Although he knew Harry was likely facing the risk of being abducted right now, Link still steered the water horse toward the goal of this match, the Merperson settlement.
The reason was very simple.
Harry and Voldemort's resurrection ritual was indeed very important.
But compared with that, Link cared far more about Emily's safety.
With this thought in mind, Link lashed the water horse madly with his whip, and finally, by the time half the competition had passed, he reached the destination.
Compared with the outer parts of the Black Lake, the buildings here were more numerous.
These huge but simple stone huts of the Merperson were covered in many strange murals. Some of the houses even had attached gardens, making them look little different from ordinary human homes.
From time to time, curious Merperson poked their heads out of windows, peering at Link, this uninvited guest.
Soon after, large numbers of Merperson led grindylows and came flooding in from all directions, many of them holding spears and blades in their hands.
Seeing this, Link raised his wand again.
After the attacks earlier, he had long since lost all trust in the Merperson. If these Merperson showed even the slightest trace of hostility toward him, he would launch his attack without hesitation and kill them.
After all, wizards had unlimited rights of self-defense against non-human intelligent beings.
Since he had already been attacked before, even if Link killed every last Merperson in the Black Lake, he would not be punished by the Ministry of Magic.
Yet the Merperson here were not quite the same as the ones outside.
Though they gathered with weapons in hand, they made no move to attack, only pointing at him and whispering among themselves.
Link couldn't be bothered to deal with them. Following the sound of Merperson's melodious singing in the distance, he urged the water horse forward, arriving at a plaza.
Here, there were even more Merperson.
They stood one by one in armor, holding spears, lined in fixed formations, looking solemnly at Link.
Farther back stood two female mermaids, whose appearances were at last somewhat acceptable. They pressed their palms together before their chests, chanting in unison the song from the golden egg, calling the champions to come.
And behind them was a huge, rough Merperson statue. Emily and the other three were tightly bound to the statue's tail.
"Brave knight, you are the first to arrive. Congratulations!"
A broad-shouldered middle-aged merman in golden armor stepped out from the crowd, opening his arms and greeting Link in English, his expression friendly.
But Link didn't care at all to respond. He whipped the water horse hard, driving it forward with surging currents that scattered the Merperson ranks, rushing straight to the statue's tail.
After carefully checking, Link finally breathed a sigh of relief.
He was lucky, Emily and the others had only been forced into sleep by some method of the tournament committee, and were unharmed.
And these four so-called "treasures" were all people he knew.
Emily needed no explanation. Fleur's treasure was Gabrielle, Harry's was Ron. The most surprising was that Krum's treasure was still Hermione, not that Greengrass girl he had taken to the Yule Ball.
But Link had more or less guessed this already. After all, if Hermione and Ron had not both been captured, Harry wouldn't have nearly been late.
"You dare humiliate us like this!?"
At that moment, a furious shout suddenly rang out from behind Link.
He frowned and turned, seeing that the Merperson ranks he had just scattered had already regrouped, every spear now aimed at him.
The one who had shouted at him was an oversized merman over three meters tall, clad in silver armor.
Now he glared ferociously at Link.
Link knitted his brow and gave a threatening wave of his wand. The arrayed Merperson instantly stumbled back a few steps in panic.
Satisfied, Link turned back to unbind Emily and the others, fastening them onto the water horse and preparing to leave.
The silver-armored merman was nearly livid, cursing in Merperson language Link couldn't understand, then raising his trident, about to charge at him.
But just as he moved, the golden-armored merman stepped in front of him.
"Wizard, why are you so rude? You had better explain yourself clearly, or I will report this to Dumbledore!"
The golden-armored merman spoke calmly. It was obvious he was angry too, but he forced himself to maintain composure.
At the very least, he was smart enough not to strike at Link.
Link's lips curled in a sinister grin as he said, "You want to report me? Ha! I'm the one who'll be reporting! Earlier outside, I was attacked by your Merperson, and now you still dare question me?"
"Just wait. Once I return I'll report this to the Ministry of Magic, you're finished!"
With that, Link gave a cold laugh, no longer sparing them a glance, and rode the water horse away.
The Merperson left behind in the plaza looked at each other, every face filled with fear.
Though most of them were illiterate and couldn't even understand much English, the words "Ministry of Magic" they knew well enough.
They also knew clearly that once something involved the Ministry, it basically meant death.
The silver-armored merman shouted furiously at the golden-armored one, "Brother, that wizard is slandering us! We don't have to fear him, Dumbledore will take our side!"
"Not necessarily slander," the golden-armored merman said evenly, though his arm trembled slightly. "Where are your brother Zack and his guards?"
At his words, the silver-armored merman instinctively started to answer, but in the next instant his expression suddenly changed, as if he had just realized something.
The golden-armored merman sighed, then turned and spoke in Merperson language to those behind him, "Mobilize everyone to search for the other champions and the missing Merperson. The rest of you, come with me to pursue that wizard."
He paused, gritting his teeth. "Bring the Kraken!"
As soon as the words fell, he flicked his tail and led nearly half the Merperson soldiers present toward Link's direction.
Meanwhile, Link had already sensed the change in the Merperson plaza through his heightened perception spell.
This made the smile on his face shine all the brighter.
At a time like this, he wouldn't waste effort on meaningless things.
Just now, he had bothered wasting time explaining to the Merperson only because he had seen that these Merperson were not in league with the ones who had attacked him earlier.
