As though realisation had struck him, Cedric slapped the side of his head.
The enormous bubble around it wobbled twice, looking as though he had nearly punctured it.
Then he simply stood still.
Strangely, the little fish began drifting towards his basket one by one, as if some powerful attraction were pulling them towards it.
Harry: ???
Very quickly, Cedric caught thirty silver fish and passed the trial.
The merperson handed him a box.
Cedric waved to Harry, then swam towards the surface and soon disappeared from sight.
Harry took two deep breaths in succession, forcing himself to forget Cedric's method of catching fish, then entered the room and began his third attempt.
While Harry was undergoing the trial, the other contestants began arriving one after another.
There was Fleur, who had chosen the same Bubble-Head Charm as Cedric; Krum, who had transformed himself into half a shark; and Daphne, who wore a strange mask over her face.
They stood outside the room, watching Harry use his agile movements to scoop one small fish after another into the basket.
Third time lucky.
This time, Harry finally passed the trial.
After receiving the second small box, Harry quickly began swimming upwards as well.
On the way, he saw an endless stream of contestants heading towards the merpeople village.
They were all using their own methods. Some wore Muggle diving suits, some had transformed into aquatic creatures, and some were even controlling fish to venture deep into the Black Lake.
Harry found it all rather fascinating.
By the time he reached the shallows, Harry suddenly realised that his transformation had not ended yet!
Remembering the suffocating feeling he had experienced on land, Harry decided to remain underwater a little longer until the effects of the Gillyweed wore off.
'Hopefully there's enough time.'
He prayed silently in his heart.
If the hour was almost up and his gills still had not disappeared, he would have no choice but to force himself to surface.
With nothing else to do, Harry drifted aimlessly underwater.
Then he spotted Neville and Luna, who had arrived before him.
Both of them were holding two boxes.
Clearly, they had both passed the merpeople's trial. Harry just had no idea how they had managed it.
At that moment, Cedric also appeared.
Since he had no webbing between his toes, his movement speed was relatively slow. Although he had left before Harry, he actually reached the surface later.
He gestured towards the three of them, asking whether they wanted to surface together.
All three shook their heads helplessly and pointed towards the gills behind their ears.
Cedric immediately understood their predicament.
He waved, indicating that he would go on ahead.
As he began rising, Cedric felt a trace of excitement.
He thought there was a very good chance that he was the first contestant to complete the task and pass the additional trial.
Although being first and being last technically made no difference, it was still a great boost to morale and brought honour to Hufflepuff House.
The moment Cedric broke the surface, he cancelled his Bubble-Head Charm.
Then he heard a wave of commotion from the stands.
'Strange. That doesn't sound like cheering. It sounds more like...'
Before Cedric could think any further, a spell shot past his ear.
If he had not instinctively tilted his head while looking towards the stands, that spell would have struck him squarely in the skull.
Cedric immediately plunged back underwater.
Less than half a second later, more than a dozen spells struck the exact spot where he had just been floating.
In the stands, a large number of people shot to their feet, their faces filled with shock.
"Shameless!"
"That has to be against the rules! Where are the headmasters? Where are the judges? Do something!"
"How can they do that?!"
It turned out that the dozen or so contestants who had never entered the water had all sprung into action.
They had not given up on the competition at all.
Instead, they had decided to ambush contestants who surfaced after obtaining their rewards!
The moment Cedric had shown his head, more than a dozen spells had been fired at him, forcing him straight back underwater.
Dumbledore also stood up, narrowing his eyes as he watched the farce unfolding by the lakeshore.
Beside him, Professor McGonagall angrily slapped the railing in front of her.
"This is cheating! Shameless cheating! Albus, we should..."
"The competition will continue."
Dumbledore's voice rang out, cutting off the rest of McGonagall's sentence.
"But... Albus, they..."
"The rules do not prohibit this kind of behaviour," Dumbledore said calmly.
Professor McGonagall fell silent.
As the true masterminds behind the competition, Rowena and Helga also saw nothing wrong with what the contestants on shore were doing.
If anything, they felt this was exactly how it should be.
These were the people who had truly grasped the essence of the competition.
Since Dumbledore did nothing, Jamison and Bagman naturally took no action either.
In the end, the judging panel made up of headmasters and Ministry officials tacitly allowed the contestants' outrageous tactic.
Seeing that the judges did not react, the contestants waiting on shore immediately relaxed.
Among them, some were contestants who had failed to find a suitable way to handle the underwater challenge.
Others had been deliberately left on shore by certain magical schools.
Their purpose was to target powerful contestants, steal their rewards, and eliminate them.
At first, they had been extremely uneasy, unsure whether such behaviour would be officially permitted.
Now that the officials had shown no reaction, it meant they had gambled correctly.
There were more than a dozen ambushers on shore.
The moment anyone surfaced, they would be greeted by over a dozen spells.
Even a dragon would struggle to withstand that.
Right now, they held an overwhelming advantage.
Seeing that the headmasters were not intervening, the students watching from the stands also understood what the judges meant.
Now they began worrying about the contestants from their own schools.
Cedric sank beneath the surface and calmly thought for a few seconds.
He quickly understood the situation.
Then he smiled.
He surfaced again.
This time, the instant he broke through the water, he cast a Shield Charm while simultaneously manipulating the mud on the shore to construct a wall of earth in front of himself.
The earthen wall and Shield Charm blocked the incoming spells, giving Cedric enough time to charge onto the shore.
One contestant refused to give up and cast a Stunning Spell at Cedric even after he had reached land.
Cedric immediately neutralised it, then retaliated in kind, knocking the tactless fellow unconscious.
Seeing how fierce Cedric was, the others immediately abandoned any thought of continuing the attack.
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12 Chaps ahead at Patreon.com/HornyFBI