Chapter 506: "Fish wins anyway." (Edited)

With the four champions jumping into the water and diving deeper, the spectators on the lake were left in a somewhat awkward position....

They could see nothing but the occasional ripples on the surface of the lake.

But even so, no one got up from their seats, except that, once the excitement had passed, they all stopped looking at the lake and gathered in small groups, chatting in whispers.

"Well...looks like we're still a bit underprepared."

Dumbledore said to the other two headmasters beside him as he rubbed his beard awkwardly from the judge's chair.

"It's been too long since we've had a Triwizard Tournament, so mistakes are inevitable." Madame Maxime smiled and shook her head.

"Isn't that the biggest problem you have, that there are two champions at Hogwarts?" Karkaroff brought up the subject again in a very obnoxious way.

Dumbledore laughed and said nothing, but it was Madame Maxime who prodded Karkaroff none too gently, "Well, I look forward to the Triwizard Tournament to be held at Durmstrang in the future."

After the first event, she was somewhat convinced that Dumbledore had done nothing, after all, with Fish, a student who could take on a fire dragon, there was no need for Hogwarts to add another warrior to the mix.

And with Harry's special status, the logical thing to do would be to protect him, not risk him in the Triwizard Tournament.

Karkaroff's face instantly turned ugly, Madame Maxime's taunts were nothing, but it was her change of stance that was hardest on him... Wasn't it supposed to be his two schools fighting Hogwarts together? Why was she jumping the other way?

"If we are to be held accountable, we at the Ministry of Magic are partly to blame." Seeing that the atmosphere between the three Headmasters was a bit stiff, Percy suddenly took the floor to ease the situation, "Mr. Bagman, shall we?"

"Huh?" Bagman, who was watching the lake, froze and then said, "Yes, yes, it's the first time since the reopening, it's normal to have a little mistake, so you should take a little more responsibility, Director Karkaroff."

"Hmph..."

Karkaroff nodded with a cold face, seeing himself alone in battle, he had no choice but to accept his displeasure....

"Look! Someone's coming!"

At that moment, someone from the audience shouted.

Everyone rushed to look at the surface of the lake, only to see a black shadow under the water, gradually approaching the surface, but for a while it was unclear who it was.

"How can that be? It hasn't even been there for thirty minutes." Bagman exclaimed, "According to our calculations, it would take us half an hour to swim back and forth, even if we were to turn completely into a transfigured fish!"

However, he couldn't deny the fact that... a champion had returned to the surface.

"It's Fish!"

The audience let out a cheer as a shaggy cat's head popped out of the water, and Bagman's doubt quickly turned to surprise.

Who cares how it was done, the winner was Fish!

(`ω′′≡`ω′)

Fish shook the water off his head, then ran to shore and pulled the object out from under the water.

It was then that everyone realized that it wasn't Hermione or anyone else that Fish had been dragging, but the wizard's robe he was wearing, which was bulging from something struggling inside.

Had Fish pulled Hermione up in her wizard's robes?

As everyone speculated, Fish quickly shook himself off to dry his wet fur and opened his wizard's robe....

"Crunch!"

A large pile of silvery-white fish jumped into the robe, their scales glistening in the sunlight.

"Minerva! Fish has caught a lot of fish!"

?(=ΦωΦ=)?

Fish waved his hands gleefully, and shouted to Professor McGonagall in the audience.

Professor McGonagall: "..."

Everyone else: "...."

"Is this the time to fish?!" Professor McGonagall couldn't contain her anger and shouted at Fish at the top of her lungs, "You're in a competition!".

"Fine!"

∑(?`Д′?)

Fish then remembered, "Fish has to go save Hermione!".

And then, ignoring the pile of fish at his feet, he jumped back into the lake.

"..." Dumbledore was silent for a while, before calling to a house elf, "Take these fish to the kitchen, for today's meal..."

After the elf disappeared with the fish Fish had caught, the silent audience suddenly burst into laughter.

It was a strange situation, but it was something Fish could have done.

And when he jumped back into the water, this time he didn't play around, he swam quickly towards the mermaid village, and with the help of a few acceleration spells, it took him less than ten minutes to reach the mermaid village.

"Nya?"

(°ω°≡°°ω°)

Fish looked around in amazement, there wasn't a single mermaid in the mermaid village, not even his brood Grindylow.

How could Dumbledore put the hostages in the village when he already knew that Fish and the Black Lake mermaids knew each other? It wasn't out of fairness or anything, but he didn't want to hear Karkaroff complain about it again, and Dumbledore had a lot of faith in Fish.

After wandering around the village and finding no one, Fish didn't know what to do.

"Where did everyone go nya?"

?(=?ω?=)?

Fish scratched his head in confusion and spit a series of bubbles out of his mouth.

As Fish wandered around the mermaid village like a fly on the wall, Harry, with a bubble head spell, dealt with a few Grindylows stalking him and followed the faint sound of a song to the location of the mermaids.

"..."

The mermaids wore, as Fish had said, very little clothing, or rather none at all.

But...

This was nothing like the mermaids I knew!

Harry rolled his eyes at the mermaids with iron-gray skin, yellow eyes, and broken teeth.

They looked more like water monsters than mermaids.

Harry sighed, as he swam alertly towards the guarded hostages.

However, the mermaids guarding the hostages did not attack Harry and let him swim to Ron's side. Harry relaxed and looked at Ron.

Both Ron and Hermione were tied to a huge stone pillar with ropes made of watercress, their heads slumped helplessly over their shoulders and a thin stream of water bubbles spurting from their mouths.

Beside them were strewn several cut ropes.

Hmm?

Harry suddenly realized that Fish had not yet found this place....

Despite his confusion, Harry quickly cut Ron's rope with a spell, and pulled him quickly to the surface.

Just as he was halfway through swimming, he saw a black and white figure pass beneath him with the speed of a torpedo he saw on television.

Although it was only a glimpse, Harry recognized the figure as Fish.

He wasn't surprised that Fish could swim so fast, but Harry was surprised that....

Fish could swim so fast, why was he the last to arrive?