Distortion

Honesty. Honestly the best policy, right??

Not briefing you on the most uneventful. Life had been slow for Harry after cracking the egg. His life was as normal it could be for a teenager doomed in a death trap tournament.

After months of backlash, the waters had finally calm down. It didn't even seem like there was a tournament. Again, as Sirius had rightly pointed out "It will be old talk in no time."

The other positive way things looked up for Harry. Longbottom didn't butt into Harry's life or make it any harder. Remember that treaty which kicked he whole quidditch team out o the quidditch team?? And that order for Harry to have regular detentions with Snape?? Yeah, Longbottom invalidated all of them. Frank invalidated all of them and even his son's privileges. That was very unlike Longbottom, so he probably thought Sebastian had something to do with it, since now he landed on the school board.

Even though the original quidditch team was back, they still weren't allowed and all the matches for the year were cancelled. Harry would swear on his life he saw Angelina almost rip off her book to shreds when the news reached her.

That morning, the trio sat in the Great Hall, as harry watched Ron and Hermione just rewind to being friends back again, with no awkwardness, while Harry updated them with the recent events. The moment he brought up the egg, 'Wait-; Hermione interrupted, you figured that egg out?? she raised a brow questioningly.

'Yeah.' Harry replied casually, 'I received this mysterious letter in the middle of the night telling me to mull things over in water, so I did, and it worked.'

Both Ron and Hermione arched their brows in bewilderment. 'Harry, who sent you the letter??' Hermione asked cautiously.

He just knew he had opened room for tension by breaking this to them. He hated to tense up their first day after Christmas, but making up a new story to not get them worried seemed like a far worse alternative. And he would have to tell them the truth nonetheless.

'idon't know, there was no name.' he shrugged casually.

Their eyes widened, probably at how casually he took this.

'I did as the letter told me to, and the egg told me the clue.'

'What did you do??" Ron asked with his arms out questioningly, 'Learn the art of decoding dragon screeches??'

'Didn't he tell just now he mulled things over in the water??' Hermione said in an irritated tone, after which Ron looked down at his plate of toast .

'Just to be clear, I submerged the egg in water, and it did not screech its voice box out. The first line of the song it sang literally said, "We cannot sing above the ground".'

'Well, that explains the deafening screeches.' Ron said.

Harry placed his elbows on the table and leaned on them, 'The next day, Bonnie and I, well, mostly Bonnie put the pieces of the puzzle together. The next task is to retrieve something from the Great Lake within an hour.' He said with finality.

'An hour in the Great Lake??' Ron asked in disbelief, 'You better be reborn as a fish for this.'

'Figuring out the clue was the first part of the second task, ad finding a way to breathe underwater the second.'

Soon, the bell tottled, declaring it was time for the first class of the year. He was glad the discussion didn't carry on further, as he gathered himself up to head to herbology.

Throughout the day, he didn't know what daunted him more; if he had to find a way to breathe underwater or if he had to swim for an hour. This thought was presumed to trouble Harry at the back of his mind till he reached a solution to it. Moreover, As a boy brought up on the outskirts of London who hasn't tipped a toe in a huge mass of water other than the hot tub in the cozy bathroom in his home sweet home, the prospect of him getting through the second task seemed slim.