A magical journey that begins at Hogwarts

Chapter 384 Planting a Spy Can Only Save One

As Aaron continued to descend into the Black Lake, the light gradually dimmed.

He found himself in a hazy, gray lake. Even with his eyesight, he could only see about ten meters ahead. There was almost no sound around him; the silence was frightening.

"Fluorescence."

A white light emanated from the tip of the wand, but Aaron immediately dispelled the spell and quickly left the spot.

He heard countless faint sounds of flowing water, and many aquatic creatures in the dim lake could see the light; there was no clearer signal than this.

Sure enough, a short while later, a group of pale green water monsters with horns surrounded the spot where Aaron had left.

They extended and retracted their slender claws, their green teeth trembling constantly. After a brief exchange, they dispersed in all directions.

“The Grindylo Water Monster,” Aaron muttered to himself, then looked at the incredibly dense seaweed around him and his mouth twitched, his face turning pale.

At this point, we should thank Lupin, because he had talked about the creature Grindelwald during his time teaching.

They usually like to hide in aquatic plants and feed on small fish, but they will not spare Muggles and wizards either.

The endless seaweed here clearly indicates that this is the settlement of Greendillo.

"Should we attack them, or go around them?"

Aaron pondered for a moment, then sighed helplessly, drew his wand, and controlled the transparent barrier to accelerate forward.

Normally, he would definitely choose to go around, but now he needs to find two hostages, and going around would be too much of a waste of time.

The transparent barrier had advanced less than a third of the way when a Greendylo emerged from the seaweed, opened its mouth, and bit straight at Aaron with its green fangs.

boom!

Grindylo crashed into the barrier, breaking off a small portion of its green teeth. It was in excruciating pain, letting out continuous, agonizing roars.

"What a pity, this barrier still has some defensive effect," Aaron joked, but he quickly stopped laughing as at least dozens of Greendylo emerged from the seaweed.

Aaron forced a smile and immediately sped up to rush out of the clump of water plants.

Dozens of water monsters chased after him, and Aaron kept casting spells backward to stop them, but even so his barrier was hit from time to time.

Seven or eight minutes later, Aaron staggered out of the water plants.

Greendylos dared not leave their territory to continue the pursuit, but instead kept roaring at Aaron to vent their dissatisfaction.

"How arrogant!" Aaron gave him the middle finger with disdain. "Come out if you dare, and see if I dare to kill you."

Several Grindylows couldn't stand it anymore. They were, after all, called water monsters, and they couldn't let a wizard look down on them, even if their opponent was a wizard.

This time, Aaron decisively swung his wand, and several streams of water simultaneously struck Grindylow, knocking them back into the seaweed.

"Goodbye, no, never again."

Aaron waved triumphantly, then turned and accelerated his descent towards the center of the lake.

He deliberately avoided the water plants as he descended, and by the time his feet firmly touched the black mud at the bottom of the lake, twenty minutes of the competition had already passed.

"That's about it," Aaron thought to himself, and was about to take out Captain Jack's compass when the voice of the thought entity entered his mind.

"Don't rush. The eldest sister has transmitted the five warriors' performance in Black Lake to the sky above the lake. Now everyone can see what you're doing."

"What the hell! She really doesn't give me any chance at all!" Aaron cursed under his breath. "But now I have no choice but to use this magical item."

"I didn't say you can't use it, I'm just reminding you that someone is watching."

“I know what to do,” Aaron replied. “You also need to be careful not to expose yourself.”

"clear."

After the two lost contact, Aaron feigned a conflicted and pained expression, his hands even trembling slightly before he raised his wand and pointed it at his left hand.

A small white magic circle flashed by, and a black compass appeared in his hand.

"We could use it one last two times, but I never expected to use it to find someone," Aaron said bitterly, his voice carried through the light screen to every audience member.

Many people began to whisper among themselves, discussing what kind of magical artifact the compass in Aaron's hand was.

Bagman, sitting on the referee's bench, looked completely bewildered. He had never seen or heard of this compass before, and he didn't know how to begin his explanation.

But some had already guessed the compass's function. A mysterious smile crept across Adrian's lips, a glint of light appeared in Dumbledore's eyes, and Mad-Eye Moody's Mystic Eye spun wildly...

“Miss Klein, wouldn’t you say this is cheating?” Karkaroff asked with a displeased expression.

“Of course not,” Adrian said matter-of-factly. “Harry Potter used his wand to summon Firebolt in the first trial, and what Gaius is doing now is essentially no different from him.”

"But...this kind of magical item is really..."

"Professor Karkaroff, if we're talking about unfairness, Gaius probably has more right to say it than anyone else!"

Don't forget, others only need to save one hostage, but he needs to save two.

Karkaroff was speechless, no longer having the confidence to nitpick.

"Ahem! Miss Klein," Percy said, somewhat awkwardly but politely, "Gaius's magical artifact is truly amazing, if only..."

"What? Hand it over to the Ministry of Magic?" Adrian asked playfully.

“Of course not,” Percy hurriedly waved his hand. “I meant to register at the Ministry of Magic.”

