"My daughter, yes, yes, that's my youngest one over there."

Arthur Weasley was definitely the proudest parent in the Hogwarts "parental faction," as he excitedly told Mr. Diggory and others next to him.

Adult friendships weren't limited to Houses. Although he and Amos Diggory often bickered, it was undeniable that the Weasley family and the Diggory family had a decent relationship as neighbors, colleagues, and parents – especially after Mrs. Weasley ran into the Diggorys in Diagon Alley a few days ago, their interactions had increased.

"Alright, Weasley, don't get too comfortable. I heard from Cedric that the first-year Slytherin girl opposite seems to be very strong."

Mr. Diggory shrugged, glancing at his son sitting next to him. "Besides, if Hufflepuff had a House competition, my Cedric would definitely be on the team!"

"More than just strong, she's the Shadow Prefect of Slytherin."

Cedric Diggory said solemnly, his eyes fixed on the two young witches in the arena.

As the Hufflepuff Prefect, he had learned some inside information from someone – the House competition might become a regular event after this one.

If there were ambiguous disputes between Houses that couldn't be resolved by the Heads of Houses, a round of competition would likely be initiated.

More importantly, some large-scale inter-school competitions might be held in the next two years.

At that time, Hogwarts would use the performance of the students from each House and year as the selection criteria.

Although the "insider" didn't go into too much detail, Cedric didn't think she was lying: everyone at Hogwarts knew that Kaslana was a woman of her word.

"Irina Ivanovich, her grandfather is Novat Ivanovich – that gentleman is the former Headmaster of Koldovstoretz, I secretly asked Professor Sprout about Mr. Ivanovich's story. He was known as the 'Dumbledore' of Eastern European magic, and he single-handedly reshaped the fragmented Eastern European magical world..."

"Wait, Novat Ivanovich... I seem to recall him."

Just then, an adult wizard sitting next to Mr. Diggory frowned, thoughtfully.

"I remember a few years ago, the International Confederation of Wizards held a trial for him, it was probably the highest-profile trial in recent years."

"Trial?" Mr. Weasley asked curiously. "What did he do that warranted a trial by the International Wizarding Court?"

It was Mr. Wood who spoke, who worked in the Department of International Magical Cooperation, and his son Oliver Wood was the current Gryffindor Quidditch captain.

"Violated the Statute of Secrecy, incited and lured many wizards into dangerous areas – supposedly killed nearly a hundred wizards, and even almost exposed the entire magical world..."

Mr. Wood said solemnly, recalling the file he had seen a few years ago, shaking his head with a sigh.

"You know about the 'Wizard's Scourge,' right? He might have gone mad, ignoring the magical world's evacuation order and instead..."

"Wizard's Scourge? I'm sorry – gentlemen, I didn't mean to eavesdrop... are you talking about nuclear weapons?"

Before Mr. Weasley could continue to ask, another voice joined their conversation.

Everyone turned around and saw a middle-aged man in a suit sitting not far away, looking curiously in their direction.

Next to the middle-aged man, a Ravenclaw girl, probably in her first or second year, was clenching her fists, looking nervously at the countdown in the arena.

"Oh, Alexei... currently a math and physics teacher at Hogwarts, this is my daughter Danilova."

Alexei introduced himself quickly, looking thoughtfully at the wizards chatting.

"If I'm not mistaken, you were just talking about the 'Wizard's Scourge,' right? Well, I happen to be researching this topic recently..."

"Professor Alexei? Oh, I heard Cedric mention you –"

Mr. Diggory turned to look at the new professor, dressed like a Muggle, and frowned slightly.

"...You were teaching in Russia before, weren't you? How is Cedric doing in your class?"

"Oh, no need to call me professor – just call me Alexei..."

Alexei glanced at the handsome boy sitting next to Mr. Diggory, looking a little nervous, and grinned.

"Cedric is undoubtedly the top of the year, he earned so many House points from me that I had to restrain myself a bit to avoid making other students unhappy."

"Oh? That's good – well done, son! You rascal, why didn't you tell me earlier –"

Hearing this, Amos Diggory's frown instantly disappeared, and he glanced triumphantly at Arthur Weasley next to him.

If the Weasley family's numerical advantage was insurmountable, then Cedric Diggory's excellence was Mr. Diggory's bargaining chip.

"By the way, you mentioned the 'Wizard's Scourge' – that's a special disease caused by radiation, right? You said that Mr. Ivanovich was where a few years ago..."

"I'm very sorry, Professor Alexei, I don't know the specifics, I can only give you a general idea..."

