bacchusnovels Chapter 481 Daily Event Quest: Christmas Ball
Chapter 481 Daily Event Quest: Christmas Ball
Chapter 481 Daily Event Quest: Christmas Ball
Krum, Eileen, Selena, and a group of Durmstrang students sat in the cabin, staring at the two golden eggs on the table, lost in confusion.
Karkarov, who had been sitting silently in the main seat, was in the same predicament as them.
"Principal, do you have any clues?"
When asked, Karkarov looked somewhat bewildered.
He looked down at the two golden eggs, his brows furrowed, as if trying to recall something, but still couldn't remember anything.
"I...I don't know," he paused, then glanced at the students around him, especially the Durmstrang students, and suddenly felt uneasy. "We haven't received any specific instructions about what these golden eggs are for, and as for the second project...I haven't received any clear information yet."
Perhaps because he felt embarrassed by appearing too "ignorant" in front of his students, Karkarov spoke very quickly, his impatience barely concealed, but he dared not show it too obviously, so he unconsciously tapped his fingers on the table to ease the awkwardness.
"It seems we'll have to figure it out ourselves," Selena said softly, glancing at the others before solemnly placing her hand on the golden egg.
Everyone, including Karkarov, instinctively covered their ears.
The next second, an extremely terrifying, shrill scream filled the entire room.
"Professor Maxim, do you have any ideas?"
Ms. Maxim's gaze was drawn to the sudden scream, and her face turned deathly pale.
Even though she covered her ears, the sound still managed to penetrate her ears, her mind, and her heart in a strange way.
As the sounds gradually faded, the room returned to its long-lost tranquility.
Maxim sighed deeply and shook his head helplessly.
Furong was very disappointed.
Ms. Maxim was the only one who could help her.
But... judging from Ms. Maxim's current state, I'm afraid I can't help her.
She was the only contestant from Beauxbatons College, carrying the hopes and honor of the entire school, but now she felt more isolated and helpless than ever before.
"What should I do?" Furong murmured to herself, her eyes vacant.
She turned her head and looked at the golden egg on the table, and the image of a handsome man involuntarily appeared in her mind.
Can he... help me?
"Potter! Weasley! Can you two please concentrate?"
Professor McGonagall's annoyed voice rang out like a whip in the classroom, instantly waking Harry and Ron from their amusement and causing them to hurriedly look up.
The class was almost over, and Harry and Ron had already completed the assignment given by the teacher: the guinea fowl they had transformed into were already locked in a large cage on the teacher's desk (Neville's guinea fowl still had feathers); the homework on the blackboard had also been copied into their notebooks long ago—"Give examples of what adjustments the Transfiguration Charm must make when performing a cross-species transformation."
The school bell could ring at any moment, while Harry and Ron were having a great time sparring with the two fake wands invented by Fred and George at the back of the classroom.
However, at that moment, Harry's rubber black cod head suddenly fell off and landed silently on the floor—Ron's parrot had just cut it off with its beak.
The two of them suddenly looked up and met Professor McGonagall's angry gaze.
"Now that Potter and Weasley have finally returned to normal," Professor McGonagall glanced at them coldly, "I have a few words to say to you all."
Her tone was still angry, but as soon as she finished speaking, Harry saw the severed black cod fall silently to the ground and suddenly found it somewhat amusing, but dared not make a sound.
"The Christmas Ball is coming soon—it's a traditional part of the Triwizard Tournament and a great opportunity for us to socialize with foreign guests. The ball is only open to students in fourth grade and above." Professor McGonagall paused, her gaze sweeping across the class. "However, if you wish, you may invite a student from a lower grade."
A burst of snickers suddenly came from the classroom. Lavender Brown let out a sharp, silly laugh, and Parvati Petil next to her nudged her frantically, her own face contorted as she tried to suppress her laughter.
The two turned to look at Harry, their faces beaming with smiles.
Professor McGonagall clearly ignored their actions, but Harry felt it was particularly unfair. She had just been criticizing him and Ron, so how could she tolerate such a joke now?
