The Calm Before the Black Lake
Something pretty interesting was happening in the Black Lake on the Hogwarts grounds.
In the middle of the freezing cold, every now and then several young people could be seen splashing around in the water, either swimming with all their strength or trying to use magic underwater while feeling the icy cold seep past their skin and straight into their bones.
But as if none of that mattered to them at all, the students kept training with everything they had, as if their lives depended on it.
The most interesting part was that every single one of them happened to be champions of the tournament currently taking place, which naturally made many people assume it had to be related to the next task of the competition, and that they were training for it.
Of course, the Weasley twins did not waste the opportunity and had already begun taking bets, from what the task could possibly be to who the eventual winner might be.
Normally, Daphne would have been making deals with them to make things… a little more fun, according to her. But this time, she seemed genuinely invested in her role as Victor Krum's helper, who was supposed to be a direct competitor from another school, being a student of Durmstrang.
And considering Daphne normally seemed to enjoy teasing him, the fact that she was now so stubbornly focused on helping him made her friends, Hermione, Draco, and Harry, look at her with a bit of interest.
The champions had gotten so intense with their training that even some of the professors had started to get a little worried about how excessive it was becoming.
Wanda and the other mothers were among them too.
But nothing they said seemed capable of calming them down, so all they could really do was keep an eye on them every now and then to make sure they did not get sick.
"These children, honestly…" Selene said while looking toward the Black Lake, where movement could be seen in different parts of the water, while near the shore, their friends seemed to be helping them keep track of time. After all, they had to remain submerged for one full hour, so they needed to test different spells and objects to make that possible.
"I'm not sure if I should be worried. They rarely take something this seriously," Susan added as well.
"It just shows how important those photos are to them," Wanda said with a small sigh. But she still could not stop the faint smile that appeared on her lips as she remembered Harry's most precious photo.
…
At last, the day of the third task had arrived.
And just as the champions had obviously guessed, it was going to take place in the Black Lake, where entire stands had been built in record time in just a single night. They surrounded the edges of the lake and somehow looked even bigger than the ones from the previous tasks, filled with far more people who seemed to have come from everywhere. You could even spot some foreigners from other continents, all interested in this school competition.
The amount of money being poured into it was obvious. In fact, other schools had already shown great interest in a future version of the competition that would include several schools in the same tournament, and not just the European ones.
But that would be a story for another day.
Right now, the stands were overflowing with people still looking for their seats while chatting away, creating a massive sea of noise and bodies. Taking full advantage of that, the Weasley twins seemed to have opened a small stand in one corner, selling items that supposedly belonged to the champions. And no, we are not talking about figures of them or shirts with their faces on them, but literal objects that, according to them, had been "acquired" from the champions themselves, such as feathers, ink, and even socks.
Naturally, their stock contained much more from Harry and Draco, who were the most accessible when it came to… borrowing things from them.
Other Hogsmeade shops had also asked for permission to open little stalls along the edges, something Sirius had approved, which quickly turned into dozens of little stalls swarmed by hundreds of people.
That, in turn, caused even more shop owners to come running back in a hurry to ask for permission as well, only to then sprint back to their stores and drag over their products.
And in the end, it turned into a massive little festival full of all kinds of stalls, which people gladly took advantage of while waiting for the champions to come out.
Billy and Tommy, who did not have much to do at the moment, were walking around those stalls and shopping peacefully.
"Hey, Billy, look at this," Tommy said while getting his brother's attention, making Billy turn around… only to freeze the moment he saw him.
Because what he was looking at right now was definitely Tommy's body.
But Harry's exact face.
"Cool, right?" Tommy said with Harry's face but his own voice coming out of his mouth, which honestly made the whole thing feel incredibly unsettling. Especially because Harry's head was slightly bigger, which gave the whole thing a rather strange deformation.
"Uh… yeah, I think," Billy said, not wanting to crush his brother's excitement. "Where did you even get that?" he could not help but ask, because someone was apparently making money using his older brother's face. Literally. And that probably was not very legal.
Or safe.
"Over there. Daphne's selling them. Along with transformation potions, some of Harry's potions, little golden Draco figurines… and grenades," Tommy said calmly, pointing toward a corner between the stalls where Daphne could be seen sitting there quite peacefully. The moment she noticed them looking, she raised her hand cheerfully and waved at them.
Billy opened his mouth several times as if to say something, but absolutely nothing came out.
"Aaah…"
Until he finally let out a resigned sigh and decided it was best to just keep walking.
As he continued walking with Tommy, who was still playing around with Harry's mask, he thought he caught sight of Astoria, Luna, and Ginny, and was about to call out to them.
But before he could, Astoria and Luna suddenly seemed to notice something.
Following their line of sight, Billy spotted a little girl, maybe around eight years old, who froze the moment she noticed the two of them staring at her. And then, without thinking twice, she turned around and started running with all the strength her tiny legs could possibly give her.
Billy recognized her as Fleur Delacour's little sister, Gabrielle.
