Professor Vampire.

Chapter 272: Black Lake

"Hasn't Harry come yet?"

Bagman looked at his watch and asked worriedly at the semi-finals.

"There's only one minute left before the game starts, Dumbledore. The warriors of your school don't seem to be very willing to keep the game time." Karkaroff said coldly.

"Don't worry, Professor Karkaroff, the game hasn't officially started yet, has it?" Dumbledore responded calmly.

"But the other warriors are ready, and now everyone is waiting for him alone!" Karkaroff said unwillingly.

Just then, Harry, Ron and Hermione rushed over from the direction of the castle, panting.

Ron and Hermione ran to the audience seats, while Harry ran straight to the lakeside where the other warriors were, holding his knees with both hands, breathing heavily.

"I... I'm not late, am I?" Harry asked with a chuckle.

"Where have you been?" A domineering voice suddenly rang out, "The competition is about to start!"

Harry turned his head while panting and saw Percy Weiss sitting at the referee's table. Mr. Crouch's position - Mr. Crouch was unable to attend the competition, so Percy, a young assistant, made an exception and became a judge for the semi-finals.

Although Percy's voice and tone sounded a bit domineering and dissatisfied, it also interrupted Karkaroff's next attack on Harry.

"Okay, okay, Percy!" Ludo Bagman waved his hand and called Percy, "Let him take a breath!"

When he saw Harry, it seemed that a stone in his heart fell to the ground. A smile first appeared at the corner of his mouth, but then he became a little worried.

He was worried that Harry rushed to the scene in such a hurry, whether he was not prepared or did not take the game seriously enough...

In fact, Harry and the other two took this game very seriously.

They specially asked Fred and George for help yesterday, and arranged a fireworks show for Snape that seemed particularly logical. By the way, they used dung eggs to baptize the Slytherin students' lounge, successfully attracting Snape's attention and even leading him from the underground to the eighth floor.

However, Snape has been against students for so many years, and his title of "score crusher" is not in vain.

Although Snape did not catch Fred and George on the eighth floor of the castle, he soon saw through his plan and realized that the two troublemakers suddenly made such a big move today, and they must have other intentions.

So he rushed down from the eighth floor and returned to his office at a very fast speed.

Fortunately, Harry, Ron and Hermione had found the sacgrass before he rushed down, and left the potion storage room in time.

They thought that Snape would not find it so easily if they just took a sacgrass from the potion collection.

However, Snape was so mad that day that he rushed out of the potion storage room angrily and rushed to the height to block the door of the Gryffindor common room, muttering some inexplicable words:

"Lacewings, African tree snake skin, two-horned beast feet... I knew that someone had been entering my storage room during this period, and that person must be making polyjuice potion... It must be you, Potter..."

The matter concerned his own potion materials, and Snape was surprisingly patient and waited outside the Gryffindor common room until dawn.

As a warrior, Harry did not dare to return to his own common room. He could only wear the invisibility cloak and accompany Snape outside the door to endure the cold and hunger, but he could not go back to the dormitory to get his own preparations.

Because of this, Harry did not arrive at the venue until less than a minute before the start of the game.

...

In the referee's seat, Dumbledore and Professor Hicks smiled at Harry. Although Percy looked a little dissatisfied, the expression in his eyes was also relaxed about Harry's arrival. But Karkaroff and Ms. Maxim seemed unhappy to see him... From the expressions on their faces, they obviously thought he would not show up.

It seemed inconvenient to pick on a fourteen-year-old child, so Ms. Maxim turned her attention to Dracula -

"Mr. Security Officer, I think you should have understood that today's game is held in the water." She said, "We can't see the specific content of the game at all, and the warriors have little chance to send out a distress signal... So I wonder, how can you find the right opportunity to save the warriors from danger?"

Dracula was suddenly mentioned, and looked at Ms. Maxim with some surprise.

Then, he said casually, "It's not that I can't see it, but I'm not ready yet."

"Prepare?"

"Indeed, if you can solve something with a little preparation, why think so complicated?" Dracula said casually, "Look-"

I saw an old parchment flying out of Dracula's pocket, and Dracula waved his hand, letting the parchment go to the Black Lake.

Under the perspective of Dracula's light, countless magic nodes gathered together and continued to extend to the bottom of the Black Lake.

The Hogwarts title deed suddenly rendered a patch of gloomy colors, which were the fragmented light from the depths of the Black Lake.

The parchment suddenly expanded and grew larger, gradually filling the entire stadium in the shocked and astonished eyes of the audience.

Then, Dracula waved his magic hand and placed the parchment on the side of the stadium where all the audience could easily see it, forming it into a huge projection, playing the situation under the Black Lake in real time.

"Do you still want to question me now, Ms. Maxim?" Dracula looked at her with a smile and said.

Ms. Maxim and Karkaroff sighed deeply at the same time.

They felt that the chance of overthrowing Hogwarts was getting slimmer and slimmer.

...

On the field, Ludo Bagman had come to the warriors and told them to line up on the shore, with each person ten feet apart.

Harry was the last one in line, next to Krum. Krum was wearing a pair of swimming trunks and was shirtless. He had already taken out his wand and was ready.

"How is it, Harry?" Bagman led Harry a few steps forward, avoiding Krum, and asked in a low voice, "Do you know what you have to do?"

"I know." Harry panted, while clutching the chinweed in his pocket.

This was his lifeline.

"Very good, I wish you success, Harry." Bagman squeezed Harry's shoulder hard and turned back to the referee's table.

He pointed his wand at his throat, just like in the Quidditch World Cup final, and said, "Loud voice!" Then his voice was like thunder, passing over the dark lake and reaching the stands.

