Everyone tacitly and knowingly looked away; no one wanted to disturb Cho Chang and Marietta Eckmore Edgecombe at this moment.
There was nothing they could do, as Marietta Eckmore just wasn't catching on, so Cho Chang had to work harder.
"So, all I need to do is get my flying broomstick when I'm out on the tournament grounds."
Harry discussed this with his remaining five companions in a low voice.
"Mhm, that's simple. You just need an Accio spell."
Amanda nodded with a calm expression, stating directly how Harry should obtain his flying broomstick on the field.
"That shouldn't be too difficult," Harry grinned confidently. "Merlin, thank Professor McGonagall for having me practice Accio properly."
"Merlin, thank you for actually studying it properly." Hermione raised an eyebrow, looking at Harry teasingly.
Penelope and Ron beside them couldn't help but chuckle softly, and even Amanda subtly curved her lips upward.
"Hermione, don't jinx me," Harry raised his hands in a gesture of surrender. "If I mess up the first task, I might end up as charcoal-grilled Harry."
"Shut up already." Hermione's mouth twitched slightly, and she smacked Harry's clueless head without hesitation.
"Headmaster Dumbledore won't let that happen, and neither will Amanda."
As Hermione spoke, she reached out and wrapped her arm around Amanda's waist. Hmm... the feel was just right. Amanda was now completely healthy.
Feeling the touch around her waist, Amanda blushed, not understanding why.
Her face still flushed, she nodded indifferently to Harry. "If a life-threatening situation arises, I will immediately Stupefy the Dragon."
For other Wizards, using Stupefy against a Dragon was pure fantasy; after all, Dragon scales were too thick and bore natural magical markings, giving them top-tier spell defense.
However, this didn't affect Amanda much. Her Stupefy was powerful enough to shatter the Dragon's scales before stunning it.
"Well, thank you, Amanda." Harry clasped his hands together and bowed to Amanda in a respectful manner.
Amidst laughter and teasing, the preparation stage, which should have been tense and overwhelming, was passed just like that.
In the following days, Harry demonstrated his gentlemanly spirit by telling Cedric about the Dragons.
"If the rest of us know and you don't, that wouldn't be fair," Harry said.
The day after he revealed the news to Cedric, Professor Moody came looking for him.
"Potter, are you ready for the first task? Do you know what you need to do?"
Harry, who already knew that the other party had tampered with the trophy, instantly guessed his intention.
He was here to probe whether Harry was prepared for the first task, and if not, to offer some hints and help him pass it.
However, after knowing that the man was a Death Eater in disguise, he wasn't very keen on accepting advice from this fake Professor Moody.
So Harry smiled and nodded, "Of course, Professor Moody, I already know what I need to do for the first task."
"Is that so," Professor Moody's magical eye spun rapidly. "That's good, very good."
"The fox's tail is showing." Amanda sat at the Gryffindor Table, glancing at Professor Moody at the Staff Table with eyes half dead and half mocking.
In order to better exchange "intelligence" with Harry, she and Hermione had been eating at the Gryffindor Table for the past two days.
The Little Lions had no objections to this at all, acting as if they hadn't noticed. Furthermore, many Little Lions imitated the Little Eagles by placing dishes Amanda wanted to eat in front of her.
"If I hadn't known his true purpose and hadn't figured out what to do for the first task, I might genuinely have thanked him."
Harry took a bite of his lamb chop, imagining what he would be like in that alternative scenario.
"In that case, mate, you would eventually be delivered defenseless right in front of You-Know-Who."
Ron followed Harry's premise and thought about it, immediately turning pale.
"Merlin's lace stockings, that's truly hard to imagine."
Harry shrugged, thinking it wasn't that hard to imagine; it just meant... his chances of dying were slightly higher.
"What I find harder to imagine is why he absolutely needs my blood to resurrect."
Harry frowned in disgust. Although he knew it had to happen, he still hated Voldemort using him for resurrection.
In his opinion, it would be better if a thing like that stayed thoroughly dead.
"Bone of the father, blood of the enemy, flesh of the servant." Amanda swallowed the beef brisket in her mouth and looked up with an utterly composed face, as if she wasn't discussing some strange and evil Dark Arts.
