Beginners: book 1, Goblet of Fire

The Black Lake

Weeks pass with no luck on the second task. All our nerves build as the day draws nearer. We must've taken out the entire library by the week of the task. We're in our usual spot by the fire in the common room long after every else has gone to bed. The stacks us books form walls around our huddle, each with our head stuck in another book.

There's a thunk from Ron, who sits up quickly, Spells for Certain Wizarding Complications falling to the floor. "Erm, sorry I fell asleep."

It knocks me out of the stooper I've been in, staring at the page but not really reading.

"Wow is that the time already?" Hermione says, checking her watch. "We should go to bed, we aren't going to find anything in these."

Harry grumbles assent, and Ron gets up, grunting as he straightens his legs. Harry, however, does not rise. Hermione casts me a concerned look, glancing back down at Harry who is yet to even move. He looks up and notices us all waiting for him.

"Erm, you all go up, I'll be there soon, just going to finish this chapter." We all exchange looks that equally say how little we believe this.

"I'll clean up, you guys go." I stoop down to gather the very little notes we've all made and stack them together. Hermione meets my eyes for a second, but I nod my head in the direction of the dormitory stairs. "I'll be up in a second."

I place the stack on a table, Harry has turned back to his book, burying his nose into it, "hey."

"Hi," he says without looking up.

"What's wrong?" I sit next to him on the couch just as he aggressively flips the page.

"Erm, nothing, just, you know, the task."

"You'll do fine, I know you will." He doesn't seem convinced. "Besides, staying up isn't going to do anything, you need sleep." He finally looks up, giving up on the book and tossing it onto the coffee table. There's a crease on his forehead, it's been there for a few days, an unmoving symbol of his nerves.

"I s'pose," he mumbles. Neither of us knows what to say, falling into silence. "Really, go on up."

"Harry, you need to sleep. You have bags under your eyes, just take a break." He doesn't move. "Come on," I stand up and put out my hand. Hesitantly, he takes it. I lean back and pull him up from the couch. "That stays down here," I say, pointing at the book in his hand, reluctantly, he drops it. Without speaking, I lead him up the stairs to the landing, where I let go of his hand. "Goodnight Harry," I say, opening the door to the girl's dormitories.

"Goodnight, Elizabeth." He turns and opens the door to the boy's dorms and heads up the stairs.

A weak later we're sitting together at breakfast. Hermione has her master list of possible books that could contain clues for the task in front of her, going through it to confirm we've read every single one.

"'Ermione at this point we've read every book in the library," Ron says, staring and the foot-long roll of parchment covered in scratched out titles.

"We could try the transfiguration section again tonight, they wouldn't give you something impossible." She says, ignoring Ron as usual.

Harry, thankfully, has stopped reading obsessively, but now he just stares into his porridge, mind elsewhere. "Drop it, Hermione," he grumbles. "It's tomorrow morning, I'll just go down there and say I couldn't figure it out."

She goes to protest, but the bell rings. "Right, well, I'll see you all after class." And she heads off.

She turns up at lunch with more books. "I swung by the library-"