On the day of the competition, Hogwarts students still had to attend classes—well, for the first half of the day, anyway. Classes were canceled at noon. Fred, George, and Lee Jordan complained endlessly about it, arguing that the Triwizard Tournament put enormous pressure on the champions and that they ought to be given a more relaxed environment to prepare for the first task.
All right, that sounded perfectly reasonable, but Albert knew they really just did not want to attend Charms class.
After all, having to go to class when they were going to watch the competition that afternoon was a real buzzkill.
The moment Albert entered the Great Hall, he was surrounded by a huge crowd of students, all offering him their good wishes.
Shanna led a group of girls over to show Albert the enormous banner they had made. It depicted Albert holding his wand as though confronting something, with a roaring Gryffindor lion beside him. A line of magical words flashed continuously across it: Gryffindor Will Win, Albert Will Win.
However, Albert changed Gryffindor Will Win to Hogwarts Will Win.
Fred and George took the opportunity to open a betting pool. The odds of Albert taking first place were the lowest, only ten percent, practically telling everyone that Albert was certain to win. Of course, Albert was not the focus of the betting pool—Harry was. The odds on Harry coming last were very high.
Compared with the popular Albert, Harry was having a much harder time. He was not well-liked to begin with, and most people did not think highly of him. On top of that, after his string of ridiculous stunts lately, quite a few students were taking pleasure in his misfortune. Some even waved handkerchiefs at Harry and said, "We've prepared loads of tissues to