Tensei Skill Shop Chapter 43

Tensei Skill Shop

Disclaimer: I own nothing

Chapter 43:

“You said you already worked out that egg clue!” Hermione said indignantly.

“Keep your voice down!” Harry hissed, “I just said I had a good idea, I didn’t say I had worked it out, alright?”

The teenager was sitting with his friends at the back of the Charms classroom, with a table all to themselves. Their lesson today was about the opposite of the Summoning Charm, the Banishing Charm. Professor Flitwick had apparently taken some advice from the exchange students about how to conduct the class; after going through the basic spellcasting motions and incantation with them (‘Depulso!’), he rearranged the seats to face the walls from the center of the room, and gave each student a stack of cushions to practice with. Not only would the soft cushions not hurt anyone if they went off-target, but if the students aimed poorly, they would be less likely to send an unintended object flying. Some of the cushions went out the window, but they could be Summoned back.

“Splendid, Mr Longbottom! You’ve really improved a lot!” The diminutive Professor squeaked as Neville sent another cushion into the box he was aiming at.

“Thanks, Professor.” The normally clumsy Gryffindor wore a pleased smile.

“Just forget the egg for a minute, alright?” Harry looked around, but the rest of the class was having too much fun to pay them any attention. “I’m trying to tell you about Moody and Crouch…”

Last night, he had brought the golden egg to the prefects’ bathroom that Cedric told him about, and with Moaning Myrtle’s help, learned that the second task was to take place in the Great Lake. While he now had a new problem of how he should breathe underwater, Harry’s curiosity led him to investigate the reason why Mr Crouch would be in Snape’s office of all places, especially when the man was supposedly sick enough to send Percy Weasley to the Yule Ball in his place.

Under his Invisibility Cloak, he had carefully made his way downstairs while tracking the man’s strange movements on the Marauder’s Map. Just as he was nearly at the place, the dot started to leave the office, so Harry wiped the Map clean and peeked out around the corner. To his surprise, it wasn’t Mr Crouch who came out from Snape’s office, but Moody instead. 

Just like before in the Three Broomsticks before the first task, the retired Auror had spotted him with his magical eye. On closer approach, Moody had seen the golden egg and guessed that Harry was working on the clue for the second task, going on a nighttime walk to get the inspiration needed for it. 

Instead of saying anything about that matter, Harry had asked the reason why Moody was in Snape’s office, not mentioning that he saw Crouch’s name on the Map. The man had admitted  conspiratorially that he was conducting a surprise search in case the Potions teacher was hiding anything in there, and asked Harry to keep it to himself. Harry had been a bit surprised to learn that Snape was a Death Eater, one of those who had walked free after the war against Voldemort, thanks to Dumbledore vouching for the unpleasant man. 

“He told me that if there was one thing he hates,” Harry explained in a low voice, “It’s a Death Eater who walked free…”

“Sounds like Moody for sure, but what happened after that?” Ron asked, waving his wand and causing his cushion to bounce off the chandelier and landing on the floor.

“Moody told me to get back to bed, so I got out of there. But listen to this… When I checked the Map again, it showed Crouch being in Moody’s office!”

“But that doesn’t make sense!” Hermione objected, Banishing another cushion into the box she was aiming at, “Mr Crouch pretends to be ill, yet he sneaks into the castle disguised as Moody? Don’t you think it’s a bit funny?”

“You think he’s disguising himself as Moody?” Harry asked, making a half-hearted wave of his wand and causing his cushion to belly-flop limply onto the floor.

“That’s the only explanation that makes sense,” Hermione went on, “If your Map shows Mr Crouch where Moody is, then that means it’s not actually Moody, but Mr Crouch. But the question is-”

“Why would he do something like that?” Ron finished, “D’you reckon he needed Moody to investigate something on his behalf?”

Harry was about to respond, but Professor Flitwick had moved on from helping the other students and was paying attention to them.

“Mr Potter, Mr Weasley, please focus on Banishing your cushions properly!” He squeaked.