"This is a Dark Arts spell that is evil to the extreme, capable of creating a new body for a creature that is nothing but a soul."
"Merlin," Hermione glanced with a complicated expression at the bone-in lamb chop on the plate in front of her. "So he has to use his own father's bones to help him restore his body?"
"Yes," Amanda nodded expressionlessly. "Involving resurrection and Harry's blood, only this answer fits both criteria."
Hermione stiffened her face and pushed the plate containing the lamb chop away from her. Harry and Ron also looked somewhat nauseated and disgusted.
Using his own father's bones for resurrection... Voldemort was truly repulsive.
Watching the reactions of Hermione and the two boys, Amanda lowered her head and silently continued eating her lunch, temporarily ceasing discussion on the topic.
It wasn't until everyone had finished lunch and walked out of the Great Hall that Hermione, holding Amanda's arm, looked at her curiously.
"Where did you learn about such an evil and disgusting resurrection method?"
"Hogwarts Library Restricted Section." Amanda said, her expression still calm as water melting from a glacier.
"Hogwarts' collection is extensive, and that includes books related to the Dark Arts."
"Alright." Hermione nodded and didn't press further; Amanda clearly knew what she was doing.
"Alright, alright, we just finished eating, let's stop talking about things that ruin the appetite." Ron clutched his stomach, feeling like the contents were starting to churn.
"Fine," Hermione nodded helplessly, turning to Harry. "The first task starts tomorrow. How prepared are you?"
"No problem," Harry nodded, also clutching his stomach. "I'm sure I can summon my firebolt from outside the arena."
"Then I wish you the best of luck."
"Good luck. Headmaster Dumbledore and I will be watching from the stands."
Amanda and Hermione patted Harry's shoulder as they spoke, then separated from the two boys and walked toward Ravenclaw Tower.
Gazing emotionlessly at the night outside the window, Amanda blinked mechanically.
Actually, for the first two tasks, it didn't matter whether Headmaster Dumbledore and she watched Harry or not.
Harry himself could even treat these two tasks casually, since Barty Crouch Jr. would go to great lengths to ensure he passed.
Even so, when the first task arrived, Amanda still gripped her wand and sat in the stands with Hermione.
Watching Krum, Fleur, and Cedric pass the Dragons one after another to retrieve the golden egg, Amanda mentally scored their chosen methods and individual actions in real-time.
They all had areas where points needed to be deducted, but also areas that truly demonstrated their immense capabilities.
"It's Harry's turn." Hermione pressed her lips together and nervously gripped Amanda's arm. She had just seen that the first three champions were injured to varying degrees, so what about Harry... "It's fine," Amanda gently patted Hermione's hand reassuringly. "I will be watching."
After Amanda patted her hand twice, Hermione's anxiety slowly subsided. When she saw Harry successfully summon his firebolt and soar into the sky he knew best,
the tension in Hermione's heart completely vanished. The sky was Harry's domain, Hermione was sure of it.
Focusing her gaze intensely on Harry, the moment he took flight, Amanda constructed a real-time three-dimensional model in her mind.
Everything in the entire arena was replicated one-to-one. Now, in Amanda's mind, the Harry she watched and the Harry she simulated presented a combination of the real and the phantom.
The Phantom Harry simulated by her was following the optimal path calculated in her mind to distract the Dragon and approach the golden egg, and the Real Harry was currently highly aligned with the Phantom Harry.
"Harry's route choice is fine. If he continues like this, he won't get hurt."
Amanda's eyes moved rapidly, but she calmly narrated the current situation to Hermione.
As Harry and the Dragon King flew higher and higher, the Phantom Harry and the Real Harry diverged.
"Harry turned back too late," Amanda judged decisively. "He will be struck on the right arm by the Dragon's tail. The wound is estimated to be seven to eight centimeters long and about one centimeter deep."
Sure enough, five seconds after Amanda finished speaking, Harry, who quickly changed direction, was harshly swept by the Dragon's tail.
Although he skillfully avoided most of the damage, his right arm was visibly struck.
"Merlin!" Hermione covered her mouth, looking nervously at Amanda beside her.
Amanda watched as the Real Harry slowly began to align with the Phantom Harry in her mind again, and she nodded, signaling Hermione to relax.
