Apples and Snakes

Third Date

The thing was, I still had to figure out the golden egg we'd been given at the end of the last challenge, the one we had to take from the dragons. If my suspicions were correct, Harry probably had an important clue, being the Boy-Who-Lived, and the wizarding world's angel, someone had to tell him.

I'd heard enough from my brother and Wesley that the eggs scream, so I waited until everyone else was down at the breakfast tables, and got into the shower, with as much coming out as possible to mask the noise on.

I opened the egg, and water fell into it, causing beautiful singing to come out of it.

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.

I was amazed at my luck. Something actually had gone right for once. I pondered the clues, and wrote them with the quill on my arm.

An hour long you'll have to look, that meant that there was only an hour, obviously, and the rest was saying that there was a time limit, reinforcing that.Okay, okay, focus, come on. I had to figure this out.

Come seek where our voices sound, we cannot sing above the ground...Mermaids! There must be mermaids in the Black Lake, and I've got to figure out how to swim underwater!

I then wondered about the shadow-traveling. Could it help me? I decided that I needed to find out. Yes, I could swim, but I couldn't hold my breath for an hour, that much was obvious.

I pulled on a swimsuit under a heavy winter cloak, and I went outside. This was gonna suck, probably. I threw off my cloak, and waded into the freezing water. I emerged myself, and imagined turning into a shadow. I felt so much colder, like pure ice, but air no longer demanded to be in my lungs. I focused on remaining a shadow, but as soon as I'd traveled to deeper in the lake, I was flesh again, and I needed air. It was becoming harder to think, and it was so bitterly cold...

Something grabbed around my waist, and pulled me to the surface, and left me on the shore. I looked back to see a tentacle going back down, and cringed at the splash of water that came over me. I grabbed my cloak, although it didn't offer too much more warmth, and hurried back inside.

"What the hell happened to you?" Draco asked, as I sat at the late breakfast table.

"What do you mean?" I asked. I'd ditched the robes and suit for comfortable muggle clothing.

"There's frost in your hair, and a bit of ice," he said, picking a chunk out.

"I went swimming in the Black Lake," I said in a matter-of-fact tone.

"Why?" He asked, his face scrunched up in horror.

"My motives are none of your concern," I said coldly as I sipped up some coffee, and held the mug, returning some warmth to my frozen fingers.

"What happened, Alice?" He demanded.

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"You ignore us all, for those fakers, Diggory and Fanning, who just want you for the fame!" Draco shouted.

I raised an eyebrow, and made sure my promise ring showed on the table. "Don't think I've forgotten, Draco, that you tried to befriend my brother first on the train, and went to me after he turned you down. Don't you dare accuse Wesley of being that way when you were, once, too!"

Everyone at the table looked at us, and I thought a few hands were passing money discretely.

"Yes, but at least I've changed! You've known me longer, Alice! You know I'm not like that, not anymore!" He protested.

"Is that what this is about?" I asked in a deadly voice. "Is this about the fact that I didn't ask you?"

He turned pink, and looked away.

"It is! You dirty ferret!" I shouted, getting to my feet. "Wesley promised! And what have you done for me?" I turned and walked out of the door.

"Hey, Alice," Wesley called, standing over by the Three Broomsticks.

"Hey Wesley," I returned. "Ready to go in?"

"Of course," he replied, taking my hand, as walked inside. We took a table, ordered some drinks, and started talking.

"So... What's your favorite book?" I asked.

"Probably The Great Gatsby," Wesley replied. "I like the sadness the book makes you feel, and the mystery of the entire thing. What's yours?"

"Jurassic Park," I answered. "I love how the entire book is about playing God, something that lots of wizards and witches seem to forget."

"Indeed, particularly in the field of necromancy," Wesley said. "People think they can mess with the laws of life and death, a chaotic force that is relentless and headstrong, and always finds a way."

"I can agree with that. Some people need reminding that they can't do everything," I said.

"Do you think sometimes that you might be one of those people?" Wesley asked softly.

"Not really," I said, leaning back and flipping my hair. "I know I'm not perfect, and I've got flaws. I know that I can't do everything, trust me."

"I understand completely," he said. We looked down at our drinks, and sipped, thinking.

"You're a lot more complex than I thought," Wesley pondered.

"I'm sorry if your a bit over your head, because of me," I said softly.

"It's alright," Wesley said. "I might not have known what I was getting into, but I know that if I have to drown, I'd rather drown helping you stay afloat."

I frowned. "I'm fine."

"No, you're not," Wesley said. "I see how you struggle, day to day. I just wonder how you even survive it all."

I shrugged, as I downed the rest of my butterbeer. "I'm a fighter, Wesley. That's all I've really ever been good at, is fighting the odds, fighting the world."

"It's not you against the world, you know," he replied softly.

"Just you wait and see," I said with a bitter chuckle. I paid for the drinks, and we went outside.

"This was fun," Wesley said cautiously.

"Yeah, we should do it again sometime," I said.

And that's how I got a third date.