Hogwarts' Golden Glory

The moment Krum entered the water, he began to change.

It wasn't a spell, nor was it a transformation like transfiguration that required precise gestures and incantations. It was more like a permitted switch—as if his body had been waiting for this moment, and entering the water was just a trigger signal.

His shoulders were the first to change; first, the skin thickened, turning from flesh-colored to a dark gray-blue, as if a new layer was covering his original skin.

Then his shoulders broadened, his shoulder blades expanded outward, and the muscles in his back rear reared under his skin, forming a structure more adapted to movement in the water.

Then the arms.

His upper arms grew thicker, his forearms longer, and dark webbing grew between his fingers, which unfolded as he paddled, increasing propulsion. His palms widened, and his nails thickened and sharpened, as if forming a structure more suitable for gripping and paddling.

Finally, there's the face.

His jawline slowly extended forward, his eye sockets deepened, his pupils dilated, and the whites of his eyes disappeared, turning into a dark, almost completely black state. His teeth became long and sharp, protruding from his gums, with sharp edges, like rows of neatly arranged small knives.

When the transformation was complete, he was no longer the young man standing on the shore. He was now in a form somewhere between a human and a shark, moving rapidly underwater like a sharp blade gliding through the water.

The moment the transformation was complete, he felt his vision change.

The water was no longer blurry, and he no longer needed to adjust. His eyes seemed to have been recalibrated, and he could see distant outlines clearly in the dim light.

He could feel the water flowing across his skin in a different way; it became smoother, with less resistance, as if the water itself was making way for him.

He swayed his body and slid forward a great distance, much faster than he had expected, and could continue moving forward with almost no effort.

He slid down the slope at the bottom of the lake, much faster than the other warriors, with almost no effort.

The water flowing past him made a continuous, even rustling sound, like a rhythmic background noise, creating a clear sound field in the deep water that allowed him to more accurately judge the direction of the water flow.

He slowed down as he approached the mermaid village, instead of rushing in directly.

His breathing became slower and more steady after the body was deformed, as if his body was adapting to the rhythm of the underwater environment.

The village was larger than he had expected, seemingly built on a raised rock platform, with houses constructed of stone and walls covered in dark green moss.

He circled around to the side, swimming a distance along the outskirts of the village to avoid the mermaids' patrol routes. He could see them patrolling everywhere, as if confirming that the contestants were all moving towards their designated locations.

He found Anya deep in the village.

She was tied to a stone pillar near the center of the village, further inside than the other hostages, and the surrounding water flow was faster than on the outside. It seemed as if this location was deliberately chosen as a longer rescue distance to increase the difficulty of the rescue.

He bypassed the larger rock in the center of the village and approached his target from a position close to the stone pillar.

Anya's expression wasn't too tense, as if she had been waiting for a while. When she saw him approach, her gaze lingered on him for a moment—his transformed appearance was indeed somewhat unfamiliar.

But she didn't seem frightened; she just stayed quietly on the pillar without making any unnecessary movements.

Without pausing, Krum swam over, grabbed the rope with his deformed hand, and with a slight tug, it snapped. His fingers were thicker and harder than a human's, with sharper nails; cutting the rope required only a single, direct effort.

He untied Anya from the pillar, made sure she could swim on her own, and then began to float upwards.

His deformed tail helps him provide more even propulsion than his legs kicking, and he only needs to swing his body to keep moving forward. Anya only needs to follow behind him and does not need to swim hard on her own.

He didn't take the shortest route directly. He had already confirmed the patrol routes of the mermaid village in advance, and he chose a path that was determined to be more likely to be avoided during the confirmation process. He floated up along a groove on the edge of the village, trying to turn upwards after getting close to the outer perimeter.

As he was about to leave the village, he encountered his first group of people who tried to stop him.

Three Grindylos emerged from the crevice on the left.

They are not large in size, but they move very fast and are more agile in the water than mermaids.

One of them lunged straight at him, while the other circled to the side, as if trying to form a pincer movement.

He didn't stop when the first one approached, but instead slightly turned his body, letting it brush past him. Then, using the momentum of the turn, he used his transformed tail to sweep at the approaching Greendylo to his side, pushing it away a bit.

Then more Grindylos appeared, swimming out from the cracks in the rocks on the right, as if waiting for the next trigger point.

He didn't wait for them to get close. He turned Anya in another direction, into a narrower passage that wasn't wide enough for them all to pass through. Only one could keep up. The pursuing Grindylo was faster and stronger than the ones they had encountered before. He had to accelerate twice in the narrow passage to shake it off.

He continued to rise, maintaining a steady pace. The underwater light was gradually brightening, and beams of sunlight began to appear, as if guiding him back to the surface.

He did not encounter any further obstacles.

The mermaid village receded further and further below, the surrounding gray rocks gradually turning into a lighter, darker blue, and then the light above the water began to become clearly visible.

He could see the edge of the water's surface, like a slightly shimmering, bright film covering the area above his head, through which sunlight shone like finely ground powder.

He led Anya across the border.

The water cracked above his head, and the sunlight fell on his face again, warm and direct.

He took a deep breath and felt his lungs readjusting to the air density.

The deformities gradually faded after he came out of the water, his skin color returned to normal flesh color from grayish-blue, and the webbing between his fingers slowly shrank back, turning him into a pair of ordinary human hands.

Everyone was quite surprised; the first person to emerge wasn't Kane, but Krum.

When Harry went into the water, it was as if the world had been muted.

The water flowed past his ears, shutting out all the sounds from the shore.

Only his own breathing could be heard—the gill sac grass was working on both sides of his neck, water flowing in through the newly appeared slits, filtered into breathable air, and then exhaled from his nostrils, forming a string of tiny bubbles.