The Strange Tent

Skylar and his group reached the edge of the first camp, where the tents began to look ordinary, and some even appeared quite old.

From afar, Skylar spotted a wooden sign that read "Weasley," and Harry, Ron, and Hermione were diligently setting up their tent in Muggle- like manner. For some reason, he felt Hermione seemed a little thinner. Since their falling out at the end of last term, Skylar hadn't spoken to Hermione; he figured meeting her would only make things awkward, so he took a detour to avoid the Weasley's camp.

They entered the second camp.

The administrator standing at the entrance, Mr. Payne, was also a Muggle, and his memories were being altered by Ministry of Magic officials. Perhaps the Obliviator was too tired, and a problem arose during the alteration process, causing Mr. Payne's memories to become disordered. He kept muttering to himself, "How many floors does a bag of rice have to be carried up? A bag of rice has to be carried up two floors..."

(Note: In the original work, Mr. Payne was indeed the Second Camp Administrator, not a fictional character created by the author.)

As soon as they stepped into the camp, Astoria exclaimed in amazement. Looking around, the entire camp seemed like a green ocean, with each tent covered with layers of clover, looking like small green hills.

"These are all supporters of the Ireland team; the shamrock is a symbol of Ireland," Daphne explained.

Just then, Skylar heard someone call his name from behind.

"Skylar!"

Skylar turned around, and there stood Cedric Diggory.

"It's you, Cedric." Skylar and Cedric had some acquaintance; they became friends after Merlin's Trial tournament, and upon meeting, they exchanged pleasantries.

Cedric's father, Amos Diggory, was a red-faced wizard with a short brown beard who worked in the Department for Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures at the Ministry of Magic. He was clearly proud of his son, boasting to everyone that his son had defeated the famous Harry Potter in Quidditch Match, which made Cedric very embarrassed.

The Diggory family once enjoyed a period of great prominence, producing the beloved Minister for Magic, Eldritch Diggory. During his tenure in the 18th century, Diggory pioneered the Auror recruitment program and even formed a committee to seek alternatives to Azkaban, at least to remove the Dementor who served as its guards. Sadly, this plan was ultimately abandoned after his death from Dragon Pox.

It's unbelievable that in just over a hundred years, the Diggory family has fallen to such a state. Amos's position in the Ministry of Magic is not high, and they can't even afford tickets to the First Encampment. No wonder Amos has such high hopes for Cedric after such an outstanding talent emerged from the family; he probably hopes that Cedric can restore the family's prestige.

Then Skylar came across the Bones family's tent. Aunt Leah warmly welcomed Skylar and his party inside and offered them a cup of herbal tea.

Susan wasn't in the tent. Aunt Leah said she had gone out to find Hannah Abbott and Ernie Macmillan. Back at Hogwarts, the three of them, along with Justin Finch-Fletchley, formed a small group of four who often played together and were very close.

The front half of the second camp was almost entirely occupied by Ireland fans, including Diggory and Bones. Given Amelia's status, securing a spot in the first camp wouldn't have been difficult, but as an Ireland supporter, she preferred to stay with the other fans. The tents in the back half looked much more ordinary, though there were a few exceptions.

"Hey, whose tent is that?" Astoria suddenly asked, her voice filled with undisguised curiosity.

Everyone looked in the direction she pointed, and there was a beautifully crafted tent, with canvas forming a three-story shape, strictly following the style of Muggle tent, yet still exuding a luxurious and grand atmosphere.

The flowers and trees in the open space in front of the tent were neatly trimmed, making it look clean and tidy, quite different from the tents of ordinary wizards. What was even more strange was that there was no one around the tent, not even a single House Elf. This was unimaginable for a wizarding family that valued taste and pomp.

"Maybe the whole family went out for fun," Daphne thought, hardly believing her own guess.

"Probably not. The Quidditch World Cup is about to start, and people wouldn't choose to go out now. Besides, this is the wilderness, and there aren't any famous tourist attractions nearby." Skylar shook his head.

"Ladies and gentlemen, how may I help you?" With a snap, a House Elf suddenly appeared out of the air, startling Astoria.

