What Was Hiding Below?
Seeing all eyes on the two of them, Fleur quickly pushed Harry away and got up, pulling herself out of his embrace. Harry couldn't help letting out a slightly forced smile before standing as well, acting completely calm, like nothing had happened. Though when he took a step, he accidentally stepped on the edge of the dock and nearly fell, only to recover himself quickly.
Wanda, who knew him perfectly, couldn't help letting out a faint smile for a moment before turning to look at the other champions to make sure they were all completely fine.
Victor still had the shark head when he surfaced, though it quickly started losing its effect while he wore an expression somewhere between annoyed and fed up. Meanwhile, Marton was completely pale, half-standing, looking like he was about two seconds away from collapsing into a fetal position from the fear he had just gone through.
The only one who actually looked calm was Luciel, who was standing right beside Victor, clearly seeming to enjoy bothering him.
For his part, Draco looked pale, his brow furrowed deeply enough that it almost looked like a storm was passing through his mind. Harry felt like it was the first time he had ever seen that expression on his best friend's face, so he walked over.
"Are you alright?" he asked, sensing the way Draco's emotions were fluctuating.
Draco lifted his gaze as if he had only just realized he was standing outside the lake, and looked at Harry for a moment.
"Yes, I…" Draco suddenly shut his mouth as if hesitating over something. "I'm fine," he added before forcing his expression to calm down. But his gaze drifted straight back toward the lake, while his brow furrowed once more.
Harry looked at him for a moment, but then turned his head toward his mother, who raised her hand slightly. Then a wave of reddish energy swept from the docks toward the lake, covering it completely in barely an instant.
Wanda frowned, showing a trace of confusion before repeating the same motion again, making the red energy become even brighter and stronger.
It made everyone feel a wave of magical pressure sweep through the area.
It swept through the entire lake all the way to the bottom.
Then Wanda seemed to find something and closed her hand tightly. At different points across the lake, the water suddenly shook as if several things had exploded beneath the surface with great force.
"That should take care of it. But…" Wanda looked toward Sirius for a moment, her brow still furrowed. "It would be better if no one goes back into the water," she said seriously.
"I wasn't planning to send them back in anyway, but could you tell me why?" Sirius asked, looking at her with confusion at Wanda's distrust, considering she had just cleaned out the lake herself.
"I failed to find them the first time. I couldn't even sense them entering Hogwarts' grounds," Wanda said with a genuinely serious expression. And hearing that from her sounded far worse than anyone there wanted it to.
Those words made Sirius lift his gaze immediately.
"Is it like with… Karcher?" he asked in a serious tone.
Wanda gave a slight nod. At that, the adults' expressions turned truly serious. Especially Wanda's.
Because if someone had managed to get in without her noticing, then that meant the problem was far bigger than it looked.
"Then let's end this trial immediately," Sirius said, turning around to look at the other judges, who probably didn't fully understand what they were talking about.
"Wait, Black. I can accept ending the trial, but at the very least Victor should still receive the points. After all, he reached the chests," Karkaroff said almost instantly, wearing a truly irritated expression mixed with a forced smile.
Sirius frowned at that, because it seemed like Karkaroff cared more about victory than the safety of his own champions. Or at least only Victor's. He hadn't even gone over to Marton, who was currently being attended to by Madame Pomfrey, who was giving him a calming potion.
"If that's the case, then Harry should receive the points too, but you don't see me making myself a nuisance over it. Besides, even if he reached the chests, we all saw it; he couldn't even get close. In that case, there could only have been one champion in this trial," Sirius added, looking at him directly as if he were an idiot.
"He cheated. And the Potter boy simply threw away his victory to go save the little princess," Karkaroff added angrily.
"Watch your words, Karkaroff. You are speaking about my students," Madame Maxime said with a slight show of anger, while her enormous frame alone already made her look a little intimidating. Seeing her angry was not really the most enjoyable thing.
Even Karkaroff seemed to realize that instantly, since he took a slight step back before his pride stopped him from showing fear.
"Well. But the points should still be awarded properly, in any case," Karkaroff added at once.
"Well, that would probably be fair. At the very least, points should be given for the work they did during this trial. Especially young Luciel Delacour, and Harry for risking his victory," Ludo added at once, as always showing his support for Harry, which as always felt genuinely strange.
While the judges seemed to be arguing, Harry moved slightly closer to Luciel, who looked genuinely calm. It seemed he had gotten lucky enough not to run into anything dangerous in the lake.
"What are they talking about?" Harry asked him, because he could already guess they were talking about something he himself had done.
"Oh, well. About that…" Luciel made a faintly amused expression as he remembered. "I think I became friends with the giant squid, and it took me straight to the chests. And Victor was already there, but when he saw it appear, he got scared and ran off at full speed," Luciel said while holding back the laughter threatening to come out as he looked toward Victor, who made a genuinely annoyed face while avoiding Luciel's gaze.
Luciel teasing him only made it worse, especially knowing that everyone had most likely seen what happened on the screens. Especially that damn demon girl. He could already feel a mocking stare coming from the nearby stands, from exactly where she should be.
"Wait. What's going to happen to our objects? If the trial ends, then do we lose them?" Fleur asked with real urgency.
At that, all of the champions immediately seemed to react and looked toward the judges. Especially Sirius.
Sirius, who seemed to suddenly remember that, quickly pulled out a pocket watch, very similar to the one he had given Harry's group, and checked it quickly before making a faintly tragic guilty face.
"Oh, right," he said, noticing that time seemed to have already passed.
Seeing the look on his godfather's face, which seemed like it was about to ruin everything at the last second, Harry's eyes turned cold for a moment as he looked at him, which sent a faint chill down Sirius's spine.
"Oh, right. Before I came out, I figured none of you would make it in time, so I took them myself," Luciel suddenly said, slipping his hand into his sleeve. And from there, he pulled out what looked like several photographs, which he held up with a smile.
The champions, seeing their most precious photos safe and sound, couldn't help letting out grateful sighs toward Luciel.
"Though I do have to say, it's kind of funny that almost all the photos are the same. Apparently, we all have the same problem. We're honestly a pretty pathetic bunch of mama's boys," Luciel said in an amused tone.
But Harry and the others quickly snatched their photographs from his hands, ignoring his teasing.
Sirius, seeing that the photographs were safe, couldn't help letting out a sigh, because he had just saved himself from a serious problem. Then he looked toward the other judges, who were still arguing over whether they should receive points or not.
In the end, it was decided through a vote among the judges that it would be better to award them points for their participation and for what they had accomplished during the search itself.
Draco ignored all of that and looked down at his photograph for a moment. In it, he could be seen as a child, standing in the center beside his mother, with a cake in front of him and balloons all around. And very close to the camera, several heads could be seen peeking in from the sides. They were Harry, Daphne, Hermione, Astoria, and Luna.
That was the photo from his first muggle-style birthday party, an idea from his friends. And also the first time he had ever had friends.
Real friends.
Something that, for a good part of his life, he had never even known he could have.
He walked over to Wanda for a moment.
"Aunt Wanda. Is my mother still busy? I need to tell her something. It's important," he asked, wearing a serious expression.
"She was here to watch you go into the water. Though…" Wanda tilted her head slightly, and almost immediately gave a faint smile when she saw Narcissa appear with a somewhat worried expression. Before looking toward Draco, and upon seeing him properly, she let out a breath and calmed her expression before walking in that direction.
As if only at that moment she could finally allow herself to stop worrying.