Chapter 441 The Disappeared Fourth Person

Today's Black Lake is extremely safe, and the giant squid that used to be rumored in the castle legend has disappeared without a trace.

The only challenge the four warriors face are those little water monsters named Grindylow. Moreover, there seems to be a special restriction, they only entangle, do not harm. Today, even if a chicken is thrown down, those fierce little guys will not hurt it.

When wizards recite spells underwater, their magic can still be performed smoothly even though there is no sound. After several big bubbles appeared on the water surface, the four of them got rid of Grindylow's entanglement.

Twenty minutes later, Fleur was the first to find the source of the singing, a mermaid tribe made of stones.

Very different from the mermaids she read in storybooks, these mermaids had gray-white skin and messy hair like seaweed on the bottom of the sea. She quickly swam towards the village, and a group of mermaids curiously poked their heads out from their hiding places, looking at the uninvited guest.

"Look, mother, this witch is so beautiful," a little mermaid asked in a longing tone, "will I be so beautiful when I grow up?"

"Of course, dear," the mermaid mother replied gently, "as long as you are willing to enjoy the sun on the beach, you will become more beautiful."

They held primitive and sharp stone spears, looked at the warrior with kind eyes, and welcomed her arrival with songs.

However, in Fleur's eyes, their eyes looked like the cold and heartless butchers in the slaughterhouse.

She seemed a little hesitant, but soon realized that the mermaids were just singing and had no intention of attacking her. So she mustered up her courage and swam cautiously towards the center of the village.

In the village square, a mermaid statue carved from a huge stone stands. Its tail is raised high, with four...

Fleur's eyes were fixed there, and she was surprised to find that one of the wizards untied himself from the water plant and sat leisurely aside.

"Gabriel?" Fleur ignored the weird wizard and swam quickly towards her sister.

At this time, Gabrielle was sleeping deeply, her head hanging limply on her shoulders. She breathed softly, a string of tiny bubbles coming out of her nostrils.

Fleur tried hard to untie the weeds that tied Gabrielle, but the weeds were thick, slippery, and extremely tough. Just then, Sirius pulled a dagger from his boot and threw it to her with a smile.

In the shadow of the statue, the mermaids cast helpless looks. That wizard who can turn into a dog is so insidious and hateful!

At first, he pretended to be unconscious and was tied there like everyone else. However, when the cannon sounded, he immediately woke up, turned into a black dog, and easily escaped from the restraints.

Now, the game has begun, and the warriors are swimming here. Even if Dumbledore is notified now, the game cannot be suspended. The mermaids could only hope that each other would cooperate and stay there to be brought back to the surface by the warriors.

Fleur nodded to Sirius and cut the tough weeds with her dagger. She hugged Gabri tightly and made a gesture indicating that she wanted the dagger back.

"Insert it into the crack of the stone sculpture," Sirius said, gesturing for emphasis. He noticed a shadow approaching from above, and immediately waved his wand and whispered: "Phantom Spell."

Immediately, Sirius disappeared. As if he had never appeared, there were only three hostages here from beginning to end.

Fleur didn't understand what the other party was doing, but she still followed Sirius's instructions and inserted the dagger deeply into the gap in the stone sculpture.

Just then, Cedric and Harry Potter, with blisters on their heads, swam up at the same time. The two of them looked at Fleur and the little girl with silver hair in her arms, and secretly sighed in their hearts: "She swims really fast."

Not to be outdone, they swam towards the statue and found that there were only two people left for them to save: Cho Chang and the unknown witch from Beauxbatons.

"Could it be that Krum has rescued his target?" Harry and Cedric thought at the same time.

Fleur knew that this was a game and the length of time it took to save people would directly affect their score. She was like a fish, swinging her long legs gracefully and swimming quickly towards the lake.

Looking at their opponent's gradually blurring figure, Cedric and Harry hurriedly took action. But they conflicted over the choice of rescue targets.

"Get out of the way!" Cedric shouted, pulling a knife from his pocket. At the same time, he bumped Harry away hard with his shoulder.

