Delacour and Harry reached the Merpeople Village almost one after the other. Just as Harry began pulling Cho Chang toward the surface, she arrived in the clearing.
With a human torso and a fish tail, she could use her wand directly. She clearly did not know the Sword Beam Spell, however, and had to cut through the ropes bit by bit with ordinary cutting magic, though she was not much slower.
But Harry had returned to human form before using magic to bring Cho Chang up, making him a little slower than Pheobe with her mermaid form and magic combined. As a result, the two reached the surface almost at the same time.
Pheobe glanced at Harry. "Are you planning to swim back to shore like that?"
"Why not? It's not that far." Harry gazed toward Hogwarts Castle, where he could see the platform set up beside the Black Lake and the Spectral Screens floating in the air.
The Black Lake was deep enough, with very complicated terrain below and a great many magical creatures gathered there. But its surface was not actually all that wide.
"Enjoy your swim, then." Pheobe smiled coolly and had her little sister wrap her arms around her neck from behind. With a sweep of her enormous tail, she swam toward shore.
She was considerably slower than she had been while searching for her sister, but still far faster than someone swimming normally.
"Hey..." Harry glanced at Pheobe rapidly swimming away and grew anxious. But the only Animal Transfiguration he knew was turning into a penguin, and a penguin certainly could not carry Cho Chang.
Was he supposed to flounder toward shore with Cho Chang in tow?
Absolutely not!
How could he embarrass himself like that in front of the girl he loved?
Although he