Hogwarts: Starting with full Unforgivable Curses

But the danger was not over—a second spear followed closely behind, breaking through the water. The water seemed to be torn apart by the impact of the spear, creating a violent splash that went straight for Harry's back.

Harry had no time to twist and dodge again; he could only quickly swing his legs and swim diagonally upwards to create distance between himself and the spear.

This was a wise choice. The spear did not strike his right arm, but merely grazed his right shoulder. The spear tip collided with the pale silver aura of his armor, producing a piercing "sizzle" sound, like metal rubbing against metal.

A sharp pain shot through his shoulder like an electric current, causing Harry to wince, but he secretly breathed a sigh of relief.

Based on his years of experience from injuries, he could clearly tell that the Ironclad Curse's protection had not been broken by the spear; it was just that the light membrane had been impacted, resulting in a painful sensation.

Even more fortunately, the force of the sweeping spear also pushed Harry, allowing him to swim several meters upwards and temporarily distance himself from the attacker.

Harry seized this precious opportunity, first quickly glancing to the side to confirm Draco and Cedric's location. The two were also in trouble, surrounded by more than a dozen Grindylows, and could only barely use magic to defend themselves, unable to support each other for the time being.

Harry then looked down, trying to see what kind of creature was attacking him.

What came into view were two slender mermaids, at least six feet tall, with bare upper bodies, dark green skin, and long tails covered in scales.

Each merman held a spear carved from reef in one hand and a struggling Grindylow in the other, staring up at Harry with hostility in their eyes.

The merman and Harry's eyes met in mid-air without pausing. Harry acted decisively, quickly raising his wand and pointing it at one of the mermen, clearly uttering the spell: "Relax and Dissipate!"

A jet of scorching water shot out from the tip of the wand, carrying a powerful impact as it hurtled toward the mermaid at incredible speed.

But the mermaid's agility in the water far exceeded Harry's expectations—it quickly flicked its long tail, twisted its body to the side, and easily dodged the disengagement spell.

The mermaid who had dodged the attack immediately launched a counterattack. It suddenly raised its arm and threw the Grindelwald it was holding at Harry.

At the same time, another mermaid gripped her spear tightly with both hands, assumed an attack stance, and slapped her long tail hard in the water, splashing water as she aggressively approached Harry.

The pain in his shoulder continued to flare up, a constant reminder of the danger Harry was in.

He quickly analyzed in his mind that the combination of the mermaid and Grindelwald posed a much greater threat than the Chirac fish he had encountered before.

The attack methods of the Chirac are relatively simple, consisting mainly of charging and stabbing with its fins. With the protection of the Ironclad Charm, it is difficult to cause it any real damage.

But mermaids and Grindylows are completely different. These two magical creatures work together in perfect harmony, much like a well-trained hunter and his hound.

Moreover, now there are two mermaids paired with two Grindylos. Once the Grindylos grab him and slow down his swimming speed, the mermaids can take the opportunity to get close and attack with their spears. At that time, he will be put on the defensive and in an extremely dangerous situation.

With this in mind, Harry dared not relax for a moment. He gripped his wand tightly, his eyes fixed on the approaching merman and Grindelwald, his mind racing, searching for an opportunity to counterattack.

"Loosen up!" Harry swam toward Draco and Cedric, raising his wand again and aiming it at Grindelwald, who was chasing after him.

A jet of scalding water gushed from the tip of the wand, striking Grindelow precisely in the abdomen and knocking him back several meters.

However, this action also delayed them by a few seconds. The two mermen, who had been separated, took this opportunity to speed up and quickly close the distance between themselves and Harry.

Soon, the two merfolk caught up with Harry, raising their spears simultaneously, the sharp tips pointing directly at Harry's back and legs.

Harry was focused on getting closer to his companions and had no time to dodge attacks from two directions at the same time.

With a "thud," a spear pierced Harry's foot squarely, and a sharp pain instantly shot through his entire leg, causing it to twitch uncontrollably.

The violent twitching of his thighs caused Harry to lose the strength to swim, and his body began to slowly sink in the water.

