I Held You When You Were Little

Seeing Harry's actions, the other two warriors who were taking off their clothes froze on the spot.

They certainly didn't expect that Harry would not only not go into the water, but would instead use such powerful magic to throw it into the water.

No, pigeons?

Are you frying fish here?

After throwing a few spells, Harry stood still and didn't move.

"Why are you all looking at me?" He glanced at Phoebe and Viktor. "I'm just calling for help. If you want to save people, hurry up and go down."

"You didn't cast that weird spell, did you?" Phoebe asked tentatively.

The spectacular scene of the entire Black Lake almost collapsing was truly terrifying.

"Oh, how could that be?" Harry chuckled. "I was just calling someone. You guys continue—you guys continue."

After receiving Harry's answer, Phoebe and Viktor were finally relieved.

They struck a pose, Phoebe cast a Bubble-Head Charm on herself, while Viktor transformed his head into a shark's head.

It was clear that the shark wasn't breathing easily on the shore. Viktor clutched his neck for a moment before remembering he should jump into the water.

Just then, Dumbledore walked over.

"I know you'd love to win using special methods, but frying fish—"

Dumbledore glanced back at the restless lake and said to Harry, "It's not a very good choice."

We need to respect the rules of the game, don't you think, Harry?

Seeing that Harry wanted to say something more, Dumbledore stopped him from arguing.

"But the problem is, I need to remind you, Merpeople can't come out of the water to talk to you, Harry —that's my order."

"Fine." Harry shrugged, flicked his wand, and walked into the lake.

The lake water was indeed icy cold, but that didn't bother Harry.

The wonder of Ancient Magic lies in the fact that he can completely avoid the effects of water on him; he can feel not only the coldness, but also not even a trace of dampness.

Visibility in Black Lake was low; he could only see about ten feet in the water. The entire area was dark and foggy, and there was complete silence. He couldn't hear what the people above the lake were making.

The little fish swam nimbly past him, like silver darts.

On one or two occasions, he seemed to see a big thing moving in front of him, but when he swam closer, he found that it was just a big, dark log or a clump of dense, tangled water plants.

He walked in the water for a long time but still couldn't find where the three hostages were hiding.

So he pulled out his wand.

"Oh, isn't this Harry?"

Myrtle's voice rang in his ears. Harry looked in the direction of the voice and saw the translucent Myrtle swimming around in the lake, looking extremely content.

"Myrtle?" Harry greeted her in surprise. "What are you doing here? Did someone rush out of the bathroom again?"

Myrtle's face immediately turned very ugly.

"Oh dear," she said, "I came to watch your match, how did I end up being flushed down the toilet? Do you really think poor Myrtle would be flushed away like that when she was on guard?"

"Oh, sorry," Harry said apologetically, raising his wand.

"Revelio (Revealing Charm)!"

Centered on the tip of the wand, a transparent light curtain rapidly expanded in all directions in a spherical shape.

Through magic, Harry not only located the three hostages, but also saw several red outlines appearing under his feet.

It's Grindylow.

Just then, several Grindylow emerged from the seaweed, grabbed Harry's robes, and desperately pulled him down.

The Grindylow, who were pulling with great enthusiasm, suddenly felt as if their bodies were riding a rocket, rising rapidly upwards.

Immediately, they burst out of the water like cannonballs, screaming as they flew into the air, before crashing heavily back down in the High Table.

If Dumbledore hadn't reacted quickly and used Slowing Charm, they probably would have been hit squarely by Grindylow.

Harry did it on purpose, Dumbledore thought, because I didn't let him sit on the shore and reap the benefits.

After dealing with Grindylow, seeing the fate of his companions, the remaining Grindylow stopped in their tracks and stood still.

No one wanted to be the first to stick their neck out and get hit by this terrifying human's magic, losing their life in the process.

Harry ignored them, and just then, the singing suddenly started.

"There's only one hour left."

In order to find and retrieve the items we took, Harry noticed that the direction from which the singing was coming was the same as the location where the Charms had just been applied.

He walked in that direction, with Myrtle following closely behind. Soon, he saw a large rock appear in the murky lake ahead, painted with many Merpeople holding spears and chasing something that looked like Giant squid.

Oh, Harry remembers.

He and Veratia had also been here before, and had a friendly and cordial conversation with the Merpeople here.

If I remember correctly, this is the Merpeople village.

He continued walking forward, and before he had gone far, he suddenly saw many rough stone dwellings all around, covered with Scabbers of algae.

Faces emerged from the windows of those cramped apartments, looking both familiar and strange.

Merpeople have iron-gray skin and long, messy, dark green hair. Their eyes are yellow, as are their broken teeth, and they wear pebbles strung together with thick ropes around their necks.

As Harry swam by, they smiled at him maliciously.

One or two, wanting a better view, even ran out of the cave, carrying spears and slapping the lake water with their thick, powerful silver fish tails.

Harry walked forward, glancing around as he went.

It should be said that the difference between here and a hundred years ago is not that great. It is clear that the social progress of Merpeople is still far behind that of humans.

Soon, more and more stone dwellings appeared, some even surrounded by gardens, and some even had a small Grindylow tied to the door.

Merpeople emerged from all directions, staring at him curiously, pointing at him, and whispering among themselves while covering their mouths.

Harry quickly turned a corner, and a very peculiar sight appeared before him.

The place seemed to be the square of Merpeople village, surrounded by some houses. In front of the houses Leviosa a large group of Merpeople, some of Merpeople were singing in unison, calling for warriors to come over.

Behind them stood a crude statue: a Merperson carved from a giant stone.

Three people were firmly bound to the tail of the Merperson statue.

Surrounding the hostages stood many Merpeople holding spears.

