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After the greetings, he told the purpose of his visit, "I have persuaded Rody Pontner to make a bet with me. He said that Bulgaria would score the first goal... Little Agatha Timms bet half of her farm and bet that the game would last a week."
"Oh, all right then," said Mr. Weasley, "I'll put a Galleon on Ireland to win, all right?"
He originally didn't want to get involved, but considering that Bagman had helped them get such good tickets, he decided to cooperate.
"One Galleon?" Bagman looked a little disappointed, but soon recovered his interest. "Great...anyone else want to join?"
"We... Ouch!"
Fred was about to speak when he immediately doubled over with a scream.
Kyle slid the shoe off his foot and said calmly, "I'm sorry Mr. Bagman, he was just trying to say that we just bought a lot of souvenirs and don't have much spending money... How about five coppers?"
"Oh, I wouldn't want to take all your pocket money," Bagman said with a polite smile.
Then he looked at Mr. Weasley and said, "Can you do me a favor? I've been looking for Barty Crouch. The Bulgarian Ministry of Magic officials are deliberately making things difficult for us, but I can't understand a word he says. Barty can solve this problem. He speaks about 150 languages."
"Mr. Crouch?" Percy suddenly became restless with excitement when he heard the name.
He was acting exactly like Ron had just done when he mentioned Krum.
"Mr. Crouch can speak two hundred languages, including those of mermaids, turkeys, and trolls..."
"Oh!" Kyle exclaimed sincerely.
If it were just mermaids and trolls, he could do it too, but as for turkeys... he was unable to do so.
But then again, who in their right mind would want to talk to a turkey?
"Yes, you're right," said Bagman lazily. "Bati is indeed admirable in that respect... Ah, there he comes, Batty!"
A wizard suddenly Apparated next to them.
When Percy saw the person coming, he was so excited that he couldn't breathe properly and was shaking all over like a mandrake pulled out of the pot.
"Ludo, I've been looking for you." Crouch's eyes quickly locked on Bagman and said, "The Bulgarians insist that we add another twelve seats to the top box. You'd better discuss this with them before the game starts."
(End of this chapter)
Chapter 459 Barty Crouch
From his clothes to his appearance, Crouch is much better than the unkempt Ludo Bagman in every aspect.
With his neatly trimmed beard, shiny leather shoes and spotless, crisp suit, he looked like a real bank manager.
Not to mention the administrator Mr. Roberts, Harry felt that even if the most picky Uncle Vernon came, it would be difficult for him to discover his true identity.
But Bagman didn't care.
He and Mr. Weasley finished a cup of tea and sat on the grass drinking it leisurely, with no intention of looking for the Bulgarian.
Crouch frowned, looking a little impatient.
"Mr. Crouch," Percy hurried over, leaning forward in a bowing motion that made him look like a hunchback. "Would you like a cup of tea?"
"Oh," said Crouch, looking at the relaxed Bagman and then at Percy. "Well...thank you, Weatherby."
Fred and George nearly spit their tea into their cups from laughing so hard.
"Crouch, who knows 200 languages, actually got Percy's last name wrong." Fred said to Kyle in a low voice.
"Percy kept saying during the holidays that Crouch appreciated him very much..." George said.
"Now it seems that the truth is not like this..."
"He probably doesn't even know who Percy is!"
Seeing the two people gloating, Percy's ears turned pink and he pretended to lower his head to fiddle with the teapot.
This time, in addition to seeing Bagman, Crouch also discussed the issue of the ban on flying carpets with Mr. Weasley.
There is nothing much to say about this. Since the last century, carpets have been defined as Muggle handicrafts and appeared on the Register of Prohibited Magical Objects.
In other words, it is forbidden to use magic on the carpet, let alone let it carry people flying. Once discovered, the people from the Department of Misuse of Muggle Artifacts will come to your door.
Kyle had reason to suspect that this rule was definitely related to the Flying Broom Company, and its purpose was to prevent flying carpets from entering England.
After all, from a practical point of view, a flying carpet that can seat ten people is sometimes much more convenient than a broom... such as family travel.
Crouch still had a lot of work to do, so after a few words, he put down his unfinished cup of tea and left with Bagman.
Afterwards, Kyle and his companions pushed the cart towards the other side of the venue.
They need to sell all the remaining items during this period before the game.
After they were far enough away from the tent, Fred couldn't help but ask, "Kyle, why did you stop me just now? You just heard that Bagman's odds were very high. We can make a lot of money."
"I just think he's unreliable," Kyle said. "If you don't want to lose all your pocket money, you'd better stay away from him."
"No, we think we can guess the result this time," said Fred. "Trust our judgment... Ireland will definitely win, but Krum will definitely catch the Snitch."
