Harry didn't so much go speak to Dumbledore, as he asked the hat, who had told the old man that Harry was taking the French Champion and a few extras to Beauxbatons, for a personal issue. Then he'd flown out the window, intent on joining, because why would he not want to see the other school?
Harry and Fleur went to find Hermione, first. That turned out to be rather easy. She was by the lake, because she was already trying to figure out what challenges there could be in the second task. She and Harry had easily figured out the egg, after all. He told her the plan, why he was doing it, and then, he had a bit of a whispered conversation with her, explaining the how of it all. She was instantly on-board.
Then, they went to the Carriage, and Fleur quickly went to go have a word with her headmistress. The large woman exited, followed, unfortunately, by all the residents of the carriage.
Hermione, seeing Harry getting a little uncomfortable, smiled, and stood closer to him. She knew he was a little on the shy side, sometimes, and she knew a bit of his past, so she wasn't unaware, but this seemed different. She didn't really understand why he was so uncomfortable around this particular group just then, because he could usually act normally in a group of at least this size, but liked being given an excuse to be supportive.
"You want us to go to Beauxbatons, today, still?" Madame Maxime asked.
"No." Harry said. "We are going to Beauxbatons today, still. The offer is for you to join."
The woman frowned at that. Fleur had already told her of what the boy had done for her, and her desire to have him do the same for her sister, so she was more than willing. The how of it was what was in question, but it seemed that that would be a surprise.
"Ah, I didn't miss you." the hat said, as he flew down to them, and easily landed on Harry's head. "I was worried that you'd take off without me, in your excitement."
"We're waiting for Madam Pomphrey and the headmaster." Hermione explained to the hat.
"Arranging a portkey?" Madame Maxime asked, thinking she now understood. She didn't ask after the hat, because she recognized it, but she hadn't been aware that it could fly.
"Just permission to cross borders." Harry said. "We'll be taking something else, to France."
"Ah, there you are." Dumbledore said, as he walked up to them, quickly. "I still have that shield you arranged for me, from our mutual benefactor. I'm thinking there would be less worry, if I was involved with the trip, yes?" he asked, as he twinkled his eyes at Harry.
Harry actually pouted at that. "Oh, come on! It was my idea! I love flying!" he complained, playing it up a little for the audience, but also feeling a little let down.
"I tell you what, Harry." Dumbledore said, soothingly. "If you have the power, when we're done in France, we can ask our guests if they would like to experience what you can do, okay?" he asked.
Harry decided to take the win, because the old man was technically right. It would be better, if the guests experienced Dumbledore using the transportation shield, first. That way they'd trust it more easily, and to top it off, Harry could make it a bit more fun, after Dumbledore took things slow and steady. Well, hopefully not too slow.
It took Poppy only ten minutes to arrange the medical authorization, for her and a few people to cross over to France, for the day. On the bright side, since she was going, they didn't need to stop anywhere, on their way, as was usually necessary for normal people.
"Alright, ladies, and Harry." Dumbledore said, as he decided to do this right, making solid chairs beforehand, and adding seatbelts. Then he transfigured a metallic framework around them and added glass. It was completely unnecessary, but he felt it might make people feel more secure, especially with how the shield tended to tilt during the flight. "If you could please take your seats? Not that one, Harry. I'll be flying, so centre is mine." he said, as Harry glared at him playfully, getting up and taking another seat, on Hermione's other side.
Maxime had no idea what to expect. This was all new to her, but Fleur had convinced her to trust them, so she'd sat down, and Dumbledore ensured that everyone was buckled in, before he felt the thrill of activating his interface, where the tablet with the shield resided, and activating the program. The shield formed around the framework, and the magic did what it was programmed to do, while the headmaster sat down in his seat, and buckled himself in.
"What ees happening?" Madame Maxime asked.
"I have an old acquaintance, with whom I made contact again recently, who is a bit of a mad spell-crafter." Dumbledore lied easily. "He's claimed all his magic, obviously, but he's not opposed to selling the effects he's mastered, or renting it out, as I'm doing. What this particular effect does, is create what he's called a Transportation Shield. It uses elemental magics, along with a few other effects, to create basically just that. A shield that flies and can take passengers. It also has a unique form of invisibility and has some effects on the air around the shield, which allows for some truly phenomenal speed."
"I 'ave not 'eard of this." Madame Maxime said. Surely such a gifted spell-researcher would be world-renowned? "Who is it?" she asked.
