Harry Potter: Don't touch

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Nothing particularly interesting happened at Hogwarts until the twenty-fourth of February. Except for a couple of interesting events: Justin started dating Fleur Delacourt, Snape accused Potter of stealing Polyjuice potion ingredients, Moody accused Snape of stealing from himself in response, but a day later he suddenly joined forces with him and accused Lupin, then Bagman, then McGonagall of stealing from him. And now looking suspiciously in the direction of Dumbledore, who was rumoured to have declared that there were no Death Eaters in the school.

By the second test, Harry had learnt all the spells he hadn't been able to learn before. Aguamenti, a spell that released water (drinkable); Congelo, a spell that allowed the ground around the caster to turn the ground around the caster into extremely slippery ice, and Hellfire. Potter knew Hellfire from a purely theoretical point of view, he wasn't going to test his knowledge in practice - if he lost control of the spell, it could accidentally burn down the whole of Hogwarts.

He had achieved all these successes because of a huge amount of free time. And it was due to the fact that champions were exempted from final exams this year. Harry was given the right not to go to classes, which he took full advantage of. Potter had only appeared in History of Magic and Astronomy a couple of times. Unfortunately, Harry decided to stop attending spells as well, he had gone too far down the syllabus. To think of any of the fourth year students only studying Protego. Potions also suffered the same fate, but for a completely different reason, Harry wanted to keep his interaction with Snape to a minimum.

The most useful lesson was Defence Against the Dark Arts, Professor Lupin managed to find material that was unknown and extremely useful in every lesson. For example, he tried to teach students the Patronus spell, alas; Potter was the only one who couldn't even summon a cloud of vapour.

However, the DADA professor got sick, and then the lessons turned into something terrible - Moody came and cast Imperius on the students. The number of resisting students increased, but the spell could not be completely suppressed, although small signs of resistance began to appear. For example, Justin had been asked by a Slytherin under the Imperius - Malfoy - to come up with a nappy verse to recite to the class, and he had managed to insult Snape, Salazar Slytherin and Malfoy himself in his verse. Moody felt that insults were not worth taking points off for, but resisting Imperius was worth adding points for.

So Finch-Fletchley gained twenty points for Hufflepuff with this action, but then lost them for dueling with the Slytherins after class. Harry still hadn't even been able to partially suppress the Imperius. Under the spell he sang, danced, dove, Snape, Voldemort, Dumbledore without the slightest resistance. Moody was dissatisfied, very dissatisfied, he threw such glances at Potter that he approached Lupin, who did not leave his office during his illness, and asked him to inform him in advance about his ill health.

The DADA professor gave him a whole schedule of his future illnesses, and Harry left the room thinking, he didn't understand how you could know exactly when you were going to get sick... Perhaps he should have paid attention to divination, it didn't seem to be such a useless subject.

So Potter spent all his free time preparing for the second test, but the test itself suddenly caught him off guard.

* * *

- We stole something important from each of the champions! The person the champion is closest to. The champions will have exactly one hour to find their hostage at the bottom of the lake at its centre. Because of the possibility of getting lost, we decided to add an additional clue to this challenge: underwater mermaids will sing a song, which can be used to navigate. The louder the song, the closer the hostages are," Dumbledore announced the conditions of the second challenge.

Justin, standing by the shore of the lake a couple of metres away from Potter, looked back at Fleur, then at Harry.

- No idea at all who was stolen from me. The only two I'm currently on good terms with are here. I wonder who my hostage is?

There were a lot of people in the stands, fewer than at the first trial, but still far more than at any Quidditch match Potter had attended. Potter spotted Sirius Black, Draco Malfoy, Nymphadora Tonks, and Ted Tonks. Percy Weasley was sitting at the judge's table in Mr Crouch's place, the latter unable to attend due to illness. Mad-Eye was going to test Crouch for werewolf and Imperius today, well, apparently he wouldn't be able to. Zhou could not be found on the podium. Perhaps she was the one who had become Harry's hostage.

Bagman came down to the champions standing by the riverbank. He began to place the students at a distance from each other. As he approached Potter, he quietly enquired:

- Do you know what to do, Harry?