"It has nothing to do with this." Kyle shook his head. "Sometimes, even if you guess right, you may not get the money."
"You mean... he might default on his debt?" George frowned.
"But..." Fred thought for a moment and said, "Bagman is a celebrity after all. He shouldn't do such a thing."
"But now it's been almost ten years since his heyday," Kyle said, "and he set such high odds, what do you expect him to pay you in Galleons, the salary of a director?
If it's just the two of you betting, it would be enough, but don't forget, there are nearly 100,000 wizards here."
Fred and George fell silent.
They found that they seemed to be a little dizzy.
Come to think of it, before this World Cup, the name Ludo Bagman had not appeared for a long time.
"Huh... you're right!" Fred exhaled. "Well, let's focus on these instead of the game with Ludo Bagman."
He patted the box of fireworks.
"At least they can be exchanged for real gold coins."
"A wise choice." Cedric said with a smile.
He also felt that Ludo Bagman was a little unreliable. He was too active, and when he spoke, he would always shake the bag of gold coins, as if he was deliberately reminding others that he had a lot of money.
And when they were chatting a few days ago, his father also mentioned that Bagman was once accused of passing information to the Death Eaters.
Although it was finally confirmed that this was not his intention, it had happened after all, and he could only make some "contributions" to the Ministry of Magic to make amends and get himself released as soon as possible.
So he definitely can't afford too many Galleons now.
After calming down briefly, Fred and George didn't think about it anymore and continued pushing the cart towards the crowded place.
At this time, most of the audience with tickets had already arrived, and the number of people in the venue was much greater than in the morning.
With more people, there will naturally be more customers.
Listening to the clinking of gold coins falling into the cash box, the last bit of regret in Fred and George's hearts quickly disappeared.
They also met Professor McGonagall near the middle of the camp.
As a loyal Quidditch fan, she has watched almost all Quidditch matches held during the Hogwarts holidays.
Of course, I can't miss this World Cup.
And Kyle had never seen Professor McGonagall like this.
Her round bun was finally let down, and her hair was pinned with a four-leaf clover hairpin. Her unchanging robe was replaced with an Irish team uniform, and her face was covered with thick oil paint...
Although she wiped it off her face almost instantly, Kyle still saw it...it was the flag pattern of the Irish team.
"You look really cool today...Professor McGonagall!" Kyle said with a thumbs up.
"I accept your evaluation, Kyle." Professor McGonagall said with a smile, "What are you doing?"
"We made some little gadgets to add some atmosphere to the competition." Kyle said, and pushed the cart over, indicating that Professor McGonagall could choose whatever she wanted and it would be their treat.
"Oh, that's very well done." Professor McGonagall picked up a hairpin, which was a four-leaf clover made into the shape of a broom.
Professor McGonagall liked it more and more, so she replaced her original one with it.
"Minerva, you're here...oh, Kyle, Cho...you're here too."
Two more professors came over from not far away, Professor Flitwick, and Professor Aurora Sinistra who taught astronomy.
"Come and have a look, Filius." Professor McGonagall said happily, "Didn't you just say you wanted to buy a hat? I found it for you."
"Really?" Professor Flitwick quickened his pace and leaned over the cart to pick out the things he liked.
(End of this chapter)
Chapter 460: The House-Elf in the Top Box
It is certainly impossible for Professor McGonagall and her friends to take students' things for free, even if Kyle and the others repeatedly said that it was none of their business.
And probably they wanted to support their own students. In the end, almost every one of the three professors bought something worth twenty Galleons. If they had more, they would even want to buy more. The main point was wild consumption.
No matter whether you can use it or not, just buy it first.
After saying goodbye to the three professors, the group continued walking forward. They also saw a tent with a garden and a corner tower, which looked like a small palace.
"How generous..." Fred couldn't help but say.
"This is probably the largest tent in the camp."
However, there was no sign on the tent, so they couldn't tell who it belonged to.
As the afternoon wore on, excitement spread over the camp like a tangible cloud.
At dusk, more and more vendors began to appear. They would Apparate to the most crowded places and sell their wares.
Fortunately, at this time, Kyle and his friends had already packed up their car and were heading towards the Weasley family's camp.
Almost everything was sold out, with only a few fireworks and flags left, so they decided to use them themselves.
The three of them walked through the crowded and bustling crowd and returned to their tent.
Mr. Weasley had already put on all the things he had bought before and was holding a flag in his hand. Others also wore different things so that people could see at a glance which team they supported.
"Thank God, I said I was going to look for you." Mr. Weasley looked at Fred and George and said, "The game is about to start, don't run around anymore."
As they were talking, the sound of a deep and powerful gong came from somewhere in the distance of the woods.