"Just one moment, Olympe." Dumbledore said, as he saw the magic finish, and lifted them up, sedately. He'd obviously tested this already, and he'd had Harry with him too, to ensure that he could handle the controls in the interface. Dumbledore, being a bit of a showman, used his hands to indicate as he manipulated the interface, making it look like he was conducting the magic, like a magical maestro, wand in hand.
The shield lifted them up, smoothly, before it started to slowly move forward, gaining pace as it went, but not accelerating so fast that the seats tilted too quickly, as Harry liked to do.
The French students, who were watching from outside, looked up in shock, as what seemed to be a patch of the Hogwarts grass lifted up, revealing solidly packed ground, in a perfect sphere under the dome that Dumbledore had made, before it vanished.
"Ugh." Harry complained. "You're going to take forever to reach any speed this way!"
"You know why I'm doing it slowly Harry." Dumbledore chided. "The first time you took me on a ride like this, you didn't even provide seats, and I thought we were going to fall, when the shield tilted under our feet. It takes a bit of getting used to, so let's not scare our passengers."
"I'm not going to lie." Poppy said. "I prefer it this way, too. When you took us up, that first time, I almost lost my appetite for a week."
"I prefer Harry's way." the hat spoke up. "He may be a little speed-demon, but he's also a natural flyer. Have you seen him during quidditch? He could literally fly circles around the other seekers."
"And half the stunts he pulls has me almost pulling out my hair!" Poppy complained. "Every time he does that Wronski Feint I have to close my eyes, or I simply scream."
"I think it's natural for a maternal figure to feel that way, if their kid likes to do things like that." the hat allowed.
"How fast are we going to go?" Madame Maxime asked, as she realised that they were already outpacing the speed that her Abraxan had been capable of. A glimmer of excitement was in her eyes, though.
"Well, we don't have a kilometre per hour rating for it," Dumbledore said, "but Harry could likely calculate our speed?"
"At current acceleration, considering the distance, and likely flight-path, when we reach maximum speed of around a thousand five-hundred kilometres per hour, we'll need to fly for approximately an hour and fifteen minutes, before we need to slow down again if you want to do it this slowly again." Harry said. "If you had purchased the upgraded package, like I did, we could be there in half an hour flat, if you still took things at only half the speed we'd be capable of."
"It still takes more power to fly that fast, Harry." Dumbledore said, as if he'd said it before. "I don't intend to spend half my magical reserves, just to get some speed we really don't need, since we can now enjoy the trip, and maybe listen to a bit of music?" he finished, in a question.
"Fine." Harry said, sighing. "But since I'm the one with the music, I'm choosing." he said, as he looked in his interface, and pulled up some popular rock. Cranberries, Foo Fighters and Offspring were currently some of his favourites. He'd long since worked up a collection, and a playlist function, with the sound being broadcast through that original speaker stone, which was inside his interface now.
Poppy, being long used to Harry's music choices, since he often worked with music playing, actually tapped a foot to some of the music, after asking Harry to turn the volume down a bit. Harry happily mouthed along with some of the music, as he nodded and did a sort of seated dance.
"When did 'ogwarts get zese sings?" Madame Maxime asked Dumbledore, as he smiled and nodded along with the music.
"Harry needed something to spend his time on, rather than pranking me, so I got in contact with an old friend of mine." Dumbledore lied, again, using the agreed upon lie. "He's been playing with new and interesting things ever since. Personally, I think that the person realised that Harry has a lot of potential, and has given him a discount, or something. He never explains where he got the funds to pay for new magics, but he's always pulling out new things, and surprising people."
"'ow do I get zese sings for Beauxbatons?" Madame Maxime asked.
Dumbledore smiled at her. "If you want, we can discuss that later. I don't like talking about expenses in front of the students, but just so you know, I paid for the rental of this magic from my own pocket. I couldn't explain such an expense to the school board, after all."
Maxime seemed to understand and accept that, as she sat back, and looked forward watching as birds flew out of their way. "Do birds still see us, or do zey just somehow sense us?" she asked.
"The magic moves them, as we approach." Dumbledore said. "It's apparently a safety feature. I still need to keep an eye out for other things, that would be too large to magically move, though."
'Oh, damn.' Harry said, in his head. He'd forgotten to send the headmaster the latest iteration of detection magic, which would make flying in the shield much simpler.
'Do it, now.' the hat, still on his head, suggested.
Harry shrugged and pushed a copy of that system through to the headmaster.
Dumbledore's eyes only widened for a moment, as he saw something appear next to the navigation system. It was labelled, 'Radar'. Dumbledore knew what radar was, so he smiled, and activated that, too. Instantly, his mind was filled with an image of the immediate surroundings of the shield. He knew where the ground was, he knew where small flying objects, birds, were too. He also knew that they were small enough to be moved by the shield, as something about this detection magic, because it was not an actual radar, knew what the shield could safely move. Dumbledore smiled, as he realised that Harry had given him something new to contemplate, and would likely take it back, later, as he'd done in the past.
"Does 'e sometimes look like 'e ees 'aving conversations with someone zat eez not zere?" Fleur asked Hermione.
"It's the hat." Hermione said. "It's the sorting hat, remember? It can read minds. It likes Harry. Considers him a friend, even. They are often just sitting and doing that. Chatting in his head, while Harry thinks about things."
"What eez 'e sinking about?" Fleur asked, wondering if the girl knew.
"Probably a prank that they want to play on one of the professors, or a new idea for a rune-scheme, or a concept for arithmantic application of old theorems that could never be completed. Harry loves learning and figuring things out." Hermione said.
"Like ze sing 'e did for me?" Fleur asked.
"Honestly, he only told me about that, after the fact." Hermione said. "He sometimes has his secret projects. I think he likes feeling smart, so he likes surprising me."
"But… 'e ees smart." Fleur said.
"Oh, I know." Hermione said. "Believe me, I won't soon forget it. But feeling smart and being smart aren't the same. Harry doesn't think he's super smart, even though everyone else does. He just thinks he thinks differently. When he figures things out, though, and shows the results of his efforts, he feels proud, and successful. He needs that, and I don't hold it against him. He's only a boy, after all." At this, Hermione smirked at Fleur, and the girl instantly decided that she liked her.
"Of course." she agreed. "Only a man. We can't expect 'im to be as capable as a woman, after all."
Hermione smiled at the girl. She had, at first, been a little worried when Harry told her about him spending some time in the beautiful French girl's mind, and then the thing with the allure… which suddenly explained his nerves around the other girls. Now, she realised that Fleur was interested, but there was some sort of girl-code going on here. Fleur wasn't making a move, because she knew that Hermione was first in line. She appreciated that, because she really didn't like how she compared to the beautiful older girl.
The trip started becoming more fun, as they went, because the headmaster and headmistress started comparing notes on travelling either by shield, or by flying coach. It seemed that the flying coach was a bit on the rocky side, considering the Abraxan were never really tame, and they tended to fight being controlled, for quite a while.
Then they started commenting on the differences between their schools, and then it was just commentary about the trip, and places that they had been. That was one benefit of travelling, like this; You get to talk about travelling and places you've been, and the old man had been many places. He even had a few funny anecdotes about travel issues he'd had.
Before too long, they'd arrived at Beauxbatons. The headmistress told Dumbledore where to set them down, and before the old man could land, Harry had created a spherical landing pad, so that the shield could fit into it, and they could take the bit of Hogwarts that they had brough with them, back. It had stairs down, and everything.
"Ah, that was a good idea, Harry." Dumbledore said.
"I'm just copying you." Harry said, easily. "I don't do this shell thing, normally. I like feeling free. That's a big part of flight, you know? Freedom?"
"I do think I understand your reasoning, my boy." Dumbledore allowed. That did explain a few things, at least.
As they landed, a few students turned up, looking at the strange thing that had just appeared.
Madame Maxime was smiling as she walked down the steps, once Dumbledore had removed a part of the shell, making a door, and greeted a few of the students.
Fleur had soon run off to go find her sister, who was also a student.
Harry was a little shocked to realise that the school wasn't just a girls' school, but then they'd never said it was a girls' school. He'd just assumed, considering all the students from here who were currently at Hogwarts were girls. Living in such close proximity to a bunch of girls, however, was probably why the Headmistress had decided to bring only the group she had.
Fleur returned rather quickly, but by the time she was back, Poppy had already erected a medical tent, so that they could have privacy for the procedure, and Fleur, recognizing the tent from the first task, brought the girl in.
Harry obviously took the lead, and the hat let them use him as a mental medium, so that they could communicate in their heads, for what they weren't saying out loud. Poppy watched as Harry worked, asking Gabrielle to do the same things her sister had, with Fleur translating, since her sister was not capable of English.
Poppy was quite impressed with the new application of viewing the active parts of the mind, and mentally thanked Harry, when he gave her a copy of that application. She'd need that to work with this magic in the future. When he started recording the magical differences in the aura, using some application of viewing magic, along with her own aura-viewing spell, she was pleased that her own spell had helped.
In the end, the process only took around five minutes, and most of that was because Harry was teaching at the same time. By the end of that, however, Gabrielle had her own controller, neatly built in, and tested. She started tearing up, too, and Harry tried to escape, when she started crying and hugging her sister, but Madam Pomphrey took hold of his shoulder, to keep him there.
When Gabrielle let go of her sister, and grabbed Harry in a hug, repeatedly saying 'Merci!' Harry wasn't sure what to do.
'Hug her back.' Fleur mouthed, as she saw him looking the same way he did when anyone got emotional.
Awkwardly, Harry put his arms around the complete stranger, but that seemed to just make the girl cry harder. He was going to protest, but Fleur nodded, like it was right or somehow good.
"Happy tears are good, Harry." Poppy said. "You should accept as many of them as you can in your life, because chances are good that you'll likely earn a lot of sad ones in your life. My mother always said, that as long as you get enough happy tears, you can balance the scales better, when you give people the other sort."
Harry sighed, nodded, and tried to file that away into the emotional detection-system, which was one of the first applications of his interface. He still used it, but he didn't always need to, anymore.
'It's probably a good idea to try and switch that system off, at some point.' the hat suggested. 'I think that you're ready to start playing without that handicap. You're much better at understanding emotions, now, than you were back in first year.'
Harry didn't reply, but he did squeeze the girl a last time, before breaking his hold.
"Merci beaucoup!" the girl said, again, smiling through her tears at Harry.
"You're welcome." Harry replied, in French.
"You speak French?" Fleur asked, also in French, frowning.
"Just a little bit." Harry replied, switching back to English. "Hermione has been teaching me what she knows, and I've been slowly adding to my knowledge, but I'm not fluent, or anything." He'd obviously placed a new translation system in his interface. It still didn't translate perfectly, but as he spoke to Hermione, when she spoke what little French she knew, which was more than most would think to expect, considering she was doing the same thing, he started to learn more quickly. He could basically understand spoken French, with just a bit of a delay in translation, for things he'd not memorised yet.
Fleur decided to smile at him for the effort he was taking. His speech was heavily accented, but it was her native tongue. "You're not so bad, for an English boy, you know?" she asked.
"Well, one hopes." Harry said, smiling back.
Fleur needed to have a few more minutes with her sister, clarifying a few things, and making her promise to keep who had done the actual magic, a secret, because Harry Potter may be famous, even in France, but he didn't seem to like that fame.
Gabrielle had an idea however, and she soon walked up to the headmistress, and asked if she could go with them. Surprising everyone, including Gabrielle, she allowed it with no issues, and asked Fleur to go with her, and to help her pack. Then she asked another student to go fetch an owl, while she quickly wrote a letter to the Delacour Patriarch, to inform him that Gabrielle would be joining them at Hogwarts. She would have joined them at some point anyway, but none of the students could know that. She'd already spoken to the man, and his wife, to ensure they knew the need and that she'd take personal responsibility for the girl.
It wasn't too much later that they set off again, with Harry purposefully taking the seat Dumbledore had, while he made another seat for the new passenger, and Fleur helped her strap in. Dumbledore closed them up again, after that.
"Try not to scare the girl too much, would you Harry?" Poppy asked, as Harry started his own transportation shield. He fully intended to go over the sea, and to add some speed, but he could accelerate slower than normal, for them, so he nodded. He also knew that Poppy was just not very fond of this form of transport, especially when Harry went all out.
Little did they know that the younger French girl apparently had a thing for going fast and flying, and she whooped with glee when Harry took off faster than Dumbledore had.
Poppy sighed along with Hermione, when they saw his excited grin at hearing the girl.
"Oh, damn." Poppy muttered, accepting her fate.
"Open her up, Harry!" the hat suggested, excitedly. "Let's give the girl a memory she'll never forget!"
"You don't have to ask me, twice." Harry chuckled, as he steered them out to the ocean, before he started increasing acceleration.
"Whoo!!!" Gabrielle did not fear speed it seemed, and the way the ground tilted below them seemed to just add to her thrill.
Hermione, having not done this before, except for with Dumbledore, earlier, held on to her seatbelt, hard, but refused to ask Harry to slow down. She trusted him, completely. She just needed to get used to the sensation.
"C'est incroyable!" Madam Maxime exclaimed, with a huge smile, as she kept her eyes on the horizon.
