The Black Lake is a lake extremely rich in resources.
Inside, not only are there many fish and water plants, but also countless shrimp and shellfish, so many that every year in late spring and early summer, the Hogwarts students can casually pick and scoop at the lakeshore and harvest plenty of shrimp and shellfish.
This is also a natural reserve designated by the Ministry of Magic for the freshwater Merperson.
Of course, the reason for this has nothing to do with the lake's abundance being "generously given" to the Merperson.
In fact, it's quite the opposite, precisely because the Merperson settled here, this vast lake was able to flourish with vitality.
After all, Merperson are also an intelligent race.
Even though they grow extremely tall, half-fish, half-beast, with slick skin of eerie dark green and iron gray, full of sharp teeth, and ferocious looks that bear none of the beauty or allure of the "mermaids" in legends,
They are not, as ordinary people imagine, bloodthirsty cannibals. In truth, they live much like humans on land, farming and herding.
The only difference is, what they farm is water plants, and what they herd is fish and shrimp.
They've even built many strangely shaped stone houses at the bottom of the Black Lake, for their life and dwelling.
Link, using the wings formed by cursed power, swam quickly through the water. Along the way he had already seen large fields of Merperson-planted water plants and Merperson dwellings, even quite a few Merperson shepherds tending their fish herds.
From a human's perspective, Link had to admit, the Merperson had managed this Black Lake quite well.
To be honest, none of these sights seemed surprising to him.
Because he had already been here too many times.
Before, whenever he and Arkam came to the lake bottom, the Merperson would always act overly polite, or rather, overly fearful.
Then they would scatter and flee.
They had no choice. Neither wizards nor basilisk were foes the Merperson could deal with.
They feared Link and Arkam ruining their water plants and fish herds, and feared even more that Link might harm them.
Since ancient times, wizards had never looked straight at the Merperson as equals. Toward non-human races, wizards killed wantonly, took whatever they pleased, without the slightest pang of conscience.
After thousands of years of such cruel slaughter and oppression, wizards had crammed the few remaining Merperson into so-called reserves.
Not because of any sudden awakening of conscience, but because wizards had finally realized this planet was growing overburdened.
And so, after such a painful history, fear of wizards had been carved into Merperson DNA itself.
But today was different.
These usually timid Merperson, upon seeing Link this time, did not flee. Instead, they raised their crudely made stone spears.
Their bodies still trembled, their expressions twisted by excessive fear.
Yet they still gathered together, pointing their spears at Link.
This puzzled Link.
At first he didn't pay much attention to these suddenly maddened Merperson. But when the number of Merperson chasing him reached nearly a hundred, he was finally forced to stop.
"What is the meaning of this?" Link spoke slowly and clearly.
He hoped that among this group, some might understand his words, and come out to explain.
Ideally, they could sit down and settle this peacefully, after all, he had far more important matters to deal with.
Unfortunately, the lowest-class farmers and herders among the Merperson had never learned the languages of other races, such as English.
So, clutching their crude weapons, caught between fear and courage, they still charged at him.
First to reach Link were dozens of grindylows.
These were disgusting green water monsters with long horns.
Their upper bodies remained vaguely humanoid, fingers extremely long with sharp nails.
Their lower halves resembled octopuses, with many tentacles lined with suckers.
Overall, their kind had already been completely domesticated by the Merperson, serving as watchdogs and herders, much like dogs.
They were not hard to deal with. Professor Lupin had explained them in detail, basically, any wizard above third year could easily subdue them with a spell or two.
But even weak creatures, when gathered in numbers, could not be underestimated.
Link gazed at the onrushing grindylows. Without any arrogance, his wand flared with red light, sending a reddish-brown glow tearing through the water.
"Confringo!"
This standard damage spell was not particularly fast underwater, leaving a clear trail.
Fortunately, grindylows had no notion of dodging, so the red flash drilled right into their ranks.
A series of explosions erupted within them.
The red light behaved like a ricocheting bullet, bouncing endlessly among them.
Each time it burrowed into a grindylow's body, that poor creature exploded with a bang, blasting itself and nearby grindylows into a mess of dark green gore.
Then the red glow would emerge again, seeking its next victim, until its energy was spent.
But even when that energy ran out, so what?
Link never stopped attacking. In mere seconds he had already hurled more than five Confringo spells into their ranks.
The deathly red flashes flickered nonstop among the grindylows, until every last one had been blasted apart.
The deep green flesh and blood, churned up by the explosions, muddied the once-clear water.
If grindylow blood had been red, Link believed this horrific scene would have shaken the heart of even the toughest observer, and the weaker might have nightmares.
The Merperson's blood was also green, so when they saw this sight, they felt exactly what Link had imagined.
Even though the scene nearly broke them, they still stubbornly charged Link.
"These guys are really insane," Link muttered.
But his hands never stopped. More Confringo curses howled forth.
The Merperson, though, were stronger and smarter than grindylows.
