Chapter 204: Divergence

"Now, please champions come on stage to accept interviews and receive clues for the second task," Madame Maxime said. "Let us first invite Fleur Delacour and Elena Kaslana, who won third place."

Fleur and Elena walked to the front of the podium gracefully, and a pile of reporters swarmed up. They began to smile and greet everyone.

"Our combination name is taken from a saying in Protestantism; legend has it that God didn't want people to always rely on Him and live around Him, so He secretly ordered the most pious believer, Judas, to betray the Son of God, and from then on, human destiny is decided by humans themselves. We like the implication in it very much, which is to be self-reliant and insist on using our own strength to solve difficulties..." Just as Elena was talking eloquently, and Harry was listening half out of curiosity and half out of guilt, a commotion suddenly came from beside him, causing him to turn his head to look.

Krum stood up; he looked a bit excited and said loudly: "Unreasonable? I am very seriously stating my view, but you feel I am unreasonable?"

"Isn't it?" Renata also stood up. "I don't want to quarrel with you here, but you insist on talking endlessly, then you really don't understand anything."

"You are very knowledgeable, I don't understand, it doesn't matter what you say," Krum said angrily. "What I care about is that you didn't tell me; if you didn't tell me, how would I understand?"

"Did I not tell you? Using the machine gun was agreed in advance, and I also let you act according to your ability when pulling monsters; it's very normal to fight like this; Deng Buliduo takes every opportunity to promote his saintly morality, and Donald will find fault with us regardless," Renata explained quickly. "Is it my fault that the dragon egg was crushed?"

"But you didn't tell me you would beat them to death!" Krum's voice was louder, and his tone was heavier. "You made me feel that you are very cruel, and you didn't intend to explain this point at all; I asked you several times, and you were just complaining about Deng Buliduo."

"I told you I would use a machine gun; do you not understand machine guns?"

"But you didn't need to beat those injured dragons that had lost their ability to resist; wouldn't it be fine if we just started dyeing?"

"I also told you I must perform better than Harry; the score doesn't matter, what matters is that I must perform well enough," Renata's tone also began to carry anger. "Harry has already injured all the dragons; I can only beat them to death!"

"Why? Why?" Krum said painfully. "Does it matter how Harry performs? Why do you have to stare at him?"

"If you insist on asking here, then I will simply tell you, you Bulgarian country boy!" Renata said angrily. "Because I represent the Soviet Union, I must carry the banner of the socialist camp internationally! You think you are just a simple champion? The moment you step out of the country, you must represent your country!"

"Oh yes, you are of course a simple champion; this is the game of the Five Permanent Members; it's not the turn of a small country like Bulgaria to participate," Renata said coldly. "You don't need to worry about appearing weak and powerless, don't need to deter those enemies or allies with ill intentions, don't need to show a diplomatic attitude that is either smooth or tough, because you are just a silly boy who lost himself in the flattery of the people in the village!"

Krum's expression was slightly confused; he frowned and shook his head, seemingly not having thought about how to refute. And Renata's barrage of questions began again: "You think you flew very well? Look at Harry; he can only be a Seeker for the school team with his level, not because he is stupid, but because Great Britain is too much bigger than your Bulgaria; people who fly better are everywhere."

"You did very well in the village, but the world is much bigger than your comfort zone, Krum," Renata shook her head and sat down somewhat disappointed.

"So that's how it is," Krum's tone sounded somewhat frustrated. "You looked down on me from the beginning, why? Just because I am Bulgarian? Would it be different if I were Soviet? Fine, suit yourself."

"You think I don't have the qualification to question your behavior, you think I am just a silly poor boy, then why do you still like me?" Krum turned in place. "Let's break up."

"What do you think?" Renata snorted coldly. "Think it through if you want, but the fact is I never liked you; breaking up is fine, anyway you will only drag me down."

Harry naturally understood the situation immediately; perhaps it was that Renata saw through Krum's match-fixing, which was why she was hypocritically dating him. Clearly, Krum was deeply involved; judging from his performance in the first task, it didn't look like the performance of match-fixing at all; he had used all his strength to win a smile from the beauty.

But in this way, it really made Renata look cold-blooded and unscrupulous. Harry sighed and shook his head gently.