Harry did so, and was a little surprised when he managed to land his cushion perfectly within his box. However, with Professor Flitwick now keeping an eye on them, they couldn’t discuss the mystery of Crouch-Moody for the rest of the class.

Harry’s godfather Sirius had asked to be kept informed of anything odd happening at Hogwarts, so he sent off a letter that night by brown owl, describing what he had seen on the Map. After that, he chose to focus his attention on the most urgent problem: how to survive underwater for an hour on the twenty-fourth of February. His friends, loyal as ever, joined him in tackling that puzzle.

Ron suggested using the Summoning Charm again, to get an Aqua-Lung after Harry explained about them, but Hermione quashed that plan. 

“You would have to learn how to operate one within the time limit of one hour,” She pointed out, “But more importantly, some Muggle is sure to see one zooming across the countryside to Hogwarts, so you’ll probably be disqualified for breaking the International Code of Wizarding Secrecy.”

Her suggestion was to use Transfiguration, but human Transfiguration was only started in sixth year, for students taking the NEWTs in that subject. Given what Professor McGonagall taught about wrongly done Transfigurations, Harry had no intention of risking himself like that. 

“What if we ask Rick?” Ron suddenly suggested, “Didn’t you say you asked him for help for the first task, Harry?”

Harry considered it for a bit, before shaking his head. “I don’t want to disturb him. He seems rather busy these days.”

It wasn’t just Rick; the rest of the Mahoutokoro quartet had been engrossed in something the past few days after the Hogsmeade visit, enough that many other students had taken notice. When asked about it, they just said it was related to the Triwizard Tournament and that they couldn’t reveal anything.

Even while distracted, Rick still had no trouble dodging his spells during their last tutoring session, something which irritated Harry when he recalled that memory.

“If you don’t want to ask him, then I think your best chance is some sort of charm,” Hermione said seriously.

And so Harry once more buried himself among the dusty tomes of the library, looking for any spell that might enable a human to survive without oxygen, with Ron and Hermione joining in when they could. Even Ginny joined in sometimes, wanting to help him as thanks for taking her to the Ball. Harry even went so far as to ask Professor McGonagall for a note of permission to use the Restricted Section, and even consulted the irritable librarian Madam Pince. There were a few spells that seemed like they could work, but not to the extent of letting Harry spend an hour underwater and live to tell the tale.

Sometimes he saw Rick and the three girls in the library as well, researching something with excited intensity, but they usually left before Harry could muster up enough courage to approach the older teen. 

An unexpected breakthrough came one afternoon in the form of Neville, who rushed into the library in a noisy manner that had Madam Pince shushing him fiercely. The other teen quickly apologized, before coming up to them hastily.

“What’s the matter, Neville?” Hermione asked him.

He didn’t respond, but focused on Harry instead. “Harry, I think I know what the second task is.” Neville said breathlessly.

“I know already, Neville,” Harry replied, “I’m trying to find-”

Neville interrupted him, “I also think I have a solution.”

That made Harry and his friends sit up and pay closer attention.

They followed Neville back to the Gryffindor common room, where they huddled together in a quiet corner. Neville’s spellcasting had improved, but he still fumbled occasionally in other things, so it took a while to get the full story out of the previously timid Gryffindor.

Whatever Rick and the girls were working on, it caused the teenage male to approach Neville, consulting about the sort of plants one would encounter underwater in the lake. When Neville asked about it, he was told that it was related to the Triwizard Tournament, so nothing more could be said.

“That’s when I realized, the second task would be held in the lake!” Neville finished, beaming as he looked around at them.

“Okay, that’s brilliant, Neville,” Harry said impatiently, “But what about the solution you mentioned?”

Neville nodded. “He was murmuring about holding his breath to go underwater, and that’s when I remembered-”

The Gryffindor pointed at the book he had brought down from his dorm, ‘Magical Water Plants of the Mediterranean’. 

“Professor Moody lent me this book before,” He opened it and started flipping through the pages, “And there’s this plant, Gillyweed.”

