Chapter 435 The Second Task Begins

On February 24, when Felix just had his breakfast, he was called over by Professor McGonagall.

"Isn't there still sometime before the tournament?"

"Mr. Bagman wants to see you about the Champions' arrangement ... they are waiting." Professor McGonagall said hurriedly.

They went to the room next door to the great hall, where the Champions are waiting, the same place where they stayed the night the Goblet of Fire spat out the list a few months ago.

When they entered the room, Ludo Bagman was anxiously circled the room, looking distracted. Dumbledore whispered something to him, but it did not seem to have eased his worries.

When he saw Felix, Bagman's eyes lit up, and he quickly walked over to him. "You're finally here, Felix, the minister will be bringing quite a few guests this morning, and you know about Barty, he ... alas, in short, things have fallen into my lap now."

Felix looked at the six groups of champions who are seated in the room, and they are looking at Ludo Bagman with distrust in their eyes.

"Ahem! Let's get started, I've collected their wands individually." Bagman wiped the sweat off his round face and urged, pointing at a table where a dozen wands laid serenely on a black velvet cloth.

Felix didn't look bothered, as he just cautioned him, "You'd better stay away ..."

"Oh, what? Okay." Bagman ran away in a flash and hid in the doorway of the room, staring back with probing eyes.

Felix looked at Dumbledore, when that old man nodded, "Felix, I'm curious about this magic as well."

"All right." Felix said, as he turned to the crowd, whose expressions grew more and more restless.

"Professor, what do we need to do?" Cedric asked, "Aren't we looking for something in the Black Lake?"

The other Champions had the same expression on their faces, they had long ago decoded the clue from the golden egg and made a sound guess, but things seemed to be a little different from what they had expected.

"That's true," Felix smiled, while a colorless and transparent spherical vortex coalesced in his hand, with blue magic like bright stars circled around it, "but it would be too easy if it's just about finding something, so the Ministry of Magic has added some difficulty ..."

" Added what?" Nona Leibert asked, clasping her shoulders. She and her two teammates were the least dressed of all the champions, as they had all changed into thin, light animal skin clothing to reduce the resistance from the water.

Felix shrugged, "You'll see."

From the colorless transparent spherical vortex a strong suction came out, as a floating silk-like blue magic expanded wildly, the nearest Cedric rushed towards the vortex uncontrollably, he was taken aback, "Professor-"

Felix nodded slightly at him, thus Cedric stopped struggling and dove headfirst into the vortex. His two teammates also dived in.

After a few exaggerated screams, only Felix and Dumbledore remained in the room.

Felix held the spherical vortex up, Dumbledore bent close to survey the dozen people in the vortex, and with a look of admiration, he said: "How interesting, you used this magic to catch hundreds of dementors? Too bad I didn't see it with my own eyes ..."

"It was extermination, Headmaster Dumbledore." Felix said emphatically.

Dumbledore looked unconcerned and smiled slightly as he said cheerfully, "The next step is nothing more than randomly placing the champions into the Black Lake, oh yes, and their wands."

"I hope they're not too surprised when they wake up."

...

"Thud - thud -"

Harry drowsily rose from the ground, the effects of Professor Hap's magic still lingered, he felt a little dizzy for a while, and he stood up in a daze. In the dim light, he looked twice at the wooden stick erected on the ground and inexplicably felt a little familiar.

"Thud--"

Another sound of impact, Harry suddenly realized that he was awakened by this sound, he jerked back, while his right hand went into his pocket to retrieve his wand, but it was empty, he did not have time to worry about the whereabouts of his wand, there are more urgent issues to deal with.

A huge monster with a spherical body kept hitting the ... protective shield in front of him? Harry found it mind-boggling, a dozen feet of space around him seemed to have been protected by an upside-down bowl, not a drop of water seeped in, the light he saw was emitted by this protective shield, and the more distant scene, he was by no means unfamiliar with it, it was green algae black rocks which are unique to the Black Lake.

He did not have time to think about it, as he took a few steps back, his eyes fixed on the monster - it looked at least ten feet tall, with round brown eyes gleaming with cruel light (?) He could barely make out something through the hazy bright light, the colourful pattern on its body, and the long fins that grew on either side of its body which curved out with sharp edges...

Wait, are these fins?

Harry watched in bewilderment as the creature raised its fins, and moved a few steps back with a comical step, then stomped violently, which caused a large amount of muddy sand to rise, and then it rushed forward as if like an arrow, and slammed head-on into the thin protective shield with an aggressive "thud".

Harry swallowed a mouthful of saliva, no matter how he looked at it, it seemed to him that he had seen this creature somewhere, if it shrunk a dozen times, it looked very much like the patterned globe fish he had seen in the Black Lake ...

That is a kind of patterned globe-shaped aquatic magical creature, the biggest difference between normal fish and the patterned globe fish is that the body of the latter has two long legs with webbed feet, which can help them walk underwater as well as move quickly in the water.

This magical creature generally inhabits in deepwater lakes, roaming the bottom of the lake in search of food, its favourite is water snails.

He, Ron, and Hermione found this creature when they wandered the Black Lake, Hermione told him that the merpeople don't like this patterned globe fish that much, once they are spotted, the merpeople will tie their thin, strong legs into a knot, after that they will flick them away with their tail. These patterned globe fish that were bound by their own legs had to go with the flow of water until the knot was untied on their own, and this process could last for hours.

The creatures are not seen in the vicinity of the merpeople. Harry had at least a rough guess of where he was.

"Did the professor cast a spell to make the creatures in the Black Lake bigger?" Harry muttered, then he suddenly thought of something and jerked back, so fast he almost twisted his neck. Harry rubbed the painful neck, but his eyes stared unblinkingly at the wooden stick erected in the center of the protective shield, it was half stuck in the muddy sand, the only part which revealed looked polished and smooth, which looked a bit familiar to Harry until now ...

But now he is quite sure that it is not any wooden stick, but his own wand. Harry's brain seems to have rusted, and it took a while to realize the fact that it was not the patterned globe fish that had gotten bigger, but he himself had shrunk down, by more than a dozen times.

The professor had used that weird magic of his that can suck people and dementors in! Everything that happened in the next room of the great hall came back to his mind, leaving Harry's mind in turmoil. He stared at several transparent snail shells near his wand once again, and well, he almost understood why the patterned globe fish was pouncing on him.

...

On the shore of the Black Lake, in the makeshift booths that had been constructed, people stared at the huge curved projection screen, which had been divided into three rows and six columns, each vertical column representing a single team; altogether there are 18 squares. A clear image flashed on each square.

On the first grid of the second column, the ferocious appearance of the patterned globe fish that constantly charged the protective shield is being watched by all.

Ludo Bagman sat on the high platform, his head darting, capturing the progress of the champions as he made his commentary -

"Don't worry - the protective shield will last for an hour. Now that all the champions are awake, they must figure out the situation as soon as possible; they have an hour to adapt to the turbulent magic and to successfully cast a spell to protect themselves in the black lake, or they will be transformed into hostages which will increase the difficulty of the entire team for passing the task dramatically ..."

The booth that is closest to the platform is 75% filled with invited guests, who are very surprised by the large screen in front of them, and they can't help but whisper in their discussions, the word 'Future World' company repeated in it, a company that has been very conspicuous in recent times.

Behind these people is a group of students in black, who are excitedly watching the screen and chatting with each other.

------------

Thanks for all your love and support.

There are 492+ chapters on P@treon, if you have some extra pocket money, Support me on P@treon: www.p@treon.com/Crazy_Cat.

Happy Reading!!!