Say what you will, even though the other students were having trouble accepting the fact, the three girls were very satisfied with this outcome.
If it were Ron, then surprisingly it made people feel a lot more balanced about it.
Hermione didn't even dare breathe too loudly beside them; for some reason, she suddenly thought of Jim Hark.
She kept feeling that Ron and Huck were kind of similar?
"Potter?"
Professor McGonagall's voice rang out; at some point she had already entered the Great Hall.
"Professor McGonagall." Harry stood up.
"Time is almost up," she said sternly. "I trust you've prepared very thoroughly. Off you go now, the Warriors from the other two schools have already set out and will be arriving at the competition grounds shortly… I suppose Mr. Bagman has just announced the content of the second task. Good luck."
"All right, Professor." Harry nodded.
He stood up and walked out together with the three girls.
The students in the Great Hall also left in twos and threes, following behind Professor McGonagall as they all headed toward the Black Lake.
It was a rare sunny morning, but the temperature in February was still rather biting; even the North Atlantic Current couldn't fend off this kind of early-morning frost.
Harry walked down across the lawn and saw that the stands which had surrounded the Fire Dragon Field last November were now set up in tiers on the far shore of the lake, their reflections cast in the water below.
The students all headed to their various seats and settled in, while Harry was led into a tent by Professor McGonagall.
When he stepped into the tent, Harry saw Victor bowing his head, deep in thought about something, while Fleur kept sipping at a steaming hot drink in her hands, her face looking extremely anxious.
"Cold weather, isn't it?"
Seeing Harry come in, Victor spoke up.
"It really is cold." Harry nodded. "It is February after all; we can't exactly expect the weather to be as warm as in July, can we?"
There was a bit of light humor in that; at least Victor smiled.
"The task actually has us going down to the bottom of the lake to rescue people…" Victor said. "I really don't understand why they'd set a task like that… and they're even limiting us to one hour; I seriously wonder whether anything will happen to the hostages if it goes over an hour."
"It's fine, we're not from Russia." Harry cracked a dark joke. "At least the hostages don't have to worry that we're their threat."
Victor lifted his head and gave Harry a puzzled look.
Hearing Harry's words, Fleur suddenly let out a loud sob.
"What's wrong with her?" Harry asked Victor curiously.
"Ah." Victor shook his head. "I don't know why they'd actually let Miss Delacour, Gabriel Delacour, be a hostage. She's still so young…"
"Oh, Gabriel…" Fleur whimpered.
"Don't worry, Professor Dumbledore will definitely guarantee their safety." Harry said helplessly in comfort. "I think what we should really have faith in is ourselves. As long as we're fast enough, that's all that matters…"
Fleur covered her face; the girl looked a bit on the verge of breaking down.
It was obvious she really loved her little sister.
Just then, Vivi entered the tent.
"Lady Grindelwald!" Victor straightened up at once.
He had no choice but to be respectful; Bulgaria and Great Germany had always been very close, and rumors said Bulgaria also wanted to join the Great German Ministry of Magic.
Which meant that Vivi, this County Magistrate, might very well end up becoming the direct superior of the Bulgarians.
"Mm." Vivi nodded and went to sit beside Harry.
"Well?" she asked with a smile. "How's the preparation going? Or is it that… you're still a bit worried? Worried about your good friend's situation?"
When Vivi said "good friend," she very clearly put emphasis on it.
In fact, as soon as she heard last night that Professor McGonagall had called Hermione and Ron away separately, she already knew what was going on.
Hermione was highly unlikely to be Harry's hostage, so there was only one truth left: Ron had been designated as Harry's most precious treasure.
Logically speaking, it actually made sense; after all, friendship is one of the most precious treasures in the world.
But…
Understanding was one thing, yet Vivi still had a certain impulse.
Which was to properly ask Ron whether he really thought Potter would mourn for him.
"I'm all right." Harry shrugged. "I'm not worried about Ron's situation at all; it's not like anything's going to happen to him anyway… Relax, don't you know what I'm like? We're pretty familiar with the Black Lake."
"Are you?" Vivi asked, smiling brightly.
"Of course." Harry said seriously. "Remember our first adventure after you came to Hogwarts? The one where we dealt with the Merfolk in the Black Lake."
"Oh, right." Vivi nodded. "There was something like that. The spiders in the forest were rather tactless and even came over to interrupt our date, didn't they?"
Harry really did remember that very clearly; after he and Vivi got close, the first time the two of them went out alone was on the shore of the Black Lake.
Vivi had even set off fireworks with him and took him to have a frank, persuasive talk with the Merfolk, turning enemies into friends in the end.
Of course, they'd also had to clean up the spiders rampaging in the Forbidden Forest, because those creatures just didn't know their place.
Oh… fireworks…
Harry now recalled why Cassandra's face had been so extremely ugly back then.