The third latch supposedly bickered with the second. It made a bit more sense now. The second latch needed ice, so he shot a jet of boiling water at the third. After a few seconds, the latch popped open, closing just as quickly when he finished his spell. Harry realized the problem immediately. He could, with a bit more effort, freeze a bigger block of ice for the middle lock easily. But the first lock took thirty seconds of fresh water and closed after one second. The last lock took about five seconds of boiling water and also closed after one second. He sat around for a few moments, thinking about what to do. He either needed a more permanent source of fresh water or heat. He pulled out his map, looking over all the little notes that he and Hermione had made over the past few days.
The boiling coral! he realized. The nearest batch was at the abandoned mer-village, where the selkies liked to play. Harry picked up the chest and began to swim as fast as he could. It took him about fifteen minutes to get there while lugging the chest with him, forcing him to take out another dose of gillyweed on the way. He did pass by the huge, jellice ice-structure along the way and thought about breaking off a chunk of ice, but he could freeze the water easily enough, now that he knew he just had to give the spell a bit of extra strength. As he reached the coral, he saw the selkies playing again, this time a few of them had skewered some jellices on bits of wood (presumably from the shipwreck) and were cooking them on the coral. I wonder what they taste like. He didn't waste any time trying it, though, as he picked up a rock and broke off a chunk of the coral, which continued to bubble as it fell into the sand below. Realizing he needed to pick it up, he transfigured the rock into a pair of tongs, then stuck the piece of coral to the third lock with a simple sticking charm. Five seconds later, the latch clicked open and stayed open. Harry quickly poured as much effort as he could freezing the water at the tip of his wand. Within seconds, he had a fist-sized block of ice, which he stuck to the middle latch with another sticking charm. The ice block was melting rapidly beside the burning coral, and Harry hoped it would last long enough for him to open the first as well. He shot a strong jet of fresh water at the first latch, constantly watching the block of ice shrink. It had diminished to the size of a pea when all thre clicked open and the lid swung open. The plate at the top of the chest flashed again, now displaying a second time of 1:08:26. Harry breathed a sigh of relief as he scooped up the egg. The entire chest disappeared when he had the egg in his hands.
He quickly swam back to the docks, but then realized the problem. He just ate the gillyweed a few minutes ago. He'd have to wait about twenty mintues for it to wear off before he could climb out of the water. He glumly lingered just below the dock, swimming back and forth with nothing to do. A few minutes later, a few selkies swam up to him, wanting to play. They were eyeing the egg. Harry instinctively gripped the egg tighter, and, to be safe, cast the strongest non-permanent sticking charm on it. One lunged towards the egg just after he completed the charm, and he spun out of the way. The other selkies laughed as they copied the first one, each one lunching towards the egg as Harry pulled it out of their path at the last second. A few of them came close to grabbing the egg, while some others crashed right into him. He knew it was against the rules to hurt the selkies, and he didn't want to hurt them anyway. They were just being playful, after all. The impromptu game of bullfighting ended when Harry felt the gillyweed wearing off and he swam to the surface as quickly as he could.
He was greeted with loud cheers and applause as his final time came out to be just under one and a half hours. He stepped into the medical tent for his checkup, where the mediwitches congratulated him, saying, "You've won first place in this event! Fantastic show, Mr. Potter!" He was a bit perplexed by this as he saw Krum sitting outside the tent.
"I won?" he asked. "Isn't Krum the winner? I saw him outside."
"Oh, well... you'll find out about that when they ask for the scores," the mediwitch said. "Just between you and me... well, I'm not supposed to say this, you know, healer-patient confidentiality and all, but... you probably shouldn't talk to him right now. He's... grumpier than usual."
The mediwitch unstuck the egg from his hand for him, and after everything else checked out, they sent him to the dressing-room tent, where he put on warm robes and shoes. Back outside, Harry looked towards the stands, hoping to catch a glimpse of Hermione. He couldn't see her anywhere. He then looked further, towards the journalist and photographers' section, hoping to see her keeping Skeeter busy. No such luck there, either. Sighing, he slumped down onto a chair to watch how Cedric and Fleur were doing on the images projected by the display orbs. Cedric still toting his chest along, probably in search of the boiling coral or something else to help him with the latches. Fleur was chasing down some selkies who had taken her trunk, but since they couldn't cast spells against them, and Fleur was far from graceful in the water, she was having trouble getting it back. The audience was concentrating on her, which was the most amusing thing to watch at the moment. Harry wondered if they had watched him play with the selkies for twenty minutes before climbing out, as well. The trial ended just before the time limit, after two hours and fifty minutes. Fleur had taken the longest, and could only get her chest back after the selkies got bored with it. Cedric finished not too long after Harry began watching. It was now time to announce the scores.
"In fourth place is Mr. Viktor Krum of Durmstrang, with a score of eighteen points. Mr. Krum was the second to find a chest, which earned him twenty points. Unfortunately, when a few selkies decided to have some fun, he cast a spell against them, which is an infraction that cost him ten points as well as the rest of the trial. He did earn back eight points for demonstrating a strong swimming ability and an excellent offensive against a pack of grindylows. Mr. Krum will enter the final task without an egg from the Trial of Water."
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