He stopped at the relevant page, and Harry and his friends leaned in to read. There was a picture of the plant in question; it looked like a bundle of greyish-green rat tails, but Harry focused instead on the description. When consumed by a human, it would give them fish-like attributes, growing gills and altering the limbs for easier swimming. This discovery was made by Elladora Ketteridge, who nearly suffocated from being unable to breathe normal air until she stuck her head in a bucket of water.

“This is it!” Hermione exclaimed, “This is what you need, Harry!”

“Neville, you’re a lifesaver!”

“Good one, mate!” Ron added.

Neville grinned back at them.

Harry was so exhilarated by this discovery that he didn’t pay attention to the small suspicion about it coming from a book lent out by Moody.

It was Ron who asked the next question that poured water all over their good moods.

“So how do we get some?”

Thankfully, Neville told them that there were some in the Herbology greenhouses, and agreed to help them ask Professor Sprout for some, enough for the effects to last at least an hour.

“Hope she does,” Harry said quietly. 

“Don’t worry, mate,” Ron told him, guessing that Harry was worried about the teacher refusing. “The Hufflepuffs have been letting up on you ever since you had to face a dragon in the first task.”

“It’s a better choice than the alternative,” Hermione said.

“Alternative? What’s the alternative?” 

“Gillyweed is used in some NEWT-level potions, so there’s sure to be some in Professor Snape’s stores.”

“Snape…” Ron moaned, recalling a past memory.

Harry clearly remembered that incident in his second year as well; he had caused a diversion by throwing a firework into Goyle’s cauldron, resulting in a lot of mayhem while Hermione slipped out of the classroom to grab the ingredients they needed to brew the Polyjuice Potion.

“I don’t think that will work this time,” He said quietly, “Snape’s been in a right mood ever since… y’know.”

The weeks after Harry caught Crouch-Moody coming out of Snape’s office, the sallow-faced Potions Professor had been in an extremely bad mood, taking points from the Gryffindors at the slightest trigger. Even the Slytherins they shared the class with had kept their heads down, other than Malfoy, whom Snape favored more than the rest. The blonde boy took delight in getting Harry to lose points by needling Harry over Rita Skeeter’s article about Hagrid whenever he had the chance.

Hermione nodded, lowering her voice as well, “I heard some people saying that someone took ingredients from his private stores.”

Harry was about to point out that the only possible culprit was Crouch, when he caught sight of the clock. It was nearly time for the next session with Rick, and the thought of Crouch stealing Snape’s supplies went out of his mind entirely.

Now that he had a way to deal with the underwater part of the second task, Harry decided to focus on other things, such as trying to land a spell on Rick during the training session. It was frustrating to see how the older male easily blocked, deflected or outright dodged spells directed at him, even when he was up against more than one person. At the same time, it was fun and interesting for Harry, pairing up with others. He seemed to work rather well with Ginny, who had joined the sessions out of curiosity.

Harry didn’t expect her to ask him to go with her to the next Hogsmeade visit, but decided to accept. Ron and Hermione were too busy dueling Rick to notice, especially when he was quick to punish any loss of attention.

He also tried asking Rick about what the older teen was doing with the Triwizard Tournament, but that was no use; Rick just smiled and told him to wait and see.

Just like in the time leading up to the first task, the days slipped away quickly, leaving Harry wondering just how the twenty-fourth of February had suddenly come so close.

Two days prior, the brown owl came back bearing Sirius’s reply, and it was the shortest he had ever seen.

‘Send date of next Hogsmeade weekend by return owl.’

“Weekend after next,” Hermione whispered, having read the note over his shoulder, “Here, take my quill and send this owl back straight away.”

Harry hesitated. He had already promised to go with Ginny on that day.

“Harry? What’s wrong?”

Maybe she would forgive him if he told her he had other plans on that day.

“Nothing.” He answered, his voice sounding flat to his ears.

He scribbled the date down and sent it off with the owl. However, Harry didn’t get the chance to talk to Ginny like he hoped to do. The youngest Weasley had been called away by Professor McGonagall the next day, and he had a task to focus on.

Oddly enough, Hermione appeared to have gone off somewhere too. It was only when Meddle announced what, or who, the champions had to retrieve that he finally realized the reason why.