The very next second, Luna and Astoria took off after her while Ginny tried to stop them, though she did not get very far before the poor little girl was suddenly caught, and the whole thing somehow turned into a kidnapping in broad daylight…
Surrounded by people.
Billy froze for a few moments while staring at the possible criminals with his mouth slightly open.
Almost instantly, he made a decision that was probably best for his family, and for his own life as well.
He looked in another direction as if he had seen absolutely nothing and simply started walking.
Tommy lifted his head, noticed his brother leaving, and just followed after him.
…
While looking for a somewhat quieter place until the task began, Tommy had already wandered off at some point while distracted, most likely entertaining himself with something else entirely.
Meanwhile, Billy had chosen to head closer to the Forbidden Forest. Before, as its name clearly suggested, it had been forbidden, but for some time now the creatures within had calmed down quite a bit. Especially with Red and his friends constantly roaming the area, which made it not all that dangerous, at least around the edges and inside Red's territory, which was basically the area surrounding Hogwarts.
Deeper inside the forest, though, that would probably be a different story. Especially with the Acromantula kingdom, the mountain trolls, and the centaurs.
Today, Terra seemed to have accepted some sort of mission from Harry to make sure the chaotic little troublemakers did not get themselves into anything too stupid.
Billy truly felt that the clean air in this place was always refreshing. He genuinely liked the castle quite a lot, full of magic he could learn, with his family there alongside him… although sometimes he still felt a little sad whenever he remembered the one member of his family who was missing.
But he really could not ask for much more.
He had his brothers, his mother, his friends…
And that was something that truly made him happy.
The strangest things in his daily life usually happened when his older brother and his friends ended up causing some kind of problem or chaos, or when Red himself dragged them all into trouble.
But to him, those were nothing more than small adventures.
Billy let out a faint smile, feeling that it would be genuinely silly to stay there by himself while such a large festival was happening nearby.
So he turned around to head back.
But something strange happened the moment he took a single step.
As he turned, he suddenly seemed to be standing in a strange place.
"Help…"
Completely dark.
Only the torches were visible in a round chamber, and not too far away, in the center of it, there seemed to be some kind of metallic serving dome.
"Help…"
Billy looked in every direction, confused by being in that place. Feeling strange, he looked down at his hands and realized his body seemed slightly transparent.
Really strange.
But the object in the center seemed to be calling to him.
But it was not a desperate cry.
It was a call…
And at the same time, it gave off a truly rotten, contaminated smell.
"HELP ME…!"
That voice shouted more like an order, while continuing to echo directly inside Billy's head without pause, making his head ache for a moment.
Billy touched his forehead briefly, but he still could not stop himself from wanting to move closer to that object.
The nearer he got, the more that stench of rot and contamination reached him, like old meat mixed with spoiled magic, making his stomach churn. At the same time, corrupt black smoke seemed to begin leaking out from beneath the serving dome, which had started shaking.
"HELP…!" whatever was inside screamed.
Billy moved closer while holding his breath so the smell would not reach him, but somehow it still felt like he could sense it anyway.
As if that thing were drawing him in.
And he lifted his hand to grab the dome.
Just as he was about to touch it and see what was underneath, a hand suddenly rested on his shoulder.
Billy jolted and spun around, raising his hands in guard while his chaos magic swirled around him, preparing for an attack.
"Billy? What are you doing out here alone?" Harry asked, revealing himself as the one who had appeared there.
The moment Billy saw his brother, he calmed down almost immediately and looked around, realizing that he was once again standing at the edge of the Forbidden Forest.
He looked at his hands and noticed they were normal again.
"Are you okay?" Harry asked when he saw how confused he looked.
"Ah, yeah. I… just…"
"Did you have that strange vision again?" Harry asked while looking at him closely.
After the last strange vision Billy had experienced, he had told both his brother and his mother about it, and both of them believed that perhaps Billy's prophetic ability had begun to awaken.
Although whatever Wanda had seen, she apparently had not been able to find it, which was honestly rather strange.
"Yeah. Someone was asking for help, but… I felt like they really didn't deserve it," Billy said while looking at his brother in confusion.
Harry stared into his eyes for a moment.
"You should go see Mom. Maybe she'll be able to see something," Harry said while ruffling Billy's hair to calm him down.
"Yeah. I'll do that," Billy said with a small nod, though he still looked like he was thinking about something that bothered him.
So in the end, he simply said goodbye to Harry and quickly left in search of his mother.
Harry watched his brother leave, then shifted his gaze toward the ground near where Billy had been standing earlier.
His eyes suddenly turned red and began moving as they scanned the area, as if he were trying to find something, until he finally seemed to spot it near the edge of the forest.
As he got closer, it looked like nothing more than a small ordinary hole.
But right in the center of it, there was a tiny scorched mark, as if something had climbed out of hell itself…
And then dragged itself back down.
Harry stared at that spot for a moment with a frown, then raised his hand and clenched it.
The earth around that exact point suddenly seemed to compress…
And then returned to normal.
After that, he turned around and left, since it was time to prepare for the tournament.