Chapter 295: Winning the Award
Awards were presented one by one, quickly reaching the final two.
The second-to-last award was the Lifetime Achievement Award, won by an elderly French wizard. He looked very old, walking unsteadily, and he was able to receive the Lifetime Achievement Award because he had won the Best International Paper Award three times and the Best Innovation Paper Award once.
Director of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement Amelia Bones presented the award to him.
Along with the Lifetime Achievement Award, he was also presented with a third-class Order of Merlin badge from the British Ministry of Magic.
The elderly wizard walked down from the podium with others' help and returned to his seat.
At this moment, everyone looked toward the stage, knowing that the highlight of this awards ceremony was finally coming!
The Best Paper Golden Cauldron Award!
"Next, we will present the final and most prestigious award of this Golden Cauldron Awards ceremony. The Best Paper Golden Cauldron Award!
The nominees are as follows!"
The Best Paper Golden Cauldron Award also had four nominees.
When the first two nominees appeared, everyone applauded quite warmly. When the third nominee appeared, the applause became even more enthusiastic, because the third nominee was Damocles Belby!
At this moment, some people were already convinced that this year's Best Paper Golden Cauldron Award should belong to Damocles.
It was precisely at this time that the fourth nominee's image appeared on the magical screen on stage.
Seeing the fourth nominee, the audience who had just been noisy with enthusiastic applause eerily fell silent, then Gavin and Elena were the first to applaud, followed by Snape, then Dumbledore, and finally the entire venue erupted in thunderous applause. They were witnessing history. A fourth-year Hogwarts student, a newcomer who had only begun submitting papers three years ago, had become a nominee for the biggest award, the Best Paper Golden Cauldron Award, at his first Golden Cauldron Awards ceremony, and might even win this ultimate grand prize!
The Golden Cauldron Awards ceremony committee obviously knew the power of building suspense.
The host actually fell silent at this moment, waiting for the applause to end.
When the applause and commotion finally quieted down, the host opened the envelope in her hands. She looked at the winner's name inside but didn't immediately announce it. Instead, she exclaimed in amazement to the audience: "I must say, this result really surprised me, and I'm sure it surprised everyone."
The host scanned the crowd, and at this moment the magical screen very cooperatively projected live images of the nominees onto the stage. The four nominees showed various reactions. Some nervous, some composed, some expressionless, but they all had one thing in common: they were all staring at the host on stage, waiting for her to reveal the final winner.
"Now, I will reveal the final winner. The winner is..." The female host paused again, greatly irritating some audience members who wished they could draw their wands and hit her with an Avada Kedavra. Realising she'd tortured the audience enough, the host finally declared: 'The winner of this Best Paper Golden Cauldron Award is... Damocles Belby!'"
Damocles Belby!"
As soon as Damocles' name was spoken, applause immediately rang out.
Hearing this name, Elena immediately frowned and was about to say something to Gavin, but saw that Gavin still maintained his mysterious demeanour.
It was precisely at this moment that the voice of the suspense-building female host, amplified by loudness-enhancing magic, rang out again.
"And Sean Bulstrode!
Congratulations to both of you! Congratulations to Master Damocles and Master Sean for their contributions to solving the problem of werewolf wizards losing reason and self-awareness during transformation. You have jointly won the Best Paper Golden Cauldron Award at this Golden Cauldron Awards ceremony. Congratulations!"
BOOM!
Deafening applause erupted.
Wizards stood up one after another, applauding and cheering for Damocles and Sean.
Elena looked at Sean with slightly red eyes, also standing up to applaud vigorously, while Gavin and Snape successively patted Sean's shoulder, indicating he should go on stage to accept the award.
Rather than feeling elated, Sean found himself amused that the magical world could produce something as mundane as a 'double yolk egg' result—and that he'd been lucky enough to benefit from it.
Of course, judging from the audience's reaction, they completely accepted this double yolk egg. After all, in their view, both Damocles and Sean had sufficient reasons to win the award. They would have been very uncomfortable if either one hadn't won. Like left and right hands, they simply couldn't do without either one.
This Golden Cauldron Awards ceremony's double yolk egg could be said to completely satisfy their needs. Not only did they not oppose or reject the double yolk egg, they were happy to see it happen.
Letting out a soft breath, Sean stood up, slightly adjusted his clothes, then walked onto the stage and stood together with Damocles, who had already arrived on stage.
"I'm honoured to win this award together with you, Sean."
Turning to look at Damocles, who wore a smile and looked genuinely sincere, Sean also smiled and nodded: "I'm also very honoured. In all honesty, my receiving this award is really a case of standing on the shoulders of a giant like yourself."
"No, your winning this award is your own achievement and doesn't really have much to do with me."
The person presenting awards to Sean and Damocles was Dumbledore. This was quite reasonable. As Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot and presenter of the biggest award at the Golden Cauldron Awards ceremony hosted by the Wizengamot, it was natural.
Unlike the square medals of other awards.
The Best Paper Golden Cauldron Award trophy was a palm-sized pure gold cauldron.
After successively handing the two trophies to Damocles and Sean, Dumbledore said a few simple words to Damocles, then looked at Sean and said quietly: "Being able to personally present this award to a student from my own school is also a very honourable thing for me. Congratulations and thank you, Sean."
"You're too kind, Professor Dumbledore."
"Well, accept the glory that belongs to you. This old man won't disturb you."
At this point, Dumbledore winked at Sean, then turned to take two medals from a tray held by another attendant and successively pinned them on Damocles' and Sean's chests.
At this moment, the host spoke again: "In recognition of both gentlemen's help to werewolf wizards and their contributions to the Ministry's werewolf affairs, we hereby present the Order of Merlin, Second Class, as encouragement!"