In the Harry Potter Without Harry Potter

Chapter 394: Under the Black Lake

All at once, the four of them were standing on the ice of the Black Lake.

Each of them was still wearing their thick robes, and there was still unmelted snow all around them, and the cold wind was blowing their hair.

Instead of standing together, the four stood apart, and Jon made no first move after making it to the ice, instead turning his head to look at Emil and the others.

Apparently, Emil and Draco had already exchanged words beforehand, and although the two were not standing together, their wands were aimed at the same patch of ice to cast the spell.

Only Emil was using a Smashing spell, while Draco was using a Severing Charm.

It was not that Draco didn't want to use the Smashing spell, but he was only in the fourth year, and he didn't know the advanced spell that only sixth-year students could learn yet.

With the combined efforts of the two of them, a crater appeared in the ice, but it hadn't quite broken through the lake yet.

After observing Emil's spell-casting, Jon didn't linger any longer. He turned his head and looked at Diane, then nodded and held his wand in both hands, aiming it at the ice five metres in front of him.

This strange grip on his wand attracted the attention of many in the audience, but then the next moment a loud blast shook everyone's ears!

"Confringo."

"Boom!"

A dazzling fire suddenly lit up in the direction that the tip of Jon's wand was aimed, from which a deafening boom caused the students who hadn't reacted at all for a moment to scream in fear.

The entire ice surface of the Black Lake trembled, and countless pieces of broken ice turned into shards like snowflakes in that impactful blast, flying around Jon.

Not only did the blasting curse blow right through the ice, but the icy lake water shot up into the sky, leaping perhaps two metres or more in height before finally splashing back down onto the cracked ice!

Draco and Emil who were at the closest distance to Jon and were destroying the ice with their spell before the explosion went off, almost fell to the ground from the sudden loud sound and impact that caught them both off guard.

It was a good thing that Jon's curse was not aimed at them, otherwise, there would have been no point in continuing this tournament, and Dumbledore would not have won either, as Jon would have seriously broken the blood pact Dumbledore had made.

Soon the reporters around the place reacted, pressing the shutter as fast as they could, as Jon's blasting curse would be a big mention in tomorrow's headlines.

After successfully breaking through the ice, Jon didn't stop, he immediately used the special bubble spell on himself that Rosier had taught him and Diane some time ago.

Immediately thereafter, his entire body was encased in a transparent bubble of water. This spell was an enhanced version of the Bubble-Head Charm and was similar to the relationship between the Protego Maxima and the Shield Charm, which went from encircling the head to being able to encase the whole body along with a slight protective effect.

Diane used the same spell as Jon, and then Jon leapt into the cold waters of the Black Lake, with Diane right behind him.

The two could breathe underwater with a bubble spell to ensure their breathing, and the shards of Ashwinder snake eggshell that they had prepared from the start would ensure that their body temperature would not drop due to the lake's waters.

Soon the lake was calm again, leaving only Draco and Emil to look at the large gaping hole in the ice that Jon had blown.

Emil stared at the ice hole that had returned to calm after Jon had jumped underwater with a torn look on his face, but in the end, he continued to use the Smashing spell on the unbroken ice crater without a second thought.

There were many students around who saw this scene, and Cedric was watching likewise.

He was actually thinking about how complicated the Triwizard Tournament was being designed to be, if the three tasks had been designed as three duels straight from the start, the tournament would have been over quickly and wouldn't have had to span a whole year.

"Why didn't Lestrange and Malfoy just go in through that hole in the ice that Green blasted out? And have to go through the trouble of making the hole themselves here?"

A student beside him asked the question in confusion.

Cedric said softly.

"Remember how Malfoy was eliminated on the first task? It's not that they didn't want to, but they were afraid that Green and Rosier would just stand guard underwater, waiting for them to jump in and then just attack and eliminate them both before they even started."

Cedric's answer answered the doubts of many around him, which made the half-blood students glance at each other, although they didn't say it outright due to the presence of their professor, they still felt a sense of shame.

Finally, through the efforts of Draco and Emil, they managed to open a piece of a hole that would allow them to enter the lake from there.

Without stopping, the two of them immediately ate the Gillyweed, then used what looked like some kind of spell on their bodies to keep them warm against the cold, and finally jumped into the cold waters of the Black Lake.

As they jumped in, they had a sense of relief for some reason. Neither of them was a very thick-skinned person, and having just had that stark comparison with Jon in full view of so many people, neither of them could stand the pressure.

As soon as they entered the water, it was obvious that the cold water was irritating their skin, but the cold repellent spell they had used beforehand soon had some effect, helping to keep the cold out and keep the heat in their bodies protected, allowing them to remain comfortable in the cold water as if it is warm even after they had taken off the heavy robes they were wearing.

Once in the water, Emil did not slacken off, raising his wand at first to keep an eye out in case that dastardly Jon had not yet gone far enough to ambush them near the hole they had made.

But in fact, Jon had no interest in ambushing them at all.

He had more than just a task on his plate in entering the Black Lake in such an open and honest manner, plus he had got enough of an advantage in the first task that he didn't really want to do anything to Emil and Draco.

After entering the lake with Diane, he gestured for the two to separate here and there, with Diane mainly going to try to finish the task, while Jon kept diving deep and straight towards the bottom of the lake.

The Black Lake was large and deep, the deepest point was probably forty or fifty metres from the surface, and it took Jon close to ten minutes to get his feet on the soft soil of the bottom.

He glanced around him, then identified the southwest direction, and proceeded to walk along the bottom of the lake in that direction.

Upon entering the lake, his first objective was to first check if there were any merpeople still present in this lake.

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