𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐚𝐥𝐚¹- hp.

𝐱𝐱𝐱𝐯𝐢𝐢𝐢. a bath, an egg, and a peeping moaning myrtle.

꧁—— ❦ ——꧂

To be told to take a bath with an egg was odd, but it felt even more odd to actually decide to take a bath with said egg. Harry felt quite silly, but as he had no idea how long a bath he would need to work out the secret of the golden egg, he decided to do it at night when he would be able to take as much time as he wanted ( as well as ensuring he would not be seen, he didn't think he'd be able to live that down ). His one saving grace was that Cedric had given him the password to the prefects' bathroom; far fewer people were allowed in there, so it was much less likely that he would be disturbed.

Harry planned his excursion carefully, because he had been caught out of bed and out-of-bounds by Filch the caretaker in the middle of the night once before, and had no desire to repeat the experience. The Invisibility Cloak would, of course, be essential,and as an added precaution, Harry thought he would take the Marauder's Map, which, next to the cloak, was the most useful aid to rule-breaking Harry owned. The map showed the whole of Hogwarts, including its many shortcuts and secret passageways and, most important of all, it revealed the people inside the castle as minuscule, labeled dots, moving around the corridors, so that Harry would be forewarned if somebody was approaching the bathroom.

On Thursday night, Harry sneaked up to bed, put on the cloak, crept back downstairs, and waited for the portrait hole to open. This time it was Ron who waited outside to give the Fat Lady the password ( "banana fritters" ).

"Good luck. " Ron muttered, climbing into the room as Harry crept out past him.

It was awkward moving under the cloak, as Harry had the heavy egg under one arm and the map held in front of his nose with the other. However, the moonlit corridors were empty and silent, and by checking the map at strategic intervals, Harry was able to ensure that he wouldn't run into anyone he wanted to avoid. When he reached the statue of Boris the Bewildered, a lost-looking wizard with his gloves on the wrong hands, he located the right door, leaned close to it, and muttered the password, "Pinefresh," just as Cedric had told him.

Then, the door creaked open. He slipped inside, bolted the doorbehind him, and pulled off the Invisibility Cloak, looking around. His immediate reaction was that it would be worth becoming a prefect just to be able to use this bathroom. It was softly lit by a splendid candle-filled chandelier, and everything was made of white marble, including what looked like an empty, rectangular swimming pool sunk into the middle of the floor. About a hundred golden taps stood all around the pool's edges, each with a differently coloured jewel set into its handle. There was also a diving board. Long white linen curtains hung at the windows; a large pile of fluffy white towels sat in a corner, and there was a single golden-framed painting on the wall. It featured a blonde mermaid who was fast asleep on a rock, her long hair over her face. It fluttered every time she snored.

Harry moved forward, looking around, his footsteps echoing off the walls. Magnificent though the bathroom was ( and quite keen though he was to try out a few of those taps ) now that he was here he couldn't quite suppress the feeling that Cedric might have been having him on. If Aveline was right and he was supposed to place the egg beneath the water, why couldn't he have just taken a bath somewhere else? Or, perhaps, why couldn't Cedric have just told him that he was supposed to place the egg underwater, flat out and straight to the point like Harry had done for him when it came to the dragons. A huff, and with an annoyed eye roll, he rolled his shoulders and put one of the fluffy towels, the map, and the egg at the side of the swimming-poolsized bath, then knelt down and turned on a few of the taps. He could tell at once that they carried different sorts of bubblebath mixed with the water, though it wasn't a bubble bath as Harry had ever experienced it.