Victor looked at the ugly merpeople in front of him.
They didn't look anything like the mermaids from fairy tales. They had protruding brows, large yellow fish-like eyes, flat noses, and incomplete sharp teeth. Their hair, which looked like thin strips of kelp, was a dark green. Their skin was a grayish color with slime and fine scales, and their upper bodies were human while their lower bodies were fish tails. They constantly gave off a strong, fishy smell.
A few of the merpeople struggled in mid-air, and one of them, who was holding a spear, tried to attack Victor, but the spear, which was made of fish spines and stones, turned into ashes as soon as it was thrown.
Victor sighed and used a light spell to create an illusion of the Weasley twins. Then he asked politely, "Have you seen these two people?"
But in response to Victor's question, the merpeople just kept struggling and making hoarse sounds, as if they were very angry.
"...It looks like we can't communicate with them!"
Victor felt helpless. He remembered a scene from the Goblet of Fire where the merpeople could speak. And in Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, it also said that merpeople had an intelligence no less than that of humans, and that they loved to sing and had their own unique culture and language. But now it seemed that these creatures were more "beast" than "person."
Since they couldn't communicate, he would just have to use force!
So, with a wave of his hand, he casually flicked them away. The merpeople were sent flying and bounced on the surface of the lake like skipping stones over a dozen times before slowly sinking to the bottom.
After dealing with the merpeople, Victor stomped on the grass with one foot, and a huge purple magical array quickly unfolded, with its distorted runes looking very intimidating.
Great Magic: Heavenly Body Magic – Extreme Gravity activated!
Suddenly, the water of the entire Black Lake began to fly up into the sky as if it were being pulled by some force. The creatures in the lake quickly noticed the abnormality and started to panic, swimming wildly in the water. The merpeople were even more terrified. They looked at the exposed lake bottom and desperately followed the water up into the sky.
A moment later, on the south side of Hogwarts Castle, a colossal bag of water was floating in mid-air. It was like a water-filled balloon, constantly twisting under the gravitational pull. Giant Squids, Grindylows, merpeople, and other magical creatures swam frantically inside.
At the bottom of the bag of water, the Black Lake was completely exposed, forming a huge empty crater. Countless water plants hung down, and many fish were flopping around on the wet sand and rocks.
And at that very moment, at Hogwarts Castle, Hermione, who was giving Aliya a tour of the school, suddenly saw the bag of water floating in mid-air and the completely empty Black Lake in the distance. She was stunned.
"Oh my goodness, what is Victor doing now?!" Hermione said, shocked, as she peered out the window.
"T-that… Victor did that?!" Aliya also looked at the miraculous sight in front of her, full of disbelief. This was the first time she had ever seen magic that could be so powerful.
"Did something happen to Fred and George?" Hermione muttered to herself, frowning.
"Fred and George, are those the two brothers of the boy named Weasley?" Aliya asked, turning her head curiously.
"Exactly! Something must have happened to them, otherwise Victor wouldn't be causing such a big scene!" Hermione said, nodding with certainty. "Why don't we go and take a look?!"
"Okay!"
Immediately, Hermione took out her wand and cast a Levitation Charm, then flew with Aliya toward the Black Lake.
On the other side, Victor walked around the completely exposed bottom of the Black Lake a few times and finally found the Weasley twins tied up with water plants in the merpeople's village, with their clothes completely gone.
Fred and George saw Victor and immediately had tears in their eyes. They struggled to make muffled sounds, asking for help. But when Victor saw this, he didn't immediately save them. Instead, he suppressed his laughter, took out a camera from his pocket, took over a dozen photos, and then let them down.
"Cough, cough, cough!!!"
"Blech!!!"
Fred and George knelt naked on the ground, coughing and gagging. They had gills on the sides of their faces and webbed feet, so it seemed they had been fed Gillyweed by the merpeople.
"Pfft! Hahaha!!!" Victor finally couldn't help but laugh when he saw their pitiful state. He used the water plants that had been used to tie them up to create some makeshift clothes to cover them up, then started to ask, "You two, how did you end up like this?!"
"Cough, cough!!" Fred coughed twice and then complained, "Don't even get me started. It's all George's fault. He was the one who suggested coming to the Black Lake, and then the merpeople grabbed us!"
"What?! Blech~~" George gagged a few times and immediately retorted, "You were the one who said you wanted to see the merpeople!"
"But I didn't say we should come to the Black Lake!"
"It's your fault!"
"It's your fault!"
As they argued, the two of them started to fight.
"You want to fight me, huh? Come on then!"
"I'll tear off your ear, you jerk!"
The Weasley twins cursed at each other as they started to punch each other. Victor shook his head at the sight, too lazy to deal with the two clowns. He turned around and started to look around the merpeople's village to see if there were any rare potion ingredients or herbs nearby.
He remembered that herbs like Gillyweed had only ever been found in the Mediterranean Sea, but he never expected them to be in the Black Lake as well. And since this herb grew in water, it was very difficult to harvest.