Harry rushed over firmly, showing no fear when facing the shining knife in Cedric's hand.

A thought flashed through his mind at the same time. The knife that Sirius gave him for Christmas was locked in the box in the dormitory. He really wished he could carry it with him at this moment so that he could cut the weed rope easily.

"Cedric, why do you have a girlfriend and are still in contact with the witches of Beauxbatons?" Harry yelled angrily, pointing at the other hostage. Accusing: "That's the target you should save."

The bubbles and lake water separated the two people, so they couldn't hear each other's voice at all. But Cedric immediately understood what he meant by the angry expression on Harry's face and the movement of his fingers.

In his imagination, Harry was saying at this moment: "You should save that person, Qiu Zhang is mine." He seemed to be angry and laughed, with a fierce expression on his face.

Cedric waved the knife and forced Harry back who was trying to tear off the water plant rope: "Get out of the way, Harry, I don't want to hurt you!"

Suddenly, a huge creature was swimming towards them. That thing has a human body underneath, wearing swimming trunks, and a shark's head on top...

"Krum?" Harry exclaimed in surprise. Krum performed it for him when he was learning to swim. "I thought you had completed the challenge."

Krum couldn't hear him and just moved the shark's head back and forth, signaling the two to get out of the way. He recognized another unconscious girl as his partner at the dance. So he bit and pulled the rope with his teeth.

However, his new tooth structure is very strange, and it looks very awkward to bite hard. Just when Krum was at a loss, he keenly noticed the dagger stuck in the fish's tail.

Harry watched him cutting the weeds and said to himself: "This dagger feels so familiar."

Krum grabbed the witch's waist, looked back at Harry, and then quickly rose towards the water. Only then did Harry realize that he had just misunderstood Cedric.

"What should we do now?" Harry and Cedric looked at each other at the same time, silently speculating in their hearts: "Is our most important treasure the same person? Are they both Cho Chang?"

Cedric sneered, his guess was indeed correct, Harry had been harboring evil intentions towards his girlfriend. He clutched the dagger tightly, staring into Harry's eyes like burning furnaces.

If there weren't all mermaids around him, he would have rushed over immediately and shoved the knife into Harry's chest. The two people's eyes met in the lake, and an invisible spark seemed to be sparked.

"Qiu Zhang is my girlfriend, not yours!" Cedric shouted, raising his hand to cut the rope on Qiu Zhang's body.

Harry did nothing but watched Cedric cut the weeds and save Cho Chang. He watched helplessly as Cedric held the waist of the girl he liked and prepared to swim up.

An inexplicable chill surged from Harry's heart. It was colder than the cold wind on the top of the snow-capped mountains. He held the other arm and chose to abstain from both the game and the relationship.

Just when he was about to accept defeat, the dagger stuck in the sculpture suddenly bounced up and headed straight for Cedric.

"Careful!" Harry yelled and immediately pulled out his wand: "The dagger is coming."

The glow of the spell below caught Cedric's attention. He looked down and saw Harry holding his wand and dagger, looking up at him.

"Are you going to kill me?" Cedric screamed, and he immediately pulled out his wand, preparing to fight back.

Harry hurriedly threw away the dagger and tried to explain to the other party. He didn't mean to hurt Cedric, the dagger just moved on its own.

However, as soon as he opened his mouth, a curse came quickly from behind. The curse was hard and fast, flying directly over his shoulder and toward Cedric.

From Cedric's perspective, it seemed like Harry had cast a spell on himself. "Expelliarmus," he roared angrily.

The two spells collided violently, and the intensity of the spell below was far stronger than Cedric's. He watched helplessly as his spell was broken, and he watched "Harry's" spell attack him.

Cedric screamed desperately, "No!"

Everything happened in a flash, and when Harry realized there were people around him, Cedric was already sinking to the bottom like an overturned fish.

He hurriedly turned his head and looked around. Behind him were only the stone houses of the mermaid tribe and large areas of barren aquatic plants.

