Chapter 393: Chapter 392 The Second Task (2 in 1)
Jon got up from bed each day and routinely used an Animagus transformation incantation with his wand aimed at his heart area.
He had done this almost daily for six months and had never stopped, and only after he had done this would he start to wash up and then have breakfast.
When he arrived in the great hall, Lee, George and Hermione were all already seated.
"I read the Daily Prophet, and it's the only one that sticks stiffly to the Ball, insisting that we stole something valuable from the castle, and it's only because of the Dark Lord's generosity that we weren't pursued and continued with our day. Oh yes, and they've published photos of those portraits and pieces of armour you destroyed, Hermione."
George said smugly, holding a cup of pumpkin juice.
"Looks like Fred and I got great results for our Weasley orb!"
The alchemical ball Hermione had used to successfully blow up that armour in the Headmaster's office was of course the Weasley twins' research success that Jon had discovered in the middle of the summer.
The most perfect thing they had made so far was this little bomb, with a stable trigger and a decent amount of potency; right at the end of the first task, George had shown Dumbledore what they had accomplished and shared all the tricks and materials to make it in the hope that it would reduce some casualties and injuries to the wizards of the Witching Horizon.
As the twins had said to Jon during the summer holidays, they didn't hide their research from Dumbledore, and with Durmstrang's funding, they had no worries about their experiments, and could also make it possible for the Witching Horizon to get the blueprint for free.
But even if they wanted to give them away for free, Dumbledore certainly saw the value in them.
The Weasley twins were ingenious and gifted in alchemy, and it was not unheard of for wizards to think of embedding a blasting curse within a sphere to mass produce this advanced dark magic, but the biggest problem with this idea was the instability of the blasting curse runes, the timing of when the finished product would explode and the nature of the explosion would be unknown even to the person who made it.
The Weasley twins, however, had overcome this difficulty, and Jon had no idea how they had done it, but it seemed that they had used some ancient rune that had been passed down in the Weasley family, and when the technology of the alchemical sphere had matured completely, they had given away all their research for nothing, and of course, Grindelwald's side had paid for it, so they had received a copy of such technology as well.
After learning of the Weasley twins' work, Dumbledore did not accept the gift, but after careful consideration, he offered to give them a patent for their invention and a share for each Weasley Orb they produced.
But such a payment was also refused by the twins, who remained true to their initial idea of giving it away for free without taking a knut.
In the end, Dumbledore didn't insist any further, and simply left a trophy in the Weasley twins' names in the showroom he kept in the wagon while giving the Weasleys a generous bonus in the Witching Horizon for George and Fred's absolute excellence, honouring and rewarding their parents.
In response, George and Fred didn't refuse again when they learned of it, and Arthur and Molly, although they didn't know exactly what they had done, were both happy and proud of it.
The Weasley Orb Hermione had used in the Headmaster's office this time was the finished product that Dumbledore had given her, which Witching Horizon had made using the technology provided by the Weasley twins.
It was the first time it had been used in a real battle now, and it had yielded remarkable results.
"It is very useful and not too shabby in power." Hermione gave her approval.
Although they were the ones who had actually infiltrated Hogwarts castle on the day of the Ball, outside opinion had little effect on Jon and the others.
It was even safe to say that this incident was no longer even mentioned in the magical dailies except for the Daily Prophet, which was still covering it, and instead, the focus began to be on the second task of the Triwizard Tournament that would be taking place today.
In fact, as early as the end of the first task, Jon already knew what the second task would be.
The three tasks of the Triwizard Tournament had been proposed by one task each from Voldemort's side and Dumbledore's side and the final task would be decided by Matthew and the others.
The snatching of the Golden Snitches from the Forbidden Forest was the task proposed by Voldemort's side, and the second task was naturally chosen by Dumbledore and the team, so Jon and Diane had a huge head start against Draco and Emil.
Of course, such a head start was allowed by the rules, just as Draco and Emil actually knew about the first task well in advance before the first task started.
So Jon had been at the Black Lake since the end of the first task to prepare for the second one.
That's right, the second task would be in the Black Lake.
Only unlike the original task, this time instead of trying to save someone from the merpeople, they had to search for pearls from the bottom of the lake.
Unlike the first task, there would only be ten such pearls in total, and given the scope of the Black Lake and the fact that the students would not be able to stay underwater for anywhere near as long as they would in the Forbidden Forest.
According to Jon's estimation, this task would be over in just one morning at the earliest.
The most critical issue faced by the champions was not simply being underwater, but the fact that it was only the first of January and the ice on the surface of the Black Lake was still at its thickest, making it a problem just to break through the ice and get into the water, and the difficulty of staying in the cold water.
Compared to these two, the search for the pearls and everything else would be a much simpler problem to solve.
Dumbledore's proposal to task in the Black Lake was not without reason, and Jon had been fishing at the lake every day for some time to prepare for his entry into the water.
As for how to get into the water, this was something he and Diane certainly had plenty of plans for.
After breakfast, Dumbledore and Rosier led the group to the Black Lake, where many students from Hogwarts Castle had already gathered.
Now that the winter holidays were not over, and the fact that everyone had not gone home to attend the Yule Ball over the holidays, these students were in the most boring state of mind in the castle with the absence of classes.
