NIGHTSHADE | marvel x hp

050

There were way better things to be doing at midnight— like sleeping, maybe — but here was Aria again, the whisper of her own footsteps following her as she crept along the marble corridor that led to non other but the prefects' bathroom.

The room beyond looked like something out of a dream. A vast pool-sized bathtub gleamed in the centre, lined with taps of every shape and colour — some gushing pink foam, others producing what looked like liquid gold or lilac-scented bubbles that drifted lazily into the air. The walls shimmered with pale marble veined in silver, and the ceiling arched high above her like a cathedral dome, painted with mermaids darting through blue water.

The air was thick with the smell of lavender. For a moment, Aria forgot why she was there at all.

She stepped further in, only to startle when the door suddenly clicked closed behind her.

She spun around, wand snapping up.

A familiar grin greeted her.

"Relax," Cedric said, hands raised in mock surrender. "It's me."

Aria exhaled sharply, lowering her wand. "Jesus Christ, Cedric, do you make a habit of sneaking up on people?"

"Only you, actually," he said easily, that same disarming smile tugging at his mouth. "Thought you'd gotten caught."

"Please," she muttered, walking past him toward the pool. "If anyone can sneak around this castle unnoticed, it's me."

He chuckled. "I don't doubt that." Then his tone shifted, turning purposeful. "Anyway — you brought it, right? The egg?"

Aria pulled it out from under her hoodie — the heavy golden thing gleamed in the candlelight. "You know how to make it stop screaming?"

"I do," he said, stepping beside her. "Or, well, I know what you're supposed to do. A friend of Fleur Delacour's told me. Don't ask me how I convinced her to share."

She raised an eyebrow. "Let me guess, you used your Hogwarts heartthrob slash popular boy slash hufflepuff prefect's charms on her?"

Cedric's grin widened. "You could say that."

"Right," Aria said skeptically. "So what's the trick?"

He gestured to the bathtub. "You're supposed to open it underwater."

Aria blinked. "You want me to get in there?"

"Well, yeah," he shrugged, as though it were the most obvious thing in the world. "You won't hear it properly otherwise."

"You've got to be kidding me" she muttered.

"Think of it as an educational experience."

The brunette sent him a half-hearted glare. "Right."

Cedric laughed softly. "I'm serious— I wouldn't have asked you to come here otherwise."

Aria narrowed her eyes at him, lips curving despite herself. "You're enjoying this, aren't you?"

"Immensely," he admitted. Then, a little more gently, "Look, it's the only way. Fleur's tried it, and it worked. You'll hear something — words, maybe. You'll figure it out."

Aria sighed, now eyeing the enormous, steaming pool. "I'll actually beat the shit out of you if this doesn't work."

Cedric stepped back, mock-serious. "Noted."

Aria rolled her eyes but set the egg on the edge of the bath. She'd just started tugging at her hoodie when she caught movement out of the corner of her eye.