“Please wear your formal robes,” Professor McGonagall continued, her gaze sweeping over the class. “The ball will be held in the Great Hall at eight o’clock on Christmas night and will end at midnight. Listen—” She paused, looking around the class with a serious expression. “I expect every student to observe proper etiquette; this is a formal occasion representing Hogwarts.”
"The Christmas ball is definitely an opportunity—let your hair down and relax," she said sarcastically.
Lavender laughed even harder, desperately covering his mouth to make sure his laughter wouldn't escape.
Harry then understood the joke: Professor McGonagall's hair was always tied in a tight little bun, seemingly never loose, as if she had never let her hair down at a ball.
"But that doesn't mean," Professor McGonagall continued, "that we will relax our behavioral requirements for Hogwarts students. I would be very distressed if any Gryffindor student disgraced the school in any way."
As the bell rang, everyone stuffed their books into their bags as usual, slung the bags over their shoulders, and the classroom was in a flurry of activity.
Professor McGonagall raised her voice and called out amidst the noise, "Potter, please stay a moment, I have a few words to say to you."
Harry thought it must be because of his headless rubber black-striped cod, and walked listlessly toward the podium.
After all the students had left, Professor McGonagall spoke up: "Potter, the Warriors and their partners."
"What partner?" Harry asked, puzzled.
Professor McGonagall looked at him, a hint of doubt flashing in her eyes, thinking he was joking.
"Your partner for the Christmas ball, Potter," she said coldly, "your dance partner."
Harry suddenly felt a twisting and unease in his internal organs, and his cheeks began to burn slightly.
"A dance partner?" he asked hastily, his voice trembling. "I don't dance."
"Oh, you must dance," Professor McGonagall said irritably. "That's exactly what I was about to tell you. Traditionally, the ball is started by the warriors and their partners."
Harry suddenly pictured himself in a tailcoat and a top black hat, with a girl in an elaborate dress beside him, like Aunt Petunia at Uncle Vernon's company ball.
"I won't dance," he said firmly.
"It's tradition," Professor McGonagall commanded. "You are a champion of Hogwarts, and as a representative of the school, you must do as everyone expects. So, you must find yourself a dance partner, Potter."
"But—I don't—"
'
"You heard me, Potter!" Professor McGonagall's tone left no room for negotiation.
A week ago, Harry would have said that finding a dance partner was as trivial as dealing with a Hungarian ceratops, a piece of cake. But now, faced with the challenge of dancing with a girl, he felt he'd rather fight the dragon again.
Harry had never seen so many people sign up to stay at Hogwarts for Christmas.
In the past, he always chose to stay at school for Christmas because otherwise he would have to go back to Privet Drive, but back then only a minority of students stayed. This year was different; all the students in their fourth year and above seemed to have decided to stay, and Harry found that they all seemed very excited about the upcoming ball—at least all the girls did.
He suddenly realized that Hogwarts actually accommodated so many girls, something he had never noticed before.
In the hallway, the girls giggled and whispered; whenever a boy walked by, they would burst into shrill laughter; they excitedly exchanged their opinions on Christmas evening gowns—
"Why are they always in groups?" Harry asked Ron.
Just then, about a dozen girls walked by, glancing at Harry and secretly giggling.
"How do you wait until they're alone, grab one of them, and make a request?" Harry continued.
"Lasso one with a rope?" Ron joked. "Have you decided who to invite?"
Harry did not answer.
He knew exactly who he wanted to invite, but mustering the courage was another matter. Cho Chang was a year ahead of him, very beautiful, an excellent Quidditch player, and very popular.
Yes, he genuinely liked this Ravenclaw witch who was a fellow warrior.
Ron seemed to see through Harry's hesitation.
“Listen, you’re definitely not going to be in any trouble,” he said. “You’re a warrior, aren’t you? You just defeated a Hungarian Ceratosaurus. I bet they’ll be lining up to dance with you.”
Just as Ron had said, the very next day, a loose-haired third-year Hufflepuff girl—whom Harry had never spoken to before—suddenly asked him to invite her to the ball.