Dumbledore impressed Harry, by sitting quite calmly, with a small smile on his face. He both trusted Harry, and had experienced this before, so he was used to it. The fact that he knew Harry had been adding things, like the detection magic, meant that he could have even more faith in him. He also realised that there was less strain on his body this time, but he'd ask after that later.
"We should make a gyroscopic rig for this." Hermione said, trying to act calm. "If you did that, the ground would move, but we could stand still, perspective-wise."
"I thought of that, but I like things this way." Harry said. "I think Beth is working on inventing her own version, using only runes. Maybe she can incorporate something like that?"
"I think I'll go talk to her about that." Hermione said. She loved learning from the Runes teacher. She was, for lack of a better word, cool. "Maybe I can help, and I could get my own version of this once she's figured it out."
"Why not just rent zees shield?" Madame Maxime asked. From the sounds of it, Harry not only had contact with an impressive magical inventor, but he also had a grant to modify and experiment with things, which she was starting to realise was an indicator of his capability and intelligence.
"It takes too much power." Hermione said. "Harry can use it, because he's got a lot of power, and I could use it, but nowhere near this fast. Professor Babbling's runes, on the other hand, would likely be capable of taking charge and using power more efficiently."
The headmistress nodded at that. Frankly, she was considering renting this as well, and while she had a lot of power, she suspected that Dumbledore had much more, and from the looks of it, so did the boy. "Maybe I'll wait and see eef I can get something similar from ze Professor. I suspect runes would not have ze issue of worrying about magical cost."
"There is that, I suppose." Harry allowed. It was true that runes could be set up to power themselves, or to maintain a charge, even as it has an effect, but the whole point of the spell, for him, was that he wanted to be able to do it at will, and not have to carry an item with him to do it.
The trip took up most of their attention after that, and just for the fun of it, Harry put on some rock again, which just made things more fun as he swerved and turned and did loops, which made Gabrielle and Harry whoop in glee, again, since it really was fun.
Unfortunately, the trip back was rather quick, when Harry did it, and he'd perfected stopping already, by doing a quick turn, that decelerated them quickly, and landed back where they'd left from. When Harry dispelled the magic, Dumbledore did a bit of magic, and soon the line of broken grass that had been left, after their departure, was pristine and unscathed again.
Gabrielle hugged Harry, again, blushed, and went into the carriage, following Fleur.
"So, she'll be Fleur's 'something taken'?" Harry asked Dumbledore, while Madame Maxime was still standing there.
"I don't know what you are talking about." Dumbledore said, even as he twinkled his eyes at Harry.
"We already know that I'll be Harry's." Hermione said, matter-of-factly. "I hope that 'or else it will be lost' thing was just to add drama or a sense of urgency, because if I actually die-"
"You won't." Harry said, certainly. "Dumbledore knows that I'll leave a world that threatens harm to innocents, just for a stupid contest."
"The tasks were never designed to hurt anyone, only to test people." Dumbledore said. "I won't confirm anything, but rest assured that nobody that we involve will be allowed to come to harm."
Harry nodded at the man and decided to go back to the common room. "If you'll excuse me, I have to get back to my Arithmancy homework, before Moody's next training session sneaks up on me, again."
When he, Hermione and Poppy had left, Maxime turned to Dumbledore. "We 'ave some sings to discuss." she said, matter-of-factly.
"My office?" Dumbledore offered, indicating to the castle, and the woman nodded.
III-III
The second task finally came around, and Harry was more than ready. He had spent the time to work with the elements, after all, so he had a very easy, elegant solution.
When the cannon sounded, Harry waited for the other champions to jump into the water, activated his magical detection system, and stepped onto the water, which then pushed him up, as a patch of frozen water appeared around him, and skates appeared under his feet, made of hardened water, rather than ice, which was a similar principle to the hardened air Harry had been using. It also had a fun effect of reducing friction to almost nothing. Then, he indicated with his hand, freezing a patch of water in that direction.
Deciding to be nice, Harry indicated with both hands, to the sides and back, making a sort of arrow, which indicated the direction he intended to go, which the other champions would be able to see, and then he started calmly skating in the direction of the mermaid village. It hadn't been hard to find, and considering the clue was in mermaid song, it made sense that the hostages would be there. Well that, and Harry had looked for Hermione's interface. It wasn't active, but he could still sense it, because Hermione technically always had it on her. His magic was in her head and he could always find his magic when using his detection system, especially if he followed the link to their shared notepad.
Harry was about halfway there, when a pack of grindylow jumped up onto the icy path and tried to latch onto Harry. Unfortunately for them, Harry had a trick ready for just such an occasion. The hat. Gryff had wanted to help Harry in the previous task, but Harry already had a plan for that, so he'd told him he could help in the next one.
The moment a grindylow approached Harry, he just looked at the creature, pointed his wand to hide that he wasn't really doing anything and, through Harry's interface, using Harry's own magic and targeting system, the hat cast a fun little gravity charm which Harry had made on the creatures, which had them floating up rather than coming back down.
He'd contemplated adding that to his transportation shield, but unfortunately nullifying a natural force like gravity, was a little costly, magic-wise. Easier to propel yourself, taking gravity into account, than to counter it entirely. Fortunately grindylows were small creatures, which meant that the cost wasn't all that steep. The benefit was obviously that the grindylows would be held up and away from the water for a while, as they floated off, which meant that their numbers kept on decreasing, as they all floated away from Harry, for a whole minute, before the spell wore off.
In that time, a larger group of them had joined, thinking that the others must have found something delicious to stay out of the water for so long, and pretty soon every grindylow in that area was incapacitated and floating around, scrambling as if trying to swim in the air, to get back to the water.
Harry didn't know it, but Fleur had decided to follow his path, under the water, and he'd accidentally saved her from that same horde, that he'd so nicely incapacitated. Well, the hat had, anyway.
'That was so much fun!' the hat exclaimed, in his head. 'We should come to the lake and do that again, sometime!'
Harry just smiled, as he continued to calmly skate along the ice, which kept on forming, as he went. There was a bit of bobbing, and the ice had broken in a few places behind Harry, but he had obviously tested how thick and wide the ice would need to be, to support his weight, beforehand.
Before long, he was in position above Hermione, so he allowed himself to skate off the water, and fell into it, without even a splash. There was no splash, because the water was separating before him as he went, while he supported himself with his levitation magic. It was different underwater, and he actually needed to put some effort into going down, because the bubble of air around him, kept on wanting to go up. Hermione wasn't too close to the surface, but Harry just continued to sink, until he saw her appearing inside his little bubble, the water slipping from her form, as she entered Harry's bubble, leaving her dry and instantly waking her up, as Harry levitated her into his arms.
"Harry?" she asked, as she came to. "Is, this the task?" she asked, as she looked around her while Harry cut the rope which had tied her down, with a cutting curse.
"Yes, it is." Harry said nodding, as he kept them in one place and applied a bit of power, to stabilise the water around them, so that he could see out, rather than the dark blur it had been, before. A standard Lumos to make some light, and they could see the other two hostages and a few merpeople with tridents. Gabrielle was obvious, but it seemed that Victor had a fellow classmate as his hostage. Probably a friend.
Harry took a bit of time to look around the mermaid village, waving and smiling at the creatures. The place looked like it might look magical, on a sunny day, but with the overcast skies outside, it looked kind of dark and dreary. Since he was there, and he wanted to wait for at least Fleur, Harry spoke to Hermione, and let her see his interface, so that they could do something nice for the locals. Hermione didn't have her wand, but that didn't mean she couldn't do things on her interface and help Harry.
For the next several minutes, Harry and Hermione worked on adding multi-coloured glowing surfaces, to emulate bioluminescence, to some corral and stone outcroppings, which would give the mermaid village a bit of light at night, and made the place look much more inviting, even with the dark that had before made the place look so dreary. The spell was one of Harry's own creation, which he'd used to emulate making things that glowed in the dark. One benefit of this magic over the natural sort, though, was that it worked without needing to burn energy. It was self-sufficient, and always activated in the dark.
A few child mermaids even came out of their dwellings and swam around the multi-colour glowing spaces.
One girl, who Harry could not judge the age of, swam right up to their bubble, with a large pink shell in her hand, and indicated at it, and then at one glowing boulder, which was almost the same colour. The guards with the tridents didn't interfere, but they were watching very attentively. Harry thought she looked hopeful, so he smiled at her and made her shell glow too. He got a very grateful smile, as the girl hugged her shell to her chest, while she nodded at him gratefully, before swimming off to where she'd come from, to go show off her shell to what they assumed were her friends.
"I think we should go now." Hermione said. She wouldn't object to how close they were, but she was pretty cold, and she could see staying down here was taking a lot of power, from Harry's interface.
"You're probably right." Harry said, sighing.
