Badgersoul

Chapter 13: Payback's a Witch

Chapter 13: Payback's a Witch

We did it. Sirius and I finally made a clean break and ran away from home. Euphemia and Fleamont Potter graciously accepted us into their home - and, of course, James was thrilled to have us. James did ask if I was worried that our parents would retaliate. After telling him Orion wouldn't be a problem and Wally was sufficiently terrified of me, he seemed nervous and didn't question me any further.

**

"So, let me see if I've got this straight: Ron and Hermione are fighting again, as per usual, Hagrid and Maxime are half-giants and Diggory's solution for the egg is to take a bath with it?"

"Yeah, I couldn't really understand that last part either," Harry shrugged.

It was the morning following the Yule Ball – Boxing Day. Harry had stopped Leo in the common room before he could head down to breakfast and dragged him off to the side to fill him in on everything that had happened while he had been off with Luna. He wasn't entirely surprised to hear about Ron and Hermione's blowout – Ron was a jealous twit to begin with and the two were fighting more often than not. Hagrid and Maxime weren't exactly shocking revelations either, as they were both almost half the size of a small house. He had dismissed Harry's story of Karkaroff and Snape almost immediately, knowing they had both been Death Eaters and most likely old friends. Diggory's suggestion, however, got him thinking.

Diggory wasn't stupid – he had to be at least somewhat intelligent for the Cup to find him worthy. So his suggestion had to have some sort of merit, right? Leo mulled it over for a moment, wondering what taking a bath with an egg would do. A sudden idea struck him and he leapt from his seat and ran up to his dorm room to retrieve his egg. Harry stared at him in a bewildered sort of way when he came back down and grabbed him by the arm, pulling him out of the common room and down the stairs.

"Leo - where are we going?"

"Diggory said to take a bath with the egg, right?" he questioned, taking them down a side passage that would lead them to the fourth floor. "That means water does something to it. Maybe we have to submerge it for it to do something?"

"Yeah, I guess so," Harry frowned as they exited the passage and continued down the stairs to the entrance hall. "But where are we going?"

"The lake," Leo shrugged as they exited past the giant oak double doors and made their way down the lawn toward the lake.

It took some time for them to trudge through the thick snow, eventually getting to the point where Leo waved an impatient hand, conjuring fire to melt the snow in front of them and clearing a path. They ran into a similar sort of problem when they arrived at the lake, finding it completely frozen over. Harry was about to suggest that they head back when Leo took out his wand and blew a sizable hole in the ice. He then submerged his egg in the water and opened the clasp at the top, immediately clamping his hands over his ears in preparation for the screeching. It never came.

With a small frown, Leo picked up his egg, dropping it immediately when it started screeching after leaving the water. The screeching stopped at once when it went under. Exchanging a bewildered look with his cousin, Leo laid down on his stomach and – with a mild sense of trepidation – put his head underwater. He was surprised to hear a chorus of eerie voices singing to him from the open egg:

"Come seek us where our voices sound,

We cannot sing above the ground,

And while you're searching, ponder this: