Chapter 78 - The Second Task (1/2)
Seven weeks passed since that day, at first, Neal had trouble seeing her as every time, he sees her, his eyes began to wander to her lips and started to daze while remembering that Christmas evening and tried to avoid her.
Eventually, both of them returned to how they were before. Although unknowingly, he started giving her attention more than usual. Daphne also stopped playing detective as she only managed to find out that someone used Polyjuice potion twice and started to become more cautious of people around her.
Meanwhile, as a part of the deal, after receiving the other three dragon eggs and the Azkaban visit permit, Neal told Harry the secret of Golden egg through Cho Chang, who just started seeing him after Valentine's day.
As Cho joined the Gryffindor trio group and working out the solution on how to survive for one hour under the water, meanwhile, Neal, Draco, Daphne, and Tracey were standing in the Chamber of secrets. Unlike before, several Magic-lanterns hovering in the air lighting up the place.
While Tracey was amazed looking at the large Slytherin statue and, Neal looked at Daphne and smiled, ”so, what do you think?”. Daphne nodded, ”hmm, yeah, this hall is large enough for our training”.
Then, Draco asked, ”say, where do other tunnels lead?”, Neal replied. ”the corridor of secrets which was connected from the entrance to various long tunnels, you know. While most of them just lead to several pipes, The straight dark tunnel which we just came leads to this main chamber of secrets.
One of those tunnels leads to a dungeon that is infected by too many Slugs. So, I think we should avoid it or maybe we can clear it when we gather enough people.
The last one also leads to a small Cavern which I already cleared it. I'll teach you guys a few words of Parseltongue to open the entrance as well as this main chamber. We should also buy lots of flaming cauldron pots and hang them in the tunnels to bright up the way and also need to seal all other tunnels except the three”.
Malfoy mumbled, ”seems like too much work to do”. Neal replied, ”well, you guys are the ones who wanted to become stronger and requested me to train you. I'm using this opportunity to create a secret club. For now, it's only four of us. Let's look for others starting next year”.
On the day of Feb 24th, everyone reached the middle of the Black lake where there are people standing in the stands while the judges except for Barty Crouch who sent Percy instead sat in their seats while Ludo Bagman stood up and said, pointing his wand at his neck, ”Sonorus”.
His voice boomed out across the dark water, ”Well, all our champions are ready for the second task, which will start on my whistle. They have precisely an hour to recover what has been taken from them. On the count of three, then. One … two … three”.
Krum partially transfigured into a shark and jumped inside the water, at the same time, Fleur used a Bubble-Head charm that produced a bubble around her head, giving her a continuous supply of oxygen allowing her to breathe freely while she was swimming and Harry ate the Gillyweed which made him develop fish gills and feet, before both of them jump into the water.