Chapter 199
After Rita Skeeter stood up and before she could utter another word, the closet door opened, and Albert and Rita turned around to find Dumbledore standing there, looking at them. She said, "Dumbledore!"
Albert noticed that she had hidden her quill and parchment and began wiping the dust from her dark green clothes before continuing, "How are you? I hope you read my article about the International Confederation of Wizards' conference?!"
Rita Skeeter wanted to change the subject so that Dumbledore would not discover anything strange about what had happened!
Dumbledore realized that Rita had been subjected to a Body-Binding Curse, but he did not say anything. Since Albert had not been exposed to anything bad, it meant that things were fine.
Dumbledore continued, saying, "I didn't like it... especially your description of me as an ancient monument."
She did not show anger but rather said, "I was trying to express that your ideas are a bit old, and this is what many of the..."
He interrupted her with a smile, "I would be happy if I knew the logic behind this rudeness, but I am afraid we will discuss this matter later, because the Wand-Weighing Ceremony is about to begin, and it cannot start with one of the champions missing in a broom closet."
Albert smiled at Dumbledore, then rushed to the chamber to find the rest of the champions sitting on chairs near the door. He sat next to Fleur, looking towards the silk-covered desk where four of the five judges were sitting: Professor Karkaroff, Madame Maxime, Mr. Crouch, and Ludo Bagman. As for Rita Skeeter, she sat in the corner of the chamber, and Albert saw her pulling a new piece of parchment from her bag and placing her quill above it.
When Dumbledore sat among them, he said, "Allow me to introduce you to Mr. Ollivander, who will be responsible for examining your wands and making sure they are in a suitable condition for participation in the competition."
And when Albert looked, he saw an old wizard with pale, wide eyes standing by the window. Albert had met Mr. Ollivander before, as he was the wand maker from whom Albert had bought his wand about three years ago in Diagon Alley.
Ollivander said as he advanced towards the middle of the chamber, "Miss Delacour, could you step forward first?!"
Fleur Delacour rushed towards Mr. Ollivander and presented her wand to him, and he said, "Hmmmm..."
He began turning the wand over in his hands, then brought it close to his eyes and examined it carefully, then said, "Yes... nine and a half inches long, inflexible, made of rosewood with a hair inherited from..."
Fleur said, "From my grandmother..."
Ollivander said, "Yes, yes, I have not used this method before, and in any case, this is a matter that depends on the quality of use."
Ollivander ran his finger over the wand, looking for any scratches, then muttered, "Orchideous," and a bouquet of flowers shot out from the tip of the wand. Then he said, "Good... very good!... It is fine."
Then he handed Fleur her wand and pointed to Viktor Krum, saying, "Krum... you are next!"
Fleur returned to her seat, smiling at Krum as he passed by her, and as soon as he grabbed his wand, he said, "Hmm... it is made by Gregorovitch, if I am not mistaken? He is a good maker, although this model... in any case..."
He raised the wand to examine it carefully, then said, "Yes, a dragon heartstring core... it is perfect, ten and a quarter inches long... excellent."
Then he raised the wand, saying, "Avis," and a group of small birds flew out from its tip, flying out of the window, and he returned to say, "Well... who is left?... Black!"
Albert stood up and walked towards him to hand him his wand. Ollivander said, "Aah... yes, yes, I remember it well!"
Albert also remembered it, remembering what happened when he went to Ollivanders' shop and tried almost every wand in the shop before that wand suited him.
Ollivander spent a longer time examining Albert's wand before testing it and returning it to him. Dumbledore said, "Thank you all. You may return to your classes, or perhaps it would be better to go have lunch, as classes are approaching their end..."
Albert felt for the first time since the beginning of the day that things had gone well for him to leave the chamber, but the man carrying the camera stopped them, and Rita Skeeter said, her eyes still focused on Albert with fear, "Let's finish this first."
Taking the pictures took a long time because of Madame Maxime's giant shadow, which forced the photographer to ask her to sit while the others stood when taking the picture.
Albert prioritized the Tournament in his mind, and two weeks passed quickly until the day of the first task of the Tournament began.
At the same time, Albert's life inside the castle during these two weeks was quieter than before. Rita Skeeter had published an article that she had prepared about the Triwizard Tournament, which did not actually get closer to the Triwizard Tournament than it got closer to the story of Albert's life. She published a picture of him on the front page and completed the article on the second, sixth, and seventh pages.
The article was focused on him to the extent that the names of the Beauxbatons and Durmstrang champions were not even written correctly and were only mentioned in the last line of the article, as most of the article was praise and flattery for Albert's work inside Hogwarts school.
The article had been published ten days ago, and whenever Albert remembered it, he felt laughter and sarcasm from Rita, saying to himself, "I did not expect that using force would make souls submit to you!"
Rita Skeeter had published things that Albert never remembered saying, such as:
"I worked very hard inside the school until I became superior among my peers. It was not extremely easy for me to reach what I have reached now. Therefore, with the help of my talent and my love for knowledge, I was able to become the youngest student to participate in the Tournament, but I feel shy as I have become the champion whom everyone at Hogwarts is waiting for me to win this Tournament for them. I want to tell them that I will do my best to win it. I promise you!!"
It seemed as if someone was pushing the clock hands to work at double their strength in the following days, which passed quickly to bring Albert closer to the first day of the Tournament and his first task, which made excitement Albert's companion during these days.
To be continued....