The Queen of Vipers || Fred Weasley

II.XI

"Lexi! Lexi, wake up!"

Electra woke with a start. She was having a very real dream, one that she somewhat recognized, like she'd had it before? But as she lifted her head off the library table she could feel her memory of it slipping away like sand falling through her fingers. She grumbled in annoyance. "What do you want?"

"I've figured it out!"

Electra looked down at her partially finished Potions homework with a scowl.

Shit. She'd fallen asleep.

She loved the woman, but she could kill McGonagall for giving so much work due on the last day of term. She's spent all evening on her homework and McGonagall's homework was by far taking the longest. She really shouldn't have put it off this long. She even had to fight off Hadeon to get it done. With a great sigh, she picked up her quill and began writing again.

"Care elaborating?" asked Electra, stifling a yawn. Where the 'e' in 'conjure' was supposed to be was now a hole Electra had accidentally ripped in the parchment, but fuck if she cared.

"The egg!" hissed Cedric, holding out the golden egg for Electra to see. "Lex, I've figured out the clue!"

Her head snapped towards Cedric. "You're joking!"

Cedric clamped his hand over Electra's mouth so they wouldn't get kicked out of the library for the millionth time. He smelled like a bombard of different scented soaps. She pushed his hand away. "How?" she whispered.

Cedric waved his hand impatiently. "That's not important. Don't you want to hear the clue?"

"Does the Pope shit in the woods?"

Cedric's smile faltered. "I don't know?"

Electra rolled her eyes in exasperation. "You wizards should really mingle with a Muggle every once in a while. Let's hear it."

Cedric dropped into the chair beside her. "Okay..." He shut his eyes to concentrate. Electra reeled in a grin. "Come seek us where our voices sound,

We cannot sing above the ground,

And while you're searching ponder this:

We've taken what you'll sorely miss,

An hour long you'll have to look,

And to recover what we took,

But past an hour — the prospect's black,

Too late, it's gone, it won't come back."

When Cedric finished reciting the riddle, he opened his eyes and raised his brows expectantly. "So?"

"Repeat it." Cedric obliged and this time Electra jotted the riddle down on a scrap piece of parchment she already had on the table before her. "Okay let's break this down, shall we?"

Cedric scooted his chair closer to her as they bent their heads over the paper. "This part," Electra said while tapping the parchment, ink blots splattering under her quill, "Come seek us where our voices sound,

We cannot sing above the ground—"

"I had to open the egg underwater." Electra gave him a curious gaze. Cedric shook his head. "Don't ask, but when I opened it underwater instead of in the air it sang that song."

Electra looked back at the riddle. "So their voices sound underwater." She scribbled, 'The Lake?' next to that part of the riddle.

"That's what I thought too," agreed Cedric with a nod. "And here—" He pointed to the next verse. "It's not exactly difficult to assume I'll have to look for something they stole from me."