He looked around, one last time and smiled when he spotted Fleur almost by accident, as he prepared to leave. She quickly made her way to her sister, cut her ropes, and then looked at Harry as he cocked his head at her. He indicated for her to come to them, and surprising Harry, she nodded and pulled Gabrielle along with her.
When she broke into the water, from below, Harry smiled at her. "Hold on to my feet, and I'll pull you up." he said.
Fleur quickly took his foot, with one hand, while she held onto her sister, and pulled her into the bubble, which woke her up, too. "Merci." Fleur said, as she felt Harry's air-bubble move up, feeling the water rush past them. Then she assured her sister that they just had to make it back to the pier, before they would be able to dry off properly. They were still in the water after all, hanging onto Harry's foot as he went.
Harry sighed in relief as the pressure he'd been holding onto, to go down and stay down there, was released as they rose. "Water is heavy." he explained.
"Right." Hermione said, as she nodded. "How much pressure did you have to hold up?"
"No idea." Harry said. "We can do the math later. I just want to get out of here. I never got wet, but it's still bloody cold down here."
"I was actually submerged, so I'm pretty cold." Hermione agreed.
"We can do comfort charms up on the ice-bridge." Harry said, as he pointed up.
It didn't take long at all to go up, and pretty soon, they popped up, out of the water and landed on the ice. Harry purposefully lifted up higher, so that the French sisters could be pulled out quickly, and then he landed next to them, the water easily slipping off them and returning to the lake, as Harry's command over the element willed it so.
Then he cast some comfort charms, conjured a sled, and asked the ladies to sit down. While they situated themselves, he made another sled, too, so that Victor could use it, should he decide to follow their lead. He took the front seat, transfigured a pack of dogs made of animated water, on a leash, and told them to "Mush!". The dogs barked excitedly as they started down the ice-bridge, the sound of their barking sounding strange, but that likely made sense considering their water bodies.
The crowd watched as the Potter boy did something strange again, while he brought not only his hostage, but also the French Champion, with hers. The riddle hadn't said that they couldn't help each other, and frankly, Harry considered the task complete, the moment the hostage was rescued, so he didn't even consider not helping. Victor was a proud young man, but he probably wouldn't mind a bit of help, when he got to his hostage and found that the others were already gone.
Harry helped them onto the pier, and then he dismissed the dogs and the sled, leaving the ice-bridge, which he'd re-enforced as he went, to let it last a while longer. The crowd of cheering and clapping spectators didn't bother Harry as much as before, even though it looked like the crowd was about the same size.
Victor only joined them ten minutes later, running behind his sled, on the ice, which he was pushing, with his friend sitting in it, shivering under a conjured fur blanket.
"What took you?" Harry asked, sending him a friendly smirk.
"I do not control the elements of nature." Victor said, scowling, but also grinning a little. "I actually got vet, for one."
"Yeah, that sounded cold to me, so I skipped it." Harry said, cockily.
"How did you get here, so fast?" Victor asked, as he climbed up, onto the pier, after assisting his still shivering friend up.
"I made skates to get there and transfigured a pack of water huskies." Harry said. "They pulled us in."
Victor frowned. Why hadn't he thought of that? "Good idea." he allowed, begrudgingly. He'd seen the boy making the ice-bridge but had still thought he'd beat him to the hostages, with his partial shark-transformation. Apparently, he'd taken the longer route, though. Fleur had even beat him to her hostage. Skates would explain a lot. He was from a frozen country, so he really should have considered that.
Harry just shrugged, as he used a bit of power, to dry both boys, the water flowing off them and going back to the lake.
"So, you are vater-mage?" Victor asked.
"I've studied the four base elements." Harry said, modestly.
Hermione actually snorted. She knew he'd done more than study them. His system could control the base elements, perfectly. It was just another reason why she considered the interface a cheat, but she wouldn't complain, since she could basically just spend the time, and do the same. Nothing was out of reach for Harry's systemised magic. She was still studying all the subjects in school, though. She was of the opinion that she could build a better founding on the accumulated knowledge of many generations. Well that, and she could be more useful, the more she knew… with a little bit of bibliophile thrown in.
"All four?" Fleur asked, her eyes widening. "You are an elemental mage, zen?" she asked.
"Is that a thing?" Harry asked, frowning at Hermione.
"Magicals that can control all the base elements are called elemental mages." Hermione said. "It's considered extremely rare and lends itself to a wide range of interests in the magical world, but it's supposed to take many years to truly master just one, so very few ever succeed in that."
