If that doesn't work, I'll just have to cast a Bubble-Head Charm on him myself. Honestly, if you don't care about appearances underwater, Gillyweed is much more useful than the Bubble-Head Charm.
“Okay, I'll try it when the competition starts.”
Knowing about Snape and his mom's history, Harry still had some faith in Snape. Although he always liked to target him, he was still trustworthy at crucial moments.
When Ron pierced him with a dark magic spell, although he was unconscious, he later heard from others that Snape was the first to rush up.
Hopefully, he can help me this time too!
Just then, Ludo Bagman came to the champions, with only five minutes left before the start of the competition.
He pointed his wand at his throat and said, "Sonorus!"
Ethan and Harry also quieted down.
“Listen up, everyone, our champions are in their positions. When I blow my whistle, the second task will begin.”
“They have a full hour to retrieve what was taken from them. Remember, only one hour.”
“I'll count to three, one… two… three!”
Chapter 273: Displaying Unique Abilities
The sharp whistle echoed in the cold, still air, and the stands erupted in cheers and applause.
As the whistle sounded, the champions took action, tearing off their cumbersome robes, revealing swimming attire underneath. Especially those Durmstrang girls, they were truly well-endowed and generous, developed beyond their seventeen or eighteen years.
This was a feast for the eyes of the audience in the stands, and some even started whistling.
But to their disappointment, Fleur showed no sign of generosity, not even taking off her shoes.
She simply raised her wand and pointed it in the direction of her school's students, shouting loudly:
“Accio potion!”
At the same time, a Durmstrang girl sitting in the front row of the stands released one of the three boxes she was holding.
Under the effect of the Summoning Charm, the wooden box bypassed the stage and landed directly in Fleur's hand.
Catching it steadily, Fleur eagerly opened the lid and unhesitatingly poured the two potions inside down her throat. Then, she placed the empty bottles back in the wooden box and put it on the ground.
After doing all this, she eagerly walked into the water, finding that her clothes were not wet and she felt no cold at all.
After casting a Bubble-Head Charm on herself, she immediately plunged into the dark depths of the Black Lake without hesitation.
Gabrielle was still waiting for her below. Every minute she waited was a torment for her, so Fleur was extremely anxious at this moment.
These two potions were prepared for her by Ethan.
One potion could repel water and also had some underwater breathing effect, but it was still better to add a Bubble-Head Charm. This potion was of the same type as the fire-resistant potion that Snape used to set a trap in the Philosopher's Stone challenge. The latter could avoid fire damage, even preventing clothes from catching fire. This waterproof potion was the same.
It was just that the prices of these two potions were relatively expensive, and the brewing process was also more complicated, which led to the rare use of this potion.
The second bottle had a warming effect, which was much more common and could be bought in any potion shop.
With Fleur taking the lead, the other two Durmstrang champions also showed no weakness and used cheating methods.
There was no way around it. Hogwarts' Harry Potter had taken the lead in using it, and he had also obtained the permission of the judges. There was no reason why he could cheat and they couldn't.
The Durmstrang girl who had just brought the potion to Fleur also released the remaining two wooden boxes in her hand.
Unlike Fleur, Hilda Donnahew and Hazel Goodwin first drank one of the potions as soon as they opened the wooden box, and then poured the second potion after going into the Black Lake in their swimsuits.
Because Fleur's relationship with them wasn't very good, there was no communication, and the two of them prepared their own potions.
It was seen that Hilda Donnahew and Hazel Goodwin, who were in the water, immediately twisted their bodies at the moment they poured down the potion, until their lower bodies completely turned into fish tails and their heads turned into fish heads.
Instantly, they went from well-endowed and generous goddesses to completely unappealing!
That's right, the second bottle was Polyjuice Potion, but different from the normal one, fish scales were added to it.
This was the method used by Hilda Donnahew and Hazel Goodwin to deal with the situation. After learning that the second competition venue was underwater, thanks to the reminder from their family, they prepared these two bottles of Polyjuice Potion.
Although Polyjuice Potion was not a teaching content in the school, it was not worth mentioning at all for those pure-blood nobles, and its function was naturally clear.
What they are using now is one of the side effects. As we all know, Polyjuice Potion can only add the hair or other parts of the wizard to achieve the perfect effect. If animal hair is added, after drinking it, it becomes neither human nor animal, but a failed beastman.