…

“This will work, right?” Mr Meddle asked us quietly.

“It will,” Matsu reassured him, “We tested it several times just to be sure.”

We were waiting for the champions and the audience to arrive, the latter group trickling in as the official starting time drew closer. Our prepared equipment was just waiting to be deployed, and I was looking forward to seeing the reactions to the fruits of our work over the past few weeks.

“I hope so, I spent quite a bit of time convincing the others to go along with it.”

Mr Meddle did look more stressed than usual, with his appearance suggesting that he had rolled straight out of bed after a sleepless night. Uzume took pity on him and cast a spell to straighten his clothes, earning herself a grateful look from the man.

Professor Dumbledore walked up to us, followed by some of the other teachers. “Mr Steel, Miss Chie, Miss Hire, Miss Dragnof, thank you for your help with the Triwizard Tournament. I know you didn’t have to, but you did. And we are all very grateful.”

Professor McGonagall and Professor Flitwick gave us encouraging nods as they took their seats; we had consulted with them on the spells needed for what we had in mind, and they expressed interest in the final result.

“There they are!” Mr Meddle perked up.

I exchanged looks with my girls and nodded.

Krum and Delacour came accompanied by their respective teachers as expected, then Cedric and his friends, and finally Harry with Ron. The redhead slapped his friend on the back, before taking off to join the rest of the Gryffindors on the stands. They were the same ones used for the first task, transported and erected the night before.

With the exception of Mr Meddle, the judges took their seats at the gold-draped table, with Percy Weasley once again filling in for Mr Crouch. The wizard spoke to the champions, indicating the four of us. When they nodded, he beckoned us forward, each of us going to one of the champions with items in hand.

“What’s this for?” Cedric asked me as I put a bangle on his wrist.

“Tracking,” I answered shortly, tapping the large round crystal with my wand, “And observation.”

The crystal popped out, expanding slightly as it floated to a position behind his head. He turned to look at it, but it followed his movements. Only when Cedric turned his head without moving his body, could he catch a glimpse of it.

“Matsu, how is it?” I asked my Sekirei, who had done the same for Harry.

“I’m checking it now.” She moved over to stand in front of the judges’ table, and began casting.

The audience made sounds of awe as large transparent screens appeared in the air in front of them, with images slowly forming on them. The champions stared up at them as well, realizing that they could now see a third person view from their backs. Matsu did a few tests, showing that the view could be adjusted as well, rotating and zooming in and out.

“Bravo! Brilliant Charms work!” Professor Flitwick shouted.

Percy Weasley was saying something about Experimental Charms, but it was largely drowned out by the applause from the audience.

“Alright now, gentlemen, lady,” Mr Meddle said, “Please take your positions.”

As for me and my Sekireis, we went over to the nearby table prepared for us, keeping an eye on the setup we helped create. Matsu was taking care of the individual champions’ perspectives, but there was more to it than just that.

With a blow of the whistle, the champions ran into the water as the audience erupted with cheers and applause. I raised my wand and brought up the next display, showing the relative positions of the champions on a top-down map. What very few people knew was that the spell was supported by several monitoring-specialized Rooms we had submerged in the lake over the past few weeks.

Mr Meddle was explaining the task to the audience, telling them how the champions had to recover something precious taken from each of them, with a time limit of one hour. He also began describing what each of the champions were doing, based on what we could see from the displays.

“Excellent use of the Bubble-Head Charm by Mr Diggory, and he’s- Oh, Miss Delacour has done the same! As for Mr Potter, he’s eating something… Oh, I have just been informed that it is Gillyweed, and yes, you can see its effect on him now! And Mr Krum… he’s Transfigured himself!” Mr Meddle gasped.

The sight of a shark’s head on Krum’s body as he swam through the dark waters was pretty weird, but no one could deny that it worked.

“Now that the champions are deep underwater, I can now reveal more about the task!” Mr Meddle continued, “What the champions have to recover are not items, but people!”