"What are they saying? You seem to understand Russian?" Cedric leaned over and asked.

"But they were clearly speaking..." Harry suddenly realized that perhaps there was a Doctor watching the competition, causing the TARDIS to stop nearby, which was why he could understand the conversation between Renata and Krum. And Cedric, as someone who had never boarded the TARDIS, would naturally not be covered by that translation spell.

"Oh, they had a quarrel," Harry pursed his lips and nodded. "Krum feels Renata is cruel, Renata dislikes his poor background, and after quarreling, they decided to break up."

"Background? Is Krum Muggle-born?" Cedric was somewhat confused. "Does Renata also believe in blood purity theory?"

"No, this is a bit complicated to explain, but roughly so," Harry suddenly felt he needed to say a few words. "I'll go and persuade them."

Harry stood up and walked slowly toward the two who were turning their heads away from each other, using as friendly a tone as possible: "Sorry, I didn't mean to listen to your conversation, but it was indeed a bit loud just now."

"I want to say, in the Wizarding World, is it really necessary to continue distinguishing between countries and nations? Or even if there is some distinction, is it necessary to make it so tense?" Harry said. "The number of wizards is already small enough; isn't it better for us to be more united?"

"I have nothing to say to you, Lord Grantham," Renata rolled her eyes. "Of course there are no national borders in the eyes of capitalists."

Harry was a bit angry suddenly; he had always felt that although he was not a destitute proletarian, he was willing to build that kind of world without exploitation and oppression in his heart. Renata saying this, especially since she was a red-blooded Soviet, made it seem like he was very lacking in awareness, but things were not like that.

"Ah, ah," Krum stood up and grabbed Harry's shoulder, which interrupted his train of thought. "Let's go to the side and talk."

"I think there might be some conspiracy in this competition; to be honest, I was fascinated by Renata before and didn't think carefully, but indeed some things happened," Krum lowered his voice and said. "Has any strange person come to find you? I mean, that kind of, that is..."

Just as Harry was patiently waiting for Krum to organize his language, Madame Maxime's voice suddenly sounded, and everyone heard it: "Next, let us invite Renata Yevgenyevna Chicherina and Viktor Krum, who won second place!"

"Sorry, you have any discoveries we can talk about later," Harry said hurriedly. "But if anyone asks, just say we were exchanging Quidditch, okay?"

"Er, good." Krum nodded and then began to walk toward the podium. Renata walked about ten feet in front of him at a leisurely pace, but he didn't intend to catch up with her, just maintaining this distance.

When the reporters swarmed up, Renata quickly adjusted her mood, wearing a formulaic smile, and replied to those irrelevant questions in an orderly manner. And Krum just drooped his face, saying somewhat lost: "Yes, I admit, we did have some conflicts, we will talk about it properly when we go back. This competition? I don't want to say anything about this competition, nothing to say."

Harry sat in his seat, watching the two people who performed completely differently with complex thoughts. Clearly, Krum was indeed a bit carried away by the flattery as Renata said, but this was very normal; anyone would be like this. It's just that, setting this aside, perhaps Krum himself was not the kind of person with complex thoughts; he looked very simple and might not be very smart.

Finally, it was Harry and Cedric's turn to go on stage for an interview, but before the interview, Madame Maxime first took out an exquisite small dragon egg and handed it to them.

"What I want to tell you is that the second task will be held on February 24th next year; before that, you can rest for a long time," she said. "In principle, we will assume that all champions knew all its content before the second task started and made full preparations. But in reality, the clues you obtained are too vague, and perhaps you will be confused..."

Harry looked at the dragon egg made of brass in his hand; there seemed to be a seam on it, which should be able to be opened.

"Oh, I suddenly remembered, I have a distant relative who gave birth to a daughter and named her Melody Pender," Madame Maxime blinked. "I just said a name casually; you go and accept the interview quickly now."

"Why did she suddenly say this?" Cedric said thoughtfully. "Could it be some kind of hint?"

"Very likely." Harry nodded, but he couldn't care about guessing the task or pondering the clues at this time, because not far away, Rita Skeeter, wearing bright green robes, had already pressed her Quick-Quotes Quill onto the parchment, and two eyes were staring straight at this direction. ===== CHAPTER 205 =====