There was no restriction on them in terms of spectating the tournament which would be held on the Black Lake due to the holiday, so naturally, they could all come and be spectators.
Other than the students, Matthew and two other judges were already waiting there, and Snape and Beauxbatons's Deputy Headmaster Bonnesante were likewise at the lake with Draco and Emil.
Jon and the others were sort of the last to arrive, but there was actually still half an hour before the official start time of the tournament at nine o'clock.
When they arrived, Jon obviously saw something unusual in Emil and Draco's hands, it looked like a herb, which made him and Diane look at each other.
Diane obviously saw what they were holding in their hands as well, and spoke to Jon in a mumbling tone.
"Gillyweed."
It is a herb that allows the person taking it to breathe underwater for up to an hour.
It wasn't the herb itself that was really a problem for Jon, but the fact that both Draco and Emil had actually prepared in advance like this as well.
Who had told them the rules of the tournament in advance?
Jon subconsciously glanced up at Matthew as he thought of this, but then he also realised that it wasn't just the American wizard, but actually, the other two Confederation judges who were more suspicious than him, especially the Asian wizard who had already revealed some problems in the first task.
After everyone had arrived, Matthew read out the rules for the second task in public.
"After passing through the woods, your challenge turns underwater in its wake. This black lake is the venue for the next task, and even as an American I have heard the legend of how the four great wizards rowed across it a thousand years ago when they chose this spot to build Hogwarts Castle."
"So of course in this tournament to determine the ownership of the castle and the Hallmark of Hogwarts, you will also be required to retrace the path taken by the founders of this school. We have hidden ten pearls in the Black Lake in advance and all you have to do today is to collect them as quickly as possible in the shortest time, with the final score being judged similarly to the first task, with 70, 50, 30 and 10 points for the number of pearls gained and 40, 30, 20 and 10 points for the time taken to return. This task is unlike the first task. There is no time limit for this task, you can stay in the lake as long as you want if you can, but again, if someone doesn't return for a long time, we will send someone underwater specifically to check if they still have any vital signs."
"There is one more thing you need to be aware of, all of you, because of the unique underwater environment, whatever you experience in it, we will not be able to know in time, so I cannot guarantee your safety once you have entered the lake, and it is for this reason that I have to inform you of this in advance so that you can be prepared."
Matthew gave a serious glance at all the champions present, but of course, he only gave a quick glance at Jon and just focused on Diane, Draco and Emil.
Diane was certainly not swayed in any way, she had been all set when she registered herself from Durmstrang and chose to throw her name into the Goblet of Fire.
Emil certainly didn't grimace either, not that he wasn't afraid, but the moment Voldemort had found their house to make them replace the Bella couple in the Lestrange House it had been predetermined, he could only move forward, not backwards.
Draco was also calm, except that if anyone had been staring at him, they would have noticed that his calves had actually been trembling slightly.
For him, only from the second task onwards would he really be participating in this Triwizard Tournament, having previously, thanks to Jon's blessing, made him escape the first Dragon crisis without suffering much disdain or scorn.
And now, though, he couldn't even show how much panic he had inside on the surface.
Jon had actually contacted Lucius privately once before this task had started, asking him if he wanted to do the same scenario as the first task again, where he had eliminated Draco at the very beginning of the task, and there was no need to inform Draco himself, as long as Lucius agreed to it, he would find the opportunity to do it at the very beginning of the task, that way Draco's reaction would still look realistic at that time, and anyway, the Malfoys didn't really care about results.
Well, maybe Draco would care a little, but even if he did, it wouldn't matter.
Lucius had obviously given this a lot of thought and eventually turned Jon down.
He obviously had some regard for saving some dignity for his son's future life in the castle. It would be fine to be knocked out by Jon the first time, after all, Jon's strength was obvious to all, but if he had to be beaten by Jon in the same way in two consecutive tasks.
Draco would not be able to stay in Hogwarts Castle, and even Lucius himself might be doubted by the other Death Eaters.
So no matter what, this time Draco was going to have to compete in the tournament on his own.
After seeing that no questions were raised, Matthew glanced at the time on his pocket watch and, without further delay, officially began the inspection process before the tournament began.
They checked the wands and belongings of all four of them in turn, as they had done before, and it was worth noting that the herb held in the hands of both Draco and Emil was allowed to be held, and the item made using shards of Ashwinder snake eggshell and worn by Jon and Diane were allowed to be kept.
The second task is different from the first one as the champions are allowed to use magical items to the appropriate extent, and this appropriateness can only be as appropriate as the judging panel allows.
After making sure there were no other problems, at nine o'clock in the morning, Matthew announced in front of all the students, professors and journalists around that Jon and the others could proceed with their pre-tournament preparations.
It didn't take long for Jon to figure out exactly what this so-called pre-tournament preparation was; it was a period of time specifically reserved for them to figure out how to break the Black Lake ice fast.
During this time, the four champions were not allowed to attack each other.
Such a rule in disguise was restricting Jon, because if the task was announced straight away, the ice surface of the Black Lake would surely turn into a battle royale stage.
It didn't matter if they got the pearls or not, they would just do it and eliminate everyone else, and the person who won would end up first in the second task.
To avoid this, there was a period of preparation before the task, and the task would only begin once the champions had gone underwater.
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