The Curious Tale of Harriet Potter

12 - Second Task

"Ready? On three. 1, 2, 3." Cedric and Harri opened their golden eggs, but immediately regretted that decision when they heard the scream it emitted.

"Merlin! Turn it off!" Cedric couldn't hear his girlfriend over the screeching, but shared her sentiment and hurried to fasten the eggs shut.

"What the fuck was that?"

"Maybe we have to fight a banshee?"

Harri thought about it for a moment then shook her head. "Too obvious don't you think?"

"It is meant to be a clue, love."

"Yeah but..."

At Cedric's raised eyebrow Harri shook her head again; more decisively this time.

"No. This tournament has been organised by Dumbledore, he never makes anything this painfully obvious. He much more specializes in cryptic clues that you just have to guess on."

"Example?"

"Like last year, he was hinting at Hermione to use the time turner to save Sirius but all he said was 'Maybe more than one life can be saved tonight' and we didn't really understand but luckily we did figure it out." She paused and bit her lip. "Not that it made much difference anyway."

"Harri-"

"No, don't. We need to focus on the tournament."

He looked sceptical but could tell Harri wanted to move on. "Alright, so it could be a banshee but we'll put that theory on the back burner for now."

"Yeah. Do we know anything that might sound like screaming at first but is something else beneath the surface?"

"I think-" He trailed off in thought.

"What?"

"Professor Moody said something a few days ago about how mermish sounds like horrible screaming."

"Ok. But neither of us speak mermish."

Cedric's face lit up. "We need to listen to it underwater."

"Underwater?"

"Yeah. Merpeople live underwater so maybe we'll be able to understand it if we listen underwater?"

Harriet snapped her fingers. "And there's merpeople in the black lake! Nice work Mr Holmes, now we've got a lead."

"Mr Holmes?"

"Sherlock Holmes? Famous character from literature?" At his unresponsive face she sighed. "I'm getting you a Sherlock Holmes book for your 18th birthday. He was an amazing fictional detective. But whatever, let's go listen to this egg underwater."

(A/N istg what is it with me and referencing sherlock holmes)

"Ok. Let's go to the Prefect's Bathroom."

"If you're right about this, you're a crazy genius Pretty Boy."

***

"Ready?"

She shrugged. "As I'll ever be."

Cedric and Harriet put their ears to the water as Cedric unscrewed his egg. A beautiful voice started fill the bath tub.

Come seek us where our voices sound,
We cannot sing above the ground.
An hour long you'll have to look,
To recover what we took.
And while you're searching ponder this;
We've taken what you'll sorely miss.
But past an hour the prospect's black,
Too late, it's gone, it won't come back.

Once they were sure the song was over, both champions lifted their heads.

"So, that's our clue?" Cedric furrowed his eyebrows, thinking over the words.