HP: I beat the otome game at Hogwarts

Chapter 156 Hibiscus Discovered

The people in the hall who were watching the twins fell silent for a moment—they thought the two had succeeded.

But then, with a bang, Fred and George were both thrown outside the age line, which startled Lee Jordan, who pulled back his right toe that was about to step into the age line.

Besides being badly hurt from the fall, Fred and George also sprouted long white beards on their chins, just like Dumbledore's.

Everyone burst into laughter, and the twins couldn't help but laugh too when they saw each other's white beards.

“Oh, your beards are the most beautiful of all those who have taken the aging potion—” Headmaster Dumbledore appeared in the hall at some point, and he was amused as well.

“I suggest you go to the school hospital,” the principal said with a smile. “Mrs. Pomfrey can help you regain your youth.”

Fred and George had already accepted the fact that their registration had failed, and soon their mischievous spirit resurfaced.

“Buddy, it’s time to share the good times and the bad—” the twins said to Lyra with ill intent.

Then Fred swiftly snatched the registration slip from Lyra's hand, and with a flick of his wrist, tossed the parchment into the Goblet of Fire.

George then picked up Leila and placed her into the age-line circle.

With a bang, Lyra suffered the same fate as the twins, falling behind the age limit and also growing a long white beard.

"I'm going to kill you all—" Lyra scrambled to her feet amidst laughter, chasing after the other two white-bearded old men. "Fred! George! You stop right there—"

Saturday morning, the Great Hall at Hogwarts was filled with laughter.

*

After failing to register for the anti-aging drug, Fred and George were completely disheartened, but their good friend Lyra was instead inspired to compete.

"Are you still figuring out how to cheat the Goblet of Fire?"

Harry and Ron asked curiously, "After leaving the school hospital, Lyra went straight to the library and frantically flipped through thick books, trying to find a new method."

Lyra was carrying a thick book of spells, intending to ask Professor Flitwick about it. On her way to the teachers' lounge, she ran into Harry, Mickey, and Harry.

"Are you planning to start with spells?" Hermione asked, intrigued. "I doubt ordinary confusion spells would work on a powerful alchemical artifact like the Goblet of Fire—"

“I just wanted to ask Professor Flitwick,” Lyra said. “I found an ancient spell that might work.”

“Oh, which spell?” Hermione immediately abandoned Harry and Ron. “I’ll go with you to find Professor Flitwick—”

Harry and Ron watched the two girls walk away, talking as they went, utterly speechless.

When Lyra and Hermione returned for dinner, their expressions clearly indicated their failure.

“When we went to find Professor Flitwick, Professor McGonagall was also in the faculty lounge,” Lyra lamented. “She said that since I have so much energy, why not double today’s transformation assignment?”

“Professor Flitwick praised our approach,” Hermione said, much more relaxed than Lyra, “but it would require a very powerful Confusion Charm to succeed, which underage wizards cannot currently do.”

“It’s alright, Angelina just registered successfully,” Ron said. “At least someone from Gryffindor is participating—”

“That’s right, Angelina, we support you!” Fred and George suddenly popped up and shouted to Angelina on the other side of the table, “You’re much better than that pretty boy Diggory—”

Several Hufflepuff students passing by turned around angrily and glared at the twins.

Cedric Diggory also signed up; he was one of the favorites to enter Hogwarts. Lyra, upon hearing this, went to Hufflepuff's table to congratulate him and sincerely cheer him on.

This caused a stir, and many people began to suspect again that the two were about to start a relationship. Leila's roommate, Angelina, however, was quite confident—

"Laila is definitely more supportive of me than Diggory."

“I don’t like Diggory either, but this isn’t the worst outcome,” Ron said to Harry. “If it were Slytherin… the thought of a Slytherin becoming a champion at Hogwarts makes me sick.”

“If it’s Slytherin, I’d rather it be Hagrid’s Bombtail that takes Hogwarts’ place in the competition—” Harry said firmly.

As a result, the Hogwarts champions chosen by the Goblet of Fire were Diggory of Hufflepuff and... Harry of Gryffindor.

This result was unacceptable to Hufflepuff's students, as well as Ron and Harry.

Hufflepuff believes that Harry Potter used some kind of cheating to steal the glory that originally belonged exclusively to Hufflepuff.

Ron happened to think the same way. Harry used some kind of cheating method on his own. He didn't care about Hufflepuff's glory, but he was obviously angry that his good friend hadn't invited him when he did it.

Harry was wrongly accused. He really didn't know what had happened because he was certain he hadn't thrown his name into the Goblet of Fire, not even while sleepwalking.

But nobody believed Harry, except Hermione and Lyra.

Harry's life became less and less comfortable. There were always people at school who thought he was dishonest, completely forgetting that many people had actually taken the age-enhancing potion and were planning to cheat.

But once someone actually succeeds while they themselves fail, they start to stand on moral high ground and look down on others.

“That’s just human nature—” Hermione comforted Harry.

"You mean Ron?" Harry said dejectedly.

Ron began a cold war with Harry ever since Harry became one of the champions of Hogwarts.

Fred and George were quite happy. They didn't mind that they had failed while Harry had succeeded, and they even threw a fun party in Gryffindor to celebrate that Gryffindor had a champion.

This made their little brother Ronnie even angrier.

Lyra, one of the only two who believed in Harry's innocence, didn't have time to comfort him; she herself was in trouble.

On the night of the World Cup, she rescued a silver-haired French girl in the chaos, who happened to be the little sister of Fleur Delacour, the heroine of Beauxbatons.

At first, Lyra didn't think of it, and Fleur didn't notice Lyra either. It wasn't until Harry was publicly announced as one of the Hogwarts Champions that everyone's eyes were on Harry, and Lyra, who happened to be sitting near Harry, was spotted by Fleur.

The very next day, Fleur immediately moved from the Ravenclaw table to the Gryffindor table and began to entangle Lyra with affection.

Things were alright up to this point, as Lyra could still explain to everyone that she had just happened to help Fleur's sister when she got separated from the Weasleys.

But the problem is that Fleur remembers a platinum-haired boy who was with Lyra at the time, and he also helped save her precious little sister Gabrielle.