- No, no idea at all, maybe you can give me a clue? - Potter asked hopefully.

- Use a head bubble spell," Bagman whispered quickly and headed towards Finch-Fletchley.

This was the first time Potter had heard of the head bubble spell... or something was... Without the verbal wording, the spell wouldn't work anyway, so Bagman's advice was practically useless. Too bad he couldn't explain it in more detail.

- What will the audience do? Are they going to stare at the lake for an hour, waiting for something to happen? - Justin asked the Bagman who had come up to him.

- Of course not! How would the judges then be able to judge what was going on? The spectators and the judges have special viewing points for the hostages and dangerous magical creatures. Also these enterprising gentlemen," he pointed at Fred and George, who had already switched places and were standing on the shore with silly smiles. - They've organised the renting of monoculars for those who want them. They gave them to us, i.e. the judges, free of charge, so that we could watch this or that moment underwater. It would help us to make a clear assessment of their actions.

Justin nodded, and after waiting for Bagman to leave, he asked:

- What did he say to you?

- He suggested we use the head bubble spell. I think I heard something about it a long time ago, I can't remember from whom. Do you know anything?

- I think Professor Lupin mentioned it at our practice session with the twins," Justin wrinkled his nose at the memory. - 'I can't remember exactly what that spell does, take a random shot - it has to do with the head and the bubble. The verbal wording of the spell, if he did, I've forgotten. Do you have any ideas?

- Mm-hmm," Harry thought for a moment. - 'Accio's a hostage?

- And the normal ones?

- No normal ones, alas.

- Well, our contestants are ready for the second test," Bagman's spell-enhanced voice rang out over the lake. - We will begin on my whistle. They have one hour to find what was taken from them. So, on the count of three: one... two, three!

The whistle blew. The seven champions instantly began to undress and then jumped into the water. Two jumped in without undressing. Six remained standing.

- Mr Finch-Fletchley, Mr Potter, Mr Francois, Mr Granny, Miss Laurent and Mr Lundren are having trouble starting, they don't seem to know what they...

The commentator's voice trailed off. The area with the champions was covered from outsiders, as you'd expect.

- Bitch, b@#tch," Babushka said loudly. - Look what I can do! Accio a Kalashnikov assault rifle!

Firearms flew towards Anton from the stands, he pulled out an unfinished bottle of vodka, drank the rest, enlarged it three times and climbed in.

- I swam! - His voice from the bottle was barely audible.

Under the influence of some spell, the bottle with the student inside flew twenty metres from the shore and, landing in the water, immediately began to sink.

After watching Nana's manipulations, Juliette Laurent surrendered, emitting red sparks from her wand. Basel Francois surrendered after her. But Lundren was in no hurry to give up, he started trying some experiments with himself.

- Oh, those Frenchmen! - Justin shook his head. - Okay, come on, let's try it.

Harry abstracted himself from the extraneous sounds and focused completely on the task at hand.

The objective was simple - find and get the hostage. In all likelihood, the hostage is Zhou Chang. Tonks and Justin are not kidnapped, Alastor Moody to kidnap - already a feat, easier to fight the dragon, about Riddle almost no one knows, and hardly, his judges could be called a full-fledged man, so it is almost certainly Zhou Chang. They had been seen dancing at the ball by almost everyone. The hostage was somewhere in the depths of the lake. The only way to know the exact location is in the water.

What are the options for solving this problem? Lure the hostage. Learn to breathe in the water. By air to get to the right place, but you will have to find out where this place is. Fly across on a broomstick. You can also make the water somehow part before him, or just drain part of the lake. You can try to get underground somehow, but again, first you need to find out where the hostages are. There are plenty of options, their number is limited only by imagination. But only realistic application of these ways is not so much, and he is also limited by his knowledge and magical abilities.

What are the problems in solving this challenge? The most obvious. He doesn't know the exact location of the hostages. The most significant. He doesn't know the proper spells to use to pass this test. The most unpleasant. He cannot swim, for the Dursleys have never taken him to sea.

- Accio hostage! - Harry decided to start with the simplest option. Maybe it would work, and all this analysis wouldn't be necessary. - Accio maxima hostage! Accio maxima Zhou!

