The Admiral of Hogwarts

"Thank you for helping me keep the secret." Hagrid bent down, looking intently at Hugo's face as he spoke. "But what does that have to do with my inability to communicate with Madame Maxime?"

"It has everything to do with it." Hugo sighed, looking at the bewildered Hagrid. "Especially since wizards who have any of the blood of creatures considered evil by the magical community are distrusted and ostracized by most wizards."

"So, I can guess that Madame Maxime must have gone through many hardships to become headmistress. If others knew she had giant blood, they would definitely attack her."

"So, bringing up such topics would certainly upset Madame Maxime, especially for an elegant woman like her. Associating her with the crude and barbaric giants of wizarding lore would undoubtedly be an insult."

"Ah, I completely forgot that point. That really shouldn't have happened." After Hugo mentioned this, Hagrid immediately realized his mistake. "I owe you one this time, or I would have definitely angered Madame Maxime."

"Also, regarding the matter of your bloodline, unless you can find a private and secure location, never speak of it," Hugo reminded him casually after Hagrid thanked him.

"There are countless ways to eavesdrop on conversations in the wizarding world. If the news that you or Madame Maxime are half-giants gets out, it will definitely bring you both terrible consequences."

After speaking, Hugo bid farewell to Hagrid and returned to the Entrance Hall, because Veneto had just informed him that everyone was ready and was now descending from the Ravenclaw Tower.

The Entrance Hall was even more crowded than before, with students in colorful dress robes squeezing through the crowd, chatting with acquaintances.

Harry, arm in arm with Ginny, descended the stairs. Judging by Ginny's expression, she wasn't used to wearing high heels, so she held onto Harry's arm tightly.

Beside them, Ron walked down the stairs with a miserable expression, wearing an old, tattered dress robe with frayed edges.

Seeing this, Hugo went up to greet them and said to Ron, "I remember transfiguration between objects was something we learned in our first-year Transfiguration class. Why didn't you transfigure your dress robe?"

"I want to transfigure it, but I can't guarantee how long my magic will last," Ron said with a distressed look. "Compared to that, the worst thing would be if the robe reverted halfway through the ball."

"Then I should be able to help you." Hugo said, drawing his wand. "I've tested it before, and I can maintain the transfiguration on these kinds of clothes for at least six hours."

"It's 7:45 PM now. If the transfiguration on this robe lasts for six hours—" Hearing Hugo say this, Ron's mood immediately improved. "That's enough to last the whole ball, so please help me out."

After Ron nodded, Hugo cast a transfiguration spell on his dress robe. Soon, the inappropriate dress robe transformed into a stylish crimson dress robe with golden embroidery.

"Thank you, thank you so much." Ron sincerely thanked Hugo, then squeezed into the crowd to find his date, while Hugo went to the side of the Grand Staircase to wait for Luna.

The moment he saw Luna, Hugo breathed a sigh of relief, because Luna was dressed beautifully today and hadn't worn any of her strange outfits.

Her usually messy golden hair was neatly tied into a bun at the back of her head and secured with a beautiful silver hairpin.

Luna wore a primrose-yellow dress robe, and the pale gold embroidery on it shone faintly under the light of the torches in the corridor, giving her an ethereal aura.

"Good evening, Hugo." Luna walked to Hugo's side and greeted him. "Veneto and Hermione need a little more time to come down."

"Hopefully, they won't be late." Hugo shook his head helplessly, then looked at Luna and said, "I think you look very beautiful today."

"Thank you!" Luna nodded gently. "After all, there are hardly any Nargles to be seen in the castle today, so I naturally have to dress myself up a bit."

Just then, the students from Beauxbatons walked in from outside the castle, led by Fleur Delacour in a silver dress robe.

The carefully dressed Fleur looked stunningly beautiful, which made her date, Ravenclaw Quidditch team captain Roger Davies, occasionally show a somewhat foolish grin.

"Davies probably didn't notice the mistletoe hanging on those holly trees," Luna whispered to Hugo. "Otherwise, he definitely wouldn't be smiling so foolishly right now."

Just as Hugo was listening to Luna's words with a smile, a group of Slytherin students came up the steps from their underground common room.

Among this group of Slytherins, the one walking in the front was Malfoy, who was wearing a high-necked dress robe of black velvet, looking like a parish priest.

Pansy Parkinson wore a frilly, pale pink robe and clung tightly to Malfoy's arm. Crabbe and Goyle followed behind them, both dressed in green, like two large, moss-covered rocks.

Clearly, these two big guys hadn't found dates, and they would probably have to dance together at the ball later. Hugo was curious as to which of them would take the female lead.

With only seven or eight minutes left before the start, Hugo sensed through the Admiral Network that Veneto and Hermione were coming down the stairs. However, the Entrance Hall was already crowded at that time, so he couldn't see them.

Finally, the time came to 8:00 PM, and the oak front doors of the Great Hall were opened. At that moment, a neat sound of footsteps came into the Entrance Hall from outside.

Everyone who heard the sound turned their heads and saw the Durmstrang students and Professor Karkaroff walking in together. Krum walked in the front, accompanied by a Hufflepuff seventh-year girl in a lake-green robe.

Looking over Krum and the others' heads, Hugo saw that a lawn in front of the castle had been transformed into a grotto, twinkling with fairy lights—

This meant that there were hundreds of living fairies, either sitting in magically conjured rose bushes or fluttering their wings on statues that seemed to be Santa Claus and his reindeer.

At this moment, Professor McGonagall's voice rang out: "Champions, please come this way!"

The crowd immediately made way, allowing the champions to reach Professor McGonagall's side. Through the gaps in the crowd, Hugo saw that Professor McGonagall was wearing a red tartan robe, with a rather unsightly thistle wreath decorating the brim of her hat.

Both tartan and thistle are representative of Scotland. Professor McGonagall's attire clearly intended to embody Hogwarts' position as host of the Triwizard Tournament.

Unfortunately, there weren't many people with good aesthetic sense at Hogwarts, and that didn't include Professor McGonagall. So, her outfit naturally looked bizarre.