"It's fine now. He just needs to grab the golden egg and leave the field."
As Amanda spoke, Harry swooped down, snatched the golden egg, and then rushed out of the arena without daring to linger for a second.
The Dragon Tamers swarmed forward, beginning to soothe the furious mother Dragon that had landed heavily.
Following Hermione to the medical tent beside the arena, Amanda saw Ron, Cho Chang, Marietta Eckmore, and Penelope, who had also just arrived. Of course, the most noticeable person was Harry, whose right arm was covered in a thick layer of Potion.
"Amanda, Hermione," Harry sat on the bed, smiling as he waved his left hand at them. "I succeeded!"
"Congratulations," Amanda and Hermione said together. "And congratulations on having the shortest time among the four champions."
Ludo Bagman had been shouting about that point for quite a while now.
"You were really excellent." Cedric, on the neighboring bed, gave Harry a thumbs-up. Facing everyone's praise, Harry smiled shyly.
Listening to the sounds of scoring coming from outside the medical tent, Amanda lightly tapped Hermione's shoulder. "Hermione, I'm going out for a bit. I'll be back later."
"What are you going to do?" Hermione glanced at the others around them, then leaned in to whisper her question to Amanda.
"Making some preparations for the events of the final period this year."
Amanda stated what she was going to do without reservation.
Lying was not an option; it was a basic rule, especially when dealing with Hermione.
"Alright," Hermione pursed her lips. "Be careful."
"Mhm."
Amanda nodded and quickly walked out of the medical tent.
While the first task was underway, the focus of everyone in the Wizarding World, as well as Barty Crouch Jr., the Death Eater, and Voldemort, whom he was secretly contacting, was concentrated on the task itself and on Harry.
Therefore, this was the best opportunity for Amanda to tamper with the graveyard at Voldemort's ancestral home.
Originally, the safest choice would have been for Amanda to leave and make the necessary arrangements the moment the first task began. However, her concern for Harry, and Hermione's concern for Harry, made her decide to go against the most rational choice.
She decided to make the arrangements only after Harry's task was over and she was certain he wouldn't encounter any problems.
Making an absolutely rational choice was indeed becoming somewhat difficult for the current Amanda.
Walking out of the arena, Amanda took out the photo from her pocket, looked at it twice, and then waved her wand at a nearby stone on the ground. A directional portkey was instantly created.
Bending down to grasp the portkey, Amanda abruptly appeared in the center of a graveyard as the surrounding space warped.
"Who?!"
Facing the sudden appearance of Amanda, several people who hadn't had time to see her face immediately raised their standard-issue weapons and aimed them at her.
Her gaze swept over the dark muzzles pointed at her. Images of Enforcement Agents seizing students flashed rapidly through Amanda's mind.
Her heart suddenly twinged painfully. Amanda spoke in a flat tone, "It's me. Please lower your weapons, or I have a fifty-five percent chance of reacting defensively."
"Apologies, Miss Amanda, we weren't sure who was arriving just now."
The leading woman sighed in relief and was the first to lower her weapon.
Her team members looked at each other and quickly lowered their weapons as well.
What the hell, Madam Prime Minister had told them to help a Wizard, and she had given them a photo of a little girl, so they thought "Wizard" was just the girl's code name.
Who knew... judging by the situation, this must be a real Wizard?
"What do you need us to do?" The leading woman politely asked Amanda.
As the leader, Madam Prime Minister had told her more. The British Wizarding World commerce represented by this girl alone was enough reason for them to treat her courteously and offer assistance.
"Place the remote-controlled bombs in the specific locations I provide, and then give me the remote."
Amanda stated the terrifying request emotionlessly, while her eyes rapidly scanned the entire graveyard, beginning to construct a virtual image of the site.
She wanted to do her utmost to ensure the safety of Professor Snape, who would be impersonating Harry, and to ensure that Voldemort could use this resurrection method only once.
---------------------------------
I hope you're enjoying the fanfiction so far! If the story has you hooked and you can't wait to see what happens next, you can unlock 30 chapters in advance over on my Patreon: patreon.com/TLHimejima1
Every bit of support means the world to me so if you're loving the ride, don't forget to drop a Power Stone and let me know.