"So amazing—no wonder you're Wade Grey!"
Clémentine wiped the water from her face and knelt on the shore, while Madam Pomfrey draped a warm blanket over her.
The girl pulled the blanket tightly around herself, her lips had turned blue from the cold, but she still laughed and said:
"I deliberately chose the trickiest angle to ambush you, and you still managed to dodge! Where are Miss Kitajima and Adam?"
Wade didn't answer. Seeing that there was no chance to drag her back into the water, he wasn't discouraged. He simply cast a spell to restore himself to his original form.
Moments later, his tail transformed back into legs, the scales became trousers, and the gills on his neck melted seamlessly into his skin.
He rose out of the lake, dripping with water, and walked step by step toward the shore.
Clémentine's eyes darted up and down openly, as though appreciating the view with a perfectly justified air, though her smile carried a mix of shyness and embarrassment.
Wade couldn't be bothered to look at her. As soon as he neared the shore, Madam Pomfrey grabbed him and wrapped him tightly in a heavy blanket. A bottle of pungent potion was immediately shoved at his lips.
"Drink this quickly!" Madam Pomfrey said hastily. "Keeping students underwater for hours on end, even putting them in mortal danger—Dumbledore must be mad to approve of such a tournament!"
At times, Madam Pomfrey's pressure could surpass even Professor McGonagall's—especially when she started fussing endlessly about your safety. Even Snape wouldn't dare argue then.
Wade didn't say a word. He obediently drank down the Pepper-Up potion, and at once, streams of hot steam hissed out from his ears.
"Alright, your competition is over now," Madam Pomfrey said in a gentler tone. "Go to that tent over there and rest for a while."
"I'd like to see how the others are doing, Madam," Wade replied.
"Me too!" Clémentine chimed in, raising her hand.
Madam Pomfrey's stern gaze swept over them both. Seeing that their condition wasn't too bad, she didn't insist further and hurried off.
Wade casually found an open spot to sit, placed two extra wands on the ground, and looked toward the streaming mirror.
Clémentine soon sat down beside him, bracing herself on the ground with both hands. She tilted her head back to watch the screen and sighed:
"Such bad luck… If only they could do nonverbal spells, maybe they would stand a chance."
On the screen, Kitajima Tachibana and Adam Cagney were struggling after a moment of stillness, but not much. It looked more like they were trembling in sync with the strands of algae.
Because of that, they remained trapped, no different from most wizards who lose their wands—weak and helpless.
"It's not that simple."
This time Wade spoke up. In a low voice, he said: "Underwater, every ten meters deeper adds another atmosphere of pressure. They're down at over forty meters…"
He paused before continuing:
"The pressure of the lake water makes their eardrums ache which could cause their judgment to falter, and it triggers a state similar to drunkenness. At this point, they might not even remember which spells they should be casting."
"So that's why you dragged them into such deep water?"
Clémentine leaned a little closer with curiosity shining in her eyes and asked: "How do you even know all this? Don't tell me you've been sneaking into the depths of the Black Lake on treasure hunts before?"
"How could I possibly do that?" Wade said. "There are plenty of dangerous creatures in the Black Lake—anyone with a sane mind wouldn't just dive in at will."
"Then maybe I'm the one who's not sane?" Clémentine grinned. "If I could turn into a mermaid too, I'd want to swim through every sea. I'd go to places no one's ever been, and see sights no one has ever seen!"
Wade couldn't help but turn his head to look at her.
This girl, who had shamelessly ambushed him not long ago, now had eyes that sparkled, as if they carried the glow of some dream or ideal.
Not far away, several Aurors hovered above the lake on broomsticks, occasionally checking the time and glancing toward the judges' table.
Most people's eyes, however, never strayed from the streaming mirror.
Wizards usually only knew the beauty of the skies; they had no idea about the invisible threats of deep-sea pressure. So the helpless struggles of the two contestants looked baffling to them.
"Why isn't Adam using a Severing Charm?" Ilvermorny's Seraphina clenched her fists anxiously. "Cut through the kelp and get out!"
"Fire-Making, Blasting, or even a counter to Binding spells would work!" the students from the Mahoutokoro muttered among themselves. "Anything at all—just escape first!"
But unfortunately, the two in the water couldn't hear their advice. After struggling for a while, Adam—who relied on a Muggle scuba tank to move freely underwater—gradually ran out of oxygen. His body suddenly convulsed violently.
His air tank was hidden elsewhere in the lake and couldn't possibly be retrieved instantly. Under stress and strenuous movement, the oxygen inside had been used up much faster.
Nearby, Kitajima Tachibana saw his eyes bulging, wide with despair, and instantly understood.
She gritted her teeth, staring at the endless black kelp surrounding them, and suddenly her thoughts became razor-sharp—
In such a short time, it was almost impossible that any champion would return to shore.
And even if someone did return, the chance they would notice the two of them, nearly buried in the kelp, was close to zero.
At a moment like this, there was only one option…
Kitajima glanced at the small blue fish recording their struggle nearby. Tilting her head back, she took a deep breath, and her magic surged.
Pop!
The bubble enclosing her head suddenly burst, and the lake water rushed in, kissing her pale face.
On the judges' table, two sparks shot upward.
Madam Fujiwara's face was like stone, while Ilvermorny's Agilbert let out a helpless sigh.
The Aurors raised their wands, and in moments, a surge of lake water erupted like a volcano from the depths, hurling the two students violently to the surface. In midair, their respective headmasters caught them with a sweep of their wands.
"Ugh—"
Adam and Kitajima Tachibana groaned at the same time, spitting out blood-flecked foam, while warm blood gushed from their noses.
When their bodies hit the ground, they convulsed like fish out of water and spiderweb-like red marks spread across their skin.
"Heavens!" someone in the stands exclaimed. "What kind of magic causes this? I've never seen such terrifying injuries!"
Bagman opened his mouth—only to realize that his line had just been stolen.
Meanwhile, Clémentine asked in shock: "What happened?"
She glanced at Wade in secret, unable to believe he would use such terrifying dark magic in full view of everyone—the two of them looked on the brink of death!
At the judges' table, many of the nearby Aurors cast dangerous glances at Wade.
"This isn't magic." Wade's voice was calm and clear.
"When you rise rapidly from dozens of meters underwater, water pressure drops by more than eighty percent in just seconds. The gases dissolved in the blood rapidly escape and form bubbles, and those bubbles rampage through their blood vessels."
Clémentine tilted her head, thought for a moment, then said: "I don't really get it, but… is it kind of like opening a shaken-up beer bottle?"
She spread her fingers wide with a pop sound.
Wade nodded. "That's pretty much it."
The hostile gazes withdrew from him, though the Aurors who had just carried out the "rescue (or murder)" looked awkward, tinged with suspicion.
Wade hadn't expected the Ministry's Aurors to use such a rough method of "rescue." If those two hadn't been wizards, they might have suffered burst lungs and died on the spot.
Madam Pomfrey didn't check them for traces of dark curses. Instead, she produced a vial that gave off purple smoke.
"Drink this! With injuries like these… you'll need at least two days in the infirmary."
With a look of deep concern, Madam Pomfrey waved her wand, and the crystal vial floated to the lips of the two students, whose pupils were faintly dilating.
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⭐Harry Potter: Becoming a Study God (HP:BSG)- 200+ Chapters
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