A new display appeared, showing a mer-version of a village square. In its center was a crude statue of a giant merperson, with four people bound tightly to its tail section, drawing gasps and shrieks from the audience. Around the statue were groups of merpeople, and they were singing the song that played whenever the egg was opened.

“The champions will have to locate the village of the merpeople and retrieve their respective hostage!”

“Wait, that’s my sister!” Percy’s voice said shrilly, having recognized one of the hostages. 

“Don’t worry, we have taken steps to ensure that the hostages are perfectly safe!”

A twitch of my wand showed the position of the village on the map, and the apparent route of each of the champions, none of which appeared to be on track to where it was.

Harry was the fastest with his altered physiology, appearing unaffected by the cold while his new swimming-specialized limbs helped him cut through the water. However, the darkness kept him from seeing too far, slowing his progress. After him was Krum, whose powerful swimming strokes propelled him through the water while he breathed through his shark gills. Cedric was third, having trained hard with me, and was using magic to assist him. As for Delacour…

“She’s at a big disadvantage here,” Irene observed, “Her magic is weakened by the environment.”

The veela-blooded witch had to pause to renew her Bubble-Head Charm several times, which definitely slowed her progress by quite a bit.

The crowd made sounds of interest as they got to see the underwater scenery through the viewpoints of the champions, but after a while, the hubbub started to fade, as all four champions just searched randomly in the expanse of the lake. Only Cedric appeared to be doing something, casting Supersensory Charms every few minutes and trying to listen for something. 

“Oh, it looks like Mr Potter has arrived at a piece of nice scenery…” Mr Meddle drew the audience’s attention to the field of green water weeds, “Oh my!”

There was a shudder to his screen, and Harry twisted around. Matsu obligingly adjusted the view, revealing the cause of his agitation to be a horned water creature, a Grindylow. It had its long fingers clamped around Harry’s ankle, and it wasn’t alone.

He pulled out his wand and started casting, all the while swimming to avoid their pursuit. With Matsu adjusting the view, everyone got to witness an intense action sequence of Harry barely keeping ahead of the Grindylows grabbing hands. It finally ended when he accidentally kicked one of them in the head, and the rest gave up after that. 

If he had that much trouble in his Gillyweed form, then I’m not surprised Fleur had to withdraw. Dealing with a swarm of enemies on top of the underwater debuff…

“That was a narrow escape from Grindylows by Mr Potter!” Mr Meddle said excitedly, “And now it looks like he’s trying to get his beari- What’s this now?!” He exclaimed when Harry’s screen shuddered again.

Matsu adjusted the view on Harry again, revealing the pearly form of a female ghost. There were exclamations from the audience who recognized her as Moaning Myrtle, one of the ghosts of Hogwarts castle. Harry tried to talk, but only released bubbles from his mouth, which she giggled at. However, she pointed him in the right direction and off he went.

The Gryffindors burst into cheers at the sight of Harry’s position marker now moving towards the merpeople village. He had gone off-course quite far due to trying to lose the Grindylows, but at least he now knew where to go.

“Definitely not as boring as it would be without our help,” I remarked.

“So, so true. And in this cold weather too,” Uzume agreed.

The next development that happened was Cedric picking up the general direction of the merpeople village, but he had to keep adjusting his heading. From the looks of Madam Maxime and Karkaroff, they weren’t happy that their champions were being beaten by both Hogwarts students. The minutes continued to tick by, with Mr Meddle doing his best to give entertaining commentary. From the audience’s perspective, we were able to see that the champions were being monitored by merpeople from a distance away, one of the safety measures put in place by the organizers.

It was Harry who reached the village first, giving the audience a good view of their monstrous features. The way they watched him was intimidating, but they made no move towards him as he continued heading for where the song was coming from. He finally reached the giant statue where the hostages were tied, and caught sight of Hermione and Ginny tied there with Cho Chang and a small French girl.

“Oh, what’s this? The other three champions have crossed paths!”

That was a rather freak coincidence, but somehow the other three realized that they were near each other, and made a silent agreement to work together, with the other two following Cedric’s lead in tracking the underwater song, but still staying a cautious distance away from each other.