But this beastman also has certain animal characteristics.
Under normal circumstances, this would naturally not be the case.
But if this competition is underwater, having some of the characteristics of fish is naturally the most suitable.
Compared to Gillyweed, the effect of this Polyjuice Potion is much greater and also more expensive.
This is why the two of them have become such a strange appearance, fish head and fish tail, but with human arms, and the position from the belly to the chest is also normal white skin, without a trace of fish scales.
The two of them also did not care about their ugly appearance now. The competition was important. They immediately plunged into the lake and disappeared in front of everyone.
Krum glanced at these cheating guys with disdain, walked directly into the cold lake water, took out his wand and pointed it directly at himself.
In a burst of twisting, he turned into a monster with a human body below, wearing swimming trunks, and a shark's head above. This image is most suitable for appearing in horror movies.
Krum was not very satisfied with his image, because this was not a perfect transformation, but it was enough.
Immediately, there was a burst of applause on the field. Krum also had many fans. In addition, compared with the collective cheating of Durmstrang, even if his Transfiguration was not perfect, it made Krum's audience popularity much better.
The other two Durmstrang students also refused to show weakness and also cast Transfiguration on themselves, one with the lower body transformed into an octopus, and the other with a dolphin's head on the upper body.
It can only be said that the students of Durmstrang have a higher level of courage than Hogwarts. It is worthy of being a school that can teach Dark Arts.
If this were at Hogwarts, Professor McGonagall would be the first to disagree with her students performing animal transfiguration on themselves. Of course, they would not dare to do so in such a teaching environment.
So, only the three of Hogwarts were left on the scene.
Ethan also wanted to see how Harry and Ron would go into the water. Anyway, as long as he went down, even if the front runners started five minutes early, he could easily catch up.
Ron glanced at Ethan and Harry, confidently pointed his wand at his head and shouted loudly:
“Bubble-Head Charm!”
Immediately, a transparent bubble appeared on Ron's head. After coming to the lake, he glanced at Harry triumphantly and plunged into the water.
This charm was taught to Ron by his older brother Bill after Ron asked him through the Wizarding Wireless Network. He studied overtime for two days and finally learned it.
Watching this scene, Harry's face became exceptionally unsightly. He was the one who told Ron that the competition would be underwater, because Ron hadn't obtained the golden egg.
This was also for the sake of Hogwarts. If Ron could achieve a result in this competition, as long as it wasn't zero, with Ethan pulling up the score in front, it would still be possible to surpass Beauxbatons.
As a result, Ron found a way to go underwater, but he didn't tell Harry.
He was certain that Ron didn't know the Bubblehead Charm before. He must have learned it in the past two days. He and Harry were roommates, but Ron was unwilling to even study in the dormitory and ran outside to practice secretly, just to hide it from him.
Taking two deep breaths to calm himself down, Harry looked towards Snape's location.
"Gillyweed, come here!"
When pointing his wand at Snape, Harry's heart was also filled with tension.
Mainly because he was worried that Snape wasn't carrying Gillyweed, after all, a normal person wouldn't usually carry that kind of thing on them.
"He must have it, he must have it…" Harry stared fixedly at Snape's location, constantly chanting in his heart.
Until he saw a gray lump flying from Snape's direction at the forefront of the stands, Harry's excited heart finally calmed down.
When this lump of seaweed, resembling countless slippery gray rat tails, reached his hand, Harry ate it without hesitation, and immediately felt the muscles in his head seem to be moving.
"Ethan, I'm going down first."
After greeting Ethan, Harry went directly into the water. He had already entered later than the others, and now he couldn't delay any longer.
He didn't have Ethan's strength to catch up at any time.
At the same time, a trace of gratitude rose in his heart towards Snape. As expected, although he liked to target him in class on weekdays, he still cared about him at heart.
At this point, all the champions had entered the Black Lake, and Ethan then slowly stepped forward.
The little wizards in the stands not only did not blame Ethan for being arrogant and presumptuous, but instead burst into thunderous cheers, and many Hogwarts little wizards' faces were flushed red from shouting.
Arriving at the edge of the Black Lake, Ethan's entire body suddenly twisted, directly transforming into a black dragon only slightly smaller than the red dragon Ethan summoned in the first task.