The two mermen seized this excellent opportunity, quickly swung their long tails, and closed in again, raising their spears to launch a fatal blow.

"Loosen your grip and let your strength dissipate!" Just at this critical moment, two familiar voices rang out simultaneously.

Draco and Cedric finally managed to shake off Grindelwald and arrived just in time.

Two jets of scorching water shot out from their wands, heading straight for the two mermaids.

Seeing this, the mermaid had no choice but to abandon her attack on Harry, quickly swinging her tail backward to avoid the impact of the water column.

Harry could clearly feel Draco and Cedric swimming up behind him, gently supporting his arms and helping him steady himself.

“These magical creatures are so annoying…” Draco said with obvious disgust as he warily stared at the merman in the distance. “If only they didn’t have so many thoughts and just charged around like madmen!”

“You’re right. Mermaids not only possess remarkable intelligence, but they also know how to use hunting tactics to coordinate with Grindylo and the Loba worm.”

Cedric sighed, his gaze sweeping over the surroundings with a grave expression. "This makes breaking out extremely difficult for us."

The situation is indeed extremely serious—as Cedric said, the mermaids are organizing a planned hunt.

Those Grindylos that hadn't been repelled began to swim around the three under the mermaid's command, gradually tightening the encirclement. Meanwhile, a dozen or so Loba worms floated around the mermaid, their venom sacs shrunk to their maximum size, turning a dangerous deep purple, clearly ready to spray paralyzing venom at any moment.

……

On the referee's platform, Ludobagman, watching this tense scene through the curtain, couldn't help but exclaim, "Merlin's beard! The situation is dire for the three heroes of Hogwarts! They've become complete prey for the mermaids! Two mermaids, along with a large swarm of Grindylows and Lobabugs, have formed a tight encirclement. How are they supposed to break through and escape?" His voice was full of worry, and many spectators tensed up, clenching their fists and holding their breath for the three.

……

At the bottom of the lake, the mermaids didn't seem to be in a hurry to attack. They leisurely swayed their long tails, patiently waiting for Grindelwald to shrink the encirclement to its smallest size, clearly wanting to exhaust the three of them before launching a final assault.

"I'm not here to listen to you explain the habits of magical creatures or praise the mermaid's command abilities."

Draco sounded impatient as he looked at Harry and Cedric and said rapidly, "Can you think of any effective way to break out now? If we keep dragging this out, we'll run out of energy sooner or later."

Cedric frowned deeply. After thinking for a moment, he said, "The main problem is that there are too many Greendylos, and they completely obey the mermaids' commands and cooperate very well. No matter which direction we break through, we will be immediately surrounded and attacked. It's really difficult to find a breakthrough."

“How about this…” Harry was silent for a moment, then suddenly said, “I’ll distract them! Anyway, my foot is injured now, so I’m not very mobile. Staying with the group would only slow you down.”

I'm trying to buy you some time, at least that way you'll have a chance to break out.

……

"What a fearless spirit of sacrifice!" Ludo Bagman exclaimed upon hearing Harry's suggestion, speaking loudly into the microphone, "Potter showed us what a true warrior is! In a moment of crisis, his first thought wasn't his own safety, but the chance of survival for his companions. This spirit deserves everyone's respect!"

As soon as he finished speaking, a series of enthusiastic applause erupted from the stands on the lakeshore, with the audience cheering and applauding Harry's courage.

Sirius Black, watching Harry's image on the screen from the stands, couldn't help but sigh, his voice filled with pride: "Seriously! That kid, just like his father, always so reckless! But he's really something!"

……

"Is this the Gryffindor method?" Draco sneered when he heard Harry's suggestion. "Trying to become a hero through self-sacrifice? That's really in line with your impulsive and reckless nature, Gryffindor."

He paused, and seeing that Harry and Cedric did not object, he continued, "Since you can't think of any other solutions, or you can only come up with this stupid one, then try my plan. If my method doesn't work, then we can consider using your sacrifice plan later."

Harry and Cedric exchanged a glance and nodded simultaneously, saying, "No problem! In this situation, we're willing to try anything if there's a way."