Harry was so surprised he barely had time to react, and rejected her without hesitation.
The girl walked away looking heartbroken. Throughout the entire History of Magic class, Dean, Seamus, and Ron kept making fun of her, and Harry could only swallow his anger.
In the days that followed, two more girls invited him out.
One was a second-year student, and the other was a fifth-year student! When Harry saw her, he couldn't help but feel a chill. Judging from her fierce appearance, it seemed that if he dared to refuse, she would knock him out.
"She's quite pretty," Ron commented fairly after he'd had his fill of laughter.
"She's a foot taller than me," Harry said, still shaken. "Imagine me dancing with her—it would be a laughingstock!"
Harry often thought of Hermione's words: "They like him only because he's famous!" He couldn't help but wonder if these girls would still invite him to the ball if he weren't the school's champion. Then he asked himself if he would consider it if Cho Chang had invited him.
Like Harry, Sean is also troubled by the Christmas ball.
At this moment, he was sitting in his office chair, his gaze blank, staring at the air in front of him, as if he were fighting against something invisible.
To be precise, it's not the air, but one's own desires.
The system has issued a task again after a long hiatus. This is not an ordinary task, but a special holiday event task.
The last holiday mission was two years ago on Valentine's Day. Lockhart was still at the school then, but now he's gone, and things have changed.
Thinking of this, Sean couldn't help but shake his head, his heart filled with emotion.
The reward from that Valentine's Day mission remains unused to this day.
The reason is simple: the reward item is too important for Sean to use lightly, especially when the target is a witch he can easily win over with his own skills; it would be a waste of talent.
Before checking the system tasks, Sean first checked his backpack.
The backpack contained items such as potion packs and healing packs, which Lily and Vivi had used up long ago in ancient Egypt.
Therefore, all that's left in the backpack now is some accumulated system modification counts.
However, the number of times this system has been modified is also terrifying, reaching as high as 30.
What does that mean?
It's roughly similar to a cognitive modification or adjustment function.
Simply put, no matter which witch you fancy, once you bind her to the system, you can max out her favorability.
This is actually a bit like a permanent love potion without side effects, which is quite exaggerated.
In addition, there are some miscellaneous items and achievements, such as time stop.
Of course, these modification attempts can still be used to redeem some items in the system shop.
The system had already been updated to version 2.0, but with Sean's return from ancient Egypt and his significant leap in strength, very few items caught his eye or helped him. As a result, the system shop has hardly appeared since.
However, Sean still checks the system shop every now and then when it refreshes, just in case he misses out on some useful items—even though he hasn't found anything yet.
Aside from the achievements, items, and modification attempts in my backpack, the favorability of several witches has basically reached the threshold for the final quest.
Take, for example, Akiharu, who is currently on his ultimate mission (a special mission).
Once this series of tasks is completed, Qiu Zhang can begin the second phase.
Qiu Zhang's mission is currently the only mission Sean has, aside from the Christmas event mission that the system just announced a few minutes ago.
Prior to this, only Tonks and Luna had completed the special mission.
Luna's ultimate quest was related to Pandora, and the process of completing it was quite peculiar, almost entirely accidental. It dates back two years, shortly after the system disappeared; the events occurred during that period.
It wasn't until the system returned that Luna realized, after reviewing the system prompts she had accumulated over the past two years, that she had unintentionally completed the ultimate mission.
As for Tonks, it was entirely a case of feelings developing over time.
Other witches, like Hermione, had their favorability ratings stuck at a critical point, which greatly surprised Sean.
He has done everything he was supposed to do, so why is he still missing that one step?
Perhaps she is still struggling with the existence of Tonks and the others.
There's also Daphne and Penelope.
Penelope has been developed very thoroughly.
However, because they were not together, the final mission still did not begin.
Daphne, on the other hand, is progressing much slower than the other witches.
As for witches like Selena and Vivi (Lily), they are not marked by the system.
After mentally reviewing everything, Sean began to review the tasks related to the upcoming holiday event...