Aeternum: Group Chat

Chapter 23: Second Task

Harry was lying on his bed as he looked at his phone. He didn't know how to connect to the internet in Hogwarts or in the world for that matter, after all, the internet wasn't as developed as it was in Rias' world, as she mentioned in their many talks within Konoha.

But, as time passed, he was relaxing a bit by watching some videos. There was only an hour left until the second task of the Triwizard Tournament would begin and he was fully prepared. Since he received the request from the Greengrass family and Astoria's blood, he simply destroyed it completely, it was of no use to him and he wasn't interested in the blood curse that plagued it. He didn't need an enormous amount of knowledge to know what caused the blood curse, just by observing Astoria's blood with his glasses, he knew what was happening to it.

He just needed a little time to pass in order to offer her an Elixir of a different color than the one he used for the werewolves. And, as for his next research that he named: Magical particles and their memories, he put it on hold for a while. He did this for two reasons.

The first is for Hermione; he wanted her to learn how to meditate a little and feel the magical particles. Not only would this help her have better control and use of her magic, but it would also help with the research.

The second reason was time. He recently published his research on werewolves, even being awarded an Order of Merlin for it. If he published something new in such a short time, some people might doubt him and start asking where he got so much knowledge from. Harry didn't doubt that some people would point their fingers at him, shouting that he had discovered magic and dark knowledge to achieve these discoveries.

"Harry, you have to be on the side now! It won't be long before the task begins!" Neville entered the room and exclaimed looking at Harry on the bed.

Harry yawned before putting his phone away.

"What was that?" Neville asked curiously.

"Just a toy..." Harry waved his hand as he sat down and put on his shoes before standing up and nodding to his fellow student and starting to walk out of the room.

He walked out of the common room and, at a slow pace, out of the castle. When he reached the shores of the black lake, he shook his head at the nonsense of the people. What were so many students doing sitting and looking at the shore? Didn't they realize that they couldn't see anything in the lake? Were they masochists for being out in the cold air with almost nothing to see? Several questions formed in his head as he let out a sigh of exasperation.

Harry got into a boat and waited until he reached one of the three large structures that had been created over the black lake. The structures looked like towers with people on top of them, looking out at the surface of the lake.

Harry took off his clothes, leaving him in a swimming trunks and nothing on his top. Many blinked a little in surprise at the clearly visible and somewhat sculpted muscles on Harry's body, and even more so some scars on his arms and back.

Harry decided not to use Gillyweed this time, as it happened in the books. It would be a bit annoying to use his wand with his body transformed a bit. And even if he was capable of wandless magic, it would be too revealing for some; he definitely didn't want to answer those people's questions. So, when they gave the go-ahead for him to begin, the first thing he did was use the Bubble Head Charm on himself. After that, he used Apparition to travel to the bottom of the Black Lake.

Why use or think complicated things when you could solve things in a much easier way? Harry already knew what he had to do in this second task, and a few days ago he had entered the lake so he could know where to Apparate and rescue the person they had as a prisoner at the moment. When he arrived at his destination, he found several surprised selkies wielding spears at him, but keeping their distance.

Harry looked at them slowly, back and forth, until his eyes settled on the prisoners: Cho Chang, Hermione, a blonde girl who Harry deduced was Gabrielle Delacour, and finally, Remus Lupin.

Harry was a little surprised that Remus decided to agree to be part of the tournament, but it was a fitting choice for him. Aside from Hermione being his friend, Remus was the only one he could consider important and precious. Sirius also went in there, but the mad dog was a fugitive, so he didn't count right now.

Acting quickly, Harry broke Remus out of his prison before grabbing him and leaving via Apparition, arriving at one of the towers and carefully depositing Remus before sitting down and waiting for his score.

Overall, he got twelve points, which would make twenty-three points adding up from the first task. Karkaroff gave him one point, Dumbledore three, Madame Maxime three, Ludo Bagman three, and finally, Crouch gave him two points.

"Mr. Potter..." Harry turned around when he heard his name, seeing Poppy Pomfrey walking towards him with her wand ready. Harry just sighed before nodding, letting the woman examine him for any injuries.

"Mm... it's a relief to see you're uninjured, Mr. Potter. In fact, it's been some time since you've made a visit to the hospital wing. That's very good!" Poppy nodded in satisfaction and decided to check on Remus, waking the man up.

"How long has it been?" Remus asked curiously.

"Not long..." Poppy replied, with a small smile. Honestly, this tournament had her on edge with the possible repercussions and injuries the champions could suffer. And while each of them expected injuries, it was her responsibility to heal them. She hoped nothing serious happened to anyone.

Remus let out a small laugh, "This almost seems like a joke with Harry's abilities."

Poppy snorted along with Harry, but the woman was the one who said something: "Much better! The sooner this silly tournament is over, the less worries and injuries!".

Harry just sat looking at the lake, hoping that nothing would happen. Because even though he wasn't friends with any of the champions, his friend Hermione was down there. Along with that, he didn't wish any of them any harm.

But, after ten minutes of waiting, Viktor Krum appeared with Hermione behind him. Cedric just appeared with Cho Chang when Viktor and Hermione climbed onto the platform where Harry was. In the end, after fifteen minutes, Harry sighed in exasperation when he noticed that Fleur Delacour still hadn't returned and, probably, the same thing would happen as in the book.

Then, shrugging his shoulders a little, he disappeared and went back to the place where they had the people imprisoned. When he arrived, he surprised Fleur who was escaping from a large swarm of Grindylows. Harry pointed his wand and the water rippled before a repulsive force pushed the Grindylows back. Fleur looked shocked at the power of Harry's Repulsion Curse, but recovered as she remembered her sister.

Sadly, the selkies seemed dissatisfied with Harry's actions, shouting loudly and pointing their spears. However, they stopped at Harry's cold gaze. The bright green eyes almost seemed to say, 'No matter how bad you think you are, I'm worse. '

When Harry noticed Fleur swimming to the surface, he moved behind her as he noticed the Grindylows turning and swimming towards her to try and attack her. He used the Repulsion Curse several times, until everything was clear and they were able to reach the surface. When he saw that everything was fine, Harry appeared next to Remus who gave him a thumbs up.

Poppy immediately approached Felur, who was trying to wake Gabrielle. The girl looked a little worse than the rest of the prisoners. Her face was a little pale and her lips were turning purple.

"She needs treatment now. Apparently, the enchantments and magic protecting her at the bottom of the lake didn't work at all. The cold managed to get through the magical defenses placed on her," Poppy said with concern. While the treatment wasn't anything too special, Poppy knew that hypothermia could be serious. Therefore, she wanted to take her immediately to the infirmary to begin the treatment.

Fleur nodded and Dumbledore immediately arrived before using Apparition to take Poppy and Gabrielle to the infirmary. The eldest Delacour daughter immediately ran to Harry, hugging him as she thanked him.

"Thank you! Thank you so much, Harry Potter!" she exclaimed in relief.

"Yeah... you're welcome," Harry nodded, but his eyes widened slightly when he saw Fleur bring her lips to his cheeks.

"Don't do that," he stopped her by placing his entire hand on Fleur's face and pushing her away before he stepped back with a small frown, surprising Fleur, who could only nod.

After Harry looked at Fleur for a moment, he nodded to Remus before using Apparition to travel to the shore of the Black Lake and walk to the castle. The task was over and he received his score, so he didn't have to stay any longer.

Under the gaze of many, Harry had left the place, managing to complete the second task in a way that, for many, looked too easy.

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