CHAPTER 26

SECOND ASSIGNMENT
"Because you broke the egg's instructions!" said Hermione irritably. "Keep your voice
down!" said Harry furiously. "I just need to ponder it again, okay?" Harry, Ron, and
Hermione sat at the very back table in the Charms class. They are practicing the opposite of
today's Calling Mantra - Drive away. Given the potential accidents that can occur when
objects fly in the classroom, Professor Flitwick has given each child a stack of pillows to
wear to practice. The theory is, the pillow will not hurt if it deviates from the target. Good
theory, but something else happens. Neville's goal was so severe that he repeatedly
accidentally made heavier objects fly in Professor Flitwick's class, for example. "Forget the
eggs for a minute, okay?" Harry hissed as Professor Flitwick glided helplessly past them,
landing on top of the right cupboard. "Want to try to tell you about Shape and Moody ..."
This class is ideal for secret conversations, because all children are too absorbed in
themselves, so they don't pay attention to them. Harry has told of his adventures last night in
pieces for the past half hour. "Snape said Moody also searched his office?" Ron whispered,
his eyes sparkling with interest as he shook the pillow with a wave of his wand (his pillow
flew into the air and crashed into Parvati's hat). "What ... do you think Moody is here to
oversee Shape too, besides Karkaroff?" "I don't know if Dumbledore told him to, but he
certainly did," said Harry, waving his wand without much attention, so his pillow jumped up
and down and fell off the table. "Moody said Dumbledore allowed Shape to be here just
because he gave him a second chance or something ..." "What?" said Ron, his eyes widened.
The next pillow, flew high into the air, dodged the chandelier, and crashed to the Flitwick
table. "Harry ... maybe Moody thought Snape was the one who put your name in the Goblet
of Fire!" "Oh, Ron," said Hermione, shaking her head doubtfully, "we thought Snape had
tried to kill Harry before, and it turns out he actually saved Harry's life, remember?"
Hermione threw out her pillow and her pillow floated across the room, then landed on the
box that was their target. Harry looked at Hermione, thinking ... it was true that Shape had
saved his life once, but strangely, Snape clearly hated him, just as he hated Harry's father
when they together went to Hogwarts. Happy shape, reduce Harry's number and obviously
never miss an opportunity to punish him or even suggest that Harry be suspended.

"I don't care what Moody says," Hermione continued. "Dumbledore is not stupid. He
really believes Hagrid and Professor Lupine, even though many people don't want to give
them both jobs, so why isn't he also true about Snape, even if Shape is rather ..." "... evil,"
Ron snapped . "Think about it, Hermione, why are all these black magician catchers
searching his office, then?" "Why is Mr. Crouch pretending to be sick?" said Hermione,
ignoring Ron. "It's kind of weird, can't she come to the Christmas dance, but can come here in
the middle of the night if she wants to?" "You don't like Crouch because of that Winky fairy,"
said Ron, sending a pillow sliding into the window. "You just want to think Shape is up to
something," Hermione said, launching her pillow smoothly into the box. "I just want to know
what Shape did with his first chance, if now he's given a second chance," said Harry
gloomily, and his pillow, to his astonishment, flew straight across the room and landed
directly on Hermione's pillow. Fulfilling Sirius's desire to hear everything strange at
Hogwarts, Harry sent him a letter by the brown owl that night, explaining everything about
Mr. Crouch who entered Snape's office, and a conversation between Moody and Snape. Then
Harry excitedly turned his attention to the most important problem he faced: how to survive
under water for an hour on the twenty-fourth of February.
Ron was quite fond of the idea of using the Summoning Charm again. Harry had
explained the breathing apparatus to dive and Ron did not understand why Harry had not just
called one of these tools from the nearest Muggle shop. Hermione put this proposal to rest by
explaining that even though Harry managed to learn how to use the breathing apparatus
within the given one hour time limit and it was impossible for him to be clearly disqualified
for violating the International Law on Magic Confidentiality - it would be outrageous to hope
that no Muggles would saw diving equipment floating above the countryside towards
Hogwarts. "Of course, the most ideal solution is to Transfigure into a submarine or
something," said Hermione. "It's a shame we haven't learned human Transfiguration! We will
learn it only in sixth grade, and it can be chaotic if you don't know what you're doing ..."
