"It doesn't matter."
Facing Hermione's apology, Sherlock appeared completely at ease, as if discussing something trivial.
"However, I need to correct one of your assumptions."
"What?" Hermione was taken aback, unsure what Sherlock was getting at.
"You were only half right—only the Irish Seeker will crash into the ground, not the Bulgarian one."
As if to confirm Sherlock's words, at the last moment before the two Seekers would have made contact with the ground, Viktor Krum pulled out of his dive.
The next instant, he shot up on his broomstick and spiraled away.
Lynch, who had been neck and neck with him, wasn't so fortunate.
He had dived down with Krum but couldn't brake in time at the last moment.
He finally crashed into the ground with a heavy thud, making warm contact with the hard earth.
Not even the excellent braking performance of a Firebolt could save him.
Lynch's fall was so heavy that the entire stadium could hear it.
A united groan arose from the Irish supporters' section.
"Fool!" Mr. Weasley couldn't help but complain. "Krum was feinting!"
"Time out!" Mr. Bagman's voice rang out once more: "The trained mediwizards are rushing onto the field to check on Aidan Lynch's injuries!"
"He's fine, just used too much force!" Charlie, who understood these matters well, hastened to comfort his little sister Ginny. "Of course, that's exactly what Krum wanted to achieve..."
At this moment, Ginny had moved to the side of the box, her face showing an expression of alarm.
Actually, she had wanted to seek comfort from Harry.
Unfortunately, Harry was only focused on watching the match and didn't notice her at all.
Of course, this couldn't really be blamed on Harry.
He had done similar things himself.
Just this past Easter, in the last match of his third year's final term, he had used a similar method to make two Slytherin Beaters collide hard with each other.
So, seeing Krum do this now naturally captured his full attention.
Taking advantage of the pause in the match, Harry quickly seized the opportunity and pressed the replay and slow-motion buttons on his Omnioculars.
After adjusting the speed dial, he put the binoculars back to his eyes.
He watched Krum and Lynch dive down again in slow motion.
Just like before, a line of glowing purple text flashed across his lenses.
[Wronski Feint]
A dangerous move specifically used to distract the opposing Seeker. Pretend to spot the Snitch in a low area and dive sharply toward the ground, then pull up and ascend just before making contact with the ground.
The core of the move is to make the opposing Seeker imitate you and crash into the ground.
The diving speed and height from the ground are determined by the person executing the feint.
This move has a high danger coefficient; if it fails, it could result in crashing into the ground oneself.
Named after Polish Seeker Josef Wronski.
Without doubt, Krum had successfully executed this feint.
He had stopped his dive in time not far from the ground, while Lynch hadn't been able to stop and crashed heavily.
With the help of the Omnioculars, Harry noticed that at this moment Krum's concentration was extremely intense, his facial muscles were stiff.
"I understand now!" Harry slapped his thigh. "Krum never saw the Golden Snitch at all—he just wanted Lynch to imitate him!"
"Little brother, I thought you would have spotted that right away," Sherlock said with a smile.
"Huh?" Harry didn't react immediately.
"Have you forgotten so quickly? In that match after Easter, you did the same thing to young Malfoy."
With Sherlock's reminder, Harry finally remembered.
Because they were behind in points, Wood had required him to catch the Golden Snitch only when Gryffindor was ahead by more than fifty points.
In that situation, to prevent Malfoy from spotting the Snitch, he had made similar feints several times: pretending he had already spotted the Golden Snitch and making Malfoy chase him.
Among these was a diving feint from high altitude.
He had fooled Malfoy several times with this method.
In fact, in an even earlier match against Ravenclaw, Harry had done something similar.
Diving was his forte anyway. Like Krum today, he had dived from high altitude, drawing Cho Chang to follow him.
However, at that time he had stopped at ten feet from the ground.
On one hand, Harry wasn't confident he could still control his broomstick if the distance got any shorter.
On the other hand, it was because he was kind-hearted.
With ten feet as a buffer, even if Cho couldn't stop, she wouldn't crash into the ground like Lynch.
But Krum was different—when he stopped his dive, he was less than five feet from the ground.
His speed was also faster than Harry's, and his dive more aggressive.
Finishing the replay, Harry adjusted the Omnioculars back to normal speed.
"Understand now?" Sherlock asked after seeing Harry's actions.
Harry nodded and expressed sincere admiration.
"He's truly amazing!"
Harry had never seen anyone who could fly like that.
Krum looked as though he didn't need a broomstick at all—he moved freely through the air as if completely independent, light as a feather.
"Indeed amazing." Charlie came over at this point. "I certainly couldn't do it like him, but I think you could, Harry, and you too, Sherlock."
