Chapter 404: More Precious

In the third-grade classroom, a jewelled wooden box is placed on the lectern. "Why does it look familiar?" Ginny whispered. Next to her, there is a little witch with fluffy hair and a sleepy look.

Felix tapped the lid of the box thrice with his wand, and the wooden box creaked open, revealing the crudely made wooden goblet inside. The moment it was revealed, the young witches' eyes widened in unison, and they both dropped their quills in unison.

"Goblet of Fire?!"

There was a neat, unified, audible intake of breath. As one student cried out in surprise, looking incredulously at the blue flames burning quietly on the goblet.

Felix smiled, "Of course ... it isn't," he said with a wide grin.

"The Goblet of Fire has been extinguished, this is a replica, I picked up a random piece of wood while walking at the edge of the Forbidden Forest, at that time I was thinking about how to attract your interest ...," he said with a smirk, "so I wanted to use the opportunity of the tournament to create a memento."

All the students sat upright and stared at him with rapt attention.

"This is the prize for today's quiz. For the record, the fire on this is not dangerous,"

"Professor Hap, is this Gubraithian Fire?"

"No, that is a flame that will burn forever, so it is also known as the eternal fire," Felix explained, "Although I can also cast it, it is quite time-consuming to precisely execute ... "

The students looked at the professor with an expression of disappointment as they considered he was just being lazy.

"Although it is not Gubraithian Fire, but it has its own advantages." Felix added. Sᴇaʀᴄh thᴇ ɴøvᴇl_Firᴇ.ɴet website on Gøøglᴇ to access chapters of nøvels early and in the highest quality.

He probed his fingers into the Goblet's flame and retrieved a small blue flame, which he watched as it burned quietly in his hand for a few moments before fading away.

When he looked up again, he met with many pairs of twinkling bright eyes.

He smiled slightly, it seems that the disposable prop that took five minutes to make is working well, the only question is, what is the best alternative for the next time. "So, let's start today's quiz. Take out the 'answer space', I have updated the latest quiz information on it ..."

The young wizards below sprang into action, spreading out the answer space, and tapped the tip of their wands as they silently recited the incantation, and soon they spotted a new icon in the area of ancient runes - styled exactly like a Goblet of Fire with simple outlines.

Ginny tapped it quickly; she badly wants that Goblet of Fire replica, and at the moment her hands are shaking with excitement, as her wand pokes it twice with much force that one will wonder if she will puncture the thin parchment.

But no student managed to do that yet, because the professors applied various protective enchantments to it.

The Goblet of Fire icon on the answering space was highlighted in no time, and from the mouth of the goblet a dancing blue flame burned, then from it, a ribboned gift box spat out, which continued to enlarge, and to her amazement, a bright blue light converged above the parchment, then the parchment spiralled into a swirling vortex from which that box emerged into reality.

She recognized this as the work of memory magic, as the surface of the gift box did not look real, flickering with blue wisps.

She glanced around quickly; everyone else - including a confused Luna - stared in awe at the gift box that was floated out of the vortex, although she isn't sure that her best friend had broken away from her usual state.

Ginny nudged Luna with her shoulder, "Let's see who's faster!"

"Sur-e" Luna said, as she gave her a dazed look, before lowering her head to reveal a tiny braid in her tousled hair.

The gift box opened silently, and a bronze-colored book with a lock is placed inside, a lock that she tried to unlock with a spell, but it didn't work at all. "I'm such a fool." She slapped her forehead and used her wand to outline a few runes on the cover of the bronze book - which happened to be blank - and in no time the lock disappeared.

When she turned the first page, a question is written on it, "Your motto?"

She quickly wrote on it, " Be daring like a lion." Only when she finished writing did she realize something is wrong, after two seconds of staring at the lighter blue-green page, which did not change a bit, she realized something and quickly translated the sentence into the ancient runic language.

Fortunately, she asked Luna about this.

So the bronze book turned to the next page, and she took advantage of this gap to steal a glance at Luna, whose answer is completely different from her own, but she also passed with flying colours, which made Ginny realize that the answer is not standard.

She restrained her other emotions and focused on the second page, which consisted of a scattered string of runic letters with the sentence at the top, "Nall is sad and upset." She quickly looked at the runic letters on it, and there was one she didn't recognize, but she already knew the answer; it was a sentence from the 'Nall and the Clay Dolls' story.

When she finished arranging the runic texts through the pattern on the page, she let out a long breath of relief, and then when she noticed that Luna had already started the third page, she felt anxious.

As time passed, Felix sat very leisurely in his chair by the podium, sorting through his book of runes, and occasionally stood up as he walked around the classroom to check on the students' progress.

The quickest so far is Luna, followed by Ginny and Colin Creevy, the latter and his brother's 'Harry Potter Fan Club' was so famous that even he had heard of it, and before it had only attracted a young wizards from the first and second years, but after the first tournament trail ended, the number of students from upper grades had also started to join.

The three performed slightly differently.

Luna bobbed her head gently, answering the questions unhurriedly, sometimes adjusting the order of the sentences to line them up as neatly as possible. Ginny and Colin were sweating profusely, and the youngest Weasley girl's fiery red hair was stuck to her forehead.

"Ten minutes to go, if you don't care about the prize, you can ignore the time." Felix reminded.

Ginny sweated anxiously, there were no more pages left in the bronze book in front of her, but it kept getting harder and harder at the back, and she tossed her hair in annoyance, which looked like a puff of equally bright, leaping crimson flames that mirrored the flame of the goblet of fire on the podium.

It's getting close ...

Ginny wondered if Luna had finished answering her questions, as she seemed to be half asleep. Why she hadn't heard her report? She forced herself to ignore it all, to remove the distractions, and after five minutes, she finally finished answering.

In a flash, the bronze book "clattered" and flipped to the first page, and then closed, the 'answer space' once again swirled with a blue vortex, from which a large number of coloured fireworks burst out.

The sudden noise caused the young wizards to look up at Ginny's position in bewilderment.

"Oh, it looks like the first one to finish has appeared," unknowingly, Felix stood before her, holding a rough wooden replica of a Goblet of Fire with dazzling blue flames dancing on it, "Here, it's yours, Miss Weasley."

After class, the others gathered enviously around Ginny, asking her permission to touch the blue flame.

"It's so beautiful ... I was so close." Colin Creevy said dejectedly, "I left with the last question, what about you, Luna? You've always been good at this, I thought you were going to win!"

"I also stopped at the last question." Luna said in a singing voice.

" Yea, that question was really hard, maybe if I had five more minutes ..." Colin said regretfully, "You're lucky, Ginny ... Ginny? "

Ginny looked at Luna with a critical eye as she bit her lip and whispered, "Luna, you 'stopped' at the last question again?"

"Oh, uh, yeah," Luna tossed her hair, "it was pretty hard, wasn't it? I've been thinking about it for a good while ... it is beautiful." She said, staring at the Goblet of Fire with slightly bulging eyes.

"Want it? I will give it to you." Ginny said.

"Oh, what?" Luna said with some panic, "I don't need ... because, because--"

"Because she already has something more precious." Felix said gently from the corner, "Is that the point you're trying to make, Miss Lovegood?"

"Of course." Luna nodded hastily.

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