Merkus, the mermaid leader, swam quickly towards Cedric. After careful inspection, she found that Cedric had only lost consciousness and was not seriously injured, and she breathed a long sigh of relief.

"Harry Potter, the Stunning Charm you cast is really powerful." Merkus shouted to Harry, with a hint of urgency in her voice, "You have to hurry up. If you can't Return within an hour and your second challenge will end in failure.”

Harry shook his head eagerly, his voice full of defensive anxiety: "No, it wasn't me! There are other people here, and I didn't cast the fainting curse!"

His eyes drifted involuntarily to the dagger he had just discarded. It was shining with the light of conspiracy under the water.

A flash of lightning flashed through Harry's mind. He noticed the familiar decoration on the dagger, and suddenly thought of a person and a possibility.

He didn't hesitate and immediately swam towards the tail of the mermaid statue. Sure enough, he found four cut ropes, which undoubtedly proved that a third person was present.

At this moment, he understood that the third person was the target he wanted to save.

"Time is running out!" Merkus warned again, her voice full of urgency, urging Harry to speed up.

Harry knew there was no time to waste, so he picked up Cho Chang and Cedric and swam towards the water with all his strength. His muscles protested in agony, each stroke tearing his body apart. His head felt dizzy, as if he was still being exposed to the sun.

He gasped for air, eyes fixed on the increasingly bright water, and kept repeating in his heart: "Can't stop, can't stop!"

His determination was like an invisible force, pushing Harry upward. Suddenly, his head came out of the water and he felt the light.

For the first time, Harry felt deeply that the sunshine was so beautiful. He unlocked the head-soaking spell and swallowed the natural breath, as if he had never breathed so freely in his life.

The students of Hogwarts burst into loud applause and cheers, and the Gryffindor students screamed and jumped like little lions to cheer for their warriors.

At this moment, Qiu Zhang opened her eyes, with a hint of panic in her eyes. She looked around, her bright eyes blinking, trying to figure out her situation.

"Harry?" Cho Chang called, with a hint of uncertainty in her voice, "What's wrong with me? What's wrong with Cedric?"

Harry's heart was filled with joy when he heard that the first name she called out after waking up was his. But the smile faded from his face as Cho Chang broke away from him and went to check on Cedric.

"He was hit and passed out." Harry said in a low voice, and Qiu Zhang turned to look at him with suspicion.

Harry didn't want to explain too much and just dragged Cedric towards the shore.

"Quick, give them a blanket," Dumbledore shouted, smiling and patting Harry on the shoulder as an encouragement.

Harry looked into the kind and wise eyes of the headmaster and wanted to tell him that someone had escaped on his own. However, he was so tired that he didn't even have the strength to speak.

He took the blanket from Percy and wrapped it haphazardly around himself. Suddenly, a strong feeling of vomiting came from his throat. He immediately turned to the Black Lake and spat out the contents of his stomach.

"Madam Pomfrey, what's wrong with him?" Professor Lupine immediately shouted with concern.

"A normal reaction after strenuous exercise." Madam Pomfrey comforted softly while slowly pouring a bottle of hot potion into Harry's mouth. Her technique was skillful and gentle, and she had done this many times.

As the potion went down, a stream of steam came out of Harry's ears. The chill on his body quickly dissipated, and the color returned to his cheeks.

"Harry, thank you." Qiu Zhang came over and gently kissed him on the cheek.

Harry's face instantly felt as if it had been roasted by fire. Cho Chang's kiss had a more significant effect on him than Madam Pomfrey's potion.

"There is another person under the water." Harry finally took a breath and held Professor Lupin's arm tightly, his eyes showing eagerness and nervousness.

Professor Lupine nodded helplessly, with a hint of understanding in his voice: "I know, your godfather Sirius."

"He got the news from nowhere, and he knew about the task of the second competition at Christmas time." Professor Lupine seemed to see through the doubts in Harry's mind, and he answered affirmatively: "Yes, he did it on purpose. "