Meanwhile, Harry had once again forgotten about using his wand and was trying to cut the bindings holding the hostages with a jagged rock. It was very slow going, but he worked relentlessly.

“Oh no, it looks like Miss Delacour is in a spot of trouble!”

Just like with Harry, she was being attacked by several Grindylows when she strayed into the weeds where they lurked, but her weakness in the water left her unable to fight them off the way he did. What was more, her being at the back of the group meant that the other two hadn’t noticed. She struggled fiercely, but they continued to grab and scratch at her, until the bubble around her head suddenly burst.

There were screams from the audience, and Madam Maxime shot to her feet, but the merpeople moved into action right away. A few of them charged in, jabbing at the Grindylows with their spears and forcing them off her, before grabbing the witch by the arms and swimming upwards at an incredible speed. In the distance, we could see several heads breaching the water, one of them with silvery-blonde hair. They started moving in the direction of the bank.

“Unfortunately, it looks like Miss Delacour is out of the running. The merpeople will bring her back safely, don’t you worry!” Mr Meddle spoke cheerfully, despite his strained expression, “As for Mr Potter, he’s freed his hostage, but what’s this? He’s not leaving with her yet. In fact, he’s trying to free the others too!”

Dumbledore decided to speak up. “I believe Mr Potter thinks that all the hostages are in actual danger, and seeks to save them all.”

There was some laughter and jeering, probably from the Slytherins who never passed up a chance to rag on Harry for any reason, but most of the audience cheered and clapped. Cedric’s arrival was noted by the merpeople, the older Hufflepuff stealing the attention. Unlike Harry, he came prepared with a knife, easily cutting Cho free and leaving with her. 

Krum arrived next, trying to use his shark teeth to bite through the ropes, but the position of the mouth and the teeth made it very awkward. Luckily, Harry stopped the older male, offering the jagged rock instead, which proved to be more suited for the task. 

“Gabrielle! Gabrielle!” The hysterical screaming from nearby drew attention.

Fleur Delacour had been brought back to shore, and finally realized just who her hostage was. She was trying to get back into the water, but Madam Maxime was restraining her and trying to calm her down.

I exchanged looks with my girls, but none of us felt like doing anything to calm her down, so we just continued to watch. Out on the lake, more heads were appearing, making their way back to shore. Cedric was faster, using some sort of spell to hasten his travel speed.

On the screen, Harry was still there with Ginny and the young girl, waiting for someone who wasn’t going to arrive. Eventually, he had enough, brandishing his wand as a threat to stop the merpeople from interfering with freeing the girl. Once she was free, he grabbed both girls in his arms and started kicking upwards. 

However, everyone’s attention was now on the bank, where Cedric was staggering out of the freezing water, one arm around Cho. The school nurse Madam Pomfrey was waiting with thick blankets and potions, wrapping them up and making them drink the warming draught, which caused steam to shoot out of their ears.

<Sometimes I wonder why the potions have such cartoonish effects…> I commented to Matsu telepathically, since there was so much noise that normal talking would be drowned out.

“And here we have our first champion to return!” Mr Meddle announced to loud applause, “At the time of fifty-eight minutes and fifty nine seconds, is Mr Diggory!”

Matsu signaled Irene, who activated the special effect in the crystal ball. It shot a bolt of energy into the sky, where it exploded like a firework.

Krum apparently heard what Mr Meddle said and tried to swim faster, but ended up arriving just outside of the time limit with Hermione. Despite the second firework going up, Karkaroff was wearing a frown as he watched his champion come out of the water with his hostage. Like Cedric and Cho, they were bundled up and checked over for any injuries, and Krum’s Transfiguration was safely reversed. As for Fleur Delacour, she had stopped fighting, but her eyes were locked on the screen floating up above.

Matsu dispelled other screens, leaving only the one showing Harry, still in the middle of ascending with merpeople around him. He was kicking hard with both his hands occupied with the hostages, but the transformation was wearing off, leaving him with normal feet and no gills.

