Harry and Ron's teamwork was beyond question. Neither really knew how to row, but even if they had never done it themselves, they had seen it done, and their efforts looked reasonably convincing.
At least they were doing much better than the two beauties from Beauxbatons.
But less than two minutes into rowing, Harry's shoulders began to ache.
"Ron, do your shoulders hurt?" Harry asked.
"A little..." Ron admitted.
Neither of them knew how to row, so naturally they did not know how to apply force with the least effort while keeping the boat moving more steadily and quickly.
As a result, their shoulders and arms were aching after only a short while. Yet they could not slow down. After all, their biggest advantage at the moment was their early start.
Their one small consolation was that the two beauties from Beauxbatons behind them seemed to be struggling even more. Their boat had spun in place several times before finally leaving the dock, and Harry and Ron had already pulled dozens of meters ahead.
"We can't keep this up, can we?" Harry said. He looked at the cliffs faintly visible at the other end of the Black Lake. From this angle, the castle was still out of sight.
"Even a magically propelled boat takes over half an hour to cover this distance. At this rate, we won't even be able to lift our arms in ten minutes. Can we really row all the way across?"
"Do you have any ideas?" Ron asked.
"Hmm..." Harry thought hard, but for the moment, he could not come up with anything.
He and Ron sat back to back, unable to see each other's expressions. But Ron could sense Harry's struggle. He also saw that while they were talking, the two from the Durmstrang Institute