FLIPPED - harry potter

༺ 33 - the second task.

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| THE SECOND TASK |

"We require a person, for each
of the champions."

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HARRY, ALORA, RON AND HERMIONE were sitting far in the back of Charms class, they were supposed to be practising the Banishing Charm, which was the total opposite of the Summoning Charm. Professor Flitwick had given the students a stack of cushions, the theory being these wouldn't hurt anyone if anyone went off target.

Harry seemed annoyed, which was understandable since the second task was only a few days away and Hermione kept egging him on about the egg. "Just forget the egg for a minute, alright?" he said.

For the past while he had been trying to tell them about what he saw the previous night, which had something to do with Moody and Snape, but with the way Harry was explaining it was a little confusing, it took some time for Alora to wrap her head around -- bonus, being the fact that he was also looking around every two moments to see if anyone was listening in, all to which were having too much fun to care.

"Harry...maybe Moody thinks Snape put your name in the Goblet of Fire!" Ron said, through wide eyes as his next cushion spun high in the air, and ricocheted off the chandelier. Hermione shook her head sceptically.

"Oh, Ron, we thought Snape was trying to kill Harry before, and it turned out he was saving Harry's life, remember?" she said.

She Banished a cushion and it flew across the room and landed in the box they were all supposed to be aiming at. Alora Banished one of her cushions across the room, and it merely missed the target -- but instead it hit Professor Flitwick. She muttered a quick, and embarrassed "Sorry, Professor!"

"If Snape's not evil -- then why are all these dark-wizard catchers searching his office, then?" Ron said with a raised eyebrow, Hermione rolled her eyes.

"Why has Mr Crouch been pretending to be ill?" Hermione said, choosing to ignore Ron. "It's a bit funny, isn't it, that he can't manage to come to the Yule Ball, but he can get up here in the middle of the night when he wants to?"

"He can stay pretending to be ill for a lot longer, I don't want to see his face." Alora rolled her eyes, she still hadn't forgotten about the night of the Quidditch World Cup, it's not really something you can forget about, it's the type of thing that lingers in your chest like a weight.

"Hermione, you only don't like Crouch because of that elf, Winky!" Ron said, sending a cushion at the window.

"No, not just that -- if you hadn't forgotten, Ron, he accused Lora of being a Death Eater, and made her feel rubbish!" Hermione said, angrily Banishing a cushion. "Besides, you just want to think Snape's up to something."

"He probably is, if we're talking about the Snape I've had to endure for the past four years," Alora said, sending her pillow, expecting it to smash through a window, but to her great surprise it landed neatly on top of Hermione's in the box.

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THE SECOND TASK WAS DRAWING CLOSER, and Harry was getting more nervous as the days passed, he was now facing a predicament: how was he going to stay underwater for an hour and not die?