"Oh." Harry said, before nodding. "Cool." he said, smiling.
"But only vhen mastered." Victor added, as he took a warm blanket from Madam Pomphrey, who had shown up when they didn't come to her as they should have. "Tank you." he said to the woman, before turning back to Harry. "Durmstrang has produced a few vater-mages. It is something ve celebrate. True vater-mages can control not just vater, ice and snow. It is very useful in cold countries, like Norway, for both de mage, and de people. Fire-mages too, but difficult in cold veather."
"Makes sense." Harry said, nodding. "Warm air, for when it gets very cold, and likely melting frozen mountains to avoid avalanches?"
"Da." Victor said, nodding.
"There is magic for keeping a house warm, though." Hermione said, frowning.
"Hard to hide, from muggles." Victor said. "Not everyone ends up living in only magical towns. A fire-mage could keep the air varmer for whole town, and not need to explain how, or vhy. It is den just considered mystery of nature. Still, one mistake…"
"I've heard of that." Harry admitted. "The magical town thing. I once had a plan to make a new place like that. An island, or large warded place or something, where magicals that the magical elite don't want to keep, can come and live, and be allowed to do magic, because it is still hidden. Then they could go out from there, and work in the muggle world, or maybe even bring things to the magical community to do things like repairs, before sending them back."
"Later, Harry." Poppy warned him, as the judges approached.
Harry listened as he was given high marks again, with Fleur being congratulated on her strategy of following the path Harry had made and using him as a distraction for the grindylows. He'd narrowed his eyes at the girl, and she'd smiled back confidently. She hadn't actually pointed them at Harry. He'd pulled their attention all on his own, but then, she wouldn't admit that it was just her luck either. She wanted to win this thing, too.
Victor received decent marks, too, but because he was last, even if he'd made good time, he came in last, again.
Harry's magic was explained away as other spells that did exist, or modified spells because that was more believable, and he was congratulated for his interesting and unique ideas, before the champions were told about the last task, which was, once again, not a surprise. All of the champions had seen the hedge maze that was being grown on the quidditch pitch.
After that, they were dismissed, and Harry escorted Hermione to the common room, so that the Gryffindors could throw a party for the Hogwarts champion, again.
Hermione wanted to go for a shower, to shed the last of the cold, and to feel clean, again. She also wanted to go get her wand, which she'd left behind, before she left for the 'meeting' she'd been called to. They'd known to expect it, after all.
III-III
The final task was a few months off, and Harry didn't think he needed too much preparation for it, but that didn't deter Moody. He kept on stepping up the training, as soon as Harry became accustomed to any one form of training. Moody called it normal and pressed him and his friends for better results. They'd started individual and group duelling, where they fought each-other, Moody, and in differing groups of two and three, with different objectives, like reaching a target, while one person defended, or keeping a stationary object from being hit by any spells.
Hermione had noticed an uptake in her spellcasting ability, which was why she'd pushed herself to stay in the program, and Neville had finally come out of his shell, finding some sort of strange comfort in the physical and magical exertions that he was forced to participate in.
Draco was a different boy, than he had been, at the start of the training. He was more serious and observant. He had started showing some actual Slytherin cunning, when he started using his mind more, during their training. He'd chain spells, that looked like one, and then quickly do something unexpected while his opponent was distracted, or he'd actually rely on an ally, while he performed one function or another. He'd felt great joy at successes, and failures only motivated him, now.
As for Harry, he was usually in every event, because he had turned his body into a stamina machine, and he had the magical reserves to go on, and on. All his friends relied heavily on him, when they were in teams, and they actually needed to work hard, to get at him, when he was their opponent, and as with all the training Harry had been doing, he never relied on the system, because it wasn't a success, if he cheated.
Neville and Hermione knew, of course, and they only respected him more, for not doing things the easy way. Neville had relied on Harry's magic, to help with his stamina, on occasion, but after finally realising that he was still more tired, and sometimes a little ill if he used it too much, Neville had also started applying himself, to use only that which he was able to, naturally. He was also starting to work on using the interface to help his body along, himself.
Who knew? If he could do this, maybe one day he could work on something to help his parents, too. He already planned on asking Harry for help, but he wanted to achieve something for himself, first. There was also the little voice in the back of his head, that told him that if even Harry couldn't help them, then there really was no hope for them. He couldn't handle hearing that. He'd not worked up the courage to let the last bit of hope he had for ever knowing them… to let that hope die.