The Wolf's Lion ~ Harry Potter (Editing)

Chapter Thirty-Eight | Eve of the Second Task

The egg weighed heavily on Ariana's conscience. A week before the second task, Cedric had given Ariana and Harry a hint about their eggs, in return for them tipping him off about the first task. Ariana had appreciated the fact that he had returned the favour and made sure to thank him.

He gave them the passwords to the Prefects' bathrooms and told them to "mull things over in the hot water," which immediately made sense to Ariana. In theory, the Mermish should sound English underwater... if that is how the egg was designed.

That night, Ariana headed to the bathroom. It was the most grand bathroom she had ever laid eyes upon, the bath mist of all. It was the side of an average swimming pool, surrounded by hundreds of golden taps.

When submerged under the water, Ariana didn't hear the familiar screech, but a lovely song:

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.

The night before the task, Ariana, Hermione, Ron and Harry were all hunched over a table in the library, reading through a pile of books.

They deduced that Merfolk in the Black Lake were going to take something and the champions would have an hour to retrieve them, that much was not difficult to work out. The hard thing was finding something that would allow Harry and Ariana to breathe underwater for an hour.

"I don't reckon it can be done," Ron said, his voice deflated. "There's nothing. Nothing. Closest was that thing to dry up puddles and ponds, the Drought Charm, but that was nowhere near powerful enough to drain the lake."

"There must be something," Hermione muttered, her tired eyes pouring over Olde and Forgotten Bewitchments and Charmes. "They'd never have set a task that was undoable."

"They have," said Ron. "Harry, Ariana, just go down to the lake tomorrow, stick your head in, yell at the merpeople to give back whatever they’ve nicked and see if they chuck it out. Best you can do."

"Yes, I'm sure that'd be an effective method," Ariana replied dryly, moving the candle closer to the yellowing pages of the book she was reading.

"There's no way of doing it!" Hermione groaned angrily. "There just has to be!"

Ariana was taking the library’s lack of help as a person insult, as did Hermione. Every time she saw the word water her stomach lurched, the sinking feeling of impending doom darting about inside her like furious wasps.

"I know what we should if done," said Harry, his face resting on the book in front of him. "We should've learnt to be an Animagus like Sirius."

"Yeah, you could’ve turned into a goldfish any time you wanted," Ron exclaimed.

"Or a frog," Harry yawned.

"Stags and Lions can breathe underwater no more than we can," Ariana sighed, yawning behind her hand.

"What?" Harry questioned, looking at her with bleary eyes.

"The animal you turn in to is the one you share the deepest affinity with, therefore it is the same as your Patronus," Ariana said. "Besides it takes years to learn how to become an Animagus."
 
"You also have to register and everything," Hermione added. "Professor McGonagall told us, remember? You've got to register with the Improper Use of Magic Office... Whatever animal you become, and your markings, so you can't abuse it -"

"I was joking," Harry interjected wearily. "I know I haven't got a chance if turning into a frog by tomorrow."

"Oh, this is no use," Hermione growled, snapping Weird Wizarding Dilemmas shut. "Who on earth wants to make their nose hair grow into ringlets?"

"I wouldn't mind," Fred Weasley said, approaching the table with his brother. "Be a talking point, wouldn't it?"

"What're you two doing here?" Ron asked, looking up at his brothers.

"Looking for you," George replied. "McGonagall wants you, Ron. And you, Hermione."

"Why?" Hermione asked instantly, looking surprised.

"Dunno. She was looking a bit grim, though," said Fred, leaning in the back of Ariana's chair.

"We're supposed to take you to her office."

The pair of students stared at Harry and Ariana. The witch's stomach dropped even further than she thought possible, feeling as if it had burst through her feet and the floor below.

"Uh... Okay," Ron said, warily getting up from his seat.

The two champions wished their friends luck and Hermione made sure to tell them to keep looking for a solution to their problem.

At eight P.M. Madame Pince extinguished the lamps and shooed the pair of Gryffindors out of the library's doors, leaving Harry and Ariana to haul a tonne of books back to their common room. For hours they sat and read, their eyes stinging with the lack of sleep.

At midnight Harry had snuck back into the library under his Invisibility Cloak and offered Ariana to join him but she decided to remain in the common room.

Th witch was as disheartened as ever. The voice of all the people that believed in her echoed in her head, then she imagined their shocked and disappointed faces when she failed. Especially Hagrid, who was counting on them to prove that a half-breed and half-breed had what it takes to succeed.

By one o'clock, she had given up hope altogether. She would have to humiliate herself by going down to the lake and tell the judges she had no idea how to breathe underwater and forfeit the task.

She was also concerned that Ron and Hermione had not shows their faces since before eight... Perhaps they had run into Harry at some point. Ariana really couldn't spare much if a thought to it because she was exhausted.

Half an hour later, she was salvaged. She managed to find a potion in an old book that would allow her to... sprout a mermaid's tail? It was perfect. It only took an hour to brew, but had a particularly complicated recipe.

Ariana still couldn't sigh in relief, nit until after the task.