By the time the last champion, Markov Horton, returned to the ground, Jacob Covenas, the thirteenth champion to return before him, had already been back for more than fifteen minutes.
Even so, the entire task had taken only an hour and a half, with every participant completing it.
That was quite different from the Tournament Committee's earlier expectation that two or three champions would still struggle to finish after two hours.
Credit where it was due: the champions from seven schools around the world were a little more capable than the British Tournament Committee's task planners had anticipated.
Horton looked awful when he landed. Whether it was because his swaying flight on those wings had made him dizzy or because he had come last was unclear.
Still, now that he was back, the task was officially over.
Almost the instant he landed, the enormous Sky-Piercing Vine behind him began shrinking rapidly. In just a few breaths, the massive vine, which had stretched into the clouds with its top out of sight, had shrunk to a little over a meter tall, then turned straight into a seed.
"Barty did say they'd take it down as soon as the competition ended, but I didn't expect it to happen this quickly," Bagman muttered. "I was thinking I'd go up and have a look, even if we only had half an hour."
The other spectators nearby, wizards young and old, all nodded. Clearly, Bagman was not the only one with that idea. Well, seen that way, the Tournament Committee really had made the right choice by putting it away immediately.
Bagman merely grumbled before saying cheerfully, "I'm guessing they'll definitely use this interesting task again in the next Triwizard Tournament. Of course, the specifics of the task will certainly change. But I think we'll