"It looks like that's about it." Grindelwald stood with his hands behind his back, gazing upward, and clicked his tongue. "Not even a hundred managed it!"
"This round was actually pretty difficult," Anton remarked.
Take the Human Transfiguration spell Grindelwald had invented to grow a pair of wings, for example. Although he taught it at Durmstrang Institute, only one of his students competing in this round had managed to cast it successfully.
Anyone who could pass this trial on the spot was already ahead of countless peers. They were among the best, even by the standards of the entire Wizarding World.
Like that disgusting method Goyle had used, which Grindelwald had just complained about to Anton.
The Fart-Stopping Jinx was usually just a prank spell, but Goyle had cast it on that Ashwinder over and over with such persistence. And he'd managed to inflate it to that size without making it explode. That alone might show how skilled he was with certain casting techniques.
This stubborn, simple-minded boy might not be able to cast the flashy Object-Animating Charm, but with that same determination, everyone could expect him to keep casting the Engorgement Charm on the tree stump beneath his feet until it lifted him into the sky.
It was the pure, crystalline perfection of taking a clumsy method and pushing it to the extreme.
Even Professor Dumbledore, who had always judged the children of Slytherin House more harshly, couldn't help but praise Goyle's performance.
"Looks like that's about everyone." Grindelwald's blue heterochromatic eyes peered into the future, sensing the contest's impact on what lay ahead and considering the contestants' destinies. He couldn't help feeling moved.
When he and Dumbledore were young, the Wizarding World had only pure-blood families. In those days, they couldn't have gathered so many promising young wizards.