Having learned their lesson, the moment the red flashes appeared, they darted aside like schooling fish, avoiding danger.
But that meant nothing.
As they dodged, Link swooped down with his cursed wings.
From his wand burst terrifying violet light, like a conductor's baton whipping up a symphony. Cursed power spread forth, forming whirling blades that tore into the Merperson ranks.
It was a one-sided massacre.
Even though Link was surrounded, their crude spears could never touch him, shielded as he was by cursed wings.
Where Link went, death spread.
The cursed power coiling around him was like a wall of blades, shredding any Merperson who blocked his way.
Even if a few, through sacrifice, managed to reach him, their proud fangs and claws could not pierce the magical armor guarding his body.
Within minutes, countless broken Merperson corpses floated around him, their green blood dyeing the waters.
Neither Link nor the Merperson showed any surprise.
For this was the normal state of things between wizards and other races.
Wizards were the most terrifying race on this planet.
That famous saying of the legendary Merlin was no joke.
Yet even in this carnage, the Merperson did not retreat.
More and more rushed into the slaughterhouse of a battlefield, so that despite Link's relentless killing, their numbers did not diminish.
By now, even Link realized something was wrong.
These Merperson weren't trying to kill him, they were stalling him, with their lives.
Especially since among them he now saw many with ghostly blue skin, sea Merperson.
The Black Lake is living water, structured much like the famous Loch Ness, with caves beneath connecting to underground water systems, and even the sea.
That's why Durmstrang's ghost ship could sail directly through the Black Lake to Hogwarts.
So sea Merperson appearing here wasn't hard to understand. They disliked freshwater, but could survive in it for several days.
But if sea Merperson had come, didn't that mean other forces might have slipped into the Black Lake?
Link's first thought was Voldemort.
That old monster's power was clearly greater than in the original tale, and he was already meddling in the Triwizard Tournament.
His goal, to bring Voldemort back.
And the Black Lake was the perfect chance.
If his followers acted well, abducting Harry Potter here would be child's play.
If that was true, then Link couldn't stay here any longer.
That wouldn't be easy. Even with cursed wings, he couldn't outswim Merperson, nor easily shake pursuit.
But he had other means.
His thoughts lasted less than ten seconds, during which another dozen Merperson fell around him.
Decision made, Link blew the wooden whistle hanging from his neck.
Its sound was not shrill, but deep and muffled, yet carried far, rippling outward through the water.
Soon, a similar muffled sound answered from afar.
Link smiled faintly, and with a flap of cursed wings, shot toward the source.
Behind him followed the screaming Merperson.
He fought as he retreated, swimming forward for nearly ten minutes until finally, in a Merperson-planted water field, he saw the water horse Hagrid had spoken of.
It was nearly five meters long, its whole body draped in water plants forming a rough horse shape. Its massive head looked like a dragon's, hideous and fearsome.
Seeing Link approach with the mob of Merperson behind him, the water horse showed no fear. It let out a muffled call, lifted its neck, and stayed in place.
By habit, it expected the human who blew the whistle to obediently come and offer it delicious roast meat.
In exchange, it would allow the human to pat it a few times.
Today's human looked especially pleasing. If the roast was plentiful, it might even let him ride for a while.
That would be the greatest reward it could grant.
As for the Merperson behind him, the water horse didn't care.
Here in the Black Lake, it was second only to the giant squid, with unmatched fighting power. Mere Merperson wouldn't dare offend it.
But today, the roast meat it awaited did not come.
From the start, Link had no intention of currying favor with this water horse. In such urgent times, there was no way.
So he chose force.
BOOM!
With a beat of cursed wings, the rushing current carried Link above the creature.
He dropped onto its broad back, grabbed two strands of head-weeds as reins.
"Hyah!"
He shouted harshly, unleashing the crushing aura of a "Dragon Slayer" title upon the beast.
Sadly, this pressure worked best on dragons. On the water horse, it caused only mild fear.
Which only enraged it.
Though called a monster, at heart it was still a wild river horse.
Proud to the extreme, better dead than unfree.
Link's act infuriated it.
At once, its covering weeds writhed madly, trying to strangle him and devour him.
It thrashed and bucked, smashing and biting, killing several Merperson in the process.
But all was futile.
Link had already shaped his cursed wings into giant hands, gripping its head tightly.
Other cursed power wrapped his body, blocking the weeds.
Meaning no matter how it struggled, it couldn't throw him off.
And since the aura had failed, Link wasn't disappointed, because now the water horse was at full speed.
He swore, this was the fastest he had ever gone in both lives.
The beast tore through the water faster than a Firebolt, its wake so violent that nothing, not even Merperson, could draw near.
The only problem was it galloped aimlessly.
But that too was solvable.
Link smiled, used the cursed hands to wrench its head straight, forcing it to charge where he wished.
At the same time, his wand extended a golden whip of light, cracking hard across its flank.
BOOM!
In pain, the water horse roared, and ran even faster.
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