The audience outside the stadium looked at the image on the old parchment. The movements of the five warriors were divided into five boxes, all of which were clearly visible.
"Harry wanted to use the Leaking Charm to attack the mermaid, but it looks like there were some problems with the spell's effectiveness in the water..." Bagman's attention had been focused on Harry, and he explained in a timely manner after seeing his actions.
Some viewers looked at the box where Harry was and saw that the tip of his wand did not emit the red beam that should have appeared. Instead, a lot of bubbles came out, and a stream of hot water touched the ugly mermaid.
When the water flow touched the mermaid, the mermaid did not show fatigue as it should have, but a few red spots appeared on her brown skin caused by the hot water, and it seemed that her movements were not affected.
"We all know that Potter, as the youngest warrior, has not yet experienced many courses. This is due to his lack of experience..." Bagman explained with a worried look on his face, "There is a difference between spells in water and in the air... Unless you are strong enough to be unaffected by water."
The picture on the parchment changed again—
Mermaids living in high latitudes almost always survive in cold water. Although they were not hurt by the hot water, they became furious.
He opened his mouth, and although the audience couldn't hear it, they could guess that he let out a series of sharp cries.
Then, more and more ugly brown-skinned mermaids holding steel forks gathered from all directions, driving a large group of Grindylows to surround Harry in the middle.
Without a miracle, it would be impossible for Harry to escape from this dense encirclement.
Gillyweed can only help him adapt to moving and breathing in water, but it cannot improve his combat capabilities in water.
Under such circumstances, a little wizard who is only in the fourth grade is obviously no match for the vicious mermaid who has lived in the water since childhood.
However, security officer Dracula, who was lazily floating over the Black Lake, had no intention of helping. He even had the leisure to stuff a bloody lollipop into his mouth and looked at the greatly expanded Hogwarts title deed with interest.
Not only did Dracula look nonchalant, but the other audience members also seemed to not care about Harry's condition at all... In fact, their attention was focused on another box, and they basically didn't see what happened to Harry -
There was a figure riding a majestic horse-shaped water monster, and it was really like riding the wind and waves in the water of the Black Lake, shuttling back and forth underwater at a high speed.
Such a magical sight was so cool that the little wizards all looked at it with envy, imagining that they also had the opportunity to ride on such a cool magical animal and stand out under the gaze of everyone.
Now in the entire stadium, only Bagman and Harry's Gryffindor friends were worried about Harry who was surrounded.
"Professor, Harry is about to be attacked by a merman, aren't you going to help him?"
Hermione and Ron happened to be sitting near where Dracula was floating in the air, and Hermione was anxiously looking up and shouting to Dracula.
"Don't worry, it's not time for me to take action yet." Dracula took the bloody lollipop out of his mouth and said to the little witch in the audience.
"But… "
"Can't you see that Potter is no longer alone anytime soon?" said Dracula.
He raised his chin toward the other box on the deed side.
Hermione and Ron looked over and found that two originally distinct squares suddenly trembled, and then the two squares overlapped in an instant, forming a larger square.
"That's... John Kowalski!" Ron screamed.
The deed showed a scene in which the coolest warrior in the audience, John Kowalski, rode a horse-shaped water monster, broke through the waves, and forcefully rushed into the group of mermaids surrounding Harry.
The ugly brown-skinned mermaid was blown away by the waves raised by the horse-shaped water monster, and the man and the horse were thrown upside down... or rather, the mermaid was thrown upside down, and in the blink of an eye, a big hole was opened in this unbreakable encirclement.
John rode the horse-shaped water monster quickly to Harry's side, pulled him onto the saddle-shaped back of the water monster, and then rushed out of the encirclement of mermaids again.
As a 4X-rated magical animal known for its water ability, the Kelpie certainly swam much faster than the mermaid. In a blink of an eye, they escaped from the mermaid's pursuit, leaving only the sharp, piercing mermaid's angry screams lingering behind them for a long time...
After completely getting rid of the mermaid, John let Harry down from the back of the Kelpie.
Neither of them had a normal conversation in the water, so John just glanced at Harry, made a few gestures, and then gave him a thumbs-up.
Harry understood what John meant.
Because Cedric had the same expression when he gave him the herbal book containing the gillyweed last night.
John also owed Harry a favor by telling him the content of the first project, and helping him today was to repay that favor.
Seeing that Harry understood what he meant, John smiled and nodded, then rode on the water monster like the wind and went looking for the "treasure" mentioned in the golden egg hint.
Harry stood there for a moment, then he started laughing too.
His seemingly foolish act of "aiding the enemy" in the first game saved his second event.
I can only say that there are still many good people!
…
Harry smiled knowingly underwater, but the situation on the surface did not seem peaceful.
"Professor Hicks, what exactly do you mean by champions?" Karkaroff stood up from the judges' seat again and asked angrily, "Are you Yin Famori planning to form an alliance with Hogwarts to suppress us Durmstrang and Beauxbatons?!"
Their previous conflict had only just been suppressed by Dumbledore and Bagman.
At that time, thanks to Percy finding the rule that warriors can use any objects in the competition venue to help themselves in the game, Karkaroff had no reason to continue making trouble.
But he had just calmed down for a few minutes when he couldn't help but start to scold again when he saw the two warriors joining forces.
"I don't quite understand, Professor Karkaroff, do you have paranoia?" Professor Hicks was not someone who could be easily dealt with, and he stabbed back without giving in, "Is there anything wrong with a kind person helping others when he sees them in danger?"
"We don't want to, and there's no need to, spend time and effort targeting you, Durmstrang!"
