Dumbledore hadn't come over to question them for no reason; the whole thing did look very suspicious.
The Merfolk trial had been arranged by him, and he was the one who negotiated with the Merfolk; now that the Merfolk had taken the initiative to send Hogwarts' hostage up to the surface, this matter…
Putting it nicely, maybe the Merfolk had been won over by Harry's personal charm.
But the other schools weren't going to see it that way; they'd only think Dumbledore must have tipped the Merfolk off in advance, which was why they voluntarily sent up the hostage that belonged to the Hogwarts Warrior.
Cleo repeated to Dumbledore exactly what had just happened underwater; Dumbledore was stunned at first, then glanced at Harry, and finally frowned.
"All right," he said. "I still need you to come to the judges' box and tell the judges what happened just now…"
Cleo followed Dumbledore and walked up to the judges' box.
No one knew exactly what was said, but Mrs. Maxim's expression gradually relaxed, while Kakaroff's brows were still knitted tight.
A moment later, Victor broke the surface of the water, his hostage — his dance partner — in his arms.
He swam to the edge, laid the hostage down on the ground, and a wave of cheers and applause rolled around them.
After all, he was a star Quidditch Seeker; Victor's popularity at Hogwarts wasn't low.
Harry sat to one side and gave Victor a reserved round of applause.
"That was great," Ron said, drying himself off and sniffing. "Being soaked in the lake felt great…"
"You've probably soaked your brain to mush," Hermione sneered beside him. "Did you see Kakaroff's expression? He's definitely looking for a chance to pick on Harry — just think about it."
"Relax, it doesn't matter," Harry spread his hands. "Do I still care how he scores me?"
Which was, actually, fair enough.
Before long, Fleur floated back up from the water and drifted on the surface.
She was covered in cuts and looked as if she'd passed out.
Mrs. Maxim reacted very quickly; she immediately hurried to Fleur's side and brought her ashore.
Madam Pomfrey stepped forward and began treating Fleur.
After a while, Fleur slowly came to.
"Grindylows…" she coughed up two mouthfuls of water. "There were just too many of them, I couldn't… couldn't… they swarmed at me like they'd gone mad… Gabrielle, where is Gabrielle? Is she all right?"
Fleur struggled to her feet and screamed as she tried to run back into the lake.
Mrs. Maxim held her firmly, stopping her from plunging into the water.
She was in no state to go back; what she needed was rest, not another dive.
Just then, the Merfolk surfaced and brought Gabrielle back to shore.
"Gabrielle! Gabrielle! Is she still alive? Is she hurt?"
Fleur completely broke down. She tore free of Mrs. Maxim's grip and staggered forward, scooping Gabrielle into her arms.
"She's fine," said the one who seemed to be the female leader of the Merfolk. "Mr. Potter told us that if the last Warrior still hadn't appeared, we were to bring the hostages back to shore. We followed his instructions."
Hearing the leader's words, Fleur instantly perked up.
She ran over to Harry and cupped his face in both hands.
"You saved her," she said, so excited she was almost gasping. "Even though she wasn't your hostage."
With that, she lowered her head and planted a kiss on each of his cheeks.
All of a sudden, the clear, sunny sky darkened with thunderclouds in an instant.
A bolt of lightning tore across the sky, and Harry quickly wriggled out of Fleur's arms.
"It was just what I should have done," he said, scrubbing at his cheeks with his sleeve, jumping backwards with a very strong will to live.
When he turned his head, he saw Vivi smiling with narrowed eyes, Cassandra with a blank face, and Pabi whose chest was heaving with anger.
This was bad.
Harry thought, Fleur was probably in for it now…
He really had to talk Vivi down properly; if this turned into some kind of international diplomatic incident, that would be awful — besides, Vivi herself was from Austria, no, the Deputy Minister of the Great German Ministry of Magic. She absolutely couldn't get blood on her hands and let people think she was some bloodthirsty Grindelwald demon.
The judges had already returned to their seats in the box; Harry noticed Mr. Bagman giving him a big thumbs-up from afar.
Of course, Mr. Crouch was also back in his seat in the judges' box now, looking a bit absent-minded, his expression somewhat complicated.
"When did he come back?" Harry asked curiously.
"Who?" Ron asked.
"Mr. Crouch," Harry said. "Didn't they say Mr. Crouch had gone missing? How come he suddenly came back? They found him?"
"I guess?" Ron spread his hands. "He only sat down there just now. You're saying he disappeared? Percy never told us anything about that…"
Harry thought Percy had probably been recruited ages ago, so of course he wouldn't care about Crouch's disappearance.
Vivi had already told him about Percy; the guy wasn't loyal to Mr. Crouch. He just wanted to be a department head's secretary and didn't care who the head actually was.
At this moment, Ludo Bagman stood up and cast Amplification Magic on himself.
"Ladies and gentlemen, we have finally reached a decision. Merfolk chieftain Cleo has told us in full detail everything that happened at the bottom of the lake. On the basis of a total score of fifty points, we have decided to award the Warriors the following marks…"