"I will, Mr. Olivander." Harry answered with a smile.
Mr. Olivander nodded, planning to find a time to mention his discovery to Dumbledore—what exactly he had seen on the Magic Wand, and what he had felt.
"Thank you, everyone." Once Harry had sat back down, Dumbledore spoke. He stood up beside the judges' table. "You may all go and rest now—or perhaps it would be more convenient to go straight down to eat, it's almost lunchtime anyway. We've been inspecting things long enough—"
Harry got to his feet, ready to leave, but the man with the black camera suddenly leapt up and cleared his throat.
"Photos, Dumbledore, photos!" Bagman shouted excitedly. "A group shot of the judges and the Warriors, what do you think, Rita?"
It was obvious Bagman really liked taking photos, because his smile was absolutely genuine.
Mr. Crouch, on the other hand, looked very reluctant. He stayed sitting with a frown, even using his hat to cover his face.
But he still couldn't withstand the enthusiasm of Mr. Bagman, who dragged Mr. Crouch up to pose for the group photo.
"Mm—fine, let's do a group shot first," Rita Skeeter said, her eyes once again landing on Harry. "Maybe we'll take a few solo pictures later."
When she said this, Rita was actually a bit guilty, because the dirt on her was in Harry's hands—or rather, in the hands of his Godfather, Little Sirius.
If she accidentally offended Harry, she really wouldn't be able to eat or walk away from it…
The photo session took a long time, not because the actual shooting was slow, but because this combination of people was simply too hard to arrange perfectly.
No matter where Mrs. Maxim stood, she blocked other people, and the room was too small for the photographer to stand far enough back to get all of her in the frame; in the end she had to sit down, and everyone else stood around her.
Kakaroff was constantly twirling his goatee around his fingers, trying to curl it up into a little ring.
As for Krum, Harry had thought he'd be used to this sort of thing, but to his surprise, Krum kept dodging and hiding behind everyone else.
Who would've thought that such a big, strapping guy was actually socially anxious? Harry couldn't help finding that very amusing.
The photographer seemed particularly keen on putting Fleur in the front, but Ludo Bagman and Rita Skeeter were in rare agreement that a fourth-year wasn't all that tall and ought to be placed right at the front instead.
Then she insisted on taking solo shots of each Warrior, one by one. It took ages before they finally managed to escape.
"I'm exhausted." Fleur said, rubbing her sore shoulders. "I thought taking photos would be quick, but it turned out to be such hard work—I swear, you can't find anything more tiring in the world than this."
"Compared to Magic Potion Class, this is already a lot better." Harry said cheerfully. "I don't know if you've ever taken Professor Snape's Magic Potion Class. If you had, you wouldn't say that again."
"Oh, I skipped the last Magic Potion Class." Fleur said.
"That's such a pity." Harry said with genuine feeling. "Coming to Hogwarts as a short-term exchange student and then not experiencing the Magic Potion Class that enjoys the highest prestige among the entire school… isn't that a wasted exchange trip?"
"Really?" Fleur was a little tempted. "I know you're being sarcastic, but I still want to know why you all hate Magic Potion Class so much. Is it because that Magic Potion teacher doesn't wash his hair?"
"He really doesn't wash it, but that's only a very small part of the reason." Harry shrugged. "I admit the smell of grease from his hair is pretty strong, but the scent of all sorts of Magic Potions brewing in class is enough to drown that out—the thing that really makes us suffer is his teaching style… Of course, bad-mouthing a professor behind his back isn't exactly noble behavior, so if you want to know what Magic Potion Class is really like, you'll have to experience it for yourself."
Only after he finished speaking did Harry remember Snape's almost law-of-causality-level sense of smell.
He looked back over his shoulder and saw no one there, and couldn't help sighing in relief.
Thank goodness, thank goodness I'm not Ron.
Otherwise, Snape would definitely have caught me on the spot.