Looking at this strangely shaped, skull-headed giant black dragon soaring into the sky, although they didn't understand what Ethan's intention was in turning into a black dragon in this competition, watching it be awesome was enough.
"Adrian!"
"Adrian!"
"Adrian!"
Amidst even more fervent cheers, the black dragon, soaring into the sky, directly retracted its wings and plunged towards the Black Lake.
Bang!
Accompanied by an explosive sound, a huge wave suddenly erupted on the calm surface of the lake.
Looking at the scene before him, Dumbledore couldn't help but stand up and wave the Elder Wand to calm the water surface.
If the waves were allowed to crash over later, although the audience was on the high platform, the spectators in the front row would inevitably be splashed by the cold lake water.
In this kind of weather, making them watch the competition shivering in the cold wind after being drenched by water was something Dumbledore couldn't bring himself to do.
What puzzled him was that this spell and the red dragon Ethan summoned earlier seemed to be from the same series.
But the former was a spell similar to summoning, while this one was more like human transfiguration.
Dumbledore, who was proficient in transfiguration, knew how difficult it was to transform into a magical creature through human transfiguration, especially a magical creature of the size and strength that Ethan had just displayed.
It was even hard to say whether this magical creature existed in the wizarding world, which made it even more difficult.
Could it be that he had underestimated Ethan's strength? Dumbledore couldn't help but fall into deep thought.
At the same time, he was also a little fortunate that he hadn't put Cassandra and the others into the bottom of the Black Lake to be imprisoned by the merpeople, otherwise, after today, it was uncertain whether the merpeople tribe would still exist in the Black Lake.
If it were Tyrrebutte, he probably wouldn't be so excessive!
Probably!
Dumbledore wasn't too sure either, and was also regretting why he had agreed to hold this damn Triwizard Tournament, which made him worry about every match.
But could this black dragon really go underwater?
As everyone knew, dragons breathed fire and lived on land. Even when catching fish, they wouldn't submerge their bodies in the water. Was it really okay to rush into the Black Lake like this?
It wasn't just Dumbledore who was thinking about this question, several judges and even the spectators on the high platform were also pondering this question.
That black dragon looked fierce enough, but when it came to going underwater, fish were still better!
According to the size of that black dragon, if it transformed into a super-giant shark, where would the other champions have any chance to compete?
Ethan, on the other hand, after rushing into the Black Lake, quickly swam in one direction.
He was now using his Animagus form. Originally, it was a five-headed dragon, but inspired by the success of separating the Patronus Charm into five, Ethan had also completed the modification of his Animagus form.
Dividing it into five was naturally impossible, but he could transform one of the five dragon heads. The strength was naturally not as strong as the five-headed dragon.
But in terms of operability and flexibility, the single-headed dragon was stronger.
The black dragon that was now transformed was itself living in the swamp area, so it naturally had corresponding abilities, namely, spitting out linear acid and breathing underwater.
Of course, there was also an ability to turn the water into corrosive water that was not suitable for living things, but Ethan had not used this ability.
Before long, Ethan arrived at his target. There were two strange creatures that looked like horses, but had no hind legs and whose manes looked like broad-leaved cattails.
However, when Ethan approached, their bodies trembled violently, looking like they wanted to escape but dared not move.
These two Kelpies were contacted by Ethan in advance, and he asked them to wait for him here.
Originally, Ethan had planned to use the Kelpies himself to rescue the hostages, but after thinking about it for a few days, he gave up. Since he wanted to show his strength, he would show it to the end, so Ethan planned to give these two Kelpies to Fleur.
However, directly handing them over wouldn't work either. This thing, as a XXXX-level magical creature, was also quite ferocious and had a habit of eating people. Fleur couldn't subdue them underwater.
Now that Ethan was in the form of a black dragon and released his pressure, ordering them, they would absolutely not dare to disobey.
Moreover, magical creatures of this level already had considerable intelligence and could definitely understand the orders perfectly.
"Follow!"
Hearing this somewhat familiar voice, the two Kelpies looked at each other, both seeing the surprise and uncertainty in the other's eyes.
But they didn't dare to disobey, and immediately turned into two arrows and followed behind Ethan's black dragon.
Chapter 274: A Contest of Luck
Hearing the rumbling sound coming from his ear, Krum, who was struggling to dive down, froze directly in place.
