Merpeople's Singing and Mumps

A week later, in the evening, Ivan transformed into a Merman he had seen before and began to converse with the Merman leader.

"You must be mistaken about the Headmaster's instructions. Dumbledore wanted us to preside over the second match…

It was the abbot! Understand?

You taste… you taste!

He would be furious if we didn't do anything during the game.

So we have to do something, not just to protect the hostages, like setting up the venue? Or to scare the contestants…"

Ivan went on and on about how the Merpeople had understood Dumbledore's orders after more than an hour of success.

Of course, he wasn't planning on doing anything bad, other than making the second match more difficult and exciting, so that the champions would have an epic experience.

With that done, Ivan left the Black Lake feeling very pleased with himself and headed back to his room to get some rest.

However, as they passed the Gryffindor Lounge, Ivan was surprised to see Harry, Ron, and Hermione rushing towards them.

"What's wrong with you guys?" Yvonne asked, surprised.

"We've got the clue, it's the merpeople!" Harry said quickly, breathing hard and looking excited. "Remember that sound we heard the other day? It was merpeople singing!"

"How did you know it was a merman? Did anyone give you any clues?" Ivan's expression immediately became serious as he hurriedly asked.

Harry and Ron looked like they wanted to say something, but Hermione looked angry.

Yvonne was confused by their expressions, but Harry quickly explained, "Hermione found it. She must have flipped through at least a hundred books related to sound in the past few days, and she only found something like it in one of them."

"Yes, she even suspected that it was some sort of special code, such as hearing Harry's golden egg a dozen times with a hidden message in the sound frequency…" Ron added.

Yvonne looked at Hermione and realised she had said too much and tried to salvage the situation. "I'm sorry, Hermione, I shouldn't have said that…"

"You suspect that the person who put Harry's name into the Goblet of Fire might have passed on the clue to the second stage to Harry?" Hermione interrupted, before Ivan could finish his sentence.

"That's impossible! It can't be that one of You-Know-Who's men suddenly decided to help Harry win, can it?" Ron couldn't help but laugh.

Harry also looked at Ivan in confusion.

Ivan shrugged, frustrated that he couldn't bring himself to reveal what hadn't happened. "The events of the Triwizard Tournament are dangerous," he bluffed. "If someone is trying to harm you, deliberately giving you the wrong information will be fatal!"

Harry, Ron, and Hermione, on the other hand, agreed with Ivan's nonsense.

If someone were to tell the champions that they would have to face a few red hats instead of one dragon, they would be able to relax and not deliberately strategize against the dragon.

"Now that you know it's merpeople singing, have you figured out the details of the second match?" Ivan asked.

Harry nodded hesitantly, then shook his head, indicating that he had only wild guesses, and proceeded to repeat the song he had heard.

"We cannot sing on the ground, and when you search, think carefully:

We have robbed you of your most beloved treasure. You have one hour to find and retrieve what we have taken from you. After one hour, all hope is lost and it will never return."

When Harry finished, Hermione went on to explain: "I think the second match will involve you diving into the bottom of the Black Lake to find something that the merpeople have stolen, and you will only have an hour, and if you do, the merpeople will take it forever, and the match will be lost!"

Yvonne nodded. Hermione had hit the nail on the head, but she hadn't guessed that the hostages were hidden at the bottom of the lake…

"But how do we stay underwater for long periods of time?" Harry, having had the pleasure of solving the riddle, soon realised the seriousness of the question.

In the past, when he was at home, the Dursleys seemed to expect him to fall into the water and drown, so they never let him learn to swim.

Dudley, by contrast, was a good swimmer, which he often bragged about, but Harry always dismissed it as nothing special, as Dudley was as fat as a large life preserver and could float very fast in water.

"Why don't you try the Transfiguration Charm and turn yourself into a fish or something?" Hermione suggested, then looked at Harry apologetically as if she had just remembered something.

"Oh, I almost forgot. Transfiguration isn't taught until the sixth year, and it's very difficult to master. Ivan might be able to do it, but you certainly can't…"

"Yeah," Harry said weakly, trying to think of ideas, but none of them would work.

"You can use gillyweed, Harry!" Ivan said suddenly.

"What? Gillyweed? What's that?" Harry asked, turning to Ivan with excitement.

"A potion ingredient that gives you temporary growth of acne and acne, allowing you to breathe and move freely underwater," Ivan explained.

"Like the merpeople?" Hermione asked, thinking of the merpeople described in the book Fantastic Creatures Underwater.

"Something like that. It's only partially transformed, so it's definitely not as flexible as a merman underwater…" Ivan said. He did not mention the other drawback of having an ugly appearance after transformation.

However, Harry apparently did not care about this, as the fact that he could breathe underwater after eating a herb was enough to make him ecstatic — it meant that he would not have to be the first warrior ever to drown in a lake.

"There are still a few days until the start of the second match, so you can go to Hogsmeade and buy some Gillyweed. If you have time, you can go to the Black Lake and practice…"

He then told Harry to pretend he hadn't found anything, and to keep an eye out for anyone who tried to tip him off.