After all, they had trained together for a long time, had enough trust in each other, and understood that the most important thing at this moment was to unite and not waste time because of differences of opinion.

“Very good!” Seeing that the two agreed, Draco finally smiled. He took a deep breath, adjusted his breathing, and said in a low voice, “Then do as I say… I will launch the attack first. You two observe the mermaid and Grindylow’s reactions, find their defensive loopholes, and immediately follow me out.”

Just then, the mermaids seemed to realize the three's intentions. They stopped waiting and swam quickly toward the three, clearly not intending to delay any longer and preparing to launch a full-scale attack.

"That's great! Get a little closer..." Draco murmured to himself as he watched the approaching merman, a cold smile playing on his lips.

Then, he suddenly raised his wand and roared at Harry and Cedric, "Close your eyes! Close your eyes now!"

Harry and Cedric did not hesitate at all and immediately closed their eyes as Draco instructed—they knew that Draco must have his reasons for asking them to close their eyes at this moment.

The instant the two closed their eyes, Draco's clear incantation rang out, brimming with power: "Flash!"

A blinding white light suddenly burst forth from the tip of Draco's wand, forming a huge ball of light in the dim lake bottom. Its brightness far exceeded that of the usual Fluorescent Flash, instantly illuminating the entire surrounding area.

Suddenly, a fist-sized ball of light burst forth from the tip of Draco's wand. The ball of light expanded rapidly at a visible speed, transforming into a giant sphere of light with a diameter of over three meters in just a few seconds, emitting an incomparably dazzling white light—the light was so intense that it was as if a miniature blazing sun had suddenly appeared at the bottom of a dark lake, instantly swallowing up all the surrounding shadows.

In an instant, whether it was the "visual projection screen" in the hands of the audience or the main screen in the hands of Ludobagman on the judge's stand, as long as the image showing the area where Harry, Draco, and Cedric were located was covered by this white light, turning into a white blur, and nothing could be seen.

However, this dazzling light did not last long.

About five seconds later, the pure white on the screen began to fade, gradually turning into pure black—clearly, the intense light not only affected the magical creatures at the bottom of the lake, but also interfered with the screen's image transmission function.

A brief, suffocating silence descended upon the dark curtain.

Just when the audience thought the picture was malfunctioning, screams suddenly came from the audio on the screen—the sounds were sharp and painful, full of desperate struggle.

Just by listening to these heart-wrenching screams, the audience can vaguely imagine the scene: the mermaid and Grindelho covering their eyes, twisting their bodies wildly at the bottom of the lake, struggling in pain, clearly because their eyes were injured by the bright light.

On the referee's platform, Ludobagman stared at the pure black curtain in front of him, his tone full of shock: "I really didn't expect it! Malfoy actually had such a trump card hidden! No one expected that he could use the most basic magic light spell with such amazing power! Even our magic props that we use to transmit images have been greatly affected and have temporarily lost their image function."

……

Karkaroff stared at the black curtain, a barely perceptible malice flashing in his eyes. He turned to Dumbledore and said provocatively, "Dumbledore, do you really think this is a good idea? A spell with such terrifying power, it looks like it's already blinded the merfolk. How do you plan to explain this to the merfolk tribe of the Black Lake after the competition? If they investigate, Hogwarts might not be able to handle the situation."

“Mr. Karkaroff, thank you for your ‘concern’.” Dumbledore blinked calmly, his tone unhurried. “Once the second project is completely finished, I will personally go to the Mermaid Village and have a good talk with their leader, Mercus, to discuss how to compensate for the loss of the mermaids. You don’t need to worry about that.”

After dealing with Karkaroff's provocation, Dumbledore turned his gaze back to the black curtain, a slight smile unconsciously appearing on his lips.

Harry's bravery, Cedric's composure, and Draco's wit and innovation all greatly pleased him.

Draco's performance, in particular, surprised him somewhat. He hadn't expected that Draco's most proficient magic would be the most basic spell, the Illumination Charm. (End of Chapter)