Ever since discovering their new method, Harry and Ron had felt positively cheerful. There was no effort involved: all it took was a gentle tap of a wand, and the little boat shot forward.
Now this was how wizards ought to do things!
Harry thought so, and said as much. Ron wholeheartedly agreed with him. No longer having to work those stupid oars had lifted his spirits immensely.
Neither of them knew about the little stir their clever trick had caused among the Tournament Committee. Of course, even if they had known, they would not have cared.
Harry and Ron beamed as they watched the people behind them fall farther and farther back.
By now, more than ten minutes had passed since the Second Task began, and Ilvermorny, in the third batch, had already set off. Apparently, though, no one besides Harry and Ron had thought of using magic to speed up their boat.
Beauxbatons had been overtaken first by Durmstrang and then by Nanyang Magic School, but the two great beauties could do nothing about it.
Meanwhile, Harry and Ron had already rounded the cliff. From this angle, they could see Hogwarts Castle in the distance. The dock on the opposite shore was still so far away that it was completely out of sight, however. They therefore could not see what was happening in the spectator stands there, much less know that the spectators had very different feelings about their cleverness.
All they knew was that they had discovered one of the related challenges later in the task that Bagman had mentioned earlier.
A small floating island had appeared a few dozen meters ahead of them.
The island measured roughly twenty or thirty square meters, with a small flag planted on it, clearly out of concern that the Champions