"Well, I don't want to go here and there with periscope sticking out of my head," said Harry
"I think I can try to attack people in front of Moody; maybe that way he wants to bewitch
me ..." "But I don't think he will allow you to choose what you want to be," Hermione said
seriously. "No, I think your best chance is to use a certain spell." So Harry felt that soon he
would be fed up with the library so that he would not go there again for a lifetime -
immersing himself once again among the dusty books, looking for a spell that could allow
humans to live without oxygen. But even though he, Ron, and Hermione had searched every
lunch time, at night,
and all weekend - even though Harry had requested written permission from Professor
McGonagall to use the Forbidden Section, and even sought the help of Madam Pince, a
grumpy, librarian-like librarian - they found nothing to help Harry pass an hour under water
and can still live to tell his experience.
Then, all of a sudden, Harry felt as if an invisible pillow had been pressed against
his mouth and nose. He tried to breathe, but his head became dizzy. His lungs were empty,
and he suddenly felt that both sides of his neck hurt like they were punctured ... He pressed
his hands around his neck and felt him by two nicks under his ear, gaping in the cold air ... He
had gills. Without thinking, he did the only thing that made sense he plunged into the water.
The first gulp of icy lake water felt like the breath of life. His head stopped spinning. He took
another sip of water and the water smoothly came out again through his gills, sending air
back to his brain. He reached out in front of him and looked at him. His hands were green and
pale under the water, and they were webbed. He turned and looked at his feet. The sole of the
foot is elongated and the fingers are webbed. It feels like now he has fins. The water also
doesn't feel as cold as ice anymore ... on the contrary, it feels comfortable and very light ...
Harry steps down again, amazed how far and fast his finned legs push him through the water,
and realizes he can see very clearly, and he no need to blink anymore. Soon he was
swimming so far he could no longer see the bottom of the lake. He turned his body and
swooped to the bottom. Silence pressed against his ears while he floated past the strange,
dark and foggy sight. He could only see as far as three meters in front of him, so that when he
glided in the water, new scenes seemed to appear in front of him from the darkness. Black
algae forest that is twisted and rippled, with mud spread, glowing rocks gloomy.

Harry swam farther in, toward the middle of the lake, his eyes wide open, looking
through the gray-lit water around him to the dimness below, to where the water had become
opaque unbroken. Small fish flickered past him like silver needles. Once or twice he thought
he saw something bigger moving in front of him, but when he got close, it turned out that it
was only a large blackened wooden stick, or thick lump of algae. There was no sign of the
other three champions, merman, Ron - or, thankfully, the giant squid. Light green algae lay
before him as far as the eye could see, as deep as sixty inches, like a meadow that had grown
tall. Harry looked unblinking forward, trying to see the shapes in the dimness ... and then,
without warning, someone grabbed his ankle.   Harry whirled around and saw Grindylow, a
small, horned water demon, emerging from within the algae, his long fingers gripping Harry's
legs firmly, his mouth bared and bared his sharp fangs. Harry quickly slid his webbed hands
into his robes and fumbled for his wand. When he managed to find his wand, two other
Grinfinclow had emerged from the algae, grabbed Harry's robes, and tried to pull him down.
"Relashio!" Harry shouted, only no sound came out ... Large bubbles appeared from his
mouth, and his wand, instead of spitting sparks into Grindylow, doused them with hot water.
It seems so, because at the place where the water hit they, blazing red blotches sprang up on
their green skin. Harry pulled, slipping his ankles out of Grindylow's clutches and swimming,
as fast as possible, sending several hot spurts of hot water over his shoulder haphazardly.