Harry shook his head repeatedly. "Impossible, I couldn't do it either."
Sherlock didn't immediately deny it. After pondering for a moment, he said, "With targeted training for a period of time, it might not be impossible."
"What are you all talking about?" Seeing this, Ginny quickly returned from the side of the box and took the opportunity to sit next to Harry.
Hermione, seeing this, immediately sat down next to Sherlock without a word: "Yes, what are you talking about? I want to hear too!"
Thus the seating order became: Hermione—Sherlock—Charlie—Harry—Ginny.
Ron, who had originally been sitting between Harry and Ginny, was now squeezed into the corner next to Percy.
Ron: "..."
"We're talking about the Wronski Feint," Charlie said, not noticing the subtle changes in everyone's seating. He enthusiastically explained to the young wizards:
"Actually, anyone who plays Quidditch knows a bit about this feint, whether intentionally or not, but very few can do it to Krum's level.
No, to be precise, aside from those veteran experts, among young people I've only seen him able to do this.
This move requires not only sufficient courage and confidence but also places considerable demands on the broomstick..."
As Charlie explained, the mediwizards on the field were giving Lynch some drinks.
Gradually, Lynch recovered his strength.
During this process, Krum circled above Lynch's head.
"Krum is indeed the best Seeker—look, even now he's using the time while Lynch recovers to search for the Golden Snitch," Charlie said.
Hearing this, Harry quickly took out his Omnioculars again.
Sure enough, while Krum appeared to be flying freely in the air, he was actually seizing this undisturbed opportunity to search for the Snitch.
Obviously, if he could catch it now, not only would the match end, but Bulgaria would win.
Unfortunately, by the time Lynch stood up, Krum still hadn't found anything.
Amid the loud cheers of the green-clad Irish supporters, Lynch remounted his Firebolt, kicked off with his feet, and shot into the air.
His recovery seemed to give the green team confidence.
When referee Mostafa blew his whistle again, the Chasers quickly organized their offense and launched frequent attacks with superior technique.
In the following fifteen minutes, the green team swept forward unstoppably, scoring ten consecutive goals in a 100-0 run.
This put them ahead 130-10.
At the same time, the match began to take on an anything-goes character.
When the Chaser named Mullet charged toward the goalposts with the Quaffle again, Bulgaria's Keeper Zograf flew out to meet her.
Everything happened too quickly—even with Harry's excellent dynamic vision, he couldn't see clearly what occurred.
He only heard angry shouts from the Irish supporters, followed by Mostafa blowing a long, shrill whistle.
Only then did Harry understand that Bulgaria had just committed a foul.
"Mostafa is reprimanding the Bulgarian Keeper for excessive force—elbowing!" Bagman seized the opportunity to explain to the clamoring crowd: "Ah—yes, Ireland is preparing for a penalty!"
"I thought only Slytherin would do something like that," Harry said somewhat belatedly.
He couldn't help but recall that final match against Slytherin last term.
To prevent Gryffindor from winning, the opposing team had used every means to stop them from scoring.
"Don't imagine the World Cup as something sacred, my dear friend." Sherlock shook his head. "Admittedly, their skills are much higher than school students, but in some ways they're the same.
Like the desire for victory.
Like deliberate fouls such as the one just now.
And some methods unrelated to the match... Harry, Ron, I suggest you both cover your ears."
Sherlock said this because after Mullet was hit by the opposing Keeper, the leprechauns had risen angrily into the air like a swarm of glittering bees.
Now that the referee had awarded Ireland a penalty, the leprechauns quickly formed the words "HA! HA! HA!" together.
Facing such provocation, the veela across the stadium naturally couldn't tolerate it.
They angrily tossed their hair and began dancing again.
This time, not only Harry and Ron but even the Weasley twins simultaneously plugged their ears with their fingers.
Among the underage male wizards, only Sherlock and Percy didn't do so.
Soon, Hermione and Ginny grabbed Sherlock's and Harry's arms respectively.
Sherlock immediately understood Hermione's meaning, and the corners of his mouth lifted slightly as he looked toward the field.
Harry turned his face, only to see Ginny giggling as she said to him: "Quick, look at the referee!"
A very comical scene appeared on the field.
The respected referee Hassan Mostafa from Egypt had descended from the air to stand before the dancing veela.
His behavior was very odd—he kept flexing his limbs, showing off his muscles to the veela while excitedly stroking his large mustache.
"Oh, this won't do! Our referee has been bewitched by the veela! Can someone go up and slap him?" Clearly, Mr. Bagman saying this was purely enjoying the spectacle.
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