Chapter 693: Entering the Lake


    “Evan, Hermione, you’re here!” Ron sat down and took a slice of bread to himself, saying proudly, “I’ve just been surrounded by Lavender and her friends. They wanted to know how I would breathe under the water. No way, girls are like this, I had to make them understand that this is not an easy task…”


    “We don’t care about you and Lavender.” Hermione said dissatisfied and looked at Ron angrily. “You’re toote. The champions will gather in front of the castle before eight o’clock and wait for instructions. “


    “I know, it’s not toote, I’m keeping track of the time!” said Ron indifferently, stuffing food into his mouth, “By the way, do you know where Harry has gone? He didn’te backst night, did he? Is Sirius looking for him?”


    “He’s in theke, of course.” Hermione said impatiently.


    “In theke?!” Ron asked, startled, “Why is Harry going there?”


    “Don’t you understand? In the second task, the champions will go to theke to find their most important person, and <i>your</i> most important person is <i>Harry</i>,” said Hermione, dissatisfied with Ron’s backwardness, “He’s already waiting for you there!”


    “Oh my God, I’m going to save Harry under theke?” said Ron hurriedly, suddenly bing nervous. “No one told me that. I heard the mermaid song in the Golden Egg and thought I was going to find something! “


    Thinking of that, Ron couldn’t help but start worrying. Harry was in the depths of theke waiting to be rescued by him.


    He groped for Gillyweed in his pocket. What if he couldn’t find Harry within an hour?!!


    Ron remembered the words in the song, ‘<i>Toote, it’s gone, it won’te back</i>.’ He panicked and was no longer rxed. He was afraid to lose Harry forever.


    “How can they do that? And Harry doesn’t have Gillyweed, how can he breathe under theke?” Ron said uneasily. “If I can’t find him within an hour, Evan, what should I do?”


    “I don’t know!” said Gabrielle, holding a cup and drinking milk.


    If she knew what to do, she wouldn’t sit here and worry!


    Hearing her answer, Ron froze. He didn’t expect that answer from Evan…


    “You just have to do what you usually did during training, and you <i>can</i> do it!” said Hermione quickly. “Eat Gillyweed by theke, find Harry in theke, and bring Him back. It’s as simple as that.”


    She was aware that if Ron knew all the truth, he would never seed because of the panic.


    “Okay, let’s go now!”


    Ron swallowed the food in his mouth and followed Hermione and Gabrielle out of the castle.


    They walked out through the double oak doors and came to the bright, chilly grounds outside.


    As they pounded down thewn to theke, they saw that the seats that had encircled the dragons’ enclosure in November were now ranged along the opposite bank, rising in stands that were packed to the bursting point and reflected in theke below.


    They walked around the other side of theke, and went there.


    The judges’ gold-draped table was in front of the audience at the water’s edge, and Dumbledore, Karkaroff, Madame Maxime, Fudge and Ludo Bagman were already sitting there.


    The other teachers and Aurors were standing at the judges’ table and would be in charge of maintaining order during the task.


    Ron waved at Lavender in the audience and walked over to the judge’s table.


    Not long ago, he had also received a letter from Percy saying that he would rece Mr. Crouch as a judge.


    Ron thought it was a good point for him, and no matter how bad he was, Percy could not give him a low score.


    But now, Percy was under investigation because of Mr. Crouch’s disappearance.


    Sirius told them that the Ministry did not want to make public the disappearance of Mr. Crouch, but they pulled Percy away and questioned him about the instructions from Mr. Crouch. They seemed to think that these instructions might not have been written by Mr. Crouch himself.


    Percy was under a lot of pressure. Something went wrong in his fledgling career, which was worse than killing him.


    Under these circumstances, he naturally could not be a judge at Hogwarts!


    “Here you are, Ron!” Ludo Bagman came up with a smile on his face, took the initiative to rece an Auror, and led Ron to the ce where the champions gathered, “Well, do you know what you’re going to do?”


    “I just found out!” Ron replied, “I can’t believe it …”


    “Yeah, yeah … me neither!” said Bagman, lowering his voice again. “Listen, I just learned the location of the Merpeople vige from stor. He went there yesterday… just to the northwest. Don’t swim anywhere else.”


    “Thank you!” Ron said in surprise, looking at Ludo Bagman.


    He already knew where the Merpeople vige was, but did not expect that Bagman would help him at this time.


    “You’re wee! You know, I want to help you win the tournament!” Bagman said, his voice returned to normal, “Well, go ahead, the other champions are waiting!”


    When Ron passed, Cedric, Krum, and Fleur had lined up along the bank at intervals of ten feet.


    Ron was on the very end of the line, next to Krum, who was wearing swimming trunks and was holding his wand ready. He was indeed worth being a world-ss Seeker


    It was indeed a world-ss pursuit. Krum’s physique was really strong. He had been preparing almost an hour before the beginning of the task. Ron hesitated, and decided to be in his robes.


    After a while, Professor Moody came around, inspected each champion, and ordered some precautions.


    Then Sirius and the Aurors did the same. Ron didn’t understand why they had to check so many times.


    Just when he was a little impatient, he saw Bagman stand up at the judges’ table. He pointed his wand at his throat as he had done at the World Cup, said, “<i>Sonorus</i>!” and his voice boomed out across the dark water toward the stands.


    “Well, listen up, everybody. All our champions are ready for the second task, which will start on my whistle. They have precisely an hour to recover what has been taken from them. On the count of three, then. One … two … <i>three</i>!”


    The whistle echoed shrilly in the cold, still air, and the stands erupted with cheers and apuse.


    Without looking to see what the other champions were doing, Ron pulled the handful of Gillyweed out of his pocket, stuffed it into his mouth, and waded out into theke as he had practiced before. It was so cold he felt the skin on his legs searing as though this were fire.


    His sodden robes weighed him down as he walked in deeper.


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