The tremors at the bottom of the lake grew increasingly violent, as though some enormous creature were turning over deep within the earth's crust.
Pheobe and Krum immediately grew wary, instinctively assuming that the alchemical base had activated a self-destruct sequence after they took rubbings of its core Ancient Runes.
Yet the explosion or deadly Jinxes they expected never came.
Instead, enormous, multicolored bubbles erupted without warning from between the rocks and sand of the lakebed.
The bubbles were huge and sticky, shimmering with rainbow hues in the lingering glow of the magical lights, utterly at odds with the aesthetics of any conventional offensive magic.
As though alive, they charged straight at the two Champions with a cheerful, ill-intentioned energy.
The absurd sight left even the two battle-hardened Champions momentarily stunned.
"Get out of the way!" Pheobe reacted first, immediately channeling her magic and darting sideways like a nimble mermaid.
Krum propelled himself away at the same time, his athletic figure tracing a clean arc through the water.
But the bubbles seemed to have trackers installed.
No matter how they turned or accelerated, the sticky bubbles followed like shadows, relentlessly pursuing them.
An enormous pink bubble smelling of strawberries precisely anticipated Krum's accelerating course and scooped him up from below.
Krum felt as though he had crashed into an enormous mass of sweet jelly.
He could breathe, but every movement of his limbs felt like wrestling with marshmallow, slow and powerless.
Seeing this, Pheobe immediately turned, preparing to slice open the ridiculous "prison" with a Severing Charm.
But she had clearly underestimated the intelligence of the Weasley Twins' products.
Another equally enormous blue bubble had already been lurking beneath her, and now, like a gigantic flower unfurling, it securely "caught" her too.
Now both Champions, who had overcome their inner