“Mr Potter’s Gillyweed has worn off! But he’s not giving up!” Mr Meddle was on his feet, caught up in the intensity, “He’s still swimming! And… YES! He’s reached the surface!”

On the screen, Harry’s head broke the water surface, spitting out the water in his mouth. In his arms, the two girls woke up as well, looking around confusedly. We could see the moment when Ginny told Harry that the song lyrics were just a representation of the rules, and not the threat he believed it was, because the look on his face was screaming ‘I can’t believe I was that dumb’.

I glanced at the audience stand, where some cameras were flashing amidst the laughter. “Oof, he’s never going to be able to forget this. Um, shouldn’t you dispel the screen?”

“Hmmm, nope,” Matsu said with a wicked smirk.

She’s definitely got a small grudge against Harry. 

Harry and Ginny helped to pull the young girl to shore, surrounded by the merpeople who were singing their songs like some guard of honor. More than a few people entered the water to assist them; Percy had seized Ginny and almost pulled her out of Harry’s grip entirely, if not for the girl threatening to hex her brother if he didn’t stop, Fleur Delacour had escaped Madam Maxime and yanked her sister into a tight hug, and even Ron was there, helping an exhausted Harry back to shore where Dumbledore was without any care about his feet getting wet.

The third firework went up, and the cheering from the crowd was extremely loud now, so I lifted my wand and made a small circle, casting a spell that reduced the noise around us.

“To be honest,” Uzume spoke up before I could, “That really felt like watching a movie.”

Matsu chuckled. “I did research a bunch of filming techniques to prepare for this.”

“Well, you did an amazing job of capturing all the right moments.”

“That’s only because we knew what was going to happen. I just followed the script, that’s all.” Despite Matsu speaking modestly, she was still grinning.

“You do know that a lot of people will be bothering us after this?” Irene pointed out.

“Yeah,” My Veil Sekirei stretched her hands above her head and leaned backwards, drawing my eyes to a certain bouncy part of her body, “I can hear my other friends asking me how we did all that already…”

I noticed the judges finished their huddle, and dispelled the silencing field. “Looks like they’re about to announce the scores.”

Mr Meddle’s voice boomed out across the place, causing the crowd to go quiet to listen. He gave the score for each champion, followed by a brief explanation of the reasons why they got that score.

Fleur Delacour, good use of magic, strong willpower, but overall failed to achieve her objective, got twenty-six points.

Cedric Diggory, for excellent use of magic, well-preparedness, managed to return with his hostage within the time limit, received forty-nine points.

Viktor Krum, using incomplete Transfiguration that worked well enough for the task, was able to return with his hostage, but outside of the time limit, was granted forty-points.

And finally Harry Potter, once again picking a simple but effective method in the form of Gillyweed, arriving first but leaving last due to wanting to save all the hostages in a brave display of heroism, was awarded with forty-five points.

The cheering for each of the champions was loud, but the Hufflepuffs’ was enormous.

After giving a last bit of instructions about the third task, Mr Meddle spoke a few words to the other judges, before coming over to where we were. 

“Wonderful work, truly wonderful!” He praised us the moment he got within earshot, “That spellwork, it’s NEWT level! I can’t believe you four are only students!”

“To be fair, we did work quite hard on it, and we did ask the teachers here for a lot of help,” I gave as an excuse.

“No need for modesty, please!” Mr Meddle said gaily, “If this is what you were able to do in a few weeks, then I look forward to what you all will come up with for the third task!”

He quickly took his leave, saying he had to go to the Ministry to inform them of the results. 

“I only hope that we won’t end up suffering from success…”

“Uh, I think we already are.”

Uzume pointed at the crowd of people headed our way, clearly intending to question us about our creation.

Afterword: You really have to wonder just how Harry missed the whole Bubble-Head Charm in his search… you’d think Hermione would know of such a spell, considering students used it to deal with the smell of Dungbombs in a later book. Then again, it’s probably a matter of intelligence versus wisdom. For all we know, the charm was meant for breathing normally when surrounded by noxious gas, and they didn’t realize it could be adapted for underwater breathing.

My muse was on a roll, so here’s another bonus chapter for Patreon!