The growing conditions were also quite demanding, and besides allowing a person to gain abilities similar to merpeople for a short time, it didn't have much of a use. So, Gillyweed was rarely circulated on the market, but its scarcity also made it very expensive.
Just as Victor was looking for herbs, Hermione and Aliya had also arrived at the Black Lake. Aliya was holding Hermione's arm and looked up at the huge bag of water floating in mid-air. She couldn't help but feel a little scared and asked anxiously, "It won't fall, will it?"
"...It shouldn't for now." Hermione looked up, also a bit unsure. "But don't worry, as long as we find Victor, there won't be any problems." With that, she accelerated and flew forward.
A short time later, they found the Weasley twins fighting each other in the middle of the lake and Victor not far away, digging for something. They quickly flew towards Victor. After landing on the bottom of the lake, Aliya curiously looked at the strange environment, while Hermione walked over and asked, "Victor, what are you doing?"
"Oh, Hermione, Aliya! You're here!" Victor said, prying a giant lake clam with a diameter of over two meters out of the mud and rocks. Then he said happily, "Look, we have dinner for tonight!"
He hadn't found any herbs, but he had discovered a treasure trove of seafood. Hermione and Aliya were also amazed, as it was the first time they had seen such a large clam. Aliya asked curiously, "Victor, do you think there are pearls inside?"
"Oh, you're right, this thing might have pearls! Let me see!" Upon hearing the question, Victor suddenly remembered that most of these large clams produced pearls. So, he used magic to forcefully pry open the clam shell, rummaged through the meat, and quickly found a few pearls the size of a fist, but with irregular shapes.
Victor took out the pearls, cleaned the biggest one for Aliya, and then gave a slightly smaller one to Hermione. However, unlike Aliya's natural happiness, Hermione immediately shook her head and refused, "This is too precious, I can't accept it!"
"Huh?! What do you mean precious? There are a ton more over there!" Victor gestured with his thumb behind him. Only then did Hermione notice that in the pile of rocks behind Victor, there were countless giant lake clams, but because they were covered in water plants, they looked no different from real rocks.
So, with no pressure on her mind, Hermione happily accepted the pearl, which could have easily been sold for tens of thousands of pounds in the Muggle world.
However, just as the two girls were happily playing with their gifts, Fred and George suddenly went silent. Victor looked over curiously and found that they were tired from fighting and were now lying on the ground, looking like they had lost the will to live.
It was at this moment that Hermione suddenly remembered there were two other people, and she immediately asked, "Oh, right, Fred and George! What happened to them?"
"Nothing much, they just got grabbed by the merpeople," Victor explained nonchalantly. Then he suddenly felt a wave of nausea in his stomach and shivered, "I'm just not sure if the merpeople did anything unspeakable to them while they were gone."
"What do you mean, unspeakable things?"
"Why are you asking so many questions, kid?!"
Victor knocked Hermione on the head, then walked straight over to the Weasley twins.
"Are you done fighting? If you are, I'm sending you home. You can't work in that state today anyway." Without waiting for the twins to respond, he grabbed them and flew towards the shore.
A short time later, the group was back on the shore. But a huge figure was also standing by the lake.
"Oh, my goodness! Victor, it's you!" Hagrid said as he watched the group slowly land from the sky. "What in the world happened here?"
A few minutes ago, he had just returned to Hogwarts from Diagon Alley and saw the incredible scene at the Black Lake from a distance. He thought something terrible had happened.
"These two got dragged into the lake by the merpeople!" Victor said, gesturing to the twins on the ground with his eyes, and explained.
"Oh, well, that's just… unfortunate." Hagrid's face became awkward when he heard the news. He looked at Fred and George with his mouth open, and after a while, he asked with a pitiful tone, "Uh-hem, are… are you two alright?!"
The Weasley twins shook their heads but didn't say anything. It was obvious that they didn't want to talk about what had happened at the bottom of the lake.
"Only they know if they're okay or not!" Victor said, at the same time lifting the confinement on the lake water.
The bag of water floating in mid-air suddenly lost its support and began to plummet toward the ground. With a loud boom, a huge amount of water hit the bottom of the Black Lake, creating a massive wave. But just as the huge wave was about to crash down on Victor and the others, an unknown force suddenly pushed the water back.
"Hagrid, this is my sister, Aliya Swinton!" Victor first introduced Aliya to Hagrid, then he grabbed the two Weasley twins with both hands. "I'm taking these two unlucky fellows back home. Would you mind taking care of the girls?"
"Oh, of course, that's no problem at all!" Hagrid nodded.
"And there are a dozen chimaki on the eighth floor of the school. They were originally for these two, but it looks like they won't be able to enjoy them. You can take them back and give them a try."
With that, Victor activated his magic and left Hogwarts. He then arrived outside the village of Ottery St. Catchpole in Devon, England, where the Weasleys lived: the Burrow.
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