Evil Men

"Finally out."

Standing at the exit of the Magical Garden, Albert could not help but let out a sigh of relief. Even retracing his steps had taken quite a while, and it was just as grueling a test of the contestants' stamina.

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

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

"Yes. It really gave me a fright."

Albert looked toward the Uagadou School of Magic contestants and their leader standing in the corner, all black-faced in every sense of the phrase, and said calmly, "I never expected him to attack me out of nowhere. Luckily, I was on guard and didn't let him succeed. Otherwise, I'd have had to be carried back horizontally. By the way, what place did I come in?"

"First. The other three have already been eliminated." Professor Slughorn's voice carried a hint of gloating as he mentioned it. "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 to a young wizard approaching him, and he frowned slightly before continuing, "This really is worthy of being called the Magical Garden. I saw quite a few precious magical plants along the way."

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

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

"Beauxbatons Academy of Magic contestant Gai Bernard was attacked during the