Hermione finally looked at Harry Potter, who was flustered by the disturbances caused by Kabba, and then turned to leave.
She was grateful to Krum for helping them in the finals of the Quidditch match last year, but her appreciation for him dwindled after he slandered Professor Breckenridge as a worshiper of Grindelwald.
And from the rules of the competition, she shouldn't meddle in other people's affairs either; finding Harry and Ron was the most important thing.
But Hermione stood there frowning for almost a minute, finally she sighed heavily and turned her head back.
As a return for the help during the Quidditch finals— Hermione told herself, raising her wand.
"Oh, if I were you, I wouldn't meddle."
The sudden sound almost made Hermione feel as if she was hallucinating. She gave herself a sharp jolt all over her body and suddenly turned to look at a bunch of coral not far from her side. A vague shadow was sitting there watching the scene, its intricate colorful branches sparkling.
"Fleur!"
Hermione wanted to shout, but then she realized that she shouldn't make any noise, so as not to alarm Harry and Ron, who were engaged in a fierce battle with Krum and Kabba. So, she crouched behind the coral rocks and urgently waved at Fleur.
Seeing an 'old friend' in such a dark and oppressive environment was undoubtedly a source of comfort. Suppressing her excitement, Hermione whispered to the sluggishly floating Fleur, "FLEUR!"
"How did you end up here, Fleur?"
"Oh, there are always those pesky new students who get into my bathroom and flush me down the drain! It's happened more than once!"
Fleur was looking dejectedly at her reflection in the mirror, but she brightened up almost instantly when she saw Kabba. She watched him, watching her.
"Sometimes, spirits see things that living people don't. That Kabba, it's... oh, I can't say. I should learn to keep secrets, shouldn't I? Especially since it's obviously trying to help Hogwarts."
"What are you talking about, Fleur?" Hermione asked, furrowing her brow.
But Fleur didn't answer her question, she sighed in a ghostly manner,
"If you want to find those two silly boys, maybe you should try over there; I won't be accompanying you. I'm not too fond of the mermaids; every time I get close, they come running after me."
After saying that, Fleur turned her head and vanished into Hermione's field of vision in a flash.
"A mysterious phenomenon!"
Hermione said irritably, still remembering the direction Fleur had pointed.
On the other side, Krum was exhausted from Kabba's harassment and no longer tried to break free. He stayed in place, spreading his terrifying but somewhat comical shark-like mouth and panting. His yellow eyes exuded despair, as if he had already resigned himself to fate.
Hermione pursed her lips, her gaze falling on the uneven rock ground at the bottom of the lake. After a faint glow, a stone block riddled with holes transformed into a green cucumber.
"Hey!"
When Hermione jumped out from behind the coral rocks with the cucumber in hand, Krum and Kabba were both startled. They didn't expect Hermione to be so close to them.
Overcoming the initial shock, Krum was immediately overwhelmed with joy, and he instinctively swam towards Hermione. But after taking two strokes in the water, Krum realized that this could very likely pass the trouble on to Hermione.
With a shark-like head, Krum couldn't speak, and he spewed out a large string of bubbles, frantically gesturing to Hermione to leave as quickly as possible.
"Try this!"
Hermione shouted, but the bubbles floating over her head and the thick lake water muffled her voice, "Write your name on this cucumber and throw it to that Kabba; maybe it will stop bothering you!"
As she spoke, Hermione cast a Charm to control the cucumber-shaped stone to pierce through the water and fly accurately into Krum's hand.
Staring at the green cucumber in his hand, Krum stood there, dumbfounded, for several seconds before finally kicking himself with displeasure.
This is indeed the standard way to get rid of Kabba when you're plagued by this kind of creature. It's something you should have learned in your third year. With time passing, he completely forgot about it!
"Hey, check this out, ugly thing!"
In a fit of rage, Krum screamed in his mind, and with all his might, he threw the hastily written cucumber at Kabba. Meanwhile, the rolling cucumber collided with the creature's forehead, and only then did Kabba snap out of it, turning its gaze away from Hermione.
Kabba subconsciously picked up the cucumber and looked at it stupidly for a moment before glancing at the two young wizards who were prepared. The black eyes that sparkled in the dim light of the lake displayed very human emotions.
Gurgle!
A large bubble shot out of Kabba's nose, and after a rather helpless look at Hermione, the creature swam away with its limbs, propelling itself and the cucumber like an arrow into the depths of the lake.
After the creature disappeared from his sight, Krum's whole body went limp. He allowed himself to fall freely to the bottom of the lake, sitting on jagged rocks and panting heavily.
"I know you're tired, but we probably don't have much time to waste,"
Hermione quickly rushed over to Krum's side and helped him by supporting his arm,
"There's less than half an hour left."
Hermione's hair gently fluttered with the undulating water, and her close-fitting dress outlined her torso in a figure-hugging way. Perhaps due to the keen sense of smell of sharks, Krum could smell a dizzying pleasant fragrance from the girl in front of him. Not to mention, the fish tail with pale blue scales and the delicate colorful fin trailing behind it was incredibly enticing to a man!
"You go first!"
But Krum quickly dismissed Hermione's 'deadly attraction', gazing at her with infinite gratitude and gesturing to Hermione to go ahead.
"I need a rest."
The second part of the sentence had a complicated hand gesture, which was difficult to understand. After hesitation, Hermione ultimately chose to pull on Krum's arm, pulling him up from the ground.
"Burden!"
Anxious, Krum even made a muffled sound with his shark-like mouth, and he struggled to break free from Hermione's support.
"I, can't keep up, you, go first, time!"
Seeing Krum's determined posture, Hermione pursed her lips. She well understood that there was no time to waste here anymore.
"Leave as soon as possible; that Kabba might come back!"
After saying this, Hermione worriedly looked at Krum, flapping her tail fins and leaving quickly, following the direction Fleur had pointed for her.
Hermione couldn't accurately judge the time, but she felt that she had swum for at least another twenty minutes. Now, perhaps there was only about ten minutes left until the competition was scheduled to end.
Below the water where she now swam was a vast area of dark sludge, and the lake had been stirred up by her movement, creating murky whirlpools. But finally, the faint, almost imperceptible singing in her ear was a relief to her anxious heart that was about to burst.
A group of Green Dippers appeared in the water grass at the edge of the mud and rocks, but from their sluggish attitudes, it was clear that they had already been taken care of. So when they tried to attack Hermione as she passed overhead, she quickly accelerated her tail fins, creating a large string of bubbles that submerged them. Once they escaped the bubbles, the girl had already moved away from them.
Hermione wanted to stop and appreciate the mermaid village that suddenly appeared in her field of vision. This was a rare sight, but her head was like a ticking clock, reminding her to keep moving faster to silence the annoying sound.
So when she discovered the four wooden poles surrounded by a crowd of mermaids, an overwhelming sense of exhaustion almost made her want to faint. But she knew she couldn't; she still had to bring Harry and Ron back to the surface.
Those fierce mermaids with their long spears didn't attack Hermione when she approached, which made her breathe a sigh of relief. But when she saw that there was no Cho Chang on the four wooden poles, a sense of worry suddenly filled her heart.
Cedric has succeeded; he has taken Cho Chang!
Realizing this, Hermione was happy for Hogwarts to once again secure the first place but was also a bit worried that she might have fallen too far behind.
But Hermione quickly discarded these distractions. She swam hard, quickly approaching the two pale faces. When her fingers touched theirs, a sudden brilliant green light rushed over, blinding Hermione's vision.
(End of Chapter)
