought for a moment and shook his head. ”Not really, no.”

He hadn’t been paying much attention to Krum, having only seen him occasionally during meals in the Great Hall. In his memory, Krum behaved no differently than usual... still eating in silence and then leaving.

”But I’ve seen the headmaster of Durmstrang teaching him odd wand gestures multiple times on the deck of their ship, and he certainly wouldn’t want you all to know about that.”

Fleur said, ”Krum would rather let you... or let Kael believe he isn’t preparing anything.

After all, Kael’s score advantage is too large; only by hiding more tricks and cards can he have a chance to win the championship in the final task.

”Of course, the same goes for me; Ms. Maxime certainly wouldn’t agree to me telling you all this.”

”If that’s the case, then why are you saying so much?” Kael asked curiously.

”Because you brought up the topic first.”

Fleur glanced at the parchment on the table and quickly looked away. ”That’s only fair, right?”

Kael smiled and said nothing.

Just then, the mail-delivering owls arrived.

They rushed into the Auditorium, letters and parcels dropping like raindrops into everyone’s hands.

Kael first looked up and glanced at the Wizard Weekly other people had received, confirming that the grinning fool on the front cover wasn’t him, he breathed a slight sigh of relief, then picked up the Daily Prophet in front of him.

Though the second task of the Triwizard Tournament had already passed a long time ago, it still dominated the front-page headlines, and people seemed to have endless discussions about what happened beneath the lake.

This time, the front-page feature was about the Kelpie, and perhaps because Kael had ridden it out of the water and scored the highest score, this not-so-popular magical creature had quickly risen in popularity.

Despite the prohibition on keeping such dangerous magical creatures, people always found ways to evade the Ministry of Magic’s inspections.

At the bottom of the newspaper, there was advice from the Ministry of Magic.

”The Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures, Beast Office Director Amos Digory believes that people are looking to keep Kelpies on impulse, which he considers foolish, as Kelpies are wild and difficult to tame, not suitable as pets, and if abandoned, they may hold a grudge and seek revenge...

”We’ve already dealt with five incidents caused by Kelpies this week; I sincerely hope there won’t be a sixth.”

”Oh, my dad got a promotion.” Cedric also noticed the content on the newspaper and said with a smile, ”He mentioned it to me last week, but I always thought he was joking.

But with this, his workload might increase too, I wonder if he can still accompany me to Austria for holidays this year as we planned over Christmas.”

”Austria?” Kael asked curiously.

”Yes,” Cedric said, ”wasn’t the last meeting of the International Confederation of Wizards held there? I’m just a bit curious and wanted to visit.

”My dad agreed, too, and said he’d take me there during the holidays.”

”That’s probably unlikely,” Kael shrugged and said.

The Beast Office is the busiest place within the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures, with six smaller departments handling a large amount of work every day.

Back when Chris was in that position, he only had one day off every two weeks on average.

”That’s a shame,” Cedric said, but his expression didn’t change much.

Traveling to Austria would be nice, but Mr. Digory’s promotion was equally delightful news.

Kael continued flipping through the newspaper and suddenly saw a familiar name on the second page.

[Investigation into former Minister of Department of International Magical Cooperation, Barty Crouch ends]