Every now and then he felt one of Grindylow catch his feet again, and he kicked loudly.
Finally he felt his legs kick his horned head, and turned his head, he saw a dizzy Grindylow
swimming away, with his eyes crossed, while his friends held their fists towards Harry, and
buried themselves back into the algae.
Harry slowed a little, slipped his wand under his robe again, and looked around,
listening again. He circled in the water, silence pressed harder on his eardrums. He knew he
must be deeper now, but nothing moved except the rippling algae. "How are you
progressing?" Harry thinks he has a heart attack. He turned and saw Moaning Myrtle
hovering faintly in front of him, watching him through his thick, shiny glasses. "Myrtle!"
Harry tried to scream - but again nothing came out of his mouth except for a very large
bubble. Moaning Myrtle giggled with amusement. "Try there!" he said, pointing. "I don't
want to come with you ... I don't really like them, they always chase me when I come too
close ..." Harry held up his thumbs to show his gratitude and glide again, careful swimming
some distance from the algae to avoid Grindylow who knows who hid there. He swam about
twenty merit at least. Via passed through the vast expanse of black mud now, which whirled
murky as he passed. Then, finally, he heard a piece of mermaid singing that he remembered
very well. "You have to search for an hour, and take back what we have stolen ..." Harry
swam faster and immediately saw a large rock emerge from the murky water in front of him.
There are paintings of mermaids on the rock. They carried spears and chased after what
looked like giant squid. Harry swam past the rock, following the mermaid's singing.
 
"... you only have half the time, don't slow down later what you are looking for, you can't get
it back ..." A group of stone caves overgrown with algae suddenly appeared in the shadows of
all directions. Here and there behind dark windows, Harry saw faces ... faces that did not
resemble the paintings of mermaids in a prefect bathroom ... The Situ mermaids were gray-
skinned and their hair was long, messy, green old.
Immediately, several pairs of strong gray hands held him. The six mermaids pulled
him away from Hermione, shook their green-haired heads and laughed. "Take your own
hostage," one of them spoke to him. "Leave the others ..." "No way!" said Harry furiously ...
but only two big bubbles appeared. "Your job is to get your own friend back ... leave the
others ..." "She's my friend too!" Harry shouted, pointing at Hermione, a large silver bubble
appeared silently from his lips. "And I don't want them to die either!" Cho's head drooped
onto Hermione's shoulder. The silvery haired girl was pale greenish. Harry struggles to break
away from the mermaids, but instead they laugh even louder, holding him tight. Harry looked
around frantically. Where are the other champions? Is it enough time to bring Ron to the
surface and dive again to save Hermione and the others? Can he find them again? He looked
down at his watch to find out how much time he had left. But then the mermaids that
surrounded him pointed eagerly over his head. Harry looked up and saw Cedric swimming
toward them. There was a big bubble on his head, which made his face look strange and
stretched. "Lost!" his mouth uttered, looking panicked. "Fleur and Krum are coming soon!"
Feeling relieved, Harry watched Cedric take the knife out of his pocket and free Cho. He
pulled Cho up and out of sight. Harry looked around, waiting. Where are Fleur and Krum?
Time is getting narrower, and according to singing, the captives will not be able to be saved
after an hour ... The mermaids start screaming excitedly. The one holding Harry loosens his
grip, looking behind them. Harry turned and saw something terrible splitting water toward
them. The human body wears shark-headed swimming trunks ... Krum. Apparently he
transfigured himself - but it was not perfect. The shark-man swam straight toward Hermione
and began to close the snout to bite the rope. The problem was the position of Krum's new
teeth in such a way that it was very difficult to use biting something smaller than a dolphin,
and Harry was sure that if Krum was not careful, he would bite Hermione off. Gliding
forward, Harry struck Krum's shoulder hard and raised his sharp rock. Krum grabbed it and
began cutting Hermione's ties. Within a few seconds he had managed to free him. He grabbed
Hermione's waist, and without turning back, began to slide up to the surface of the lake.