The little creature has huge brown eyes and a nose like a big tomato, and a very high-pitched voice; it is probably a female House Elf.

"Excuse me for bothering you, may I ask where this is?" Skylar asked the Sprite politely.

"This is the Crouch Family's tent. Winky is at Mr. Crouch's service."

"Crouch? Barty Crouch? Department of International Magical Cooperation?" Skylar immediately realized, "Is Mr. Crouch here too?"

"Master has gone out on business, Winky has been ordered to guard the tent." The House Elf stared with her big eyes, her tone filled with unwavering insistence and stubbornness. "Master sent Winky here, Winky has been guarding it. It's just a pity that I can't invite the ladies and gentlemen to visit Master's tent; Winky doesn't have that authority."

"Well then, thank you for your time, Winky." Skylar and her group tactfully left the tent, while Astoria kept turning back to admire the somewhat eerie canvas building.

"Don't you find it strange, Skylar?" Meredith seemed to have thought of something. "Since Mrs. Crouch passed away, Crouch family has been living alone, yet he's set up such a big tent? Are they planning to open a hotel here?"

"Yes!" Daphne chimed in, "Given his family background and status, it seems unnecessary for him to choose the second camp area for his tent. He's also one of the people in charge of this Quidditch World Cup!"

Skylar did not answer.

Seeing everyone fall silent, Astoria changed the subject. "I really want to know what the Bulgaria hang all over their tents?"

"Alright, let's go check out the next camp!" Skylar decided.

The Bulgarian Team's fan section was relatively normal, not as exaggerated as the Ireland fan section. The most distinctive feature was that each tent had a Bulgaria flag hanging on it, and the top of each tent had the same poster with a very gloomy face, thick, dark eyebrows, that face constantly blinking and frowning.

"It's Viktor Krum, the Seeker from Bulgaria!" Daphne explained to Skylar. The three girls knew Skylar wasn't very interested in Quidditch, so they didn't know much about it. "He's only eighteen, still at Durmstrang Institute."

"He looks so gloomy," Skylar said. "It's like someone owes him money and won't pay it back."

Daphne burst out laughing. "He's a genius, incredibly talented! Many critics say he's the best Seeker of the century, and you say that..."

Astoria disagreed, "Hmph, if it weren't for Skylar's lack of interest in Quidditch, I wouldn't believe he could be better Skylar!"

Daphne was speechless. To be honest, they hadn't seen Skylar play on the field yet, but it seemed like nothing could stump him. If Skylar were to play Quidditch, he could indeed become an extremely formidable force on the field.

"My dear Tori, thank you for thinking so highly of me, but I'm not good at flying..." Skylar said with a straight face, making up a lie.

Meredith gave a soft hum, as if to say, "Who would believe that?"

Honestly, putting aside Skylar's flying skills, he could definitely be the best Seeker. Under the Divine Insight of Amaterasu, the Golden Snitch would have nowhere to hide.

Next, the group walked to a strangely shaped tent, a black cylindrical tent, like a rook in Wizarding Chess, or a castle tower.

The entrance to the tent was covered with mistletoe, and there were some strange little plants in the small clearing in front. Skylar could barely recognize the Venomous Tentacula, because it was mentioned in the book "One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi" as an aggressive and dangerous plant. Skylar roughly guessed whose tent this was.

Sure enough, Luna Lovegood, dressed in a strange outfit, saw Skylar in the tent and hurriedly ran out.

At school, Luna was often ostracized and even bullied by her classmates because of her unusual appearance and unconventional behavior. However, being kind-hearted, she didn't care much about this and chose to be tolerant and friendly, without changing her optimistic outlook on life. Luna was very intelligent, and with Skylar's subtle help, she achieved the highest overall score in her grade at the end of last semester, even surpassing Ginny Weasley.

"Skylar, when did you arrive? My dad and I came two weeks ago." The girl's eyes were still hazy, but her tone couldn't hide her excitement. "You know, he's the editor-in-chief of <The Quibbler>. He came early to interview the Ministry of Magic officials in charge of setting up the venue, as well as fans from other countries."

