Chapter 432: Before the Game

The rest of January passed without any major events, but minor ones continued.

Professor Moody after his return had lived up to his reputation for bringing new controversy, and in the mouth of some of the upperclassmen, he seems to have a touch of the 'Lockhart' in him - asking them to look up information, make them read it aloud in class, and vividly narrating the stories that happened during his career.

His famous phrase - "Constant vigilance" - once again surfaced in the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom.

During this period, the young wizards went to the library every day to look up information about the war that happened more than ten years ago, and the records of the war which were originally quite cold were rummaged out, including various newspapers from a decade ago.

The psychological pressure increased dramatically as the young wizards viewed these things every day. Coupled with the fifth and seventh grade wizard-level exams, many students who had been attending classes suddenly cried hysterically and were on the verge of collapse.

Even Fred and George, the happy-go-lucky pair, didn't take it well, and they breathed a huge sigh of relief when the Defense Against the Dark Arts course returned to 'normal'. One afternoon Fred sniffled and said, "Mum and Dad rarely used to mention the war to us, and if one did, the other would interrupt, Mom also rarely talked about our two uncles ... but when we went through the newspapers of those years, we realized what kind of life they had ..."

George said heartily, "With every two or three days gap we can see the pictures with the dark mark on the house in the old newspaper, now I got some shadow about it."

Harry did not want to talk much about it, because recently a trend has risen, since Professor Moody asked the students in the class to read the deeds of those who died in the war one by one, some of the descendants of 'war heroes' were looked at with awe.

Neville stammered more than once, explaining that his parents had recovered, and showed the newspaper clippings and papers he had collected to his classmates, but there were still plenty of people who came forward to comfort him. Harry was no different, and he suddenly noticed that Parvati Patil had been looking at him with a gentle expression again ...

He didn't like this feeling, because every time someone looked at him with such a gaze, it reminded him of the fact that his parents sacrificed their lives. 'No one wants such a worship, that they receive due to their parent's death.' Harry thought with irritation.

He, Hermione, and Ron practiced magic spells in an abandoned classroom, and one by one they learned a number of useful spells. They also cracked a piece of ice on the black lake in a hidden corner, to test their not-so-skilled warming and Impervius Charms, which made them shiver every time they emerged out of the lake.

By the time the ice of the black lake melted away and Krum started his diving practice - in a pair of shorts from the diving board of the black sailboat - they had already started working on how to retain their fighting strength in the black lake.

"Spells used on land are much less effective in water, especially flame-based magic, which at best shoots a scorching stream of water, but that probably won't be as effective as the Revulsion Jinx against Grindylow ...," Hermione said nervously.

With the arrival of February, she became like this, and when Ron suggested that they could use their legs to kick those dangerous creatures out of the way, Hermione glared at him viciously, looking as if she wanted to give him a kick in the balls.

"We might need some transfiguration and summoning charms." Hermione said.

"Are you going to let us summon a club?" Ron asked with surprise.

"Don't be silly, I meant this-" Hermione said, as she drew her wand and shouted, "Avis!" Her wand made a loud noise and from the tip of it, a flock of small birds flew, fluttering their wings and circling the three of them around.

"What does that do?" Harry asked as he had already seen this spell before. Before the first task started, Mr. Ollivander was invited to review the champions' wands, when he used Krum's wand to cast this charm.

"They can peck and obscure vision, but I prefer what Professor Flitwick did." Hermione said, with her face flushed red as she struggled to maintain the spell, Harry and Ron had never seen her struggle so much when using a spell.

It was as if she was fighting some kind of invisible resistance, her wand made a semicircle arc, and the birds suddenly swelled up to the size of owls, which made Harry's eyes widen dramatically, this was something he had seen in his second year, Professor Flitwick had demonstrated it in dueling class.

After two years of close encounters with this magic, Harry once again watched with awe at the long, sharp beaks of these birds, growing to three inches long!

Then there was a "bang" and the birds disappeared.

Hermione gasped softly, and shook her head, "still can't get it right, in fact, I've always been good at manipulating magic, especially after practicing with the Billywig insects in the Magic Rune Club ..."

When they returned to the castle from the Black Lake, Ron whispered to Harry: "She will just have to hide behind a rock and cast this spell later, then these little birds will help her solve all the troubles, without any of our help she still can handle the task."

Harry thought about the scene just now, and he could not agree more.

"How's your Bubble-Head Charm working out?" Harry asked in a whisper.

Ron's face crumpled, "It was a nightmare, I've written home saying I don't need their help ... but Fred and George blocked it in advance, and you know what, Mum actually complimented them in her reply... ..."

Harry felt a sense of concern, especially after practicing the Bubble-Head Charm, the first thing Ron did was rush to the shower whenever he saw him, leaving a long-lasting smell of Dungbomb behind him.

His own progress with the humanoid shield charm was not going very well either. Given the choice - he had preferred to master the humanoid shield charm with its protective capabilities rather than the more single-purpose Bubble-Head Charm, but he now wished to make a trade-off and consider the more time-effective alternative.

For the next few days, he kept running to classroom seven, leaving even the matter of the Occlumency behind him. So when he was awakened by a nightmare one day, he could only blame himself for being lazy about it.

Harry told Professor Hap about it, hoping the professor would pass it on to Dumbledore, even though he didn't remember much of it.

"All I know is that he was happy that something joyful had happened to him." He said searchingly.

Felix nodded, "Probably because he got himself another temporary body, it can't be helped, they hide so well." He was hoping that Voldemort would knock on Rita Skeeter's door, so he might as well be able to try and catch Crouch Jr.

