In the Harry Potter Without Harry Potter

Chapter 398: Final Ranking (2 in 1)

Just as the students of the castle on the shore were rejoicing, before Jon could finish drying the robes on himself with a magic spell, a wretched figure crawled out of the hole in the ice that Jon had blown out earlier.

Diane was covered in a dark green liquid, and it was clear that the rune snakes had also sought her out underwater and had pestered her for a long while.

And once she was on shore she followed suit and made an angry complaint.

"There's something wrong with the lake! The rules didn't mention any snake attacks before we went into the water! Those snakes can't even be killed, and they explode!"

Her eyes widened when she saw Jon at the same time as she spoke.

Jon locked eyes with her and didn't say anything, just shrugged his shoulders.

Matthew had furrowed his brow by this time, and he turned his head to look at Snape, who just said indifferently.

"The judge's team had inspected the entire Black Lake before the second task started and no one has entered it since, I think you know very well if there is a problem in this lake, Mr Graves."

Rosier tilted her head as she said with a frown.

"No problems? Why is it that only our students are having problems now? Where are the other two champions? Did those snakes also attack when they met them? Or are they still simply clueless about this?"

The scene was starting to make Matthew's head hurt again.

To be honest, he just wanted this Triwizard Tournament to end peacefully without getting involved in any other messes, but apparently, neither Dumbledore's side nor Voldemort's side had been honest from the start of the tournament until now, and there had been two messes in the two tasks that had taken place to date alone.

"I will look into the situation regarding what happened at the bottom of the lake when both Mr Lestrange and Mr Malfoy return, for now, I need to get a sum up of your match results."

Diane turned her head to look at Rosier for a moment, who still had the frost on her face undiminished but nodded to her nevertheless.

Then Diane pulled three pearls out of her wet pocket.

"I would have had the fourth, having found it in a shell, but these snakes disrupted my movements!"

Ignoring what she was now saying, the students at the lake became even more excited after seeing that she had pulled out a total of just three pearls.

Jon had only found one, Diane had found three, and although they were now first and second respectively in terms of speed, the haul just wasn't really that much at all.

Diane had a few more, but the students at the castle hadn't considered her to be a threat at all.

The students at the castle didn't have much faith in Draco and Emil, but now that they both have plenty of time, they can at least continue to find the rest of the pearls without worrying, right?

However, just as they were having such thoughts, the lake surged up again and Emil came up from the water in rags, looking much worse than Jon and Diane, not only had he been attacked, but the cold repellent spell that had been cast on his body had failed, and his lips were purple from the freezing water, he was trembling and clutching both arms, glaring at Dumbledore and Rosier with hatred as soon as he came up.

"These wanted men must have done something underwater! Jon Green must have released some vicious dark magic, and none of those snakes are real snakes, but formed out of magic or some potion!"

Just as he was still accusing, out of the corner of his eye he suddenly also caught a glimpse of Jon who was standing off at the side, watching him cursing and screaming with Diane, and the whole person froze on the spot.

"What are you doing here!"

He practically blurted out, obviously meaning what he had just said, he really thought that those anomalies in the black lake were Jon's doing.

It was to force them to finish the task as soon as possible without having more time to find the pearl, so he didn't think Jon would finish the task before he did.

But now Jon was actually here already.

"You've got several pearls."

Even though his frozen body was still shivering, Emil still had no intention of trying to warm up his body yet, but instead stared hard at Jon and asked.

Jon simply spread his hands and gestured in the direction where Matthew stood.

"Why don't you show your results first and find out what I've got?"

Before he could move, Bonnesante had already helped him dry the tattered robes on his body with a spell first, while coming up to his ear and whispering something, and everyone in the place could visibly see his eyes suddenly light up!

Instantly the anger and anxiety on his face were half gone, and by this time he shut up about whether any of the snakes at the bottom of the lake were Jon's handiwork, and instead turned to face Matthew and reached into his coat pocket.

On the shore, all the students held their breath, although Emil was not a student from Hogwarts Castle, he was now tantamount to representing their Mr Headmaster, and that meant representing Hogwarts Castle.

As for Draco, well, he would be an add-on.

And while Emil showed great calmness and composure in full view of such a crowd, many could see from the smile that he simply could not suppress at the corners of his mouth that he was not really as composed as he pretended to be on the surface.

He pulled the hand out of his pocket and opened his palm at the same time, and in the light of the sun, four pearls were reflecting a dazzling light.

The next moment all the students were abuzz!

Now even if Draco hadn't returned yet, the situation was all clear, Emil's four pearls were firmly set him in the first place because there were only two pearls left, and even if Draco could happen to find them all, it wouldn't affect Emil's ranking now, and even if he finished the task in the third place, the proportion of that part was very low anyway.

This has basically doomed Jon to only be fourth.

Also, just as they were cheering, a greenhead shuddered and crawled out of the lake.

Draco had finally returned as well, and it was not clear whether the rune snakes that Jon had accidentally released were a blessing or a misfortune for him. Just as he was completely tangled up in the water plants and his whole being was in despair, the snakes found him and blew up around him, helping him to shred them all.

Of course, Draco himself suffered a lot of damage, his right arm was a bloody mess, but the bubble head spell Jon had cast on him earlier lasted a while before the snakes broke it, allowing him to reinforce the cold repellent spell on his body in time not to freeze to death in the lake.

But he was miserable as hell in this condition, and as the boy crawled out of the water, Lucius' whole face darkened, and he rushed to his son's side in a hurry to help drag him out of the lake.

