Drarry - The Second Task

Part 1

"There must be something," Hermione muttered, moving a candle closer to her. Her eyes were so tired she was poring over the tiny print of Olde and Forgotten Bewitchments and Charmes with her nose about an inch from the page. "They'd never have set a task that was undoable."

"They have," said Ron. "Harry, just go down to the lake tomorrow, right, 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, mate."
"There's a way of doing it!" Hermione said crossly. "There just has to be!"
She seemed to be taking the library's lack of useful information on the subject as a personal insult; it had never failed her before.
"I know what I should have done," said Harry, resting, face down, on Saucy Tricks for Tricky sorts. "I should've learnt to be an Animagus like Sirius."
"Yeah, you could've turned into a goldfish any time you wanted!" said Ron.
"Or a frog," yawned Harry. He was exhausted.
"It takes years to become an Animagus, and then you have to register yourself and everything," said Hermione vaguely, now squinting down the index of Weird Wizarding Dilemmas and Their Solutions. "Professor McGonagall told us, remember... you've got to register yourself with the Improper Use of Magic Office... what animal you become, and your markings, so you can't abuse it..."
"Hermione, I was joking," said Harry wearily. "I know I haven't got a chance of turning into a frog by tomorrow morning..."
"Oh, this is no use," Hermione said, snapping Weird Wizarding Dilemmas shut. "Who on earth wants to make their nose hair grow into ringlets?"
"I wouldn't mind," said Fred Weasley's voice. "Be a talking point, wouldn't it?"
Harry, Ron and Hermione looked up. Fred and George had just emerged from behind some bookshelves.
"What are you two doing here?" Ron asked.
"Looking for you three," said George. "McGonagall wants you, Hermione."
"Why?" said Hermione, looking surprised
"Dunno... she was looking a bit grim though, though," said Fred.
"We're supposed to take you down to her office," said George.
Hermione stared at Harry, who felt his stomach drop. Was Professor McGonagall about to tell her off? Perhaps she'd noticed how much both her and Ron had been helping him, when he ought to be working out how to do the task alone? But that wouldn't explain why Ron wasn't sent too...
"I'll meet both of you back in the common room," Hermione told Harry and Ron, as she got up to leave – she was looking very anxious. "Bring back as many of these books as you can, okay?"
"Right," said Harry uneasily. Ron gave a slow nod, looking nervous.
By eight o'clock, Madam Prince had extinguished all the lamps and came to chivvy Harry and Ron out of the library. Staggering under the weight of as many books that they could carry, Harry and Ron returned to the common room, pulled a table into a corner and began to search. Neither of them spoke a word to one-another, a mixture of exhaustion and absorption of research creating a barrier of socialising. There was nothing in Madcap Magic for Wacky Warlocks... nothing in A Guide to Medieval Sorcery... not one mention of underwater exploits in An Anthology of Eighteenth-Century Charms, or in Dreadful Denizens of the Deep, or Powers You Never Knew You Had and What to Do with Them Now You've Wised Up. Crookshanks crawled into Harry's lap and curled up, purring deeply. The common room emptied slowly around Harry and Ron. People kept wishing Harry good luck for the next morning in cheery, confident voices like Hagrid's, all of them apparently convinced that he was about to pull off another stunning performance like the one he had managed in the first task. Harry couldn't answer them, he just nodded, feeling as though there were a golf ball stuck in his throat. By ten to midnight, only him and Ron were left in the common room. Ron was fast asleep, his mouth slightly agape. Harry had searched all the remaining books, and Hermione had not come back. It's over, he told himself. You can't do it. You'll just have to go down to the lake in the morning and tell the judges...
He imagined himself explaining that he couldn't do the task. He pictured Bagman's look of round-eyed surprise, Karkaroff's satisfied, yellow-toothed smile. He could almost hear Fleur Delacour saying, 'I knew it... 'e is too young, 'e is only a little boy.' He saw Hagrid's crestfallen, disbelieving face, Malfoy flashing his POTTER STINKS badge, his perfect face set in a smug grin... with Harry now knowing he had no chance he'll ever get with Malfoy after such a failed attempt...
Forgetting that Crookshanks was on his lap, Harry stood up very suddenly; Crookshanks hissed angrily as he landed on the floor, gave Harry a disgusted look and stalked away with his bottle-brush tail in the air, but Harry was already hurrying up the spiral staircase to his dormitory... he would grab the Invisibility Cloak and go back to the library, he'd bring back as many books as he could to the common room, he'd read them all, he'd stay up all night if he had to...
"Lumos" Harry whispered fifteen minutes later, as he opened the library door.
Wand tip alight, he crept along the bookshelves, pulling down more books – books of hexes and charms, books on merpeople and water monsters, books on famous witches and wizards, on magical inventions, on anything at all that might include one passing reference to underwater survival. He carefully carried them back to the common room, discovered that Ron must've headed to bed (As he wasn't sitting in the chair he was at), put the Invisibility Cloak over his head (As to why, no one knows), then set to work, searching them by the narrow beam of his wand, occasionally checking his watch...
One in the morning... two in the morning... the only way he could keep going was to tell himself, over and over again, Next book... in the next one... the next one... 

AN: I hope you enjoyed the first chapter! I've been meaning to post my story for a while, but I've only just managed to pluck up the courage. I'll post the second part very soon