Mr. Wood said helplessly, he regretted starting this topic, but since he had started it, he was too embarrassed to just pretend to be ignorant.

"I heard that something happened on the Muggle side, and a large area of 'Wizard's Scourge' appeared – the magical world issued an evacuation order immediately, but Novat Ivanovich, who was supposed to inform everyone to leave, not only didn't leave but instead encouraged hundreds of wizards to go to that area to help those Muggles clean up the mess..."

"Chernobyl –" Alexei's expression changed slightly, he muttered.

However, Mr. Wood, who had opened the floodgates, didn't notice Alexei's whisper, and shook his head with a sigh, continuing.

"Most of the wizards who went there contracted the 'Wizard's Scourge', trial, house arrest, wand confiscation... even their descendants were implicated..."

Mr. Wood nodded towards Irina below, "In fact, if it weren't for Professor Dumbledore, Miss Ivanovich almost couldn't even go to magic school."

Professor Dumbledore?

Perhaps…

Alexei's eyebrows twitched slightly.

He subconsciously looked at Miss Ivanovich in the distance, and Ellina hovering above her head, his eyes filled with complexity.

At the same time, on the other side, Mr. Weasley and the others had shifted the topic away from this and returned to the discussion about the competition.

"I heard that magical learning in Eastern Europe focuses on practical combat, it's quite powerful, and they're usually very heavy-handed..."

Mr. Wood said thoughtfully, turning to look at Mr. Weasley next to him, "Do you secretly tutor your daughter in magic at home? The first match might be very intense."

"First-year students, how intense can it be –" Mr. Diggory said dismissively.

In Amos Diggory's view, this was just a token competition.

He didn't think a first-year student's fight could be considered a "magical duel", those two children hadn't even finished their first year.

In fact, most parents and students thought so too, everyone was eager to skip this one and quickly see the duels between the older students.

Only Danilova knew how strong her two best friends were in magical combat – according to Sister Hannah, they could even go toe-to-toe with Granger of the same age.

"3 –"

"2 –"

"1!"

As the countdown on the magic screen reached zero, Ellina's figure gradually faded and disappeared.

A silvery-white cocoon flashed around the dueling arena, marking the official start of the inaugural House competition.

In the center of the dueling arena, Ginny and Irina already had their wands in hand, focusing intently on each other's eyes.

As the countdown reached zero, the two young witches almost simultaneously pointed their wands forward, taking a small step to the left and right, as if mirroring each other.

Without any incantations, two beams of magic light of different colors crossed each other, grazed the girls' hair, and crashed into the magic screen behind them, creating ripples.

Forceful Shock! Nimble side-step!

This was a standard tactic of the Witch's Coven, and they had simulated it countless times in previous training.

Compared to cumbersome incantations, Forceful Shock was undoubtedly the best solution as a starting move, most wizards would be directly interrupted by this.

But for Ginny and Irina, it was just a greeting before the match.

However, compared to Irina, who was still developing, Ginny's physical fitness was clearly better.

While still in the air, Ginny turned her wand first, locking onto the direction Irina was moving to dodge.

"Bat-Bogey Hex!"

The next second, a large pile of blue creatures flapping their wings emerged from the tip of Ginny Weasley's wand, rushing towards Irina like a tide.

Ginny's magic release speed was particularly fast, even the light and shadow of that golden-red magic shock hadn't disappeared from everyone's pupils.

In fact, many people hadn't even reacted yet.

This was already the second round of the two young witches' fight.

"Incendio!"

Irina's response was equally quick, her wand drawing a graceful arc forward.

Unlike the conventional fire spell, a point of condensed starlight like a stone disappeared into that swarm of blue creatures.

Then, a dazzling vortex of flames suddenly erupted in the center of those creatures, tearing the surrounding air, and the scorching flames instantly devoured everything.

Under the cover of the golden-red flames, a scarlet curse flew towards Irina through the monsters that had turned to ashes.

"Stupefy!"

"Protego!"

Bang!

With a dull sound of magic collision, the voices of the two girls rang out in everyone's ears almost simultaneously.

Smoke and sparks dissipated, and Irina and Ginny appeared unharmed on either side of the arena, looking at each other's wands with a look of great alertness.

Come to think of it, they hadn't really fought all-out yet.

"The Stunner isn't a spell for students under the third year, dear Miss Weasley."

"Protego isn't either – Miss Ivanovich."

Ginny and Irina chatted intimately, their wands pointing steadily at each other like rapiers.

They clearly saw their own reflections in each other's eyes, as well as... that same, eager flame.

————

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Yay!