The snakes that had followed him were still in the water making a "bang, bang, bang" sound, and Lucius tried to grab one out of the water, but as soon as it was out of the water it turned into a puddle of dark green liquid that could not be moulded.

A loving Lucius didn't even need help, he dried the robes off Draco himself while turning his head to stare at Snape.

Without letting him speak, Snape pulled a glass vial full of white powder from his inside pocket and handed it to Lucius, the white dittany powder was extremely effective on external wounds.

Draco flung himself into Lucius' arms on the spot, his body trembling, not from the cold, but from the shock.

If it hadn't been for these rune snakes, by the time the effects of the Gillyweed had ended, then he really would have been trapped by the water plants and drowned, experiencing the same pain that Jon had experienced in his previous life, but it was the same rune snakes that had almost blown him up in the lake.

Matthew, however, hadn't forgotten his duty.

Now apparently all champions competing had been attacked by those monstrous snakes, which made the situation seem fair again, and of course, he was also counting up the final scores of this task at that moment.

"Mr Malfoy, may I ask how many you have gained?"

A pale Draco looked up, he glanced at Jon before turning his head and shivering, he pulled two pearls out of his pocket and said.

"Ha-um, I originally found two, but one of them was lost, then when I was being chased by these snakes I suddenly found another one from a shell that was swept up by the snakes, and then I still have two in my hand"

His words made Matthew nod, the outcome of the task was now clear.

Even Lucius hadn't expected much from Draco's results, and now even his unexpectedly decent results hadn't made much of an emotional difference to him, if the pureblood students weren't all a bunch of sloppy sods, there was no way his son would have been chosen to compete back then.

His only hope was that Draco would survive this treacherous Triwizard Tournament, just surviving would be better than anything else.

The students on the shoreline reacted evenly to this, Draco had been lucky, but he was still going to be fourth, but the smiles on their faces showed no sign of fading, even if Draco had done badly, Emil would now surely be first, undisputedly first!

Matthew returned to the panel of judges and turned his head to Dumbledore, Snape, Rosier, and Bonnesante.

"Now, do you all have any objections to the final score of this task?"

In Voldemort's absence, Snape was acting as his substitute to adjudicate, and the most respected person at the moment was naturally Dumbledore.

He said softly.

"It is up to the panel of judges to investigate how these disturbances were caused during the tournament, but since all the contestants suffered such an attack, it means that the tournament itself is now still fair, and we have no objections."

His attitude was, naturally, Rosier's attitude as well.

And with no question from Dumbledore's side, Snape and Bonnesante had even less to say about it.

"Since everyone has no objections, we will investigate in more detail afterwards as to how the anomaly under the Black Lake was caused, but for now we can announce the result of the task."

Matthew announced the rankings for this task in front of everyone.

"Emil Lestrange has four pearls and is in first place, with 70 points, and he is the third champion to finish the tournament, with a further 20 points to his name, giving him a total of 90 points in the second task, making him first place!"

There was a roaring round of applause, previously after the first task the students in the castle had had a mediocre response to the tournament because the two men representing them had been third and fourth, and the results were so embarrassing to bring up, that, there was nothing to mention naturally.

But now that the first place went to one of their own, it was definitely time for some celebrations!

Naturally, Hermione and George were there, but they stood alone with the Durmstrang students, separated from the huge number of half-bloods and pure-bloods.

Lee couldn't help but grimace as he watched their excited and jubilant cheers.

"Why do they give off a petty air, and even if that whatever Lestrange is first now, the total score for both tasks combined doesn't seem as high as Jon's, does it?"

Hermione thought for a few seconds and quickly calculated the scores.

"Lestrange got 70 in the first task and 90 in the second, making a total of 160, Jon was 100 in the first task, and now it's 10 plus 40 which is 50, making a total of 150, he's still 10 points higher than Jon."

Lee, who hadn't done the maths carefully and was just going on impressions to get a feel for it, suddenly grimaced.

"We're still 10 points lower than them!"

"Yes, because at the time he couldn't actually be said to be third, but tied for second with Diane, who also scored 70 points in the first task, and with the 80 points from this one it would make 150 points, overall equal to Jon."

Such a result made George and Lee look around at the cheering students with even more irritation, but Hermione was clearly not finished with her words.

"Except Jon's score is not only that." She smiled and looked at Lee and George, "Aren't you forgetting something?"

From the judging panel, after announcing the scores of the other three as well, Matthew announced the scores, the same as Hermione had counted.

In the second task, Diane was still in second place, with 50 points plus 30 points making a total of 80 points, while Jon only had one pearl but was the first to come back, so naturally the score was 10 plus 40 making a total of 50 points, while Draco could only be described as having a stroke of luck at the end, and despite the situation of finding a needle in a haystack, he actually found another one, with 30 points for being third on the pearl plus 10 points for being the last to come back, now making a total of 40 points and still at the bottom of the rankings.

Matthew coughed softly at the end to stop the jubilant crowd, all the students had already mentally worked out their final scores and knew that Emil was now first overall.

Still, now that the two tasks were complete, Matthew had to announce everyone's scores before the final task began.

"With the tournament now underway, the exact scores concerning the final task have been thoroughly determined. Currently, Jon Green is in first place with a total of 180 points, Emil Lestrange is in second with a total of 160, Diane Rosier is in third with a total of 150 and Draco Malfoy is in fourth with a total of 60."

The crowd grew quiet as soon as Jon's first place was announced, and the smiling half-bloods and purebloods just stared at Matthew in disbelief, looking like they wanted to grab him by the neck and ask him if he could count!

Jon had a total of 150 points and was tied with Diane, where did he get the extra 30 points!

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