“Go talk to him!” Adrian said nonchalantly. “Although I am his sister, I have never forced him to do anything he didn’t want to do.”

Furthermore, Mr. Weasley, I will pretend I did not hear what you just said.

Even the Minister of Magic can't act like it's his right to want something!

Percy: ......

A raven in the Slytherin audience had a human-like glint in its eyes; it was Aaron's thought clone, entrusted to Draco's care by Aaron.

In the second match, Adrian's arrangements for Aaron were a series of traps. Just in case, he planned to leave an informant on the shore to pass on important information to him at any time.

The Animagus method is the best approach, even Dumbledore couldn't see it.

Sure enough, he was right. Those light screens vividly displayed the five warriors' performance underwater. Just thinking about how he might have overconfidently played his trump cards because he thought no one could see them sent chills down one's spine.

At the bottom of the Black Lake, Aaron received what the Thought Entity had heard and seen, and breathed a sigh of relief.

The reactions were pretty much what he expected, so he didn't need to worry too much about using Captain Jack's compass.

He looked at the compass in his hand, thinking about his two dance partners: Hermione Granger, a fourth-year Gryffindor, and Luna Lovegood, a third-year Ravenclaw.

The compass needle spun rapidly, then quickly stopped, pointing steadily straight ahead.

Aaron was slightly taken aback. The situation seemed to be different from what he had expected. The two of them seemed to have been placed in the same place, rather than in completely opposite directions.

However, this was also good news for him, and he immediately controlled the barrier to move forward.

Not long after, he heard a familiar song.

We only have one hour to find and retrieve the items we took...

Following the pointer and the song, Aaron found a ruin covered with moss and algae.

Even though it's the bottom of a lake, the light here is much brighter than in other places.

Countless massive stone pillars and arches stand here, and below them are many rough, tiny dwellings covered in algae.

This is clearly the dwelling place of mermaids, but their appearance is quite different from what Aaron imagined, even quite different.

Their skin was iron-gray, their hair was extremely messy, their eyes were brass-colored, and even their teeth were missing.

"It shattered all my beautiful fantasies about mermaids." Aaron clicked his tongue inwardly, and he couldn't help but shudder when he thought about the mermaids his mother had introduced him to on blind dates.

But then he thought about it again and realized that the blind date his mother introduced seemed to be completely different from these ugly mermaids; she was a real mermaid.

Just as he was thinking this, the merfolk surrounded him from all directions, holding spears and pointing at the transparent barrier that enveloped Aaron.

Aaron ignored them and followed the compass needle to a giant mermaid sculpture with six people firmly bound to its tail.

Harry's best friend Ron, Cedric's dance partner Cho Chang, a Durmstrang girl in a red wizard's robe who is undoubtedly Krum's dance partner, and a girl who looks about eight or nine years old, who is probably Fleur's unfortunate sister.

Besides that, there were only his dance partners Hermione Granger and Luna Lovegood.

They all seemed to be under a petrification spell, with only a few small bubbles occasionally escaping from their mouths and noses.

"Looks like I'm the first one here." Aaron glanced at his watch. "There are still about twenty minutes left, which should be enough."

No, it's more than enough if both of them are here.

"You can only save one," a mermaid said hoarsely.

"One, one?"

Aaron stared in astonishment, then turned to look at his two dance partners, instantly understanding his elder sister's sinister intentions.

It now seems he was wrong from the start. The second project was not a race against time for him, but a difficult choice.

One is an innocent and carefree girl who was innocently implicated, and the other is a good friend of four years. If they choose one, the other may have to stay at the bottom of the lake.

Perhaps the referee was just joking with them, but he wouldn't dare gamble on something that involved lives.

Adrian, sitting on the referee's bench, watched Aaron on the screen with great interest. "What I'm most looking forward to next is this: you can only save one of the two people. What will you choose?"

Chapter 385 Of course, we want them all, the question is who to save first.

“Miss Klein,” Principal Maxim said in a deep voice with a strange expression, “isn’t this a bit too much for a fifteen-year-old?”

“He is the heir to the Gaius family, and he will face far more choices in the future than he does now,” Adrian said meaningfully. “As for his age... his journey officially began when he was twelve, and this is just a rest.”

Upon hearing this, a sharp glint flashed in Dumbledore's eyes.

"Journey? What does that mean?"

"I cannot comment on that, or rather, given Headmaster Dumbledore's current status and power, he is not qualified to know," Adrian said directly.

Percy Weasley's eyes widened in astonishment. What had he just heard? Even the White Lord wasn't qualified to know?

This was definitely a major secret in the magical world, but he knew his place; such a secret was beyond his reach.

Dumbledore frowned slightly, about to ask something more, but then he saw a pair of calm, unwavering eyes. He inexplicably shut his mouth and wisely refrained from asking further questions.

“Miss Klein,” Karkaroff finally realized the judge’s abilities, his voice now tinged with obsequiousness, “then how should we score this situation?”

"Fairness and impartiality are all that matter."