"I came with Daphne and the others; we arrived this morning," Skylar replied gently. "You've been here for so long, have you discovered anything new or interesting?"

"Yes!" Luna took Skylar's hand. "Come with me, I'll show you!"

Daphne and Meredith glanced at Skylar with amused expressions. Astoria suddenly felt a pang of jealousy; her Skylar was perfect in every way, except that he was a little too popular.

Skylar smiled awkwardly and gestured for the others to follow him into Luna's tent.

The tent wasn't very big, but it was decorated with many strange and interesting things.

In a corner of the hall, there was a small fish tank with more than ten Plimpy swimming around inside. It was said that Luna had personally caught them in the stream in the Ottery St. Catchpole. In the flowerpot next to the fish tank, clumps of white Puffskein floated and made humming sounds.

Luna brought out four wooden teacups, from which steam rose. Skylar and the three girls took the teacups and took a sip. A taste somewhat like onion filled his throat and stomach, making him choke and almost unable to breathe.

"Is this your first time drinking Gurdyroot Tea?" Luna looked at him amusedly. "Most people react this way the first time they drink it."

Luna picked up a plant in a pot and pointed to a large, round plant, saying, "This is Gurdyroot. It can be used to repel the bigmouthed Plimpy in the river and prevent them from biting you when you go into the water." Gurdyroot looks like an extra-large green onion.

"There's even more interesting stuff outside! Come with me." Luna then led them to a clearing in front of the tent filled with small plants. Pointing to a seemingly harmless hollow tree stump, she said, "This is Venomous Tentacula. See how the stump is covered in knots? Actually, these knots can produce pods the size of grapefruits, but if you want to harvest the pods—"

Luna poked a knot with a small piece of dry twig, and suddenly five or six thorny vines stretched out from the opening of the tree stump and reached for Luna. Luna deftly threw the dry twig away, and it was caught by the vines.

Daphne couldn't help but say, "This... this is even more dangerous than the Devil's Snare, isn't it?"

Meredith also turned pale. "I remember this plant being mentioned in the 'Flesh-Eating Trees of the World' series; it's one of the most dangerous plants."

(Note: "Flesh-Eating Flesh-Eating Trees of the World" is a sixth-grade Herbology textbook. It is a series of books divided into several volumes. The People's Publishing House translated it as "Complete Book of Flesh-Eating Trees," which may be a more concise translation, but Herbology textbooks usually reveal the origin of the herbs, so the author added the word "world" back.)

Luna chuckled and said, "Don't be afraid, this is just its self-defense mechanism. If you don't provoke it, the Venomous Tentacula is very obedient and will definitely not hurt anyone."

Ahem, young lady, are you sure your last name Lovegood? And not Hagrid?

After introducing the Venomous Tentacula, Luna then introduced the Scurvygrass, and finally a small shrub with countless small orange-red radishes hanging upside down.

Luna picked a few fruits and handed them to the group, saying, "Try these. These are Dirigible Plum, which can enhance the user's ability to perceive unusual things. My earrings are made from these." Luna's eyes shone brightly, filled with anticipation.

Skylar knew that Luna possessed a special kind of intuition that allowed her to distinguish true friends. Without hesitation, he picked up a crunchy piece, bit it, and ate it. The other three women followed suit.

Seeing this, Luna unconsciously revealed a bright and charming smile. The sunlight slanted onto her long, light golden hair, making it shimmer like golden sand. Coupled with her dreamy and dazed eyes, the girl in front of Skylar at this moment had an indescribable ethereal quality, like a fairy who had fallen to earth. Even with Skylar's state of mind, he felt a soft spot deep inside his heart being touched.

After bidding farewell to Luna, the group wandered into the wizarding camps of other countries. They saw several tents resembling Egypt pyramids and a few Africa wizards roasting what looked like a wild rabbit over a blazing purple fire. Having been an adventurous traveler in his previous life, Skylar was quite interested in the unique customs and cultures of other countries, and he exclaimed that his eyes had been opened and the trip was well worth it.