Chapter 463: An Unwinnable Bet

"Arthur, old man!" he came to the campfire. "What a day, eh? What a day! Could we have asked for more perfect weather? A cloudless night approaching... and hardly any delay in preparations..... Not much to do!"

Behind him, a group of haggard-looking Ministry wizards scurried past, pointing to distant evidence of some sort of magical fire sending violet sparks twenty feet into the air.

For their prediction, they all expressed doubt that it would rain if it wasn't good tonight.

Behind Mr. Weasley, Percy hurried forward with his hand outstretched.

"This is my son Percy, he just started at the Ministry!" Mr. Weasley said with a smile. "Sitting there is Sirius Black, then Fred, George, Bill, Charlie, Ron and my daughter Ginny. You've seen them before, and here's Ivan Mason, Hermione Granger and Harry Potter."

He introduced everyone to Bagman, and when he saw Sirius, Bagman was obviously surprised.

The expression on his face was complex and looked more like fear.

Sirius said that Bagman had been tried for providing confidential information to the Death Eaters, Rookwood. They had a brief contact at the time of the trial.

He seemed to remember his past experience and was terrified of Sirius.

When he heard Harry's name, Bagman looked a little surprised.

"Well, well, do you want to place a bet on the match?" the Bagman said excitedly, rattling what appeared to be a large amount of gold in the pockets of his yellow and black robes.

It seemed that this was the main purpose of his coming here.

"I've already got Roddy Pontner betting me that Bulgaria will score first... I offered him good odds, considering Ireland's top three are the strongest I've seen in years...and little Agatha Timms has put half the stock of her eel farm on a week's game."

"I'll bet a galleon on Ireland to win, shall I?" Mr. Weasley said hesitantly.

"A galleon?!" Bagman was somewhat disappointed, but recovered himself. "Very well, is there anyone else who wants to bet?"

He waited eagerly for Sirius, but Sirius ignored him completely.

The bogeyman touched his nose in embarrassment, and didn't dare say more. His eyes flicked to the others.

"They're a bit young to be gambling," Mr. Weasley said quickly.

"We'll bet forty-six Galleons, thirty-two sickles, eight nuts," Fred said as he and George quickly gathered all their money, "That Ireland would win...but Viktor Krum gets the Snitch."

All the money Ivan had given them and the sales of goods in the store were confiscated by Mrs. Weasley, about 200 gold galleons.

Mrs. Weasley said she would give them back and that Ivan was not allowed to give money to Fred and George.

But this did not bother them. When their business was at its peak, they had asked Lee Jordan to help them sell many joke products.

Most of the Hogwarts owl orders were placed this way.

The two went out to collect their money. When they returned, they secretly told Ivan about it.

Fred and George now intended to use the money as a reset fund to make a comeback. He didn't expect them to take them all out here and participate in an unwinnable bet.

Ivan didn't think Fred and George were wrong, but he doubted Ludo Bagman's character.

"Boys!" said Mr. Weasley quietly, "I don't want you to bet. Your mother..."

"Don't be a spoilsport, Arthur!" rumbled Ludo Bagman, shaking his pockets excitedly. "They're old enough to know what they want! Do they think Ireland will win, but Krum will take the Golden Snitch? No way, guys, no way. I'll give excellent odds on that."

Ludo Bagman quickly pulled out a notebook and pen and began jotting down the twins' names.

Mr. Weasley watched helplessly, unable to stop what was happening.

"George, calm down, you can't win!" Ivan tugged gently on George's robe.

"Don't worry, we have our own measurements!" George said indifferently.

"We both seriously analyzed all of Viktor Krum's previous games," Fred said.

"I mean, even if you win, this guy may not give you the money!" Ivan raised his voice and said rudely.

Obviously, Bagman also heard what he said, and his face became embarrassed, but fleeting.

"Boys, boys, you can come out and ask about my credibility - old Bagman has always been willing to gamble and lose!" Bagman said aloud, "I can use my status as Head of the Department of Magical Games and Sports as a guarantee. But I have to say that the chances of both of you winning are very slim!"

Now that this had been said, Ivan said no more.

Let Fred and George learn a lesson. They would know how bad it would be to gamble when they didn't have enough money.

He hoped they could remember this later, and never gamble.

After handing the parchment to Fred, Bagman turned to Mr. Weasley. "Arthur can you do me a favor? I've been looking for Barty Crouch. My Bulgarian counterpart is having difficulties and I don't understand anything he's saying. Barty will be able to sort it out. He speaks about a hundred and fifty languages."

"Mr. Crouch can speak two hundred languages!" Percy said excitedly, "including Mermish, Gobbledegook and Troll."

Obviously, everyone thought Percy was bragging.

George was pointing and snoring like a troll, making everyone laugh.

Percy was the only one who expressed dissatisfaction, but he didn't respond to George.

When Baggins sat down in front of the fire and prepared to drink a cup of tea, the subject moved to Bertha Jorkins.

This witch had been missing for a few months, but no one cared.

Particularly given the current state of the Albanian forest, she was likely to meet with misfortune.

While Dumbledore was bringing Ivan and Sirius back, what happened at the Centaur ruins had also spread.

At Dumbledore's initiative, the International Confederation of Wizards would set up a special team to investigate the matter in Albania, but the effectiveness of this team was questionable in the least.

The place was originally an unbranched area with mixed forces, and the wizards killed by the vampires were all dark wizards.

All the corpses became flesh and blood absorbed by the evil spirit and indescribable creatures, and now all of them had disappeared.

The final number of victims was difficult to determine, and no one had seen it. No one would admit that Voldemort and the evil spirits had appeared there.