Chapter 589: Ron's poor performance

When Fleur came back on stage wrapped in a cloak, cheers erupted in the audience.

For Fleur's performance a moment ago, the young wizards had mixed opinions between praise and criticism. All the same, the kids were shouting, clapping and cheering, their voices deafening.

Harry and Hermione along with Ivan, for example, had completely opposite opinions.

"She did very well!" said Harry, clapping loudly.

"Apart from his good dancing, he performed very poorly in other respects," said Hermione. "Her spell had limited effect and could only succeed once by luck, and she was clearly not prepared for the dragon, as the judges will surely see. After putting the dragon to sleep, she was touched by sparks..."

To be fair, Fleur's performance was not really good, far inferior to Krum's.

Aside from the magic to restrain the dragon and the courage she finally mustered, there was nothing to praise.

After a moment of silence, the judges began to score Fleur.

Madame Maxime gave her full marks, Bagman gave her eight points, and Dumbledore and Mr. Crouch gave her seven points, which was fairer.

Karkaroff gave five points, just for malice.

"Look, the Chinese Fireball is coming out - here's Ron!"

All eyes turned to the entrance, awaiting Ron's performance.

"Now let's welcome our youngest warrior, Mr. Weasley!" shouted Bagman.

After the whistle, Ron emerged from the tent, and he looked like he was suffocating now!

During the long wait, Ron's inner tension rose a little and reached an all-time high.

There was a void inside his head, and he couldn't think of anything. The nerves in his body were beating rapidly involuntarily.

Ron felt that his legs were not his own. He stepped clumsily through the trees and entered the arena through a gap in the enclosure fence.

The next second, everything in front of him was like a colorful dream. There were hundreds of faces staring at him from the stands.

Ron strained to find the faces of familiar people, like Ivan, Harry and Hermione, so that he could feel more or less at ease.

But no, at that moment, to his eyes, everyone's faces seemed to be the same, staring impassively at him.

Thousands of faces swirled in front of Ron's eyes, which felt like he could faint at any moment.

At the other end of the enclosure, the scarlet Chinese Fireball stood proudly.

The relatively docile Chinese Fireball paid no attention to Ron at all. On the contrary, the noise of the crowd around her made her very nervous.

She was firmly guarding her clutch of eggs beneath her, constantly looking around, warning with a huge fireball.

Unlike the previous two dragons, the Chinese Fireball's fire was a mushroom-shaped fireball of an instantaneous nature, not the continuous long-chain type of fire. The effect of the huge fireball with high temperatures seemed even more amazing.

Faced with the Chinese fireball, everyone was waiting to see what Ron was going to do.

Was he going to run straight at the dragon like Krum, or was he going to use some kind of magic like Fleur?

The next second, to everyone's surprised look, Ron turned directly around.

He ran as fast as he could to the opposite direction on the other side of the enclosure, trying to be farther away from the dragon.

Ron told himself that he needed to get rid of any distracting thoughts, concentrate totally and absolutely, and think about the fire arrow Harry had lent him.

"Things seem to be a little bad. Our youngest champion seems to be frightened," Bagman shouted with a frown. "Why is he so far away from the dragon, or is it that he has other plans?"

There was an outburst of boos from the crowd, led by the Slytherins, and loud curses rang throughout the stands.

They didn't see what Ron had planned; they only saw Ron flee to the edge of the enclosure, and stand stupidly there.

The malicious muttering was endless, and everyone seemed to think Ron was going to give up.

If so, it would be the most tedious game. In their opinion, Ron was not worthy of being a champion at all.

In this environment, it was really hard to concentrate, and Ron tried several times without success.

"Accio Fire Saeta!" he shouted anxiously, raising his wand.

Ron waited, every fiber of him praying and hoping.

If this move was unsuccessful, if the Fire-Edge didn't come, he simply didn't dare to think about what would happen....

He seemed to be looking at everything around him through a kind of shimmering, transparent barrier, like a heat haze, that made the enclosure and the hundreds of faces around him swim strangely.

Ron waved his wand vigorously, but nothing happened, which made him look a bit silly.

Doubts grew louder in the audience, and everyone didn't know what Ron was trying to do.

"Oops, he's too nervous," Ivan said, looking at Ron. "It's not good to go on like this!"

"Ron, concentrate and get rid of all distractions!" shouted Hermione, but it was no use.

As soon as she shouted, her voice was drowned out by the loud crowd noise.

Ron stood there waving his wand, and as time went on, he became more and more anxious.

He tried to tell himself to calm down, but the more he did, the more nervous he became.

Then Ron remembered the potions Ivan had given him.

Ivan had told him to take those potions after sitting on the broom to avoid everyone's gazes, so that no one could see him use the potions.

But, obviously, it was not possible to go on like that. Looking at the huge dragon standing nearby, Ron felt he couldn't take much more.

He needed some confidence, and Ron, shaking, pulled a vial of potion from his arms and drank it with his head up.

"You can't hurt me, your fire can't hurt me!" he muttered, staring at the dragon.

The sensation of icy circulation in his body made him wide awake.

At the sight of Ron's actions, the boos from the audience grew louder. Some began to question Ron's deception.

The first two champions only used the wand, but Ron needed the help of the potion, which was obviously unfair!

"Aha, Mr. Weasley has brewed a potion," Bagman shouted. "Let's hear what the judges will say."

Dumbledore, Crouch, Karkaroff and Madame Maxim were talking about Ron's behavior and discussing it quickly.

They quickly came to a conclusion, announced by Bagman.

"This is the decision. Although the tournament stipulates that the wand is the only weapon for champions, the rules do not say that potions are not allowed. Mr. Weasley astutely discovered the loophole!" Bagman shouted with glee, "Of course, we also have to check the potion he took to see if it is illegal."