The next morning both were up, dressed and down early to breakfast in the Great Hall. Though again tense, Harry had calmed a lot and had actually had a good night's sleep.
After breakfast, they returned to the apartment so Harry could change into his swimwear. He donned the thermals, and then pulled his swim trunks on and, finally the tight elasticised t-shirt he wanted to wear, over the top.
His wand went into its sheath on his right arm, with Hermione's in the sheath on his left. That one was disillusioned. Finally, he strapped his dive knife in its sheath to his left thigh.
He pulled on his pair of lightweight trainers for his feet, and stood ready to go.
Daphne gave him a quick check over to ensure he had everything, and handed him the little bag of gillyweed. Finally, she grabbed his heavy, winter cloak and pulled it around his shoulders, fastening it in place.
"You're ready," she said.
Harry nodded, squared his shoulders, and said, "Thank you. Now, let's go get our wife." On the dock sticking out into the lake, Harry was able to manoeuvre things so that he stood next to Delacour. "Miss Delacour?" he softly asked her.
Looking askance at him she softly replied, "Mister Potter."
"Stay out of the kelp beds, alright? They're full of vicious grindylows," he softly but firmly said to her.
She looked at him for a while longer before clearly deciding he wasn't trying to sabotage her. "Thank you," she replied, and turned back to the preparations.
With her attention no longer on him, Harry moved away and stripped out of his robe and trainers. And immediately activated the runes Daphne had weaved into his thermals to keep a Warming charm activated and his body warm. The layout was designed to keep his trunk warm and faded out to the extremities.
Once Harry began disrobing, so did the three Champions.
He quickly checked himself over to ensure he still had everything. Gillyweed, check. Hermione's wand - still disillusioned, check. Knife in sheath and strap securing it, check. Dive watch - of course, check. Rune-based warming charm activated, check. Ready to rock!
Once he was ready he looked to the judges table for the first time. As expected he saw Dumbledore looking back at him with not a little worry on his face.
Calling
over,
Harry
said,
"Headmaster Dumbledore. Did you warn the merfolk that if they get in my way I'll kill them?"
His face almost immediately changing from worry to anger, Dumbledore replied, "Yes, Mister Potter. However, I also warned them you won't attack unless directly provoked. Don't make a liar out of me."
Harry was going to taunt the old man about how he already thought he was a liar; but Bagman, realising he had to say something fast, stepped forward and cast his Sonorus charm.
Bagman ran through his spiel for the spectators, who wouldn't actually be able to see anything, anyway, and he was about to start the countdown. As soon as he called 'three' Harry threw the mouthful of gillyweed into his mouth and braced himself for the change. On 'One!' he readied to dive into the water, doing so a second later, and waited for the transformation to complete. It did, a few seconds later.
He popped his wand, cast a quick Point Me charm to ensure his direction, then pointed it behind him and cast the Aguamenti charm while also kicking with his now very large webbed feet. Holding on to the wand tightly, he soon caught up to, and passed, the other three competitors. The only one who had any chance of keeping pace with him was Victor Krum. His incomplete transformation into a shark allowed him to breathe under water and travel quicker than the other two; but, without a tail, most of his propulsion was lacking.
Harry maintained a steady rhythm that powered him through the water. He conserved as much energy as he could, and kept the pumping of his legs and magic through his wand at a pace he was comfortable with.
He felt he was about halfway there when he suddenly heard the voice of Moaning Myrtle Cummings from off to the side. "How're you getting on?" she asked.
Harry grinned back and flipped her a thumbs up. He'd completely forgotten Myrtle had helped point him in the right direction in the previous timeline.
"You're doing very well, and you're going really fast!" she said. "You just need to turn ever so slightly to the left."
He flipped her another thumbs up and made the slight course correction. "You're a little over halfway there, Harry," she said. "I'd like to stay some more and guide you right in, but they don't like me very much. They chase me away." And, with that, she was gone.
When he knew he was close he began to hear the merpeople's song. A quick stop, a recast of the Point Me charm, and he was on his way again. He only had to change his direction a few more degrees to the left to have him heading direct to the village.
Coming up on the village from high, he ensured he passed over many of the merfolk below before conjuring up a heavy dumbbell to hold in his left hand. Using that, he then dropped straight down into the centre of the village as if in the aquatic version of a Wronski Feint. He simply dropped the dumbbell once he was about five feet off the bottom, allowing it to continue to fall and puff up a small cloud of silt as it landed.
Right in front of him were the four hostages. As per the previous timeline they were in an enchanted sleep and fully clothed. Each was tied to the tail of a single large statue of a merperson. Harry assumed it was the founder of the merpeople's enclave, here, in the Black Lake.
He spotted Hermione immediately, of course. Either side of her were Megan Jones of Hufflepuff, and little Gabrielle Delacour. And Cho Chang was on the other side of Megan.
'Hunh!' he thought. 'I'd forgotten Krum went to the Ball with Jonesy, this time.'
He quickly pulled the knife from it's scabbard at his left thigh and moved forward to cut the kelp rope tying Hermione to the statue. He pulled her adrift before cutting a short piece of the kelp and using it to tie her hair back. The movement of the water had it getting in the way of her being able to see clearly.
Resheathing his blade, he switched hands to hold her and used his wand to cast the Bubblehead charm at her head, using his deep unabiding love for her to power it to make it last as long as possible. He knew she was capable of casting it silently; but, didn't want to take the risk of it failing before she reached the surface, and being unable to cast it again.
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