"But this is a competition, not an ordinary day." Karkaroff was furious and shouted, "He is helping his competitors. This is unfair to Kowalski himself and the other warriors!"
"If you have enough personal charm, you can also let other warriors voluntarily help your warriors instead of standing here like a clown." Professor Hicks looked at him contemptuously and shook his head casually.
"You... you are insulting a referee!" Karkaroff's face turned red with anger, and his right hand kept twitching, as if he was forcibly enduring not to draw out his wand and cast the spell.
Or, if he could have fought, he would have drawn his wand long ago.
But Professor Hicks is a well-known master of spells. She was a well-deserved first-tier combat force in the global wizarding war against Grindelwald decades ago. She is not a good person like Dumbledore, so Karkaroff is really afraid of her.
"I'm also a referee, Karkaroff." Looking at Karkaroff's expression, Professor Hicks smiled faintly and corrected him, "In my opinion, we just had different opinions on the players' judgments, and we had some friendly conflicts."
Seeing that Karkaroff's face was about to get darker, Bagman, as the only official from the Ministry of Magic present, quickly stepped forward to smooth things over between the two of them.
"Professor Hicks, Professor Karkaroff, it is normal for two referees to have conflicting opinions," he said, "but there is really no need for you to argue..."
"Including the incident of riding the water horse monster before, since Harry and Mr. Kowalski did not break the rules, we cannot punish those two warriors;"
"Similarly, since Mr. Karkaroff believes that their actions are unfair to other warriors, why not reflect this in the scores? That would be more meaningful, right?"
Bagman wiped the sweat off his forehead, feeling that all his emotional intelligence in this life had been used today.
Karkaroff snorted coldly and sat back in his chair, which was regarded as his approval of Bagman's statement.
It can be imagined that he will severely suppress the scores of other contestants in this game...
In the audience seats not far away, the young wizards had no idea that a fight almost broke out on the referee's side. They were still looking at the huge old parchment with great interest, carefully watching the wonderful operations of the five warriors in the lake.
Of course, the most eye-catching one is still John riding a horse-shaped water monster.
Before the other warriors had swum far, he had already ridden the water monster across a large area of the Black Lake.
"That's strange, why didn't I see Rolf coming to watch the game? I was waiting to ask him for details about the handsome water monster his cousin was riding!"
In the audience of Hufflepuff House, Justin Finch-Fletchley, a Muggle-born from the same class as Rolf and Harry, looked around and said with some disappointment.
"Yes, this game is so interesting, it would be a shame if Rove didn't come." Susan Bones nodded in agreement.
"Maybe Rolf has moved to another college?" Ernie Macmillan guessed, "Hasn't he always been hanging out with that crazy girl from Ravenclaw?"
Just as the Hufflepuff wizards were constantly guessing, a voice suddenly sounded in their ears:
"Don't guess, he has other more important tasks today."
Ernie, Susan, and Justin all turned their heads and saw Dracula's iconic silver hair and black and red cape.
"Professor Dracula, you finally wandered over here?" Susan said in surprise. "We were just wondering, you've almost floated around the stadium, why haven't you come to Hufflepuff yet!"
The corners of Dracula's mouth twitched. He felt that it was a bit unpleasant for the little witch to use words like "swaying" and "floating" to describe herself, but he couldn't find anything worth refuting.
Fortunately, Ernie McMillan on the side quickly changed the subject, so Dracula didn't have to worry about how to refute Susan's description.
"Professor, did you just say that Rolf has other more important tasks?" Ernie asked. "What tasks could he have? It's not like he's going to tame another Kelpie, is it?"
"That's not the case." Dracula looked at the picture on the deed, smiled and shook his head, "But judging from Kowalski's progress, you should be able to find out soon."
On the deed, the large square formed by Harry and John split into two again.
At present, John is still far ahead, riding on the horse-shaped water monster and searching everywhere.
Among the other four warriors, Harry's progress was the fastest.
On the one hand, the effect of the gill grass was indeed good. He carefully avoided the search of the mermaids in the lake and swam quickly with his palms and flippers that were adapted to the aquatic environment.
On the other hand, when Harry was rescued by John, he also took a ride on the Kelpie and traveled for quite a distance, thus creating a large gap between him and the other three.
Judging from the exploration progress, the remaining three warriors are: Krum, who turned into a shark head and has excellent water skills, and the fastest progress; Cedric, who combined the Bubble Head Charm with human body transformation, is second; Fleur, who only used the Bubble Head Charm, is at the end.
Furong's swimming skills are actually not worse than Krum's. In addition, her body is slender and the resistance she encounters is extremely small, and her maximum speed is even faster than Krum's.
But after all, she was not a student of Durmstrang, a school built at a higher latitude. She could not adapt to cold water as well as Krum. The cold lake water in February greatly reduced her body functions and she was unable to perform at her full strength.
Seeing another group of mermaids surrounding Hibiscus, whose progress was slow, Justin Finch-Fletchley, who was nervously watching the deed screen, became a little anxious.
"Why are there these ugly mermaids again? They are so hateful!" he said indignantly, "and these mermaids simply ruined all my fantasies about mermaids, wuwu..."
"Oh?" Dracula became interested. "What kind of fantasy can you have about mermaids?"
"I used to think that mermaids were the kind in fairy tales—the kind with long hair and a nice body," Justin murmured sadly.
"But the mermaids in the Black Lake here at Hogwarts are not beautiful at all—iron-gray skin, shaggy hair, incomplete teeth..."
"Sure enough, fairy tales are all lies!"
…
…