"Listen up, everyone. Our warriors are in position. I'll blow the whistle and the second task will begin. They have a full hour to take back what was taken from them. I'll count to three. One... two... three!"

The sharp whistle echoed in the cold, still air. Cheers and applause broke out from the stands.

Krum first used a crude human transformation to turn his head into a giant shark, and then took the lead in jumping into the Black Lake in February, which had not yet entered spring, wearing swimming trunks.

"Oh? A very clever human transformation. I didn't expect Mr. Krum's level of transformation is not inferior to his flying ability!" Bagman said admiringly, "I heard that Durmstrang students are very resistant to cold and can swim in the water in winter, so there is no problem with his choice to jump directly into the cold water."

Fleur cast a head-bubbling spell on herself, and then also fell into the lake gracefully with a slender figure.

Harry looked at Cedric, who was helping him with the project, and found that he had also chosen the Bubblehead Charm, but he also used partial body transformation to make his hands and feet more suitable for swimming.

Harry didn't have time to watch what the other warriors were doing. He just took off his shoes and socks in a few seconds, took out the gillyweed from his pocket, stuffed it into his mouth, and waded into the lake.

The lake water in February had just thawed, and it was freezing cold. The skin on his legs felt hot and painful, as if it was on fire.

The further he walked, the deeper the lake became, and his soaked robe fell heavily. Now the lake water was above his knees, and his two rapidly numb feet stepped on the mud and slippery, sticky stones, and kept slipping.

He chewed the gillyweed quickly and hard, which didn't feel good. It was tough and slippery, like an octopus's tentacles. He paused in waist-deep water, swallowed the gillyweed, and waited for a miracle.

Then, quite suddenly, Harry felt as if an invisible pillow was pressing down on his mouth and nose. When he inhaled, his head was spinning. His lungs were empty, and there was a sudden sharp pain on both sides of his neck -

Harry quickly grabbed his throat with both hands and felt two narrow cracks under his ears, opening and closing in the cold air... He had gills!

He did not hesitate and took the only reasonable action - he dived into the water.

Taking the first sip of cold lake water was like getting the oxygen needed for life.

His head stopped spinning, so he took another deep sip of lake water and felt the water flowing smoothly through his gills, delivering oxygen to his brain.

He stretched his hands out in front of him and looked at them carefully. They looked a little green under the water, which was very strange, and there were webs connecting the fingers and toes, as if his feet had suddenly become duck webs.

At the same time, the water was no longer freezing cold... On the contrary, he felt very cool, very comfortable, and his body became very light.

Harry continued to paddle forward, and he was pleasantly surprised to find that his two webbed feet could enable him to move faster in the water than on land. He also found that he could see clearly without blinking his eyes.

Soon, he swam far away and then dived deep into the bottom of the lake.

There seemed to be a cheer from the audience in the distance, and Harry raised the corners of his mouth in relief in the water.

...

In fact, those enthusiastic cheers and screams were not for Harry.

In addition to Harry, Krum, Fleur and Cedric, John, who was also a warrior, seemed particularly unhurried.

He stood lightly on the shore, picked up a green leaf in his hand, and gently put it to his mouth.

"Woo-woo-"

A strange and melodious blowing sound came from John's mouth.

The next moment, the water of the Black Lake seemed to be boiling, countless bubbles emerged from the water, and a large number of ripples appeared on the originally calm lake surface.

"Splash!"

A loud sound of water rang out.

Along with the water splashing all over the sky, a large water monster that looked like a horse and covered with broad-leaved cattails as mane suddenly emerged from the lake and landed in front of John, shaking quietly.

"That's... that's..." Bagman, the commentator, was so surprised that he couldn't speak clearly, "It seems to be a horse-shaped water monster!"

Seeing John grabbing the "mane" of the horse-shaped water monster and stepping on the back of the water monster, as if he was ready to ride such a powerful magical animal into the lake, the referee seat couldn't sit still.

"This is a 4X-level magical animal. The warriors will never ride such a monster that destroys the balance to participate in the competition!" Karkaroff jumped up and protested loudly.

Ms. Maxim also stood up angrily.

"Isn't this a blatant use of external objects?" She said loudly, "I don't agree with him participating in the competition in this way!"

"John can tame the magical animals in the competition venue. Isn't this his own strength?"

Professor Hicks also stood up and confronted the two headmasters of Beauxbatons and Durmstrang.

...

Harry had no idea what was happening in the referee's seat.

Under the reflection of the Hogwarts title deed, the audience saw that Harry had begun to swim in a dark and hazy strange scenery.

Harry's ears were silent. He could only see the scene within a radius of ten feet, so every time he paddled in the water, a new scene suddenly emerged from the darkness in front: a jungle of undulating and tangled black water plants, and a wide and flat muddy sand scattered with shiny pebbles. He swam deeper and deeper, moving towards the center of the lake. His eyes were wide open, looking through the gray, strange waters, at the shadows in the distance, where the waters were dark and hazy.

He looked far ahead, and there was a patch of green waterweed, two feet deep, like a very dense lawn. Harry stared ahead without blinking, trying to identify the shapes in the shadows... Just then, without any warning, something grabbed his ankle.

Harry twisted his body and saw a grindylow - a water monster with horns on its head.

The grindylow poked its body out of the waterweed, its long nails tightly grasping Harry's legs, and its mouth showing long pointed teeth.

Behind the water monster followed an ugly brown-skinned mermaid... It was this mermaid who was driving the grindylows and other water monsters to attack Harry.

Harry quickly reached his webbed hand into his robes and touched his wand.

But just as he grabbed the wand, two more grindylows emerged from the weeds, grabbed Harry by his robes, and tried to pull him down.

"Relashio!"