With the help of the merpeople, Alaric quickly confirmed the situation of several champions.
Among them, Harry, Fleur, and Krum were all safe, but they hadn't yet found the correct direction.
However, the merpeople had not found Hermione.
Shortly after, several merpeople hurriedly swam back as if escaping, their expressions full of fear.
"I... I... I found a monster!" they shouted loudly. "It's a large lizard with wings, swimming towards our direction."
A winged lizard? Must be a dragon.
Alaric immediately realized that Hermione had apparently completed her Animagus transformation in the water, turning into a dragon.
That explained why she hadn't used spells like the Bubble-Head Charm on herself.
A mere lake, could it drown a dragon?
Upon hearing this news, the entire merfolk village was thrown into chaos.
Some merpeople hurriedly retreated into their shell houses, while others swam around aimlessly.
Even their chorus became disjointed under the influence.
"Don't panic, don't panic," finally an elder merperson stood up, beginning to restore order.
"Everyone take up your spears. We are the masters of the Black Lake. Our ancestors defeated the aquatic creatures here and founded this village.
This is our home, and we must protect it like our ancestors did, even from monsters."
Inspired by him, the merpeople quickly calmed down.
The chorus resumed, and the rest of the foolish people gathered in the square with spears or tridents, ready for anything.
Soon, the water grass not far away began to sway abnormally.
A large group of Grindylows suddenly emerged from the water grass and swam frantically towards the merfolk village.
Before this, they hadn't dared to approach here at all.
Something must have driven them to behave so unusually; there was only one reason — they were being pursued by a monster, and they were fleeing.
Soon, a melodious dragon's roar echoed from the water grass.
Following closely, a silver dragon, three to four meters long, emerged from the water grass, bringing with her an aura of majesty.
The merpeople all pointed their weapons at her, frozen in fear, some of the smaller fish people trembling uncontrollably.
The merpeople were familiar with dragons.
While they couldn't see clearly in the water grass before, now they knew it was a dragon — a dragon that could freely move underwater.
Such a creature posed a greater threat to them than even the lake's ruler, the Giant Serpent.
Despite her size, this silver dragon was still a juvenile, yet her beauty and elegance were already evident.
Alaric recognized her as Hermione. This silver dragon was her Animagus form.
Ignoring the merpeople's puzzled expressions, Alaric swam towards her.
Upon spotting Alaric, the silver dragon happily called out and swam to his side.
To the astonishment of the merpeople, the silver dragon's body slowly shrank, shedding scales, and transformed into a girl.
The girl took out her wand, pointed it at herself, and a transparent bubble appeared over her head.
"What are you doing here?" the girl swam happily to Alaric's side, grabbing his hand and asking.
"I'm the judge," Alaric explained.
"I'm here to ensure your safety. Why did you turn into a dragon?
Didn't I say not to transform into a dragon in front of others?"
"Hehe, because we're underwater," Hermione stuck out her tongue, looking somewhat embarrassed, and coquettishly said.
"Anyway, there's no one else underwater. They three didn't see me transform into a dragon with their own eyes.
Even if they did find out, they'd probably just think it was a wild dragon, so it's okay this time."
The girl kept shaking Alaric's hand, refusing to give up until he agreed.
"Alright, alright," Alaric couldn't resist Hermione's insistence. He turned to the merpeople.
"You won't tell Dumbledore what you just saw, will you?"
The merpeople shook their heads one after another. They dared not do so.
How terrifying would it be for a wizard who could transform into a dragon?
Just moments ago, when the silver dragon first appeared, the merpeople had feared their entire tribe would be doomed.
Hermione was not surprised that Alaric could speak Mermish.
After seeing the hostages, she curiously asked Alaric, "As long as we bring Cho Chang back to the shore, I will have completed the task, right?"
"That's right."
"It seems I'm the first to complete the task. Following the sound really did lead the way."
The girl nodded satisfactorily, then swam lightly towards the hostage.
The hostages were tied with coarse water grass ropes.
The girl used magic to break the ropes binding Cho Chang, then took her upstream and quickly disappeared.
The second to arrive was Fleur. In the original story, she had unfortunately encountered many Grindylows and failed to complete the task.
Although the Bubble-Head Charm allowed people to breathe underwater, it had no combat capability itself, and many wizards were not used to casting spells underwater, resulting in a sharp decline in their combat effectiveness.
In contrast, Krum's method was much more effective.
As long as he could bear to dive, his shark head was unstoppable against the Grindylows.
But this time, he was lucky.
It should be said that the luck of the other three champions was good because, due to Hermione's influence, the originally disturbing and dangerous Grindylows were scared off.
The remaining few were not enough to stop these champions.
After Fleur brought Gabrielle away, Harry and Krum also found their way here one after another.
However, perhaps due to his shark head, Krum's intelligence seemed to be affected.
He only kept pulling and biting at the ropes on his friends, the problem was that Krum's shark teeth structure was peculiar, and anything smaller than a dolphin was awkward to bite, and his movements were not careful, almost tearing the boy in half.
However, in the end, everyone retrieved their treasures within an hour.
Alaric was the last to return to shore.
Madam Pomfrey was surprised and turned around them, preparing blankets for everyone and forcibly pouring a spicy potion into their mouths, causing steam to rise from the warriors and hostages' ears.
Dumbledore squatted by the water's edge, deep in conversation with the elder merperson. He could also speak Mermish.
Seeing this, Hermione immediately threatened the merpeople, and in the end, the merpeople did not reveal anything about the dragon.
After listening for a while, Dumbledore stood up straight and turned to the other judges, saying.
"Let's have a meeting first and then score the contestants."
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