Chapter 254: Inspecting Wands

The other champions had already taken their seats on chairs by the door, and Alaric hurried over to sit next to Krum. 

He looked ahead at the velvet-covered table where five out of the six judges were already seated—Professor Karkaroff, Madam Maxime, Mr. Crouch, Ludovic Bagman, and himself.

Rita Skeeter found a corner to sit in and discreetly pulled out the roll of parchment from her bag, laying it across her lap. She licked the tip of her Quick-Quotes Quill and positioned it upright on the parchment once again.

"Allow me to introduce Mr. Ollivander," Dumbledore said as he took his seat among the judges, addressing the champions. 

"He will be inspecting your wands to ensure they are in good condition before the competition."

"Miss Delacour, would you please go first?" Mr. Ollivander said, stepping into the open space in the center of the room.

Fleur Delacour gracefully approached Mr. Ollivander and handed him her wand.

"Hmm..." he murmured.

He twirled the wand between his long fingers as if conducting an orchestra, and the wand emitted many pink and gold sparks. 

Then he held the wand close to his eyes, examining it carefully.

"Very good," he said softly. "Nine and a half inches... quite sturdy... made of vine wood... containing... oh my, a Veela hair."

"It's my grandmother's hair," Fleur said.

"Indeed," Mr. Ollivander nodded. "Indeed. Personally, I find Veela hair wands too temperamental... but to each their own, if it suits you..."

Mr. Ollivander ran his fingers along the wand, evidently checking for scratches or blemishes. Then, he murmured softly, "Blossom forth!"

A bouquet of flowers bloomed at the tip of the wand.

"Very good, very good, in excellent condition," Mr. Ollivander said, gathering the flowers and handing the wand back to Fleur. "Miss Granger, it's your turn."

Fleur returned to her seat lightly, exchanging a smile with Hermione as she passed.

Hermione pursed her lips in response, making a playful pout.

"Ah, this must be mine, right?" Hermione said eagerly as she handed her wand over to Mr. Ollivander, much more excited than before. 

"Yes, I remember it very clearly. It contains a nerve from an Antipodean Opaleye, about five to six feet long.

Ten and three-quarters inches... vine wood... excellent elasticity. In superb condition... do you polish it regularly?"

"Just polished it last night," Hermione said, grinning broadly.

Upon hearing this, Harry glanced at his own wand, covered in fingerprints. 

He tugged at the edge of his robe to discreetly wipe the wand clean. 

A few golden stars appeared on the wand tip, and Fleur gave him a disdainful glance, prompting him to stop.

Mr. Ollivander blew a silver smoke ring from Cedric's wand tip, and satisfied, he said, "Mr. Krum, it's your turn."

Viktor Krum's wand, a product of Gregorovitch, was made from hornbeam wood and contained a dragon heartstring. 

It was much thicker and stiffer than what most people usually saw, measuring ten and a quarter inches.

Mr. Ollivander used a charm that conjured a flock of birds this time.

The hornbeam wand produced a loud bang like a gunshot, and a flock of small birds flapped their wings out of the wand tip, flying into the faint sunlight through the open window.

"Very good," Mr. Ollivander said, returning the wand to Krum. "And the last one... Mr. Potter."

Harry stood up, brushing past Krum, and walked towards Mr. Ollivander. He handed over his wand.

"Ah, yes," Mr. Ollivander said, his light-colored eyes suddenly sparkling with excitement. "Yes, yes, yes. I remember very clearly."

Harry also had vivid memories, as if it had happened just yesterday...

His wand was made of holly wood, eleven inches long, containing a phoenix feather core. Mr. Ollivander was surprised by how skillfully Harry handled this particular wand. 

"It's remarkable," he said. 

"Absolutely remarkable." 

When Harry asked what was so remarkable, Mr. Ollivander explained that the phoenix feather in Harry's wand and the feather in Voldemort's wand came from the same bird.

Mr. Ollivander spent much longer inspecting Harry's wand than anyone else's. 

Finally, he made the wand spray out a jet of wine and handed it back to Harry, declaring it to be in excellent condition.

"Thank you, everyone," Dumbledore said, standing up at the judging table. 

"You may now return to your classes—perhaps going straight to dinner would be more convenient, as classes are about to end anyway—"

Harry finally felt that something had gone smoothly today. He stood up to leave, but the man with the black camera jumped up and cleared his throat.

"Photos, Dumbledore, photos!" Bagman exclaimed excitedly. "A photo of the judges and champions, what do you say, Rita?"

"Well—fine, let's take a group photo first," Rita Skeeter said, her gaze once again falling on Harry. "Maybe we'll take a few more solo shots later."

Taking photos took a long time. Madame Maxime blocked everyone regardless of where she stood, and the room was too small for the photographer to stand far enough back to fit her into the frame.

Eventually, she had to sit down with everyone else standing around her. 

Karkaroff kept twirling his goat-like beard with his fingers, trying to curl it up. 

As for Krum, Harry thought he was used to this sort of thing, but he was surprised to see Krum hiding behind everyone else. 

Fleur and Hermione both tried to stand next to Alaric, but the photographer seemed particularly eager to have Fleur in the front, and Rita Skeeter always managed to pull Harry into a more prominent position. 

Then, she insisted on taking individual photos of each champion. It took them a long time to finally escape.

Before leaving, Alaric checked Rita Skeeter's notes again. 

The unlucky journalist tore up several pages in a hurry, then nervously handed over her notebook, presumably having written something about Alaric secretly, fearing retaliation.

Harry found this scene quite satisfying; he was glad the journalist had found a nemesis. However, even as Alaric left, he couldn't bring himself to ask her to tell Rita not to report on his past.

In fact, Alaric neither used the Tongue-Tying Curse on Rita nor burned her notebook. 

In fact, he did nothing to Rita at all, which relieved the female reporter, and then she became smug because she thought the boy acted like this out of concern for Dumbledore, which immediately made her feel she had a strong backing.

However, when she was ready to write again, she suddenly realized that she couldn't remember what she was supposed to write.

All the news she had collected that day had completely slipped her mind.

She immediately understood what had happened; this was Alaric's retaliation. 

He hadn't physically tortured her, but just before leaving, he had used a Memory Charm to erase her memory of collecting news for the entire day.

For a reporter like Skeeter, this was the ultimate punishment.

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