Harry quickly identified the leader of the Merpeople, who had a long green beard and wore a short necklace made of shark teeth and looked to be about seven feet tall.

"You can only take one human with you!" the Merpeople said.

"Oh, I didn't intend to take anyone else with me either," Harry shrugged and said to the Merpeople. "Help me untie that redhead and get him out of the Black Lake."

The Merpeople seemed to have heard a joke, and she clutched her stomach, laughing so hard she almost fell over.

The surrounding Merpeople laughed as well. The lead Merpeople laughed for a while, then raised her head and said, "We will not help you, human child—you will have to find a way to take the person back yourself."

"So, there's no room for negotiation?" Harry drew his wand.

"You are the first wizard to dare to take out a wand underwater, human child." The leading Merpeople straightened up and waved.

The other Merpeople, each wielding a spear, immediately surrounded them, looking as if they were facing a formidable enemy.

"Not necessarily. Before me—oh, come to think of it, the last wizard who dared to pull out a wand at you underwater..."

That was me too.

Harry said, "Look," and the wand was pointed at the leading Merpeople.

Just as the two sides were on the verge of exchanging blows, a mermaid with gray hair and an extremely old Merpeople swam out from a small house not far away.

"Wait!" the Merpeople shouted. "We promised Dumbledore we wouldn't clash with the warriors, Cleo!"

"But it's clear that the warriors want to clash with us!" Cleo stared intently at Harry. "Carmen, look at this—I've never seen such a brave wizard before!"

Carmen?

The name sounds familiar; Harry feels like he's heard it somewhere before.

"Oh, he wasn't the first," Carmen stroked her beard and said. "A hundred years ago, two young wizards came to the bottom of the lake and also offered us their wands—."

oh·-·

Harry remembered.

Carmen and Veratia did indeed have a conflict with the Merpeople in the Black Lake, but they later became friends, thanks to the flexibility of the then-chief Vieri.

As the old saying goes among Merpeople, those who can see the situation clearly are the true heroes.

The clan chief had a young son named Carmen.

"Carmen?" Harry called out. "You really are Carmen? I used to hold you when you were little."

Hearing Harry's outrageous words, Cleo gripped his spear tightly, about to rebuke him, but Carmen stopped him.

The Merpeople swam slowly over, ignoring the tribesmen's attempts to stop him, and came to Harry's side to take a closer look.

"Mr. Potter?" he asked in surprise.

"Looks like you still remember me, Carmen." Harry chuckled as he put away his wand. "A hundred years is a long time; I thought you'd forgotten me long ago."

"Even if I forget someone, I'll never forget you and Miss Grindelwald," Carmen said with a sigh. "By the way, where's Miss Grindelwald?"

"She didn't participate in the competition," Harry replied with a shrug.

Carmen breathed a sigh of relief almost imperceptibly.

Well, it's good that I didn't participate in the competition.

He couldn't imagine what would happen if Miss Grindelwald participated in the competition and Mr. Potter was the hostage.

After exchanging pleasantries for a while, Carmen instructed Cleo, "Since you're old friends, then make your preparations."

"Get Mr. Potter's friend back to shore—well, don't worry, Dumbledore will understand."

"Okay." Cleo frowned, looking at Harry and then at Carmen, unable to understand why Harry told his grandfather, "I used to hold you when you were little," and his usually short-tempered grandfather wasn't angry.

Of course, he has never been one to talk too much, which is one of his few good qualities.

"Thank you, Carmen," Harry said to him. "It's really nice to see you here. I'll head back now, though, because the judges will deduct points if I get back too late."

Then he added, "Oh, by the way, if those two haven't arrived by the time it's time, send the other two hostages back."

"Don't worry, Mr. Potter," Carmen assured him with a smile, "We won't harm either of them."

Cleo walked over to Ron, cut the ropes binding him with his knife, and together with the two Merpeople, carried him to the surface of the water.

Harry followed behind, strolling leisurely, showing no sign of nervousness whatsoever.

Just then, a fish-headed man swam over—he had a human body, wore swimming trunks, and had a shark's head on top; it was Viktor.

Harry remembered the Charms he cast before entering the water—a not-so-successful Transfiguration, but one that was still quite effective.

The half-human, half-shark Viktor swam straight toward his hostage, tearing and biting at the ropes binding her. The problem was that Krum's new teeth had a strange structure, making it awkward for him to bite anything smaller than a dolphin. Moreover, Harry was certain that Krum's movements were not careful; he was practically tearing the hostage in two.

"Let's go." Harry didn't care much about what Viktor was doing; he simply told Cleo and the others to head upstairs.

Viktor turned around and saw the Merpeople carrying Ron in front of Harry. A strange expression appeared on his shark-like face.

It was like seeing a ghost.

Harry and his friends continued swimming upwards, the sunlight growing brighter and brighter, until they reached the surface of the water. Harry leaped up and stood firmly on the lake.

Although he had been in the lake for quite a while, his clothes were not wet and his hair was still dry.

It's my glasses... my glasses got wet.

Upon seeing Harry, the surrounding students erupted in enthusiastic cheers.

They knew that Harry must have succeeded, otherwise he wouldn't have swum up at this time.

Then, something even stranger happened.

Following closely behind Harry were three Merpeople, who were carrying Ron in their Harry.

"Let's go," Harry said to the three Merpeople. "Just drop him off on the shore. Thank you so much."

"You're welcome," Cleo said with an extremely strange expression.

He was thinking to himself, "If Grandpa hadn't spoken up, I wouldn't have bothered bringing him up here."

As Harry walked to the shore, he saw Dumbledore also coming down, his face very serious, as if he were waiting for someone.

Sure enough, after they put Ron down, ignoring Ron's two coughs as he slowly woke up, Dumbledore asked, "Cleo, what happened?"