Chosen & Hated (HP) {Book 2 of the Wild & Free Series}

25. The Second Task

You said you'd already worked out that egg clue!" said Hermione indignantly.

"Keep your voice down!" said Harry crossly. "We just need to — sort of fine-tune it, all right?"

He, Ron, Hermione and I were sitting at the very back of the Charms class with a table to ourselves. We were supposed to be practicing the opposite of the Summoning Charm today — the Banishing Charm.

Harry had told me everything about what had happened last night. Harry had volunteered to go to the prefect's bathroom and figure out the clue in the egg. He had promised to tell me immediately if he found anything and he did. He told me the egg sang the following song underwater,

"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."

So it meant we had to go to the lake, where the merpeople lived. We had one hour to retrieve something they took, but how were we supposed to hold our breath for one hour?

"Just forget the egg for a minute, all right?" Harry hissed as Professor Flitwick went whizzing resignedly past them, landing on top of a large cabinet. "I'm trying to tell you about Snape and Moody..."

Harry had also told me about his strange encounter with Filch, Snape and Moody; Peeves had stolen Harry's golden egg and had brought it to Snape's office, but right before Harry could take it back, Snape and Filch came in. They didn't see Harry, since he was under the Invisibilty Cloak, but they did see the egg. Moody came in after that and since he could see through Invisibility Cloaks, he spotted Harry immediately. He didn't say anything to Snape and Filch, though, and even covered for Harry. Unfortunately, he had taken the Marauder's Map after he had dismissed Snape and Filch.

"Snape said Moody's searched his office as well?" Ron whispered, his eyes alight with interest as he Banished a cushion with a sweep of his wand (it soared into the air and knocked Parvati's hat off). "What... d'you reckon Moody's here to keep an eye on Snape as well as Karkaroff?"

Harry had also told us that he had seen Mr. Crouch standing in Snape's office on the Marauder's Map, but he was gone by the time Harry had reached the office.

"Well, I dunno if that's what Dumbledore asked him to do, but he's definitely doing it," said Harry, waving his wand without paying much attention, so that his cushion did an odd sort of belly flop off the desk. "Moody said Dumbledore only lets Snape stay here because he's giving him a second chance or something..."

"What?" said Ron, his eyes widening, his next cushion spinning high into the air, ricocheting off the chandelier, and dropping heavily onto Flitwick's desk. "Harry, Liana... maybe Moody thinks Snape put your names in the Goblet of Fire!"

"Oh Ron," said Hermione, shaking her head sceptically, "we thought Snape was trying to kill Harry before, and it turned out he was saving Harry's life, remember?"

"Of course he is not trying to kill me," I scoffed. "For your information, he is actually occasionally nice to me, believe it or not."
My cushion, to my very great surprise, flew straight across the room and landed neatly in a box.

"I don't care what Moody says," Hermione went on. "Dumbledore's not stupid. He was right to trust Hagrid and Professor Lupin, even though loads of people wouldn't have given them jobs, so why shouldn't he be right about Snape, even if Snape is a bit —"