There was no progress on the hostage rescue. The water wasn't churning, there was nothing stirring. Zhou, if she was his hostage, was in no hurry to swim out and didn't seem to be planning to. Most likely, the hostages had anti-maniac spells placed on them, or they were simply tied up. It was unlikely that the judges had allowed such an easy way of solving problems as a beckoning spell when preparing this test.

Harry wondered. Almost all of the ways he had considered possible for this task were unfeasible for him. The most realistic way was to summon a broom and fly over the lake, searching for other champions, but the broom had been burned by the dragon in the first trial. He didn't have another. He hadn't even considered buying a new broom, there was no Quidditch this year, so he didn't really need a new broom, he thought. Despite his vast reserve of spells, there was none among them that could help him hold his breath for an hour.

Meanwhile, Lundren had finished his experiments and walked through the water towards the centre of the lake. The water parted before him, the Durmstrang student could be said to be walking on water. Justin, on the other hand, tried unsuccessfully to lift himself into the air. Now it was just the two of them by the shore.

- Harry, have you thought of anything? - Finch-Fletchley asked.

- 'Not a single proper idea.

- It's a pity. All right, whatever," Justin tucked his wand into his robe pocket. - I'm going for a swim, I don't know how I'm going to dive, and then we'll figure something out.

Without undressing, he jumped into the water and swam breaststroke. Potter was the only one left standing on the shore; he couldn't swim, so Finch-Fletchley's option was closed to him.

- Headbubble spell! - Harry exclaimed in desperation. - I'll use the head bubble spell!

Nothing happened. The wand refused to use the spell without the verbal wording, even if Harry had excellent non-verbal spellcasting skills, he wouldn't be able to use the spell without knowing its verbal wording. Not willing to give up, Potter started going through all the spells he had learnt. Surely some spell could help in this situation. Finally Harry settled on one option.

- Kongelo! - He exclaimed, pointing his wand at the water.

The spell worked. The surface of the water fifteen metres ahead was covered in a crust of ice. Now he had a way to move through the water. In theory, the ice of Kongelo's spell should be very slippery. However, it was not a problem if one walked carefully.

Harry stepped carefully onto the ice... And immediately collapsed onto it, breaking or smashing his nose.

- Episkey! - Harry pointed his wand at his nose.

The pain wasn't bad enough to be distracted by. Potter tried to get up and collapsed onto the ice again. This time it was his shoulder that was hurt. It seemed he had a new most disliked spell. After the third attempt failed, Harry didn't try to get up again, but simply crawled towards the centre of the lake. Having thus reached the border of ice and water, Potter exclaimed again:

- Congelo!

And a moment later the ice beneath Potter disappeared, and Harry fell into the water. Even practically at the shore the depth was immense. Realising he was sinking, Potter panicked and quickly exclaimed... No, he didn't exclaim anything, because when he opened his mouth, water poured in instantly. After swallowing the water, he was still able to use the non-verbal spell 'Spangifire' and flew out of the water.

Potter needed another Spanjifai to make it to shore. Harry took a breath and admitted to himself that he had no idea how he was going to get to the hostages. The desire to take the test was gone....

Potter's head was filled with frustration and hatred. The hatred applied to himself. How could he fail this test?! It was elementary, all he needed to pass was to know the spell that would allow him to breathe underwater. And all he's done since his first day at Hogwarts is study spells. How could he have missed the head bubble spell? How come everyone knows about it and he doesn't? I mean, it's just plain water, not the scary fire like in the first test! Water is his element, his power, even his animagic form.... Okay, stop...

Harry's thoughts flowed in a completely different direction. He suddenly remembered that he could, purely theoretically, turn into a fish at will and swim to the hostages. His animal form was terrible, and learning to become an animagus was useless, both Riddle and Moody thought. But just then, the ability to turn into a fish would be vital.

Is there any way to learn how to turn into an animagus in one day? Not even in one day, but in an hour, or rather, in about forty-five minutes. Is it possible? Without the necessary literature? Without the slightest idea about transformations and without the right conditions for training? On mere desire? Alas, impossible.

Potter raised his wand and launched red sparks into the sky.