Four Hostages

To be precise, there were a man and three women. Their eyes were tightly shut, and they seemed to have fainted. Their bodies were tightly bound by water weeds, and their loose hair swayed gently with the current.

Directly in front of the statue stood several vicious-looking Merman guards, who were clearly not to be trifled with.

"Hermione? Ginny?!"

Harry let out a gasp when he saw this and immediately recognised the two hostages tied up in the middle of the lake.

"Gabrielle!" Fleur was even more excited than Harry. She was completely flustered as she stared at the image in the crystal ball, wishing she could jump into the water and chase the merpeople away to save Gabrielle.

However, she was not allowed to do so, and the Aurors, who were tasked with maintaining order, watched her every move.

Helpless, Fleur could only turn to look at the judges and ask anxiously.

"Headmaster Maximus, what was my sister Gabrielle doing there? She's not even nine years old. How could you just throw her into the Black Lake?"

Maxim was unable to give an answer, as Dumbledore was one step ahead of him.

"Mademoiselle Delacour, we have obtained the consent of these ladies. They have agreed to be hostages of their own free will, and they have great faith in you brave souls to rescue them from the lake within the time limit…"

"What if we fail? What happens to Gabrielle?" Fleur asked urgently. She had not forgotten Bagman's words that they would lose their "precious treasure" forever if they did not succeed in rescuing her.

"Let's just say that the waterproof and cold-proof spells I placed on the hostages will only last for an hour!" Dumbledore's face was grim, and he was not joking.

Fleur's heart turned cold. She didn't want to believe that the competition would be so cruel, but she didn't want to bet on it…

Harry, equally flustered, felt his hands and feet go cold at Dumbledore's cold words. Hermione was his best friend, Ginny was Ron's sister, and he could not accept either of them being in trouble.

Harry was worried about his ability to rescue the hostages, as the Merpeople did not seem to be easy prey.

Eager to avoid suspicion, Ivan turned his attention to the image of the strange wizard in the crystal ball.

Yvonne soon identified him as a Durmstrang student, presumably a close friend of Krum's.

Yvonne turned to look at Krum, and, as she expected, his face fell.

The match was also well watched, and the partner Krum invited to the dance was not chosen.

After all, they needed someone to hold them hostage!

Ivan even speculated that the real test of the game was whether the champion could think calmly in such a critical situation and successfully complete the rescue mission.

Fleur's previous overreaction had probably caused her to lose a lot of points…

At the judges' table, Dumbledore sat back down as Bagman cleared his throat and resumed his commentary.

"Well, I'm sure the champions can't wait! Now then, I declare… the second match begins!" Bagman shouted, raising his wand and shooting a beam of light into the sky.

Ivan, Fleur, and Krum all jumped into the lake at the same time as the beam of light, but Harry was too slow. He frantically pulled the bottle of Gillyweed open, stuffed what looked like a grey-green rat's tail into his mouth, and swallowed it.

The young wizards in the stands craned their necks to get a better look, and Ron and the others, worried about Ginny and Hermione, rose from their seats. Unfortunately, the Black Lake was too deep for them to see anything.

"You think Ivan and Harry will be able to get him out, don't you?" Ron asked George and the others worriedly.

"I'm sure Ivan will be able to do it, but Harry will be more of a problem…" George said hesitantly.

After his first match with the Fire Dragon, he was confident in Ivan, but he was well aware of Harry's magical abilities, and if he had to describe them, he would say that they were not much better than Ron.

"In any case, the hostages should be fine," George added, not believing Dumbledore's earlier claims.

"I wouldn't be so sure about that. I think Professor Dumbledore is taking a huge risk, leaving all the hostages in the lake without an Auror to keep an eye on them. What if the merpeople go crazy or something goes wrong with the protective charm?" Fred was furious and worried for Ginny's safety.

"If you can think of it, surely the judges can too…" George retorted.

"All right, all of you, stop arguing and look over there!" Charlie interrupted the argument and pointed to the middle of the lake.

It was then that George, Ron, and the others discovered that the four crystal balls floating in mid-air were faithfully recording the performances of the various champions underwater.

After jumping into the Black Lake, Krum quickly cast a Transfiguration spell. His head grew larger and larger, and black fins grew out of his back.

However, human transfiguration was the most difficult of all transfiguration magic, and Krum's skill was apparently not up to par, so he was forced to stop halfway through his transfiguration, and became a humanoid monster with the head of a shark.

Disgust filled the faces of the young wizards in the stands. Despite the spell's power, they had to admit that Krum was ugly.

Harry's image was not much better than Rom's, with ugly pimples on his neck and his palms and toes turning into those of a merman.

Yvonne and Fleur were particularly pleasing to the eye.

As soon as he fell into the water, Ivan tapped his wizard's robe with his wand, adding a waterproof and moisture-proof charm to it.

Next, Ivan's black robe extended into a pair of wide "wings" in the water, which carried him far away with a gentle flap.

Fleur, on the other hand, was so good at swimming that she could match Krum's speed in his half-shark form. She probably took advantage of this by casting a Bubble-Head Charm on herself and diving into the water, seemingly intending to swim away.