Fleur turned her head to look. It was the fourth champion of this tournament…
Harry Potter… who had no idea what magical trick or gadget she'd used, but had now turned into Harley Potter…
"Why didn't you dry yourself off?" Kasenhis said a bit speechlessly as he tossed the coat hanging to one side over to Harry, telling her to wrap herself up first. Then he snapped his fingers, and the fireplace beside them suddenly flared to life.
"Uh, I've only been learning magic for a few years. Sometimes I just can't remember things like that," Harry said, shivering.
"Suit yourself. Miss Delacour, is there anything else?"
Looking at 'Harley', now clearly an outsider to the situation, Fleur's expression stiffened slightly as she shook her head. "No."
As Fleur left, Harry huddled in on herself and watched her go, then asked in confusion, "What did she come to see you for?"
Kasenhis shook his head. "No idea." As he spoke, he took out two enchanted books. "One for you, one for Cedric."
"No problem, Professor." Harry nodded while shivering, picked up the enchanted book, and staggered out.
Right after that… yes, their timing was impeccable.
"So, what are you planning this time?"
Dumbledore smiled. "I need you to help me with something. In the second task, the champions must rescue what they cherish most."
Kasenhis frowned. "So?"
"What do you think Harry cherishes most?" Dumbledore asked.
"Mm… Ron?"
"Exactly. Then this task will be yours to handle," Dumbledore said with a smile.
"Huh? What task?" Kasenhis asked, completely baffled.
"Of course, kidnapping Ron. Oh, right, and Cho Chang as well. She's Cedric's dance partner, and it's said they're still dating. Naturally, Cedric's most precious treasure would be her." After saying that, Dumbledore calmly turned and left.
As expected of this old schemer.
Always dumping the hard problems on me..
Kasenhis sighed. He picked up the crystal ball on the desk and summoned both Ron and Cho Chang.
Sigh.. As your teacher… I'm borrowing you two for a bit!
........
The second task arrived right on schedule. However, the expressions of the champions were clearly not very good.
And among them, Krum's and Fleur's expressions were the worst.
First, the two of them had their treasures taken. For Krum, this wasn't too bad. What was taken was just one of his good brothers, nothing too serious.
After all, for that brother of his, an entire Black Lake full of merfolk probably still wouldn't be enough for him to kill.
But the latter was different. Fleur's precious treasure was her younger sister. She was still young and not very strong in magic. Even though there would definitely be protection down in the water, being frightened was unavoidable.
Cedric and Harry, on the other hand, were a completely different case. They had received the inheritance of Sea's Disdain. Once they found their respective treasures, it would take them less than three seconds to return to the surface, so the pressure on them was far lighter than on the other two.
Kasenhis sat in the stands, his gaze not falling at all on the Black Lake nearby, nor on the massive screen Dumbledore had conjured with magic above it.
Instead, he was staring intently at Barty Crouch Sr, sitting among the spectators.
At the previous reception, aside from this Barty Crouch Sr, everyone else had cleared their suspicions, even if it had been done passively.
With just this one person left, it was hard not to be suspicious. Or to put it more bluntly, he was the nail hidden inside Hogwarts.
Soon, the four champions each used their own methods to dive into the water. Cedric and Harry both used swimming caps enchanted with underwater breathing, while the other two relied on human transfiguration and the Bubble-Head Charm.
As the four champions plunged into the lake, Cedric was clearly the fastest. The mechanical arm behind him could, in a sense, cosplay as a propeller.
Krum's human transfiguration, meanwhile, was bizarrely abstract. He transformed a shark's head, which only provided underwater breathing. His swimming speed still depended on his two legs.
No, it wasn't completely useless. At the very least, a shark's head was more streamlined than a human one, meaning it faced less resistance in the water.
As for the other two, Harry—ehm.. as the announcer now announced as Harley could originally have used an alchemical backpack, but since she'd used it in the previous task and Madame Maxime had ruthlessly docked her nine points for it, she decided to behave a bit more like a normal person this time.
Fleur was the same as Harley, an old-school type. Pure swimming.
Still, the final result was obvious. Cedric, who had gone full tech, took first place, and after that, Kasenhis lost interest in watching any further.
Because Harley, that little… girl, was a bit shy. She was dressed even more properly than Kasenhis sitting in the stands.
With that kind of massive resistance that could exhaust someone to death, it would probably take Harry an hour or two just to find Ron.
Kasenhis sat there drowsily, dozing off in his seat. It wasn't until the final round of applause that he hazily opened his eyes, only to see that Harry had already carried Ron back up, who had nearly frozen to death.
"Mm-hm, can we head back now? What were the rankings?" he asked.
"Cedric first, Fleur second, Harley third, Krum last. I feel like Krum didn't really have much motivation, and well, shark teeth aren't exactly great for precisely biting through ropes," Professor McGonagall explained.
"So another task just ends like that. I think I can finally go back and get a good sleep…" Kasenhis sighed in relief as he headed toward his office. "Hopefully those two didn't leave everything I taught them at the bottom of the lake."
Then he was promptly blocked by Hagrid.
"What is it this time?" Kasenhis asked in surprise.
"Madame Maxime agreed to go out on a date with me!" Hagrid said excitedly.
This time, Kasenhis applied some very basic reasoning. He glanced at Hagrid, thought about his emotional intelligence when it came to courting girls, and said, "You should go to Severus and ask him for a bottle of love potion or something."
"W-What the—!! But love like that isn't real love!!" Hagrid protested.
"Pfft~! I'm joking. So, what's the plan? Where are you going?" Kasenhis asked.
"We're planning to walk around inside Hogwarts Castle, chat a bit, that sort of thing," Hagrid said.
"...Let me guess. She hadn't agreed before, but after Professor McGonagall controlled Hogwarts and defeated that three-headed fire dragon, she suddenly agreed?" Kasenhis asked tentatively.
"How did you know?!"
Oh.. you poor poor Hagrid...
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