Villains

"Finally out."

Standing at the exit of the Magical Gardens, Albert could not help but breathe a sigh of relief. Even retracing his route had taken quite a bit of time, and it was just as severe a test of the contestants' stamina.

He took a pocket watch from his pocket, checked the time, and slowly headed toward the crowd nearby.

The moment Professor Slughorn saw Albert return, he hurried over, put an arm around Albert's shoulders, and asked with concern, "Are you all right? They said you were attacked."

"Yes, it really gave me a fright."

Albert looked toward the Wagadu Magic School contestants and their leader in the corner, whose faces were black in every sense of the phrase, and said calmly, "I never expected him to attack me out of nowhere. Luckily, I kept my guard up and didn't let him succeed. Otherwise, I could only have been carried back horizontally. By the way, what place did I come back in?"

"First. The other three have already been eliminated." There was a hint of schadenfreude in Professor Slughorn's voice as he spoke. "By the way, how did your ingredient collection go? Did you gather enough to brew a potion?"

"No problem. I collected two sets." Albert seemed to notice something. His gaze shifted toward a young wizard walking toward him, and he frowned slightly before continuing, "This truly deserves to be called the Magical Gardens. I saw quite a few precious magical plants along the way."

"Hand over your wand. We need to inspect it." The male wizard, who appeared to be from the tournament organizers, stopped in front of Albert and spoke in a formal, stiff tone.

"Inspect my wand? Is that some new rule?" Albert looked at Professor Slughorn in confusion.

"Guy Bernard of Beauxbatons