But Rita Skeeter, who had gotten his promise, had quietly relocated and is currently holed up in Diagon Alley sorting out the information Sirius had given her.

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Harry went back with a heavy heart and began to wonder what exactly his participation in the tournament had meant - Voldemort is already preparing to resurrect, and he could only practice the freezing spell in the Black Lake which has little use, can he count on it to freeze Voldemort's Killing Curse?

The person who supported him through this period of self-doubt was Sirius, and if there is anyone in the world who is most connected to his feelings, it would only be his own godfather, including in his attitude toward Voldemort.

But to Harry's pleasant surprise, Sirius found a temporary job for himself. When he looked at the logo of Smeltings Academy in the Two-way mirror, his jaw was almost dislocated from shock.

"How did you end up at Dudley's school?" Harry shouted in disbelief as a fifth year in the common room looked up sadly and muttered in a low voice, "Another crazy one." Then he went back to work on his seemingly never-ending homework.

Sirius in the mirror looked rather cheerful, "It was Felix who referred me, because I couldn't get a diploma recognized by the muggles, I could only do some odd jobs for little money ... but how can I put it? I did find some tricks to guide students."

Harry listened to Sirius introduce his new job, about his teaching assistant work, "When no one is around I will use my wand to make the material's light, to do a fast and efficient work ..."

There was also the fifty-something-year-old teacher he teamed up with, who was out of breath as he would run along with him every time.

After Sirius learned how to use the whistle to send the fouling student off the field, he would just stand at the side and slacked off. So Harry had the pleasure of seeing Dudley dragging his fat body around the field and running laps, especially as he spat his tongue out and almost rolled his way to the finish line, the stress in Harry's heart disappeared.

Before the first Hogsmeade weekend in February, he learned the humanoid shield charm. And his shield charm also changed beyond recognition. The only regret was that he could not transform it into a cool gold or blood-red shield yet.

Ron also finished his special training. On the day he successfully learned the Bubble-Head Charm, he walked around the common room with a huge transparent cover that looked like an upside-down fish tank, and joined in Fred and George's discussion, saying he was willing to pay for a Dungbomb or two.

Fred and George smilingly handed him a Fizzing Whizzbees.

Harry, Ron, and Hermione finished their day happily in Hogsmeade and then dived back into intense preparations. Harry and Hermione were braced in their humanoid shield charm, while Ron's head was topped with a Bubble-Head Charm as they gradually emerged into the depths of the Black Lake, where they saw a new and strange world.

Harry was surprised at how unfamiliar the Black Lake looked to him.

A few dozen feet near the surface of the Black Lake, they could still see the gray, shiny, eerie water above. Besides their feet is a bush of fluctuating, tangled black water grass, a wide, flat muddy sand scattered with small, shiny stones.

In the distance, there was a large expanse of shadow - without a trace of light. Then they held their wands up, and with the help of Lumos spell they were able to see a small area nearby, which had a deeper shade of black colour, and occasionally something big passed them, they could not determine whether it was a piece of wood or some kind of creature, perhaps it was a giant squid!

Harry then developed a fear, what if the giant squid swallowed them in one gulp? Although it would help the new students when they fell into the water by pushing them back into the boat, he could not guarantee that it would always be so gentle, especially since Ron said during one of his breathing breaks that they were already sort of trespassing on its territory.

As the days passed, they went deeper and deeper into the Black Lake, even trying to get closer to the Merpeople in one of their adventures.

As they swam, Harry noticed that Hermione and Ron were missing and there was something dragging him, which made Harry greatly alarmed until a bright, milky light lit up in the distance, and he realized that it was a Grindylow that was entangling him.

"Relashio!" Harry chanted the spell through the humanoid shield charm, and the hand of the pale green creature with horns loosened as if it had a cramp, and then he swam towards Hermione - who looked around in a panic with a bright ball of light in her hand - and Ron who was surrounded by a group of Merpeople.

Finally, they hung their heads in despair as they were driven out. From the rude gestures of the chief of the Merpeople, they judged that if they dare to invade the territory of the Merpeople again, it is estimated that they have to wait for Dumbledore or Professor Hap to claim them.

Harry shook his head, which was damp as he emerged out of the water, he did not know how the other champions solved this trouble, but his brain got dizzy after he was just knocked twice with a pitchfork by a tall and sturdy Merman.

"Fred and George are lying, there's no way they could have completed the task of marking the map of the Black Lake." Ron said grumblingly, " The Merpeople can see much better in the water than we can, they're completely adapted to the dark."

Hermione is still blaming herself on the way back, "I shouldn't have used illumination, but I was too nervous, you guys disappeared all of a sudden and something was entangling me, now that I think about it, it might be aquatic weeds ... I really don't know what we're going to do during the official tournament... ..."

When they got back to the dormitory, Ron took off his clothes and showed Harry the bruises on his back: "It was from the smashing of a Merpeople, I kicked one, you know, wanted to give it an early try ... then instantly two or three Merpeople rushed up and gave me two harsh hits."

Harry assisted him with applying medicine, as Ron hissed and groaned, "There's another spot on my butt, I'll do it myself."

Two days before the start of the second task, a group of 'Future World' company staff arrived at the school and erected huge projection screens on the shores of Black Lake, Lupin and Penelope introduced them the function of the projection screens, "They will bring out your heroic performance in the tournament. "

"Oh, that's exactly what we were hoping for," Ron muttered, "to get embarrassed in front of everyone."

On the last day before the tournament, their nerves were stretched to the extreme. Harry found that despite all their preparations, there wasn't enough time, and the unfinished things in Hermione's notebook were increasing faster than the crossed-out sections.

But no matter what, they still had to welcome the second task.

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