The image on the screen shifted to the guest seating.
Minister Scrimgeour rose from among the guests and gave a wave.
However, his smile was stiff, and he did not look well.
What had happened at Hogwarts last week had kept Minister Scrimgeour overwhelmed with work.
The headmistress of another school had died at Hogwarts. That was no small matter in the Wizarding World.
Most importantly, the Dark Lord might have returned.
The Ministry of Magic had held countless meetings over those two matters in the past few days.
If not the date of this competition had long been set and all preparations completed, he would even have wanted to postpone it.
"I am very pleased to serve as a scoring guest for this competition. Today, the Champions from different regions have brought us a wonderful match..."
Minister Scrimgeour spoke briefly for twenty minutes, and the Champions on stage had already begun chatting about what to eat that evening.
Once Minister Scrimgeour finished his speech, Mr. Bagman continued, "Now, let us invite the guests to score the Champions."
"The guests will each award a score between one and ten."
"A score of five or above is passing, while seven or above is considered outstanding."
"Please let the nine guests score the Champions based on their performances!"
"The final scores will be presented as the average of the guests' scores!"
With the experience from last time, the guests did not suppress the scores of Champions from other schools too severely, because any score differing from the average by three points or more would not be counted.
As the contestant who had led his team to first place, Matthew naturally received nine perfect scores of ten.
Cedric and Harry had worked very well with Matthew in this round, and both received eight