Bagman, who was standing at the front of the stage with his eyes fixed on the crystal ball on the right, shouted as Ivan rose out of the water.
"First up is the Hogwarts champion, Ivan Hals! Let's cheer for him!"
At Bagman's shout, there was a thunderous round of applause, and everyone stood up and shouted Ivan's name.
Under the watchful eyes of the crowd, several ripples suddenly appeared on the surface of the calm lake, and then the water seemed to be affected by some force and was lifted up. Ivan took the opportunity to flap his "wings" formed by his robe and jumped from the water to the shore.
"Oh, let's see, our champion didn't bring his hostage with him, he was carrying Miss Fleur, the champion of Beauxbatons! My God, this is amazing!" Bagman exclaimed.
Ivan gave Bagman a dirty look, then handed Fleur to Madam Pomfrey, who was waiting, then went to the lake to pull Gabrielle up, and finally Hermione…
Naturally, he chose this sequence because Fleur was unconscious and Gabrielle was too young for him to pull Hermione up first and leave the Veela sisters below.
"Ivan, are we really going to leave Harry and Krum alone?" Hermione asked worriedly, looking out at the Black Lake.
"Don't worry, they'll swim up!" Ivan assured him, then pointed to the floating crystal ball. "No, see for yourself!"
Hermione looked up curiously and saw five large crystal balls floating in the air above the Black Lake, faithfully recording everything that had happened at the bottom of the lake.
However, Hermione was no longer in the mood to care about anyone else. All she could think about was kissing Ivan at the bottom of the lake.
"So everyone can see what we're doing all the time?"
"Ah, that's right, isn't it?" Yvonne said sheepishly, scratching her head.
"Then why didn't you tell me before?" Hermione's face burned red, and she punched Ivan in the chest in frustration.
Hermione was so embarrassed at the thought of the whole school seeing her kissing Ivan that she wanted to drown in the Black Lake!
"I didn't think you'd kiss me out of the blue," Yvonne said, throwing up her hands in exasperation. She couldn't blame him, could she?
Hermione glared at Ivan, her eyes as sharp as knives, but helpless.
As the two of them chatted, there was movement on the calm lake again. Not far from the shore, two heads suddenly emerged from the bottom of the lake.
Harry gasped for air. He had been underwater for so long that the Gorse had worn off, and he was a surprisingly bad swimmer.
Luckily, Ginny could swim as well, and the two helped each other to the bank, where Ivan and Hermione pulled them up.
Krum was worse off than them. He had been carried to shore by his own hostages!
Karkaroff nearly fainted on the spot when he saw this.
"Gabriel…Gabriel!" Fleur, who had been taken care of by Madam Pomfrey, woke up and looked around the room in a panic, ignoring the fact that her blanket had fallen to the floor.
It was only when she saw her sister standing safely on the shore of the lake that the tension in Fleur's heart eased, and she threw her arms around her.
"That's great, you're okay, that's great! I thought…I thought…"
Fleur clung to Gabrielle, losing control of her emotions and crying out, while Gabrielle, who was only eight or nine years old, tried to calm her sister down.
Yvonne was deeply moved by their sisterhood.
Other than himself, the other warriors probably took the words in the golden egg seriously, believing that their most beloved would be buried at the bottom of the lake after the time limit.
Of course, this was not to say that the chosen champions were stupid, but rather that the organizers knew exactly what they were thinking, and the news broke out on the field. There was no time for thought, and no champion would bet on the person they cared about the most.
Yvonne wondered how she would react if she were told that they had thrown Hermione into the Black Lake and would only give her an hour to rescue her.
After spending some time with Gabrielle, Fleur looked at Ivan with gratitude in her eyes.
"Thank you, Hales!" Fleur said gratefully, throwing her arms around Ivan.
While Ivan lured her to the school of merpeople at the bottom of the lake, Fleur did not hold it against him.
After all, they were rivals at the time, and Ivan was being merciful by not attacking her directly.
It was for this reason that Yvonne was able to accept her request to go back and save Gabrielle, much to Fleur's delight.
Ivan, however, was not grateful at all, as he felt the chill behind him and quickly broke free of Fleur's embrace, not giving her a chance to kiss him at all.
"No, you thank the wrong person, Mademoiselle Delacour!"
Fleur looked at Ivan, nonplussed, unsure what he meant.
"Hermione suggested I save you, so thank her if you want!" Ivan explained, pointing to Hermione.
Not expecting Ivan to give her credit for saving Fleur and Gabrielle, Hermione waved him off and was about to say something, when Fleur threw her arms around her and thanked her profusely, causing Hermione to blush.
"Why did you lie to my sister?" Gabrielle asked, looking at Ivan curiously. She had been woken up by him at the bottom of the lake, and she knew more about him.
Yvonne crouched down and gazed at the small girl. "I didn't lie to her," she said half-jokingly. "If Hermione hadn't insisted that I save you, I might have chosen to keep you in the Black Lake with the ugly merpeople!"
Gabrielle, on the other hand, was grinning from ear to ear. She didn't believe a word Yvonne had said, and imitated Fleur's actions by giving her a hug and a kiss on the cheek.
"I owe you that much!" Gabrielle said cheerfully.
Ivan reached out and knocked Gabrielle on the head, then looked at Hermione and saw that she didn't look jealous of an eight-year-old girl.