Now, with his half-threatening words having frightened them, naturally they would help him search for those "rogue" Merperson instead.
Otherwise, they truly would end up shouldering the blame.
And with these Merperson joining in, Link felt much more confident about the fight that would come later when he went to rescue Harry.
Of course, the most important matter right now was still to get Emily and the others out.
Emily's safety came first, above all else.
But things always happened beyond Link's expectations.
He had just urged the water horse to accelerate upward toward the surface when a familiar deep whistle sounded from overhead.
Hagrid's whistle had only been given to Harry and Link, so the one blowing it above could only be Harry.
Since he blew it now, it must be because, just as Link had expected, he was under attack.
Link immediately turned the water horse aside, planning to circle around and send Emily and the others to shore first.
Unfortunately, before the water horse had gone far, Harry's familiar figure appeared in his vision.
And appearing alongside him was a monstrous beast over twenty meters long, full of sharp teeth, looking like a plesiosaur.
The beast opened its bloody jaws, its long neck whipping around as it snapped at Harry again and again.
Harry only barely dodged each time at the last second, the scene was hair-raising.
"Lin, glub glub!"
Harry spotted Link, joy flashing across his face as he tried to shout, but the moment he opened his mouth, his voice was drowned by a mass of bubbles.
He didn't choke, though.
Before diving, he had followed Hermione's advice and eaten gillyweed. The strange plant had given him gills and webbed hands and feet, letting him move swiftly underwater.
That was why he had been able to survive this long under the plesiosaur's pursuit, those extra organs gave him powerful underwater mobility.
But he couldn't last much longer. His strength was nearly gone.
Seeing Link now, he didn't hesitate at all and swam toward him.
"Tch!"
Link clicked his tongue irritably, but he didn't abandon him. Controlling the water horse, he rushed toward Harry.
On the way, he slashed his wand, sending two Blades of Light at the plesiosaur.
But compared with Link's spells, this beast was simply too huge.
Those blades, hissing through the water, only cut shallow wounds into its flesh, nowhere near fatal.
Worse, the attack only enraged it further.
It roared, speeding up suddenly, nearly catching Harry in its jaws.
But Link's strike was not without gain.
In the instant the plesiosaur twisted to attack, Link spotted a figure clinging to the place where its neck joined its body.
Though the person was shrouded in a black cloak, with a hood and mask full of Death Eater style, Link still recognized the familiar eyes beneath.
"Barty Crouch Jr.!"
Link roared with fury, then snapped his wand. A blinding green light rippled through the water.
"Avada Kedavra!"
Unlike other spells, the green light of the Killing Curse was completely unaffected by the lake water.
It raised not the slightest ripple, shot forward with undiminished speed at a cunning angle, like a green spear tearing through space toward Barty.
Barty showed no fear, flinging back his own Killing Curse.
The two green beams met in mid-water, colliding with precision and exploding into a storm of bubbles and plasma.
But the clash lasted less than a second. Link's curse tore through Barty's like a spear through paper, continuing straight for him.
Barty's pupils shrank behind his mask. Forcing his wand, he made the plesiosaur duck its head, helping him dodge.
As a result, Link's curse did not strike Barty as intended, but instead hit the plesiosaur's neck.
In an instant, the flesh around the impact turned ashen gray, losing vitality.
The plesiosaur howled in pain, twisting uncontrollably, no longer obeying Barty's control.
Though the Killing Curse couldn't kill it, it still inflicted immense agony.
Harry, who had been watching Link and Barty's duel, was stunned speechless, even forgetting to swim.
Link didn't waste time. He grabbed Harry, tossed him onto the horse's back, poured down his throat an antidote to the gillyweed, and cast a Bubble-Head Charm around him. Only then did Harry regain his wits.
The gills and fins were slowly receding from Harry's body, but he had no time to care about those odd changes.
Clutching Link's arm tightly, he stammered, "L-Link, just now, you used… an Unforgivable Curse?!"
Link knew exactly what he meant.
In this naïve boy's eyes, anyone who used the three Unforgivable Curses was automatically a dark wizard, how simple and childish.
In truth, that ban was only useful for scaring ordinary folk like Harry. For nobles like Link, it meant nothing.
Just look at Moody.
Hadn't that old bastard used the Imperius Curse on him, Link?
And the result? He still kept teaching Defense Against the Dark Arts.
Link shook Harry's collar impatiently and said, "Cut the nonsense! Quickly, tell me what's going on here?"
As he spoke, Link guided the water horse to dodge the plesiosaur's frenzied attacks.
A wounded beast was the most dangerous, and both the plesiosaur and Barty Crouch Jr. were in a frenzy now, attacking like a storm, far more violent than before.
Fortunately, after being ridden so long, the water horse had gradually calmed. Especially after Link had fed it two sausages taken that morning from the Great Hall, it no longer struggled much.
Now, provoked by the plesiosaur as an external threat, it actually became more obedient, cooperating with Link's maneuvers to dodge attacks.
By this time Harry had fully come to his senses.
He noticed Ron and the others strapped onto the horse's back beside him, and instantly understood.
In that moment, any lingering scruples about Link's use of the Killing Curse evaporated.
He gulped, voice trembling, "I don't, I don't know what's going on. I just got near here when that monster attacked me! Oh! Right, Fleur and Krum!"
"Link, you have to save them too! I ran into them just now, they're being attacked as well. But it's not this kind of monster, it's Merperson and grindylows! In huge numbers!"
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